{"id":1020,"date":"2022-06-15T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:09:01","slug":"dr-ellie-sattler-jurassic-park-and-narrative-plot-or-it-wasnt-about-dinosaurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cogitateandpercolate.com\/?p=1020","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jurassic Park, and Narrative Plot. Or It Wasn’t About Dinosaurs."},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a rare moment when I can bring 3 themes into 1 post:
\nleadership, XR, and design. Also, I\u2019m going to be personal. Believe it
\nor not, I\u2019m not really personal on LinkedIn. Enthusiastic<\/em>, yes. Personal, hardly.\n <\/p>\n

\n Over the weekend, I wrote a gushing sentence to a friend that I
\nrealized I\u2019d never written down before: I became a Biology major in
\ncollege because of Dr. Ellie Sattler.\n <\/p>\n

\n A mentor of mine once said writing is thinking. Writing that
\nsentence lead me to do a lot of thinking and reading about her character
\n and on the impact of the Jurassic Park (JP) movie.  I\u2019m not alone as a
\nwoman in deciding to go further in STEM because of the Dr. Ellie Sattler
\n character.  So huzzah all the Paleobotanists out there!\n <\/p>\n

\n We have to time travel to talk about JP. In 1993, we\u2019ve just BARELY
\nbroken out of the 1980s. For the first time in STEM history, scientific
\nbreakthroughs are being accomplished by teams<\/strong> instead of white men<\/strong>.  Think: AIDS breakthroughs & the Human Genome Project. Teams means women included. <\/strong>Prior to this point, women were the \u201calso rans\u201d in science.  Sisters<\/a>. Mentioned on the side. Or worse, they had their research stolen<\/a>.
\n Strong women depicted in media? Disney\u2019s top film of the 80s was The
\nLittle Mermaid and Aladdin was just released in 1992. Strong women, not
\nso much. Video tapes existed; the Internet did not. If you wanted to see
\n a movie, you bought a movie theater ticket.\n <\/p>\n

\n We arrive when the music<\/a> was rises in cool, dark, air conditioned theaters.  And then you see this: <\/p>\n

\n

\""Screen<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n Caption: A character who does not care what you think because she\u2019s solving a problem.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n A character who lays out this line<\/a> while she holds a stare on the richest daddy around:\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLook\u2026we can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

\""Gif<\/a><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n I took that to mean that women are better<\/em><\/strong> in survival situations (not equal, as others took it<\/a>.) and my life was shaped for the better.\n <\/p>\n

\n I bought a $5 ticket 3 times over the course of that 1993 summer. Now that\u2019s saying something.<\/strong>
\n To this day, it\u2019s the only movie I\u2019ve bought multiple theater seats
\nfor. But realize, I have older brothers that saw Star Wars, what, a
\nbazillion times?\n <\/p>\n

\n Jurassic Park became the first movie to gross US$1billion.\n <\/p>\n

\n Reading some commentaries and watching some videos over the past few
\n days, I picked up some tidbits below. Some I agree with, some not.\n <\/p>\n

\n 1. To this day, the scene of the T-Rex crossing the paddock fence<\/a>
\n HAS NOT YET BEEN BEAT in movie history & you don\u2019t need to try. 
\nTrue disclosure: the raptor jumping up to the ceiling shot? I still
\ncan\u2019t *barely* watch that. I wince too hard.\n <\/p>\n

\n 2. There\u2019s been some 2022 commentary on the age difference between
\nthe Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill)
\ncharacters.  It\u2019s been confusing and I\u2019ve decided to weigh in.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the book, Dr. Ellie Sattler was written as a grad student (Age
\n23, no advanced degree) but also no relationship. It was apparently
\nLaura Dern\u2019s own idea to give the character a full doctoral degree and
\nin the movie the character holds her own against dinosaurs. In real
\nlife, I\u2019m disappointed to say, Laura treats Sam Neill patronizingly<\/a>
\n and actually \u201cleft the party\u201d of JP with Jeff Goldblum, which I find to
\n be a big mistake. (I said this article would be personal, yo.)\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\""Screenshot<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

\n Caption: The look of faithfulness.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Don\u2019t be like this guy and not see the sexual tension in JP: https:\/\/youtu.be\/jSPxu3WprSs<\/a> 
\n As far as the age difference? The problem came in when, in the book,
\nthe \u201crelationship\u201d was not there but in the movie it was. Laura was in her late 20s playing early 20s<\/em>. Sam (then early 40s<\/em>)
\n continues to feel the (physical) burden of the age difference. If you
\nneed help to see what was happening, Deshi Basara has collected these gifs<\/a>. Notice in gifs 2, 3, and 7 how his<\/em> body immediately reacts to hers<\/em> when she touches him. This is chemistry, folks.\n <\/p>\n

\n I had to wade into all that because the point was that regardless of
\n an age difference (which, arguably could be *less* than 23 years),
\nthere was a *quality difference* between Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dr. Alan
\nGrant.\n <\/p>\n

\n I will concede this one point (I disagreed with so much here<\/a>
\n that I couldn\u2019t read more than 2 pages of this commentary) that Ellie
\nholds her ground just fine (and doesn\u2019t move despite Alan\u2019s come here
\ngesture) with a metamessage at the Raptor pit: <\/p>\n

\n

\""Screenshot<\/a><\/div>\n

 Vogue got an interview with Laura Dern<\/a>
\n where she points out that the Dr. Ellie Sattler character went on to be
\n an activist and whistleblower. Interesting!! I\u2019ll just leave that right there<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\""Photo<\/a><\/div>\n

But most I really enjoyed watching these video analyses of the plot of Jurassic Park here<\/a> and especially by Mike Hill here<\/a> and why the movie worked when all subsequent versions of JP have not worked. The key was that Steven Spielberg worked in narrative plot<\/em><\/strong>. He carried a story all the way through that was human, basic, and emotional. Dinosaurs just happened to be there.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\""Graphic<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n


 <\/em><\/p>\n

\n But that shows up in my VR\/XR consulting work to this day.\n <\/p>\n

\n The famous quote about rushing into things by the Choatician character Dr. Ian Malcolm:\n <\/p>\n

\n Ian Malcolm: <\/strong>Don’t you see the danger, John, uh,
\ninherent in what you’re doing here? Genetic power’s the most awesome
\nforce this planet’s ever seen, but you wield it like a kid who’s found
\nhis dad’s gun.\n <\/p>\n

\n Donald Gennaro:<\/strong> It’s hardly appropriate to start hurling accusations–\n <\/p>\n

\n Ian Malcolm:<\/strong> If I may, if I may. Uh, I’ll tell you
\nthe problem with the scientific power that you’re, that you’re using
\nhere. It didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read
\nwhat others had done, and you, and you took the next step. You didn’t
\nearn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any
\nresponsibility… for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses, uh, to
\n accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew it,
\n you had, you’ve patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a
\nplastic lunch box, and now (bangs the table) you’re selling it, you
\nwanna sell it, well.\n <\/p>\n

\n John Hammond:<\/strong> I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody has ever done before.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ian Malcolm:<\/strong> Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied over whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\""Meme<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n


 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n I fight this battle every day.\n <\/p>\n

\n Industry and indeed some in academia want to use XR liberally in
\neducation. Yet, the power of XR is still unknown. Our early research is
\npointing to one thing that seems firm:\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n The mind believes what the eye sees.\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n That means that the XR experiences we put our children into will be real for them.\n <\/p>\n

\n What power are we wielding in the classroom? Everywhere?\n <\/p>\n

\n There are those that say \u201cXR is the Empathy Machine! We can create empathy, soft skills in the workplace!\u201d \n <\/p>\n

\n Oh yeah?\n <\/p>\n

\n The most recent research I saw (from 2018) says that empathy coming from XR is a 50\/50 gambit. That does not mean<\/strong> that it causes empathy for whatever you want half the time<\/strong>.\n <\/p>\n

\n It means it causes empathy half of the time and causes the opposite of empathy<\/strong> the other half of the time!  \n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n So, would you like your employees to don a headset to be more
\nempathetic towards race, age, body size? Oh really? How would you like
\nresults that say that half of the time, those employees are going to
\ntake off the headsets and quietly say to themselves \u201cThank God I\u2019m not
\nblack\u201d 50% of the time? That\u2019s one hell of a bet you are willing to take
\n with XR.\n <\/p>\n

\n XR is dangerous.\n <\/p>\n

\n People say \u201cLook at how you can look all around you! 360 degrees! A
\nsphere! Isn\u2019t this cool? Isn\u2019t this new? Just think how this will reach<\/strong> new learners!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n I can take a learner into a new real physical space (for example on a field trip) and have them be overwhelmed. We\u2019re all on the spectrum<\/span>, remember? Was that <\/strong>cool? Were they reached<\/strong>
\n in a new way when they cried? Would you like for me to even mention
\nharassment events in VR that have already happened? We haven\u2019t yet
\narrived into market saturation of haptic bodysuits, but it\u2019s coming.\n <\/p>\n

\n XR is dangerous.\n <\/p>\n

\n I\u2019d rather have a low, slow, plodding walk into an XR for education
\nexperience than every bell and whistle thrown at them the first day. The
\n line \u201cspared no expense\u201d gives me chills.\n <\/p>\n

\n XR is dangerous and if we aren\u2019t careful, we will damage learners
\nalong the way. Jurassic Park should not have been built or opened. Dr.
\nAlan Grant refused to give his endorsement. That was the lesson of the
\nmovie.\n <\/p>\n

\n