Inheritance: The Legacy of Ellie Sattler in the Jurassic Franchise

Abstract

Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), the heroine of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993), has long been considered a feminist icon, notable for her assertion that in the wake of man’s Icarian fall, women will inherit the earth. As the only woman in the film, I suggest that Sattler inhabits multiple archetypes common to female characters in genre films, especially the action heroine and the Final Girl, a popular trope in horror films. Like Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien franchise (1979-1997) and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from The Terminator films (1984-2019), Sattler’s intelligence, her strength, and her empathy situate her as Jurassic Park’s heroic heart. When the franchise next sees Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park III (2001), however, she is a mother of two children and married, the centre of a nuclear, heterosexual family – a notable change from her earlier portrayal as a career-focused woman in a male dominated field. This essay examines how the Jurassic Park films and their sequels, Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Jurassic Word: Dominion (2022), increasingly move away from Sattler’s feminism in the form of Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose characterization is indicative of the franchise’s celebration of maternal, heteronormative women and villainization of those who do not fit this mold.

Keywords

• jurassic park
• jurassic world
• final girl
• evolution
• maternity