Jurassic Park: Flirting and Disasters part 1 (4400 words)

Ideas like the one I developed in my previous article about Jurassic Park, the one that the T-Rex doesn’t have a peculiar vision, as entertaining as they might be because they contradict a common belief about the film, are not that interesting on their own.

I think their falsifiability is appealing to us: the article puts forward an assertion and then argues for it and as a reader we can either consider that the argumentation is valid or not.

But the best argumentation I can provide is not an addition of points that add up to a conclusion; it’s a description of a whole coherent reading of a film.

When I say that the T-Rex perfectly sees motionless objects otherwise he would never spot Gennaro and attack him, it’s intriguing because it challenges a belief that we’ve had about the movie for a long time, but apart from that, it doesn’t mean anything. So, from a scientific point of view it’s a good argument, but from the point of view of meaning it’s irrelevant.

Because that’s what it is all about: meaning. All my readings and funny ideas originate from reflections on the meaning of works and not from a simplistic scientific desire to check facts and “find the truth.”

Anyway, my point is, I focussed on the T-Rex’s vision in my previous article only in order to make it shorter and more accessible when this idea was only a small part of a bigger reading of the film. The idea that the T-Rex’s vision is based on movement is only representative of Alan Grant’s character and beliefs.

The whole story revolves around procreation. Alan Grant’s offsprings are the dinosaurs he unearths. When all the diggers are looking at the Velociraptor (Deinonychus) on the computer screen, Grant is watching the ultrasound of his baby’s foetus and the mother is earth.

It’s not a coincidence that Ellie should think of having a baby at this precise moment (even though obviously she must have thought about this before), and it’s not a coincidence either that a child should make fun of the raptor and annoy Alan.

While looking at the computer screen or explaining his theory about how dinosaurs became birds, Grant is showing off his masculinity, this behaviour is his equivalent to flexing his muscles topless. The boy’s remark challenges his manliness and Grant feels compelled to put him back into place. Ellie Sattler reacts in accordance to this, she goes “Ho no, here we go,” laughs and follows him like a shadow.

If truly she thought Grant was going to make a fool of himself, she would step away or simply remain were she is, but she follows him. She too is showing off, indirectly. She is trying to make Grant appear as an extension of herself, or as her property. They’re in some sort of “I date my master/student” relationship (Laura Dern and Sam Neil have twenty years of difference), Ellie accepts to be treated as inferior but revel in the power she has over this superior being and at the elevation of status it represents to be his girlfriend.

The problem is that, Alan goes too far and Ellie cannot not notice it. It is ridiculous of him to feel threatened by a child, but the fact is, his Raptor claw is a metaphor for his penis. He is comparing seize with a ten years old.

They start discussing the question of having children while climbing a hill. This hill represents the expansion of their conflict until it reaches a Gordian knot that is, when Ellie decides that either Alan changes his mind or it’s over between them. This happens when the doctor starts uttering “cheap” arguments as she calls them. “They’re noisy, they’re messy, they’re expensive… they smell !” She laughs at this, but she actually takes these remarks very seriously. Ellie regurlarly smiles as a reaction to something that displeases her, it's funny.

The “smell” part makes her crack and John Hammond’s helicopter appears suddenly. Ellie and Alan’s trip to Jurassic Park is metaphorically triggered by their disagreement over children. It’s their psychological battle to sort things out.

The island, just like in Commando, is an ovary. Alan and Ellie arrive without children and they leave with two. It doesn’t mean the whole adventure is a success and Ellie won the argument but at least it certainly means that everything that happens on the island is a fecundation. I don’t know where I’m going with this, we’ll see.

Anyway let’s clear things up a bit. All the characters of the film are related to the topic of reproduction:

I’m always surprised that John Hammond should be so often perceived as a warm and loving grandpa when he is so obviously a serious asshole. I mean, is that it ? You just need to laugh and smile and have a lot of money and people are blind to your utter mediocrity ?

His apparition in the film is very representative of his absolute lack of consideration for others. Alan and Ellie dig to find skeletons of dinosaurs as a living. It is a very delicate work which needs precision and care and Hammond just arrives in helicopter without letting anyone know of his coming. Ellie and Alan are very angry at him and if he doesn’t get a punch in the nose it is simply because the proposition he has to make is sure to prevent any retaliation on their side.

They don’t forgive him; remaining angry at him simply becomes too contrary to their own interests. But the complete disdain he shows for their work is still there. And yeah, they are unearthing the skeleton of a dinosaur when John Hammond has them run in his garden, it doesn’t mean that searches become meaningless or unworthy of respect.

Alan points an accusing finger at him and Hammond shakes it. It is so well written. You cannot judge (point a finger at sb) Hammond because he welcomes you like a friend as an answer (handshake). Again, to me that kind of person falls straight into the “most dislikeable” category.

Nobody exists for this man but himself. He is rich and he thinks money is everything. He invites Ellie and Alan to “sit down” inside their own caravan, and to drink their own champaign. They are his pawns. Again, we might take this as an old man’s funny eccentricity but sorry, this just deserves a kick in the ass. His attitude is very disrespectful.

Then he carries on complimenting them on their work, on how they spent his money, and tell them he likes them as if he knew anything about them. The trick here is that, he is so obnoxiously positive that he manages to make the audience forget the fact that he could be dishonest or have hidden motivations (You know, like getting something from them).

I think he is a very interesting character in that matter because John Hammond could never have disliked Alan or Ellie as he simply wants them to green light his park. He is seducing them, and he is so absorbed by his objectives that he could actually mistake his need of them with genuine “liking.” He is that crazy, and that’s actually common in our cultures.

He utters his erroneous moto “I spared no expense” and makes his proposition which Alan and Ellie somewhat refuse, and refuse again and eventually accept after Hammond has drowned their scruples under a pile of money. The previous scene ended with a palaeontologist asserting that Grant wouldn’t care about visiting the island and the man doesn’t, John Hammond simply buys him.

The following scene shows Denys Nedry betraying Hammond and stating clearly that his mistake was “to get cheap on him.” How surprising.

And thus they all fly to the island. In the helicopter Alan gazes at his phallic raptor claw meditatively; he can feel that his position as an alpha male (Renowned palaeontologist) is threatened/or he is weighing the idea of abandoning his tough guy attitude in order to become compatible with the role of a father. Or both because both theories are on a different level of interpretation and are not mutually exclusive.

It has to be noted that John Hammond isn’t interested in Ellie, he invites Alan Grant and adds “I’d love to have the opinion of a palaeobotanist as well.” She is invited as Alan’s girlfriend; he came to fetch Alan Grant. This makes her an unexpected element and that is enough to consider the fact that she might be the reason for the whole failure of the operation.

And indeed, as soon as they’re on the helicopter things take a turn they would never have taken without Ellie: Ian Malcolm flirts with her and a rivalry sets itself up between him and Alan as the woman do not rebuke him in any manner.

During the landing we’re given an example of Grant’s strange psychology. He shows himself incapable of fastening his seatbelt. That’s his answer to Ian’s flirting with Ellie. He reminds her of his radical incompatibility with the modern world which is what she fancies in him because it makes her look “deep” => he is older, he’s got his mind on deeper things than learning how to use a seatbelt or a computer + he doesn’t care about what people might think of him. But he is a renowned palaeontologist, a doctor with a big degree; nobody is going to take him for an idiot. Pretending not to be able to fasten his seatbelt is only a manner of saying something and of attracting Ellie’s attention.

Ian Malcom knows perfectly what’s going on and smiles at his rival’s initiative; there isn’t a hint of surprise in his look.

We are here given an example of what I was talking about in my article about the T-Rex’ vision: Alan Grant’s defence mechanism is to (indirectly) attract attention towards him (the seatbelt) but at the same time to remain hidden whereas Ian just attracts attention on himself straight forward and exposes his wish. There’s an honest guy and there’s a tricky one.

The seatbelt incident ends with Grant solving it in his manner. This is important too because he sends Ellie the message “Do what you want, I’m fine on my own,” even if I think he actually took the female part of her own seatbelt and thus is preventing her from attaching herself. But even if I’m right, it’s not underlined enough to be taken into account as a meaningful element.

Pretending that he doesn’t care is not a clumsy move because their couple is based on Ellie’s vanity. She is flattered to be the girlfriend of Mr. Alan Grant and thus, if he removes his attention ostentatiously, she will spontaneously try to recover it.

And also, with the seatbelt, he is tying another Gordian knot: “You have to choose Ellie.” And the fact that she can’t fasten her seatbelt is then meaningful (dammit) as it puts Ellie in an unsafe position. She is now unsafe.

At this point they've both put their partner's back against the wall.

Ellie - If you don't want a baby, don't fool yourself into thinking that digging up dinosaurs is going to keep me by your side.

Alan - Ok, you want a baby so much that other guys become attractive again ? I'm not judging you, but don't count on me to stick around and try and win you back.

And both are actually bluffing to a certain extent.

The helicopter lands and we’re introduced to the Jurassic Park logo on the door of the 4x4. In that context, Jurassic Park is the ground of the oldest activity of animals: fighting to find a mating partner.

Gennaro takes the opportunity to show John Hammond that he means business “I’ll shut you down John.” And Hammond answers, after a little maniacal laugh, “in 48 hours, I’ll be accepting your apologies.” This is one of the rare moment at which his darker side can be spotted. We have to remember that the lawyer is there because an employee died eaten alive by a dinosaur.

John is truly annoyed by Gennaro’s behaviour, not because he thinks the park is not ready, but because the lawyer dares doubt him. He doesn’t tell him “you’ll need 5 hours to be reassured!”; he doesn’t focus on the stability of the island and how confident he is, he focusses on the insult that doubting himself represents. “In 48 hours, you will kneel in front of my greatness!” And he points a finger at Gennaro that the man would never think of shaking.

It is quite interesting that Gennaro should actually be investigating the safety of the island and that Hammond’s confidence should rely on the dinosaurs. The island is truly not safe but Hammond, with a sleight of hand -his circus of fleas- will manage to have the question completely overlooked.

The characters experience their first encounter with dinosaurs and Grant states enigmatically: “they’re moving in herds.” It obviously is a line that serves the purpose of showing how his scientific sensitivity is overwhelmed. He also asks the length of the brachiosaurus’ neck. But the statement about herds is also to be associated with his current conflict with Ellie. The dinosaurs are not lonely bastards. It represents the first step of Alan Grant’s evolution.

Back at the lab, the video that explains how the dinosaurs were generated shows us how to replicate John Hammond.

It’s not a coincidence.

The old man describes the dinosaurs as “living biological creatures so astounding that they’ll capture the imagination of the entire planet.” John Hammond wants to colonize people’s imagination. He wants to be in everyone’s mind. He intends to keep the visitors sat on seats with fetters during the visit of the lab. He is not interested in dinosaurs one bit but in their power to fascinate people (we can see that when they feed the raptors and he looks at Alan Grant).

That’s also why he wants to witness the birth of every single living creature that is produced by his lab and Henry Wu has the same megalomaniacal desire, that’s why he did not let John Hammond know about the raptor’s birth. They want to be promethean gods.

Here lies another clue of how Hammond, the guy who boasts about being able to tell if he can trust somebody instantly thanks to a gift, is completely deluded. Why would it be the first time that Henry hides the birth of a dino ? How could it possibly be a simple incident ? Henry doesn't even explain why it happened. Who else is already betraying Hammond… ha yeah, I forgot Nedry is.

“There is no unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park […] because all the animal are female, we’ve engineered them that way.” Any person thinking Wu is a nice harmless scientist and that his EVILution in Jurassic World breaks character is being naïve. He is already a negative character in the first movie. It's the arrogant confidence and the delight he finds in technical control that make him evil. "we deny them" "unauthorized" " engineered." This announces perfectly the guy we find in Jurassic World.

And here, the only character who’s reacting intelligently is Ian Malcolm. It’s quite important because his suspicions put him on a higher level than Alan Grant when it comes to making an impression over Ellie but he is not trying to do that.

When Grant learns that they’ve bred Raptors, he seems ready to crush the newborn dinosaur he is holding in his hands in a single gesture. But truly he is absolutely not, he is overjoyed. In the next scene when they all watch a cow being devoured by Velociraptors (Deinonychus), John Hammond discreetly looks at Alan with a little smile on his face, he knows that he has just twisted him around his little finger. Alan’s look is one of intense excitation even weird arousal. To him, Velociraptors are the epitome of manliness, he wants to be perceived as a human Velociraptor: cunning, ruthless and lethal. When he traumatizes the little boy, he uses the claw as if it was attached to his hand, as if he was the Velociraptor attacking him.

Enters Robert “They should all be destroyed” Muldoon, the gay scout. In the first scene of the film, we can witness a black employee getting devoured by a Velociraptor.

Again, black man = übermasculinity/big penis. If the black man is killed by the velociraptor it is because the animal incarnates the new alpha manliness (In the Lego videogame, the raptor eats the black man’s sausage, it’s incredible). And Muldoon does everything he can to save the man, especially holding his hand, because well… he likes men (the hand is phallic in that context).

And when he meets Alan Grant, he fancies him, the human raptor. Grant invites Ellie to join the conversation, she doesn’t move an inch.

If there was something she didn’t expect it’s that she would find a rival on the island… in a man. And Muldoon rests his beautiful leg on the barrier next to Alan: “Do you like what you see Mr. Palaeontologist ? Do you wanna play hide and seek ?” Or maybe Ellie doesn’t approach Muldoon because she is scared that a homosexual man, a man who cannot be seduced by her, will totally spot how fake she is.

During the meal and discussion on the park, Gennaro expresses his capitalist delight. For one second Hammond stops him with a “This park wasn’t built to cater only for the super rich, everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals” and we might think for one second that he does have a social conscience. But Gennaro answers “Sure, they will… we’ll have a coupon day” and they laugh because a poor economic status is something comical to them. John Hammond wasn’t being nice, his remark was only motivated by his desire to reach everyone’s mind.

Ian Malcolm becomes serious and we can see that he is not the clown we thought he was. He makes a very intelligent point and is not afraid to displease people around him and shut them up. He’s got guts (he also is the one to count to three and free Ellie, Alan and himself from the cinema seats). “Oh, what’s so great about discovery? It’s a violent penetrating act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery, I call rape of the natural world.”

Again that’s where Ellie’s presence changes everything. Ian’s intervention is so ballsy that she sides with him not because she agrees but because she is aroused and attracted to him... na, I don't know how to put it. She wants to be on the side of the one who looks cool. Same logic as why she is with Grant in the first place. Still ego motivated. Oh vanity, thou name is Ellie Sattler !

Of course, she might agree with Ian to a certain degree, but she could simply say “I totally agree with Ian.” Instead she tries to build on what he’s said and what she adds is weak compared to it: “The question is, how can you know anything about an extinct echosystem and therefore how can you ever assume that you can control it ? You have plants in this building that are poisonous. You picked them because they look good but these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they’re in and they will defend themselves violently if necessary.”

Because you know, if someone took time to explain the plants which century they’re in, they would spontaneously feel more relaxed and would be less likely to resort to violence.

Anyway, the point she makes starts well (Because she is paraphrasing Ian) and ends a bit ridiculous.

Moreover, she has not shown any hesitation about the park until that precise moment whereas Ian Malcolm is clearly upset and critical in every previous scenes. She takes his side because he has become her alpha.

Alan understands that and his reaction is a tragic cop-out:

“I don’t wanna jump to any conclusions but look… dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How could we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect ?”

He knows Ian is right but he can’t agree with him because it would be acknowledging the man’s superiority and risking to lose Ellie. Neither can he express his immature enthusiasm anymore, he cannot confess that five minutes earlier he was eating out of John Hammond’s hand and that without Ian Malcolm’s remark the “crazy old son of a bitch” would have won.

And thus he makes this bland statement in order to depreciate Ian’s point of view without looking like an idiot. In the context: "How could we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect ?” is not being critical. Both Ian and Ellie statements were "We can expect things to take a very bad turn", saying "Who could have any idea what to expect ?" is being against them, not with them. But John Hammond takes it as criticism because everything that is not cheer enthusiasm is negative to him.

Alan was the one who could decide to stop everything and if Ellie had not been there, he would have sided with Malcolm and measures would have been taken against the organisation of their visit. For example, bringing Tim and Lex along would have been deemed completely irresponsible and could have been cancelled.

Instead, because of Alan Grant’s cowardly conclusion, things carry on as scheduled and John Hammond is not dethroned.

It’s a common bias when we’re watching movies not to pay too much attention to the fact that things could have followed a different path, when it’s actually a point of focus of screenwriters. We should always try to spot the moment when everything could have been avoided and what made things happen the way they did. For example, the Titanic would not have sunk if it wasn’t for Jack and Rose’s desire to attract attention on them. Yep. Thank you Jack and Rose. Vanity sunk the Titanic.

Tim and Alex arrive all enthusiastic and elated to see their grandfather that they obviously love a lot.

But what’s the first thing that Tim and Lex tell him when they jump on him ? “Thanks for the gifts !” He bought them just like he buys everyone and everything.

Ellie looks at Alan with a giant smile but his terrified air breaks the mood. He truly is not sensitive to the appeal that children represent for her.

Five minutes later, he is chased by Tim who wants to talk palaeontology and then by Alex to whom Ellie directly said that she should ride with Alan because “it would be good for him.”

The comical aspect of the scene hides a much more serious undertone. We learnt earlier in the film that John Hammond’s daughter is getting a divorce. Lex and Tim’s parents are divorcing. Contrary to Jurassic World, the movie doesn’t say anything more about the matter but this element gives their visit a special meaning.

Have you often met kids like Tim ? He is obsessed with palaeontology; he’s read several books on the matter, written by doctors. He talks exactly like a student. He has read Alan Grant’s book and has the opportunity to meet the man. Anybody would be excited. So, however annoying he might be, his attitude is perfectly understandable, there is nothing surprising in it.

Because we know that Grant cannot stand children, the scene is humorous and when the doctor shuts the door on a still-talking Tim, it makes us laugh because we see things from Grant’s point of view. But truly what’s happening is a very violent rejection of a boy who is meeting his role model at a moment in his life when he actually is in desperate need for recognition.

Same thing with Lex. She is at an age when girls are becoming curious of what men can think of them and experience the need to be recognized as feminine and attractive by a male authority.

Her parents are divorcing and it necessarily must have taken a toll on her (her dad is leaving her the same way he is leaving her mother). This is not me overinterpreting meaningless details, even though they are not put forward, these kinds of elements cannot be put there gratuitously. If Lex and Tim’s parents are getting a divorce, it means something specific for both characters, and it should be noticeable in their first scene.

When Lex starts repeating obsessively “he left us, he left us” do you think she really is shocked that the unknown lawyer abandoned them ? Or is she talking about her dad ? The children's experience on the island is a metaphor for their parents’ divorce. The T-Rex is their mother... and Ellie as well because their interactions with Ellie and Alan represent exactly what they are going through with their parents.

Tim wants to spend time with his dad and gets rejected. The mother feels incapable of holding her husband back and uses her daughter to do so, and the girl thus feels rejected too because she fails. That’s exactly the scene of the choice of car.

Alan nods at Ellie in an ambiguous manner which could mean “I get it” or “Ok, this is war.” But it means both as he seems to acquiesce when in the next scene the children are in the car with Gennaro...

So there's a car for the children and a car for the adults then.

A storm approaches. Storm = Gordian knot. There’s no further postponing the questions anymore, things have to happen, choices have to be made. (Other Gordian storms: The Hateful Eight, Ghosts of Mars, The Martian, The Killing Joke)

Ok, so, I’ll stop here for the first part of this article. Part 2.