Bechdel Test Movie List

Ellie and Lex introduce themselves to each other just before they leave for the tour.

Also, right after Lex and Tim lock the raptor in the freezer, they run to Grant and Ellie.

Lex: It's in there!
Ellie: Control room!

Then:

Lex: We can call for help!
Ellie: We have to reboot the system first.

I agree with the above comment. Ellie and Lex have minimal interactions, but they DO interact.

Women INTERACT in a lot of movies, but they don't actually talk to each other.

The extent of the interaction doesn't matter, the fact is that two women talked to each other about something other than a man, and they did. They talk about how they have to call for help but have to reboot the system first.

It should also be noted that most of the conversations, female-female, female-male, and male-male are not about men at all, but about dinosaurs. While I know this test isn't necessarily connected to quality of feminism, but the fact that the female characters in a science fiction film played such an integral role in saving everyone else, I'd say it's pretty feminist-friendly compared to most other sci-fi.

I totally forgot about Lex and Ellie's interactions. Thank you for pointing them out. I'm really glad the movie can pass now, since it's one of my favorites of all time and since Lex and Ellie are both awesome characters.

I've updated the rating from 1/3 to 3/3.

While it's never shown on screen, there is an inference that Lex and Ellie interact more. Lex reveals to Alan Grant that she is planning to ride in the tour car with him because Ellie mentioned it would be good for him to essential practice how to interact with kids. They are in a way talking about a man, but they are not discussing anything related to lust or desire of a man.

This is not interaction. These are commands and active listening skills, but by no means do they demonstrate a woman problem solving or having a conversation with another woman. Jurassic Park does not meet the test criteria. The "spirit" of the question is to ascertain whether the women characters are developed beyond the role of figures. They are action characters in this movie and nothing of substance that promotes women. Passes 1 of the 3 tests.

I think you're all forgetting a critical point: almost all of the dinosaurs are female!

I agree with the rating on this one. This movie wasn't huge on dialogue between the characters anyway. There's a smallish cast. What I like is that Ellie is not there as a romantic interest, she's not there to be some sort of damsel to the male lead. She's there as a scientist to give her expertise and she does this consistently throughout the movie. At no point is she treated in any other way than as a scientist. This movie is very special to me for this reason. So borderline on the interaction, but overall not a sexist movie.

I kind of agree with that rating although I also agree with some comments. It is quite difficult to tell for Jurassic Park. I just watched it and though "wait a second this is weird". Cause for me the only real conversation they have is for the car. The rest is panicking on what to do and they don't really interact together but more with the three other people (scenes with Alan, Tim, Ellie and Lex). Now I don't remember them introducing. Also note there are ONLY TWO named women in that film which is kinda… you know… I mean you see ONE woman scientist. The other are men, (Alan, Ian, Pr. Hammond, and ALL the crew from the dinosaur breeding facility!…). What kind of message is that about women's place in science.
Although Ellie is one of the only to realise this is wrong. Talking about the serious threat of the plants. Then again she's a botanist, not a "proper palaeontologist", which could lead to "go study your little flowers". Now you do see Ellie IS a strong character. She never gives up, she saves her husband and Ian, isn't disgusted by the "dinosaur droppings" (when Ian is…) and is also described as a scientist when he's described as a "rock star" (which then would make her the first scientist to oppose to the park…) and finally and most important she finishes Ian's sentence by saying "dinosaures eat men, women inherit the earth". And this feminist joke is important because they don't laugh, they realise just how stupid they've been.
Now you might argue that Ian flirts with her and asks Alan if "you two are…" which is only answered by a "yes". But they're not married! So free of the male domination here, she keeps her name and all. Although Pr. Malcolm says he's many times divorced and "always looking for a future ex-Mrs. Malcolm". And you have the fact that he doesn't plan on staying with the woman but still Marie's her and therefore imposes some form of control on her.
Now about Lex. She always get the worse things with dinosaures: brachiosaurus sneezing on her, velociraptor lifting the air vent olates RIGHT UNDERNEATH HER but then again Tim gets electrocuted and almost crushed by a car at least twice. However she is vegan which again goes for the stereotype that tend to be shown too often on TV. However she is a hacker and I'm not sure informatics at this level are stereotypically considered for women. Again, you have Tim changing that by saying - after Lex gets sneezed on by the brachiosaurus - "she's never gonna want to try new things again. She's gonna stay in her room on her computer". And that would be men not caring about computers (shown also with Alan) but going out on adventures… however, you'll have to remember that it is Lex that saves them all with her knowledge of computers (even though the velociraptor then gets through the glass). Also note that at that moment Alan tells Ellie to go to the computer to boot the doors while he holds the velociraptor, being the stereotypical male in a way. However Ellie doesn't do as he says (hey, women don't always obey men! There's another stereotype down! ;) ) and helps him hold the door cause she says he can't do it on his own. So women do save the day.
Also even if a man is sent first to restart the park's security system it's kinda normal since it's a technician/informatician. Although note there seem to be no female doing this kind of job. What comes next is also I think a very important part in the film. When Pr. Hammond tells Ellie he should go because - quote - "I'm a… and you're a…" and she answers "we'll talk later about sexism in crisis situations". And there to go another attack on sexism. And Pr. Hammond does shut it then. However the hunter (can't remember his name) still comes with Ellie. You know, let's not go TOO far in gender equality =_='
And it keeps bouncing like that. But there you go, you still have two female characters that apparently interact with each other on something else than men but even if they didn't they're still strong women fighting stereotypes.

No the main problem here (sorry if I'm moving a bit away from the subject) I think is that the first person to die is a black guy, probably Costa Rican in addition (you know, discrimination) and then the informatician who's black two dies. Well raptors do seem to like black people… hum. Okay the T-Rex eats the "bloodsucking lawyer", which you could call a "karma bitchslap" for abandoning the kids and the dylophosaurus eats Nelly. Oh but wait, he's an overweight person who's presented as eating all the time and having "butterfingers". I mean come on, other stereotype here. Although it could also be some form of "karma bitchslap" for abandoning Hammond, putting everybody in danger, stealing embryos and menacing to run over the "stupid" dylophosaurus because he didn't fetch the stick and "no wonder [they]'re extinct". And finally you get the hunter who was just an animal killer really and played with fire so it's his fault. Although he died a hero saving Ellie. Even though it ends up with the raptors attacking again… so yeah back to it, he saved the Ellie a bit line a damsel in distress? I don't know it's a bit weird as I said earlier.
Anyways, even if Jurassik Park managed not to be too sexist (especially for a movie from the 90s!) although it could still be debated, it sticks with other racist stereotypes which are way too commonly found in Hollywod movies.
If you were to never watch movies where a black man was the first to die, you wouldn't watch many movies. Trust me…

So yeah, maybe this was a bit long and painful, useless and/or too far-fetched for some but I though I just had to post this.
Well of you've made it to here thanks for reading and if you don't agreed please don't hesitate to debate I'm always ready to answer in a debate situation with a comment that long, or longer xp

I would also like to point out that all the dinos are female. In the famous kitchen scene, the two raptors are communicating about how to track down and eat the kids.

You may think they aren't named, but they are! Not in the movie, but in a pre-production story board, those two are named Randy and Kim.

So I can't find in the movie where they introduce each other. According to this page (jurassicpark.fandom.com/wiki/Jurassic_Park_Film_Transcript), which claims to be a transcript of the movie, this happens at the start of the scene when the electric jeeps arrive:

"Ellie is off to the side with ALEXIS, introducing herself warmly."

I watched that whole scene on two different versions of the film (on Peacock and my DVD copy) and I can't find any evidence that that happens. The film's script mentions this event as well (I think that's where the "transcript" page gets its info?), but as far as I can tell, this event does not happen on-screen, and no other versions of the film have this change. The dialogue about the jeeps is slightly different from the script/transcript and what we see on-screen.

And the second point, just after they lock the dino in the freezer, doesn't have an interaction with them, either. Lex runs up to Grant and looks at him when she says her line, and then Ellie appears to look at Grant, not Lex, when she says "control room".

I dunno, doesn't seem like it passes the test, IMO.

The supposed introduction between Ellie and Lex does not exist on screen.

This film does seem to technically pass the Bechdel test with the interaction between Ellie and Lex in the control room about calling for help and rebooting the system.

One of the kids is a boy, so while the two raptors (Randy and Kim) might be named female characters, they are still talking about eating a boy.

I agree with this rating and have to disagree with some of these comments. The
Bechdel test isn't meant to be an assessment of the feminist content of a movie or its characters. The three rules are simple and reading anything else into it muddies the whole thing. If you start debating whether or not Ellie and Lex's verbal interaction is "good enough" or not, then the whole thing is lost. No matter how brief it was, it fulfills all three rules. Nothing else is meant to be read into it. They're two (named) female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man. Bam. Rules fulfilled. End of story.