1 Introduction

Based on Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel of the same name, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jurassic Park (1993) is widely celebrated for its ground-breaking CGI. With its computer-generated dinosaurs often depicted as the film’s true stars, the human actors are often relegated to secondary roles. Released directly following the immensely successful hyper-masculine action cinema of the 1980s, including the Rambo (1982-1988) and Die Hard (1988-1990) films (Tasker 1993), the “musculinity” of stars like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis (Bell-Metereau 2010; McDonald 2019) is far removed from the type of masculinity embodied by actors Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum as Jurassic Park’s scientists, Drs Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm, respectively. A noteworthy paradox, it provides comment on changes within the film industry and wider society; yet, despite Jurassic Park’s continued critical attention and its position as “the biggest money spinner in movie history” (Freer 2001: 240), there remains a distinct lack of serious consideration of its stars.

As Siegfried Kracauer highlights, cinema is “not exclusively human”, with its “ever-changing patterns of physical existence whose flow may include human manifestations but need not climax in them.” Accordingly, the human actor is “not necessarily the hub of the narrative, the carrier of all its meanings” (2004: 22). This certainly applies to Jurassic Park with its dinosaurs long viewed as the “real stars”. Yet, although the battle between the Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park III (Joe Johnston, 2001) may be thrilling, we are less emotionally invested than when human lives are in danger, particularly the protagonists. As men in their 40s, with normalised body types counterposing the pumped-up action stars of the previous decade, Neill and Goldblum can be grouped with Spielberg’s other involuntary heroes, including Roy Scheider as Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and Harrison Ford as a fellow scientist, archaeology professor Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones franchise (Pomerance 2005).

This article examines and reassesses Neill’s and Goldblum’s “normalised” star personas and screen performances, juxtaposing their acting style, physicality and character development with the hypermasculine actors preceding them and their successor Chris Pratt as Velociraptor wrangler Owen Grady in the Jurassic World films (2015-2022), the new chapter of the franchise. Grady exemplifies twenty-first-century masculinity, which suggests a safer, more “everyday” version of the 1980s action hero, thereby making him more relatable to audiences while also positioned as an object of the erotic gaze or, in the words of Steve Neale, “masculinity as spectacle” (1983). While Grady is the “alpha” male to “beta” Blue, the female leader of the Velociraptor pack he trains, scientists Grant and Malcolm do not fit this macho type, instead providing us with relatable and (somewhat) ordinary men forcefully thrust into a new and terrifying world they must navigate for their own and others’ survival. They also openly admit their limitations and fears during a period of (white) masculinity in crisis (Horrocks 1994; Savran 1998; Robinson 2000; Carroll 2011). 

As Yvonne Tasker notes, Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, “brandishing a rocket-launcher whilst parading his musculature, became an icon of American masculinity in the mid-1980s” (1993: 1); while Mark Gallagher suggests Stallone is generally understood as “the embodiment of 1980s Hollywood action cinema” and “Regan-era masculinity” (2014: 97). As the decade progressed, however, Stallone was overtaken in popularity by the “even larger figure of ex-Mr Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger” (Tasker 1993: 1), Pratt’s real-life father-in-law since 2019. Richard Dyer highlights that while most view Schwarzenegger’s “hyper-developed muscularity” as “excessive, and perhaps bordering on the fascist”, at the time “muscularity” was a “key term in appraising men’s bodies” (1982: 69). Writing the year of Jurassic Park’s release, Tasker views Stallone and Schwarzenegger as the most publicised and visible images of the “muscular male hero” governing 1980s Hollywood cinema, while critics saw this as “a disturbing sign” demonstrating the development of a formerly “unseen cinematic articulation of masculinity” (1993: 1). 

Male Trouble explores a range of on-screen masculinities, with editors Constance Penley and Sharon Willis declaring an urgency to examine male subjectivity following the Reagan administration and the Gulf War’s construction of national identity “as a virile, aggressively posturing masculinity” (1993: VIII). Particularly useful is Lynn Kirby’s chapter exploring “male hysteria” or “masculinity in disarray” in early cinema, which can be revised in terms of masculinity in crisis in the final decade of the twentieth century. With Regan serving as US president from 1981 to 1989, Susan Jeffords declares that mainstream Hollywood films appeared to have “successfully rejected” the ‘hard bodies’ of the Reagan era by 1991, moving into more “domestic policies, emphasizing the family and personal values over market achievements” of the subsequent Bush (1990-1993) and Clinton (1993-2001) eras (1994: 140-1). Tellingly, Schwarzenegger, “one of the harder bodies of the 1980s” was domesticated in 1990’s Kindergarten Cop (Leonard Reitman) after beginning the film as the epitome of the “eighties man, the lethal weapon par excellence” (1994: 141).  

Comparing box office figures for the Schwarzenegger vehicle The Last Action Hero (John McTiernan, 1993) and Jurassic Park during their opening weekends in June 1993 suggests audiences were ready for something new. The former cost $87 million, with an additional $30 million spent on US advertising, but only made $15.3 million, whereas the latter took a “record $50 million” (McDonald 2000: 92). Paul McDonald suggests that Jurassic Park “represented exactly the phenomenon that The Last Action Hero hoped for — a film that successfully sold drama to family audiences” (2000: 92-3). Ending the year as the top-grossing film, its North American box office was almost $340 million, while the Schwarzenegger film earned around $50 million, far below its initial budget (McDonald 2000: 93). According to McDonald, part of this failure was the “impossible demands made to stretch the appeal of Schwarzeneggar’s image”, and that in attempting to “entertain all audiences” with its broad appeal and hybridity genres, the film and its star arguably satisfied none (2000: 93). By this point, McDonald suggests, Schwarzenegger’s image had become “an unmarketable concept” that almost caused Sony to go bust and, with the star earning $15 million for his role, raised questions across Hollywood about security and value of employing highly paid stars in event pictures (2000: 93). 

Using Goldblum to illustrate that success at the box office “does not immediately make a performer a star” (2000: 103), McDonald notes that while the actor appeared in some of the largest-grossing films of the 1990s, including Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1997) and Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996), and is a well-known actor, we may question whether he has the box-office appeal to give him star status (2000: 103). This is something I argue for both Goldblum and Neill, particularly before being cast in Jurassic Park, a film with, arguably, no stars. While the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films are categorised as action and/or sci-fi, the hypermasculine, unattainable muscularity of 1980s action heroes as fighting machines is more readily embodied by the carnivorous dinosaurs than the human protagonists. While their survival confirms their manliness, they exhibit a much ‘safer’ and more normalised maleness at a time of masculinity in crisis (Kac-Vergne 2018), and as they attempted to forge their own identity separate from their hypermasculine forerunners. 

2 Science Finds a Way

Sam Neill portrays palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, reprising the role in Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022). Born in 1947 in Omagh, Ireland, he was aged 46, 54 and 73 in the corresponding films. When he was seven, his family moved to New Zealand where the actor still resides, and in interviews refers to himself colloquially as a Kiwi. Although appearing to have severed ties with his Irish heritage, Neill has performed in films and television in several countries including New Zealand, Australia, Britain and America and portrayed characters of varying nationalities, perhaps most famously Russian in The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan, 1990). Consequently, his national identity has become somewhat blurred over the years and his vocal inflection is a unique combination of geographical locations. Neill’s accent varies throughout Jurassic Park, sometimes sounding particularly American while at other times his Kiwi accent dominates on certain words. A non-rhotic accent, Kiwi tends to skip the letter “r” and differs from its Australian counterpart through the pronunciation of vowels (Beynon 2002). But this works well for the character since the American Grant has no family ties and consistently travels the globe like a nomad in search of his next excavation. 

Neill began appearing in television shows and films in New Zealand and Australia from the early 1970s, his first international role being that of the adult Damian Thorne, son of Satan, in the Twentieth Century-Fox horror Omen III: The Final Conflict (Graham Baker, 1981). The following year he played the title character in the British television mini-series Reilly, Ace of Spies, based on real-life Russian-born spy Sidney Reilly. One of Neill’s better-known earlier roles was as Nicole Kidman’s husband in Dead Calm (Phillip Noyce, 1989), but he was by no means a prominent star when chosen as the top-billed (human) performer for this major Hollywood production. Tasker suggests that the “discursive link between nationhood and masculinity provides an important context for considering the muscular action cinema. Nationhood and masculinity are crucial terms within […] combat films” (1993: 97). While Grant is “in combat” with the dinosaurs, his ambiguous nationhood, resulting in part from his being portrayed by Neill, helps highlight his lack of muscularity and overt masculinity (Jarvis 2004).

Similarly, Jeff Goldblum, who portrays chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm and receives third billing after Neill and female lead Laura Dern, was also not a major Hollywood star. Goldblum is a more consistent presence across both franchises, appearing in The Lost World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Bayona, 2018) and Jurassic World: Dominion. Slightly younger than Neill, Goldblum was born in 1952 in Pennsylvania, USA and began his film career in the mid-1970s. His first notable role was also in a Twentieth Century-Fox horror/sci-fi: David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986), a remake of Kurt Neumann’s film from 1958 and another film to explore the human/non-human dichotomy while exposing Goldblum’s (naked) body. Although we learn little about Malcolm, as a theorist, we know he is not accustomed to physical exertion and, since he is injured early on, he avoids much of the action. When the first dinosaur attacks, Malcolm is found unconscious by Dr. Ellie Sattler (Dern), a large flesh wound on his leg rendering him immobile for the rest of the narrative. Aligning him with the dinosaurs, however, he demonstrates predatory instincts towards Sattler.

This relatively low-key casting may be due to the studio wishing the dinosaurs and technological advancements to remain the true stars of the film, rather than Hollywood A-listers (Buckland 2006; Laist 2015), but without the human-interest element, the audience would not be so invested. Malcolm is a somewhat enigmatic figure, dressed in all-black, including boots, jeans, shirt, sunglasses and a leather jacket reminiscent of Marlon Brando’s rebellious figure connoting potent sexuality and masculinity in The Wild One (László Benedek, 1953) forty years earlier (McCann 1991). The outfit is complimented by his slightly long and wavy jet-black hair and sideburns reminiscent of Elvis Presley, thereby tying him to sex symbols of past generations still very much in popular culture. When injured in the Tyrannosaurus Rex attack, his jeans get torn and his bloody leg is on show, while his ripped shirt exposes his chest, a common trope for displaying a man’s desirability (Cohan 1997).

This has led to the creation of memes and even action figures, such as a Funko Pop of Goldblum reclining with an open shirt and his bloody leg taped up. Known as “sexy Ian Malcolm”, this defers attention, momentarily, from the dinosaurs and eroticises him (despite his exposed chest being the result of a severe attack which led to another man’s death). Malcolm is rendered immobile while the action occurs around him; unable to help physically, he becomes a passive object of the gaze of the camera and the viewers. Although Neill’s clothes are also torn and caked with mud, his ability to remain the sole active male means he is not subject to the erotic gaze. Moreover, Goldblum’s black hair, youthful good looks and dark clothing on his 6’4" frame strongly contrast with older British actor Richard Attenborough as Richard Hammond, who, at only 5’6", sports white hair and beard, and is dressed in all-white throughout, connoting his position of “playing God” by having the dinosaurs created. Before Jurassic Park, Attenborough began his career in the role of Pinkie in Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1948) from forty-five years earlier and, since the film’s tagline is “nature finds a way”, it seems fitting that his brother is the much-celebrated biologist and natural historian David Attenborough.

While Goldblum wears only this outfit, and versions of it in The Lost World and Dominion, Neill dons two different but similar costumes, both utilitarian for his palaeontology work. He is first seen wearing classic blue jeans, in contrast to Malcolm’s modern skinny black jeans, paired with a red plaid shirt, neckerchief, sunglasses and hat, all practical wear for the dig he is conducting in The Badlands, Montana. Similarly, when on the (fictional) island of Isla Nublar in Costa Rica, Grant wears a wide-brimmed beige hat, sunglasses, baggy beige cargo pants, blue denim shirt and red neckerchief. Despite the red giving his outfit a pop of colour, the garment is for practicality rather than style, being used to protect the face from loose sand during excavations. Thus, through costuming Malcolm is presented as a man who favours style over substance, while Grant’s outfit reflects comfort and suitability for his job, which also extends to their personalities. Grant performs archaeological digs and describes species’ anatomy with authority and precision while Malcolm’s description of chaos theory is complex and lacks a clear structure. Attempting to explain it, he plays with Ellie’s hair and holds her hand for an uncomfortably long period as he places drops of water on it and asks what direction she thinks it will fall in.

As the main protagonist, Grant undergoes the most significant character development while we learn little about Malcolm, other than that he has three children (by Dominion he has five) and is married “occasionally”. Showing a romantic interest in Satller, he tells the disapproving Grant he is always looking for an “ex-Mrs Malcolm”, suggesting he has a roaming eye and cannot commit to long-term relationships. Conversely, Grant is immersed in his work, dates another palaeontologist (Ellie) and is consistently drawn to the past, identifying himself more with extinct species than living humans. Indeed, his first line, “I hate computers”, epitomises his dislike for new technology and children, the future generation. During the Montana dig, a tour group watches as he marvels over the skeleton of a Velociraptor. When a young boy declares he would not be scared since it just looks like a “big turkey”, Grant looks extremely irked, saunters over, bends down and graphically tells the boy how the raptor would kill him by slitting his belly, causing his intestines to spill out. Stopping for dramatic effect, he looks into the boy’s face and whispers in a low voice that it would start to eat him while he was still alive. Demonstrating the slashing motion with a Velociraptor claw he carries around, a phallic symbol and one of power, he tells the boy to be more respectful. The now-terrified child agrees as a satisfied Grant walks away.

Although Grant and Sattler are dating, there is a lack of connection between them, Grant only feels alive when talking about or actively working with fossils. Thus, when introduced to the living dinosaurs of Jurassic Park his eyes tear up with rapture, like a father meeting his newborn child. When Hammond informs him there is a Tyrannosaurs rex on the island, Grant has an extremely visceral reaction. Stumbling around with his hands on his knees, his back bent over and his head down as if he is going to vomit, he sways unsteadily before sitting on the grass, his feet no longer able to take his weight and signifying Grant’s deep-rooted passion. Although Ellie is also excited, she remains standing, eventually kneeling beside Grant like a mother tending to her child as they share the moment. Malcolm is also surprised but merely smiles from the car and announces, “That crazy son of a bitch did it”, referencing Hammond and his plans to reanimate dinosaurs. Malcolm later speaks out against this, however, indicating there was a reason dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago and humans should not be tampering with their DNA. 

Travelling the park in jeeps, much like a wildlife safari, when the dinosaurs are not visible in their pens, Grant takes the initiative to alight the moving vehicle and explore, shocking Malcolm into declaring this is “chaos theory” since nobody expected it, especially given the “safe” behaviour Grant has thus far exhibited. The others, except Malcolm (at least momentarily) then follow: Ellie, Hammond’s grandchildren Lex and Tim and the lawyer; foreshadowing his imminent demise, the latter advises against it. In a cowardly attempt to save himself from the t-rex, the lawyer locks himself in a public bathroom but is the only member of the group to die when it bursts in and eats him, or at least part of him, as Ellie and the guide arrive to find parts of him in the debris. When the t-rex begins attacking the jeep, now only containing the children, Grant and Malcolm watch helplessly from the other vehicle for an extended period as it pushes the roof in on the children, headbutts the car and turns it on its roof before ripping at it with its teeth while the children scream. After passively watching, Grant makes the first move by reaching into the back of his jeep and grabbing a flare. Using it to distract the t-rex, he throws it into the paddock for it to follow. As it starts to leave, Malcolm unwisely lights another and has the dinosaur follow him, resulting in his severe injury and the lawyer’s death, a failed attempt at being a brave “action hero” and perhaps a send-up of the genre. This is a major turning point for Grant since the film has evidently built up his immense dislike for children. When Hammond’s grandchildren arrive on the island, Grant becomes rigid and looks rather sickly, and when Tim excitedly informs Grant that he read his book, he does not know how to act so just walks past. Tim is genuinely interested in talking to him, but when Grant changes cars to avoid him he turns to find Lex saying Ellie told her to travel with him, resulting in Grant giving Ellie a dirty look.

His predisposition changes when he sees the children’s distress, and with Malcolm knocked unconscious, Grant becomes their sole protector. Thus, involuntarily becomes the unlikely alpha male, despite his fears and being no match for massive carnivorous dinosaurs (Gilmore 1990; Kimmel 2005). Carrying Lex to safety, Grant returns to retrieve Tim from the jeep now stuck vertically in a tree after the t-rex pushed it over a cliff. Tim is injured and seems in shock, embarrassingly confessing to Grant that he threw up. Still not sure how to act around children, Grant replies with an “oh” before telling Tim to take his hand. When Tim still does not move, Grant tells him he will not tell anyone he was sick, but that they need to go. The wheels move and the car begins progressing down the tree as they rush to safety. It almost falls on Grant’s head several times, but he ensures Tim is in front of him and out of immediate danger. As they reach the bottom, the car hits the ground and lands on its roof, trapping them inside. In a humorous moment, we hear their voices from inside as Tim complains they are back in the car, while Grant quips at least they are out of the tree. This proves Grant’s bravery and the adrenaline that drives him to act out of character while signifying his compassion and letting us identify with him as a likeable protagonist.

Taking the children to another tree to sleep, Grant announces he will keep guard and is shocked as they move towards him, hugging him from either side, before smiling proudly as their protector and adopting a more “natural” position for a man his age. Having witnessed “living” dinosaurs, he fiddles with his prized position, the raptor claw, while pondering whether he is defunct as a palaeontologist. Suggesting he needs to “evolve too”, he throws the symbolic claw away, which also seems defunct. As the only adult in the park, Grant remains with the children to protect them. He has no contact with the others since Hammond, Ellie and Malcolm are back at the main centre and safer for longer. He even gets comfortable enough with the children to joke around. Throwing a stick at an electric fence to determine the power is still off, he grabs the wire and pretends to get shocked. Lex screams before declaring it unfunny when he turns to them with a grin, but Tim finds it hilarious. This sadly foreshadows what almost becomes Tim’s demise; while trying to help, Ellie turns the power back on not knowing that Tim is climbing over the fence. Thrown a distance, he stops breathing and Grant emotionally performs CPR on him. When Tim starts breathing again, Grant cradles him in his arms and strokes his hair before carrying him to the visitor centre and going for help.

Due to Malcolm’s leg injury, Grant helps him to the helicopter that will take them off the island; although slightly injured himself, his clothes encrusted with layers of dried mud, nothing has rendered Grant immobile. As the brains behind the park and the one with the most to lose since his grandchildren were in severe danger, Hammond’s clothes are still pristine, symbolising his lack of physical exertion, due in part to his age and superior position in the company. As they fly away, it is not their grandfather the children gravitate towards but Grant. Sleeping contently at either side, as they did in the tree, Ellie smiles over at Grant looking relaxed with the children, which would not have happened before this trip. Thus, Grant grows as a person and reveals that, as an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary situation, he has proven his masculinity and become an active male when required to keep himself and others alive, utilising an inbred instinct rather than making an active choice. He also learns more about the importance of human relationships and living in the present rather than dedicating his life to the past, subsequently becoming more mellow and understanding of others.

With his regular looks and body type, having Neill portray Grant adds a strong sense of everyman appeal in an understated way, and he never tries to outact the others, including the children. His soft-spoken hybrid accent, reminiscent of Australian actor Rod Taylor’s American characters, adds some mysteriousness to his persona since Grant is just another American, yet he is not. Similarly, the English Attenborough appears to move between Scottish and Cockney accents until Hamond confirms his Scottish roots. Their characters moving around the globe may have resulted in a natural alteration to their accents over time, thus the performers may have done this on purpose.

While Malcolm is injured during the first attack and rendered passive for much of the film, the unlikely “action hero” Grant proves himself an alpha male. With the second film in the series, The Lost World, Malcolm gets to demonstrate his masculinity. At first, Malcolm refuses Hammond’s request to visit another island set up with dinosaurs (Site B), but when he learns his palaeontologist girlfriend, Sarah (Julianne Moore), is already on the island, he goes on what he calls a “rescue mission”, which does not go as planned. When his young daughter stows away, Malcolm must become the protector of two females alongside himself. The Lost World contains more physical violence, including Malcolm being pushed backwards through a glass window by a raptor, and when a t-rex gets loose in the city, he must try and save the civilians, which he and Sarah do together. 

Here, Goldblum looks more masculine, while Malcolm is less glib, and we learn more about his life and personality. He still wears the signature black leather jacket but gone are the sunglasses and coiffured hair. Goldblum’s hair is cut shorter, he is unshaven and has a more hardened, rugged face that appears weather-beaten. Malcolm is again thrust into an unknown world where he must use his survival instincts to save himself and the women in his life. Off the island and safely at home, he falls asleep on the sofa with a few too many buttons of his black shirt undone, suggesting a subtle and safer recreation of “sexy Ian Malcolm”. Returning for a brief cameo in Fallen Kingdom, the now 66-year-old actor dons a white beard and hair reminiscent of Attenborough in the earlier films, but some dark patches hint at the younger Malcolm. While dressed in all-black again, his clothing is more corporate, subdued and age-appropriate. The black shirt is fully buttoned and paired with a black tie, while the leather jacket has been replaced by a smart blazer. He is introduced indirectly in Dominion as Biosyn’s “in-house philosopher” by Ellie as she throws down a book featuring an image of Goldblum as he looked in Fallen Kingdom. While the beard and suit suggest a power and maturity he did not possess in Jurassic Park, his slight grin hints at Malcolm’s typical smugness. With “Dr. Ian Malcolm” in large letters above the image, below it is the book’s title: “How the World Will End” and he is later seen signing copies for a group of young “fans” encircling him like a celebrity. When appearing in person, he wears a version of his Jurassic Park outfit: the familiar all-black leather jacket, skinny jeans, boots, shirt and tinted glasses. The beard is gone, replaced by greying stubble reminiscent of his more rugged style of The Lost World and distinguishing him from Grant who also now has a grey beard, although less styled and more natural than Malcolm’s, just like their clothing and overall style. 

By Jurassic Park III Ellie is married with children, but the only love interest for Grant is his Velociraptors. Informing Ellie that he is obsessed with them ties him to Grady, Jurassic World’s raptor wrangler. When Grant leaves Ellie’s house she tells him he is still the best and he replies, “the last of my breed”, again linking him to the past and near extinction. Genealogically, this is also true since Grant has no heirs, thereby no legacy to leave behind, but this does not seem to bother him. Similarly, Grant is still not impressed with technology since, when his young assistant Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) asks if he likes computers, Grant quips that he likes the abacus. Jurassic Park III presents Grant as an outsider, a lone figure encircled by families, firstly Ellie’s and then The Kirbys, but is clearly more comfortable digging for relics from the past than interacting with living people. Ellie’s son even calls him “the dinosaur man”, thus combining them into one entity. Ironically it is this name, and a child, that saves them from the island when Grant uses the new technology of a GPS cell phone to call Ellie, telling the boy it is “the dinosaur man” which allows her to send help.

In Dominion, Grant is introduced during a dig, reminiscent of his introduction in Jurassic Park. Wearing a similar outfit, he holds a red neckerchief, potentially the same one, and smiles while looking around the site. Demonstrating his continued love for, and search for, real dinosaur bones rather than genetically created creatures, he points to ancient rocks while informing visitors that science is about truth. He appears to be talking to himself, however, as the teenagers around him are looking at their cell phones. Grant’s continued dislike of technology is emphasised by his on-site tent resembling a museum or relic with animal bones, apothecary equipment, metal filling cabinets and papers strewn everywhere. There is a distinct lack of any computers or other digital technology and, looking around, Ellie comments, “It’s so… you”, another historical artefact. Amusingly, Grant has no idea what Malcolm’s “sliding into her DMs” means and is bemused when a barista offers him multiple coffee types, milk alternatives and toppings as if he has also stepped out of the past but, unlike the dinosaurs, has not evolved. A key moment of progression is when he uses Malcolm’s high-tech bracelet to enter a restricted area at Biosyn. Ellie is divorced and “living the Alan Grant life” while he remains unattached, opening the potential for a rekindled romance, which occurs at the end after much sexual tension. The long-standing rift between Grant and Malcolm is resolved after they save each other from imminent danger and Grant places a friendly hand on Malcolm’s shoulder as they head for the plane, Malcolm dressed in all-black and Grant in a blue denim shirt and cargo pants. Moreover, Grant literally burns the past by setting fire to his red neckerchief to use as a torch, holding it up as he did with the flare in Jurassic Park in a pose used in the official poster for Dominion.

3 The Next Generation

As Richard Dyer notes, men must disavow any element of passivity “if they are to be kept in line with dominant ideas of masculinity-as-activity” (1982: 66); even in still images men are often photographed during an activity, such as sawing wood or playing baseball (1982: 66). Presenting males as inactively active instead of rendered passive like female pin-ups, Dyer suggests that even when not photographed in action, the male pin-up “still promises activity by the way the body is posed”; even with a seemingly casual, passive stance, the male “tightens and tautens his body so that the muscles are emphasised, hence drawing attention to the body’s potential for action” (1982: 67). As is discussed, this is demonstrated throughout Jurassic World by the seemingly informal but alert posture Chris Pratt adopts as Grady. 

Virginia Wright Wexman proposes that actors such as Robert de Niro and Al Pacino “typically project a cold narcissism that suggests they are beyond romance”, representing a “self-absorption […] by projecting truculent incommunicativeness that pointedly excludes the audience” (1993: 179). Furthermore, one of de Niro’s most celebrated films is Martin Scorsese’s hypermasculine boxing drama Raging Bull (1980), a sport Wexman describes as “an individualistic world of competitive groups that define their dominance in terms of pure muscle” (1993: 177). Grady is not a boxer, but in Fallen Kingdom, he punches a man for shooting a Velociraptor he trained from birth and engages in a lengthy physical fight against several armed men near the film’s conclusion. Dyer notes that muscles signify a physical strength women tend to lack, while the possibility for muscularity in men is regarded as a “biological given” and a way to dominate women and weaker men they compete with (1982: 71). Being a member of the US Navy helps legitimise Grady’s masculinity in terms of his fitness levels, regimental training and readiness for battle (Belkin 2012) but does not extend to battling the unknown realm of dinosaurs, particularly the hybrid creatures created in a lab which can overpower and outsmart humans. Faced with these creatures he is, as expected, terrified and in need of assistance at times.

Habitually in possession of a shotgun in Jurassic World, either in his hand or on his back, Grady is thereby constantly in charge of the phallus. In one scene he is being attacked by a Pterodactyl, which Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) tranquilises before pulling Owen to his feet. Here, she may temporarily be in control of the phallus, but his gun is always bigger. Owen takes power back by maintaining the dominant role, grabbing and kissing her off-guard, thus taking his masculinity back in a situation where he could become emasculated. Moreover, when Claire’s nephew asks who the raptors’ alpha is, Owen grins and replies confidently, “You’re looking at him kid”, literally spelling out his masculinity. This results in Grady’s masculinity being depicted as normalised and relatable, not the hypermasculine, pumped-up muscle-bound fighting machine of the 1980s (Tasker 1993; Jeffords 1994), thereby rendering him safe to romance Claire as a tough but charming Southern man.

Dyer notes that the biological “naturalness” of muscles legitimises male power and domination while, in reality, these “muscles that show”, or “developed muscularity” are “not natural at all” but “achieved. The muscle man is the end product of his own activity of muscle-building” (1982: 71). Thus, while the beautiful female body is understandably seen to be achieved by components such as diet and cosmetics, “a man’s muscles constantly bespeak this achievement of his beauty/power” (Dyer 1982: 71). As well as being a sign of activity and achievement, muscles are hard, so even male pin-ups who are muscular to the point of being hypermasculine “harden their bodies to be looked at” (Dyer 1982: 71). In terms of the eroticisation of the male body, Dyer concludes that the significance of this hardness can be bolstered by its “setting or symbolic references, or by poses that emphasise hard lines and angular shapes” rather than the “soft roundness of the feminine aesthetic” (1982: 71). Wexman notes this aura described by Dyer, “is typically achieved by means of an emphasis on musculature and an association of the body with action, often through the use of an active, upright posture” (1993: 177).

In costuming and stance, Pratt and Howard create a complementary contrast of masculinity/femininity. As James Naremore suggests, while clothing imparts “form, vitality, and traits” of the character on an actor’s movement, the body of the actor also grants “exchange value on the clothes” by giving “sex appeal to the costumes” (1988: 93). Pratt dresses in sturdy, utilitarian materials and male-encoded colours of blue denim and brown leather. Unlike Goldblum, Pratt’s chest is never exposed, his outfit both concealing and emphasising his body, particularly his broad chest and muscular arms, which aid in presenting Owen as a tough character and Pratt as an objectified star. His blue denim shirt is reminiscent of Neill’s in Jurassic Park, only darker and with the sleeves consistently rolled up past his elbows to reveal his hairy, tanned and manly forearms, “a typically sexualised part of the body and principle in distinguishing men from women” (Kelly 2019: 123). Although well-developed, his arm muscles are not overly pumped up, thereby presented as naturally obtained.

Through colour and material, his brown waistcoat connotes a sense of earthiness, presenting a more manly and wearable version of the black leather jacket donned by Goldblum and heightening Grady’s identity as a tough Southerner. This is underscored by Claire joking about his being raised in a rodeo, where this garment would seamlessly blend in. Similarly, his dark jeans align him with the Old West and utilitarianism, the fit being loose enough for comfort and practicality but tight enough to eroticise Pratt’s thighs and buttocks. Finally, he wears a functional and efficient pair of work boots. Grady’s position as a raptor wrangler infers the overtly masculine figure of the cowboy, while Pratt portrayed a cowboy the following year in a remake of the 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua, 2016), where he wore a similar waistcoat and had his shirt sleeves rolled up throughout (Gerstner 2006). 

These nostalgic links to the past provide parallels between Grady and Grant, their names even sounding similar, while his cool and laidback demeanour aligns him with Malcolm. A more active male than either, Grady has a naturalistic yet tough appeal for the new millennium. While there is a blurring of Grant’s national identity and his having no base, Grady is unequivocally all-American, his tough Southern masculinity appearing inbred and defined by hard work, manual labour and putting down roots (Nystrom 2009). Owen is introduced in Fallen Kingdom while using the natural material wood to, quite literally, build a home, hammer in his hand, while his introduction in Dominion resembles a traditional Western scene. Riding a horse across a prairie, his jeans and red plaid shirt are reminiscent of Grant’s introduction in Jurassic Park, but instead of cattle, he ropes a dinosaur. While Maisie is repealed that he “smells of horses”, this entices Claire. His natural musk attracting the adult female of his species further links him to the animal world while reinforcing Hollywood’s, and society’s, version of gender norms.

His brown hair is cut short, some growth on the top adding texture while suggesting Grady does not visit the barber often. Stubble adds a manliness to his face, enhancing its hardness and the overt sexual difference between Pratt and Howard, while his stance is often relaxed and he frequently stands with his arms folded, a dominant masculine pose allowing his muscular arms to be displayed. His physique is most evident when fixing his motorbike, a manly pursuit which suggests his muscles are the result of natural, outdoor activities rather than pumping iron in the gym, even if this is how Pratt got in shape. A tight-fitting shirt with several buttons undone reveals a hairy chest, implying Grady’s virility, while his (not too) muscular frame is emphasised by his raising and drinking from a Coke bottle and holding up the ultimate phallic symbol: a shotgun (Nixon 1996). He possesses a more everyday muscularity, neither too extreme nor unnatural, while his tough masculinity is displayed through physical skills, courage and a fight for justice, allowing him to appeal to a variety of audiences, but for different reasons. Perhaps ironically, Pratt’s breakthrough role was as an overweight comedy character in the sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009–2015), before a strict diet and exercise regime transformed his body and led to his securing the role of Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (2014-2023), suggesting his physique is attainable by ordinary men. 

Claire’s clothes are ultra-feminine but professional, her white skirt and blouse made from a light material ideal for the climate, while a belt cinched at the waist accentuates her figure. Her nude-coloured stilettos suggest both femininity and phallic power. With her striking red hair in a concave bob, it is a tidy and easily maintained work-appropriate hairstyle, while longer strands around her face help soften the look. Her dark lipstick and mascara stand out from her pale skin, drawing attention to her face, thereby contrasting with Pratt, whose body is presented as masculinity as spectacle, thereby reversing the typical male gaze at the female body as an object of the erotic gaze. Moreover, while her body language is closed, with her standing erect and rigid much of the time, Pratt is animated from the start. His body is often seen in physical acts, thereby deeming it safe to be looked at since he is not passive, thereby avoiding becoming emasculated.

In an extreme display of masculinity, Owen travels through the forest at high speed on a motorbike, a gun on his back and four Velociraptors surrounding him, as he seeks out the highly dangerous hybrid creation Indominus Rex – the image used on the film’s posters and subsequent DVD and Blu-ray releases. Owen leaves Claire and her nephews in a safe place before going to “slay” the creature; watching on a screen, one boy declares, “Your boyfriend’s a badass”. Although not officially dating, Claire proudly grins and does not correct him. Owen shoots military style and tracks the creature through the forest, instinctively stepping in front of the others when under attack. He is kinder towards children than Grant, and they tend to gravitate towards him. At the film’s conclusion, even after all he has been through, Owen is also seen helping an elderly man who has been injured.

In Fallen Kingdom, the other male, Franklin Webb (Justice Smith), is younger, almost adolescent, and terrified before they even reach the island. Scared of flying, he douses himself in fly spray while the machismo Owen stares and looks perplexed. As somewhat of an in-joke, Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda) tells Owen, “Let’s go beefcake”, underscoring his masculinity and brawn but undermining and objectifying him based on his body type. Among his other accomplishments, Owen rescues Franklin and Claire, who are stuck underwater in a sinking pod and saves young Maisie (Isabella Sermon) from being shot. At the film’s conclusion, after Maisie frees the dinosaurs into the city we see her, Owen and Claire driving away together, suggesting they have become a traditional nuclear family, the normality of their grouping something Grant never achieved. Goldblum returns at the end with his voiceover telling us, “We’ve entered a new era. Welcome to Jurassic World”: much bigger and all-encompassing than Jurassic Park. We have also entered a new era of more naturalistic action heroes, with Owen being younger and fitter than his predecessors but still relatable as an everyman with morals. He is manly but not afraid to be vulnerable, taking control in most situations but able to admit his fears while trying to protect those around him, especially women and children, while getting physical with men who deserve it. 

Grant and Malcolm do not meet Grady until almost the end of Dominion and, comically, when Malcolm lifts a futuristic-looking gun and awkwardly aims it, Grady takes it away while quipping, “Easy Rambo”. Reminiscent of Tim’s interaction with Grant almost thirty years earlier, Grady tells Grant he is a big fan and has read his book, “well, book on tape” while Grant notes his awareness that Grady trains raptors. When the raptor expert and wrangler team up to find Blue’s baby, Beta, Grant informs Grady about their behaviour patterns while Grady teaches him wrangling skills to capture her, which they successfully do together. 

4 Conclusion

While the films have been widely celebrated for their ground-breaking CGI and impressive animatronic dinosaurs, the understudied human performers are also worth considering, especially in their presentation of the distinct modes (Moss 2011) and multifaceted nature of masculinity. This article has examined and reassessed the more “normalised” star personae of these performers, exploring how their performance styles, physicality and character developments differ but also where they converge. While Grant and Malcolm are scientists forced into becoming action heroes, Grady is a more muscular, military man who has grown up in a world where dinosaurs have existed, and even works with them.

Just as Jurassic World presents us with a hybrid dinosaur, Indominous Rex, created by blending the DNA of several species, Grady is a hybrid of the men who have gone before him. While at times he demonstrates subtle hints of Grant and Malcolm, he is overtly presented as more brawn than brains. He also becomes an object of erotic desire in a more extreme way than Goldblum ever did, allowing the franchise not only to continue to relate to larger ideological changes around gender identities in terms of the woman/man binary but also among men themselves. It is this hybridity that allows Pratt as Grady to become integrated into the franchise’s legacy while presenting audiences with a new “species” of male star for the twenty-first century.