3. Ellie Breaks Up With Alan - Jurassic Park III
Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) survived the events of the first Jurassic Park along with Alan Grant (Sam Neill), hopeful that the two might settle down and start a family. We find out in the third film that Ellie left Alan after he refused to do this, and she instead married a State Department employee with whom she has two children. Ellie remains good friends with Alan, and at the end of the film, she is the one who alerts the Marine Corps to head to the island and save the day, but really, did they
need to split Ellie and Alan up? One of the most enjoyable aspects of the original film was the subtle inference that the pair were dating and the chemistry therein, but this thread is abandoned simply so that Ellie can save the day at the end of JP3, using her husband's connection to get the Marines to haul ass. While it's not unreasonable to assume that Ellie might have moved on from Alan, this is a movie, damnit, and I want as much of that sunny-faced optimism as I can get. Did they think we wouldn't buy Ellie being at home while Alan was on a mission? And surely we all
want Ellie and Alan to stay together, whether Laura Dern merely returns in cameo form or not...