plugged in movie review fall

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

In Theaters

Unsung hero.

• Biography/History , Christian , Drama , Music

Content Caution

• April 26, 2024
• Daisy Betts as Helen Smallbone; Joel Smallbone as David Smallbone; Kirrilee Berger as Rebecca Smallbone; Paul Luke Bonenfant as Daniel Smallbone; Diesel La Torraca as Joel Smallbone; JJ Pantano as Luke Smallbone; Tenz McCall as Ben Smallbone; Angus K. Caldwell as Josh Smallbone; Jonathan Jackson as Eddie Degarmo; Lucas Black as Jed Albright; Candace Cameron Bure as Kay Albright; Hillary Scott as Luanne Meece; Roslyn Gentle as Nana Smallbone; Terry O'Quinn as Grandpa James Smallbone; Don Most as Pierce; Rebecca St. James as Flight Attendant; Rachel Hendrix as Amy Grant; Joe Chambrell as Carman

Home Release Date

• Richard L. Ramsey, Joel Smallbone

Distributor

Movie review.

“Every adventure has perils and pitfalls,” Helen Smallbone tells her six children and husband, David, as they huddle on the faded carpet of their “modest” new rental home in Nashville, Tennessee.

Adventure is one word to describe what’s happened to the Smallbone family. And a bravely charitable word at that. Others might have looked at the family’s dire surroundings and desperate situation and chosen another, arguably more honest word: nightmare .

Not long before, Helen’s entrepreneurial husband, David, had been on top of the world. The CCM market was booming in early1990s, and the Australian Christan concert promoter seemingly could do no wrong, promoting hugely popular bands such as Stryper, for instance.

Life was good for David and Helen and their six kiddos, as they enjoyed a lavish home with a pool table in the living room and a pool to swim in out back. And now, David has the opportunity of a lifetime: overseeing and promoting Amy Grant’s forthcoming concert tour down under. Sure, it will take a lot of money. More than a million dollars, actually, to pull it off. But that figure likely pales compared to the windfall David hopes to bring in.

Helen’s not so sure. “It’s just a lot of money,” she tells her husband. “I feel like we’re putting our lives on the line.”

She continues: “And it’s not just the finances. The kids miss you. I miss you.”

“It’s a two-week tour,” David says as he loads up the contract on the fax machine. Two weeks that, David hopes, will change everything for the Smallbones.

And so they do.

When a recession decimates concert attendance, David’s on the hook for a half-million-dollar shortfall.

“Helen, I’m sorry. No one anticipated this economy. We’re going to lose everything.”

David feels he has no choice but to uproot his family and move to the epicenter of the Christian music industry: Nashville.

Nothing—not one single thing—goes as planned. But in the end, the Smallbone family bands together to trust God, to love one another and to cling to hope that maybe, just maybe, there’s an adventure unfolding that’s bigger than they could have dreamed.

Positive Elements

Just about any way you want to slice it, Unsung Hero is about family. It’s the story of a marriage tested by a husband’s best efforts that fail. It’s the story of two parents’ connections with their children. It’s the story of those two people’s relationships with their parents. (David’s father, especially, has a tender, encouraging relationship with his son that’s expressed throughout the film.)

As the story opens, we see that David Smallbone is a gifted man who swings for the fences … and fails.

With each new setback, David retreats just a bit more into sullenness, self-pity and, eventually, crippling depression. And at every turn, Helen steps forward, leaning into her role as wife and mother, steadfastly and ferociously refusing to give up on her husband or on God.

One of the core elements of the story involves the Smallbones’ oldest child, 16-year-old Rebecca, and her budding singing aspirations. She’s clearly got a beautiful voice. In fact, some of the family’s new acquaintances in Nashville, Ned and Kay Albright, encourage David to seek a recording deal for her. (Ned is a successful songwriter and knows talent when he hears it.)

David knows how brutal the industry can be. He wants to protect Rebecca from being objectified or used by companies that really don’t have her best interests at heart. Helen, however, believes deeply in her daughter’s ability, aspiration and sense of calling to encourage others through song. Much of the plot subsequently involves David and Helen working through tremendous conflict and disappointment as they each strive to do right by Rebecca.

The Albrights, for their part, are practically angelic in their generosity toward the Smallbone family. They work hard to meet their needs, to the point that David himself begins to feel shame that he’s not providing for his family as he ought to. That sense of shame and failure—and Helen’s faithfulness to her husband in the middle of it—is another big part of the story. Young Rebecca is eager to learn and grow as a singer, even when her relationship with her struggling dad hits a rocky patch.

Overall, the film is chockful of moments where this large family bumps into big issues that they must work through together, sometimes in very painful ways. But together, they persevere.

A message from Luke Smallbone (who now performs with his brother, Joel, in the Christian band For King & Country) at the beginning of the film tells viewers, “At the end of the day, I think we have a great belief in the family, and I think there’s a lot of power that’s found there.” Accordingly, at the end of the film, we see a very family-focused quote from Mother Teresa: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

Spiritual Elements

The Smallbone family trusts God together throughout this film.

I won’t spoil it completely here, but there’s one particularly touching way that Helen comes up with to help the kids identify needs and pray for them. We watch as they all learn to do that, and we see how God answers their prayers in incredibly specific ways. Helen characterizes these answers to prayer as miracles, even though David (in a deepening fog of discouragement) struggles to see them as such at times.

One of David’s primary spiritual struggles is pride. He has been successful, and he takes providing for his family very seriously. But as failures mount and difficult circumstances persist, that inherent self-dependence gets whittled away painfully.

We repeatedly hear Rebecca (and some of her brothers) singing the first song she writes, “You Make Everything Beautiful.” The chorus tells us: “You make everything, everything beautiful/You make everything, everything new/You make everything, everything beautiful/In its time, in Your time/It’s beautiful.”

Sexual Content

Helen and David kiss perhaps four or five times throughout the film. They’re shown in bed together several times as well, sometimes talking, sometimes just sitting or lying next to each other, but never connecting in a physically intimate manner.

Early on, one of David’s concert-promotion associates flirts creepily with Helen when he meets her for the first time, kissing her hand.

Violent Content

In a moment of anger and frustration, Helen slaps David across the face. In another similarly emotional moment of shattered hopes, David beats on a phone/fax machine, then throws it to the floor in a rage.

[ Spoiler Warning ] We hear that one important-but-ancillary character has died.

Crude or Profane Language

There’s no profanity in the film. But as the Smallbones are about to leave for the U.S., James (David’s father) jokes with a wink, “Go give them all the Hel [short for Helen] they can handle.” He calls her “Hel” at least one other time as well. The film also features the band Stryper performing its hit song “To Hell With the Devil,” a lyric that’s repeated several times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other negative elements.

David has a well-intentioned desire to protect Rebecca from the hard realities of the Christian music industry. But in one frustration-filled conversation with Helen and Rebecca, he unloads that perspective harshly and with a raised voice. It’s offensive enough to enough that Helen slaps him across the face and tells him to leave. It’s a tense moment that’s clearly hurtful to Rebecca.

David’s perspective on the Christian music industry isn’t a flattering one. He tells Rebecca (with a painful lack of sensitivity for his teen girl’s feelings), “She needs to hear what I wish to God someone had told me. People in this industry, they’re not your friends. They don’t care about you or what happens to you. They only care about what you can do for them.” We see that observation play out in multiple ways throughout the story.

U.S. Customs agents in Los Angeles don’t come off looking very good either, as their harsh treatment of the Smallbone family is wince-inducing.

We see Helen vomiting in an airplane toilet—morning sickness—as the family flies to America.

Unsung Hero tells a quietly remarkably story. Here’s what I mean.

In some ways, the saga of this Australian family’s sojourn in the United States, strangers in a strange land, is an archetypal Christian movie, with a pure Hollywood ending to boot: The underdogs win, persevering through a seemingly unending series of unfortunate, Job-like events that might’ve capsized the faith of other families. In the end, Rebecca St. James launches her triumphant career. Redemption, hope and beauty win the day, the lyrics of Rebecca’s oft-sung first song still echoing in our hearts as she steps onto the stage of the Creation ’93 music festival: “You make everything, everything, everything beautiful.”

And so He does.

But Unsung Hero is no airbrushed hagiography of the Smallbone family. Their path to beauty has been fraught with jagged, startling, even ugly brokenness. The story stares straight into the emotional abyss that David Smallbone plunges into when his best efforts implode cataclysmically. And it’s a black hole—one that anyone who has ever wrestled with depression or a sense of irredeemable failure will likely relate to.

“What kind of man am I?” David whispers in despair after many days—perhaps weeks—of depressive paralysis and inability even to get out of bed. “What kind of husband or father? Or son?” Eventually, like a kind of prodigal son, he’s prodded awake and comes to his senses.

The one holding the prod is, of course, his longsuffering wife, Helen.

“Our kids have come all this way,” she pleads. “They gave up everything, and they’re still happy. Because they believe in us. And they believe in you. They just believe. It’s time for you to believe, too. Please.”

But Unsung Hero poignantly depicts Helen’s own moments of despair, too. We see her scream in desperation into a pillow, where no one but God can hear. We see the stark terror on her face when she’s interrogated by a cruel U.S. customs officer who acts like a Cold War Russian lackey at an Iron Curtain checkpoint. Over and over and over again, she chooses hope and courage for the sake of her seven children, often when her well-meaning but despair-deflated husband simply cannot do so.

As the family hovers over the precipice of disaster yet again in one scene, Helen rounds up the children and drives to a park with a playground pirate ship. She leads the imaginary charge against the pretend—and yet, not so pretend—buccaneers the family metaphorically faces.

“Before we attack,” she says, “there’s one thing left to do.”

“What is it?” one of the children asks expectantly.

“We burn the ships—all of them.”

“Even ours?” a small voice says, perhaps intuiting that there’s something more than a playground game of imagination at stake. “How do we get back?”

“We don’t,” Helen replies bluntly. “It’s going to be dangerous. And scary. And it’s going to be hard. So hard that you want to go back. But if you know that you can go back, you will. And giving up, giving in, it’s not an option. We’ve got to fight our way forward! We have to win.”

And so, on the back of mom’s unrelenting courage in the face of so much peril, they do.

The unsung hero here is, of course, Helen Smallbone. The movie is a tribute to her faith and courage, the glue—the atomic connectivity—that binds the Smallbone family together. It’s no wonder that when Helen asks Rebecca what her dreams are, the teen replies, “My dream is to be like you. It always has been. You’re my hero, Mom.”

Helen’s heroism, in big ways and small, is the evident throughout the story. David’s own heroism emerges late in the story, as his wife’s love and persistence snap him out of his toxic, self-focused stew of shame, anger, despair and self-pity. “I’ve acted like a fool,” he tells his family. “Can you forgive me?”

Unsung Hero isn’t gritty in the sense that its content pushes the boundaries. It doesn’t. But it is gritty in the unvarnished way it depicts a proud-but-broken man’s failure and his struggle to emerge with his faith and relationships intact on the other side. David’s not particularly likeable for much of this film, but as a sometimes-struggling dad myself, I found that warts-and-all characterization remarkably refreshing.

Unsung Hero ultimately reminds us of a foundational spiritual principle that’s so easy to lose track of: We need each other to walk with and trust God. We can’t go it alone—even if we’re tempted by good intentions and stubborn personality to try. And nowhere is that truth more important or evident than in our families.

To hear more about the story behind this movie, be sure to check out Adam Holz’s interviews with Rebecca St. James as well as Joel and Luke Smallbone on The Plugged In Show podcast . 

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

Latest Reviews

Challengers

Boy Kills World

Spy x Family Code: White

Villains Inc.

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

Scott Mann ’s “Fall” belongs to the trapped horror subgenre of films like “ The Shallows ” and “ Open Water ,” but it takes a dynamic that usually unfolds in the middle of deep water to thousands of feet in the air. Mann and co-writer Jonathan Frank have a clever concept that results in a film that should be avoided by anyone with even the mildest vertigo—I wouldn’t say I’m particularly afraid of heights but there are some scenes that made my stomach turn a bit. You’ve been warned. Sadly, the concept only takes “Fall” so high, and the execution, including some ineffective acting, editing, and other technical choices, makes this a misfire. It doesn’t exactly crash to Earth as much as drift off into the forgettable air of film history.

Becky ( Grace Caroline Currey ), husband Dan ( Mason Gooding ), and Becky’s BFF Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) are climbing a sheer mountain face in the opening scene when tragedy strikes and Dan plummets to the ground below. A year later, Becky is drowning her grief in a bottle, avoiding Hunter and her worried father James ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan , taking a part so small that it's like a favor to a friend). One day, Insta-star Hunter comes to Becky with a proposal: They’re going to climb an abandoned 2,000-foot TV tower that’s basically in the middle of nowhere, from which they will find closure and spread Dan’s ashes. Of course, it goes very wrong, leaving Becky and Hunter stranded on top of the tower with no way down and no way to communicate with anyone who might be able to save them.

Filmed in the Mojave Desert, the vast majority of “Fall” takes place on the tower, and the film admittedly gets some nice adrenaline from the initial climb and disastrous ladder collapse that follows. In fact, there’s a better version of the film that starts right with the climb, allowing the characters’ trauma to arise through their conversations on the way up instead of with a horrendous set-up act that’s filled with clichés and poor filmmaking (it also would have helped reduce the runtime on a 107-minute movie that should be closer to 87). When Becky and Hunter begin their actual ascent, Mann has his firmest grip on the movie, building tension in a way that can be pretty effective.

And then “Fall” stalls again. Hunter is given a secret that's more like melodrama than realism, vultures and drones get involved, and the movie gets increasingly silly through its final act. The best “trapped” films usually rely on realism, making viewers feel like they’re actually trapped in the rocky waves of a film like “Open Water,” and “Fall” crumbles under that analysis. Currey and Gardner give committed performances in physical terms—it looks like an exhausting production—but they’re saddled with juvenile dialogue that doesn’t capture the terror people would really feel in this situation. “Fall” only works if we believe the predicament in which Becky and Hunter are trapped, but the thin dialogue, showy cinematography, and overzealous edits betray the potential of this nightmare.

Ultimately, “Fall” has been designed to be seen on as a big a screen as possible, which is why Lionsgate is going wide with it this weekend instead of shuffling it off to VOD. Much has been written about getting ticket buyers back into theaters with event movies that demand the theatrical experience. It's too bad this effort to help keep the theater industry aloft will only let viewers down.

Now playing in theaters.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Lousy Carter

Clint worthington.

Kim's Video

Carol Doda Topless at the Condor

Marya e. gates.

Irena's Vow

Christy lemire.

The Sympathizer

Nandini balial, film credits.

Fall (2022)

Rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language.

107 minutes

Virginia Gardner as Hunter

Grace Caroline Currey as Becky

• Jonathan Frank

Cinematographer

• Robert Hall

Latest blog posts

25 Years Later, Alexander Payne’s Election Remains as Relevant as Ever

Sharp Writing, Excellent Cast Keep Spy Thriller The Veil Engaging

Take Another Trip to the End of the World with Sony’s Stellar Blade

He's Got Something Going On: David Proval on Mean Streets, and Acting for Martin Scorsese

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• November 8, 2019
• Ed Skrein as Dick Best; Mandy Moore as Ann Best; Patrick Wilson as Edwin Layton; Rachael Perrell Fosket as Dagne Layton; Woody Harrelson as Chester W. Nimitz; Luke Evans as Wade McClusky; Luke Kleintank as Clarence Dickinson; Dennis Quaid as William “Bull” Halsey; Aaron Eckhart as Jimmy Doolittle; Keean Johnson as James Murray; Nick Jonas as Bruno Gaido; Etsushi Toyokawa as Isoroku Yamamoto; Tadanobu Asano as Tamon Yamaguchi; Darren Criss as Eugene Lindsey; Jun Kunimura as Chuichi Nagumo

Home Release Date

• February 18, 2020
• Roland Emmerich

Distributor

Movie review.

“Don’t push us into a corner,” Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto told Commander Edwin T. Layton, assistant naval attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, back in 1937. “You must give those of us who are more reasonable a chance to carry the day.”

Alas, Yamamoto’s reasoned, moderate plea for restraint goes unheeded by leaders in his own country. Dialogue and diplomacy vanish like ash in the wind amid increasing regional aggression. And Japan’s fearsome military machine begins its brutal march across Asia and the Pacific.

Four years later, that aggression erupts unexpectedly at Pearl Harbor. As American sailors set up chairs for a chapel service on the deck of the U.S.S Arizona one sleepy December morning, Japanese Zeroes roar overheard, strafing, bombing and torpedoing the pride of the U.S. Pacific fleet. The surprise attack—one that Layton, now chief intelligence officer at Pearl had tragically warned could be coming—lays waste to the fleet anchored there. The preemptive strike exacts a terrible toll: nearly 2,500 Americans dead. Five battleships sunk. Thirteen more destroyed or damaged.

It seems a crippling blow.

But Yamamoto, now in command of the Japanese Combined Fleet, frets and fumes. Despite the apparent success of the ambush, Admiral Chuichi Nagumo failed in one key respect: finding and destroying American aircraft carriers at sea as he’d been ordered to do. America’s might is diminished, yes. But not its capacity to take the fight to the Japanese with its aircraft carriers. “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve,” he says.

Yamamoto’s words will prove prophetic.

Layton, now reporting to newly installed Pacific commander Chester Nimitz, believes the Japanese are marshalling their forces for a knockout blow, one that will leave the Pacific undefended and the West coast of the United States vulnerable to invasion.

But where ?

A crack team of American codebreakers has intercepted enough evidence to convince Layton that the blow will fall at Midway. Layton even thinks he can identity the date and time of that attack. Washington thinks otherwise. But Nimitz trusts his intelligence man and his unorthodox team of codebreakers.

And so Nimitz and Layton, along with Admiral Bill Halsey and other top Navy brass, quietly, methodically and desperately set a trap for the Japanese Navy at that otherwise insignificant sandy dot in the middle of the Pacific.

But can they spring it? Can they achieve the victory that will turn the tide?

Success will depend on surprise. Skill. Luck.

Oh, and aircraft carriers.

But most all, success at Midway will depend upon the bravery of a small group of seasoned-but-battered pilots whose determination to repay the infamy of Pearl Harbor does indeed fill them with Yamamotos’s much-feared “terrible resolve.”

Positive Elements

The Battle of Midway started on June 4, 1942 and lasted three days. It was indeed the decisive turning point in the contest for the Pacific. The Americans’ eventual victory hangs by the thinnest of threads, and it is ultimately delivered by a combination of resolve, ingenuity, intuition and most—most of all—raw courage.

Much of the story revolves around the efforts of two men: Edwin Layton’s attempts to decipher Yamamoto’s intent (and convince leaders of that intel); and the daring, death-defying courage of a fighter-bomber pilot named Dick Best (and the men who fly with him).

Layton has cultivated a team of codebreakers whose work he trusts completely. But the task of codebreaking, as we see here, is as much art as science, as they can only decipher about 25% of the coded Japanese communication traffic that they intercept. Layton and his team piece together their best guess at Yamamoto’s intent. But it is a guess, and Washington’s intel officers (working with the same information) interpret the sketchy information differently.

Layton fights fiercely for his interpretation of the data. He’s haunted by the idea that he was to blame for Pearl Harbor, because he didn’t follow his hunch (based, again, on intelligence data) that the attack was coming. He’s determined not to repeat that mistake, and Nimitz backs his man fully, despite Washington’s pressure to do otherwise.

Dick Best’s task, meanwhile, is both simpler and oh so much harder: dropping bombs on Japanese ships. Best helps convince the Navy that new torpedoes (dropped from fighters) aren’t working effectively. That forces a return to much riskier bombing tactics, in which fighter-bombers fly nearly straight down on their aircraft carrier targets—against a storm of defending anti-aircraft fire—to release their explosive payload at the last possible moment. It’s a job that claims the lives of many pilots and their rear-seat gunners. But Best and his crew are up to the task.

Best works to convince one fear-filled pilot to keep flying. [ Spoiler Warning ] When that pilot dies in a botched carrier take-off, Best grapples with guilt about having encouraged the man to climb back into the cockpit.

Another subplot involves pilot Jimmy Doolittle’s famous bombing raid on Tokyo. The men flying it know they can’t carry enough fuel to get back to the carriers, and they debate even whether they’ll be able to make it to unoccupied Chinese territory before they run out of fuel.

The frontline pilots’ bravery here is augmented by the at times unorthodox thinking of the leaders plotting the Americans’ strategy. They’re willing to take bold risks to succeed, whereas the Japanese leaders are shown to be rigid and inflexible in terms of listening to junior officers’ innovative ideas—ideas that would have circumvented the American trap at Midway. And though generals aren’t necessarily known for their humilty, both Nimitz and Halsey have that quality and are willing to listen and not simply default to conventional wisdom.

When the aircraft carrier Yorktown is badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea, Nimitz is told that it will take at least two weeks to make it seaworthy again in drydock at Pearl. Nimitz replies that they have 72 hours to make it happen … and they do.

Throughout the film, Americans exercise bravery and courage in the face of withering enemy fire. One captured American bravely refuses to divulge any information to his Japanese captors. We also get small glimpses into the lives of Navy wives stationed at Pearl Harbor as they stoically shoulder the burden of the risks their husbands are taking. Both Dick Best’s wife, Ann, and Edwin Layton’s wife, Dagne, do everything they can to encourage and support their husbands.

Spiritual Elements

A sailor who says he doesn’t believe in God complains about having to set up chairs on the deck of the U.S.S. Arizona for a chapel service.

We hear two earnest exclamations of “Thank God!” and another of “God bless them.” One pilot is said to be the godfather of another’s daughter. The Japanese Emperor is referred to as a “heavenly sovereign.”

Reflecting on the uncertainty of life and death, one sailor tells another, “You never know what’s going to get you, so why worry about it.”

Sexual Content

We see Ann Best and Dagne Layton in nightgowns. Dick and Ann cuddle in bed together, but things never proceed further than that onscreen. Married couples are shown kissing a couple of times.

We hear a sarcastic reference to a pilot who has a reputation for “chasing tail.”

Violent Content

Midway is a war movie. As such, we see many intense images involving naval combat and the casualties it claims.

Vulnerable sailors are shot by Japanese fighters at Pearl Harbor. Explosions and fire rend ships and kill many men. (We see several completely charred corpses in a Naval infirmary.) Multiple men experience terrible burns. Some pilots are shot and killed in their planes. Scores more are shot out of the sky, their planes incinerated by artillery or strafed by bullets. Wounded planes that don’t explode outright often plunge into the ocean more or less intact. (One crew manages to escape in a life raft.) After the attack on Pearl Harbor, an orderly says that they have been carrying in body parts in pillowcases.

Multiple ships get bombed, torpedoed and filled with bullet holes, exploding spectacularly. One Japanese admiral chooses to go down with his mortally wounded carrier, and a junior officer insists on going with him.

Japanese pilots also shoot and bomb villages in occupied mainland China. In retribution for Jimmy Doolittle’s raid, we’re told that the Japanese killed some 250,000 Chinese in the region where Doolittle and his men bailed out. We see piles of rotting Chinese corpses in a village hut.

The Japanese also execute a captured American pilot brutally by pushing him into the ocean, then dropping an anchor in after him that’s tied to his leg, dragging him to a watery grave.

One pilot’s oxygen container is contaminated with a chemical that destroys his lungs and causes him to cough up blood.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word, five s-words. God’s name is paired with “d–n” half a dozen times. Jesus’ name is misused twice. We hear about 15 uses of “h—” and 10 or so of “d–n.” Sailors angrily spit the vulgarity “b–tard” five or six times. We hear one to three uses each of “a–,” “a–hole” and “son of a b–ch.” An American calls a Japanese a “little bugger.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Sailors smoke continually throughout the film. Several scenes involve sailors and wives drinking alcoholic beverages at Pearl Harbor’s officers club, on beaches and in other social settings. One sailor drinks from a flask.

At a memorial service for a fallen comrade, U.S. sailors fondly recall beer-drinking exploits in Canada during Prohibition. (Sailors raise shots in his memory.)

An admiral is shown taking prescription medication.

Other Negative Elements

For reasons that are never clearly spelled out, one U.S. fighter pilot tells the wife of another how reckless her husband is in battle. It’s unclear whether he’s interested in the man’s wife, but for some reason he wants to undermine their relationship.

American film director John Ford arrives at Midway to shoot fake battle scenes immediately before the real battle commences. He’s urged to take cover, but he instructs his cameramen to capture the battle from a very exposed promontory.

“This is our job. And we’re the guys who have to hold the fort until the cavalry arrives.”

That’s the pep talk Dick Best gives a petrified pilot before the final battle commences at Midway. And it’s also a terrific summary of the no-nonsense bravery exhibited by the sailors and pilots whose stories are woven together heroically here. These men had a job to do. And they did it, bravely, willingly. It was a job that cost 307 of them their lives.

But their sacrifice, movingly depicted by director Roland Emmerich ( Independence Day ), turned the tide in the Pacific. It was the beginning of the end for the Japanese Navy. It represented the awakened giant of Yamamoto’s nightmares.

Midway is a deeply inspiring movie. It’s also a war movie, though, with all of the content that comes with it. Many men die. And we’re reminded of where the phrase “swears like a sailor” came from, because there’s plenty of language here, too.

Some viewers may not want to endure the verbal assault that goes along with the visual one here. But those who do choose to sit through this dramatization of the greatest naval battle in U.S. history will be profoundly reminded of the cost to secure the liberties that Americans—and many other people around the world—cherish.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

Latest Reviews

Arthur the King

Love Lies Bleeding

Forty-Seven Days With Jesus

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Movie Review: Fall

Watching someone dangle 2,000 feet from a tower feels exciting. But this movie can make you wince for less exciting reasons.

Read the Plugged In review:

https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/fall-2022/

If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback: https://focusonthefamily.com/podcastsurvey/

In 1 playlist(s)

Plugged In Entertainment Reviews

1,225 clip(s)

Social links

Follow podcast, recent clips.

TV Review: Bluey

SiYP- 40 Percent of Teens Want to Cut Back on Their Screen Time

Pop Culture Remix: Nothing Else But Miracles

Plugged In Entertainment Reviews

Adam holz, paul asay and johnathan mckee, tv review: bluey.

Other than an occasional eyeroll or some mild toilet humor, Bluey is light and clean.

Read the Plugged In Review

If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback .

Featured Offer

About Plugged In Entertainment Reviews

Plugged In is a Focus on the Family publication designed to shine a light on the world of popular entertainment while giving families the essential tools they need to understand, navigate and impact the culture in which they live. Through our reviews, articles and discussions, we hope to spark intellectual thought, spiritual growth and a desire to follow the command of Colossians 2:8: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

About Adam Holz, Paul Asay and Johnathan McKee

Adam Holz  After serving as an associate editor at NavPress' Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In's reviews along with hosting The Plugged In Show and the Plugged In Entertainment Review radio feature.   Paul Asay has been part of the  Plugged In  staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including  Time,   The Washington Post  and  Christianity Today . The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter  @AsayPaul . Jonathan McKee  is the author of over twenty books. He has over 20 years youth ministry experience and  speaks  to parents and leaders worldwide, He can be heard each week on the Plugged In Entertainment Review radio feature and The Plugged In Show. You can follow Jonathan on  his blog , getting a regular dose of youth culture and parenting help. Jonathan, his wife Lori, and their three kids live in California.

Contact Plugged In Entertainment Reviews with Adam Holz, Paul Asay and Johnathan McKee

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Challengers

Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his f... Read all Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

• Luca Guadagnino
• Justin Kuritzkes
• Josh O'Connor
• 35 User reviews
• 93 Critic reviews
• 85 Metascore
• 1 nomination

• Tashi Donaldson

• Art Donaldson

• Patrick Zweig
• Umpire (New Rochelle Final)

• Art's Physiotherapist

• Art's Security Guard
• (as a different name)
• Tashi's Mother
• Line Judge (New Rochelle Final)
• TV Sports Commentator (Atlanta 2019)

• Leo Du Marier

• Woman With Headset (Atlanta 2019)

• Motel Front Desk Clerk
• Motel Husband

• New Rochelle Parking Lot Guard
• USTA Official …
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia To prepare for her role, Zendaya spent three months with pro tennis player-turned-coach, Brad Gilbert .

Tashi Donaldson : I'm taking such good care of my little white boys.

• Connections Referenced in OWV Updates: The Seventh OWV Awards - Last Update of 2022 (2022)

User reviews 35

• ethanbresnett
• Apr 21, 2024
• When will Challengers be released? Powered by Alexa
• April 26, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Những Kẻ Thách Đấu
• Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• Pascal Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 11 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

• Back to Focus on the Family Podcast Network

Movie Review: Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein is a crawl-from-the-grave ‘80s-esque send-up with a comedic twist and a whole lot of foul content worms.

Read the Plugged In Review

If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback .

Recent Episodes

• TV Review: Bluey
• SiYP- 40 Percent of Teens Want to Cut Back on Their Screen Time
• Pop Culture Remix: Nothing Else But Miracles
• Movie Review: Ordinary Angels
• Movie Review: Irena’s Vow
• TV Review: 3 Body Problem
• The Screen in Your Pocket: Social Media is Being Sued
• Pop Culture Remix: The Spiffing Brit
• Movie Review: Night Swim