Race to Witch Mountain
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The Story
Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sarah (AnnaSophia Robb) are two alien teenagers who crash land their spaceship on earth and team up with a Vegas cabdriver (Duane “The Rock” Johnson) to help them find their ship so they can get back home and save their people.
Jack Bruno, the driver, must protect the kids from both an alien assassin and men in black from the Department of Defense led by Henry Burke (Ciaran Hinds). They eventually team up with astrophysicist Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) to rescue the ship from a government facility located inside Witch Mountain.
Content Issues
Aside from some action violence and a few potentially scary moments for little kids, “Witch Mountain” mostly skips objectionable content.
NOTE: “Race” is free of any witches or other overt occult content. It is based on Disney’s 1975 “Escape to Witch Mountain,” which allowed viewers to believe the two kids might in fact be witches until revealing at the end of the film that they were aliens with special powers.
Worldview Talking Points
The worldview issues on display in witch mountain are mostly just tucked in and around all the action and chase sequences. One obvious point it makes is the unimaginative one that the U.S. government is always abusing its power when it comes to alien conspiracies. The script also takes a swipe or two at global warming and the Patriot Act.
It’s most overt messages have to do with what it means to be a good person. As we said in our review for students on PlanetWisdom.com:
“Sarah, especially, seems interested in helping Jack to stop defining himself by his criminal past, but by his current choices. When Jack feels inadequate to help, Seth quotes Earth’s Buddha: “You are what you think you are.” In other words, think of yourself as strong and capable and good and you will be able to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
The Bible teaches a very different message, asking us to understand that we are not good, no matter how we imagine ourselves. Our sinful choices make us weak, and we are hopeless to change ourselves. Instead, goodness and power is available through faith in Jesus. His goodness is placed on us when we trust in Him (His death and resurrection) for the forgiveness of our sin.
Sarah also explains that her abilities to read thoughts and move objects with her mind are available on earth; we just haven’t figured it out how to use our entire minds, yet. Dr. Alex declares her faith in the universe to bring things together, though she makes clear that it is science that does it (specifically “chaos theory”).
God’s Word also teaches that our minds must be renewed for our lives to be transformed. The goal, though, is to understand and live by God’s will, not to make ourselves more powerful. (See Romans 12:1-2.) Our hope is to trust Him more, because He is the one who causes all things to work together for good for His those He loves and has called. (Check out Romans 8:28.)”
Some of these questions might provoke a worthwhile conversation about the film if your student sees it:
- Did you like “Race to Witch Mountain”? Why are why not? Who were your favorite characters?
- Do you ever wish you had any of the powers Seth and Sarah had in the movie? If so, which powers would you like to have?
- What do you think about the quote from Buddha in the movie that “you are what you think you are”? Do you think that’s true?
- Do you think humans beings can just decide to be good? Are we basically good or basically not good? (See Romans 3:23 and Isaiah 64:6.)
- What does it take for a human being to be changed from sinful to good? (See above.)
- If we are “good” in Jesus, why do you think we still do bad things?
- In the movie, Sarah says that humans have not yet learned to use our entire minds. Do you think human beings have a problem with our minds? How has sin caused our minds to be broken?
- How can we renew our minds? What is a sign that our minds are working well? (See Romans 12:1-2.)
- Dr Alex in the movie believes that the universe scientifically makes things come together sometimes through something called “chaos theory.” What do you think of that idea?
- Do you think God can make things come together even though they are statistically unlikely? Why or why not?
- What do you think it means in Romans 8:28 when it says that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose? Can we trust Him to make unlikely things work out?
- What are your three favorite movies about aliens from other planets?
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