INTO THE STORM
An intense tornado thriller with strong redemptive themes and excessive language.
Should You Watch It?
Into the Storm is thoroughly entertaining disaster filmmaking. The story puts storm chasers, families, teenagers, and desperate rescuers in the path of a terrifying series of tornadoes. The effects team and musical score keep the tension high from the first storm through the finish.
The movie also offers a strong moral worldview. Two sons reconcile with their distant father. A greedy storm chaser is moved toward doing the right thing. People help one another, sacrifice for one another, find refuge in a Christian church, and appear to pray silently to God.
But the language is excessive and gratuitous. The tornado violence is intense, and younger sensitive viewers may find the movie too scary. Adults who can accept those concerns may find the film worth seeing; families with children or young teens should choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESOn one disastrous day in Oklahoma, a series of mega-tornadoes threatens entire communities.
Professional storm chasers pursue footage of the storms, while a female meteorologist struggles to survive and return to her five-year-old daughter 200 miles away. Elsewhere, a distant father searches for his missing teenage son and the girl with him after their high school is hit. As the storms intensify, rescuers and survivors face one dangerous situation after another.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this film succeeds fully at what it sets out to do: deliver outrageous, edge-of-your-seat mayhem. The actors give capable performances, but the director and effects team are the real stars. The musical scoring also strengthens the suspense.
The writing is not brilliant, and many of the characters are interchangeable. Still, the filmmakers keep the focus on the disaster, and the movie delivers that spectacle with force. The result is an extremely exciting, intense thriller with lots of jeopardy.
The Worldview
The film’s moral center is strongly pro-family. Two sons and their distant father are drawn toward reconciliation, while Pete’s greed is overcome by doing the right thing. The story also honors people helping others survive, self-sacrifice, and courage under pressure.
Its Christian elements are brief but strong. Characters find refuge in a Christian church, and two characters seem to pray silently to God. The film presents doing right as better than greed and places human rescue within a world where sacrifice and care for others matter.
That moral strength is significantly marred by the film’s crude language and sexual comments. The story includes immoral behavior, but some of it is rebuked or overcome rather than celebrated. Its vision of redemption is expressed through family bonds, self-sacrifice, and choosing what is right.
The film’s central picture is people risking themselves to save others. Scripture gives that kind of love its clearest measure: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong moral worldview overall with strong Christian, redemptive elements where people help other people survive an intense string of powerful tornadoes and the resultant destruction, there’s a pro-family message, characters find refuge in a Christian church at one point, two characters seem to be silently praying at one point, instances of self-sacrifice, and doing the right thing triumphs over greed, but significantly marred by overt immoral behavior, especially too much crude language; at least 42 obscenities (including one “f” word), three strong profanities and nine light profanities; intense storm violence from powerful tornadoes includes one dangerous situation after another as an onslaught of tornadoes touches down and ruins a high school graduation, decimates downtown areas and countless vehicles, and chases a team of storm-chasers down highways, back roads and all manner of terrain, plus an extended subplot in which two teenagers are trapped under rubble and are in danger of drowning from a water main breaking, and a man gets sucked into a tornado filled with fire and is clearly set aflame while being hurtled through the air; some brief crude content and comments such as two high school couples making out in a car are interrupted by a tornado, talk of “nailing some tail” in one line, teenagers makes rude remark about teacher’s breasts, but another teenager rebukes him, and high school athlete says he wants to “bang” a cheerleader; no nudity but brief female cleavage in at least one scene; brief alcohol use and one man appears to be getting drunk and says he’s just getting started; no smoking or drugs; and, light miscellaneous immorality includes greed but rebuked, and girl admits lying to parents about where she was going to be.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The movie shows people risking themselves to help others survive. What makes self-sacrifice different from simply seeking danger?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4Two sons suffer because of distance from their father. What can rebuild trust inside a family after people have grown apart?
Ephesians 4:31–32 · Colossians 3:12–14Pete’s greed is challenged by the need to do what is right. Where might personal ambition tempt us to overlook someone else’s need?
Philippians 2:3–4 · Luke 12:15The film includes a Christian church as a place of refuge and characters who seem to pray. Where do you turn for refuge when circumstances feel overwhelming?
Psalm 46:1–3 · Psalm 121:1–2The Final Word
Into the Storm delivers four-star disaster thrills and a strong pro-family, redemptive message. Its excessive language, intense violence, and crude sexual material make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults who can handle those concerns, the answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For everyone else, consider these.
