THE AERONAUTS
An exhilarating balloon adventure about courage, sacrifice, and saving lives.
Should You Watch It?
This is a wonderful adventure movie with the sweep of a Golden Age of Hollywood thriller. Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne do a great job portraying two intrepid balloon explorers whose dangerous journey combines scientific ambition, courage, and a desire to save lives.
The film’s jeopardy is intense. The balloon spins in a storm, the explorers face dangerous cold and altitude, and Amelia must attempt an extraordinarily risky rescue. Younger children may find these scenes too frightening, while the film’s very brief, light foul language is unlikely to trouble most older viewers.
The answer is simple: take the trip if your family can handle intense peril, especially with middle schoolers and older children.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn 1862, Amelia Wren agrees to take pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher up in a hot air balloon. James wants to break the 23,000-foot altitude record and gather weather measurements that may help save lives.
Their ascent begins before a cheering crowd, but dangerous weather soon threatens the balloon. As James urges Amelia to climb higher, the two explorers must depend on each other to survive a journey into the unknown.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is an excellent adventure film. THE AERONAUTS is amazing, extremely intense, thrilling, and satisfying, with the feel of the great adventure movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne give strong performances as the two intrepid balloon explorers. Inspired by several true stories about early balloonists, the movie turns their journey into exciting, visually dramatic entertainment.
The Worldview
THE AERONAUTS presents a light humanist worldview through James, a humanist scientist who wants to advance weather science and technology so people can be saved during severe storms. That perspective is softened by strong moral elements: sacrifice, family, looking out for one another, and concern for gaining knowledge that can protect human life.
The film also includes light Christian, redemptive elements. Amelia’s aunt and sister pray for her safety when no one hears from the explorers for two days. The story’s emphasis on self-sacrifice and caring for others aligns with biblical moral themes, even though James’s scientific outlook is primarily human-centered.
The film’s central longing is for people to risk themselves for the lives of others. Jesus said, “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.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Light humanist worldview where the hero is a humanist scientist, mitigated by some strong moral elements and some light Christian, redemptive elements promoting sacrifice, family, looking out for one another, concern for gaining knowledge to save people’s lives during stormy weather, and a woman’s mother and sister decide to pray for the woman’s safety
Foul Language
One “d” obscenity and one light God exclamatory profanity
Violence
Some intense adventure action in a hot air balloon includes a dog is tossed out of an ascending hot air balloon, but he has a vest parachute on his little body that opens, so he gently drifts to the ground, balloon gets spun around violently by a storm, woman gets thrown out of a hot air balloon basket and must climb back in using a rope, man helps her climb back into the basket, intense jeopardy when woman must climb the outside of a frosted balloon at a dangerous altitude and passes out after she reaches the top and performs a function, man suffers high-altitude sickness and his nose bleeds before he passes out, people suffer frostbite on their hands and faces, a couple flashbacks of a man jumping to his death from a balloon to save his wife’s life when their balloon develops a rip (wife is haunted by her husband’s death and suffers PTSD), another lengthy scene of dangling precariously from a rope attached to the hot air balloon, and balloon finally crashes to the ground, but have the two people survived?
Sex
No sex, but a young widow and a young man seem to fall in love
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Brief alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Nothing else objectionable.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Amelia’s husband sacrifices his life to save her. What does costly love look like in everyday life, and how is it different from seeking praise?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4James wants to use scientific knowledge to save people during severe storms. How can knowledge become an act of loving our neighbors?
Matthew 22:39 · Galatians 6:10Amelia’s aunt and sister pray when they fear the worst. What do you do while waiting for news or facing danger?
Philippians 4:6–7 · Psalm 56:3The explorers must depend on each other when their plans go wrong. Why does God give people one another instead of asking us to live independently?
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 · Romans 12:4–5The Final Word
THE AERONAUTS is a thrilling, beautifully performed adventure with strong themes of sacrifice, family, and caring for human life. Its intense jeopardy calls for parental discernment, but older children and adults can find much to enjoy. WORTH THE TRIP — OLDER CHILDREN AND UP.
