UNCHARTED

Here's the short version: this is a rollicking, well-made adventure with a genuinely strong worldview buried inside a PG-13 shell that earns every bit of its caution rating. Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg make a fun team, the story moves, and by the end the film has quietly argued that human life matters more than gold — a pro-life conviction that changes one character for the better. There's even a scene where a villain's father chooses faith in God over loyalty to his ruthless son, complete with the Sign of the Cross.

But get past the good and you'll find real cost: roughly 38 exclamatory obscenities, a couple of strong exclamatory profanities using Christ's name, and a plot that runs on theft from start to finish. Our heroes are likable, but they're thieves stealing from other thieves — not paragons of virtue.

If you're an adult who can watch stylized action and hear rough language without it costing you anything, this is a satisfying watch. If you're choosing for kids, skip it — the language alone rules it out.

Nate Drake is a young New York bartender with light fingers and a lifelong obsession: the lost gold that explorer Ferdinand Magellan's men supposedly hid five centuries ago, a treasure his long-vanished older brother chased for years. When seasoned adventurer Victor "Sully" Sullivan discovers Nate's talent for theft — and his connection to that missing brother — he recruits him for one job: steal a golden cross from a ruthless collector's auction. It's the key to a $5 billion mystery, and it won't be easy to get.

Four stars means this one delivers on its promise as pure entertainment, and the source material behind it plainly helped. The story moves with real energy, the stakes escalate cleanly from a bar in New York to sailing ships and cargo planes, and Holland and Wahlberg are described as having genuine chemistry — "fun performances," "a great team." It's a big-budget adventure built to thrill an audience looking for a good time at the theater, and by most accounts it does exactly that.

What's notable here isn't just that the film avoids being empty spectacle — it's that it argues for something true. Nate's respect for human life becomes a moral center that rubs off on Sully, turning a treasure hunt into something with a redemptive arc. The film goes further still: one of its most striking moments has a villain's own father renouncing his son's ruthlessness by declaring his faith and trust in God, then making the Sign of the Cross. For a major studio action film, that's a strikingly direct Christian confession.

The film doesn't pretend its heroes are clean, though, and neither should you. Nate and Sully's whole plan depends on stealing a golden artifact, and the story never fully wrestles with that. It's a movie that prizes life over gold while still building its plot on theft — a real tension, not a resolved one.

That tension is worth naming for what it is: a story that gets the big thing right (people matter more than treasure) while being casual about a smaller one (taking what isn't yours). Scripture draws a straighter line: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19–20). The gold in this story is fool's gold next to that.

Uncharted earns its thrills honestly — a fun, well-cast adventure with a pro-life heart and a startlingly direct moment of faith at its center. It also earns its caution rating with heavy language and a plot that runs on theft. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip — adults only. Looking for something for the whole family instead? Start with our latest family-friendly picks.