| 10+Cautions: some intensity and scenes of peril, brief allusions to pornography, and mild ethical confusion
Fireproof is a non-sappy Christian-made romance (gasp!) with life-or-death action scenes (wow!) and a presentation of the gospel that doesn’t feel contrived (amazing!). Being a pioneer movie in that category, Fireproof does have the occasional wooden or over the top side character, but despite having been surpassed in artistic quality, Fireproof’s story of a crumbling marriage, and a father’s unexpected dare to press on, is just as meaningful, just as Christ-honoring, and just as entertaining as ever.
2008 | Alex Kendrick | 122 min Watch Trailer
Some Intensity and Scenes of Peril
A car wreck (which takes place off screen) leaves two teenage girls in a vehicle stuck on the tracks of an oncoming train. This is a fairly intense scene, with one girl unconscious and the other girl screaming hysterically as the train approaches. Some blood is visible on the girls’ faces.
A scene involves a house fire with an unconscious child still in the building.
Main characters, husband Caleb and wife Catherine, have a very intense fight, which ends in him screaming at her, and her sobbing. This scene may be overly intense for sensitive types or younger children.
A brief reference is made to firefighters having to do things like pull a child’s body from a lake.
Spoiler Warning - The child in the house fire scene survives. The two girls on the train tracks survive, and none of the firemen is injured.
Brief Allusions to Pornography
It is implied that Caleb struggles with internet pornography. His final battle with this addiction begins with an internet pop-up advertisement featuring a photo of a woman’s face (nothing more) and the words “Wanne see?” His sin is clearly negatively portrayed, and he is shown repenting and putting an end to it.
Mild Ethical Confusion
Catherine is shown toying around with an extra-marital romantic relationship (nothing is seen or even implied beyond her accepting flattery and gifts from the man). While this situation is resolved by the end of the movie, and is shown to be unwise and to have very negative effects, the filmmakers (probably unintentionally) fail to clearly state that the relationship was itself sinful.
Note:
A side character’s absurd self-centeredness is played for laughs.
An on-screen married couple kisses, but does so in silhouette to hide the fact that an off-screen married couple was used in that shot.
Caleb and Catherine both work full-time outside the home, keep their paychecks separate, and pay separate bills with them. This is not necessarily portrayed as working out very well.
