Adam Project, The

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Not suitable under 14; parental guidance to 15 (violence, language, sexual references, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Adam Project, The
  • a review of Adam Project, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 25 March 2022.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 14 Not suitable due to language, violence, sexual references and themes.
Children aged 14–15 Parental guidance recommended due to language, violence, sexual references and themes.
Children over the age of 15 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Adam Project, The
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Coarse language, blood and gore, mature science fiction themes, violence, scary scenes.
Length: 106 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In 2050, Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) goes back in time to find out what happened to his missing wife, Laura (Zoe Saldana), who suddenly disappeared a few years earlier. Whilst being shot at, he enters the wrong date and winds up crashlanding near his home where Young Adam (Walker Scobell), an angry, 12-year-old version of himself, is still trying to come to terms with his father’s death. Young Adam takes his rage out on his mother (Jennifer Garner), who, herself, is still very much grieving but he gets more than he bargained for when one night he goes to investigate some lights in the woods and encounters Big Adam. When Big Adam is tracked to his current location by Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), a co-worker of his late father, Laura reappears just in time to save his life. Together they work out that Maya was responsible for Laura’s disappearance; for much of the corruption and inhumanity of the future; and that she has been using the technology invented by Adams’ dad (Mark Ruffalo) for her own personal gain. With only one chance to set things right, both Adam’s decide to risk it all and go back in time to see their dad and destroy what he created, in order to save the world from a future it was not ready for.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Grief; Death of a parent or loved one; Time travel; Disrespect of parents; Corruption; Bullying; Murder.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Big Adam is shot at repeatedly while he tries to fly his spaceship into a wormhole. He has later shown to have been shot clean through the side of his abdomen.
  • A school bully tells Young Adam that he is going to kill him as he pushes him into a wall and punches him in the stomach.
  • Young Adam ties to hit Big Adam with a bat.
  • Young Adam is kicked and punched by the same bullies out of school. Big Adam slams one of the bullies into a wall, threatens to remove the bones from his body, sharpen them and use them to stab the other bully if they ever touch Young Adam again. One of the bullies pees his pants in terror before running away.
  • Reference is made to the car accident that Adam’s dad dies in.
  • A Black army of soldiers attacks Adam’s house looking for Big Adam: bombs explode, soldiers are electrocuted with swords. Big Adam uses a weapon which smashes all the soldiers back into the trees.
  • Soldiers are stabbed or beheaded and seem to electromagnetically disappear.
  • Laura shoots at the soldiers in an effort to save Big Adam.
  • Laura and the Adams are shot at while they flee the Black army. Two soldiers follow them through the woods and both are killed, one by smashing into a tree and one by blasting into the car door.
  • Laura shoots and kills numerous soldiers in an effort to help the Adams escape.
  • Laura explodes a car with a bomb.
  • Maya locks her aircraft weapons onto Laura and kills her instantly. She later tells Big Adam that she had her killed twice.
  • Planes follow the Adams, shooting at them incessantly, as they try to go back in time to set things right. They must use evasive manoeuvres to destroy one plane and only just manage to escape the clutches of the other.
  • Big Adam punches his dad in the face and his dad punches him back.
  • Big Adam fights a small army of the invisible black soldiers with help from Young Adam who uses tech to help fight them from the sky. They blast the soldiers away and explode a car which causes other cars to crash.
  • Big Adam is punched in the face and strangled.
  • Maya shoots to kill Adam and his dad but winds up killing herself instead.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There are numerous scenes that involve black clad soldiers whose faces are hidden by futuristic helmets. They are invisible and then menacingly materialise beside or behind other characters. These scenes can be very ominous and disturbing.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Young Adam hears a mysterious noise and goes out into the woods, alone, at night to investigate. The woods are dark and creepy and Adam gets scared as he can hear something out there. He runs home in fear only to discover a strange man bleeding in his father’s garage.
  • Laura and the Adams are shot at as they drive through the woods trying to escape Maya and her black soldiers. The scene is intense, young Adam is frightened and there appears to be no escape until evasive manoeuvres are taken.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Maya holds a gun to Young Adam’s head, threatening to kill him unless she gets what she wants. His father and Big Adam beg her to let him go.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Some Subaru cars are used and are once mentioned by name.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Young Adam asks Big Adam, “Do I get laid?”
  • A character asks, “Are you talking about your penis?”
  • Young Adam tells Big Adam that he looks like a condom with buttons.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Big Adam and Laura kiss passionately, falling back onto a table and against a door as they can’t keep their hands off one another. Sex immediately following this scene is implied.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Big Adam drinks a beer and repeatedly moves it out of reach of Young Adam who tries to grab it.
  • Characters are offered drinks as a means to deal with difficult situations.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Frequent use of the word ‘shit’.
  • Bitch
  • Asshole
  • Kiss ass
  • Piss off
  • God damn it!
  • Jesus Christ!
  • Crap
  • Moron
  • Jerk.

In a nutshell

The Adam Project is a science fiction adventure with a fast paced plot and humorous dialogue. It may, at first glance, appeal to children but due to the content of this film it is best suited to older teens and adult audiences.

The main messages from this movie are that it is easier to be angry than it is to be sad; that parents love their children no matter what; that the scared little child within holds wisdom that we would be wise to heed; and that sometimes this inner child turns out to be the best part of us, ultimately leading each one of us to the person we are destined to become.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Ingenuity
  • Integrity
  • Helpfulness
  • Hope.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Taking out your anger with one parent on the other.
  • Refusing to talk about your feelings.
  • Using violence as a means to solve conflict.
  • Being overcome with greed for power and wealth and the lengths to which some will go to maintain it.
  • The detrimental effects of bullying.