Fantastic Four, The: First Steps

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Not suitable under 10, parental guidance to 12 (violence, themes, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Fantastic Four, The: First Steps
  • a review of Fantastic Four, The: First Steps completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 July 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to violence, themes and scary scenes.
Children aged 10–12 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and themes.
Children aged 13 and over 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: Fantastic Four, The: First Steps
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild science fiction themes, violence and coarse language
Length: 114 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In a 1960’s inspired, futuristic world the Fantastic Four are celebrated as global heroes. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) went into space as the bravest and brightest of astronauts and returned home as superheroes after surviving a space storm that altered their DNA and gave them superpowers that they use to protect and serve humanity. When Sue finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, Reed could not be more thrilled and he sets out to baby-proof the world, making it as safe as possible for his unborn son. Just as police launch an attack to neutralise the numerous criminal gangs Reed has been tracking in the lead up to his child’s birth, an unprecedented threat arrives in the form of a Silver Surfer called Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner), who warns the Fantastic Four of Galactus (voice of Ralph Ineson) – a planet devouring, cosmic entity who is determined to destroy the earth. The Fantastic Four track Shalla-Bal and follow her to a distant galaxy where they encounter and attempt to negotiate with Galactus. Sensing a strong power in their unborn child, he offers Sue and Reed a deal: he will leave the planet in peace but they must give him their son. They refuse and flee, trying to outmanoeuvre Shalla-Bal as they attempt to return to Earth, while Sue delivers baby Franklin (Ada Scott). Faced with their imminent demise, the people of Earth begin to turn on one another and turn against the Fantastic Four who refused to sacrifice the baby. Introducing Franklin to the world and talking about the importance of family strikes a universal chord and the nations unite to build a series of bridges which Reed believes will teleport the Earth out of the reach of Galactus as he draws ever closer in his quest to get Franklin. It appears to be the only option but at the last minute they discover another option, though one that may cost more than they bargained 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.

Sacrifice; Alien threats; Fear of the unknown; Destruction of planets; Impending death.

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:

  • Ben is known for hitting, punching and clobbering villains or opponents. He admits he likes punching and a cartoon, based on the Fantastic Four, repeatedly shows scenes of ‘The Thing’ (aka Ben) using the catch phrase: “It’s clobbering time!”
  • Johnny absorbs the fire from a building, sucking it into himself.
  • A ‘Pan Am’ building sinks into the ground and a Mole-man attacks others.
  • A child is nearly crushed by falling debris.
  • Portions of fight scenes are shown where the Fantastic Four must battle and conquer a variety of creatures and villains who would otherwise harm innocent people.
  • Johnny attacks as Galactus threatens Sue and she goes into labour. He flies around burning whatever he can to buy them time to return to their ship.
  • Shalla-Bal knocks Ben and Reed down and tries to prevent them from leaving.
  • Shalla-Bal is shoved into a pool of lava.
  • Shalla-Bal pursues The Fantastic Four, entering their ship and reaching out a hand to Sue’s stomach, as if she will drag the infant from Sue’s womb. Sue tells Johnny to kill her as she is trying to take her child.
  • Johnny repeatedly tries to shoot at and kill Shalla-Bal.
  • Shalla-Bal is sucked into a black hole, while the spaceship The Fantastic Four are trying to escape in begins to come apart and Sue delivers her baby in space.
  • As Galactus approaches Earth, a foreboding shadow looms over New York city and people cower underground in fear.
  • Galactus rips up trees, overturns boats, kicks buses and crushes city buildings as he searches for Franklin.
  • Johnny shoots fire directly into Galactus’ eyes. Ben throws a bus at him and Johnny lights his body on fire after the impact of the vehicle.
  • Ben throws a crane at Galactus, who retaliates by throwing Ben into outer space where he almost freezes before Johnny flies up to rescue him.
  • Sue is nearly crushed by Galactus when he smashes her car into a building.
  • Reed climbs up Galactus and stabs at his body with a metal rod.
  • Galactus grabs Reed and tries to rip him apart by stretching him as far as he can reach. Reed’s clothes rip and his limp body is tossed to the ground.
  • Galactus smashes through a building as well as the protective layers a robot has put in place, in order to reach Franklin.
  • Sue pushes Galactus through a portal. When he begins to crawl back through, Johnny says to tell his nephew he loves him as he flies at full speed, determined to push Galactus back. Shalla-Bal knocks Johnny out of the way and shoves Galactus through herself before the portal closes behind them.

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:

  • Galactus is a large, dark, metallic creature with horns jutting from the side of his head and glowing blue eyes. He is menacing and apparently all-powerful as he obliterates worlds to feed his hunger. He is creepy and sinister, with a booming voice, and is intent on having Franklin for himself. He pursues the baby at all costs and nearly succeeds in taking him.

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:

  • Franklin is used as bait to lure Galactus into the centre of a bridge to transport him to another galaxy. Franklin is terrified and crying as the creature comes towards him. He is whisked to safety but is tracked to his new location and is quickly taken when Galactus shoves his huge hand through the building and grabs him in his fist.
  • Sue pushes the boundaries of her powers to shove Galactus backwards. When he is finally shoved through the portal and it closes, she is unresponsive. Reed tries to resuscitate her but fails. Franklin cries and clearly wants to go to his mother. In an emotional scene, the baby lays his hands on her chest and manages to do the impossible and bring her back to life.

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.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Canada Dry
  • Coppertone
  • Pan Am
  • Campbell’s Soup.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Sue and Reed discuss her unexpected pregnancy and Sue remarks that ‘talking wasn’t the important part of her becoming pregnant’.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • An illustrated billboard depicts a dog biting a man’s underpants as he pulls, showing the top of a butt cheek
  • An alien woman’s body is coated in some sort of silver coating instead of clothing. Johnny refers to her as beautiful, naked and as a ‘sexy alien’. He flirts with her but is rebuffed and is later teased about his “alien girlfriend”.
  • Sue kicks off the pants of her spacesuit when she is about to deliver her baby. Her bare knees are briefly shown as she begins to push.

Use of substances

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

  • Characters appear to be drinking beer during a dinner.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Bullshit
  • Hell.

In a nutshell

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a retro-futuristic, superhero film from Marvel studios, based on the comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The film features some powerful messages about family and community, and the possibility of what can be accomplished through global unity. It is best suited to audiences over the age of 12.

The main messages from this movie are that nothing is more important than family; and that family is about connecting to something bigger than each of us individually, it is something to fight for, something to sacrifice for, and it is ultimately a foundation that can change the world.

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

  • Courage
  • Respect
  • Sacrifice
  • Ingenuity
  • Love.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of holding fast to our humanity no matter what chaos the world falls into, or how dire the latest news story might be.