I Am Number Four

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for I Am Number Four
• a review of I Am Number Four completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 March 2011.

Overall comments and recommendations

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.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

The planet Lorien was destroyed by a vicious race of murdering aliens called Mogadorians and the last survivors, including nine young Loriens with super powers and their guardians are now on earth. As they grow up, they are systematically being found and killed by Mogadorians - Numbers One, Two and Three are dead and Number Four is next.

Number Four is a teenager known as John Smith (Alex Pettyfer). To escape the Mogadorians, he and his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) make their way to the quiet town of Paradise in Ohio where John enrols in the local high school. John strikes up a friendship with Sam (Callan McAuliffe), the school’s science brain and becomes attracted to Sarah (Dianna Agron). He also makes an enemy of Mark (Jake Abel), Sarah’s ex-boyfriend and the local sheriff’s son.

Just as John becomes settled into his new life, the Mogadorians show up and kidnap Henri. The fight with the Mogadorians now begins in earnest, with John and his friends being helped by Number Six (Teresa Palmer).

Aliens; Bullying; Destiny.

I Am Number Four contains intense action violence and some school yard bullying. Examples include:

• The tentacle-like arms of an alien creature smash through a door, grab hold of a man and pull him backwards through the door.  
• A number of humanoid aliens chase a teenage boy and then stab him in the chest.  
• John (Number Four) says that he got his first scar (representing Number One’s death) when he was nine-years-old
• Number Six goes on a rampage, smashing up the inside of a house and using a knife to slash bedding. She turns on the gas stove and strikes a match. The house explodes in a ball of flame that engulfs the girl who protects herself with a supernatural energy shield.
• Sarah humiliates a teacher by posting a picture of him picking his nose on the internet.
• A group of male students deliberately bump into another student, pushing him into some lockers. Later we see the same group deliberately throw a football into the same boy’s face, knocking him to the ground and causing his lunch to be ruined. John picks up the football and uses his super power to throw the football at the offending bully’s stomach, the force of the impact hurling the bully into some bushes.
• When John and Sam open their school lockers, we see red paint explode out of the lockers, covering their faces and chests. Sam charges at, and slams into, the boy responsible for the paint bombs.
• Four masked boys attack John and Sarah with three of the boys punching and kicking John and the fourth dragging Sarah by the hand and carrying her over his shoulder. John hurls one of the boys into the air and pins another against a tree. He over-powers the boy holding Sarah, threatening to break his “throwing” arm as he pins the boy’s arm behind his back, but stops at Sarah’s request. Later we hear that the boys needed to be hospitalised as a result of injuries sustained during the fight.      
• Henri shouts at John as he storms out of their house. Henri chases John who uses his powers to pin Henri against a wall. Henri grabs him from behind kicks out his legs and then pins his hands behind his back.  
• Sam carrying, a shotgun, tells John that he is going to help him. John tells Sam to put the gun away. They enter a house to find Henri chained and hanging from the basement ceiling and see some blood on Henri’s face. John uses his powers to break the chains. A man steps out of his hiding place and holds a gun at John’s head, threatening to shoot him and John uses his powers to throw the gunman against the ceiling and then drop him to the ground.
• An alien jumps on to the bonnet of a car and thrusts his sword through the car’s windscreen, impaling Henri through the chest. We see blood pooling from the wound in Henri’s chest with John putting his hand over the wound in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. Henri dies on the side of the road, his body turning to stone, then dust blowing away in the wind.
• An alien places a small metal ball with razor sharp circular saws sticking out of it into a man’s mouth, saying in a sadistic manner “It wants to play with you”. The scene finishes with the man’s screams.
• Number Six uses an alien gun that fires bolts of energy to attack and kill aliens.  
• During a final battle between the alien attackers and Numbers Four and Six aliens are blasted with bolts of energy and stabbed with long a bladed sword. Monsters are also involved. John uses his super powers to detonate a series of explosive devices rapped around an alien’s torso. A huge explosion results, but Number Six uses her super powers to shield Number Four and herself form the blast with waves of flames and heat washing over the pair. After the battle is over the school ground looks like the burnt out aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
• A ferocious and bloody fight between monstrous alien creatures involves ripping with talons and biting with fangs

Material that may scare or disturb children

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:

• While John is swimming in the sea, a blue light erupts from his lower leg, causing him considerable pain. He staggers out of the sea and collapses on the beach.  At school a blue light erupts from his hands causing him to panic and run out of the classroom. He submerges his glowing hands in a bucket of water as if attempting to put them out, John appears terrified of his super powers, shaking and sweating while hiding in until Henri comes and gets him.
• There are a number of large scary creatures and aliens, including giant aliens with bald tattooed heads, sharp teeth, gill like slits on the sides of their noses and threatening voices and mannerisms.
• Throughout the film when aliens die their bodies immediately turn to stone and then dust which is blown away in the wind.    
• After John grabs at his leg in pain we see a fresh circular red burn mark on his lower leg and see two other similar, but older burn scars on his leg.
• A lizard crawls behind a bush and emerges transformed into the dog.
• A humanoid alien creature peels the covering off of the sides of his gilled nose and then removes a set of false teeth revealing a sharp fang like teeth beneath.
• John and Sarah go on a haunted hay ride during which they see fake (but realistic looking) severed bloody heads on poles, a man with a chainsaw who jumps out in front of them, a re-enactment of a man being executed in an electric chair and a re-enactment of a serial killer chopping off a young girl’s leg.
• A beagle dog transforms into a giant cat-like monster with fangs and a clubbed tail.
• At the end of the film we see a beagle dog covered in blood limping towards John

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by some of the above mentioned scenes

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above mentioned scenes

Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above mentioned scenes

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Apple laptop computer, Apple iPhones, Nikon and Cannon cameras, motor vehicles.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Sarah’s parents talk about how sneaking out of their parents’ house when they were young resulted in Sarah’s conception
• Sarah makes a suggestive joke in relation to Number Four’s super powers saying “You’re good with your hands”.
• Number Four’s guardian Henri tells him that they didn’t love like humans, that when he (Number Four) fell in love it would be with a single woman for life.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some partial nudity and sexual activity.  Examples include:

• Teenage girls and boys wear tight and brief swimwear.
• John and a girl flirt while swimming at a beach party.
• John and Sarah embrace and kiss passionately on a few occasions. 

Use of substances

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

• Teenagers appear to be drinking alcohol at parties, but there is no drunkenness.

Coarse language

Occasional coarse language, together with some putdowns and name calling includes:

• shit, arsehole, crap, bitch, hell, freak, stupid, pussies.

In a nutshell

I Am Number Four is a science fiction fantasy film targeting adolescents and young adults. Parents of young children should be strongly cautioned that the film contains intense action and frightening scenes likely to disturb younger children. 

The main messages from the film include:

• It is not the place that you live in that is important, but the people who live there and the bonds you form with them.
• You can’t avoid your destiny.  

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

• the bullying behaviours depicted in the film and how to deal with them in real life.