Lapsis

image for Lapsis

Short takes

Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 13 (language, themes). May lack interest under 13.

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Lapsis
  • a review of Lapsis completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 June 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to language and themes.
Children aged 10–13 Parental guidance recommended due to language and themes, and may lack interest.
Children over the age of 13 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: Lapsis
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, coarse language
Length: 108 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Luggage delivery man Ray (Dean Imperial) is wary of new-fangled, Quantum, technological systems and vows to never allow anything high-tech into his house. When his younger brother, Jamie (Babe Howard), steadily worsens from a sickness he suffers from, called Omnia, Ray must find a way to pay for the expensive medical treatments his brother needs. Despite his previous promises, Ray finds himself lured by the CABLR company’s assurance of fast cash. Ray signs up to be a cabler, someone who rolls out cables into the wilderness, connecting one Quantum cube to another. On his first cabling run, Ray discovers that he has been given a previously owned medallion which serves as an identification device. He thinks nothing of it until he realises that he has thousands of points in unclaimed credit and is automatically offered a job that will pay $105,000, something that normally takes years to secure. While trying to figure out how the job works, Ray begins to find that not all is as it may seem and that the nickname on his medallion belonged to the man that originally wrote the code for the robotic cablers – little machines that race against their human counterparts trying to put them out of jobs. Ray finds himself in the midst of a corporate conspiracy and is unaware that he alone holds the key to stopping the robotic cablers and making the corporate companies listen to the needs of the employees they are exploiting.

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.

Conspiracy theories; Serious illness; The power of machines over people; Corporate exploitation.

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:

  • Another cabler attacks Ray after finding out he is using someone else’s medallion. They shove each other back and forth. The same man later kicks Ray in the leg.
  • Ray attacks a robotic cabler with a rock and buries its parts in a shallow grave.

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:

  • Creepy, foreboding, music plays every time one of the Quantum cubes is shown. It is just a large concrete-looking block with numerous cables and wires protruding from its surfaces but there is a sense that somehow it is evil or dangerous.

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:

  • Children in this age group may be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

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:

  • Some children in this age group may be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

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

  • None noted.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

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

  • Ray sleeps shirtless in his sleeping bag and his bare chest is shown as he gets up one morning.

Use of substances

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

  • James is urged to take some medications that may make him feel strange but that are meant to help if he continues to take them.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Jesus Christ!
  • God damn
  • Crap
  • Loser
  • Shit
  • Asshole.

In a nutshell

Lapsis is a low budget, science fiction, drama. The characters are well developed and the acting is such that audiences will feel they are on the journey with Ray. However, the plot may be a little confusing at times and lots of loose ends are left at the end. While the film is not suitable for children under 10 and may lack interest for children under 13 it will likely be enjoyed by mature audiences and Sci-Fi enthusiasts.

The main messages from this movie are that people are, before everything else, just people; and that human rights should not be plundered by greedy, digital corporations.

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

  • Persistence
  • Compassion
  • Ingenuity
  • Helpfulness
  • Solidarity.

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

  • Blindly believing those trying to sell you something.
  • Trusting large corporations and believing they have the best intentions towards their employees.
  • Wandering into the wilderness without really knowing where you are going or what you are doing.
  • Believing all technology is evil.
  • Being too forthcoming with strangers and at the same time concealing the truth from those trying to help you.
  • The human toll of people being replaced by machines.