Unbroken
HeartGuard score
How suitable a title is for Christian viewers, from 0 to 100. It weighs the content meters and the worldview.
- 80–100Recommended
- 60–79Watch with care
- 35–59Think it throughThis film
- 15–34Strong caution
- 0–14Not recommended
HeartGuard score
How suitable a title is for Christian viewers, from 0 to 100. It weighs the content meters and the worldview.
- 80–100Recommended
- 60–79Watch with care
- 35–59Think it throughThis film
- 15–34Strong caution
- 0–14Not recommended
Worldview score
What the story celebrates or condemns.
Why +1 for this film
The film honours perseverance, sacrifice, courage and dignity under cruelty, and opens with a sermon on loving one's enemy. However, it relegates Louie's actual conversion and his forgiveness of his captors to end captions, so its faith content is sincere but underdeveloped.
- +2Affirms faithPresents faith in God positively and as true
- +1Positive valuesThis filmHonesty, sacrifice and family win out
- 0Mixed or neutralNo clear stance
- −1AmbivalentShows sin without judging it either way
- −2Glamorises sinMakes sin look attractive and rewarding
Age guide
How suitable this film is for each age group.
Why 13+ for this film
Sustained wartime brutality, including repeated prison camp beatings, shark attacks, a death at sea and long stretches of distress, is too intense for younger children. Language includes one f-word.
- Under 8No
- Ages 8–12Wait
- Ages 13–15With a parent
- Ages 16–17Yes
- AdultsYes
A gruelling but hopeful true story of endurance, from Olympic track to life raft to Japanese prison camps, with brutal but restrained violence and modest language. Faith is treated respectfully, though Louie's later conversion and forgiveness appear only in the closing captions.
Watch guide
What's in it?
LanguageOccasional strong words
One f-word shouted during the interrogation scenes, a few uses of the s-word, one 'son of a bitch', and several 'damn's. Most of it comes out under extreme stress.
BlasphemySeveral exclamations
About seven misuses of God's or Jesus' name, including one compound curse. These sit alongside sincere prayer and a sermon.
Sex and nudityMild innuendo, brief nudity
Airmen make a crude joke about Louie's speed in bed. As a boy, Louie peeks up at women's underwear from beneath the stands. Prisoners are stripped for interrogation and quarantine, with brief non-sexual rear nudity.
RelationshipsBarely present
A girl remarks that young Louie is cute, and there is passing flirtatious banter. There is no romantic storyline.
ViolenceSustained brutality
An aerial combat sequence shows wounded and dying crewmen. The bomber crash, shark attacks and strafing on the raft follow. The long POW section brings repeated beatings by the camp commander, including the ordeal where every prisoner is forced to punch Louie and the scene where he must hold a beam overhead under threat of being shot. The violence is restrained in gore but relentless, and it is clearly condemned.
Frightening scenesProlonged distress
Weeks adrift bring starvation, a crewman's death and sharks circling. The POW years add constant fear, humiliation and the threat of execution. Younger children may find the sustained cruelty very upsetting.
Drugs and alcoholYouthful drinking, smoking
As a boy, Louie is caught with liquor disguised in a painted bottle, and he is shown smoking as part of his delinquent streak. His brother redirects him into running. The airmen talk casually of drinks.
AttitudesSlurs, cruelty condemned
Bullies hurl Italian ethnic slurs at young Louie, and the POWs use a period slur for their captors. The camp commander's sadism is shown as evil, and the film admires endurance, loyalty and refusing to make propaganda against one's own country.
OccultNone
There is no witchcraft, magic, fortune-telling or other occult content. The spiritual elements are a sermon, Mass and sincere prayer, which are not occult.
- To knowContent to know about
- Skip for kidsSkip for younger viewers
- DiscussWorth discussing
- 0:04:36
War violence
Fighter attack on the bomber; crewmen are wounded and one young gunner dies while Louie comforts him.
- 0:08:23
Faith
A priest preaches on God making both day and night, and on forgiving and loving one's enemies.
- 0:10:25
Bullying and racism
Bullies taunt and beat young Louie with anti-Italian slurs; he is brought home in trouble over fighting and hidden liquor.
- 0:47:16
Prayer
Adrift and desperate, Louie prays the Lord's Prayer and vows to give his life to God if he survives.
- 0:51:51
Peril and death
A Japanese plane strafes the rafts, sharks attack, and Mac later weakens and dies at sea.
- 1:06:31
Nudity and cruelty
Captured, the men are interrogated, stripped and humiliated; brief non-sexual rear nudity.
- 1:34:24
Brutal violenceSkip if under 13
The camp commander forces every prisoner to punch Louie in the face, one after another.
- 1:54:23
Endurance
Louie is made to hold a heavy beam overhead under threat of being shot, and defiantly endures.
How to play
- 1. Draw a cardOne person reads the question out loud.
- 2. Everyone answersThere are no wrong answers. Listen before you reply.
- 3. Pass it onThe next person draws, until the deck is done.
Faith & story
What does it say?
What's it about?The plot, without the ending
Louis Zamperini is a troubled son of Italian immigrants in California until his older brother channels his restless energy into running, taking him all the way to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. When the Second World War comes he serves as a bombardier in the Pacific. After his plane goes down at sea, he and his crewmates face weeks adrift with almost nothing to eat or drink, and that is only the start of an ordeal that will test every ounce of his endurance and his will to live.
Through a faith lensHow it connects to the Bible
The film opens in church with a sermon drawn from the creation account, where God makes the greater and lesser lights. The priest's point, that the night belongs to God as much as the day, echoes the psalmist's confession that both are his. That frames everything that follows: Louie's long darkness on the raft and in the camps is not outside God's reach, even when he cannot see it. The same sermon calls the congregation to love their enemies, which is Jesus' own command. The film shows Louie learning to endure, and Scripture says suffering can produce perseverance, character and hope. Commander Fitzgerald urges Louie not to strike back but to outlast his captors, which is close to Paul's call not to repay evil with evil. Yet the Bible goes further than survival, asking believers to overcome evil with good. That fuller step, forgiveness, happens after the film ends and is only told in captions, so families may want to fill in the rest of the story. Louie's desperate vow on the raft also opens a conversation about promises made to God, which Scripture urges us to keep rather than forget.
Fruit of the SpiritWhich fruit does it show?
5 out of 9 fruits ripe in this film
Ripe grapes are shown in the film, buds are missing
- Joy
- Goodness
- Gentleness
Pete's devoted love for his younger brother sets Louie's life on a new course, and Louie shows tender kindness to the dying gunner and to Mac on the raft. Patience in its sense of long-suffering endurance is the heart of the film, as Louie bears starvation and abuse without breaking. Faithfulness appears in the prisoners' loyalty to one another and in Louie's refusal to betray his country on enemy radio. Self-control shows when he chooses not to lash out at his tormentor. Inner peace is largely missing within the story itself; the captions suggest Louie only found it later through faith and forgiveness.
The charactersExamples to follow or avoid
Louis ZamperiniJack O'ConnellA wayward boy turned Olympic runner and airman whose defining trait is stubborn endurance. He cries out to God in crisis, though his full turn to faith comes after the story ends.
Pete ZamperiniAlex RussellLouie's older brother, who believes in him, trains him and gives him the motto about endurance that carries him through the war.
Russel Allen 'Phil' PhillipsDomhnall GleesonThe calm pilot who survives the raft with Louie. He quietly thanks God after a crash landing and speaks simply of his trust in a life beyond this one.
Mutsuhiro 'The Bird' WatanabeMIYAVIThe camp commander who torments Louie with unpredictable cruelty and a strange, possessive envy. He is shown as plainly evil but also as a wounded, insecure man.
Francis 'Mac' McNamaraFinn WittrockA crewman who panics early on the raft but later fights off a shark to save the others; a portrait of weakness and redemption.
How Christians are portrayed
Faith is treated with respect throughout: the Zamperini family attends Mass, and the priest's sermon is presented sincerely as a key to the whole story. Prayer on the raft is shown as a genuine, if desperate, reaching out to God, and Phil's simple belief is never mocked. The church and believers are portrayed warmly but in the background, with Louie's later conversion left to the closing captions.
Community
What other Christians think
What did you notice?
A sex scene, shown or clearly implied?
Is this appropriate for Christians to watch?
Thinking of children? Add the youngest age you'd show it to.
Review
Helpful reviewer
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Given to members whose reviews 25 or more people have marked Helpful.
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Details
Film details
- In theatres
- Dec 25, 2014
- On streaming
- Nov 26, 2018
- Cast
- Jack O'Connell, Alex Russell, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
- Director
- Angelina Jolie
- Studios
- Legendary Pictures, Jolie Pas, 3 Arts Entertainment
- Genre
- Drama, War
- Run time
- 2h 17m
- Age rating
- US PG-13 · UK 15
How we analysed this
We counted language, blasphemy and other content in the film's dialogue and read it with the plot and film details, then rated each content area against our rubric and worldview scale, using AI models calibrated on reference titles. Not yet reviewed by our team. Confidence: high.
Score = 100 − 16 × content concern (3.08) + 8 × worldview (+1) = 59
This is a guide to help families choose with wisdom, not a verdict on anyone's conscience ().
Updated 2026-10-14