Story

It’s 1868 and there have been rumours of a sea monster attacking ships at sea. Professor Aronnax (Paul Lukas), a scientist, and his assistant Conseil (Peter Lorre) join a Navy ship to investigate, where they meet Ned Land (Kirk Douglas).

On board, the crew spots the sea monster and shoots it with cannons. The sea monster attacks the ship, knocking Aronnax, Conseil and Ned overboard. While floating through the wreckage, they find an abandoned vessel. When they look closer, they realise that it’s a submarine called the Nautilus, and it isn’t abandoned.

Aronnax, Conseil and Ned are captured and kept aboard the Nautilus as prisoners or guests by its captain, Captain Nemo (James Mason). The Professor befriends Nemo, but Conseil and Ned send out bottled messages with the submarine’s expected coordinates in hope of rescue.

For a short while, the Nautilus becomes grounded on a coral reef, so Conseil and Ned are allowed to explore the beach of a nearby island for wildlife specimens. Ned takes his chance, running into the bush, where he finds a colony of cannibals. They chase Ned and Conseil back to the Nautilus, where Nemo sets off electrical charges, electrocuting and shocking the cannibals. A warship then fires at the Nautilus so Captain Nemo sends the ship deeper, where they come face-to-face with a giant squid. Nemo ends up caught by one of the tentacles, but he’s saved by Ned, who harpoons the squid and sends it back into the ocean.

As the Nautilus approaches its destination, Nemo takes the Nautilus through a secret passage into the centre of the island to avoid detection, and he runs ashore to activate a time bomb to destroy all evidence on the island of his discoveries. He’s shot as he runs back to the Nautilus and says that he’s dying. He plans to take the Nautilus down one last time, taking all aboard with him to die. After being locked in their cabins, Ned, Conseil and the Professor must escape as the ship heads towards the bottom of the ocean.

Themes

Crime; suicide; death; animal distress; justice; hypocrisy

Violence

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has some violence. For example:

• Many ships are blown up or destroyed.
• People get hit in the head with an oar.
• The crew of the Nautilus fights with the Professor, Conseil and Ned.
• There are scenes of whipping and violence in a penal colony.
• Cannibals with arrows and spears chase Ned.
• The cannibals are electrocuted by the submarine.
• Captain Nemo gets shot and dies.

Sexual references

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has some sexual references. For example:

• Ned sings a sea shanty about girls he meets ashore – ‘When we kissed, I bubbled up like molten lava’.
• In the first scene, Ned has 2 girls on his arms and it’s assumed he is ‘good with the ladies’.
• Ned mentions the ‘native’ women on the island are ‘longing for touch’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea shows some use of substances. For example:

• People smoke cigars that are filled with seaweed.
• People drink wine with dinner.
• Ned drinks alcohol that has been used to preserve dead animals in jars. He gets visibly drunk.

Nudity and sexual activity

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has some nudity. For example, Ned is shirtless on a few occasions.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Coarse language

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has some coarse language, including ‘hell’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) is an action adventure movie that brings to life Jules Verne’s 1870 novel of the same name. It’s best suited for families with children aged over 10 years. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 7-10 years because of its frequent but not gory violence.

The main messages in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are to do with justice and the value of human life. But the movie also suggests that the best way to solve problems is to use violence or blow things up. It’s also important to note that the movie presents people from New Guinea in negative and stereotypical ways as uncivilised cannibals.

Values in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that you could reinforce with your children include hard work, justice, resilience, honesty, invention and ingenuity.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea could give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues and questions like the following:

• Movies sometimes present violence as a way to solve problems. But how does violence affect people in real life?
• What are the natural consequences of stealing and lying?
• Is there are a grey area between good and evil?
• Do good intentions make wrong decisions right?