Common Sense Media Review
By Charles Cassady Jr.
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Gloom, not thrills, in sci-fi drama of worldwide plague.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Carriers
What's the Story?
An unstoppable, lethal plague virus -- unexplained but hinted at originating in Asia -- transmitted by touch and by breath from person to person, has devastated humankind worldwide. By the time this movie opens, most people are dead, no organized society remains, and it's every man for himself. College-age brothers Brian (Chris Pine) and his younger, brainy sibling Daniel (Lou Taylor Pucci), and their girlfriends drive a stolen car to a well-remembered childhood beach-resort, evidently in the Gulf of Mexico, where Brian and Daniel plan to wait out the plague with their surfboards. But, as they encounter other scattered, sometimes dangerous survivors, infection, deceit, and desperation tear the foursome apart.
Is It Any Good?
Pine is excellent in the showy part of a strutting hellion who treats it as a chance to act like a jerk; possibly this is his way of coping in a nightmare scenario. But the minimalist, no-frills approach to the characters, and to the disaster itself, leaves the film feeling often as narrow and empty as the roads the protagonists drive.
Paramount released to DVD this moody, small-scale sci-fi-tinged drama (set in lonely highways and small settlements, no spectacle) after one of its stars, Chris Pine, scored a star-making lead in a big-scale sci-fi drama -- as the "new" Captain James T. Kirk in an epic Star Trek relaunch. Both pictures received a PG-13, but CARRIERS, without a jillion Federation Credits depending on its success, has the "luxury" of being much more disturbing and grim. Unlike similar blockbuster treatments of the mass-human-extinction theme like I Am Legend, there's no hope or miraculous reprieve for viewers, who are asked to consider how folks would behave (or misbehave) if everyone was dying/dead.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the way the main characters behave. Do you think their reaction to a virtual end-of-the-world situation is realistic or not?
Ask which characters, if any, are worthy of emulation. Bad-boy Brian suggests that his seemingly more sensitive brother Daniel is no less ruthless than he is, just smarter in letting others do the dirty work and appearing guiltless himself. Is this so?
What do you think might happen to the characters left alive at the ending? How would one go about dwelling in an empty country?
Movie Details
- In theaters : September 2, 2009
- On DVD or streaming : January 17, 2023
- Cast : Chris Pine , Louis Prima , Piper Perabo
- Director : Alex Pastor
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Paramount Vantage
- Genre : Science Fiction
- Run time : 84 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : violence, disturbing content and language.
- Last updated : July 12, 2022
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