Why is “Soul on Fire” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic content including burn injuries, some peril and suggestive material.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene, a couple of kissing scenes, some flirting, a young boy engulfed in flames and suffering third degree burns over most of his body, a young boy undergoing treatments for his burns and seeming in a great deal of pain, a young man confronting his fears, a man suffering from Parkinson’s disease, heavy drinking, several arguments and some name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Based on the true story of a young boy’s (James McCracken and Joel Courtney) will to survive after an accident that left him with burns over the majority of his body. Also with John Corbett, William H. Macy, Stephanie Szostak, DeVon Franklin, Masey McLain, Iyad Hajjaj, Stella Bratcher, Mikey Cestone and Lucy Panozzo. Directed by Sean McNamara. [Running Time: 1:52]

Soul on Fire SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A woman wears a low-cut negligee and enters the room with her husband; she helps him take off his shirt, touches his bare chest, kisses his scarred skin and they kiss (sex is implied).
► A young woman kisses a young man after they are nearly in a car crash. A young man and a young woman kiss. A young man asks a young woman at a party if she dances and she says that she doesn’t but she will, and they dance and embrace. A young man goes to a young woman’s dorm room and helps her prepare for an exam by allowing her to perform physio stretches on him, bending his legs and twisting his limbs.
► A young man asks a young woman on a date and she declines saying that she thinks of him as her brother. A young man tries to convince another young man to ask a young woman on a date and he refuses thinking that he is not worthy; he says, “She’s hot,” and “You’re into her.”
► A woman wears a low-cut wedding gown that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage. A young man removes his shirt and we see his bare chest and abdomen covered with burn scars.

Soul on Fire VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A young boy lights a piece of cardboard on fire with a match and pours gasoline on it, causing an explosion; the garage he is in is engulfed in flames and he runs through his house setting the house on fire and calling for help until a teen boy puts a rug over him to douse the flames and carries him outside (we see the house in flames and smoke billowing out and the boy is shown with charred and reddened flesh); the teen goes back in the house to retrieve the family dog and a young girl goes back in a few times to get glasses of water to pour on the burned boy’s face and the boy says, “I want to die.” A young boy in a hospital is shown with very charred and reddened skin as a doctor orders morphine for an IV and the father comes into the room and cries when he sees him. A young boy yells in pain while doing physical therapy and a nurse gives him a towel to bite on; the PT is done in a soundproof closet.
► A young boy wrapped completely in bandages moans when he is lifted out of his hospital bed and taken in a wheelchair to a tub of water where his bandages are removed; a nurse tells him, “It’s gonna hurt,” and we see the bandages being cut off with scissors as he squirms.
► A young boy yells at his parents and thrashes when they tell him that the doctors had to remove his fingers because infection had set in. Several boys varying in age pour gasoline on the ground and light it with a match; flames shoot off the ground and they cheer (no one is harmed). A nurse helps a badly burned and bandaged young boy to walk and we see him holding him up and guiding him. Young children stare at a young boy covered in bandages in a hospital. A young boy with badly burned and scarred hands tries to eat using utensils and drops them a few times.
► Several young people drive at night on snow-covered roads; the car skids and slams into a guardrail turning back around and stopping in the middle of the road causing trucks to try to slow down and swerve to avoid hitting them; they all get out of the car and push it off the road (no one is harmed). An abandoned house is shown being renovated and a few bricks fall from the structure as people step in to see it; they are told to put on hard hats (there are no injuries). A young man bumps his head (wearing a hard hat) on an HVAC vent (there are no injuries). A man goes to a cemetery to visit the grave of a friend.
► A young boy protests when he is told by his mother that he will be having a piano lesson after he has been badly burned. A doctor tells a family that a young boy is not expected to survive after he was badly burned and his lungs were damaged from smoke inhalation. A young man describes having burned his family’s house down and that he was burned over a majority of his body after he was playing with gasoline and matches. A young man talks about seeing his own pain in the eyes of the nurses that were helping him with physical therapy in the hospital. A man tells his adult son that he has built a wall and that it is keeping him from feeling like he is enough. A young woman tells a young man, “Don’t ever underestimate me again.” A woman asks a young man if he would speak to a group of children about what happened to him (surviving near-fatal burns) and he is alarmed and asks, “Why, what happened to me?” A doctor talks about the necessity of keeping an area germ-free for burn victims. A young boy jokes with a nurse about how he tortures him. A young man angrily throws clothing and items around his room and says that he swears off love after being turned down by a young woman. A young man visits a prison to tell incarcerated people about his experience surviving a house fire that he started and the prison guards tell him that they will sense his fear. A man talks about not being able to visit a man in the hospital because he was afraid. A woman tells her son to be careful on his bike. A young man teases a young woman about how she dances in a couple of scenes. A young boy tells his father as he walks out onto the pitcher’s mound at a baseball field to throw the first pitch, “Don’t embarrass us.” A group of boys playing with fire threatens a boy if he tells anyone what they are doing, saying, “You’re dead.”
► A young man’s chest and abdomen are seen covered with burn scars. A young man vomits outside his car (we hear splatter on the ground without visible goo).

Soul on Fire LANGUAGE 1

 – Name-calling (nerd, legend, pretty mean, super mean, terrible, tragic, crazy, coward, fraud), exclamations (get lost, jeez, oh my gosh, wow, no sweat, shocking, are you kidding, isn’t this something, bugging me), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. Godspeed, thank God, God demands it, people say a prayer before a meal, keeping faith in God). | profanity glossary |

Soul on Fire SUBSTANCE USE

 – A young boy is given morphine for pain in a hospital after being burned over the majority of his body. People drink beer and liquor at a fraternity party and one young man guzzles a lot of beer, a young man drinks heavily in several scenes throughout the movie, people celebrate with champagne in a hospital when a young boy is released after 5 months, a young man drinks beer from a bottle, and a young woman asks a young man why he drinks so much.

Soul on Fire DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – House fires, Parkinson’s disease, professional baseball, the will to live, parents’ love, friendship, underestimating people, Edgar Allan Poe, having something to prove, being grateful.

Soul on Fire MESSAGE

 – Sometimes we need to redefine what it means to live our lives.