Monster Trucks

There seems to be a trend of movies showing animals driving. Last year I saw some crazy driving from animals in Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets. And now, I have seen a giant subterranean sea creature take control of a truck. The story of Monster Trucks begins when an oil company encounters three huge sea creatures while drilling. Two of them are confined, but one escapes and makes its way across land, eventually getting into the non-functional truck of the main character, a high-school senior named Tripp (Lucas Till).

As one would expect, Tripp is quite alarmed at first. But he soon realizes that the creature is friendly. The oil company is trying to track the creature down, but Tripp wants to protect it. Tripp teams up with Meredith (Jane Levy), another student from school who becomes aware of the creature powering his truck, and they seek to escape from the oil company’s investigators. But matters get more complicated as the creature assumes the role of navigator.

I found this to be an entertaining movie with a good balance of style, combining action and humor. This movie can appeal to viewers of many ages who like action or adventure films. If you have young kids who may watch it, note that there are hair-raising road chases throughout which might be scary. Although the giant sea creature is not ugly, its large, octopus-like appearance and wild behavior could seem somewhat intimidating until you get to know it.

From a moral perspective, how you perceive this movie depends on how concerned you are about behavior such as lying, stealing, trespassing, and dangerous driving in attempts to save non-human characters. Attempts to derail the “bad guys” of the oil company involve crashes that would be unsurvivable in real life. This movie could stimulate discussions about how to reconcile compassion for animals with responsibility in human society.

If viewers understand that the characters’ actions should not serve as literal examples for how to care for animals, this is otherwise a rather clean movie that many fans of its genre would enjoy watching.

Content Concerns

Violence: A lot of chaotic road scenes, including major collisions and cars getting flipped. It is never revealed whether certain “bad guys” survive.

Language: “God” as an exclamation—once. A few euphemisms (“heck,” “flip,”, “gosh”).

Sexuality: In once scene, a male character wears pants allowing a bit of his posterior to be exposed. A girl notices, but looks away. One scene shows two minor, teenage characters of the opposite sex together in a house at night.

Other: As described earlier, there is some behavior from the main characters such as lying, stealing, trespassing, and escaping from police, as part of their mission to rescue the sea creature. The movie does not show any consequences to these tactics. Other miscellaneous items are a brief scene of a man vomiting after a wild car ride, and a reference to the theory of Evolution with regards to sea life.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Mild / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.