The Incredibles

The Incredibles has a U rating – so it’s pretty harmless for the whole group (and the family, if that makes a difference!) It’s quite good fun too and the majority of our group liked this movie.

Basic Background

The Incredibles are one of many Super Heroes in the earth and go around saving people, helping people. After one incident where Mr Incredible has done good work saving someone, he finds himself being sued by the plaintiff who didn’t want to be sued. This leads to lots of other actions against Super Heroes and the government has no option but to retire them, secretly placing them into everyday jobs. Mr Incredible marries Elasto-Girl and they settle down and have 3 kids. But life is painfully dull and frustrating for Mr Incredible, who longs for more action. One day this opportunity comes along in a plot that draws the whole family into the schemes of a man, who used to worship Mr Incredible, but who Mr Incredible rejected. Only by working together can the family come out of ‘hiding’ and save the day. 

Hero

The clip is from the first chapter (after the intro titles), up until the moment the monorail train is stopped from derailing by Mr Incredible. The clip lasts around 6mins 10secs. The clip includes Mr Incredible stop a getaway car, rescue a cat, help capture a purse thief, stop a suicide victim from dying, capture ‘Bomb Voyage’ and then stop the train from coming off the monorail (after a bomb has blown up the tracks).

The point is that Mr Incredible is a hero, fairly modest (though not completely!) Use this clip as you can! We used it during an Easter service to explain that the greatest hero / the greatest rescue was Jesus when he died and rose again! 

Selfish Selflessness

Mr Incredible is the daddy – but one day he meets someone who didn’t want to be saved and who then wants to sue him. We will find the same thing – people may deliberately reject the truth of Jesus. 

Stuck in Everyday Life

Many people live very frustrated. There may be times where you feel stuck in one place, or unhappy in what you’re doing. Often this is God’s discipline, sometimes this is a process / stage we need to go through 

Not Neglecting Those Closest To You 

Mr Incredible is challenged by his wife one time as he’s going out and not spending enough time with the family. Now, I am very focused and purpose driven as an individual. But recently God has been challenging people and I have been spending more time with my family and serving them, and others. This has bordered on the highly frustrating but it has definitely changed me for the God-better. I work with a youth pastor who puts his wife and 2 kids first – and I encourage this very actively and support his decision. Too many ministries and individuals in Christian work have fallen and struggles because they put their work before their family – and yet family must come first in the line of priorities from following Jesus. 

Not Denying Who You Are 

Mr Incredible has a really hard time denying who he is and what he really wants to do. Mrs Incredible has ben denying who she is for a very long time and it takes a crisis to force her to re-connect with who she is 

Truth 

There are times where Mr Incredible hides what he is doing from his wife and misdirects her / lies to her. This can never be right. As always, when people do this, Mr Incredible is found out. Firstly he’s caught out trying to save people when he said he was out bowling. Second time, his adventures land him in serious trouble and Mrs Incredible has to go help rescue him. 

Not rejecting other people 

Before Mr Incredible is forced underground by the action taken against him, he is dashing round saving people and cats. He keeps bumping into an admittedly very annoying young boy, who calls himself ‘Incrediboy’. He proves nothing but a problem to Mr Incredible and even means that one baddy gets away. Mr Incredible doesn’t treat him badly, but doesn’t show him love. This Incrediboy is the one who then turns against Mr Incredible and kills all the other super heroes except The Incredible family and one other, such is Incrediboy’s bitterness about being ‘rejcted’ by Mr Incredible. 

Let’s never treat people badly, disrespect them, ignore them. You never know who they may become – I know people struggling with self worth simply from a throwaway comment from a teacher or an attitude of their parents. Conversely, just the smallest investment in someone can make such a difference.

We all have special powers / Enemy Lies

The Bible tells us that we all have a spiritual gift. We may not be able to bend our arms, create a forcefield or save the day. But God has gifted us and equipped us for a purpose. 

The second thing is that all the ‘goodies’ in the movie have special powers – all of the family. But the ‘baddies’ in the movie e.g. Buddy do not have super powers. Instead they have to copy and create things. They don’t have the natural in-built powers that The Incredibles have. This is like the enemy who lies in our ears and lies to us. But the devil has been defeated by Jesus and it is us who have the ‘super-power’ inside of us (God). 

Use the clip towards the end of the movie when they battle the evil IncrediBoy – on the island. Scene 24. Timing 1:20:32 – 1:25:26 (when IncrediBoy turns up). 

Working together

Linked with the above point – use the clip near the end of the movie when the Incredibles family work together to defeat the robot. This is Scene 29. Timing: 1:33:06 – 1:37:47 (when scene cuts to a limousine). This shows how we should work as a team, bringing all our gifts and skills to bear together, for God, with the one aim to glorify him. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the church being the body, so use this Bible passage with the clip. Or you could choose a ‘battle’ scene from the Old Testament (Gideon, Joshua etc).