Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

After watching a movie with your children or students, we encourage parents and teachers to look for education opportunities to teach with movies. Here are a few discussion topics that can help with lesson plans or teaching in the home.

There is very little blood in Tomb Raider, even though many people are shot and/or injured through various means. Yet the one time blood is on the screen, it is from our heroine, Lara who unintentionally cuts herself with a knife while trying to save someone else. Why would the creators choose to show blood only this time, when it is a relatively minor injury compared to the many others that have been depicted? What is the effect on the audience when they see Lara bleed?

Lara’s actions promote many different messages. Consider what she says about:
Women... Are women (or anyone for that matter) able to defend themselves like Lara can?
Guns... What does this movie say about guns and the consequences of their use?
Colonialism... The British characters in this movie go to other countries with little regard for their cultures or customs. Even Lara’s “occupation”—a tomb raider—necessitates robbing historical sites of their antiquities. What does this movie “say” about preserving culture and respecting the rights of individual societies?