Discussion Guide
Discussion Guide Academy Award速 winner Russell Crowe stars as Noah, in this film inspired by the biblical story of courage, sacrifice and hope. Also starring Emma Watson, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone and Anthony Hopkins, Noah is directed by the visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. This epic film raises questions of faith and doubt, righteousness and wickedness, judgement and, and the relationship between humanity, the world and God.
What People Are Saying NOAH is nothing short of astonishing. I am confident that it will be remembered as a film that helped re-enchant a new generation with the biblical narrative. Honestly, it is pathbreaking. This is a deeply important film. Why? Because it helps re-awaken the audience – through a brilliantly conceived and executed film – to the ancient and strange new world that awaits us inside the pages of the Bible. Greg Thornbury President, The King’s College
Clearly millions of students are going to see this major Hollywood film. What a great opportunity to engage believers and non-believers in the biblical themes reflected in this film. Alan Scholes, Ph.D. Cru IBS Instructor of Worldview and Apologetics
NOAH poignantly addresses the question, “Is humanity worth saving?” The conflict played out in the story is brilliant and Russell Crowe’s acting is powerful. The effects are amazing and, like all of Darren’s work, this film is deep and thoughtful. Erwin McManus Pastor, Mosaic Church
The Bible tells the “Noah” story without much detail about his own thoughts, words, or emotions. But NOAH the film imagines the complexity of the character and the agonizing struggles he faced to fulfill God’s call. NOAH is epic, powerful, and engaging. Phil Cooke, Ph.D. Media Consultant Author of Unique: Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media
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Discussion Guide The new Paramount film NOAH, starring Russell Crowe, can be a great conversation starter with your questioning or non-believing friends. This film has a big budget and intends to make a big statement. You may well want to see it for its modern-day cultural influence. So, invite someone to attend the film with you or find folks who’ve already seen it, and initiate some meaningful spiritual discussions over “a cup of tea.” But we need to warn you, this is not your little sister’s Sunday School story about animals on a boat! Anytime Hollywood takes on a biblical theme it is usually a mixed blessing. This time is no different. If you wanted to capture the movie NOAH in a single word, the word would be dark. Anyone familiar with the film credits of director and co-writer Darren Aronofsky would expect nothing less. Black Swan is about a prima ballerina’s descent into madness and suicide. The Wrestler is about trying (and failing) to pick up the pieces of fading glory in the ring. Requiem for a Dream is considered by many to be the most authentic (and depressing) view of what it’s like to live with a drug addict. And The Fountain tackles terminal illness and loss.
So it should come as no surprise that Aronofsky’s NOAH is a relentlessly dark, conflicted, imaginatively provocative Hollywood work of fiction, inspired by the biblical story of Noah. The good news is, the movie powerfully explores themes of sin, righteousness, judgment, mercy and redemption. The film poses a number of worthwhile questions: Is mankind worth saving? Is God worth worshiping? Does God speak, and if so, how can we discern His voice? That’s why it can work as a great conversation opener you can use to talk about the heart of the gospel with believers and non-believers alike. Below we’ve prepared a series of questions you may want to use with those who’ve seen the film. In brackets after each main question are some potential follow-up questions or other helpful information. (But you should know, there are also a number of plot spoilers!) Dr. Alan Scholes Dr. Gary Stanley
Discussion Questions What was your overall impression of the film? Did you like it? What were some of the major themes that stood out to you? [Was it too dark, or did that seem to fit the overall thrust of the film? Were you captivated by the story or by certain characters? If so, which ones, and why?]
The film made me want to go back and read the original story in the Bible, just to see what was changed and what was different. Would you like to read the original? [It’s not very long. I actually brought a copy on my iPhone, iPad, etc. Why don’t you read it, and then we can talk about the similarities and differences between the movie and the original story.] What are some influences that have shaped your own view of God? Movies, novels, parents, friends, church background, or the Bible? [How comfortable are you with the credibility of the sources you used to fashion your view? Would you say your views about God are pretty well formed; pretty final? Or are your views still open, still in flux, still being formed and molded?] Did you find the film believable, or incredible? Why? [What are some of the additions or adaptations in the movie that don’t contradict the biblical account, and might actually have happened? What in the movie seems fanciful, doubtful or impossible in light of the Bible?] How would you compare and contrast the film’s depiction of Noah with the way he is portrayed in the Bible? Looking at the attitudes and actions that were added in the film, which ones seem likely, possible, unlikely, or impossible based on the description in the Bible? [Which of the things Noah did in the movie seem like they contradict the character of Noah shown in the Bible, or even in the movie?] Both Tubal-cain and Noah believe that God created humans. But in what ways do they differ in their views about God, the human race, and humanity’s relationship with God? [Tubal-cain sees humanity’s lost condition and blames God. Noah blames all humans, including himself. This might be one of the reasons God sees Noah as different from his fellow humans.] Noah is a story about choice, consequences, how much responsibility we bear. Tubal-cain declares that humans were created in God’s image, but that the negative consequences of our own choices are ultimately God’s fault. Noah defines himself by his own sinfulness, and sees the consequences of God’s judgment as resting on all of humanity. Would you side with either of these positions? [How does being an image bearer, and at the same time a sinner, affect your understanding of your worth and goodness?]
From the movie it would be easy to think that God is angry with us. Do you think He is? Which characters in the movie are angry with God? [It is interesting to note that the Bible used the story of Noah as proof that God is in fact not angry with us! “In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,” Says the LORD your Redeemer. “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you nor will I rebuke you. “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:8-10 NASB)] Tubal-cain and Ham accuse Noah of being heartless in saving the animals but letting so many “innocent” people die in the flood. Do you think that is a fair accusation? Against Noah? Against God? [Ezekiel 14:13-14 Addresses Noah’s efforts and ask if any of us can save another. It is easy to project, or worry about everyone else and neglect the one person we are responsible for us.]
In the New Testament, Peter compares the saving of Noah and his family in the Ark with Christ saving us through His death. What do you think are some points of similarity between the two stories? What are some differences? [The NT comparison is made in 1 Peter 3:18-21. If you end up looking at the passage together, there are two possible points of confusion, or “rabbit trails.” One is Jesus preaching to spirits in prison (v. 19). The best answer to that is that Bible scholars are all over the map and there is no consensus to what that means. It may well remain a mystery until Christ returns! The second potential problem might be the statement that baptism saves you (v. 21). The best response to this is to read the rest of the verse which makes clear it is not the physical act of getting wet that saves us, but our accepting Christ and his resurrection. It might also be worth pointing out that Peter compares NT baptism with Noah’s salvation from judgment and in their case they were not immersed in water, but were saved by staying dry! The root meaning of the Greek word, baptize, is not dunking, but identification. When the passengers on the Ark believed God, they were identified with Noah’s faith and saved. When we are baptized we are identifying with Christ and His death and resurrection. It’s that spiritual identification that saves us, not being dunked!] One of the big themes of the movie is the degradation of human sin. What are some of the sins the film depicts? [Murder, sexual abuse, pride, disrespect for nature and animals, rape of the environment, no fear of or respect for God.]
Which human sins are named in the Bible as the reason for God’s judgment? Which are the same and which are different in the movie vs. the book? [Would you agree that all the evils depicted in the film are actually wrong? Are there any “bad” actions of the film characters that you would defend as actually allowable or right? Do you think the human race in Noah’s day actually deserved God’s judgment? Do you think the human race today deserves the judgment of God? Why or why not?] In the movie, Noah concludes that he and all his family members are also guilty of sin and deserve judgment. Do you think he was right? [One of the earliest statements in the film is “Temptation led to sin.” Are all humans sinners? Do we all deserve the judgment of God? Do you agree or disagree with the Bible when it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?” (Romans 3:23 ESV)] Do you think there is such a thing as absolute right and wrong? Or is all morality relative? [Are there some human behaviors, or crimes, that are always wrong and always deserve judgment? If so, what are some of them? What about rape, child molestation, premeditated murder, racism, etc. Do you believe that, under some circumstances those actions could possibly be justified—be the loving thing to do? Do you think in some cases God would approve of humans when they did those things?] Two of the themes in the movie were “justice” and “mercy.” Do you think the film struck the right balance between the two? [When you think about God, do you envision Him as both just and merciful? Do you think one of those traits is stronger, or more dominant in His character? Do you think the way God has dealt with the human race shows both justice and mercy? In what ways do you see Jesus and embodying both those traits?]
There is an intriguing statement written by the prophet Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18) How would you say this verse relates to the picture of God in the movie? [Do you think the movie reflected both God’s gracious mercy and His justice? Which characteristic of God had greater emphasis in the movie? Which had greater emphasis in the biblical story of Noah? From the movie it would be easy to think that God is angry with us. However, it is this very story, in the Bible, that is given as proof that God is in fact not angry with us! (Isaiah 54:8-10)] One of the recurring themes in the Bible is hearing, or not hearing, God speak. Do you think God actually has, or does, speak to some people? Assuming the biblical story of Noah is what really happened, do you think God actually led Noah to build the ark? [If God actually speaks to some people, how do you think He does it? Audibly? Through dreams and visions? Through circumstances? Through mental or emotional impressions? Through other people, like Noah’s wife and adopted daughter?] Do you think the movie was trying to say that God actually called Noah to kill his baby granddaughters? When he had compassion and didn’t kill them, was that actually God’s will, or did Noah fail to obey God? [Do you think God would actually ever call a parent, or a grandparent, to murder their own offspring? What about the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22:1-18? How is that story different from the fictional story of Noah in the movie? Based on Hebrews 11:19, many Christians believe that the story of Abraham offering Isaac was a type (or prophetic symbol) of God the Father giving his only Son, Christ, to be killed for our sins. Would the story of Noah, as told in the movie, have worked just as well as a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice? Why or Why not? Do you believe God offered Christ as a sacrifice for your sins? Why or why not?]
Jesus compared His own future Second Coming to the time of Noah: “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:37) How does Jesus’ description of life before the flood square with the movie’s portrayal of what was going on? [Hebrews 11:7 Noah acted on what he was given. He didn’t know everything but what he knew was enough.] The movie powerfully raises the question, “Since everyone is corrupt, is it possible for even the best humans to be saved from God’s judgment?” What do you think? Do you believe you deserve judgment? Do you know how you can avoid God’s judgment? [Hint—it doesn’t involve a boat! 2 Peter 2:5 —We can’t escape God’s righteous judgment on our own.] A final suggestion: You may want to read the story of Noah in The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Although this was written for children, the book is a simple, Christ-honoring retelling of many Bible stories, which a surprising number have used for Bible-study discussion groups!
An interview with Darren Aronofsky, Director of Noah Where did the idea for the film come from? I was raised Jewish in Brooklyn. I can’t really remember my first exposure to the Noah story, to be honest. It’s one of those things we’re all taught very, very young. But I got connected to the story in such a deep way when I was in seventh grade. I had this magical English teacher. One day, she said, “Alright, everybody take out a pen and paper, and write something about peace.” I wrote a poem called “The Dove” about Noah. It turned out it was a contest for the United Nations, and I ended up winning the contest and reading the poem at a UN convention a few weeks later. It was the first time I perceived myself as maybe a storyteller. Noah has sort of been this patron saint, because it was the first time I ever really wrote something that won something. So how did you come back to the story? After I made the film “Pi,” I was looking for a next film and started thinking about Noah. It didn’t happen for a few years, because Hollywood wasn’t really interested in making kind of a biblical movie. The idea wasn’t around back then, but now it’s very in vogue. Was this before “The Passion of the Christ”? I actually first set it up in 2000, so yes. But Hallmark came out with its own Noah film, so we stopped working on it for a while. Our first draft was in 2003, and when the film started to happen, my mom tracked down my teacher, who was 78 years old. I invited her to the set, and she’s actually a one-eyed crone in the movie who says, “You! You!” Has making the film made a difference for your faith at all? I don’t think it’s changed in any way. I don’t think this has affected it in either way. It’s been more about bringing this story to life and breathing life into it. What I believe is not important. What’s important is how I treated the text, and the text is completely a truth to me. I looked at it and saw that I wanted to bring the story of Noah to life, so that’s the most important part. The reality and truth of that text is what people are going to see at the theatre. So it’s not a personal discussion. That’s a discussion that I take very seriously.
There’s a complexity that’s not necessarily written in the words of the Bible but it’s hinted at. The second thing Noah does after the flood is he goes and gets drunk and then has this falling-out with his son. To us that was a huge clue to their relationship. So we started to build a whole story out of that relationship between Noah and Ham and how they got there. That led to this whole idea of good and bad within all of us, and the struggle of righteousness in all of us, to try to balance justice and mercy in our lives. If you look at the film, every character is sort of dealing with these ideas of wickedness and forgiveness. Is that tension between good and evil something that plays out in your own life? The idea of original sin is a really interesting story to help us all think about what goes on inside of us, that we all kind of have a sense of the right thing to do, and we all understand what the wrong thing to do is. And we understand that there’s a decision in front of us. We started to realize these big ideas about justice and mercy in the film. It started with Noah being called righteous in his generation, and we tried to figure out what that meant. What we’ve discovered is that people who are a lot smarter than us and who study theology talk about righteousness as having a balance of justice and mercy. As a parent, you understand that if you’re too just, you can destroy your child with strictness, and if you’re too merciful you can destroy them with leniency. Finding that balance makes you a great parent. For us, since Noah is called righteous, we asked, “OK, what is his balance of justice and mercy?” So at the beginning of the film, he clearly wants justice, very much like God. By the end, when the rainbow happens, he has learned mercy, forgiveness and grace. You take some creative liberties; do you anticipate any pushback? Where are there liberties? Find me a contradiction in there that can’t be explained. Of course there’s liberties, I mean, we’re making a movie here. If you read the four chapters that the Noah story takes place in, Noah doesn’t even speak. How are you going to cast Russell Crowe and not have him talk? Noah’s wife and his sons’ three wives aren’t even named in the Bible. If you read the story of Noah, it’s very straightforward. The character of Noah just builds the ark and collects the animals. But the struggles, the effort of building an ark, of being responsible for all those animals, being responsible for your family, it’s not explored at all. So how exciting to actually say, “Oh wow, here’s this great story, how do we put human emotion into it?”
So it sounds like you’re not anticipating much criticism. A lot of people are going to be like “What? Noah, drunk and naked? How dare you?!” It’s in the Bible. People are going to say, “Giants walking the earth? Fallen angels? How dare you?!” But it’s in there. Do you have any hopes for what people take away from the film? My job is first and foremost as an entertainer. I entertain people, and I try to make films that are exciting, and fun, and emotional, and moving, and filled with action, and that’s all I care about. With the good-and-evil tension, it seems like you’re content with just leaving that tension. Whereas other people might look for some conclusion. Yeah, but that’s not real. I think that’s the greatness of these stories, is that in that first story in Genesis, they talk about how temptation led to sin, and original sin, and how that defines who we are. To me, that struggle is a really great metaphor to understand our lives, how we live every day. All religion deals with that. If I were to guess which scene would make some people uncomfortable (without revealing spoilers), it seems like there’s a part where Noah appears to be in almost direct disobedience to God. All of it’s a test. We were trying to dramatize the decision God must have made when he decided to destroy all of humanity. At the beginning of the Noah story, everything is wicked and God wants to start over. The pain of that, the struggle of that, must have been immense. To basically go from creating this beautiful thing to watching it fall apart, and then doing this horrible thing where you have to try and start again. So we tried to take that huge cosmic idea and put it into a human’s hands. That’s what Noah’s story is. If you think about that moment, when God looks at the wickedness, it grieved him to his heart. We wanted to get that grief, that struggle, and stick it into Noah, so we can understand as people what it must have felt like. What would hurt more than to do—in vague terms—what Noah is about to do? Which for us was an exact metaphor for what the decision was, what the Creator went through. But he chose love! He chose mercy, which for us is the exact same story as the story in the Bible, just put into human terms. What is it that is so enduring about these biblical narratives? They’re the original superhero films and extraordinary stories.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Q&A: ‘Noah’ Director Darren Aronofsky on Justice vs. Mercy” Religion News Service, 2014, ReligionNews.com
Genesis 8:6-42 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty- seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. Then God said to Noah, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons ‘wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark
God’s Covenant With Noah Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (ESV)
I have set my bow
in the cloud and it shall be a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13