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Is The Uncharted Movie Ok For Kids? Parents Guide and Review

Posted on Last updated: March 9, 2024

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Uncharted is the latest video game to be turned into a movie- and we are here for it! A buddy adventure/heist extravaganza starring Tom Holland & Mark Wahlberg: what’s not to love here? Well… if your kids are asking to watch, there may be some things that you, as parents, don’t love. Is the Uncharted movie ok for kids? This parents guide and review will help you decide if Uncharted is safe for kids and kid-friendly for the tweens and teens in your household. ps- check out when you can go, run and pee during Uncharted so you don’t miss any action!

Table of Contents

About Uncharted (2022)

Street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.

What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs.

If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world’s oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother…but only if they can learn to work together.

Watch the Uncharted trailer here.

Read the movie quotes from Uncharted here.

Is Uncharted Ok For Kids? Parents Guide and Review

Tom Holland is arguably the biggest or one of the biggest stars on the planet right now.

If your kids watched Spider-Man: No Way Home, they are likely big fans and hoping to see his newest movie.

Is The Uncharted Movie Ok For Kids? In this parents guide and review, we’re breaking down the language, sex/nudity, and violence that happens in the movie to help you determine if watching Uncharted is safe for kids in your home.

Is Uncharted Ok For Kids? Sex and Nudity

We’ll start with the easy one: is there sex and nudity in Uncharted?

Nate, the main character, is seen a couple of times with his shirt off.

But other than that: there is no sex or nudity in the movie. There isn’t even a romance storyline in this one.

Two characters share a hotel room and are each seen in the same bed, but not at the same time. And the movie never suggests that they have hooked up or had sex- but you can deduce that they slept in the same bed.

Yes: people can share a bed just to sleep!

Uncharted is incredibly tame and safe for kids when it comes to sex or nudity and we feel Uncharted is ok for kids in this aspect.

Violence and Gore In The Uncharted Movie

For an action-adventure movie that is also rated PG-13, Uncharted has typical action violence but not very much blood or gore.

Hand-to-hand combat, chase scenes, weapons like swords, knives, and guns are all used during the movie. There are a lot of scenes where the characters are in great peril, especially at great heights.

People do die in the movie by being shot, falling from heights, knives, and explosions. But much of the actual death is implied and not shown on screen, which we found to be moderately kid-friendly.

There’s one scene where a death occurs in front of us that also shows a small amount of blood. For the record, the amount of blood is very little compared to what would actually happen in a real-life situation, so we’ll take that as a win here.

You do see a dead body at this moment.

We were pleasantly surprised that for the rating of the Uncharted movie at PG-13 that there wasn’t more onscreen death and destruction.

Is Uncharted Movie Scary?

We’d say it’s along the lines of an Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean with a little Goonies and Cocktail added in.

If your child can handle a few mild jump scares ala Indy, then they should not find Uncharted to be scary for them.

Language: Uncharted Parents Guide

When it comes to this parents’ guide for Uncharted, it might feel fairly safe and tame.

And truthfully, it is for the most part.

With sex and nudity being taken off the table and the gore and blood almost completely non-existent, why is Uncharted rated PG-13?

The language in Uncharted may be concerning for some families.

The good news is that the swears used were of the more mild types: @ss, d@mn, sh!t, son of a b!tch, and h@ll were all heard. The bad news is: they use these swears A LOT.

Other concerning language includes words like sucks and p!ss off, plus multiple uses of a diety as an exclamation with OMG-d, J@sus, and Holy Sh!t used frequently.

Nate grew up in a Catholic orphanage and has some thoughts about the nuns who raised him. There is a running joke about how “scary” nuns are, which may or may not be an issue for a Catholic family.

Do you need to know the video game to enjoy the Uncharted movie?

So we think you can go in “cold” so to speak and still have a great time during this one.

We enjoyed the movie and have no connection to the video game ourselves.

In fact, not being huge fans of Uncharted may have helped us enjoy it even more as there were no expectations.

We do suspect, however, that some of the Uncharted easter eggs and jokes were missed since we are not familiar. But even with that, the movie was a lot of fun!

Uncharted Age Rating

The Uncharted movie is rated PG-13 and has an almost 2 hours run time.

If you have teens or tweens, you should feel that Uncharted is safe and kid-friendly for them for the most part.

Can kids 10 and under watch Uncharted? That depends

As always, you know your family best. Is Uncharted movie ok for kids under 10?

If language isn’t a deal-breaker, then this movie could be enjoyed by a younger crowd, possibly even as low as 8 or 9, depending on your previous movie habits.

It’s fairly long, but the action-packed adventure keeps things moving and you truly don’t notice when the time is up!

Are There End-Credit Scenes in Uncharted?

Stick around for not 1 but 2 end-credit scenes in the Uncharted movie.

One occurs right away before the credits start to roll, but there is another one mid-credits.

Both set up the potential for additional movies in this series.

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Patty Holliday is a parent movie reviewer, writer, and podcaster living in the Washington, DC area. Her goal is to bridge the gap between casual fandom and picky critic with parent movie and television reviews. As a lifelong fangirl and pop culture connoisseur, she’s been creating online since 2009. You can find her work at No-Guilt Disney.com, No-Guilt Fangirl.com, No-Guilt Life, and as host of the top-rated No-Guilt Disney Podcast.

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Uncharted | 2022 | PG-13 | – 2.6.5

Uncharted SEX/NUDITY 2

Uncharted violence/gore 6, uncharted language 5, uncharted substance use, uncharted discussion topics, uncharted message.

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated , Special , Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.

REVIEWS See ratings & reviews at Critics.com

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Great movie lot's of the s-word, loved it - not too long at all, some stronger language but pretty mild action for younger kids, you need to be cool hearing sh*t every few minutes, lots of "s-word", lots of swearing…s-words.

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Uncharted review

Is the tom holland-starring action movie as good as the uncharted games it's based on.

Certificate: 12A

Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali

Release date: 2022

Based on the much loved video game franchise of the same name, Uncharted is a diet version of Indiana Jones that coasts by on the charisma of its star, Spider-Man’ s Tom Holland, and some fun action sequences.

Holland plays protagonist Nathan Drake, here a street-smart orphan with an in-depth knowledge of history (and buried treasure) who is also a dab hand at petty thievery. Wanting to find explorer Magellan’s lost fortune to honour his long-missing brother, Nathan teams up with seasoned (meaning: humourless) treasure hunter/thief Sully (Wahlberg) to find it.

Sully isn’t to be trusted, of course, and there are other people interested in the hoard, too, including lethal Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), rival Chloe (Ali) and financier-with-daddy-issues Moncada (Banderas). Their adventures take them scurrying along the rooftops and under the streets of Barcelona, and across the globe in search of Magellan’s missing gold-laden ships.

Fans of the games probably won’t be impressed (there is a nice little cameo to watch out for at least) as the movie doesn’t have enough jaw-dropping sequences to rival its computer game inspiration, while anyone who has seen the Indiana Jones movies (which are knowingly referenced) will wish the film had even half of that franchise’s wit.

There are other problems, too – Banderas is surprisingly muted, Tati Gabrielle and Sophia Ali’s characters are underwritten and Wahlberg just looks like he’d rather be somewhere else (is he upset he wasn’t cast as Nathan Drake, maybe?)

That being said, there are some terrific moments as well, such as the opening falling-from-a-plane sequence, the Barcelona chase and treasure hunt, and a bonkers and logic-free finale that involves historic ships being dangled from helicopters.

Plus, Holland is extremely watchable as the adventurous Drake, and while this never reaches the heights of an Indiana Jones movie (though it is better than Crystal Skull ) or The Goonies , it is nonetheless a fun adventure movie that should entertain kids and anyone who looking for an easy to digest slice of big screen adventure.

Is Uncharted suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...

This is a 12A certificate and is aimed at older kids and adults.

There are action sequences involving fights, guns and swords that may be too much for the under-10s, and characters are threatened, often in danger and at one point almost drown.

There is also a brief scene in which a character’s throat is cut and blood is shown.

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Tags: action , adventure , Barcelona , game , Indiana Jones , Magellan , Mark Wahlberg , Playstation , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Tom Holland , Uncharted

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'Uncharted' review: a fun-filled adventure and proper video game adaptation.

Ruben fleischer's 'uncharted' stars tom holland and mark wahlberg in a wild blockbuster quest for hidden riches..

What to Watch Verdict

'Uncharted' is a rip-roaring modern treasure hunt that plays by video game rules and has a blast doing so.

🗺️ Tom Holland sells his Nathan Drake.

🗺️ It's got major action beats.

🗺️ Goes "big" and "dumb" like a video game movie should.

🗺️ Massive fun.

🗺️ It's a templated adventure script.

🗺️ Like I said, "big" and "dumb."

🗺️ Audiences must be along for the whole crazy ride.

Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted is the kind of video game movie that playfully enjoys being a video game movie and revels in how silly video game plots can get. Tom Holland's Nathan Drake finds himself on an incredible journey that spans the globe and defies rationale — far beyond what Indiana Jones might comprehend. It's more in line with National Treasure , but even louder and with even more extravagant action, which is a good thing with such a by-the-book screenplay that submits itself to the kind of spectacular events made for controllable game playthroughs.

Fans of Naughty Dog's cinematic series about Nathan Drake's exploits will find a younger Nathan portrayed by Holland. Mark Wahlberg co-stars as Victor "Sully" Sullivan, who encounters Nathan for the first time — well before their longstanding and much-storied partnership. Sully's chasing Ferdinand Magellan's lost fortune — from the House Of Moncada — but so is the House's prodigal son, Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas). It's Sully and Nathan vs Santiago and his assassin sidekick Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), but there's more at stake than just riches for Nathan. Sully's the last person who's seen Nathan's brother Sam alive — searching for the same treasure. If Nathan locates that missing gold, maybe he'll reunite with Sam after many lonely years.

It's a film almost a decade in the making — dating Sony's first intentions to bring Nathan Drake to the silver screen — which initially had Mark Wahlberg in the Nathan Drake role. You can't ignore the specter of doubt surrounding movies like Uncharted that get stuck in development hell, but Fleischer handles the challenge well. Newcomers to Nathan Drake's legacy and die-hards, who've maxed out their Uncharted Playstation achievements, are on equal ground given how this prequel starts fresh. Nathan is a cocktail-swinging New Yorker who Sully selects to go on the adventure of a lifetime — there's not much else to know about the backstory outside Nathan's brotherly woes, sticky fingers and the constant reminder that Nathan should trust no treasure hunter.

Tom Holland's performance as Nathan Drake overcomes the two biggest fears headlining internet conversations. Could he prove why the fan-favorite, Nathan Fillion, wasn't selected as the picture-perfect Nathan Drake? Would Holland be able to shed the "young Marvel hero" persona that's currently his brand? Both questions are answered by a certainly no gruffer and yet believably action hero-y Holland, whose chemistry with Wahlberg is double aces. The two swindlers and thieves maintain an antsy repertoire that proves why you can't trust swindlers and thieves but slowly builds their relationship into more than just throwaway accomplices. Nathan's pure heart and Sully's cynical business approach lead a winning expedition into action-comedy beats that don't skimp on either (it's humorous only when appropriate).

As accomplices and villains get involved, Holland and Wahlberg only shine brighter. Sophia Ali's presence as rival-slash-helper Chloe Frazer is the foil to Nathan's innocence as her guile gets her what she wants and keeps both men on their toes. Assassin, Tati Gabrielle, is a stone-hardened badass who rightfully amplifies tension whenever her knockout killer character, Braddock, steps into the frame. Antonio Banderas is there for namesake appeal and to sip fancy liquors while Braddock does the heavy fight choreography lifting — which Gabrielle executes with ease. More Tati Gabrielle in ass-kicker roles, please!

As for the adventurer perils and mega-sized action set pieces of Uncharted , expect plenty of "oohs" and "ahhs". Everything from ancient temple chambers with signature traps, like water floods and shot arrows, to aerial ship battles as helicopters transport centuries-old wooden vessels with working cannons. Fleischer ensures that countless sequences feel at home within video game structures by throwing logic to the wind in favor of excitement — especially when recreating the ludicrous survival mission that is Uncharted 3's cargo plane crash. It's "big" and "loud" in all the right ways, reinforced by Nathan and Sully's wisecracks as they defy death— whether free-falling miles above ground or parkouring across Spanish rooftops. There's an Indiana Jones glimmer to it all through winks and nods, but Uncharted easily keeps stride with the classics.

Against all odds, Ruben Fleischer breaks the Uncharted curse and has created something franchisable that puts (and keeps) butts in seats. Tom Holland has laid the groundwork for a Nathan Drake he can mature into, the same for Mark Wahlberg's curiously cat-friendly version of Sully. The swashbuckling, conquer-the-world, no-fear nature of Uncharted is alive and well in this enjoyable blockbuster treat. One that wears its intentions proudly like the gaudiest golden jewelry, somehow sporting the charisma and bravado to pull off the whole nutty ensemble.

Matt Donato is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic who stays up too late typing words for What To Watch, IGN, Paste, Bloody Disgusting, Fangoria and countless other publications. He is a member of Critics Choice and co-hosts a weekly livestream with Perri Nemiroff called the Merri Hour. You probably shouldn't feed him after midnight, just to be safe.

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‘Uncharted’ Review: Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in a Video-Game Movie That’s Better Than Most of Them (but That’s Not Saying Much)

It's watchable in a thin "Raiders of the Lost National Treasure of the Fast & Furious Caribbean" way.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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I try to go into every movie with open eyes and an open mind, but I confess that this Buddhist goal can be seriously tested by the prospect of sitting through a video-game movie. Sorry, but I’ve been burned too often — by “Super Mario Bros.” (the first one out of the gate, back in 1993), by “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Kombat” and their sequels, by the 637 “Resident Evil” films, by the operatic death-plunge bombast of “Assassins’ Creed,” which looked like it was adapted from the 100 greatest prog-rock album covers. Are there good video-game movies? I enjoyed the 2018 reboot of “Tomb Raider.” The audiences for these films, who tend to be steeped in the games, would say that any number of them are good. But for those like me, who are looking at the movies as movies rather than live-action adjuncts, there can be a sludgy sameness to them: the kinetic fight-club visuals, the skeletal scripts, the “world-building” that starts to look like a series of digital-production-design show reels.

But “ Uncharted ,” based on the Naughty Dog game whose first installment dropped on PlayStation in 2007, is at least trying for something. It’s built around an appealing pair of actors: Tom Holland , who I think registers more vividly as he grows less boyish (he’s in a more rough-and-tumble mode here), and Mark Wahlberg , who knows how to play a hard-ass who is also a trickster. (It’s no insult to Wahlberg to say that his intelligence is his secret weapon.) Holland is Nate Drake, the valiant but naïve adventurer hero, and Wahlberg is Victor Sullivan, who becomes Nate’s mentor by recruiting him to go on a mission to find the legendary stash of gold, which is essentially pirate booty, that was discovered 500 years ago during the around-the-world expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Can you say “Raiders of the Lost National Treasure of the Fast & Furious Caribbean”?

“Uncharted” opens on one of those leap-ahead-to-the-middle-of-the-story moments, so that the film can entice us with its most astonishing sequence: an unintentional airplane escape, with Nate, having fallen out of the plane, shimmying across a roped chain of bulky oversize packing cubes, each equipped with a parachute — a sequence that may sound standard, but the technology for this kind of thing has advanced, so that it’s done in a seemingly all-in-one-shot breathless way, until you could swear that Tom Holland is actually thousands of feet up in the air, hanging on with one finger. It’s the kind of sequence that makes the video-game-movie skeptic in me sit back and say, “Okay, cool, I’ll go with this.”

Back on the ground, before all that happened, Nate is a New York bartender who’s also a pickpocket and a loner, because he grew up in the St. Francis Boys Orphanage with his older brother, Sam (Rudy Pankow), who got kicked out, leaving the 10-year-old Nate to fend for himself. When Wahlberg’s Sully shows up out of the blue, it’s not really a coincidence — all the connections in the movie trace back to Nate’s vanished sibling — but these two are still thrown together as if they’d been assigned to the same cop car. “Uncharted” is a buddy movie that takes place in the air, on the water, and in tombs with mechanical puzzle entrances tucked away in the catacombs of Barcelona.

In a fun early sequence, Nate and Sully infiltrate an auction so they can steal its prize antique: a dripped-gold ruby-studded key that looks like an ornate cross. There are two of the keys out there, and for them to work you need both. The pair’s rival in all this is Santiago Moncada, whose ancestors funded the Magellan mission; he’s played by Antonio Banderas , who glowers in one-dimensional villain mode. “Uncharted” is essentially an action thriller about two lethally competing scavenger-hunt teams.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, who made “Venom” and the “Zombieland” films, the movie is less obviously video-game-ish than most entries in the genre. Yet after the initial fireworks, you begin to see the design of the thing. “Uncharted” must have looked like a natural movie to make, because the game it’s based on is so “cinematic.” But what that means, in practice, is that the game crossbreeds legendary movie tropes in an abstract way, and when they’re adapted back to the big screen the abstraction is still there. “Uncharted” is a lively but thinly scripted and overlong mad-dash caper movie, propelled by actors you wish, after a while, had more interesting things to say and do.

In a scene that takes place in a bedroom between Nate and Chloe (Sophia Ali), who has the other golden cross, I was struck by how the movie makes a point of showing off the very buff Holland, but what would have been a romance a decade ago is now…not a romance. (Maybe it’s set to become one?) I’m not saying the film needed a cliché love story to snuggle up against its other clichés, but at least it would have been an additional element. The vibe of “Uncharted” is breathless and a bit neutral. I chuckled at the Scottish hooligan (Steven Waddington) with a brogue so thick that Nate has to ask him to repeat his threats just so he can understand them, and I enjoyed the playful way Wahlberg suggests that his character might be a scoundrel. The climax, in which Magellan’s ancient ships are hoisted into the Philippines by bottomless helicopters, is both absurd and spectacular — a nice combo. But if you sit through the credits, you get not one but two separate preview sequences, the second one hidden like an Easter Egg. I don’t know if I’d call that presumptuous, but I’d definitely call it optimism.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Feb. 14, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 116 MIN.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Releasing release of a Columbia Pictures, Arad Productions, Atlas Entertainment, PlayStaytion Productions production. Producers: Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, Ari Arad. Executive producers: Ruben Fleischer, Robert J. Dohrmann, David Bernad, Tom Holland, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Neil Druckman, Evan Wells, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway.
• Crew: Director: Ruben Fleischer. Screenplay: Rafe Lee Judkins, Jon Hanley Rosenberg, Mark. D. Walker. Camera: Chung-hoon Chung. Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson. Music: Ramin Djawadi.
• With: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia All, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas.

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Uncharted review – familiar, charted territory

This review of the film Uncharted does not contain spoilers. 

Yes, videogame adaptations very rarely ever work. Uncharted , however, has a built-in audience and a mainstream film fan premise that others did not have. Here, director Ruben Fleischer attempts to straighten out his R-rated career with an adventure film aimed at families to get back into theaters. (Strange for a family-friendly movie to have such a graphic throat-cutting scene, however). While his movie rarely veers away from the charted territory, the film has enough fun with itself for an enjoyable ride.

The movie is about a couple of con artists who are hot on the trail of Ferdinand Magellan’s lost treasure. Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is a young bartender who steals patrons’ valuable possessions while serving drinks. The other is Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg). Sully watches Drake pull a diamond bracelet off a young woman by distracting her with the lighter his older brother gave him. Later, Drake finds Sully’s business card in his pocket, missing the jewelry. This is your basic start to any caper film. Think Ocean’s 11 where Danny Ocean stole Linus Caldwell’s score.

Sully thinks Drake has a certain spidey-sense about him. He wants to recruit him to find that treasure. The key is stealing a gold cross being auctioned off. They don’t have the money to purchase such an item. Not to mention a ruthless millionaire. (This is where Col. Nathan R. Jessep would step into the scene and ask, “Is there another kind?”). His name is Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), and he has hired a cutthroat henchwoman named Braddock ( You’s Tati Gabrielle). The ride is Chloe ( Grey’s Anatomy’s Sophia Ali), another cross that completes the set. Together, they run across the globe fighting Moncada’s hired muscle and themselves. 

Uncharted is a mix of a charismatic cast with evident chemistry between leads, classic tropes, and storytelling plotholes. The script has too many hands, going through multiple rewrites. It is remarkably diluted when it comes to details about the mystery to track the treasure. For instance, you don’t get the exciting history lesson like we would in Indiana Jones. Also, some of the adventures can be eye-roll-inducing. Do you mean to tell me there is a secret underground chamber that can be seen from a drainage grate that no one has thought to look at for the last 500 years? Not to mention, the big reveal has one of the characters needing to dive underwater to get a secret chamber, only for the bad guys to float in by boat?

Yet, the entire movie can be a lot of fun. Holland and Wahlberg both have enough boyish charm — yes, even at the latter’s age — and buddy chemistry to keep things light throughout the adventure picture. Even Ali’s Chloe and Holland have an apparent heat on screen. However, what engages the viewer is the final’s act terrific, special effects-laden action sequence, resembling an old-fashioned swashbuckling ship battle. It’s surprisingly effective. 

Uncharted does land the ship as a popcorn action-adventure picture designed to entertain so you can turn your brain off and enjoy the ride. For some, it may be familiar, charted territory. For me, I chose to power down and enjoy the ride despite the apparent flaws because it doesn’t pretend to be anything that it isn’t. 

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How is a movie based on a video game more soulless than the game itself? The knock against the world of gaming has long been that they lack a human element, but Ruben Fleischer ’s “Uncharted” feels emptier than the award-winning franchise on which it’s based. Dominated by green screen special effects and thin treasure-hunt plotting, “Uncharted” fundamentally lacks the sense of adventure that turned the Sony games into some of the most beloved of all time. What’s most startling is how much the games themselves feel more cinematic in terms of world building, character, and narrative than the actual movie. It’s not quite as disastrous as some video game adaptations, and it’s at least light enough on its feet to never insult the intelligence of its fan base as so many of these movies tend to do. However, “Uncharted” seems to want to ride the goodwill of the video game adventures of Nathan Drake more than create any of its own; it takes no risks and feels like a bare minimum effort in terms of storytelling. Roger famously said that video games can never be art . The ones on which this movie is based are certainly more artistic.

Nathan Drake ( Tom Holland ) was conceived as a throwback to Indiana Jones and the serial adventure films that inspired him. He should be a smooth-talking treasure hunter, someone who exists in a slightly gray moral area wherein stealing priceless artifacts is warranted because no one else can really appreciate them like Drake. Holland has the agility but quite simply lacks the weight and world-weariness needed for a character like Drake, who was raised in an orphanage and is willing to steal to make ends meet. If Indiana was typically the smartest person in a room, Drake needs to be the one with the sharpest instincts, someone who sees the puzzles of history from a place of expertise and courage. Holland is a smart actor, but he’s just wrong here, always looking a little bit like a kid dressing up as his favorite video game character.

While working at a bar and stealing jewelry from his patrons, Drake is approached by Victor Sullivan aka Sully ( Mark Wahlberg ), who tells him that he got close to one of the most famous lost treasures in history with Nathan’s brother Sam. They stole the diary of the famous explorer Juan Sebastian Elcano, which will guide them to treasure that was hidden by the Magellan expedition. They quickly cross paths with Santiago Moncada (an Antonio Banderas so underutilized that one has to believe half his part was cut), the heir to the family that funded the original expedition. Moncada’s will is enforced by the tough Jo Braddock ( Tati Gabrielle ) and the boys reunite with an old colleague of Sully’s in Barcelona named Chloe Frazier ( Sophia Ali , who pretty much steals the movie).

“Uncharted” bounces these characters off each other on a journey to Spain and the Philippines, but nothing has any weight to it. It’s green screen performing that ignores how much setting can matter in a film like this one. Design never once feels like a consideration, whether Nathan and Chloe are crawling through a nondescript tunnel to hidden treasure or Sully is getting into one of the few fight scenes in an actual Papa John’s. A film like “Uncharted” needs to transport audiences. We need to go on the journey, not just watch actors pretend to fall out of planes. The “Uncharted” games take players around the world. You’ll never once get that feeling during this cold, distant adventure film.

If anything saves “Uncharted” from the depths of the worst video game adaptations, it’s the relative charm of the cast. Holland may be miscast, but he’s just an incredibly likable movie star, and I hope he can find parts that better utilize his charms. Wahlberg creates a nice balance between his charisma and the exhausted tone of a treasure hunter who has seen and done enough, and just wants that final gig that can set him up for life. Banderas is wasted and Gabrielle is inconsistent, but Ali is arguably the one performer who gets that “Uncharted” should be fun. She gives the film some much-needed energy and unpredictability when she's on-screen.

“Uncharted” is another one of those projects that has been through so many potential production teams over the years that it lost its identity. There are reports going back to 2008 about different filmmakers trying to get this movie made and David O. Russell , Neil Burger , Joe Carnahan , Shawn Levy , Dan Trachtenberg , and Travis Knight were all rumored or even attached at different points. When a project goes through so many iterations over the years, it can often lead to a final film that feels like a compromise, a watered-down version that took the most common, most basic elements of everything that had been suggested over the years. “Uncharted” checks boxes for fans and newbies but does so in such a predictable manner that it lacks any edge or spark. I’ve played through some of the “Uncharted” games from beginning to end more than once, a multiple-hour commitment. It may only take two to watch it, but I’ll probably never see this movie again.

Opens in theaters on Friday, February 18 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Uncharted (2022)

Rated PG-13 for violence/action and language.

116 minutes

Tom Holland as Nathan Drake

Mark Wahlberg as Victor 'Sully' Sullivan

Antonio Banderas as Santiago Moncada

Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer

Tati Gabrielle as Braddock

Steven Waddington as The Scotsman

Pingi Moli as Hugo

• Ruben Fleischer

Writer (story)

• Rafe Judkins
• Jon Hanley Rosenberg
• Mark D. Walker
• Matt Holloway

Cinematographer

• Chung-hoon Chung
• Chris Lebenzon
• Richard Pearson
• Ramin Djawadi

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 18, 2022
• Tom Holland as Nathan Drake; Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan; Antonio Banderas as Santiago Moncada; Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer; Tati Gabrielle as Braddock; Steven Waddington as The Scotsman; Pingi Moli as Hugo

Home Release Date

• May 10, 2022
• Ruben Fleischer

Distributor

• Columbia Pictures

Movie Review

When Sam and Nathan Drake were young, they always dreamed of becoming treasure hunters. It was in their blood, Sam told his little brother, because they were descended from pirates .

Unfortunately, Nathan never got to go on some wild adventure seeking a priceless fortune because Sam ran off without him to avoid juvenile detention.

But that all changes when Victor Sullivan, aka “Sully,” shows up seeking Nathan’s help.

See, unlike Nathan, Sully’s actually seen Sam here and there these past 10 years—worked with him, in fact—tracking down the lost gold of Ferdinand Magellan (the explorer credited with completing the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1522).

For Sully, it’s just a paycheck, a way to get rich quick. But for Nathan, it means finding his lost brother and fulfilling their family legacy.

Positive Elements

Sully uses Nathan as a means to an end. In his line of work, you can’t trust anybody . And he basically admits he left a previous partner to die when things got hairy. However, Nathan’s goodness rubs off on the older man, spurring him to make some redemptive and sacrificial choices later in the story.

Sam abandons Nathan when they’re just kids, but he makes a vow to come back eventually for his little brother. Unfortunately, he never does anything more than send postcards to Nathan, and this creates a feeling of bitterness in Nathan towards his big bro.

However, Nathan eventually learns that there were extenuating circumstances that prevented Sam from returning—and that Sam may have even been protecting his kin by staying away. And this fosters a spirit of hope for reconciliation in the younger sibling.

Spiritual Elements

Sam and Nathan grow up in a Catholic orphanage. As adults, neither are churchgoers, but Nathan feels extra guilty when breaking into a church—though, admittedly, this may be due more to his fear of punishment by the nuns than his fear of God.

Many of the clues to the Magellan treasure are linked to religious icons. Two keys are made in the shape of a cross. There are references to heaven and hell. Several clues are hidden in a church (and Nathan and Sully have to mildly desecrate it to find them). Nathan is nearly killed when he ignores a symbol called “the Eye of Providence.”

Someone sarcastically quotes “thou shalt not steal” from the Ten Commandments. A street performer is dressed as a devil-angel type character.

A man says he has faith in God (and crosses himself) but not in his son.

Sexual Content

An exercise montage shows a shirtless Nathan. Some women wear revealing outfits and bikini tops. One woman’s formfitting top leaves little to the imagination. Innuendo suggests that two characters previously had a sexual relationship. People dance in a nightclub. Someone jokes about the drink “Sex on a Beach.”

Nathan and fellow treasure hunter Chloe share a bedroom one night. We never see them in bed together, and there’s nothing to suggest they did anything besides sleep. But Nathan harbors a crush on Chloe, so the fact that they shared the same bed could send some questionable messages to younger viewers. (Nathan is also shirtless when he wakes the following morning.)

Violent Content

Treasure hunters often get into fistfights, gunfights—and sometimes even sword fights. And you can imagine that they all sustain a number of injuries during these scuffles. (One woman is thrown through a glass wall, and Nathan bleeds after getting knocked unconscious with the butt of a gun.)

Several people hurtle through the air to their deaths after falling out the back of a cargo plane without parachutes. (More die later in a similar manner after being thrown from a boat carried by a helicopter.) Nathan accidentally kicks one or two enemy goons off the plane himself, shouting apologies for what he calls “totally reactive” actions.

To be fair, these men were firing guns and trying to kill him, but it’s still jarring when cargo crates smack into people, sending them to their deaths, if not killing them on impact. Nathan later unapologetically shoots a helicopter from the air with a cannonball, sending its occupants to their fiery deaths.

Someone is crushed by a falling boat. A woman slits the throats of several colleagues. A man commits patricide to stop his father from giving away their family fortune. We hear that a man was left for dead after he was shot. Death threats are exchanged.

Two people are nearly shot by arrows and drowned by booby traps. A boy is saved from falling off a balcony by his brother.

Crude or Profane Language

Nearly 30 uses of the s-word. We also hear frequent uses of “a–,” “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—” and “p-ss.” There’s an incomplete “What the—.” God’s name is abused 10 times, and Jesus’ name is abused twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

People drink alcohol. Nathan drinks a 500-year-old bottle of rum that he finds on a pirate ship. Nathan works as a bartender before Sully recruits him, and he displays his mixologist skills throughout the film. A girl smokes a cigarette. A man steals a cigar.

Other Negative Elements

People lie, steal, pickpocket and double-cross each other. Someone says that money changes people, making them greedy and selfish.

Sam is nearly sent to juvenile detention for stealing from a museum (as it’s his third strike); but he runs away, avoiding capture. We hear that another man was discharged from the military for looting artifacts.

As a child, Nathan tries to imagine that he isn’t an orphan and that his parents are just missing, but Sam harshly tells him this isn’t true. Later, we hear that Chloe’s dad sold the first artifact she ever discovered as a child (rather than donate it to a museum) and that she never saw him again after that.

Nathan tells Sully that Magellan’s expedition was never about exploration but about money. And since Magellan’s crew hid the gold after his untimely death, his patrons never saw a single nugget.

Uncharted is based on the popular video game franchise , and it’s a pretty even mix of Tomb Raider and The Goonies .

Language is the most obvious issue here, with the s-word count reaching well into double digits. There’s also quite a bit of violence, with one character slitting throats as casually as she would use a letter opener.

However, it’s the totally pointless and seemingly random workout montage that caught me off guard with its obvious objectification of the lead actor. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to thinking of Tom Holland as Peter Parker, a high schooler , but his shirtless workout scenes felt icky —like I was watching a younger brother.

The film’s creators have unashamedly cashed in on Holland’s appeal to young, female audiences. And while this isn’t anything new in Hollywood, it’s definitely a subject worth discussing with your teens.

Because it’s easy to say “no” to a movie that has sex scenes or nudity. What’s harder to moderate are films that simply suggest someone’s desirability. It grooms audiences to think of that person in an adult mindset, further suggesting that it’s OK to objectify them and possibly others as well.

And all of this is really quite a shame since the film didn’t need any of those content problems to be entertaining.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Uncharted Review

11 Feb 2022

Back in 2011, in a commercial made for the Japanese market but which has since appeared online, Harrison Ford sat down in front of a TV to play the third video game in the Uncharted series. “Fantastic. Oh, incredible,” said the star, as he hammered the X button with his thumb. “So cinematic.” It was a publicity coup — the actual Indiana Jones stepping into the pixelly shoes of his gaming equivalent, Nathan Drake. It was yet more evidence that Uncharted — a brilliantly executed PlayStation adventure franchise which is, yes, cinematic as hell — was destined to become a film series too. But the ad also hinted strongly at the biggest problem facing anyone daring to take Drake to the big screen: the shadow of Spielberg’s Indy films, the gold standard for movies about treasure-hunters dodging dusty booby-traps and falling out of planes.

After roughly 15 years of development, Uncharted the movie is finally here. Dusty booby-traps and plummets from planes are present and correct. Alas, despite the promise and all that time expended, it’s disappointingly weak sauce. For die-hard fans of the games, there’s little that lives up to their ingeniously unfolding action set-pieces, such as the train sequence in Uncharted 2 which builds and builds in intensity until a cliffhanger that involves actual cliff-hanging, or the wild horseback gun-battle in part 3. Non-Drakeheads, meanwhile, are likely to wonder what all the fuss was about. What’s on screen is amiable enough, a hunt for $4 billion of pirate booty that involves a lot of double-crossing (plus, thanks to the film’s twin MacGuffin, a pair of crucifixes, a literal double-cross). But while it clearly aims for Raiders Of The Lost Ark — “When did you decide to become Indiana Jones?” someone says at one point, while our heroes’ trek is depicted by a red dotted line on a map, Indy-style — it lands somewhere around National Treasure 2 instead.

Antonio Banderas makes for a colourless villain, with monologues about “diversified investments” so inert that even his goons look bored.

Over the years, the search to fill the two lead roles — Drake and his grizzled mentor Sully — cycled through pretty much every actor in Hollywood with a gym membership card. It finally landed on Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg , two actors who can be charming and funny individually, but who struggle to muster up much in the way of comic chemistry here. It doesn’t help that the dialogue they’re given is significantly lamer than that uttered by their video-game counterparts; as they bicker in catacombs over ancient riddles (Wahlberg was at least well-cast in the sense that his resting expression suggests he is perpetually trying to crack an ancient riddle), scenes start to feel like cutscenes that you wish you could skip. Antonio Banderas , likewise, makes for a colourless villain, with monologues about “diversified investments” so inert that even his goons look bored.

There are moments when it jolts into life: a well-executed, lengthy single shot tracking Drake as he freefalls from an aircraft; some Goonies -esque underground map-syncing. But only the final 20 minutes, with a pirate-ship battle that takes to the skies, lives up to the giddy, inventive spectacle of the source material. Otherwise, Uncharted plods around an all-too-familiar map.

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Review: The Uncharted Movie is Surprisingly Good Fun

I was dubious of the Uncharted film when it was announced, mainly because of the casting.

Tom Holland as Nathan Drake? Mark Wahlberg as Sully? It just didn’t seem right. As a Cineworld Unlimited card member, and someone who likes to give things a go before making a final decision, however, I’m so glad I took a chance on it. It might actually be the best film adaptation of a video game yet.

It’s easy to get over what you may perceive as terrible casting when you realise that the Nate and Sully presented here aren’t quite their video game counterparts yet. Set before the first game, Nate is just a young bartender at the start of this tale, distracting punters with his quick tongue while deftly lifting their valuables. But then he meets Sully, and while he initially wants nothing to do with him and his proposition, he soon comes around.

What changes his mind? The fact that Sully knows Nate’s brother, Sam. He walked out of Nate’s life many years ago and, despite promising to be there for him, he hasn’t seen him since. Sully has worked with him though, and that spurs Nate into taking on a job that will possibly lead to the pair finding legendary pirate treasure. Needless to say, anyone that has played an Uncharted game will find themselves right at home with the story.

Of course, this film adaptation of Uncharted takes some liberties when it comes to the source material, but that’s to be expected to keep things fresh and unpredictable. You have some new villains, for example; Antonio Banderas plays Santiago Moncada, a big money boss also after the treasure Nate and Sully are searching for, and he’s hired a no-nonsense mercenary called Braddock to assist him, played by You ‘s Tati Gabrielle.

Another familiar character is provided, however, in the form of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy protagonist Chloe Frazer, played by Sophia Ali. With no honour among thieves, much of the film is spent wondering who’s going to double-cross who – and it does happen fairly often, keeping you on your toes. Chloe’s also very much a love interest for young Nate, who’s drawn in by her good looks and familiar love of both treasure and history.

As the minutes fly by, you’re treated to one scene after another that could feasibly be from one of the video games. There’s an auction heist, for example, a secret underground chamber that requires numerous puzzles to be solved, multiple fist fights, and many high-octane action sequences filled with “Oh, crap!” moments. There’s a very welcome cameo, too, that should put a big smile on the faces of Uncharted game fans. Overall, it’s about everything you could ask for in an Uncharted movie.

Releasing in North America on February 18th, Uncharted looks set to perform well. It deserves to, as well. Sony certainly seems to have faith in it, with a post-credits scene alluding to a sequel. In fact, with a The Last of Us TV series on the way, and a snazzy new PlayStation Productions animation created, it seems like we may get more films and TV series based on PlayStation games in the future. If they’re up to the quality of Uncharted , then that’s fine by me.

Uncharted (2022) Film Review – GameSpew’s Score

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Uncharted review

A forgettable fortune.

TechRadar Verdict

The best way to describe Sony’s Uncharted is to say that, in all likelihood, it is exactly the film you expect it to be. Casting missteps aside, director Ruben Fleischer delivers a perfectly harmless adventure flick that meets the low bar set by its popcorn premise. But Uncharted offers so little in the way of original ideas that many will be left wondering why the project exists in the first place. Those new to Nathan Drake and his video game exploits will find more to enjoy here than fans of the beloved PlayStation franchise, though anyone who possesses a passing familiarity with the action movie genre should prepare to leave this treasure hunt feeling no richer.

Impressive choreography

Charismatic, if miscast, leads

Devoid of original ideas

Contradictory premise

Excessive CGI

Uninspired script

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Uncharted feels like a movie that was always destined to disappoint. For starters, a feature-length adaptation of Naughty Dog’s immensely popular video game franchise had been the subject of Hollywood mutterings for over a decade. During that time, six different directors – including David O. Russell, Shawn Levy and Travis Knight – periodically attached and detached themselves from the project before Venom filmmaker Ruben Fleischer finally bit the bullet in 2020. 

Spider-Man star Tom Holland joined the cast in 2017, but only after Mark Wahlberg – who signed on to proceedings over a decade ago – stepped aside as the movie’s lead to instead play the wily mentor, Victor "Sully" Sullivan, to Holland’s younger Nathan “Nate” Drake. 

The intervening years saw several scripts bounce around the desks of various studios, while the cast and crew behind the still-performing Uncharted game series slalomed between endorsement, skepticism and indifference towards the seemingly cursed Hollywood project. 

So, how does the final feature fare? Well, let’s just say that Sony ’s Uncharted definitely wasn’t worth the grueling odyssey it took to create it.

Amateur adventurers 

Plot-wise, Uncharted takes inspiration from the fourth game in Naughty Dog’s series, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , and finds Nathan Drake on the scent of a treasure trove thought to be hidden among the remnants of a historic Portuguese expedition. With fellow explorer Sully in tow, Drake travels across the globe in search of the fortune, all the while trying to outwit a ruthless financier (Antonio Banderas) who believes the gold to be his birthright.

But we’ll come back to all that later – let’s first address the elephant in the room.

Unfortunately, Holland’s casting as Nate – the dashing virtual protagonist of every mainline Uncharted title – instantly became the unwelcome cloud hanging over this long-awaited movie adaptation. Uncharted’s fan-favorite hero is a hunky, stubble-laden adventurer with a Bond-like hardiness – Holland, through no fault of his own, is the antithesis of that description. 

It’s understandable, then, that fans of the game series voiced their doubts about the decision so intensely. To his credit, Holland reportedly gained 18 pounds of muscle (while simultaneously training for Spider-Man: No Way Home ) in an effort to better match Drake’s in-game physique – and he certainly looks bigger than ever – but fears that the young British actor wouldn’t possess the same rugged charm as the famed treasure hunter were justified. 

Still, Holland attacks the role with all the energy we’ve come to expect from the superstar. He puts his choreography skills and boyish enthusiasm to excellent use in some impressive fight sequences and equally daring stunts – but he is not the Nate we know. 

None of that would matter, of course, if Uncharted really did center around a younger, more inexperienced protagonist at the beginning of his swashbuckling career. Rafe Lee Judkins’ script is billed as an origin story, predating the first entry in the game series (2007’s Uncharted: Drake's Fortune), that finds Nate ready to learn the tricks of the trade. But there’s very little learning done here. 

Although we first meet Holland’s character as a bartender, it doesn’t take long before he’s flipping, fighting and falling his way across various countries on a dangerous quest for lost gold. We’re supposed to believe that this is Nate’s first globe-trotting treasure hunt, yet he is often the one pointing Wahlberg’s Sully and the similarly experienced Chloe (Sophia Ali) in the right direction.

It doesn’t help, either, that the movie dances to the beat of Drake’s final video game outing. While it’s undeniably enjoyable to see Holland wear the character’s iconic henley-holster combo, it all happens far too quickly in a story that supposedly charts his origins.

And then there’s Wahlberg’s Sully. The father figure to Nate, Naughty Dog’s version of Sully is a world-weary explorer who exudes old-school charm – sometimes wise, sometimes wrong, always cool (like Paul Newman in The Color of Money). Here, though, we don’t get the same character. We don’t get the red shirt. We don’t get the mustache. Instead, we get Mark Wahlberg doing his best Mark Wahlberg impression; great for the movie’s humor, but less brilliant for the master-apprentice dynamic between its two main men.

Both leads, then – while undoubtedly charismatic and confident in their respective roles – are fatally miscast, which wouldn’t be a problem if Uncharted told a totally different story. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained 

And therein lies the second dagger in the movie’s heart. Uncharted does nothing to push the boundaries of its genre nor subvert the expectations of returning fans. It borrows too much from the plot of the fourth game and recycles tired tropes from more established action franchises like Mission: Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean. Ironically, the events of Uncharted are very charted. 

This near total absence of imagination is made worse by an over-reliance on CGI, which often takes away from Holland’s excellent stunt work – the airborne sequence, for instance, is not so much impressive as it is downright ridiculous. Even in moments where we’re encouraged to marvel at Uncharted’s beautiful locations, some obviously animated environments detract from the spectacle. 

Again, though, this seems like an inevitable plague of the project. Video game adaptations have come a long way in recent years, but dramatizing a title that already plays like a movie presents a very particular type of challenge. Uncharted 4 is a stunning video game because it lets players do the running, jumping and treasure hunting themselves – it’s nowhere near as much fun to watch Holland and Wahlberg throw goons off the side of a virtual pirate ship. 

It must be said that director Ruben Fleischer does the basics well – there is very little to criticize in Uncharted from a technical point of view – but most adult movie-goers will likely feel as though they’ve seen all of this a thousand times over. 

Our verdict

In all, then, it’s no wonder that a rocky road to production left Sony’s Uncharted movie gathering dust for over a decade. It isn’t a badly made film, per se, but the project offers almost nothing in terms of added value and contradicts itself with an over-familiar story that’s entirely at odds with its supposedly reinvented characters. 

Despite their best efforts, Uncharted’s lead actors will leave returning fans cold, and the movie’s lack of identity – save for some smartly choreographed fight scenes – makes it nothing more than mindless, harmless entertainment.

Forget the treasure; in the inevitable follow-up, Nathan Drake should hunt for some originality, instead.

Uncharted is in UK theaters now and hits US theaters on February 18.

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.  Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.

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