Teacher Guide
Learning goals, teaching notes, and answer keys.
View Teacher NotesPaper & online answer keysCity of Ember Movie Guide
Choose the format that fits your classroom, then explore the film through focused questions and evidence.
About the Film
Lina and Doon investigate failing systems and neglected instructions in an underground city. Analyze how evidence, cooperation, and institutional secrecy shape their response to crisis.
Movie at a Glance
- Release year
- 2008
- Genre
- Science-fantasy literary adventure
- U.S. rating
- PG
- Runtime
- Approx. 95 minutes
- Director
- Gil Kenan
- Screenplay
- Caroline Thompson
- Based on
- Jeanne DuPrau’s 2003 novel
- Music
- Andrew Lockington
- Featured cast
- Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray & Tim Robbins
- Story setting
- An underground city near the end of its planned lifespan
Check your edition when planning class periods; cuts and playback speeds can change runtime.
Content to Preview
- Blackouts, dangerous machinery, pursuit, and frightening oversized creatures.
- Children face underground and water-related danger.
- Abuse of authority and some tense family situations.
Preview your edition, follow school viewing and permission policies, and provide an appropriate alternative assignment. Suggested grades 5–12 are Teach Arcade’s classroom recommendation, separate from the film’s U.S. rating.
Classroom Connections
Use scene evidence to explore the topics above. Pair historical portrayals with reliable sources, literary adaptations with their texts, and animated metaphors with appropriate factual context.
Film details, advisories & classroom context: AFI film credits · Content advisory (spoilers)