THE LIGHTNING CODE

THE LIGHTNING CODE is a fun, family-friendly science fiction adventure about a teenage inventor who must stop his perpetual energy machine, using concepts developed from Nikolai Tesla and his mother, from being weaponized by an unscrupulous woman trying to establish an energy monopoly. Set in the near future, THE LIGHTNING CODE tells an exciting, spirited, amusing story with appealing characters and positive, wholesome pro-family values, but it has some light violence and peril that merit caution for younger children.

The movie opens with 18-year-old Miles Fletcher introducing the story. Miles says the world is running out of energy, so America and other countries have created a system of energy rationing. Miles, however, is working on an invention to change all that.

Thirteen years ago, his mother disappeared while working on a perpetual energy machine using concepts developed by the inventor Nikolai Tesla. Newsreel footage of Tesla performing an experiment to harness the power of lightning shows the concept Miles’ mother was working on before she disappeared. His mother was a research scientist at Luxos Energy, a company run by tough-minded businesswoman Catherine Blake.

Using his mother’s work, Miles has created a small prototype, but he needs some funding and more powerful equipment to perfect his machine and keep it running. So, he decides to attract the attention of Catherine’s daughter, Kennedy, by demonstrating his machine in the Luxos lobby. Humorously, the machine just sputters out after a few seconds and wrecks the cell phones of everyone in the lobby.

The security guards take Miles to Kennedy’s office. She’s not impressed by his ability to wreck people’s cell phones. However, Miles convinces her to give him a chance. She agrees, but only if he can make the machine run for more than five seconds. However, she orders him to send her regular reports about his experiments. Kennedy promises to hire him if he proves his machine can really work.

Miles returns to the small shack where he works on the machine. However, he decides to “borrow” some larger capacitors to power it. Using the stolen capacitors, Miles performs tests on the machine while his two friends, a teenager girl named Piper and her younger brother, Jamie, watch. Piper is a computer hacker who’s clearly attracted to Miles, and her brother looks up to Miles like an older brother. Standing by watching is a funny small robot named Newt, which Miles’ mother built and which Miles upgraded.

Meanwhile, Miles’ father, Bill, is upset to find out that Miles has been developing his mother’s invention. He believes Luxos killed the boy’s mother, hiding her body, and he doesn’t want anything like that to happen to Miles. He and Miles have an argument. So, Miles decides to leave home and go live in the shack while he works on the perpetual energy machine and runs tests on it.

True to his word, Miles sends video reports of his tests to Kennedy. The day soon arrives for him to show Kennedy that he can keep his machine running for more than five seconds. The final test works better than anything Miles imagined, and Kennedy agrees to buy his invention and hire him.

However, when Kennedy takes the machine’s small energy collector to show her mother, Catherine, Catherine decides to steal the machine. So, the next day when Miles returns to the shack from a celebratory lunch with Piper and Jamie, he finds Catherine there. She’s ordered her men to take everything in the shack, including the machine, and is overseeing their work. When Miles angrily complains, Catherine informs him that she’s also bought the shack and the land on which it sits. So, everything on the land belongs to her and Luxos. Miles threatens to sue her and Luxos, but both he and Catherine know he doesn’t have the money to do that.

Catherine bullies her daughter to remain silent about her deception and thievery. Also, Miles finds out Catherine is planning to weaponize his machine to destroy her energy competitors and create a total energy monopoly.

Can Miles and his friends stop Catherine’s dastardly plan? Will Kennedy defy her mother? Will Miles’ father change his tune?

THE LIGHTNING CODE is a small family-friendly gem. It tells an exciting, spirited, amusing story. The characters are appealing, although the male lead playing Miles seems a little older than a teenager in high school. The script is also laced with some funny bits involving the little robot and the relationships between Miles and his friends, Piper and Jamie.

THE LIGHTNING CODE is pretty wholesome and has strong positive, pro-family values. Miles has some flaws, so the movie shows him undergoing some positive character growth. For example, when the villain steals his machine, Miles takes it out on his friends, Piper and Jamie. So, he must go to them and apologize. Piper and Jamie give him a hard time, but of course they forgive him. Miles is also a little full of himself. For example, because his father doesn’t want him following in his mother’s footsteps, Miles seeks the approval of others. In fact, he wants the world to acknowledge how smart he is. When Miles talks with his father about how the Luxos people treated him, however, his father doesn’t gloat or tell Miles, “I told you so.” Instead, he tells Miles, “You could be the dumbest kid on the planet and still be worth loving.” Thus, the father and his son are eventually reconciled, and the son makes sure his mother is recognized for her groundbreaking work.

THE LIGHTNING CODE also celebrates American ingenuity and the free enterprise system. In the end, the hero, Miles, is rewarded for his talent, ingenuity and hard work. His friend, Piper, helps him and shares in that success. Also, Kennedy, the heiress to her mother’s company, decides to do the right thing, while the American authorities make sure that justice comes to the mother and her wealthy and shady foreign investor.

THE LIGHTNING CODE has no foul language or lewd content. However, the small robot makes a joke about mouse droppings in the shack where Miles, the hero, works. Also, at one point, Miles sneaks into a tech facility and steals four capacitors to give his prototype machine more power. Jamie secretly follows Miles. Miles finds out and tells Jamie he’s only “borrowing” the capacitors. Also in the movie, Kennedy and her crooked mother have an argument about wearing a pants suit, which Kennedy prefers, instead of wearing a dress.

THE LIGHTNING CODE also has a theme of Greek mythology. When he was young, the hero’s mother teaches him a story from a book on mythological Greek heroes and mythology about the Greek god Zeus and his lightning bolts, which are stolen by a giant. This story and the book are mentioned several times in THE LIGHTNING CODE.

Finally, although THE LIGHTNING CODE is fairly wholesome and family-friendly, it does have some violence and peril. So, overall, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.

Of course, recent scientific advances have clearly shown that the world won’t be running out of energy anytime soon. In fact, it looks like the planet has at least hundreds years left of energy resources. What the planet may not have left are enough mineral resources.