A family in Texas loses a son. The film also shows how the universe began — and that part is true science.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is D" — then check.
1 = C (love) · 2 = A (family) · 3 = F (nature) · 4 = B (universe)
5 = E (memory) · 6 = D (forgive) · 7 = G (loss) · 8 = H (grow up)
Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life (2011). This film does not tell its story in a simple line — it moves between memories, like real memories do. Read each part, then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it. The story is about grief, so we will talk about it gently.)
In the 1950s, the O'Brien family lives in Texas. The father is strict and hard on his three sons. The mother is soft and full of love and forgiveness. The family has three boys: Jack, R.L. and Steve.
One day, a telegram arrives. It says that R.L., who is only nineteen years old, has died. The film never tells us how. We only see the sadness after: the mother's cry, the father's shock, and people who do not know what to say.
Many years later, Jack is a grown man (played by Sean Penn). He is an architect in a big modern city. On the day of his brother's death every year, he still thinks about his family and his childhood.
1. What is different about the mother and the father?
2. What news comes by telegram?
1. The father is strict and hard; the mother is gentle and full of love.
2. The telegram says that R.L., their son, has died at nineteen. The film does not say how.
While the mother is very sad, the film shows something surprising: pictures of the whole universe, with no words, for about twenty minutes. We see light and gas turning into stars. We see the young Earth, with volcanoes and fire. Then we see the first small forms of life in the water, and later, dinosaurs.
In one small moment, a dinosaur finds another dinosaur that is hurt and weak. It could kill it. But instead, it walks away and lets it live. This small moment suggests that kindness may have existed even before humans did.
After this, the pictures return, without any words, to the hospital where Jack was born. The whole history of the universe sits, in the film, right next to the birth of one small baby.
1. What does the film show for about twenty minutes?
2. What happens between the two dinosaurs?
1. Pictures of the birth of the universe, the young Earth, and the start and growth of life, including dinosaurs.
2. One dinosaur could kill the other but chooses not to, and lets it live.
Young Jack grows up between his mother's gentleness and his father's strict rules. He wants his father's love, but he is also afraid of him. Sometimes Jack is not kind to his younger brothers, even though he wants to be a good person. Childhood in the film is shown through small, simple pictures: water on the grass, a father playing the piano, a door closing.
As an adult, Jack still thinks about his brother's death and about his difficult feelings towards his father. The film never explains exactly why he feels guilty — only that the feeling stays with him.
At the end, Jack imagines a beach. Everyone from his life is there together — his brothers, his parents, his younger self — happy, and at peace with each other. We do not know if this is heaven, a memory, or just Jack's hope. The film ends with peace, not with an answer.
1. What two things pull at young Jack as he grows up?
2. Describe the film's last picture. What do we not know about it?
1. His mother's gentle love, and his father's strict, hard rules.
2. A beach where his whole family is together in peace; we do not know if it is heaven, a memory, or just his imagination.
This film often talks about big, simple ideas: love, hope, loss. In English, we often use there is / there are to talk about these ideas.
Read the sentence and complete it.
1. a lot of love in the O'Brien family, even when the father is strict.
2. After R.L. dies, great sadness in the house for a long time.
3. In the family's hard years, also small, happy moments.
1. There is (one feeling — love)
2. there is (one feeling — sadness)
3. there are (more than one — moments)
1. so much beauty in the pictures of the universe.
2. two ways to live, the film says: the way of nature, and the way of grace.
3. still hope for Jack, even as an adult who carries his sadness.
1. There is (one idea — beauty)
2. There are (two — ways)
3. There is (one — hope)
Fill each gap with there is or there are. Read it aloud when you finish.
At the end of the film, a beach, and all the people from Jack's life are there together. no more anger, and only peace.
there is (a beach) · there is (no more anger — one idea) · there is (only peace)
Use there is for one thing or a feeling, and there are for more than one thing.
The pictures of the universe in this film look impossible. But much of it is based on real science, made in a surprising way.
The director asked Douglas Trumbull — the special-effects expert who made 2001: A Space Odyssey — to create the universe scenes. Instead of using computers, his team used real chemicals, paint, smoke and liquids, and filmed them closely. This is why the pictures look so strange and so real at the same time.
Scientists agree the universe began about 13.8 billion years ago, in an event called the Big Bang. Slowly, gas became stars, and stars became galaxies. Our own planet Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, first as hot, melted rock, and later cooled enough for life to begin in water.
Life really did grow slowly from tiny cells to bigger animals, including dinosaurs, over billions of years — this part is true. But the small moment where one dinosaur lets another one live is not a real historical fact; no one recorded it. It is the director's own idea, used to make us think about kindness.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of The Tree of Life in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a strict father and a loving mother → a telegram, and the death of a son → pictures of the universe and the dinosaurs → young Jack, caught between two kinds of love → the beach at the end.
Try to use some key words (love, family, nature, universe, memory, forgive, loss, grow up) and there is / there are.
The film says there are two ways to live: the strict, hard way (like the father), and the gentle, loving way (like the mother). Which way do you think helps a person more in life? Which way do you think is better?
Talk about one of these big ideas from the film.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: