Leadership Media

The Rescue

In the summer of 2018, twelve boys and their soccer coach are trapped deep within the flooded Tham Luang cave complex in Thailand. As global attention mounts, an unprecedented international effort is launched, requiring the collaboration of the Thai Navy SEALs, the U.S. Air Force, thousands of local volunteers, and a small, unconventional group of specialized European cave divers. The film documents the nearly three-week incident, the immense logistical and human factors involved, and the extreme, improvised rescue plan that ultimately saved all thirteen lives.

Link to The Rescue lesson plan

Ted Lasso – Season 1

Ted Lasso is a series about an America collegiate football coach (Ted Lasso) who is hired to coach an English soccer team.

Link to Ted Lasso, Season 1 lesson plan

12 Angry Men

The jury of twelve 'angry men,' entrusted with the power to send an uneducated, teenaged Puerto Rican, tenement-dwelling boy to the electric chair for killing his father with a switchblade knife, are literally locked into a small, claustrophobic rectangular room on a stifling hot summer day until they come up with a unanimous decision - either guilty or not guilty. The compelling, provocative film examines the twelve men's deep-seated personal prejudices, perceptual biases and weaknesses, indifference, anger, personalities, unreliable judgments, cultural differences, ignorance and fears, that threaten to taint their decision-making abilities, cause them to ignore the real issues in the case, and potentially lead them to a miscarriage of justice.

Link to 12 Angry Men lesson plan

Apollo 13

The true story of the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission. On April 11, 1970, gung-ho astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and last-minute, less experienced replacement Jack Swigert blast-off towards the moon. But while in space, an oxygen tank explodes, putting the trio in peril: they quickly lose oxygen, run out of power, and get exposed to dangerously high amounts of carbon dioxide. Unbeknownst to them, there are more problems to come, including emotional friction when Jack is (wrongly) blamed for the explosion. Intensifying the situation is the fact that these mishaps catch the scientists and technicians at Mission Control by surprise, and they're not sure how to remedy the situation. Everyone must work together to come up with the right answer – if the astronauts are to survive.

Link to Apollo 13 lesson plan

Band of Brothers:

Starting with their rigorous boot camp training in Georgia in 1942, the miniseries recounts the remarkable achievements of this volunteer rifle company, which parachuted into France early on D-Day morning 1944; spearheaded the Market-Garden and Rhine offensives; engaged the Nazis in Bastogne and the Bulge; and captured Hitler’s “impenetrable” Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden in 1945.

Link to the lesson plans:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10

The Blind Side

The Blind Side is based upon the real-life story of Micheal Oher. One of Memphis’ wealthiest families, the Touhy family, comes to the aid of a member of one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation: Hurt Village. Michael was a child who seemed invisible to the outside world. The Touhy’s gave Michael the opportunity to break free from a life that showed little chance of success to one where anything was possible—including the life as a professional athlete.

Link to Blind Side lesson plan

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is - through director Paul Greengrass's distinctive lens - simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller, and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama's commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips' unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

Link to Captain Phillips lesson plan

Coach Carter

In 1999, Ken Carter, a successful sporting goods store owner, accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes an undefeated competitor in the games. However, when the overconfident team's behavior begins to stray and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in class, he takes immediate action. To the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter cancels all team activities and locks the court until the team shows acceptable academic improvement. In the ensuing debate, Carter fights to keep his methods, determined to show the boys that they need to rely on more than sports for their futures and eventually finds he has affected them more profoundly than he ever expected.

Link to Coach Carter lesson plan

Courage Under Fire

While investigating Captain Karen Walden’s candidacy for a posthumous Medal of Honor award, Colonel Nat Serling finds inconsistencies in the stories told by the late pilot’s crew members. Serling is also forced to deal with his own disillusionment and guilt surrounding personal involvement in a friendly fire mishap that resulted in the death of his best friend. Leadership lessons focus on leading in a high-risk operational environment, female leadership, conflict, and moral leadership.

Link to Courage Under Fire lesson plan

Dead Poets Society

“Carpe diem” is the main theme of the movie. The story follows a teacher and his students at Welton School, a very traditional preparatory school for boys. A former teacher of the school, John Keating, uses his unconventional teaching methods to inspire his students to act as individuals—to avoid the conformity that Welton embodies. Nonconformity comes with consequences for many of the students.

Link to Dead Poets Society lesson plan

Deadliest Catch – Season 4

Reality series profiling crab fishermen in Alaskan waters.
Link to Deadliest Catch lesson plan

Dunkirk

Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan, is the story of the mass evacuation of British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French soldiers from the port town of Dunkirk, France after being surrounded by the German Army in World War II. The movie follows three separate storylines taking place on three separate timelines—The Mole (1 Week), The Sea (1 Day) and The Air (1 Hour)—culminating with the last days of the evacuation and the British returning home.

Link to Dunkirk lesson plan

Elizabeth

The story of Elizabeth's ascendancy to the throne, the plot of the movie is full of palace intrigues, attempted assassinations and executions. The movie starts with England divided by faith, Protestant vs. Catholic. The queen, Mary Tudor has no heir and her Catholic supporters fear the succession of her half-sister Elizabeth, a Protestant. They convince the queen to have Elizabeth arrested and put in the Tower of London but the queen hesitates and eventually refuses to sign her death warrant. It is announced that the queen is pregnant but it turns out to be a tumor and she dies of it a while later. Her Catholic supporters are forced to give the throne to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's first few years are shaky as she is not versed with the art of realpolitik and "rules from the heart instead of the mind". There is also the question of her succession as she is yet unmarried and her death without heir would mean the throne falling back into Catholic hands. She has many suitors but she eventually rejects them all. And aided by Sir Francis Walsingham she manages to kill all her enemies and ascends the throne as the "Virgin Queen".

Link to Elizabeth lesson plan

Everest

On the morning of May 10, 1996, climbers from two commercial expeditions start their final ascent toward the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. With little warning, a violent storm strikes the mountain, engulfing the adventurers in one of the fiercest blizzards ever encountered by man. Challenged by the harshest conditions imaginable, the teams must endure blistering winds and freezing temperatures in an epic battle to survive against nearly impossible odds.

Link to Everest lesson plan

Gettysburg

In July of 1863 Federal soldiers have followed the Confederate Army into Pennsylvania to eventually meet for what will be an historic battle at the town of Gettysburg. Following the officers and soldiers of both armies, this story of the decisive three day battle is recounted highlighting the 20th Maine Regiment’s defense of Little Round Top, and the Confederate Army’s fateful charge up Cemetery Ridge.

Link to Gettysburg lesson plan

Glory Road

Glory Road is about more than a college basketball team in the mid-1960s playing its way to the championship: it is the true story of a coach and his team taking a stand against discrimination in order to play their best game. As the new men’s basketball coach at Texas Western, Don Haskins has one goal: to win. At a time when most Southern universities had few black players on their teams and rarely played more than two at the same time, Haskins recruits an unprecedented seven black players for his team and often has three of them starting. His new additions have played on the streets of the South Bronx between breaks at a Detroit steel company, and added fancy moves with hope of playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. In addition to adjusting to life at Texas Western in El Paso, the players have to integrate with their white teammates and face discrimination from all fronts: the school administration, donors and alumni, spectators, and random strangers, not to mention other basketball teams. To everyone’s surprise, the underdog Miners take on team after team, making it all the way to the 1966 NCAA championships. In an historic NCAA final game against the University of Kentucky Wildcats, Haskins played the first all-black collegiate basketball starting lineup, in many ways opening new doors for black players everywhere.

Link to Glory Road lesson plan

Invictus

After he was released from prison, Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa in the first democratic election in the country’s history. Using the national rugby team, the Springboks, Mandela was able to unite a nation shattered by violence and racism.

Link to Invictus lesson plan

Jarhead

"Jarhead" (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows Swoff, a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound rucksack on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom.

Link to Jarhead lesson plan

K-19: The Widowmaker

Inspired by a true story that was kept secret until the fall of communism, K-19: The Widowmaker is a tale of ordinary men who sacrifice everything for their shipmates and their country. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, an ill-prepared Russian nuclear missile submarine embarks on its maiden voyage with near-disastrous consequences.

When the sub’s nuclear reactor malfunctions, Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) makes some decisions that are unpopular with the crew. Tensions mount as radiation levels rise throughout the submarine and there is no respite in sight. If the sub explodes, it may cause an international incident as it may be mistaken as an attack on a nearby NATO base and an American Navy destroyer that is in the area. If the sub dives deep below the surface, perhaps the malfunction can be fixed, but the loss of some lives is then inevitable. The Executive Officer, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson), who formerly commanded the sub, can placate the crew, but must decide where his own loyalties lie.

Link to K-19: The Widowmaker lesson plan