Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008) on Netflix
PG20081h 30mDocumentary
A host travels to American universities to ask whether researchers who question Darwinian evolution have been fired or denied tenure. Supporters of intelligent design and their critics appear.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb3.8/1012,325 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes11%
Trailer
Plot summary
Scientists who back intelligent design tell a visiting host how their careers suffered after they questioned Darwinian evolution. Richard Sternberg, an editor who published a paper by an intelligent design proponent, describes losing his office and being pressured to resign. Caroline Crocker says she could not find another academic position after she mentioned intelligent design in a cell biology class. Guillermo Gonzalez blames his book arguing that the universe is designed for his tenure denial, and a university shut down a research website tied to the idea. Evolutionary scientists and other critics of intelligent design appear as well. The film presents the dispute as a matter of academic freedom, describes the scientific establishment as committed to atheism, and links Darwinian thinking to communism and to Nazi crimes.
Cast
- Paul Zachary Myersas Self
- Lili Asvaras Sara
- Peter Atkinsas Himself
- Hector Avalosas Himself
- Doug Axeas Himself
- Adam Behras Multiple animation voices (voice)
- David Berlinskias Himself
- Walter Bradleyas Himself
- Bruce Chapmanas Himself
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opened in 1,052 theaters, a wider release than any earlier documentary, and earned more than $2,900,000 in its first weekend.
- The producers put an estimated $8.5 million into marketing the film and another $3.5 million into production, for a total budget of $12 million.
- Premise Media Holdings, LP, which produced Expelled, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on December 29, 2009. Its rights to the film went for $201,000 in an online auction on June 28, 2011.
- PZ Myers was turned away from a pre-release screening by a hired security guard while Richard Dawkins and Myers' family were allowed to attend; Mark Mathis confirmed he ordered Myers turned away.
- PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, and Eugenie Scott criticized the film, saying they were misled into taking part because they were asked to be interviewed for a film called Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion.
- Ben Stein attributed a quotation to Charles Darwin's 1871 book The Descent of Man, but the original source shows Stein's selective reading significantly changed the meaning by leaving out whole and partial sentences without indicating he had done so.
- The Anti-Defamation League condemned the film's use of the Holocaust, stating that Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his plan and that using the Holocaust to tarnish evolution promoters is outrageous.
- The film was used in private screenings for legislators to promote Academic Freedom bills, including a Florida screening restricted to legislators, spouses, and aides, with the press and public excluded.
