Catch a Fire tells the real life story of South African Patrick Chamusso, an oil refinery worker who is falsely arrested by the country's anti-terrorism police. Patrick and his wife Precious are jailed and brutally tortured under the leadership of Colonel Nic Vos. To spare his wife, Patrick gives a false confession. Though he is later found innocent, he joins the African National Congress, an outlawed regime that seeks to end apartheid through violent measures. In essence, Patrick becomes the very thing he was falsely accused of being—a terrorist.

In this scene, Patrick has been caught trying to blow up the oil refinery at which he works. The brutal Nic Vos is once again in charge of the interrogation process:

"You people never learn," Vos says. "If you're lucky, you'll spend the rest of your life in jail."

"There is nothing you can do to me," Patrick replies. "My life is finished. I may never see my children again. But when they speak of their father, they will say, 'He was a man who stood for what was right; a man who said, "I must do something now."' What will your children say about you?"

Patrick, the narrator for the story, continues over a series of flash-forward scenes: "I was sentenced to 24 years in prison on a little island at the bottom of Africa. There were nearly a thousand of us there, guilty of treason. Men spent their days breaking rocks—so many hearts, filled with sorrow and anger. Our leader [the scene shows Nelson Mandela] told us we could never be free until we learned to forgive. After five years in that prison, Precious said she was getting married again. After five more years, I found the power in my heart to forgive. They were later forced to end the system of apartheid that kept our people down, and we were allowed to go home."

The next scene shows Patrick barbequing while kids play soccer. He continues: "I tried to settle down and start again. I started to understand my mistakes. But that man and the pain he caused so many—that pain kept coming back. I kept seeing him, that monster."

In what appears to be a recent situation, Patrick is shown sneaking up behind Nic Vos, the man who hurt him so deeply.

"I said to myself, Patrick, you can end it now. Break his neck. Kill him. End it. But as I was walking toward him, I said, No. Killing him is not going help me. Revenge is not good. Let him live. Then I will be free."

The scene closes with a scene showing how Patrick now provides a home for displaced kids in South Africa.

Rated PG-13 for themes of torture and abuse, violence, and brief language.

Elapsed time: DVD; 01:25:25–01:32:45