The Assignment | 2016 | R | – 8.7.6

Why is “The Assignment” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “graphic nudity, violence, sexuality, language and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several sex scenes, including several scenes of full frontal male and female nudity and partial nudity, and discussions of gender re-assignment; many scenes of shootings with a lot of blood spray, and a few beatings with bats and clubs with some resulting blood; and nearly 20 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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A professional assassin (Michelle Rodriguez) wakes up and is shocked to find out that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery and is no longer male. While trying to adjust to life as a woman he also seeks revenge against the brilliant surgeon (Sigourney Weaver) responsible for his transformation. Also with Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia and Caitlin Gerard. Directed by Walter Hill. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Cantonese with English subtitles and several others are spoken in Spanish with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:35]

The Assignment SEX/NUDITY 8

 – A fully nude man thrusts into a fully nude woman on a sofa (we see his bare chest, abdomen, buttocks and partial genitals and her bare breasts, abdomen and legs) until a woman enters the room (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man and a woman meet in a bar, go to his room where they remove their clothing, he opens a condom package and they have sex (we see him thrusting and they both moan); his bare back and her bare shoulders are seen. A woman thrusts on top of a man in bed (we see her wearing a bra that reveals cleavage and her bare abdomen). Two women kiss and one woman asks if the other wants to take off her clothes (sex is implied).
► A fully nude man steps out of a shower and we see his genitals, bare chest, bare abdomen and buttocks. A fully nude woman steps out of a shower and we see her bare breasts, abdomen, pubic hair and buttocks as she snuggles against another woman’s back. A woman looks at her fully nude body in a mirror and touches her bare breasts and between her legs (we see bare breasts, abdomen and pubic hair). We see a woman’s bare breasts in a few scenes as she wraps them with heavy tape. A woman opens her robe to reveal bare breasts, abdomen and pubic hair. A man comes into a cell and begins to undress woman, she slaps his hand away and touches her breasts while trying to distract other men in the room (we see her wearing a bra/corset that reveals cleavage and partial bare abdomen). A woman is shown wearing skimpy underwear that reveals cleavage, bare back and abdomen and partial buttocks; it is implied that a man in the room has hired her for sex.
► A man asks a woman about her sex life and she indicates that she has sex whenever she wants. A woman asks a doctor if she can have a gender change operation reversed and if she will be fully functioning. A woman says that a man likes “kinky” sex with prostitutes.

The Assignment VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A woman enters a crowded restaurant and shoots a man seated at a table several times (we see blood on his shirt and he collapses on the table). A woman shoots several men seated around a table as they each reach for their guns and blood splatters; one man stands back up after having been shot and is shot several more times (we see bloody wounds on his chest and abdomen). A woman shoots two men in a car and we see blood splatter on the windshield. A woman enters a room where a man and woman are having sex (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), she shoots the man as he reaches for a gun of his own, and he is struck and falls over the sofa and out of view. A woman shoots two men and blood sprays. A woman shoots several men as she walks through a warehouse and up a freight elevator (blood splatters and the men grunt and flail when they are struck). A man is shot in a parking lot, he falls to the ground and is shot again at close range (we see blood pooled under his body). A woman shoots three men in a room, chases a fourth and shoots him in the leg as he runs away, he hides behind a door and when she opens the door she shoots him a few times (blood spurts).
► A man twists a silencer onto the barrel of a gun, enters a room and shoots a man several times (we do not see the results). Three men enter a man’s room and one man threatens him, he shoots one man (blood splatters on the wall), and he aims at another man who hits him repeatedly with a club until he falls unconscious on the floor (we see blood pour from his mouth). A woman steals money from a cash register and a man confronts her, and presses a baseball bat against her throat until the woman gets the bat and beats the man repeatedly behind a counter and out of view (we hear thuds and crunching). A man tied to a chair is shot several times and falls back dead (we do not see resulting bloody wounds). Two women argue, and one holds a gun on the other, who holds a surgical knife; one woman is shot and we see her lying on a table with a bloody wound on her chest.
► A flashback is shown where several dead bodies lie on the floors and beds of a medical facility (we see bloody wounds and blood splatter on walls and floors). A woman imagines shooting another woman in the head and we see blood splatter against a wall (she does not shoot her).
► A woman holds a gun on a man, he takes the gun away from her and two other men hold her as he injects her with a sedative; she wakes up strapped into a straitjacket in a cell. A woman hits a man in the head and pushes him back onto a table where she pushes against his face and throat before she is pulled away by an orderly. A woman slams a gun on a table when she is talking to another woman and becomes angry. A woman returns to her room and finds it ransacked as a woman yells at her and tells her to pay for damages. A man with a baseball bat enters a woman’s’ room and asks her if she is “on dope.”
► A woman seated at a table is shown wearing a straitjacket as a man across from her asks her questions about unorthodox medical procedures. A voiceover states, “I killed a lot of guys.” A woman states that she lost her medical license. A man discusses the fact that a woman was found “unfit for trial.” A woman says that she performed experimental surgical procedures on “people of no value.” A woman screams when she realizes that someone has performed a sex change operation on her. A man says that a woman is going to cut off another woman’s arm against her will.
► Bloody bandages are shown in a tray in an operating room. The bandaged face of an unconscious person is shown. A woman is shown with trickles of blood down her leg. A woman walks through a restaurant storage area where carcasses hang with blood dripping from them. A woman is shown with healed stumps where her fingers used to be.

The Assignment LANGUAGE 6

 – About 18 F-words and its derivatives, 8 sexual references, 18 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, 2 derogatory terms for Chinese people, name-calling (worthless, coward, sweetie, hottie, bastard, dump, weirdo, macho, shop girl, street animal, fool, eccentric, bum, cheap, miserable, idiots, piss-ant, dumb, street trash, tiresome bore, confused person, naughty, silly, cheap second rate bureaucrat), 3 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh God, Thank God, God). | profanity glossary |

The Assignment SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman snorts cocaine off her hand, a woman takes a prescription pill, a woman steals prescription drugs from a hospital medicine cabinet, and a man asks a woman if she is “on dope.” People are shown drinking in a diner setting in a few scenes, a woman drinks a beer, a woman drinks a glass of liquor and pours a drink for another woman, and a woman drinks from a bottle of liquor.

The Assignment DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Street justice, medical experiments, redemption, hired assassins, political enemies, gender change operations, guilt, research, envy, jealousy, gender, identity, hubris, morality.

The Assignment MESSAGE

 – Gender is not destiny.