Silk Road | 2021 | R | – 3.4.10

Why is “Silk Road” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “pervasive language, and drug content.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene, several kissing scenes and some revealing outfits, a brief assault sequence and implied murder, a couple of raids by armed officers and agents with no injuries shown, illicit drug sales, a report of a death from tainted drugs, and over 170 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A young man (Nick Robinson) trying to find his path and stop disappointing his father, develops what he thinks is a foolproof and untraceable way to make money by selling illegal drugs and making them available to the masses using the dark web. Also with Jennifer Yun, Jimmi Simpson, Jason Clarke, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Daniel David Stewart, Kenneth Miller, Alexandra Shipp, Katie Aselton, Lexi Rabe, David DeLao and Beth Bailey. Directed by Tiller Russell. [Running Time: 1:52]

Silk Road SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A young man and a young woman lie in bed together (sex is implied); he is shirtless and we see his bare shoulders and chest and she wears a long T-shirt that shows her legs to the upper thighs.
► A young man and a young woman kiss. A husband and his wife kiss and hug in a few scenes. A young woman hugs a young man from behind while he is seated.
► A young woman wears underwear and a tank top (we see her bare legs to the hips and partial buttocks, cleavage and the outline of her nipples through the fabric). A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A young woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A young man swims shirtless (we see his bare shoulders, back, chest and abdomen) in a few scenes. A man wears shorts and a shirt that reveals part of his bare abdomen.

Silk Road VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – Armed agents and police shoot a door open, enter a room where a man kneels on the floor with his hands up and one man pushes him to the floor and presses his foot on his abdomen and chest; we later see the man zip-tied to a chair while being questioned, dunked underwater twice and being force-fed soup before being posed for a photo, implying that the man is dead. Many armed agents and police surround a young man in a library, he stands up as a woman takes his computer away and he is arrested (we see him in prison and read that he received a life sentence). Armed agents and police prepare to approach and arrest a young man and seize his computer.
► A man rings another man’s doorbell and waves a gun toward a monitoring camera when the man doesn’t answer the door. A man yells and kicks a desk. A man punches a computer when he can’t figure out how to make it work.
► We hear a news report of a teen boy falling from a balcony after taking tainted drugs; the report says that he suffered horrific head injuries and died at the scene. A young woman confronts a young man telling him that his website is selling assault weapons and he refers to the 2nd Amendment; the young man tries to grab her and another young man steps between them, telling him to leave her alone. A young man panics when he sees money disappear from his account. A man confronts another man about having “wrapped a car around a tree” while on the job and that he was under the influence of drugs. A young man and his father disagree about the younger man’s direction and work ethic and argue over dinner. A man tells another man, “Don’t make us look stupid.” A man mocks another man for his methods being outdated. A young man snaps at a young woman when she tries to touch his computer, they argue and she tells him to take his stuff and leave. We hear that a delivery of fake passports is being made. An electronic message reads, “Change the order from torture to kill,” and another reads, “I wouldn’t mind if he was executed.”
► A man is shown wearing a patient ID band from a psychiatric facility; he says he was in rehab. A voice-over talks about fearing retribution, taking back liberty and freedom and allowing the marketplace to be free of governmental controls. A man talks about using and cultivating informants. A young man makes a sarcastic remark about the government taking away “our guns and giving them to the border crossers.” A wife tells her husband, “If you ever do that again, don’t bother coming back.” A woman says that her young daughter has a learning disorder and that she will be tested. References are made to illegal activities including gambling, porn and drugs. A man talks about a man being the “unluckiest man,” because he was struck by lightning twice and that one time the lightning seared through his scrotum (referred to as “God’s vasectomy”).
► We see a picture of what looks like a man lying dead with bile dribbling out of his mouth. A young man stumbles around a party drunk and vomits (we see goo). A man holds and plays with a ferret on his lap.

Silk Road LANGUAGE 10

 – About 177 F-words and its derivatives, 67 scatological terms, 31 anatomical terms, 7 mild obscenities, 6 derogatory terms for African-American people, name-calling (retarded, booby hatch, inane, sport, old school, under boss, dawg, monk, corny, out of your mind, drastic, narc, idiot, cyber pigs, Mickey Mouse operation, low-life, crazy, disgusting, fat, old dinosaur, obsessed, ghetto bat cave, stupid, old, gunner, slow, nuts, weird, dank, racist, jumpy, insane, dude, terrible, mongoloid, trained monkey), exclamations (give me a break, what’s your deal, don’t get your panties in a twist, hey, hang on, whoa, oh my gosh, whoo, huh), 3 religious profanities (GD), 16 religious exclamations (I Swear To God, Christ, Oh My God, Jesus, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, Oh Jesus, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Silk Road SUBSTANCE USE

 – We see photos of a variety of illegal drugs on computer screens in several scenes, a man says that he was in rehab, a man accuses another man of being “coked out,” a man smokes a drug from a water pipe, a young woman wraps what appears to be a marijuana cigarette, and we see many deliveries of illegal drugs. People drink in a bar scene, people drink at a party, a young man drinks a lot at a party and stumbles around before getting sick, a husband makes comments about his wife being drunk again, and a woman drinks from a glass of wine while smoking a cigarette. A man asks for a pack of cigarettes in a liquor store but leaves without buying them, and a man smokes cigarettes in a few scenes.

Silk Road DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Libertarianism, freedom, drug sales, black market, bitcoin, the war on drugs, redemption, torture, murder, obsession, trust, the dark web, the future, the 4chan imageboard website, state control, regulation.

Silk Road MESSAGE

 – Unchecked freedoms come with consequences.