Alien: Romulus | 2024 | R | – 4.8.7

Why is “Alien: Romulus” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “bloody violent content and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an alien birth, many scenes of alien creatures attacking humans and attaching to their heads and faces, a few scenes of alien creatures bursting out of humans, a person killed by being burned with acid, a person nearly struck by a falling elevator, several arguments, and about 28 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The 10th installment in the enduring “Alien” franchise: When a group of people search an abandoned space outpost to retrieve needed parts, they don’t realize the alien terror they will uncover. With Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu, Robert Bobroczkyi, Trevor Newlin, Ian Holm and Daniel Betts. Directed by Fede Alvarez. [Running Time: 1:59]

Alien: Romulus SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A young woman appears to give birth to an alien creature (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). An alien monster attached to a wall is seen to have a birthing orifice that resembles a vagina (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A young woman says that she is pregnant and that she doesn’t know who the father is. A young man teases a synthetic person about being a “space virgin” and later says, “You’re not a virgin anymore,” when they are in space.
► A young woman wears a low-cut tank top that reveals cleavage. An alien creature is shown and we see its bare chest, abdomen and legs and it seems to have an orifice at the hip level.

Alien: Romulus VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – A young woman moans in pain and we see that her abdomen is swollen, she writhes as if in labor and we see a bloody mass passing from between her legs as an alien creature is born and another young woman takes the creature away, drops it and prepares to spray it with cryo fuel (we see the chamber where the young woman is lying covered with blood later). A young man puts a taser inside an alien and engages it (we hear screeching from inside the creature and understand that embryos are being destroyed); the young man falls to the floor after being struck in the eye with a spike (we see blood), the creature sprays him with acid and we see him melting as he screams in pain.
► A woman seems to not feel well, she gasps for air, holds her chest, illuminates her chest cavity with an X-ray device and we see an alien creature moving inside her; the creature pushes its way out through the woman’s chest, blood spurts, the woman seizes and spits foam from her mouth before dying in a young woman’s arms and the young woman is sprayed in the face with blood as she screams; the creature rises out of the dead woman’s chest and screeches loudly. A young man is struck in the eye by a creature’s shooting mouth and we see blood and goo. A synthetic person is slashed by an alien creature and we see him on the floor losing a lot of “blood” (a white synthetic liquid).
► A young woman falls through an elevator shaft and is caught by an alien creature, the creature moves close to her and is swept away by the elevator as it passes (the young woman clings to the ladder on the wall and is OK). An alien creature moves toward a young woman and screeches and a synthetic person shoots it repeatedly. Many creatures chase three people through passageways, hatches are closed as they go through and some creatures manage to get through them, and one young man is nearly trapped outside a hatch as it closes. A young woman runs and falls through an opening landing hard on the floor below; she crawls through a metal framework as a large creature moves above her. An alien creature holds onto a young woman and pounds on her helmet visor cracking it as the creature disintegrates.
► An alien creature moves toward a young woman, it extends a long tongue and we see it pressed against her (possibly implied to be nursing). Many alien creatures float off the floor when no gravity is initiated and a young woman shoots many of them; their acidic blood splatters around them and when gravity is re-initiated, the young woman dodges globs of acid as it falls to the floor.
► People walk through dark passageways and we see dead bodies attached to walls and we see one body dangling from the ceiling with the back of his head missing; one person calls for help and a young man helps her down while another young man walks past what appears to be a dead alien fetus on the floor and a mother attached to the wall and dripping acid from its birthing orifice.
► Many alien creatures skitter on the floors and walls and chase three characters through a dark space vessel; one creature attacks a woman and we see it attached to her head with one tendril pressed down her throat and another wrapped around her throat; a synthetic person tells others to have mercy and end her life. An alien creature attached to a woman’s head and face is sprayed with cryo fuel and it loosens its grip and is pulled out of the woman’s mouth (we see goo); the woman revives and yells in a panic.
► Pods attached to walls throb and pulsate and something pops out of one and into water on the floor; it swims toward people and jumps on one young man’s head attempting to insert a tendril in his mouth and down his throat until another young man zaps it with a taser-like weapon and the young man collapses and the creature is thrown into a hole. A synthetic person is zapped with a taser and thrown against a wall; he is seen with goo on his face and mouth.
► Three characters enter a dark and empty vessel and two use oxygen masks; they float through passages and we see a dead rat floating in the air (there’s no gravity) before it slams to the floor when a gravity generator is engaged and three other characters are also slammed to the floor and one complains of breaking something after a piece of equipment lands on top of him (we see him OK later). A young woman is trapped in a compartment where the temperatures drop drastically; her skin becomes discolored and she struggles to breathe until she gets into a special space suit.
► A ship undocks from a larger vessel, it flies near the larger vessel and crashes into it a couple of times throwing the people onboard around. A large space vessel crashes into the rings of a planet and we see it begin to pull apart and sparks fly; it eventually explodes. We hear a countdown throughout most of the movie as a space vessel moves close to impact with a planet’s rings.
► While collecting cryo fuel a young man’s fingers are sprayed and seemingly frozen, and complains that he can’t feel his fingers; sirens blare, the hatch to the chamber is closed and three people are trapped inside. A partial body (torso and head) of a synthetic person is seen on the floor and we see that the skin on his hand and face is melted (like by acid). A young woman gasps for air and falls unconscious. A fragment from what looks like a planet is collected and returned to a research vessel and a core is removed using a laser that sprays; a shrieking song accompanies this sequence.
► A chip is replaced in a synthetic person, he freezes and seizes briefly while “rebooting.” A synthetic person grabs a young man after he calls him names and he realizes that he almost stepped into a hole in the floor. A synthetic person is teased and bullied by a few boys and they kick him repeatedly while he lies on the ground and has “blood” (a white synthetic liquid) on his head and his hands shake. A young woman vomits; we see some goo in a toilet and we hear splattering and retching. A young woman touches her chest after delivering an alien creature and we see slime on her fingers (implying lactation). When a ship’s engines are engaged, they roar and flames spray as it lifts off and shoots into the air; the people in the ship are jostled and one young man stands up and lights a cigarette with a very tall flame.
► A young woman is told that her work duties have been extended and that she has been assigned to the mines after she thinks that she has fulfilled her duty and should be free to leave. People are awakened by a voice over a loudspeaker calling workers to their shift. People work in a mining colony and we hear that people have died from diseases caused by working in the mines; a miner carries a bird in a cage when he comes off his shift. A young man talks about a synthetic human and that someone “found him in the trash.” People discuss genetically modifying humans to make them strong enough to live in space.

Alien: Romulus LANGUAGE 7

 – About 28 F-words and its derivatives, 2 scatological terms, 8 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (scam, insane, space virgins, relic, creeps, insignificant, fake people, not real, psychopath), exclamations (shut-up), 1 religious profanity (GD), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. God, thank God, oh my God, Jesus, Jesus Christ). | profanity glossary |

Alien: Romulus SUBSTANCE USE

 – We see a serum in vials and a young woman injects herself in the neck.

Alien: Romulus DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Space, aliens, monsters, genetic modification, bad jokes, mining colonies, sacrifice, space colonization, evolution, miracles, Prometheus, Romulus and Remus, corporate greed, AI.

Alien: Romulus MESSAGE

 – Humans, even synthetic ones, are fundamentally weaker than space alien creatures, but can be inventive.