Red One | 2024 | PG-13 | – 2.4.5

Why is “Red One” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “action, some violence, and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of suggestive remarks, partial non-sexual nudity, numerous fights between humans, creatures and animals without visible injuries, discussions of greed and being naughty, discussions of the magic of Christmas, and at least 1 not fully-enunciated F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped and a naughty-lister (Chris Evans) appears to have helped those responsible, Santa’s trusty security commander (Dwayne Johnson) will stop at nothing to find him and save Christmas. Also with Lucy Liu, Bonnie Hunt, Kristofer Hivju, Kiernan Shipka, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Wesley Kimmel and Nick Kroll. Directed by Jake Kasdan. [Running Time: 2:03]

Red One SEX/NUDITY 2

 – In a couple of scenes, a man talks about wanting to use a device on an action figure of Wonder Woman to make it into a real person (this never happens). A man speaks to reindeer and he remarks that their “boyfriend is here,” when another man enters the area and one deer licks his face.
► A woman wearing a bikini walks past a man and he watches as she walks away (we see her bare back, buttocks and legs). A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage in several scenes. A large creature is shown with humanoid features including a bare chest, shoulders and abdomen.

Red One VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man is followed to his apartment by many armed people, they fight with punches and kicks, one person is thrown through a glass door (no injuries are visible), and they try to use taser-type weapons on him; we see several people zapped and they seem to fall unconscious, and the man jumps out of a window to a neighboring building and slides down a drain pipe outside the building before being zapped and taken away.
► A giant creature with tentacles and a booming voice moves toward two men on a bridge, the creature is blasted with flames by flying vessels and a creature with horns and a tail fights with the first creature; two men also join the fight and they are thrown around by the creature’s tentacles slamming into vehicles a couple of times; one man says, “You’re gonna have to kill me” and is lifted into the air and squeezed by a tentacle until the creature is rammed by reindeer and falls into a container filled with glowing snow globes and the creature thrashes and disappears.
► A large creature with horns, a tail and a snake-like tongue participates in a competition with other creatures of various shapes and sizes where they slap each other hard on the face; one creature is slapped and thrown across a room causing others to cheer; we hear that the first to be knocked out or die loses. A large creature and a man compete with heavy slaps to the face and the man puts on a special cuff that imbues him with super-strength and he knocks the creature across the room; two robot toys are zapped and grow to giant size and fight with many creatures with punches and throws.
► A teen boy holds a large snow globe in his hands and it changes color causing him to disappear; a man does the same thing and we later see them each trapped inside snow globes (the globes shatter later and they are freed). An ice cream truck drives on a beach and three snow beasts climb out of the back; they fight with two men and one uses a sword that when it touches a man he is frozen into an ice block, one snow beast is cut in half, pulls its torso back to its legs and reattaches itself at the waist, and throws a man a few times hard against a vehicle.
► A man awakens tied into a chair where he is questioned by a woman who says, “Box him up” and we see him inside a shipping crate later. A polar bear growls and lunges toward a man, picks him up and squeezes him tightly as the man squirms. A man accidentally elbows another man in the face and the second man raises his fist toward him.
► A vehicle speeds away from a compound and a man jumps off a balcony to follow it thinking a man has been kidnapped and is in the vehicle; the chasing man slides along chutes through the area, zaps a toy snowmobile making it normal-sized and speeds after the vehicle, causes an avalanche and the vehicle crashes into a snow bank but it is empty. A man is shown locked inside a large globe and a green mist emits from his body (it’s energy of some sort). A tracking device is snapped onto a man’s leg. People are identified as shape-shifters and we see them transform and collapse on the ground in a few scenes. Two men are locked in a cell.
► Reindeer struggle against being attached to a sleigh and whipped by a woman that speeds along a runway; two men attack her and she throws them off the sleigh; one man disconnects the sleigh from the reindeer causing it to crash and the woman is thrown over a very tall bridge. A horse with its head in flames rears as it walks past a man that recoils from the sight; someone walks behind him guiding a man without a head and we see a large carved pumpkin in flames in a glass box carried by two other people.
► A man causes a fire to start in a gazebo in a park and several people scramble to put out the flames while he releases two dogs from their leashes, steals an access pass to a building, enters it and steals information from a computer room. A man speeds in his car with his teen son inside and cuts across several lanes of traffic causing other cars to honk.
► Many people and creatures are shown locked behind a heavy metal door. Many people scramble around and speak through radios in a panic when a man is missing. Armed people move through the snow to the outside of an invisible dome and use an “atomic plasma torch” to cut a hole in it. A truck skids to a stop when it nearly crashes into a piano in the middle of the road.
► People in shopping malls and stores fight over products, argue while standing in line to see Santa Claus and a couple of people steal items; a man cuts in line and records on his phone until a man reprimands him and sends him away. We overhear a woman’s voice saying, “I’m gonna bash someone’s skull in,” while at a shopping mall. A man says that he wants to resign, explains that the number of naughty-listers is up, and continues to increase each year, it’s not because of the kids, and “the grownups are killing me.” A teen boy tells his father that he got in trouble at school because he tampered with the school’s attendance records and slashed another student’s bicycle tires. A character says, “I see the worst in everyone.” A character says, “She’ll kill us all.” People argue about who is going to find Santa and save Christmas. A character announces, “The North Pole has been taken.”
► A military jet takes off followed by eight reindeer pulling a large sleigh; the reindeers’ horns glow and they shoot through the air at supersonic speed when a man in the sleigh calls out a special word. A man walks through a toy store, enters a stockroom and exits in another part of the world. A man zaps a toy car and it grows to regular size.
► A young boy takes a key from a man’s pocket and unlocks a closet where many wrapped gifts are piled; the boy shows other children trying to convince them that Santa Claus is not real. A young boy eats a plate of cookies and drinks a glass of milk left out on a table for Santa Claus. A man steals a toddler’s lollipop (we hear the child crying as the man puts the candy in his own mouth). A man takes a woman’s coffee and leaves a coffee shop with it while also stealing someone’s newspaper.
► We see a variety of creatures at the North Pole working in and around the workshop; some are trolls with large ears and teeth and mottled flesh, and there is a very large polar bear and others.

Red One LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 not fully enunciated F-word, 10 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (naughty list, stubborn pain in the butt, overdramatic, dumb, rude, ogre, mortal, miserable, demon, deviant, haunted piano, guilt-tripping, shady, demigod, imbeciles, the witch, not a scrupulous person, stupid, unfortunate), exclamations (breach, shut-up, stop, look what the cat dragged in), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. God, oh my God, good God, demigod, oh dear Lord, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Red One SUBSTANCE USE

 – People drink alcoholic beverages at a holiday party, and a man sits in an empty bathtub and we see empty liquor bottles on the floor around him.

Red One DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Santa Claus, magic, Krampus, Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, Headless Horseman, naughty-listers, change, bad behavior, legends, growing up, Christmas magic, Boxing Day, mythological creatures.

Red One MESSAGE

 – We choose every day who we want to be and every decision we make is an opportunity.