Army of the Dead | 2021 | R | – 5.10.8

Why is “Army of the Dead” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout, some sexual content and brief nudity/graphic nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied oral sex scene and a scene of nudity, many scenes of death and destruction with a lot of blood and gore, and over 30 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The founder of a mercenary strike force (Dave Bautista) travels to a quarantined Las Vegas with his team to fight zombies and steal cash from a defunct casino. While there, his daughter (Ella Purnell) and her friends join the fray. Also with Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro and Garret Dillahunt. Directed by Zack Snyder. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish and French with English subtitles. [Running Time: 2:28]

Army of the Dead SEX/NUDITY 5

 – Oral sex is implied when a woman is shown from the waist up wearing a bra that reveals some cleavage in a moving car; she unbuckles the male driver’s belt, leans over his lap, and he says, “Get in here” as he moans.
► A zombie man rubs faces with a zombie woman. A man touches a woman’s shoulder and she says, “Stay the [mild obscenity deleted] away from me.” A man asks a woman if she wants to touch his “handgun” and she takes the gun and shoots him in the leg. A man threatens to use a rectal thermometer on a woman, scaring her. A pianist imitates Liberace with flamboyant gestures.
► We see three topless female zombies for several seconds (bare breasts and nipples are shown). A man wears a leotard that is open across the chest, stomach, and navel. Several male zombies with pale skin are shirtless, revealing backs, abdomens, chests and shoulders. A man appears shirtless in four scenes (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back). Two women wear crop tops that show their arms, cleavage and abdomens. A zombie woman wears a bra top and skirt made of scarves that show her legs to the upper thighs, along with shoulders and cleavage.

Army of the Dead VIOLENCE/GORE 10

 – Many scenes include extreme bloodshed and gore as well as screaming, snarling, screeching, and shouting, leading to the deaths of humans and zombies. We see many scenes of mayhem and death with people using automatic rifles, large handguns, knives, a huge power saw, a baseball bat containing large nails, a spear, and explosives against zombies that are ripped to pieces and we see zombies biting a dozen men and women, producing gushing blood and gore. We hear and see many scenes of bones crunching and gore splattering on walls. Several scenes feature large sprays of gushing blood and in one scene, zombies are sliced up with an oversized power saw and drip large amounts of blood. Some zombies are shot in the throat and beheaded, their heads smashing on the ground. We see zombie heads blown off with fiery hand grenade explosions and their bodies are shot to bleeding pieces. A close-up shows a zombie destroyed from head to feet with rapid gunfire, leaving an oozing pile of bloody flesh and matter. A few zombies are stabbed in the top of the skull, temples, and eyes, gushing blood and gore. Several fight scenes include punching, kicking, and body slamming by humans against zombies, and vice versa. A soldier parachutes slowly onto a street, killing dozens of zombies on the way down, using a pistol. A military convoy takes a shipping container from Area 51 at night, is struck by a car head-on, and we hear and see smashing metal and an exploding fireball; a soldier says that two men in the truck are dead, the container falls to the pavement and its door opens, releasing a zombie that attacks the soldiers, biting and infecting two of them, and chews the lower jaw off one of the men, leaving a bloody mess that we see in close-up; many soldiers fire automatic rifles at it to no avail.
► A woman shoots a pregnant zombie dead (the pregnancy does not show), and a man cuts off her head with a wire garrote in close-up, causing streams of blood to burst out of the neck stump; a male zombie finds the body and screams, takes her to a room where he jabs his hands into her abdomen and removes a slimy, bloody blue fetus as hundreds of other zombies scream around him and while humans carry her head in a bag (we see the head snarling and screeching several times, despite being disembodied). A zombie impales a woman with a thrown spear, sticking her to a wall on a rooftop. A woman drops a zombie head over the edge of a roof and we see it smash on the ground to become a pile of gore with a loud splat. A zombie chews on a woman’s neck as the scene ends. Sleeping zombies that snore and snarl are seen in a dark corridor as men and women use glow sticks to find a path through them, but they wake up and attack a woman who shoots and stabs dozens of them in the head, throat, eyes, and temples; she tumbles through a shattering window to a sidewalk where she is grabbed and overpowered by a group of zombies until a man tosses a grenade that explodes the group, presumably killing them all.
► A zombie grabs a teen girl and chews out her throat, producing blood and gore. A man tries to fight a zombie, but is overpowered, and another man sacrifices himself to zombies to get the first man into a casino vault; zombies drag the man off-screen as the other man closes himself into the vault. A woman and two men in a casino lobby fight zombies with automatic gunfire and one of the men lets the other humans escape, detonates a grenade, and explodes the lobby, himself, and the zombies in tall flames and smoke. A man stays in a vault during a bomb blast and we see a streak in the sky followed by a fireball on the ground. A man feels dizzy and he finds a bite mark on his neck and arm implying that he is infected and will become a zombie. Two women and a man are attacked by a zombie-infected man that a woman shoots and kills, and they are attacked by another zombie but a man slows it down with an explosive; the people board a helicopter on a roof, but the zombie jumps into the chopper with them and fights with a man; a gunshot smashes through a woman’s head (blood splatters on the windshield), the zombie bites the man, and the man kills the zombie by shooting its head to bloody pieces.
► A nuclear warhead strikes a city in the background in a fireball after streaking across the sky and a shock wave causes a helicopter to crash-land in a cloud of dirt, killing one woman onboard; another woman finds a man with zombie bite marks on his neck and shoulder, he snarls and gurgles and she shoots him between the eyes (we see a bloody bullet wound as he dies). A woman argues with a man and shoots him in the leg for being a misogynist and abuser; he screams and falls. Two women argue and one woman punches the other, causing a bloody mouth.
► We hear that a zombie infection has spread throughout a city and people are being evacuated by bus; officials check body temperatures frequently. We hear that a corrupt casino owner is working with the government to create an army of zombies by using a leader-zombie’s head to control them. We see hundreds of stumbling zombies with sunken eyes, pale wrinkled faces that sometimes drip black gore, and gaping mouths of bloody teeth. A zombie subgroup known as Alpha Zombies are shown to be more cunning in their drive to consume human brains; we hear that Alphas will spare some people if a human sacrifice is made.
► A human sacrifice is shown when a man is shot in the leg, he falls down screaming and cursing, is tied up, and left for zombies; the creatures drag him away to a place where hundreds of zombies harass him, an Alpha slams him to the ground and a swarm of zombies jump on top of him as the scene ends. In a flashback, a woman snarls, grunts, screams, and becomes a zombie. She strangles her husband, who grabs her throat and they struggle until he shoots her in the head (we see blood flow); their preteen daughter sees this and screams. We see a building explode into tall flames and fall straight down to the ground. We see several zombie men and women held in a large cage.
► Several dark hallway scenes show people firing automatic rifles and pistols at charging zombies, with blood splattering onto walls and floors; in one scene, a zombie grabs a woman and twists her head around, loudly breaking her neck with a crunch and dropping her to the floor (we see blood on her neck and mouth). A human hand cooks inside a microwave and is given to a zombie that eats it. A zombie is struck with several poison darts, and shot repeatedly before being smashed by heavy sliding doors (we hear a loud splat and see dripping blood and gore). A ragged zombie tiger snarls, roars, and chases people, grabs a man, tosses him around, slams him into a wall, shakes him, and chews his head and neck (blood spurts in three places and pools as the man dies). A ragged zombie horse runs through streets. We see piles of ruins and rocks, crumbling buildings, wrecked cars, and piles of gray bones and rags that are dead zombies. We see many skeletons of zombies lying in torn clothing.
► A TV broadcast announces that the federal government has quarantined Las Vegas, walled it off, and plans to destroy the city with a nuclear warhead. A man asks a mercenary soldier to enter a zombie quarantine zone to steal a fortune from a casino before the military destroys the city. A man and a woman argue several times. Two men argue. A woman threatens to kill a man. A woman on TV shouts at and berates a US President’s press secretary.

Army of the Dead LANGUAGE 8

 – About 34 F-words and its derivatives, 15 scatological terms, 8 anatomical terms, 32 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, bastard, insane, fool, idiot, moron, stupid, weird, coward, criminals, liar, slimy, rapist, junk, Mr. Big Hand, Mr. Sausage Finger), exclamations (shut-up, shut your mouth, wow, whoo), 10 religious profanities (GD), 20 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, God, Jesus Christ, Thank God, I Swear To God, Providence has brought you to me, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Army of the Dead SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman smokes a cigar in four scenes, and a man smokes a cigarette outside. A man and a woman drink from beer bottles, a woman on a plane pours champagne and she and two others sip from their glasses, beer cans are tied to a newlyweds’ car, and people shoot empty beer bottles off a wall.

Army of the Dead DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Diversity, women in combat roles, abuse of women workers, power over others, war veterans, mercenary soldiers, zombies, disasters, nuclear attack, sacrifice, survival, crime, burglary, fear, anger, worry, violence.

Army of the Dead MESSAGE

 – Health disasters can be overcome by groups of diverse people working together.