The Bikeriders | 2023 | R | – 5.6.10

Why is “The Bikeriders” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout, violence, some drug use and brief sexuality.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene without nudity, a near rape, an implied sex scene, a death by gunshot, a few knife slashes, an attack with a shovel that nearly cuts a man’s foot off, a beating with a belt, a death by car and motorcycle collision, several fights that lead to bloody wounds, many arguments, and over 70 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Based on a book of photographs documenting the evolution of a motorcycle club started in the 1960s in Chicago, the members have to choose between the initial vision and the transformation to a violent subculture. With Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Boyd Holbrook, Norman Reedus, Damon Herriman, Beau Knapp, Emory Cohen, Karl Glusman and Toby Wallace. Directed by Jeff Nichols. [Running Time: 1:56]

The Bikeriders SEX/NUDITY 5

 – Several men approach a woman at a party and surround her, she struggles, hits them as they pull her toward a flight of stairs that leads to a bedroom, and another man intervenes and stops them. A woman straddles a man lying on a picnic table and thrusts as many other people pass nearby (no nudity is visible).
► A man hands a dress to a woman at a party and tells her that the woman that had been wearing it took some men upstairs and won’t be needing it (implying sex). A husband and his wife hug. A clothed husband and his wife snuggle in bed. A woman goes to a bar where many men ogle her and a few approach her and touch her as she walks past them. A woman stares at a man in a bar and he joins her at her table where they talk and flirt briefly.”
► A man jokes about having sex with another man’s wife. A woman describes riding on a motorcycle with a man and says, “It took my breath away.
► A woman wears a low-cut tank top that reveals cleavage and her bare shoulders in several scenes. A man wears a vest that reveals part of his bare chest and his bare shoulders. A man’s shirt is open in the front and we see his bare chest and abdomen. A woman on TV wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.

The Bikeriders VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – Two men approach another man in a bar and threaten him if he doesn’t remove his “colors” (his biker jacket); when he refuses, one man hits him with a bar stool, then punches and kicks him while he is on the floor (we see blood on his face), he is pushed out of the bar and onto the sidewalk outside where he is kicked again, and he draws a knife and slashes one man on the face (blood is shown on the slashed man’s hands when he covers his face and yells) and the other man hits the first man in the back of the head with a shovel; we later see more of this sequence and after the man is struck in the head with the shovel (we see blood on his head and face), the shovel is slammed down on his ankle and we see his ankle bend unnaturally (we later hear that a tendon was severed). A young man challenges a man and they agree to use knives; the man tells him where to meet and we see many men gathering in an empty lot and one man walks toward the other holding a knife and wearing brass knuckles and the other shoots him in the chest (he falls back dead and we see blood on his jacket). A young man approaches a man about joining a motorcycle club and the man tells him he can join but he’ll have to leave his friends behind; when the young man agrees the man tells him no and that he should never leave his friends behind, the young man draws a knife and slashes the man’s hand (we see blood on his hand) and the man punches the young man knocking him to the ground. A man drives a motorcycle and a car backs out in front of him; we see the windshield shatter and a patch of blood implying that the rider hit the car and slammed into the windshield, dying on impact. Two men stand behind three other men on their knees and shoot them in the head (we see blood spray).
► A man challenges another man (the leader of a motorcycle club) and the second man asks fists or knives; they agree on fists and we see them fighting in mud later with punches landing, one man is held in a chokehold, one man bites the other on the leg, and breaks his finger (we see the finger bent unnaturally and hear a crack as the man yells in pain). Two men argue over whether one scratched the other’s motorcycle and they come close to fighting when another man intervenes; another man charges toward them and punches the first man setting off a brawl between many men and leaving some bloody wounds (one man punches through the window of a car and we see a bloody shard in his hand that he removes). A man takes a log from a fire and hits another man in the head with it, he then kicks the man while he is on the ground and we see him with a bruised face later and understand that he has broken ribs. A man and a woman argue viciously, the man stands up, removes his belt and uses it to beat the woman until a young man intervenes, breaks the man’s leg and beats him with the belt before trying to strangle him with it; the woman tells the young man to leave and throws a dish at him that breaks on his back. Several men approach a woman at a party and surround her, she struggles and hits them as they pull her toward a flight of stairs that leads to a bedroom and another man intervenes and stops them. Two men with guns arrive at a house, one man shoots the door open and a man sits in the dark inside; he approaches the two men and one man shoots him in the leg (we see blood on his pants) and he leaves.
► Many motorcycles arrive outside a bar and the building shakes from the rumble of the engines; two men enter the bar and get information from the bar owner before setting the building on fire (we see it in flames) as police and firefighters arrive. Young men steal hubcaps from a car parked on a street and they stop when several motorcycles drive by; one young man stands in the street and breaks a car’s headlight with a crowbar when the driver yells at him to get out of the road.
► A man in a hospital bed with bruises on his face and hands and his leg in a cast pleads not to have his foot amputated because he wouldn’t be able to ride a motorcycle without it. A man storms into a house, we hear yelling between the man and a woman inside, and the man leaves with his belongings. A woman arrives home driven by a man on a motorcycle and another man is sitting on her front stoop waiting for her (she identifies him as her boyfriend) and he is upset to see the other man. A woman yells at a man and tells him, “You can’t have him,” about her husband and she demands that he let him leave the motorcycle club. Men discuss wanting to die on their motorcycles. A man tells another man to send some other men to visit two men and “make it so they can’t walk no more.” A woman says that she would have killed herself if she had been raped. We hear that a man died when he fell off a ladder and broke his neck. A man says that he threatened to beat up his brother if he didn’t drop out of college. A man says that he was told that he was an “undesirable character” after being evaluated by a psychologist before enlisting in the army. A woman says that a man describes people that have died as being “better off.” A woman describes people being assaulted if they wear their club jackets when they are alone. A woman says that a man “cracks up on his bike” whenever he rides. A woman describes members of a club being either “beer drinkers or pot smokers.” A motorcycle club is described as a proper gang that runs drugs and is involved in gambling, prostitution and murder. A man is introduced as “Cockroach,” and he says that he likes to eat bugs. A man describes that people think that motorcycles lead to something negative.
► A man on a motorcycle is chased by several police cars through intersections causing other cars to swerve and stop and he drives out of town; the police catch up to him when his motorcycle runs out of gas and we hear that a newspaper article was written about his arrest. A man is told that the family of a dead man won’t accept flowers that he sent for the funeral; when the members of the motorcycle club stand outside the funeral home, a woman approaches the man and spits in his face.
► A woman stands at a bus stop as many men from a bar come out and call to her, she becomes nervous and climbs on a motorcycle that another man has started and they ride away together. Men in a bar mock a woman when she says that she needs to leave, call her “Cinderellie” and laugh, as she seems increasingly uncomfortable. Many motorcycles join another motorcycle as they ride on an expressway. Men race on motorcycles on a dirt track. A patch seen on several motorcycle club jackets depicts an outline of an obscene hand gesture.

The Bikeriders LANGUAGE 10

 – About 73 F-words and its derivatives, several obscene hand gestures in the form of an outline drawing of the gesture on a patch, 2 sexual references, 16 scatological terms, 8 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (bozo, idiots, stupid, crazy, Fat Jack, Big Fat Jack, bum, kid, ridiculous, wild, bastard, undesirable character, queen, trouble, [mild obscenity deleted] on wheels, wild, candy [anatomical term deleted], ancient piece of [scatological term deleted], clean cut, pinko, college boy, bums, animals, stupid, salty), exclamations (shootin’ the breeze, jeez, come on, shut the [F-word deleted]), 3 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, Jesus, I swear to God, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ). | profanity glossary |

The Bikeriders SUBSTANCE USE

 – Two men share a marijuana cigarette, people smoke marijuana cigarettes in a few party scenes, a man injects himself in the arm with a hypodermic needle, a woman describes members of a club being either “beer drinkers or pot smokers,” and there are many references to people “getting stoned.” A man drinks from a glass of liquor and smokes a cigarette in a bar, men in several bar scenes are shown drinking beer from bottles and smoking cigarettes, people are shown drinking heavily in many scenes and some men are shown to be inebriated, a woman shakes ice in a shaker and pours herself a drink, a man drinks from a jug of wine in numerous scenes, and two men share a bottle of liquor. A man smokes many cigarettes while sitting on his motorcycle and we see a pile of butts on the ground, a man smokes in a bed, and many scenes show men and women smoking cigarettes in a variety of settings.

The Bikeriders DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Motorcycle clubs, motorcycle gangs, “The Wild One,” respect, responsibility, grief, the Vietnam War, drug use and abuse, change.

The Bikeriders MESSAGE

 – Times change, not for the better.