Black Box | 2020 | NR | – 1.6.5

Why is “Black Box” rated NR? The MPAA has not rated this film. The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a hug and a discussion about infidelity, several scenes of memory retrieval involving hypnosis and encounters with a twisted figure, a death from a car accident, a death from a fall down a flight of stairs, a few fights leading to bloody wounds and bruises, a scene of spousal and child abuse, several arguments, discussions of traumatic brain injury, and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After the car accident that kills his wife, a man (Mamoudou Athie) regains consciousness suffering from severe amnesia. Anxious to regain his memories and be able to properly care for his young daughter, he agrees to undergo an experimental treatment that does seem to bring back memories — which, however, he does not recognize. Also with Phylicia Rashad, Amanda Christine, Tosin Morohunfola, Charmaine Bingwa, Donald Elise Watkins, Troy James, Nyah Marie Johnson and Najah Bradley. Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour. [Running Time: 1:40]

Black Box SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man and a woman hug in an office setting. A man asks a friend about his relationship with his wife before her death and says, “Maybe I cheated.”
► A woman wears a low-cut blouse that reveals cleavage.

Black Box VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man is pushed down a flight of stairs and we see him tumble down accompanied by cracking bone sounds and we see him lying motionless with twisted limbs when he reaches the landing. Two men fight and one man is punched several times, he falls to the floor and we see his bloody face and mouth; the other man kicks him in the head while he lies on the floor and holds a knife over him (he does not stab him). A man hits his wife a couple of times, and kicks his daughter to the floor when she tries to intervene. A man yells at a woman and moves close to her, she grabs him and he shoves her against a wall a couple of times, and the man walks to a room where a child is sleeping, we hear a thud and the screen goes dark implying that the man was knocked out by a blow to the head (we see blood on the man’s head).
► While under hypnosis a man sees a human figure twisted unnaturally and with movements accompanied by creaking and cracking several times; the figure lunges at him in one encounter, shoves him against a wall in another, and hits him hard in the face in another. A figure crawls out of a playpen in a room (during a memory retrieval) and moves toward a man who kicks it and it falls back on the floor. A man is hypnotized in a lab and we see images of memories coming back to him: when he sees people, their faces are blurred and we see a strange figure moving toward him. A man sitting on a sofa is grabbed by hands from behind him that seem to be choking him; he gasps and the hands disappear when his young daughter calls to him. A man, hypnotized in a lab, sees himself in a dark place; he breathes heavily and wakes up with a start when someone touches him on the shoulder. A man hypnotized in a lab sees images of an apartment where an infant is crying; when he picks the child up the face is blurred and unrecognizable, and he later sees a woman whose face is also blurred (we see bruises on her arm as she cries).
► A man in a hospital bed has bloody gashes and bruises on his face and a bloody bandage on his head. A man remembers falling down a flight of stairs (we hear crunching and cracking as he falls). A man yells and pounds on his steering wheel, honking the horn a few times. A man sees reflections of images that he cannot explain. A woman tells a man that if he sees an unexplained figure in his memories, he needs to “kill it.”
► A woman tells a man that she will call the police if he doesn’t leave. A man sits up with a start in a lab and yells at a woman after seeing something that he cannot explain in a memory retrieval session. A man yells at his daughter and tells her, “Stop it.” A man tells his daughter that she needs to stay with a friend for a few days because “It’s not safe with me.” A man becomes upset when he is turned down for a job that he used to do for a newspaper; he is told his work is not the same as it used to be. A man talks about being upset because bill collectors are hounding him. A man forgets to pick his daughter up from school and a woman threatens to call child services if it happens again. A man asks another man if he was ever violent to his wife. A man is frustrated and his daughter is sad when he is unable to remember a special handshake they used to do before a car accident. A man walks through an apartment building and seems to remember the place. A man tells a woman, “I’m not going to hurt you anymore.” A woman tells a man to take control of his life.
► A man looks at photographs of his wife and daughter and we understand that he is trying to remember his past; his wife died in a car accident. People talk about being surprised that a man survived a car accident that killed his wife and left him in a coma. We see medical notes that indicate that a man was “brain-dead” after a car accident. A man receives a message asking him to take part in a cognitive research study. A woman tells a man, “You shouldn’t have survived this” while looking at his medical records. A young girl tells her father that she thinks he is annoyed with her and talks about him yelling at her and punching a wall. A young girl sees a picture of her mother (she died in a car accident) on a tablet screen and she turns it over fearing that it will upset her father. People say to a man, “You’re just sick,” in a few scenes.
► When a man is hypnotized he follows a cursor on a screen that speeds up and we see his eyes following the image back and forth on the screen. A man has a bandage on his hand and we see a hole in a wall later implying that the man punched a hole in the wall. We see several brain scan images in a few scenes.

Black Box LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 1 scatological term, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (butterfly, punk, weak, creepy, digital voodoo nonsense, crazy), exclamations, (stop it, please, calm down), 1 religious profanity (GD), 2 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh God, Thank God). | profanity glossary |

Black Box SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man picks up a pack of cigarettes and his daughter tells him, “You don’t smoke.”

Black Box DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Fatal car accidents, brain death, severe brain trauma, death of loved ones, grief, the Hippocratic oath, sacrifice, fate, second chances, spousal abuse, expectations, distractions, near death experiences.

Black Box MESSAGE

 – Grief can push people to extreme actions.