The Darkest Minds | 2018 | PG-13 | - 2.5.4

A highly contagious disease kills the majority of young people, leaving only a few who exhibit powers that frighten the government enough that they are gathered and kept in internment camps. A 16-year-old girl (Amandla Stenberg) is helped to escape and bands together with a group of other young people to try to regain control of their future. Also with Bradley Whitford, Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie, Harris Dickinson, Patrick Gibson, Wade Williams, Miya Cech and Skylan Brooks. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson. [1:45]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A teen girl opens the door of a bathroom to a teen boy and she is wearing a towel wrapped around her (we see bare shoulders and some cleavage) as they talk. A teen girl wears a low-cut evening gown that reveals cleavage and her bare upper back and a teen boy remarks about her appearance. A teen girl changes her clothes in a locker room and we see her wearing a sports bra briefly (partial abdomen and upper chest are seen). A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.
► A teen boy puts a teen girl on a bed and she wakes up panicked as he lies on top of her (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A husband and his wife lie sleeping in bed together clothed.
► A teen boy and a teen girl kiss tenderly. A teen boy and a teen girl move close to each other and nearly kiss. A teen boy and a teen girl flirt in several scenes. Many boys and girls of varying ages dance together; one teen couple dances close and the girl rests her head on the boy's chest.

VIOLENCE/GORE 5 - A teenage boy yells at an armed guard and he is struck in the face with the butt of a gun (we see his bloody face); the guard that struck him then holds her gun to her chin and fires (off-screen with no evident blood) killing herself and the boy is beaten repeatedly by many other guards. A guard points his own weapon to his chin and fires (we hear the sound; we do not see blood). Many people wearing hoods over the faces are lowered from helicopters, they remove their hoods and we see their glowing eyes as they roar and blow fire on the ground toward people as they scatter; several people are engulfed in flames and one teen boy is shown with charred skin on his neck and ear (we see him in the hospital later). Armed guards point their weapons at a teen boy, and then at each other and shoot each other dead (no blood is shown).
► We see a flashback to many children running toward a tall, electrified fence, one teen breaks the fence down and the children pour through it as guards shoot many in the back (we see spots of blood on their clothing as they fall), and one girl falls as people run past her and a teen boy picks her up to get her to safety. A guard holds a man by the throat and yells at him, and then drops him to the floor and leaves the room; a person with a bag over his head is pushed into the room, he pulls off the bag and roars as his eyes glow red and we hear the first man scream from outside the room (he was apparently killed by the glowing-eyed character). A woman in a car shoots at a van with four young people in it, they speed along roads and another car rear ends the first car as a teen boy in the van uses powers to make winds blow and spray leaves across the cars and roadway, the road cracks up and heaves and one car is forced off the road while the other stops short of a fallen tree across the road. A woman hits a teen girl and a teen boy in the head with a gun (we see blood on the girl's head) and handcuffs the boy, and the woman moves to the teen girl preparing to kill her but she is stopped; we see another teen boy and a girl gagged and bound next to a van. Many people with guns shoot at four people and they drop to the ground (no one is harmed). A helicopter crashes to the ground and explodes and it is implied that it lands on a teen boy.
► A teen boy thrashes on a medical table as medical personal with hypodermic needles hold him and inject him; the boy is screaming for his father. A man tries to inject a girl with a hypodermic needle (presumably to kill her) and she grabs his arm and stops him by controlling his mind. A teen boy puts a teen girl on a bed and she wakes up panicked as he lies on top of her and she hits him and gets away.
► A grade school aged girl seated at a cafeteria table shakes uncontrollably, her eyes glow, she crushes a drinking cup in her hand and collapses dead on the floor (no blood is shown) as we hear a voiceover describe an epidemic of a highly contagious disease affecting all young people and killing most of them.
► A teen boy uses his power to throw a man hard against a wall. A teen girl is slammed to the floor of an abandoned mall by something unseen, a teen boy is then slammed on top of her, and they are both thrown into the air and into items in the mall nearly slamming into a display of weights (they are not harmed). An armed guard yells at a teen girl, another teen girl talks back to him and he grabs her by the hair. A teen boy punches another teen boy 3 times hard in the face and a man continues to punch him and kick him when he is on the ground (we see blood on the boy's face). A teen girl hides in a locker room and is ushered to a car where a guard questions the driver and the girl is nearly caught and sent back to an internment camp.
► A teen girl wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed and a woman talks to her while armed guards patrol the halls. A grade school aged girl enters a kitchen and her mother reacts as if she doesn't know her; the woman locks the child in the garage and people wearing hazmat suits arrive to take her away as she cries and pleads for them to stop. School busses filled with children transport them to internment camps and people with weapons guard them. Children in internment camps are shown wearing clothes of the same color and marching to buildings where they are forced to work under heavy guard. A loud noise is played over loud speakers and many children scream and recoil, while one girl collapses unconscious.
► A young girl causes flashes of electricity and an explosion in an abandoned market. A grade school aged girl lies in bed with her parents, she touches her mother's arm and the child's eyes glow orange, she hyperventilates and runs out of the room.
► We see news footage with destruction caused by people with powers, like a police car is shown stuck in the side of a water tower.
► A teen boy and a teen girl argue in several scenes. A teen girl's voiceover says, "Half my class was dead." A woman tells a teen girl, "If they catch you, they will kill you." A teen boy sees another teen boy attacking a teen girl and he says, "I'll kill him."

LANGUAGE 4 - 7 scatological terms (one is a teen boy saying "BS"), 4 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (dumb, slip kid, stupid, chubs, bounty hunters, cruel, reckless, baby, idiot), exclamations (shut-up, jeez), 5 religious exclamations (Oh My God, My God, Oh God). | profanity glossary |

SUBSTANCE USE - A man tries to inject a girl with a hypodermic needle (presumably to kill her), and there are several conversations about a cure for a disease.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Epidemics, CDC, hope, fear, secrets, rules, orphans, loneliness, family, danger, trust, control, revolution.

MESSAGE - Survival can be difficult, but it helps to be cunning.