Hypnotic | 2023 | R | – 3.6.4

Why is “Hypnotic” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a passionate kissing scene, several scenes where gunfire is exchanged and people are killed or injured, a repeated scene of a young child being kidnapped, sequences of people under the influence of mind control causing them to do unusual or dangerous things including harming or killing themselves and others, several arguments, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After the apparent abduction of his daughter, a detective (Ben Affleck) struggles with odd memories while confronting a criminal who’s able to hypnotize anyone into doing his bidding. A psychic (Alice Braga) helps the detective realize he may not be as powerless as he thinks, and reality is actually quite flexible. Also with JD Pardo, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey, Jackie Earle Haley, William Fichtner, Hala Finley, Ionie Olivia Nieves and Nikki Dixon. Directed by Robert Rodriguez. [Running Time: 1:33]

Hypnotic SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man and a woman kiss passionately; they lie on a bed, his shirt is open revealing his bare chest and abdomen and the woman wears a tank top that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders.
► We hear that a husband and his wife separated after the kidnapping of their daughter.
► A woman removes her top and walks into traffic when she seems to be in a trance (we see her bra, cleavage, bare abdomen and back). A woman showers and we see her bare shoulders and cleavage.

Hypnotic VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – Two armed men shoot their weapons into the ceiling of a bank during a robbery, a man holds a gun on a bank teller and the teller is shot in the chest (we see holes in his shirt). A man chases another man to the roof of a building, two police officers hold guns on the pursued man and are told to cuff him, but they turn their guns on the other man, and then on each other, and they shoot, killing each other (we see blood spurt). An armored truck crashes and flips on its side and we see a dead woman inside the vehicle with blood on her head and face, as a man puts an explosive in the vehicle and it blows up. A man drives his motorcycle through the plate glass window of a store (we see blood on his chest and neck) and he slams his head down on a metal spike killing himself with a crunch. The power goes out in a police station where a man is held in a cell; another man with a gun enters the area, he is shot in the leg and he and another man fight; one handcuffs the other to the cell bars and the cuffed man pulls against the cuffs making his hand and wrist bloody, and breaks his wrist (we hear a crack) before being shot in the head (we see a bloody bullet wound). A man speeds in a van, hits another man that slams into the windshield, he crashes into a golf cart and a woman tells him to stop but he continues to speed through a gate as helicopters chase him; armed people surround the man and gunfire is exchanged (we see bloody wounds and blood spurting), and one man shoots himself in the head (we see blood spurt) and another man shoots himself in the abdomen.
► A man and a woman hold guns on a man, the man shoots at the man and the woman, they run through a crowd and the man shoots into the air trying to get people to disperse; he shoots a person on a motorcycle, steals the motorcycle and he and the woman speed away through narrow streets as buildings appear and bend unnaturally and the woman uses a bat to hit people trying to catch them. A man sits on a park bench and tells a woman seated next to him that it is so hot; when the man leaves the woman repeats that it is so hot, walks away and into traffic while removing her clothing (she seems to be in a trance), cars crash together throwing one person through the windshield and onto the ground, and a fireplug is struck spraying water into the air.
► A man is tasered in the chest and wakes up in a chair with an IV in his arm and he is asked questions. A woman is strapped into a chair and blindfolded; she screams and falls back out of the chair as a man asks her questions. A man holds a gun on a man and a woman. A man holds a pair of scissors over a woman as she hugs him, she walks away, and he walks behind her with the scissors, and slams them into a doorframe. Blood is seen on a child’s hair bow after she was kidnapped from a park.
► A man on the phone tells another man to kill a woman and put three bullets in her head. A woman’s voice is heard calling in to report a bank robbery; several people in a surveillance vehicle watch armored car guards on a CCTV screen and one man in the vehicle says that the guards are involved and rushes into the bank. We hear that a man “Went rogue.” A man says that he left another man, “Hog tied in the bathroom.” A man is shown in a therapy session several times where he recalls a traumatic event when his young daughter was kidnapped from a park. We hear new reports of a kidnapper. A husband and his wife argue. A man tells a joke about someone urinating on someone else.
► A man is chased across train tracks, he runs in front of a train, between trains, and he sees the tracks bend in the distance making him doubt what he is seeing. A man steps on a cockroach on the ground (we hear a crack and see some goo on his shoe).

Hypnotic LANGUAGE 4

 – 5 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (2-bit con artist, head case, mean old bastard, sneaky, rude), 1 religious profanity (GD), 1 religious exclamation (e.g. oh God). | profanity glossary |

Hypnotic SUBSTANCE USE

 – Two men drink glasses of liquor.

Hypnotic DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Mind control, hypnosis, missing children, kidnapping, trauma, political influence, parenting, tarot, loyalty, myths, betrayal.

Hypnotic MESSAGE

 – Reality and memories are very malleable.