I’m Thinking of Ending Things | 2020 | R | – 3.4.6

Why is “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language including some sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few kisses and a fully nude man seen from the back, an imaginary fight with a young man ending up dead from a stab wound, a few dead sheep and discussions of pigs dying from being eaten by maggots, many discussions of death and suicide and ending relationships, a few arguments and yelling, and over 10 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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On a road trip to visit her boyfriend’s (Jesse Plemons) parents, a young woman’s (Jessie Buckley) life becomes muddled by the past and the future and she begins to question her connection to reality. Also with Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Colby Minifie and Jason Ralph. Directed by Charlie Kaufman. [Running Time: 2:14]

I’m Thinking of Ending Things SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A young man and a young woman kiss. A young man kisses a young woman on the cheek a few times and they kiss while seated in a car (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man tries to kiss a young woman and she pulls away from him.
► A man shows a young woman a bed and tells her that she and a young man can share it for the night; the man goes on to make sexual remarks about the bed. A young man and a young woman dance in a hallway and he lifts and spins her; he places his head on her hand tenderly and the scene shows them being married. A teen boy and a teen girl practice a dance number for a school play in a school hallway and the boy lifts and spins the girl a couple of times.
► A woman makes a remark about her husband’s sexual acumen. A young woman talks about when she and her boyfriend met in a bar and makes a comment about him being “cute.” A man says that quantum physics is an unusual field “for a girl.”
► A man removes his clothes and walks through snow covered ground and then into a school talking to an animated pig (we see the man’s bare chest, abdomen, back, legs and buttocks). Several women in an audience wear evening gowns that reveal cleavage and bare shoulders. A young woman does a few high kicks while dancing that reveal her legs to the hip and partial underwear when her skirt flips up.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man grabs a young woman and tries to kiss her, she struggles with him and runs away; a young man fights with the man and the man pulls a knife and stabs the young man, he falls to the floor and red cloth emits from the wound (signifying blood and the young man appears dead). A man goes to his car after work and moans and whimpers, he removes his clothes (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), sees things calling to him (a character from a TV commercial and an animated pig) and eventually follows an animated pig with maggots dropping from its abdomen, through the hallways of a school.
► A young man becomes angry when he thinks he sees someone watching him and his girlfriend kissing in his car; he leaves the car to find whoever it was (we do not see an encounter). A young woman gets out of a car in a snowstorm and the door locks behind her; she yells and kicks the car a few times. A young woman pounds on a car door and yells when her boyfriend leaves her alone in the car. A woman lies in a hospital bed (she seems dead) and a young man cries over her and says that she is sleeping. A young man pounds on a table and yells at his mother when she repeats a mispronounced word. A young woman is startled when a man enters a room, touches her shoulder and sees that he has aged since the last time she saw him (it was moments earlier). A young man snaps at a young woman about leaving. A young man pounds on the steering wheel of his car and yells. A young man is annoyed by a young man singing lyrics from a song that she calls “a rape song.”
► A young man and a young woman talk about jumping from a moving train and that it would probably be fatal. A young woman talks about staying in relationships past their expiration date. A young man says that his mother has not been feeling well. A young man and a young woman talk about people that have committed suicide and a woman that died young. A young man talks about people not being nice to him in school. A young man says that he feels invisible. A young man and a young woman discuss viruses and rabies. A young man talks about insects that blow themselves up for the sake of the community. A young man and a young woman discuss the inevitability of death. A young man walks through his parents’ house calling for them and no one answers for some time. A woman on a TV show gets fired because her boyfriend made a scene at her workplace; she punches him in the shoulder later. A young woman listens to a voice message on her phone and we hear a man’s voice talking about not being lucid and being afraid. A woman complains of the noise she hears caused by Tinnitus. A reference is made to how we “warehouse our elderly.” A woman says, “Jake could leave his head on the floor if it wasn’t screwed on.” A young man says, “People are cold to me.” Two teen girls laugh at a young man at an ice cream stand and he recoils and turns his back. A teen girl at an ice cream stand talks about a smell and says that she is afraid (we do not hear about what). A young man talks about an author having committed suicide. A reference is made to someone trying to slash their wrists. A young man describes pigs having been eaten alive by maggots. A young man says, “Life can be brutal on a farm.”
► We see a few dead sheep on the ground, partially covered with snow and it seems that one has some blood at its mouth; a young man says that they will probably be burned in the Spring but that they are frozen solid now. A dog shakes its head for an unnaturally long period so time.
► A young woman pulls clothes out of a washing machine and is startled by what they are (her boyfriend’s shirts from high school). A young man pulls away from his mother several times when she tries to touch or hug him. A young woman makes a gesture with her hand like she is shooting herself in the head. A young woman makes an explosion sound, like her head is blowing up. A young woman blows raspberries a few times during a conversation.
► A young man feeds his mother, seated in a wheelchair, and we see some food on her mouth and chin. A young man has some saliva collected in the corner of his mouth and a young woman stares at him; he self-consciously wipes it away with his hand. We see scratch marks on the outside of a basement door. A man describes the cold using crude terms. We see an urn in a room with a photo of a dog on it. A man dumps bags of garbage into a dumpster. A glop of something is seen on a nightgown and a woman says that it is baby food. A young man talks about something being like an oozing wound and a millstone. A teen girl is shown with a rash on her arms and hands.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things LANGUAGE 6

 – About 11 F-words, 16 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (weird, sissies, sissy, Nancy, invisible, foolish, terribly unkind, bleak, idiot, crazy, nimrod, vapid, mean, willfully obtuse, odd, controlling, melancholy, oppressive, vermin, stinky wet, tricky, rude, awful, sour, dish-rag ratty worn, shy, coddling mother, smart-aleck cowhand, delusional, out of step, hopeless, sad sagging neighborhood drunk, nuisance, creeper, pushy, rubbish, Freudian claptrap, sugar junkie, unusual, misogynistic, ghost, tired whore, monstrous, creepy, fake, dangerous), exclamations (yikes, phew, wow, ugh, huh, goodness, heck, hey), 2 religious profanities (GD), 13 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, God, Oh God, Oh My God, For God’s Sake, God Has A Plan, God’s A Good Egg, a reference to Isaiah 1:18). | profanity glossary |

I’m Thinking of Ending Things SUBSTANCE USE

 – A jug of wine is shown on a table and people have glasses of wine at their places, a young man tells a young woman that she had a lot of wine (she does not seem to remember), a young woman drinks a glass of wine in one go, and a young woman talks about having met a young man in a bar. A woman smokes a cigarette in a car.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Aging, relationships, nostalgia, living in the past, fear, curiosity, perspective, coercion, regret, society, memories, diligence, Tinnitus, Alzheimer’s, dementia, happiness, suicide bombers, suicide, loneliness.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things MESSAGE

 – Ending relationships is never easy.