Leave the World Behind | 2023 | R | – 5.5.8

Why is “Leave the World Behind” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language, some sexual content, drug use and brief bloody images.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes implied masturbation, near infidelity, discussion of sex between a professor and students, a passenger airline crashes with bodies strewn on a beach, implied threats of invasion and war, an oil tanker running aground on a beach, numerous self-drive car crashes, an infection that leads to a teen boy’s teeth falling out, many arguments and suspicion of nefarious activity, and about 36 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Soon after a couple (Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke) take their kids to a rented house on Long Island for a short vacation, a cyberattack knocks out their devices, a father and daughter (Mahershala Ali and Myha’la) arrive claiming to be the owners of the large house, and civilization may be about to collapse. Also with Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Directed by Sam Esmail. [Running Time: 2:18]

Leave the World Behind SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A teen boy looks at pictures of a young woman on his phone (we see her wearing a bikini and cleavage, bare abdomen, back, legs and partial buttocks are visible) and we see rhythmic movement under the sheets (implying that he is masturbating).
► A man and a woman dance together, embrace and linger while reminding themselves that they are each married to other people (they are interrupted before anything else happens). A teen boy takes pictures of a teen girl wearing a bikini.
► A young woman asks a man if he has ever had sex with one of his students (he denies that he has). A woman worries about letting a man and his daughter into the house they are renting and fears the man molesting her teen daughter; her husband jokes about why she is not concerned that the man might molest their teen son. A young woman tells her father (in crude terms) that she suspects that an older man wants to have sex with her.
► A young woman wears a bikini at poolside and we see cleavage, her bare abdomen, back, buttocks and legs. A young woman wears cropped tank tops and short shorts in a few scenes that reveal the outline of her nipples through the fabric and her partial bare abdomen and legs to the upper thighs. A young woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders. Teens, men and women wear swimsuits in a beach scene (bare backs, legs, abdomens, cleavage and partial buttocks are seen).

Leave the World Behind VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A man approaches an empty house and goes inside; we see articles of clothing and other items strewn in the yard, he walks around to the back and on the beach where he discovers a watch that when he tries to pick it up sees that it is on a dead body’s wrist (we see blood on the face of the body); when the man turns around he realizes that a plane has crashed and we see plane parts and bodies all around the beach. After having had a fever, a teen boy wakes up and spits out blood (we see goo), proceeds to pull out several of his teeth and we see the bloody teeth in his hand as he vomits on the floor (we see a dark puddle on the floor that looks like blood).
► A large explosion cloud rises out of a city in the distance and we hear gunfire and explosions. A plane speeds toward a beach where it crashes as a man runs away and we see a plume of sand and smoke (he is unharmed). An enormous oil tanker approaches a shoreline where people are on the beach and it runs aground as the people run for safety (we see it digging into the sand until it comes to a stop). Many cars are shown crashed on a road without drivers present; several additional cars speed toward them and crash while another car, with a family inside, swerves to avoid being struck. A man stands on his porch holding a shotgun telling two men to leave his property; he and one of the other men hold guns on each other while yelling (they do not shoot). Many deer surround a young woman and move close to her; she and a woman scream and wave their arms in the air until the deer herd disperses.
► A husband and his wife panic when their teen daughter goes missing and they search the area trying to find her. A woman on the side of the road flags down a man driving by and pleads with him for help (her nose runs as she cries and we see mucus); he drives away as she cries and continues to plead with him. A man and a young woman knock on a door late at night and say that the house a man and his family are renting is theirs; they ask to be let in and to stay the night. We hear loud pounding sounds before blaring noises that cause people to hold their ears and glass to shatter in several scenes. A teen boy and a teen girl search through a rundown shack where it appears someone has been sleeping; the boy tells the girl that he suspects someone has been watching her and he grabs her, startling her, and she hits her head. A plane flies over a road and drops a thick cloud of leaflets; a man in a car speeds away trying to avoid them.
► A woman and a young woman argue bitterly in a few scenes. A husband and his wife argue in several scenes. We hear that there is a power outage in a major city. A woman says, “I [F-word deleted] hate people.” A young woman talks about taking time to explore what she wants to do with her life instead of being locked into a career that she will regret. A young woman fears that her mother has died in a plane crash. A teen girl talks about the story of a man that drowns in a flood waiting for God to help him. A man tells another man, “You’re not thinking clearly.” A man refers to someone having a “doomsday bunker.”
► A man has a gun on the front seat of his car. We see a gun in the drawer of a cabinet. A young teen girl walks toward a large deer herd gathered in a yard and woods near her. Many flamingos land in a swimming pool. Ominous music plays over scenes of the sun rising.
► A teen boy pulls an insect off his ankle and we see blood and goo (probably a tic). A teen boy asks his younger teen sister if she flatulated while riding in a car. A young woman talks about being concerned that a teen boy and a teen girl urinated in a swimming pool.

Leave the World Behind LANGUAGE 8

 – About 36 F-words and its derivatives, 10 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (something is off, boring, con, nonplussed, dude, haunting soliloquy, survivalist, crazy, useless man, nightmare, Donnie Darko, lazy, buzzkill, prickly, awful, terrible, people are terrible, sneaking suspicion, the pot calling the kettle black, dumb [anatomical term deleted]), exclamations (wow, who cares), 1 religious profanity (GD), 4 religious exclamations (e.g. Holy [F-word deleted], Jesus Christ, God knows where, a teen girl talks about a story of a man that drowns in a flood waiting for God to help him). | profanity glossary |

Leave the World Behind SUBSTANCE USE

 – A young woman vapes and we understand that it is marijuana, a teen boy takes a prescription tablet (likely an antibiotic), and a young woman and a man vape marijuana together. A man tries to open a liquor cabinet in a house he and his family are renting (it is locked), a woman drinks wine in several scenes, a man and a woman drink wine and the woman says that she will have a hangover in the morning if she continues to drink, a woman drinks wine and a man drinks whiskey, several people drink wine, and a man describes having a few more drinks with another man and getting wobbly. A man smokes a cigarette, a woman buys a pack of cigarettes for her husband and remarks about him liking to sneak a cigarette, and a man describes having a few cigars with another man while drinking.

Leave the World Behind DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Anxiety, anger, hatred of people, success, Mesoamerican mythology, truth, isolation, chaos, coup d’état, civil war, barter system, denial, living a lie, trust, Lyme Disease, invasions, occupations, Friends, defense contractors, stock markets, speculation, self-help clichés, cyber-attacks.

Leave the World Behind MESSAGE

 – If you’re not paranoid by now, it’s probably too late.