Monkey Man | 2024 | R | – 6.9.9

Why is “Monkey Man” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence throughout, language throughout, sexual content/nudity and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene with partial nudity, several scenes of sex workers entertaining men, several scenes depicting the raiding of a village and forcible evacuation of the residents with some being murdered and property left in flames, many extended scenes of people fighting many other people using weapons and hand-to-hand combat that end with dead and bloody bodies, many scenes of fights between two men in a ring ending with knockouts and bloody injuries, a few arguments and nearly 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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An anonymous man (Dev Patel), determined to exact revenge for the forced relocation of his family and the brutal murder of his mother, unleashes a campaign of violence against the corrupt leaders who continue to victimize the poor and powerless. Also with Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Sobhita Dhulipala and Ashwini Kalsekar. Directed by Patel. [Running Time: 2:01]

Monkey Man SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A brothel shows men and women kissing and caressing each other; one man thrusts into a woman and we see his bare chest and abdomen and her bare breasts and legs.
► A man sits with a woman who wears a deeply cut dress that reveals cleavage and the sides of her bare breasts; the man kisses her and presses his hand under her skirt and when he withdraws his hand we see it covered with blood. A private club is seen with scantily clad women dancing with and kissing men and a few straddling men’s laps (lap dancing); a few women are shown earing bras and thong underwear that reveal cleavage, bare abdomens and backs and bare buttocks. We hear a woman moaning sexually. A man snorts a line of cocaine off a woman’s bare leg.
► A woman looks at photos of young women and girls and asks someone on the phone, “Is she broken in?” implying sex work. A man describes a small vehicle using terms that he might use for a woman and he says that it has “nice headlights and a big bumper.”
► A man is shown shirtless during fight scenes and he wears shorts that reveal his bare chest, abdomen, back and legs to the upper thighs. A shirtless man is seen on a street and we see his bare chest, abdomen and back. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage. Several women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage, bare backs and shoulders. A man wears a tank top that reveals part of his bare chest and shoulders in several scenes.

Monkey Man VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – A man enters a bathroom and confronts another man holding a gun to his head; they fight and the gun is dropped, another man enters the room and is shot, the first two men continue to fight, one holds a tray to the throat of the other causing him to gag, another man is slammed into a toilet leaving a lot of blood in the water and on the bowl, the chain from a toilet is wrapped around a man’s neck and the man coughs and struggles, and a man uses a shard of broken glass to slash the other man; one man then draws a knife and stabs the other man, and one man stabs the other in the shoulder before running away. A man runs toward a window to break through and get away from many armed men, but the glass does not break; he fights several men in a stairwell and he ties a piece of fabric around his bleeding leg wound and hides in a parking garage, steals a vehicle and speeds away chased by gunmen and police causing several crashes, a young child is nearly struck, and a man is left on the ground among broken glass after the vehicle tips over and we see bloody head wounds as an officer approaches holding a stick (he presumably hits the wounded man). A man handcuffed and in the back of a police transport gets an officer’s gun and shoots another officer, he fights and opens the door of the vehicle, jumps out and onto the hood of a trailing car, jumps off and rolls on the ground before running away and into a building where he is confronted by a man with an ax; they fight and another man is struck in the throat with the axe, he sees a young girl hiding under a bed and tells her to run away, he continues to fight with the man with the axe and hits him in the nose and runs away. A man runs out of a building and onto a roof where a police helicopter shoots at him, he is struck and falls into murky water. A man punches two other men and leaves them incapacitated as he climbs a fence and enters a building through a parking garage, fights several people in a kitchen using pans and a coffee pot, he puts a man’s face on a burner and lights a flame, he fights two other men in an elevator and a gun is discharged a couple of times before the man stabs one man repeatedly and then the other slowly in the throat (we hear squishing and crunching and see a lot of blood).
► A man shoots a firework into a crowded room causing people to run and scream and an extended fight begins with men punching and kicking each other, and several throws and slashing and stabbing with knives; many more armed men arrive in the room and another group of armed people face off with them with a lot of slashing and yelling (we see blood spray during the fight). A man walks through a dark room looking for another man that hits him hard knocking him to the floor; he gets up and the two men fight with punches and kicks exchanged and one man is punched repeatedly while on the floor (we see blood on his face), the man uses a shoe to hit the man in the face every time he tries to get up, and then uses his fist repeatedly and we hear crunching (presumably of bones breaking) and we see the man lying motionless in a puddle of blood. A woman shoots at a man and yells at him; she prepares to shoot him again and another woman hits her in the back of the head with a tray (presumably killing her) and we see the attacker’s face splattered with blood; the man uses the tray to cut the woman’s thumb off and we see the severed digit and a lot of blood. A man stabs another man in the abdomen with a sharp weapon, then tries to stab him again and the stabbed man stops the point with his hand (we see it pushing through his hand), the wounded man takes the weapon and stabs the other man repeatedly before a final stab in the forehead and the man lies dead in a puddle of blood.
► A man has several flashbacks that depict his family and neighbors being forcibly removed from their homes as armed men arrive and open fire on them (we hear gunfire and screaming), and later see the structures on fire; they are told that the land is a Holy site and they cannot live there. We hear gunfire and people run for cover in a village; a woman tells her young son to hide and he watches through the floorboards as a man tries to molest her, she slashes him on the ear and he beats her with his belt and strangles her before leaving and setting the house on fire; the child tries to revive his mother (now engulfed in flames) and burns his hands, and we see another person running away in flames.
► A man blows a powder into another man’s face after telling him it contains a powerful toxin; the man has flashbacks to when his village was destroyed and his mother was murdered, he tears open his tank top then seems to tear open his chest (he’s imagining this and we see glowing lights flashing inside his chest).
► Two men face off in a ring and one man kicks the other hard in the face knocking him to the mat where he lies motionless. A very large man enters a ring and another man fights with him, dodging his strikes as the first man swings a bat wrapped with barbed wire and swings heavy fists and tries to stomp on him when he falls to the mat before being kicked in the throat and the groin and collapsing himself. A large crowd of people watch and cheer for two fighters in a ring as they punch, kick and throw each other; one man wears a monkey mask and we see blood drooling from his mouth during the fight and he groans when he is thrown out of the ring by the other fighter. Two men in a ring fight with punches, kicks and throws and one man falls to the mat ending the fight. A woman slaps another woman hard in the face. A painting depicts a battle with many armed people fighting. Several training sequences show a man practicing punching and kicking using a heavy bag of rice as another man plays a drum for timing, he lifts a makeshift barbell and holds buckets filled with water. A man’s hand drips blood onto his shoe after an extended fight sequence.
► A man in a wheelchair pretending to be disabled bumps into a table in a café and spills a woman’s drink causing her to look away and he steals her wallet. When a man complains that another man paid him only half of what he agreed to for a fight, the other man tells him that he needs to put on a show and bleed to make more money. A man shows another man an assortment of guns; the owner of the guns holds one to the other man’s head and pulls the trigger (it clicks but is not loaded), the other man chooses one to buy. A woman yells at a young woman and mentions arranging to see a doctor (implying the young woman is a sex worker that might be pregnant and the doctor will perform an abortion). Protestors carry signs that read, “Stop killing Indian Muslims.” We hear a news report about transgender people being targeted. A news report discusses violence against minorities. A man mocks another man saying that when he ran away from a drug dealer they chopped off his leg.
► A man screams when someone removes a bullet from his leg and cauterizes the wound with a piece of hot metal (we see stitched wounds later). A man snorts a line of cocaine and falls back gagging and coughing; we see him spitting blood later and understand that the cocaine was replaced with a cleaning powder. A man spits blood into a sink after a fight. A man is shown with burn scars on his hands and he tells a woman that they are from using bleach to clean.
► People are shown sleeping on the streets in several scenes. A trans person tells a man that police officers do not come there because they find trans people unsettling. A woman tells a story about a person being stripped of his powers by the gods. A man tells another man that he needs to free himself from childhood terrors. The animated severed paw of a monkey stirs a cup of tea in the opening credits (Monkey Paw Productions). A man feeds a small puppy food from a dumpster outside a club and a woman tells him that he shouldn’t because it will teach the dog to expect it. A man has a scar on his head and across his ear. A statue is shown with burn scars on half of the body and face of the person depicted.

Monkey Man LANGUAGE 9

 – About 47 F-words, 2 sexual references, 2 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for Chinese people, name-calling (little bastard, cheap, unsettling, crazy kid from the gutter, broken man), exclamations (let’s boogey, wow, wooow), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. do God’s work, I worship you, oh God, a young boy and his mother pray in numerous flashback scenes). | profanity glossary |

Monkey Man SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man snorts cocaine and distributes more of the drug to people at a private club, a man snorts a line of cocaine off a woman’s bare leg (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details), and a man grinds a root and blows the powder into another man’s face after telling him it contains a powerful toxin. People are shown drinking liquor and champagne in a club/restaurant in several scenes. A woman smokes in a café, a woman smokes in an office, a woman smokes in a restaurant kitchen, a man smokes a cigar, and a woman smokes outside a club.

Monkey Man DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Poverty, forced relocation, hate, revenge, reputation, sex work, courage, mercy, integrity, hope.

Monkey Man MESSAGE

 – Greed drives people to do unthinkable things.