The Northman | 2022 | R | – 7.9.3

Why is “The Northman” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence, some sexual content and nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few sex scenes with partial nudity, a couple of implied sex scenes, implications of the rape of women by conquering forces, many children are murdered in a fire, many sequences of people fighting with swords with a lot of bloody wounds, beheadings and limb lopping, a few Norse rituals, vows of revenge, arguments and some moderate language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

The fight to rule a Viking kingdom plays out in 895 CE after the murder of the sitting king (Ethan Hawke) and his son’s (Alexander Skarsgård) vow to avenge his death. Also with Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Gustav Lindh, Elliott Rose, Willem Dafoe, Phill Martin, Eldar Skar and Olwen Fouéré. Directed by Robert Eggers. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Old Norse without translation. [Running Time: 2:16]

The Northman SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A nude man and a nude woman lie on the ground in a forest having sex (we see brief thrusting and see the man’s bare back, buttocks and legs, and the woman’s legs). A nude man and a nude woman have sex and we see brief thrusting (his bare back and buttocks are shown). A nude man sits in water (we see his bare shoulders and chest); a nude woman climbs into the water (we see her bare back, buttocks, legs and a glimpse between her legs from behind), they hug and kiss and sex is implied. Nude men and women run through a forest (sex is implied and we see bare breasts, buttocks, abdomens and legs).
► A man keeps a woman from a collection of captured people and it is implied that he will use her for sex; he visits her one evening and she lifts her dress to reveal menstrual blood on her genitals (we see her bare abdomen, partial buttocks, a spot of blood between her legs, and her bare thighs) and she smears some on his face. After a village is overrun, the attackers take women to a hut where they are presumably raped by the men.
► A woman kisses her adult son on the lips (sexually). A husband and his wife kiss and the woman invites the man to bed; he declines. Men and women dance and a few are shown hugging and kissing as a man and a woman sing a suggestive song. A jester-type person jokes about a woman sharing her goblet of wine with a man other than her husband and waves a part of his belt that resembles a phallus.
► A woman is dressed by attendants and we very briefly see her bare side and hip as her young son enters the room; she scolds him. A man is shown shirtless and we see his bare shoulders, chest and back; his abdomen is covered by a bandage. A man wears a cloth wrapped around his waist and we see his bare back, chest, abdomen and legs to the hips. A fully nude man is seen (bare back and buttocks are shown).
► A man tells his young son, “Always heed women.”

The Northman VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – Several men wearing animal pelts and carrying axes and shields move toward a fortified village and climb the walls while being shot at by guards with arrows; men climb over the walls and attack people inside, slashing and hacking them; a man is pulled off his horse and the attacker bites his throat and roars (blood on the attacker’s face and mouth is shown), we see a man’s arm being hacked off, a persons’ throat is slashed with blood gushing, and others are kicked and stabbed as children and women hide (one man attacking people is soaked in blood). After a village is overrun, the attackers take the children away from their mothers, put them in a hut and set it on fire (we hear the children screaming and it gets louder as the flames rage). A man stabs another man lying in a bed; the sword passes through the body and through the bed and we see blood on the sword. A woman tries to grab a man’s sword, slashes him a few times, and stabs her in the chest; her young son jumps on his back and stabs him several times, but he throws the child and slashes and kills him (we see them both dead with blood on their clothing). Two fully nude men fight with swords and jump over lava flows, they are each struck and fall to the ground a few times, one man is slashed on both arms (we see deep gashes and blood), and one man’s head is cut off as the other is stabbed in the chest and they both fall to the ground (the severed head bounces on the ground). A man dives off a boat as it sails away, swims to shore and we see a volcano erupting and spewing smoke and lava into the air; the man moves stealthy through huts as armed guards patrol and we hear swordplay and see bodies fall to the ground; one guard is held with a blade to his face and it is pushed through his nose into his head as he squirms and then is still. A man with a sword enters a building and we hear slashing and yelling (we see several dead and bloody bodies) and the next day we see bloody bodies attached to a wall in the shape of an animal. After a village is overrun, the attackers take women to a hut where they are presumably raped by the men.
► A man stands in a forest with his young son and the man is shot in the back with several arrows, men on horseback stab him with several spears and he falls to his knees yelling; the boy hides and watches as his father and another man argue and the man slashes his father with a sword and cuts off his head (we see the head flop to the ground), and then calls for the other men to search for the boy and kill him saying, “Bring me the boy’s head.” A man finds a seemingly dead guard holding a sword in a cave, he tries to lift the sword and the holder of the sword awakens and they fight; he is thrown and slams into stone walls, falls to the ground, and continues to fight until the holder of the sword moves into a beam of light and collapses; the man strikes him from behind with an axe and cuts off his head (we see it flop to the ground).
► A man is hanged from his feet over a woman and it looks like his torso is slashed from top to bottom and blood drips on the woman. A man grabs and tackles a young boy, the boy stabs the man in the face (we see blood pour from the wound) and the scene ends; we later see the man missing his nose. A dog barks and jumps on a man and the man kills it with a knife. A man with a short sword slashes several people’s throats (we see blood and hear slashing), the attacker is charged by several men with swords and they fight; he throws them and stabs them, he is punched and struck with sticks, falls to the ground and is dragged away to face another man.
► A man heats a brand and uses it on children; a man brands himself and winces, swims through a river and boards a boat hiding among other people being taken as slaves. A man punches another man in the side. A woman is grabbed and taken away by two men. A young woman is bound and wrapped in chains as another woman prepares to kill her for a sacrifice. A man is shown bound by the hands and dangling from a ceiling (we see his face and body covered with blood, his eyes are swollen and he spits blood) and a man tells him that he will cut out his heart. Men eat soup made with mushrooms and they hallucinate: they hear cackling, one man screams, another man stabs himself in the throat (we see blood), and a man vomits (we see goo). A man enters a woman’s room and hides; he reveals himself to her and holds a sword to her throat as they argue. A man strikes another man on the back with a spear when the man tries to help a woman. Men on horseback ride to a fortress with people in chains walking behind them.
► A ship is caught in rough seas, large waves wash over the deck, and we see many people walking onto shore after the boat apparently sank. A woman falls over a fortress wall and slams onto a stone walkway (we see her lifeless body and bloody face). Two men on a boat at a shore are struck by arrows shot by a man in a boat as it sails past. A man keeps a woman from a collection of captured people and it is implied that he will use her for sex; he visits her one evening and she lifts her dress to reveal blood on her genitals and she smears some on his face. A woman wearing a dressing gown is carried over the shoulder of a man and other men talk about her being the dead king’s wife.
► A man with an abdominal wound enters a barn, his intestines slosh out of his body and onto the floor with a lot of blood, and he collapses. A dead woman, a dead boy, and a dead and beheaded horse lie on the ground with blood on all of them. A man yells when he sees his dead son on a stretcher and we see a bloody hole in the chest of the body; the man yells saying that the body’s heart is missing. A man holds another man’s severed and decaying head and tells another man that his tongue was cut out and his eyes were plucked out. A man opens a bandage wrapped around his abdomen and blood pours from a large wound (we also see what could be organs or tissue), his young son’s hand is placed on the wound and we see a tree with many bodies and skeletons on the limbs (it is implied to be inside the man’s body). A man dips a gold cuff in a basin filled with blood and we see it wrapped around his arm with blood dripping down.
► A young boy paddles away from an island in a boat repeating, “I will avenge you father, I will save you mother and I will kill you…” Thunder rumbles and lightning flashes over a volcano as we hear a gravelly voice chanting. Men with shields and swords move around a fire while chanting and banging on their shields; they roar and howl like animals and seem to go into a kind of trance. People chained together are looked over by a man and he says, “Sell all of them,” and then takes one man and two women to work his land, kitchen and laundry.
► A man drags heavy boulders and carries barrels of water in several scenes. A large dog snarls and barks at a man that snarls back at the animal and it whimpers and is called away. Two groups of men holding sticks play a sport where they hit a small ball and tackle each other; the men slam into each other and fall to the ground, one man is struck hard in the face (we see his face bloody and swollen), a young boy runs onto the field and is struck by a man, the boy falls and the man stands over him with a stick as the boy lies unconscious and with blood on his face; another man attacks the first man, pushes him away from the boy, punches the man and head-butts him several times (we see blood on both men) and the boy regains consciousness and seems OK.
► A man mocks several people (they’re slaves) threateningly. A man says to another man, “I will meet you at the gates of hell and there you will die.” A seer tells a man that someone stole her eyes and ran from his fate; she tells him of a maiden king. A man tells his wife, “I will die in honor.” A man tells his young son, “Always live in honor. Avenge my murder or forever live in shame.” A man tells another man, “Never look me in the eyes.” A woman says, “These wounds are not from this world,” as she looks at dead bodies hanging from a wall. A man talks about another man’s “stench.”
► A man and his young son enter a cave where another man stands near a fire and talks about wolves and bears as the first two charge in on all fours growling and barking like animals; they eat from dishes on the ground like animals, the man burps loudly and the boy flatulates. A man, missing his nose, blows mucus from the openings in his face. A woman shows a man her shoulder and we see it is branded. A man imagines being taken away by a woman on a horse through a glowing door in the sky.

The Northman LANGUAGE 3

 – 1 scatological term, 1 anatomical term, 13 mild obscenities, name-calling (foul tongue, two legged dogs, half-blood, bastard, berserkers, savages, chattel, swine, demon, coward, sorcery, trollish, Christian swine, fool, nightmare, beast, witch, slave), exclamations (where’s your wits), 3 religious exclamations (e.g. Christian swine, people talk about the Christian God being nailed to a tree). | profanity glossary |

The Northman SUBSTANCE USE

 – Men eat soup made with mushrooms and they hallucinate.

The Northman DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Honor, murder, revenge, fate, Vikings, Valkyrie, human sacrifice.

The Northman MESSAGE

 – Revenge is a brutal affair.