Why is “One Battle After Another” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few kissing scenes, a few implied sex scenes, some suggestive remarks, many scenes of people preparing for attacks on government buildings and banks where they rob and blow things up, many people being shot and killed with blood evident, many scenes of police forcing entry and removing people, discussions of revolutions and protests, several scenes of people smoking marijuana and a discussion of nuns growing marijuana in a desert, many arguments, and at least 86 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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In an alternate US history, a revolutionary group identifying itself as the French 75 wreaks havoc, protesting a government’s fascistic methods, by attacking politicians, banks, and the power grid. One member (Leonardo DiCaprio) flees with his infant daughter hoping to live a normal life, but sixteen years later he is tracked down by a high ranking officer and white supremacist (Sean Penn), who’s determined to destroy him. Also with Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, Shayna McHayle and Paul Grimstad. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish without translation. [Running Time: 2:41]

One Battle After Another SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A woman straddles a man in bed and holds a gun to his head, she pushes him against a wall and moves below the frame with a gun in her hand and the man moans (he later says that he was “Raped in reverse”). A woman straddles a man and thrusts briefly.
► A woman kisses a man and asks him for sex; they lean against a car as a bomb explodes in the distance. A man enters a public restroom stall where a woman stands on a commode (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details), she steps down, moves close to him suggestively, and then moves down below the frame and the man moans and leans back as we see her pick up her purse and leave.
► A woman with a gun wakes a man seated in a chair and he makes suggestive remarks to her; she tells him to have an erection, which he does, and we see a bulge growing in his pants as she continues to hold the gun to his face, and then walks him outside at gunpoint.
► A man and a woman lie in bed with an infant lying between them (we see the woman’s bare shoulders and cleavage and the man’s bare shoulders and chest). A man and a woman kiss and embrace while riding in a car. A man watches a woman through binoculars and appears to be getting aroused (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details); he seems to become upset when another man grabs the woman’s clothed buttock. A man asks another man if he likes “Black girls,” and the first man says, “I love ’em,” and the second man seems alarmed by his behavior. A man asks another man to identify himself by telling him something sexually suggestive. A man yells, “I am not homosexual.” A woman is described as a “sperm thief” and a “semen demon.” A woman makes a remark about a man being in support of an abortion ban.
► A woman wears cropped tops in several scenes and we see her bare abdomen and back in several scenes. A woman wears a very short skirt that reveals her legs to the upper thighs as she walks on a counter during a robbery. A woman is shown with her top lifted to reveal her very pregnant abdomen in a couple of scenes. Women wear low-cut dresses at a wedding (cleavage, bare backs to the hips and shoulders are visible).

One Battle After Another VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – Several armed people burst into a bank and demand money; they hold guns on people and one woman explains who they are as another woman shoots a guard (he pulls himself on the floor and we see a smear of blood from a wound); the person that shot him tells him to stop moving and shoots him again (presumably killing him) and alarms blare as the robbers leave the building and speed away in cars. A man in a car is chased by another man, he opens his window and is shot in the head (we see blood) and his car drives off the road and overturns. A woman is shot in the head as she leaves a store (blood sprays). A man is shot as he comes down a fire escape (he falls down the stairs). A man shoots several men and he is shot as well; we see bloody bodies. A man with a very bloody head and face wound walks on a desert road; we see him later with his face repaired but scarred and one eye discolored. A man sits in an office where poison gas is released and he sits motionless as people wearing Hazmat suits arrive to take his body away; he is placed in a chute and burned (we see him engulfed in flames).
► A man is taken out of his home with his hands tied behind his back and a bag over his head. A teen girl speeds in a stolen car and realizes that she is being followed; she stops her car on the other side of a hill and the chase car slams into it, the driver limps out with bloody wounds and he is shot and killed (we see his body and blood on the ground). A teen girl is handed off to a man and told to take her elsewhere for someone to kill her; the second man says that he won’t kill a child.
► Explosives are planted in several buildings and explode throwing rubble onto streets and sidewalks; an explosive is planted on a power line and it blows up causing lights in a city to go out. A van and a car speed through streets after a robbery and swerve between traffic, and through intersections; the car is struck from the side and the van slams into a parked car and the occupants get out and run, chased by police. A woman is arrested and pressed against a police vehicle; we see her later being pushed in a wheelchair while officers pose around her making obscene hand gestures for photos celebrating her arrest. A man uses a battering ram to open a door and searches for a woman (she is not there). A crowd of protestors chant at police and a person prepares Molotov cocktails that then burn in the street and gas canisters are fired at the protestors by police causing more yelling. A truck pulls doors off the front of a store and armed men walk through searching for someone. A man speeds on a road while being chased by police, he slows down and his passenger jumps out of the window and down a ridge to avoid being detected. A teen girl tries to run away from a man and he grabs her. A man swings his fist at a teen girl, they wrestle on the floor and the man yells at her. A man is trapped in a burning building; he gets away.
► A woman shoots a machine gun in the air. Many armed people go into a secured area, tie up a guard and move through the area rounding up other guards at gunpoint and helping people out and into a waiting truck. Many armed police officers move through a factory and an auto repair shop searching for people. A man yells at guards left zip-tied and on their knees in a fenced area as fireworks explode above them and he shouts about a fascist regime and says, “Viva la resistance.” A woman holds and fires an automatic weapon while holding the gun against her very pregnant abdomen. A teen girl is taken away by an armed man and he puts a swab in her mouth to run a test.
► A man watches a woman through binoculars and appears to be getting aroused as she holds guns on police and security guards that are forced to the ground on their knees. A woman holds a man at gunpoint while saying, “This is a declaration of war”; she forces him to have an erection (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details).
► A man goes to a martial arts school and asks a man inside for a gun; they leave together in a car and the man is later given a gun. Two women enter public restroom stalls and stand on the commodes to access a vent where explosives are hidden. A group of people makes a plan to take people out of a detention center and load them into trucks; one man is armed with explosives and we see him planting them around the area. An immigration detention center on the U.S.-Mexico border is shown with portable toilets and people standing outside in groups and surrounded by tall fences.
► A plan for apprehension of a man and his teenage daughter is prepared. A man walks through a building, telling people to prepare to be moved and they pack their belongings and stand in a line. A woman demands free borders and freedom from fear as she holds a man at gunpoint. A man’s front door is blown open and armed people enter looking for him; he gets away through a tunnel and a smoke bomb is thrown in after him causing him to cough and rub his eyes. A man and three young men run across rooftops and jump between buildings; the man does not make one jump, falls through a tree to the ground, is tasered, and handcuffed. A teen girl takes target practice with an automatic weapon and kicks and punches a heavy bag. A man bangs his head against a divider bar in a police vehicle. A man is very aggressive toward two teens that come to pick up his daughter for a high school dance; he grabs one teen and threatens him.
► A teen girl asks a man if he raped her mother. A man says that he was raped in reverse. Several teenagers are questioned for information about another teen and they are handcuffed when they do not say anything. An officer questions a woman about the names of people working with her and threatens her if she doesn’t do so. A man is questioned for information and threatened with prison. A woman argues with a man about feeling jealous of her newborn child because the man no longer pays attention to her. A man says that his daughter’s mother died when she was very young. A man describes a group’s goal to make America safe and pure and talks about “racial purification.” A teen girl questions her father about his drinking and driving and the man says that he has a hangover. A man steals a pair of sunglasses from a grocery store. A man argues with another man over the phone in a few scenes and yells when he is able to give him the passwords for information; the man on the other end of the line tells the first man that he is violating his personal space and making noise triggers. A woman says to a teen girl, “The daughter of a rat is a baby rat.” A man reprimands a teen girl and tells her that she should make an effort and wear more makeup.
► A man licks a comb and uses it to comb his hair.

One Battle After Another LANGUAGE 10

 – About 86 F-words and its derivatives, 5 obscene hand gestures, 6 sexual references, 21 scatological terms, 20 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (stupid, retard, liberal, grand wizard, dirt bag, mixed race child, goldilocks, rat, moron, idiot, smart mouth, intolerable, bad hombre, not a native son, not homegrown, wetbacks, half breed, no manners, teeny boppers, philistine, freak, homie, wet and stinkies, wet bodies, piece of meat, demons, Nazis, overlords, defective, Christmas Adventurers, dangerous lunatics, punk trash), exclamations (calm down, oh my, nitpick, sick of this [scatological term deleted]), 15 religious profanities (GD), 9 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, oh my God, for God’s sake, I swear to God, all hail St. Nick). | profanity glossary |

One Battle After Another SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man smokes a drug from a pipe in a few scenes, a man smokes marijuana cigarettes in several scenes, a man smokes from a vape while in a classroom (a teacher instructs him that he cannot do that), a remark is made about heroin distribution, we are told that a group of nuns grow weed, a man is referred to as a reefer addict, a man smokes marijuana cigarettes and drinks glasses of wine, a man says that he got “a little bit high,” two men drink cans of beer in a car, and a man talks about having fried his brain with drugs and alcohol. A man smokes a cigar, a woman dressed in a nun’s habit smokes a cigarette, and teenagers smoke in a bathroom during a high school dance.

One Battle After Another DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Immigration, revolution, family, parenting, fascism, white supremacists, witness protection, Harriet Tubman, espionage, belonging, delusions, vigilantes, superiority, the golden rule, interracial relationships, pretending, lies, Battle of Algiers, non-binary, sanctuary cities, acts of terror, secrecy.

One Battle After Another MESSAGE

 – It’s hard to leave behind a violent past and settle down, especially in a violent world.