Oppenheimer | 2023 | R | – 7.4.5

Why is “Oppenheimer” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some sexuality, nudity and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few sex scenes and implied sex scenes with male and female nudity, discussions of infidelity, a suicide by overdose and drowning, the imagined aftermath of an atomic bomb blast, discussions of the death toll after an atomic bomb blast, many arguments, and at least 8 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The story of Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the man referred to as the father of the atomic bomb: The film follows him as he pursues his theoretical framework on atomic energy, against recurring obstacles, toward the possibility and creation of a bomb with unprecedented power, and finally the realization of the global consequences of its use. Also with Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Florence Pugh, Alden Ehrenreich, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Jack Quaid, Brett DelBuono, Benny Safdie, Gustaf Skarsgård, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck and Gary Oldman. Directed by Christopher Nolan. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Dutch without translation. [Running Time: 3:00]

Oppenheimer SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A fully nude woman (we see her bare breasts, abdomen to the hips, and legs to the hips, without evident genital area) seated in a chair with her legs crossed speaks to a fully nude man seated with his legs crossed (we see his bare chest, abdomen and legs to the hips without evident genital area) in another chair; they talk about their relationship and he tells her that they will have to stop seeing each other (he is married). A wife imagines a fully nude woman (her bare breasts, back and buttocks are seen) thrusting on her fully nude husband’s lap (his bare chest and abdomen are seen) in a meeting with men interrogating him. A topless woman (her bare breasts and abdomen are seen) thrusts on top of a man lying on a bed with his shirt partially open (his partial bare chest and abdomen are shown); the woman climbs off the man, walks away and then returns and thrusts again as the scene ends.
► A man and a married woman kiss passionately. A man and a woman flirt at a party and they touch hands; we understand that she is married. A man having an affair with a woman tells her that he is getting married to another woman, and that his wife-to-be is pregnant; she cries.
► A painting of a nude woman is shown and we see her bare breasts and abdomen.

Oppenheimer VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A woman takes pills (presumably sedatives) and puts her head in a tub filled with water, killing herself.
► A man imagines hearing an infant scream and then sees himself stepping on the charred remains of a child. A man imagines the flesh of a woman’s face being peeled off during an atomic explosion. A woman finds her husband despondent in the woods after woman commits suicide; he blames himself.
► We hear about the numbers of people killed and injured after bombs were dropped and people in an audience cringe at what they are seeing in a slide presentation (we do not see the images). A man injects an apple with potassium cyanide and leaves it on a desk for a man to eat (he does not eat it). People cautiously assemble a bomb and raise it into a tower for a test as heavy rain and a windstorm blow through the area (the test is postponed).
► Bombs are tested and people take cover as a bright flash illuminates the sky, a huge cloud of flames billows and dust blows over them. When a bomb test is initiated, a man tells another man, “Try not to blow up the world.” A compound is built and we see barbed wire and security checkpoints with armed guards; when a husband, his wife and their child enter the compound, the woman says, “All it needs is a saloon.” We see a photograph of the wreckage of a ship that had been transporting chemicals, which exploded. A man smears his face with something and puts on welder’s glasses before a bomb test. A few scenes are accompanied by loud pounding and we see in one scene that it is coming from people stomping on bleachers. A wife yells at her husband and throws a bottle against a wall shattering it. A man throws several glasses at a wall and they shatter. A man accidentally breaks a beaker in a lab and other people laugh at him when his professor chides him.
► A man warns that a bomb will hit the just as well as the unjust. Men postulate that an atomic reaction could ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world. A man describes the death of stars being violent. People discuss Japan not surrendering even with the threat of bombs being dropped on the country. People discuss an arms race with Russia. A man takes his infant child to another man’s house and tells him to keep him for a while; then he changes his mind. A man tells another man, “I wanna ring your neck.” A man says, “If you’re wrong, I’ll hang you.” A man and a woman argue. A wife is upset with her husband for not fighting back against people standing in his way. A wife accuses her husband of allowing people to pick their lives to pieces. People discuss someone being a suspected spy. A man jokes about another man, “We’ll have him killed.” A man yells at another man in a few scenes. A man is accused of having questionable associations. A person refers to a man being interrogated “… in the Russian manner.” People argue about how radiation might potentially affect female reproductive organs. A man appears distraught and says, “I have blood on my hands.” A man asks another man what should be done with the compound in Los Alamos if it is no longer used for research and testing and the other man says, “Give it back to the Indians.” A wife is enraged when she hears that her husband shook a man’s hand and she says, “I would spit in his face.” We hear that a man is suffering from colitis. We read that Prometheus “stole fire from the gods.” A man calls himself the “destroyer of worlds” in a few scenes. Men discuss the changing views of Russia. A German man says that he left Germany when Hitler told him he wasn’t German (because he is Jewish). A man says that he is homesick.
► A man’s security clearance is withheld because of his involvement with the Communist party. A man comes home to find his wife sitting in the dark and drinking from a liquor bottle (she appears drunk); we hear an infant crying in the background and she becomes angry when he says, “Shouldn’t you go to him?” A man leans over and vomits (we see goo in his mouth and in his nose).

Oppenheimer LANGUAGE 5

 – About 8 F-words, 1 sexual reference, 5 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (emotionally immature, turgid, our kind, complicated, womanizer, selfish, awful, kangaroo court, absurd, clown, martyr, lowly shoe salesman, crybaby, wicked, cock-and-bull story, the cult of Oppy, brat, neurotic, dilettante, humble, idiot), exclamations (ouch), 3 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. God doesn’t play dice, Jesus Christ, Jesus, my God). | profanity glossary |

Oppenheimer SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman drinks from a flask in a few scenes, three men sit in a tent in a desert setting and drink from liquor bottles, a man mixes cocktails and a woman enters the room asking for Martinis, people drink from bottles of liquor in bleachers, a woman says that all a compound needs is a saloon, people drink wine, people drink and smoke in several scenes, and it is implied that a woman has a drinking problem. A man smokes cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie, and a man smokes a pipe in a few scenes.

Oppenheimer DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, infidelity, alcoholism, Prometheus, nuclear reactions, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, theoretical physics, new physics, gravity, splitting the atom, survival, fame, sin, suicide, heavy hydrogen, treason, lack of cooperation between countries, the New Deal, credibility, power brokers, mass genocide, sabotage, pragmatism, espionage, alienation, quantum physics, free thinking, dogma, arms race, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, communism, naïveté, weapons of mass destruction, socialism, the McCarthy Era, Labor Unions, the Nobel Prize, the Manhattan Project, anti-Semitism, Nazis, Adolf Hitler, the FBI, Los Alamos.

Oppenheimer MESSAGE

 – The awesome power that comes with atomic energy also requires responsible global leadership.