Why is “The Phoenician Scheme” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violent content, bloody images, some sexual material, nude images, and smoking throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes drawings of nude men and women in paintings and book covers, a couple of kisses, a couple of plane crashes with wreckage shown and pilot ejections, a brief non-explicit scene of a torso cut in half with splattering blood, a couple of bloody gunshot wounds, a couple of people being poisoned, several discussions of assassination attempts, discussions of infidelity, discussions of paternity, many arguments, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A wealthy man (Benicio Del Toro) with a scheme to collect investment money for a very involved project from several people, is targeted by someone, but survives numerous attempts on his life. Also with Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Steve Park, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Benedict Cumberbatch. Directed by Wes Anderson. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in French with English subtitles. [Running Time: 1:41]

The Phoenician Scheme SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man and a woman kiss.
► A man proposes to a woman and they are then married. A man tells a woman, “You’re stunning.” A man and a woman hold hands (for comfort). A man yells at a woman telling her to stop flirting with another man (he is jealous). A woman asks a man if he is chaste. A man says that he has been to one brothel and that it left him cold. A man slaps another man on the clothed buttock during a basketball shooting competition. A woman is described as wearing an unbuttoned blouse and that her “breasts were naked.”
► A woman’s nightgown shows the outline of her nipples through the fabric. A man’s bare abdomen is seen after he is shot (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A painting of half-human and half-animal creatures is shown a few times and we see the male touching the female on the breast (we see the female’s bare breasts and abdomen and the male’s chest and abdomen). Book covers are seen in a few scenes with drawings of a nude man and a woman (the bare chest and abdomen of the man and the bare breasts, abdomen and hips of the woman are seen). A man sits in a bathtub filled with milky water in several scenes and we see his bare chest and upper abdomen as several women attend to him.

The Phoenician Scheme VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A plane flies over a remote area and a hole is blown in its fuselage cutting a person inside the plane in half and sucking his torso out through the hole (we see blood splatters on the wall; no organs); the engines burst into flames, the pilot is ejected, and the plane crashes in a cornfield (we see the aftermath). People threaten a man with a knife and guns and he takes a suicide pill (he falls to the floor off-screen).
► Armed people enter a crowded club and shoot into the ceiling before stealing valuables from the patrons. A poison gas ampoule breaks and sprays a man with poison gas; he climbs to the top of a display and holds a grenade that explodes, killing him (we see the flash and blast) and destroying the display. A man is shot in the abdomen and we see blood pouring from the wound; another man pushes his fingers in the wound to retrieve the bullet. A man is shot in the back and blood spurts. We see photos of a dead body with blood on the floor under and around it.
► Fighter planes swoop around another plane while flying and we see a crash site later. A man shoots a crossbow at someone off-screen and we hear a thud (we do not see the impact or the result). A man pulls the pin on a grenade during a contract negotiation. A man revives after a plane crash and we see him with a bloody head wound, a swollen eye and blood on his abdomen; the man later indicates that he is holding an organ in his hand and that he tried to reinsert it. A man carries a dead deer over his shoulders and we see the animal with many arrows in it; the man cuts the animal’s abdomen open and coins pour out of the opening (there is no blood). After a pilot is found dead in the cockpit of a plane, we are told that his beer had been poisoned; the pilot is ejected out of the plane. People shoot handguns out of a helicopter door as it flies.
► Two men fight and kick each other, they use lamp poles as weapons and they tumble down a flight of stairs, one man slams into a glass door and we see his bloody head, and one man pulls the rug out from under the other man’s feet and he falls down a flight of stairs (he lands in the shape of a cross on the floor). A man sinks into a quicksand pit and another man holds a rope and dives in after him (we see them both covered with mud but unharmed). A man tackles another man and the attacked man throws the other man through the air. A man collapses out of a chair after asking if he needs a blood transfusion. A man gets a blood transfusion from another man (we see a tube attached to the arms of both men and blood passes through a pump). A woman slaps a man in the face twice.
► A man finds an explosive device in the cockpit of a plane. A crate is filled with hand grenades and a man distributes them to people that he meets. A young boy shoots an arrow using a crossbow in a few scenes and the arrows land near people; one time the arrow is flaming, and a man tells people in the room to be careful of their eyes because the child is a good shot. After assassination attempts, a man finds himself in a setting that resembles depictions of heaven, with presumably dead people surrounded by clouds. People are given polygraph tests in a few scenes.
► A man complains of people manipulating the market for construction materials. People discuss using “slave labor” for a project. People argue against slavery in a few scenes. A woman asks a man, “Are you dying?” A woman says to a man, “They say you murdered my mother.” A man says of his father, “He gave me a beating.” A man tells a woman that he cut her umbilical cord with hedge trimmers. A man tells people “Obey me” in a few scenes. A document is labeled, “Homicide Dossier.” We hear that a man suffered blunt force head trauma. A man describes himself as Bohemian. A man says that he is not a citizen of anywhere and “I don’t need my human rights.” A woman accuses a man of spying on her all her life. A man is accused of “fiddling with” contracts in several scenes. People argue over financial agreements in several scenes. Boys flinch and gasp when a man takes a praying mantis out of a box; the boys are reprimanded for being afraid. A man tells several young boys, “We break, but don’t bend.” A man takes a woman’s rosary and gives her a heavily bejeweled “secular rosary” in its place. A man identifies himself as a “moderate conservative” and a man says that he is a “communist revolutionary.” People discuss a military coupe.
► People are sprayed with an insecticide. A man holds a large spider and it crawls off his hand. A dung beetle pushes a large ball of feces on the ground. A bottle of champagne is shown chilling in an ice-filled urinal in a bathroom. A man describes some butterflies that smell like urine. A dragonfly clings to the window of a plane mid-flight.

The Phoenician Scheme LANGUAGE 3

 – 1 scatological term, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (twerp, old hag, far-fetched, absurd, reckless, crazy, idiots, slum, high-risk venture, dubious, bewildered, cruel), exclamations (who the deuce is that, oh dear, yikes, wow, jeez), 2 religious profanities (GD), 9 religious exclamations (e.g. God, Jesus, Amen, Blasphemy, a group of people are identified as a Biblical troupe, by the grace of God, Holy [scatological term deleted], Unholy mischief, thou shall not kill). | profanity glossary |

The Phoenician Scheme SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man is given an unidentified injection in the arm. A man drinks champagne while sitting in a bathtub and the bottle is shown chilling in an ice-filled urinal, people drink champagne cocktails, a nun drinks alcohol in several scenes, two men drink brandy and smoke a cigar and a cigarette, a man and a woman drink whiskey, people drink alcoholic drinks in a restaurant, and a man orders beer and he and a woman drink several on a train (the man appears inebriated). A man smokes cigars in numerous scenes, and a woman smokes a pipe in several scenes.

The Phoenician Scheme DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Plane crashes, financial schemes, inheritance, paternity, birthright, espionage, truth, failure, weakness, communism, child abuse, betrayal, trust, infidelity, conscience, extortion, annulment, sincerity, devotion, sabotage, lying, suicide, self-fulfilling prophecies.

The Phoenician Scheme MESSAGE

 – If something gets in your way, flatten it.