The Quarry | 2020 | R | – 4.6.6

Why is “The Quarry” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some violence and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of implied sex scenes with some nudity, several scenes of murder by blunt head trauma, stabbing and arson, a man imagines being trapped in a coffin, police brutality with the resulting bruises, many arguments, discussion of the death of loved ones, the growing and selling of marijuana, and at least 10 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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A man (Shea Whigham) found unconscious on the side of the road is picked up by a preacher (Bruno Bichir) with a drinking problem, on his way to a small South Texas town. However, only one of them arrives and tries to transform himself into a new role before too many questions are asked. Also with Alvaro Martinez, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Michael Shannon, Abel Becerra, Jimmy Gonzales, Bobby Soto, Rose Bianco and Hector Presedo. Directed by Scott Teems. Several lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish with some accompanied by English subtitles and others without translation. [Running Time: 1:38]

The Quarry SEX/NUDITY 4

 – We hear a woman’s sexual moaning behind a closed door (sex with a man is implied). A man wearing a T-shirt and pants sits on a woman’s bed and opens her robe to reveal her bare leg; he caresses her leg and she smiles (sex is implied).
► A man tells a crass sexual joke about incest. A man says, “I loved a woman and she loved me, but she had a husband and a family.”
► A shirtless man puts on his shirt while a woman lies nude in bed (she’s covered to the shoulders) and when she sits up, we see her bare back to the hips and a partial bare breast. A man showers and we see his bare back through the fogged stall glass.

The Quarry VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man with a gunshot wound stabs another man in the abdomen several times: we hear crunching and grunting and they both fall still (presumably both dying). A man speaks to another man about religion and giving himself to God and the second man strikes him in the head with a bottle, killing him (we hear splatter that could be the dying man vomiting and we see blood on his head); he then drags the man’s body, trips and cuts his hand on glass (we see blood) and buries the man, digging in the ground with his hands. A man in handcuffs in an arraignment stabs a police officer next to him and runs away; another officer shoots at him (we see blood on grass and a bullet hole in his shoulder later and the first officer’s shirt is bloody).
► A preteen boy pulls up marijuana plants and puts them in a garbage bag; he stops and reacts to a smell as he sees a partially buried body (we see its eyes and tongue missing and discolored flesh). A man in a boat finds a wounded man hiding under a bloodstained tarp. A man imagines a dead man with worms wriggling in his mouth. A man in a jail cell is approached by two officers with clubs and he looks frightened (we see him later with a badly bruised face after he was apparently beaten and questioned by the officers. A man is chased by police into a river and he is caught and cuffed; a preteen boy runs away and we see him sleeping alone in the woods (he has a bloody cut on his face). A police officer shoves a preteen boy into a jail cell and the boy hits his head on a bench (we see blood on his forehead).
► A man throws a tray of food against jail cell bars and we see the food on a man’s face standing outside the cell; the first man yells and pounds on the bars until an office pounds on the bars with a club. A man touches another man on the shoulder and he shoves him to the ground. A man driving along a road through a desert pulls over when he sees an unconscious man on the side of the road; he helps the man into his van and they drive to a diner. A man is chained to a bar in an interrogation room in a police station and an officer talks to him about having destroyed evidence. A police officer holds a bag of marijuana and asks a prisoner where he grows it. A fire rages through a home; we hear that a woman and a man died in the blaze, and this scene is repeated several times in flashbacks and nightmares. A man has several flashbacks or nightmares about being trapped in a coffin. A police officer shoots his gun at cans and misses several times.
► A preteen boy sells drugs to a man in car and when the car drives away, the boy sees that a woman is watching him. A man wakes up to find that his van has been stripped of everything inside it, as well as its tires. A man burns documents in a sink. A man and a preteen boy burn items that they stole form a van (documents, photos and clothes). A woman and a preteen boy walk along railroad tracks. A man is startled awake by a loud telephone ringing.
► A man confesses to a murder and a police officer tells him, “They’ll hang you.” A man says, “I murdered my wife and her lover.” Police pound on a man’s door and order him to open up but he does not answer. A man and woman argue. A woman tells a man that he should bring his bags inside and that, “It’s not safe here at night.” A man says that he heard a police helicopter and wonders who they were looking for. A man pulls off a road into a quarry and says, “I need to dry out a bit,” and he continues to drink from a bottle of wine. A man says, “I’m an alcoholic.” A man tells a preacher, “I don’t believe in your religion.” We see a wanted poster for a man for felony arson and homicide. We hear coyotes howling in the dark. A man reads from Bible verses about violence and sin. A woman tells a man that another man is “Not married; his wife died a few years back.” A man says that his wife died in a car crash when her car was T-boned by a semi-truck. A woman says that a man and a preteen boy must be held accountable for their actions. A woman tells a man, “I have a lot of hate in my heart,” and he asks, “Do you need to be forgiven?” A man talks about a man using a preteen boy to, “push his dope.” A woman stands up in a church service and says, “I am dirt. I have failed.” A preteen boy grumbles about having to “fix your mess” about a man that has been arrested. A man talks about the police, that they “hate our skin” and that he will never get a fair trial with a white man as his lawyer.” A man imagines a dead man with blood on his head talking to him. A police officer talks about the condition of a dead body with its flesh partially gnawed off by animals.
► A man urinates (below screen) and we hear splatter, his zipper closing and a flush. A man picks at a bloody scab on his hand. A man shoves a lot of food into his mouth quickly and drinks a lot of water.

The Quarry LANGUAGE 6

 – About 10 F-words, 7 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (charmer, quaint, whistle-stop, White dudes, weak, sinners, blasphemers, fool, persecutor, violent man, poor bastard, ignorance, stupid, dummy, lonely, hopeless, liar, you come from criminals), exclamations (shut your [F-word deleted] mouth, calm down, weird), 1 religious profanity (GD), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. A woman is baptized in a river and dunked under water, Jesus, Oh God, God Is Funny, Hallelujah, Give Yourself To God, Oh Jesus Christ, a man reads several verses from the bible during church services and a graveside funeral). | profanity glossary |

The Quarry SUBSTANCE USE

 – A preteen boy sells drugs to a man in, a man tells a preteen boy that they should go tend to their crops (we understand that they are growing marijuana), a preteen boy is shown pulling up marijuana plants and putting them in a large garbage bag, and a police officer holds a bag of marijuana that he found in a man’s home. A man drinks from bottles of wine as he drives in several scenes, a man tells another man that he is an alcoholic, and woman drinks wine with a meal. A woman smokes cigarettes in several scenes, and a man smokes a cigarette in a couple of scenes.

The Quarry DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Murder, infidelity, alcoholism, small towns, drug manufacture and distribution, starting over, racism, instinct, responsibility, pride, judgment, second chances, forgiveness, guilt, faith, love.

The Quarry MESSAGE

 – The weight of guilt can be unbearable.