Replicas | 2019 | PG-13 | – 3.6.4

Why is “Replicas” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic material, violence, disturbing images, some nudity and sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some sexual references and implications and a scene with full back nudity, deaths from gunshots and a violent car accident, invasive cloning procedures, the unpredictable results of cloning experiments, and many scatological terms. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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A neuroscientist (Keanu Reeves) is working on building a synthetic human brain that can be used to transfer the minds of the recently deceased to artificial bodies. When his wife and children die in an accident, he uses his technique to transfer their consciousness with the help of a colleague (Thomas Middleditch). Repercussions inevitably ensue and the researchers must confront the consequences. Also with Alice Eve, John Ortiz, Emily Lind and Emjay Anthony. Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff. [Running Time: 1:47]

Replicas SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man and a woman appear in bed under covers, but do not interact.
► A man tells another man, “Make love to your wife.” A teen boy texts a teen girl to come to his house because his parents are away (sex is implied), but she does not get the message. A teen girl texts a girlfriend to watch out for another girl who is flirting with her boyfriend.
► A woman is taken from a cloning tank, slimy and nude (we see her on a table from the back with her buttocks and legs visible). A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. We see the bare knees and lower legs of two human clones in cloudy bubbling tanks. A woman and a girl wear miniskirts that end at mid-thigh and a woman wears short skirts that reveal bare legs to the top of the thighs. A man wears shorts that end at mid-thigh.

Replicas VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 - On a rain-soaked road, a family in an SUV is nearly struck by an oncoming semi-truck and as they continue to drive a tree branch breaks the windshield and stabs the mother in the stomach, killing her immediately (we hear her gasp and her three children in the back seat scream); we then hear a crash and twisting metal as the driver slams into a sign post, swerves, and goes off a cliff into a shallow river and we see him as he finds his family members dead and he lays them out on shore (we see a smear of blood on the woman's abdomen).
► A man finds two gunmen pointing guns at his family: one gunman shoots another man off-screen and we see the man fall dead on the floor with a spot of blood on his forehead and his eyes open. A man shoots a guard off-screen (we see the shadow of the gunman's hand and drawn gun on a wall).
► We see two different dead men on gurneys in a couple of scenes; one has blood over his face, chest, and legs while the other has blood spots on his face and we see a head brace placed on the first dead man and a large needle shoots down from it into the man's tear duct (we see brain scans on a screen). A robot places a head brace onto a dead man's head and a needle shoots into one tear duct as the scene ends. A computer imprints a dead man's memories into a robot; its head glows, it comes to life, and it panics, shouting "Who am I?" as it rips pieces of its own face off before a man unplugs it. In a video we see from inside a robot face as its facial glass cracks all over and the robot shouts.
► A man opens a glowing room-sized computer screen and downloads his mind into a robot strapped into a chair; the robot's head glows, it animates, and it angrily breaks the metal restraints, walks into another room where a man is holding a gun on a family and throws a dead man across the floor, knocking down the gunman; three gunmen shoot at the robot without effect, it knocks the men unconscious and chokes the first gunman until the first man stops it (we see a gunman with blood on his face and a pool of blood appears under his head).
► A clothed man sits on a toilet and places a brace on his head, sets up a laptop and when another man walks into the bathroom we hear a toilet flush off-screen; the first man grasps grab bars on the wall and pushes a button that shoots a large needle into one tear duct causing him to shake and shout as his brain is scanned and the scene ends. We see shadowy bodies in tanks filled with bubbling liquid until one tank is drained and a woman inside gasps loudly and collapses (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A woman uses defibrillation paddles to shock her two children so an implanted tracking device in their spines will stop working and a man shocks the woman in the same way (all three shocked people gasp and yelp, but are OK).
► Parents and two children speed away in their car as people from a government agency chase them, bumping their back fender twice; they swerve around a dump truck that cuts off the tailing car and the woman screams, the family escapes and drives to a boat dock where the other men catch them, knock around the mother and children, and kidnap them.
► In a home basement, we see three cube shaped tanks filled with bubbling liquid and we hear that they contain clones; we see some knees and shins (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and the palm of a woman hits the wall of a tank hard from the inside. A man opens a room-sized screen that shows a brain glowing in places until it is completely lighted in a few scenes.
► A woman is seen under covers in bed and in a coma with an IV line hanging down to her body (we cannot see the insertion point); we then see a teen girl and a preteen boy that are in the same condition in different rooms.
► A man draws names from a bowl to choose which of his children to clone and he cries over the name not chosen. Two men argue and use electronic equipment to scan the brains of several dead bodies. We see four body bags on a cement floor and a man tells another man to get rid of the bodies; the second man refuses several times but then agrees. We see a spot of blood on a man's eye and a coworker asks if he is crying blood. A scientist says that his first cloned animals had deformed skulls and organs on the outside of their bodies. An elderly man in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen tube at his nose enters a business where a representative offers him cloning services for a second life; a robot in a suit tells staff people to begin the process. Two police officers pound loudly several times on a door and the owner opens it; the officers ask him if his car batteries have been stolen, because batteries from all the cars on the street are gone. A man and a woman argue several times. Two men argue several times. A male boss threatens to fire two scientists three times. A teen girl and a preteen boy argue with their father a few times.
► A preteen boy kicks a man in the back of the leg and the man yelps. A man destroys all the possessions of one of his children and erases her existence from the minds of his cloned wife and two other children. A man picks up a ball bat and beats the floor, a post, and a table until the bat breaks.
► A cloned woman suffers a severe pain in her abdomen where a tree branch impaled her and says she is losing her memories. A husband tells his wife about having cloned her and she berates him and cries, then says, "I'm dead"; their teen daughter wakes up screaming, "Is Mom dead?" as she recalls a fatal accident and her father says her mother is alive, and then gives her a sedative. A man tells another man, "We're going straight to hell."
► A large lizard in a cloning tank with bubbling liquid is seen in a lab. We hear a gasping off-screen and the camera cuts to a kitchen where a woman places a Band-Aid on the finger of a preteen boy (no blood is seen).

Replicas LANGUAGE 4

 - 20 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, crazy train, bastard, idiot, troll, nefarious), exclamations (oh my gosh, we're boned), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, God, My God, Jesus, Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Replicas SUBSTANCE USE

 - A man fills a hypodermic with a depressive drug and jams it into the buttock of a woman who then goes into an induced coma, a man injects a drug into the IV lines of a woman and two children, we see a large vial of a sedative on a bureau with four hypodermic needles lined up in front of it, a man injects a sedative into a woman's IV-line and she falls asleep, and a man injects a sedative into a teen girl below the frame and we see her sleeping. A man and a woman drink wine with a meal.

Replicas DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Robot soldiers with human minds, danger, fear, memories, death, grief, human cloning, existence of a human soul, sacrifice, corrupt military suppliers, unethical medical practices, future businesses, desperation, family, friendship, loyalty, problem solving, cooperation, determination, negotiation, survival, starting over.

Replicas MESSAGE

 - If science succeeds in bringing the dead back to life, the consequences may be disastrous.