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Surrogates | 2009 | PG-13 | - 4.7.4

After humans create robotic surrogates to represent themselves and are thus able to live in near-isolation in the safety of their own homes an FBI agent (Bruce Willis) has to shed his own robot surrogate in order to investigate a series of murders that have disturbed their safe and perfect utopia. Also with Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Boris Kodjoe, James Francis Ginty, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames, Jack Noseworthy, Devin Ratray, Michael Cudlitz and Helena Mattsson. Directed by Jonathan Mostow. [1:44]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A man and a woman watch on a security camera as two men attempt to assault and rape a woman in a hotel room: the man then disables the men, exposing them as robots, and allowing the woman, wearing a bra and underpants, to run out of the room.
 Two women, both wearing low-cut tops, fawn over a man, rubbing their hands against the man's chest as he puts his arms around both women; the man kisses one of the women passionately as the other woman continues to rub his chest suggestively. A woman, wearing a form-fitting short dress, runs her hands over a man as he walks past her (the man does not respond and continues to walk).
 A young man and a young woman dance suggestively -- the woman is wearing a bikini-style top (cleavage and bare abdomen are visible) and a short skirt with stockings (garter belts are visible): they then, go outside, the woman kisses the man passionately and wraps her arms around him while he puts his hands on her lower back. A large crowd of men and women dance and grind suggestively with one another in a nightclub.
 Women wearing low-cut tops and short skirts stand in line to get into a nightclub. A man tells a woman wearing a low-cut, cleavage exposing dress that she looks nice and "sexy." A woman is shown wearing a low-cut and form-fitting top (cleavage is visible). A woman is shown wearing a blouse that is unbuttoned and significant cleavage is visible and we see a couple of woman in cleavage-exposing outfits. A woman is shown wearing a tight, form-fitting dress that exposes her cleavage when she bends over. An advertisement is shown and a woman appears to be topless (only her bare shoulders are shown), lying on her side. In an advertisement a woman wearing a bikini emerges from a pool. Two bare-chested men hold one another's hands, as well as the hands of two other people in what appears to be a human chain.
 A man and a woman walk into a store with anatomically correct male and female robots; two male robots have their bare chest exposed, one male robot has a portion of its chest barely covered by a tank top and the female robots are wearing bras and underpants, and one is wearing a tight, low-cut dress. A man and a woman walk past a model of a female robot: half appears to be human and wearing a bra and underpants, and the other half is circuitry; standing next to the female robot is a male robot, wearing underpants and is also half circuitry and half human.
 A man jokes to a woman that he does not know if she is really a woman or "a fat guy in a stem chair with his [crude anatomical term] hanging out." A man, his face covered in cuts, tells a woman that he loves her.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man watches through a window as a woman sleeps, he breaks into the house, walks over to the sleeping woman and fires three shots into her back.
 Two young men walk into a room and discover another young man strapped to a chair and covered in blood; blood appears to be coming from his eye sockets, nose and ears and is spattered across his face and chest and the two young men cover their mouths and noses from the smell. A man and a woman find the body of an obese and deceased man; lines of blood come from his eye sockets, nose, and ears.
 A man punches another man, he drops to the ground, he is kicked, a second man joins in on the kicking, the man on the ground attempts to cover his face and head, and the two attackers are called off and we see the man's face is covered in blood and cuts.
 A man, blood streaming out of his nose and ears, pulls himself off a chair and drags himself through a door (he lies on the ground in obvious pain and whimpers for help).
 A man and a woman watch on a security camera as two men attempt to assault and rape a woman in a hotel room; the man then disables the men, exposing them as robots, and allowing the woman to run out of the room.
 A motorcyclist drives recklessly through a dark city street, cutting in front of an SUV, causing it to swerve, flip on its side, slide across the street and onto a crowded sidewalk, where a large group of people run to avoid being struck; one man (we discover later that he was a robot) is unable to run and appears to be crushed and we see the body cut in two, circuitry exposed and a thick yellow goo dripping from various parts (the robot appears to be alert, however alarmed).
 Police cars chase a motorcycle through city street: the motorcycle cuts through traffic, causing a car to strike another car, a car swerves and runs into a parked car, the motorcyclist skids down a flight of stairs and the driver dives off the bike (he takes off his helmet and looks shaken, but not badly injured); police officers surround the alleyway, walk down the stairs, the motorcycle driver pulls out a weapon and fires causing the officers to fall to the ground (their eyes are black and hollow, revealing them to be robots).
 A man with a gun threatens another man, tells him to lie on the ground and then fires a shot. A man pulls out a weapon, fires it at a man and a woman, and a large beam shoots out of the gun (we do not see the people being hit).
 A body is shown lying on a large stack of wood, appearing to be a funeral pyre: a man presents a eulogy to a large group, another man lights the pyre, and it erupts into flames, consuming the body. A television news program reports that a boy had been found dead in his dorm room and a news clip shows a body bag on a gurney being rolled out of a building.
 A man shoots a robot in the head, causing sparks to fly from the bullet wound and yellow-green goo to bubble up from under its hair. Soldiers with guns pour out of a helicopter and rush into a street crowded with people; one man opens fire on the soldiers, sparks fly from the bullet wound exposing circuitry, they continue to fire at each other, two men are struck, they fall to the ground, blood coming from their wounds, and a robot is shot in the chest, skin is ripped off and yellow-green goo and circuitry are shown. A woman shoots a robot and blows a huge hole in its chest, exposing circuits and green-yellow goo. A man grabs another man's arm, shoots him and goo spurts out of the circuitry in his chest.
 A robot drives through a red light, causing an SUV to slam into it, the car drives after the robot that's on foot, other cars swerve and crash, the car strikes multiple robots, the robot throws a parking meter through the windshield of the car and jumps on the roof, and the driver shoots through the roof and drives through a storefront, crushing two robots under it. A robot fries another robot, causing its eyes to blow out and it is implied that the human controlling the robot is also killed.
 A helicopter pilot, electrocuted by a large flash of light (his eyes black and hollow, revealing him to be a robot), loses control of the helicopter, causing it to spin out of control and crash; a robot is shown covered in black smudges and realizes that its arm is missing (circuits snap and green goo drips from the missing appendage), but finds it holding a large rifle, steps on the arm and pries the rifle out its grip.
 Thousands of robots that look exactly like humans fall to the ground, incapacitated, others driving cars lose control and run into other robots and cars, and the streets are filled with the lifeless bodies of robots, crashed cars and broken robot bodies.
 A man turns over a dead body; it is revealed that it is a robot and its eyes have been burned out; also, a woman approaches a dead body that is revealed to be a robot, and its eyes have been burned out. Two men and a woman walk into a room filled with body bags; they unzip one of the bags to expose a robot, which one of the men identifies as being a "G.I. Joe" but with no human identity.
 Robot soldiers holding rifles are shown running from gunfire, shooting their rifles, and ducking as helicopters cover the sky: we see fiery explosions in the background and a robot is shown being struck by a bullet (sparks fly from the impact and the robot drops to the ground); a human controlling the robot, takes off a mask and says, "I'm down!" and is reprimanded by a superior for killing the robot (saying, "those things aren't cheap").
 A man breaks a chair over a man's back, knocking him into a coffee table that breaks and a small group of men and women watch and laugh; the man continues to attack by beating the man's face with his fist, breaking off pieces of skin and exposing circuitry, and bloodying his own knuckles on the hard metal until he stands up and walks away.
 A male robot holding a large rifle chases a man, the man jumps and hides, the robot jumps from one railroad box to another, it slips, bangs against three pipes, drops to the ground, and is run over by a pickup truck driven by men holding baseball bats; the robot stands up, unfazed, and walks away. A uniformed soldier, holding a large rifle, stands in front of what appears to be a large fire from an explosion and other soldiers run across the screen, holding rifles.
 A man stands in front of a small group of men and women, shows them pictures of two bodies covered in blood, and he explains that the two victims appear to have had their brains liquefied in their skulls.
 A news program shows video clips of large groups of people rioting, throwing smoke bombs and starting fires after turning over a car; we hear that humans and robots have begun riots in the streets and that a very violent battle is starting.
 A man who's being chased falls and appears to hurt his ankle (he winces as he stands up and limps). A young man jumps off a balcony, and then stands up and brushes himself off, looking unfazed.
 A man, wires coming out of his head, is shown lying on a hospital bed. A monkey, harnessed to a machine, is shown with wires attached to its head. A man and a woman walk into a laboratory with what appears to be human limbs (arms and legs) on display. A man rips an IV from his hand (he winces in pain).
 A man shoves something into the back of a robot's head, causing yellow-green goo to drip from a small hole in the robot's neck; he peels off a portion of the head to reveal a circuit board, which he pops out. A woman peels the face off another woman, exposing robot circuitry. A woman, using a drill, puts the drill bit into a robot's nostril. A man walks past a cross with a robot's body burned and circuits exposed and singed; the cross reads, "Die Robo Pigs!"
 A man, handcuffed to a desk, is shown being held at gunpoint by a robot and the man is shown later with duct tape wrapped around his mouth. A robot rips duct tape off a man's mouth and shouts at him.
 A man, his face cut and bloodied, argues with a woman accusing her of using drugs and having an affair, which she denies; he wipes blood onto her face and she wipes it off quickly. A man, his face bloodied and covered with lacerations, steps into a car with a young man, and the man talks about the death of his son during a car accident. A man, his face cut and bloodied asks another man for a weapon that is destroying "his people."
 A man asks a man if he knows of anyone who might be interested in killing him, or harming anyone in his family; he says that he does not, however if that had been the case, he was responsible for the death of his son. A man talks about killing everyone with a robot surrogate. A woman angrily asks a man if he thinks that her company was responsible for the deaths of two people, and says that it was a fluke that two murders had occurred and that she, and her company, were not to blame. A man shouts that he had seen another man shoot and kill five police officers and no one was doing anything to stop the shooter. A man shouts at a man as a woman watches them argue. A man tells another man that there is a weapon that must be found and that if it is unleashed it will kill billions of people. A man tells another man that he had lost a son, so he understands the pain he is going through since his son had died. A man asks another man if he has a machine that can destroy robots. A young man tells a man that he needs to avenge a death. A man jokes to a young man that at the end of an opera "Everyone dies." A man and a woman discuss how a man had been arrested for armed robbery. A man says that the death of his son constantly haunts him. A woman says that she hides behind a mask in order to prevent dealing with the death of her son.
 A man belches loudly in front of a woman, covering his mouth with his hand, he offers his hand to the woman for a handshake, and she takes it with a look of disgust. A woman with a scar on her face and a man with multiple healing wounds on his face hug. We see a woman with a scar on her face and a man with multiple healing wounds on his face.

LANGUAGE 4 - 5 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (meatbag, crazy, slob), 9 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A group of three men and two women hold vacuum-like devices up to their arms, faces and legs and the jolt that it delivers appears to have a drug-like effect, a man offers a woman a vacuum-like shocking device and she declines, a man refers to the vacuum-shocking device as "jacking" and implies that it is similar to a drug and that people can become addicted to it, a woman takes a pill from a prescription pill bottle and swallows it, a man takes a presumably poisonous pill (he shakes slightly and dies), a man finds a large number of pills surrounding an empty chair and pills poured on tabletops, and a man jokes to another man that he wanted to complete his tasks "before the drugs kick in." A man grabs a bottle of alcohol from a cabinet.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Reliance on technology, robots, surrogacy, conspiracy, fidelity during marriage, dishonesty, government conspiracy, holding grudges, death.

MESSAGE - One must never forget the true meaning and power of humanity.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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