21 Bridges | 2019 | R | – 3.8.10

Why is “21 Bridges” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence and language throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a dance club scene with scantily clad women and a few cleavage revealing outfits; many scenes of gunfights and chases between civilians and police throughout a city that lead to bloody injuries and many bloody deaths, and discussions of illegal drug money; and about 90 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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A hard-core detective (Chadwick Boseman) joins the manhunt for two cop killers during one tense night in NYC. Determined to catch the murderers by dawn, he persuades authorities to close down all of Manhattan’s 21 bridges to prevent a flight from justice — by both criminals and dirty cops. Also with Sienna Miller, Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch, Keith David and J.K. Simmons. Directed by Brian Kirk. [Running Time: 1:43]

21 Bridges SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A woman gets out of bed and we see her wearing a tank top and a sports bra (cleavage and bare shoulders are shown) with short shorts (from a back view we see her partial buttocks and thighs); a man asleep in bed gets up and is seen wearing a T-shirt (no sexual activity is shown).
► Women twirling and wearing dresses that reveal cleavage, bare shoulders and legs are seen in a dimly lit dance club. A woman in an office wears a sheer dress that reveals the lines of her bra and underwear and bares her legs. Two men remove their shirts and we see their chest, arms, and shoulders briefly.
► A man says his half-mask smells like a girl.

21 Bridges VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – Four police officers enter a restaurant wine cellar and open fire on two men inside with many loud shots fired and the two men shoot all four officers (we later see the dead men lying in pools of blood and with blood on their chest). Two men drive head-on into a police cruiser and one of the men shoots through the windshield many times as we see two officers in the cruiser convulsing from the impact of the shots (lots of glass breaks and scatters across the ground and a close-up shows the face and neck of an officer as she shudders and gasps, with blood in her hair, on her face, and around her throat and we later hear that she died in the hospital); two more cruisers arrive and a shootout occurs, with two officers falling to the ground and screaming, two other police officers falling dead and later we see three body bags covered in blood and a body face down on the pavement in some blood.
► Two men put on half-masks with skull bones and teeth on them, they arm themselves with assault rifles and enter a restaurant wine cellar where one gunman punches a man who falls to the floor (there’s no visible injury), the gunmen find a large amount of cocaine (please see the Substance Use category for more details), steal 100 bags of it, and try to leave.
► Two men take bags of money to a man who will launder it and loud pounding begins on the barred metal door to the apartment until for several seconds four police officers on the outside shoot handguns as the first two men fire automatic rifles through the door to the hallway; computer screens and CPUs are destroyed by gunfire, and a man looks through the peephole in the door and an officer outside shoots him in the face (he reals back screaming and a close-up shows the side of his face bloody with chunks missing, and the eye gone as he gasps and shudders).
► Two men and several police officers shoot at each other in a dark alley and then run inside a meat packing house where we see a long row of pigs carcasses hanging by their hind legs, and a room full of sides of beef with bloody ribs; one man is shot in the side, leaving a bloody area and he collapses in a doorway from where he shoots another man dead (there’s no blood) and is then shot in the chest by an officer (the man shudders and gasps and dies as blood pours from the wound on his chest); the other man knocks down and grabs a woman, holding a handgun to her head as a man enters and the two men argue while the woman screams for the man to shoot the man that’s holding her; the man runs away and is chased and shot at by police until he enters a high rise apartment building and grabs a tenant, knocks him unconscious with a handgun and ties him up with neckties (the victim comes too later and yells for help).
► A man runs into a subway station, knocking down a man who grunts and a woman who yelps; another man chases him as several armed police officers enter and run to the subway tracks looking for the first man and the first two men enter a subway car that pulls away from the station as one man draws his handgun and tells passengers to clear the doorways and the two men meet in an empty car, pointing guns at each other and arguing until one man gives up his weapon and a woman outside the car shoots through the shattering glass of the door and wounds the first man in the chest; he falls, gasping and we see blood flowing from the wound onto his clothing, hands, and the other man’s hands as he bends down to take a pulse (the victim mumbles and dies with his eyes open).
► Police cruisers chase a man on foot and officers shoot at him; the man slams into the side of a bus, gets up and runs into a police cruiser (he has a few bloody cuts on his face), a man chases him through a dark restaurant kitchen, with a lot of loud glass breakage, and clanging metal ware; the first man shoots out a glass window that shatters over the floor, jumps to the street, and the other man follows as cars swerve to avoid the men running from sidewalk to pavement and back again and a helicopter occupant shoots at the first man, missing.
► A man enters his home and finds another man seated at a counter and they argue briefly when a police officer standing outside shoots through a window as two other officers run through the front door shooting; the first man shoots the three officers several times while their shots miss, and we see a little blood as they die, and one of the first two men is shown with a bloody wound on his side as he staggers and shoots at the second man, who shoots back at him and we hear the first man fall off-screen; we see him kneeling as he tries to shoot again and the second man shoots and kills him (he collapses in blood soaked clothing). A man barges into a nightclub and shoots a man dead, and a woman is screaming and slapping the man’s arms as many other women scream and run outside and another man enters and argues with the first man, punches another man unconscious and continues shouting.
► A large electronic billboard flashes the message “Manhattan Lockdown” and police officers break into an apartment and grab a man and a woman out of bed (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details), arresting the man and taking him away as the couple protests. Two men escape as four police officers break down the door to an apartment and the camera cuts to the men as they stop their car; one man opens his door and vomits a lot of clear liquid onto the pavement. We see a man’s hand tossing a lighted match from one car into another car, which goes up in flames and we see the charred remains of the car later.
► A woman says that she watched a man stomping on a young boy once and knows another man attacked his army sergeant; we later see that the soldier was dishonorably discharged and hear that his brother “returned home in a box” from fighting overseas. We hear that a NYPD detective shot nine criminals in eight weeks. A man says that three men shot and killed his father and the third shooter caused every bone in the father’s face to be broken, requiring a closed casket. In a flashback, a close-up of a young boy shows him crying at his father’s funeral and we see a coffin and mourners clothed in black. We see records of large illegal drug deal payments made to most of the police officers and officials in a Manhattan precinct. Several pairs of men argue briefly; one man tells another man, “I will [F-word deleted] bury you.”

21 Bridges LANGUAGE 10

 – About 90 F-words and its derivatives, 13 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (dumb, stupid, scumbag, vicious, fat cop, fools, narc, trigger, mean Greek), 1 religious profanity (GD), 3 religious exclamations (a short sermon at a funeral, For the love of Christ, Pray for forgiveness from God). | profanity glossary |

21 Bridges SUBSTANCE USE

 – Two men expect to find 30 kilos of cocaine in a room and find 300 kilos and when one man tastes a sample he says it is uncut, a woman shakes a small vial of cocaine (no one is shown using any of it), and a woman says that she can’t remember taking her meds. A man drinks a glass of whiskey in an office , a wine cellar holds hundreds of unopened bottles of wines, and a man says that two of his employees drank themselves to death (one driving drunk and the other having cirrhosis of the liver).

21 Bridges DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Law enforcement, politics, corruption, drug rings, fighting corruption, standing by one’s convictions, honor, trust, betrayal, revenge, justice.

21 Bridges MESSAGE

 – Cynical police officers can become corrupt when they feel overworked and disrespected by the people they protect.