Thelma | 2024 | PG-13 | – 1.4.5

Why is “Thelma” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a hug, a discussion of a woman being attracted to a man, elderly people being scammed out of their money, an elderly woman seeking to find the people that scammed her, a motorized scooter being struck by a car, a woman falling in a dirt field alone and unable to get back up, a man and a young man held at gunpoint, a computer monitor being shot, several arguments, and at least 3 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

After receiving a phone call that leads her to believe that her grandson needs help, a 93-year-old woman (June Squibb) sends a large sum of money to the person calling. When she realizes that she has been swindled and the police cannot help, she undertakes the mission to retrieve the money on her own. Also with Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg. Directed by Josh Margolin. [Running Time: 1:37]

Thelma SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man and a woman hug tenderly. A man says that a woman was obsessed with him; he says that they never acted on it. A young man talks about being on a break from a relationship and seems sad.
► A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.

Thelma VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A woman walks through a shop and steps over fallen items, she knocks over a statue and it shatters on the floor, she enters an office area and confronts a man and a young man, dials the police on her phone and the man hits the phone out of her hand; he proceeds to try to make a deal with the woman and gets on his knees pleading with her, and she holds a gun toward the man and tells him to give her money back. A young man runs into a room and a man in the room holds him at gunpoint while a woman pinches the oxygen tube attached to another man and he gasps. A young man runs out of a store and a man trips him as he goes through the door (we see him unconscious on the sidewalk and later with a bloody nose). A woman shoots a computer monitor a few times.
► A woman receives a phone call from someone identifying himself as her grandson and he tells her that he is in jail after an accident; another man calls her and tells her that she needs to send cash to an address in order to get her grandson out of jail.
► A woman asks a man to borrow his motorized scooter and when he declines, she steals it speeding through hallways in an assisted living complex and crashing into the man, who’s using another scooter to try to stop her; the man walks in front of her and she stops but threatens to run him down. A young man speeds in a car and swerves through traffic while talking to a woman on the phone about accessing computer documents. A woman says that she is stopping at a friend’s house to get a gun; she climbs on a bed to reach the gun on top of a cabinet and when she drops it on the floor it discharges (a vase breaks, but there are no injuries). A woman appears to be having an episode and doesn’t remember where she is. A woman slips on a step, but grabs the railing and does not fall. An unmanned motorized scooter rolls into a street where a car crashes into it and it breaks into pieces; the car speeds away.
► A woman walks alone through a dirt area and trips and falls on the ground (we see her later with a black eye) and she cannot get back up. A woman runs away from her family that is trying to find her and she throws her tracker bracelet to get them off her trail.
► People in an assisted living complex are shown in various stages of need with one man in a hospital bed and on monitors and others using walkers and canes; one man is shown sitting silently in a number of scenes and seeming unresponsive. We hear that a woman has had breast cancer and a double mastectomy, that he has a brain tumor and infrequent disorientation. A woman puts flowers on her husband’s grave and talks to her grandson about death and graves. A woman living alone appears not to be taking care of herself or her surroundings; dirty plates and crumbs are on a table and a large cockroach crawls across the table.
► Staff in an assisted living complex question family members when a woman and a man have gone missing, asking about the woman wandering and if she has health issues; they later issue a silver alert. A woman is sad about her son breaking up with his girlfriend and describes the woman as a grounding force in his life. A woman is sad when thinking about her deceased husband. A woman says, “If I fall, I’m toast.” A young man says, “I’m stuck.” A woman says, “We have no moral center.” When people discuss social media providing access to people’s personal information, a woman asks, “Shouldn’t Zuckemburg fix this?” A woman says, “All my friends are dead.” A woman tells a man, “Don’t make a scene.” A man and woman argue about being in danger and being lost. A man says that he beat up a young man that was trying to run away. When calling several friends, a woman discovers that some have died and others are ill; we hear that one woman died after falling into a fire pit, another from sepsis, and others from a stroke and heart attack. We hear that a woman fell down a flight of stairs and died. A family takes a woman to the police to report money having been stolen from her in a scam. A woman is frustrated when using her phone and computer and a young man helps her in a couple of scenes. A young man yells about feeling incapable of doing anything and feeling guilty about losing his grandmother. A young man says that he wants his grandmother to “Have a good death.”
► A young man and woman watch a movie where a man runs across rooftops and jumps between buildings and they talk about an actor doing his own stunts. A woman sees a cockroach on the floor and swats it with a newspaper; we see the carcass in the garbage. A woman digs through a garbage can in a public restroom to find a piece of paper she discarded earlier. A woman removes her hearing aids and we hear the volume that she can hear reduce to nearly nothing. A man and a woman take a bite of bread and each spit it out saying that it is stale.

Thelma LANGUAGE 5

 – About 3 F-words, 3 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (dumb [anatomical term deleted], are you nuts, absurd, bad idea, fussy, hunchback, senile, crazy, unbelievable, greedy, insane, idiots, old, diminished, a liability to the people we love, baby, ridiculous, unpleasantness, unreasonable, I’m such a little [mild obscenity deleted]), exclamations (dangit, don’t make a fuss), 2 religious profanities (GD), 14 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, oh God, my God, Jesus Christ, Jesus, thank God). | profanity glossary |

Thelma SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman puts her prescription medications in a dispenser. A woman says that alcohol is a major depressant, and a man and a woman quiz their adult son about drinking and driving. A man smokes cigarettes while using oxygen.

Thelma DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Aging, death of partners, scams, self-reliance, assisted living, overprotectiveness, being alone, asking for help, survival, friendship, making the most of the time you have.

Thelma MESSAGE

 – Asking for help is a sign of strength.