Vice | 2018 | R | – 4.6.7

Why is “Vice” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language and some violent images.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some nudity in torture sequences and photographs, news footage scenes and references to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, some scenes of war and acts of terror and torture with dead and injured bodies, accidental deaths with bloody victims, and over 20 F-words. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

---

A sardonic, irreverent exploration into how Dick Cheney (Christian Bale), a consummate Washington insider and career politician, managed to turn the otherwise mostly impotent position of US Vice President into an incredibly powerful command during the administration of President George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell), and especially the reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Also with Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Jesse Plemons, Lily Rabe and Alison Pill. Directed by Adam McKay. [Running Time: 2:12]

Vice SEX/NUDITY 4

 – We see fully nude men (we see bare backs and buttocks) during a couple of torture scenes, shown crouching on the floor covered with dirt and muck. A nude man is shown with a collar and leash on his neck (we see his bare back, chest and buttocks). A man’s bare buttocks are seen when he is grabbed off the street and duct-taped on the mouth and eyes. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. A woman is shown with a very pregnant belly. A couple of shirtless men are shown in an audience for a campaign rally (we see bare chests, abdomens and backs).
► A husband and his wife kiss in the White House. A husband and his wife kiss in bed. A wife kisses her husband on the cheek.
► A couple of references are made to not having any women participate in the Congressional internship program. A woman talks about women in NYC burning their bras. A young woman tells her parents that she is gay. Several conversations are about politicians running against gay marriage.

Vice VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 - Men work on electrical poles rigging power lines and one man falls to the ground (we see his leg twisted unnaturally with a bloody bone protruding from his torn pants as he moans and other men gather around). A man is shot in the face by another man while hunting (we see blood spurt). A man is slashed on the cheek with a knife (we see blood). A man jogging is struck by a car and we see blood pool on the ground under his head.
► A bomb explodes outside a house where a family inside hides under a table; burned bodies are seen outside. We see the aftermath of a bombing on a British subway with blood smeared on the floor of a train car. We see dead bodies strewn around a dessert landscape.
► Several images of a heart beating are seen and another of a motionless heart in a surgical tray. A human heart is handled by gloved hands and placed on ice. A dead man is shown with autopsy scars and heavy stitches on his chest while another man is shown as a scalpel cuts through flesh (blood seeps out) and we see an open, empty chest cavity prior to a heart transplant.
► Torture scenes are shown with nude men (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) crouched on the floor covered with dirt, and others are waterboarded with towels placed over their faces and doused with water, and a nude man is held in a room where dogs bark ferociously and lunge toward him, and soldiers are shown shoving a man into a large metal box. A man punches another man in the face and they fight in a bar (we see the man with a bruise on his face later).
► We see news reports of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and smoke billows from World Trade Center towers (as the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon occur we see security ushering the US Vice President to safety). There are scenes of warfare and bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan (rubble is thrown and soldiers run with no evident bloodshed). A Humvee is blown up and it tips over. A casket draped with an American flag comes off a transport plane. A man is grabbed off the street, and duct-taped across the mouth and eyes. A nude man with a collar and leash on is shown held by another man as he snaps a selfie.
► A young woman speeds through an intersection and crashes into another car (we see her in the hospital with blood on her shirt). A man swerves while driving and is pulled over by police; we see him stumble out of the car and understand that he has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, for the second time. A man slams a door in another man's face. We see a flashback to a husband yelling at his wife (he's presumably drunk) and throwing dishes. A woman yells at a man and threatens to leave him if he doesn't get himself straightened out (she just picked him up from jail after he was arrested for DUI). A man makes a comment in a few scenes that he needs to go to the hospital (he is having a heart attack in each scene and falls to his knees in one scene). A man is shown in the hospital as his family says goodbye to him; he is in heart failure and there is no transplant available.
► Two men talk about how to give a President absolute executive authority. A man gives presidential authority for military planes to engage and shoot down any suspicious aircraft. References to the bombing of Cambodia are made and a man says, "Thousands of people will die and the world will change." We hear that a woman drowned in a lake and her adult daughter says that her mother never swam. People talk about the US Vice Presidency as a "cruddy job" and that the VP sits around and waits for the President to die. People discuss who they think is responsible for the 9/11 attacks. People discuss acts of terror, including mass beheadings, the use of Sarin gas, fire bombs, televised executions, and biological warfare. A reference is made to killing all Shia Muslims. We read that 4550 soldiers died and the suicide rate among service members is up 31% since 2001. We hear that 3000 people burned to death in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. A man threatens another man and tells him to never come around his family again. A woman yells angrily over the phone when she discovers that her sister (with the support of their parents) will be running for political office and takes a position against gay marriage (the first woman is gay). A woman talks about performing a flaming baton trick and after she threw the baton in the air, it never came down. A woman tells a man that he smells like vomit. A reference is made to a proctology exam.
► A man shoots a bird out of the sky while hunting (we see the bird fall). A TV ad shows a man shooting a rifle (we see smoke come out of the barrel).
► A man is shown sleeping with vomit on his mouth and the floor after drinking too much and a cigarette burns in an ashtray on the bed next to him. A man brushes his teeth, gargles and spits. A man bumps into a server at a party and a tray of glasses is spilled.

Vice LANGUAGE 7

 - About 21 F-words and its derivatives, 4 sexual references, 2 obscene hand gestures, 13 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 18 mild obscenities, name-calling (ne'er do well, quitter, sloppy, silly woman, chick magnet, salty, ridiculous, idiot, dirt bag, filthy hobo, lush, loose cannon, elite liberals, stupid, fat, rascal, skinny prophylactic, black sheep, monsters, zero, mean and nasty fella, hippies, cold, nervous Nellie, worry wart, drug dealer and pimp, big shot), exclamations (oh my gosh, oh my goodness, oh dear, don't get your panties in a bunch), 6 religious profanities (GD), 8 religious exclamations (Jesus Christ, Jesus, Thank God, I Swear To God, Oh My God, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Vice SUBSTANCE USE

 - Several men are shown drinking in a bar in a few scenes, a man is shown drinking heavily while gambling and we see him drunk and driving later, a man pours 2 glasses of whiskey, people drink whiskey and wine with dinner, people drink at a party, a few men are shown holding bottles of beer, people drink wine with dinner, a reference is made to opioid addiction, and we hear that a man has had 2 DUIs. A man smokes a cigarette in a bar, a man smokes in a car, clouds of smoke billow in a room from cigarettes, a man and a woman smoke cigarettes, a man smokes while walking, a man smokes, and a man smokes a pipe in several scenes.

Vice DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, 9/11, fear, uncertainty, DUI, military deferments, loyalty, power, Donald Rumsfeld, Roger Ales, Colin Powell, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Justice Antonin Scalia, Anwar Sadat, Watergate, unitary executive, absolute executive authority, checks and balances, dictatorship, disappointment, Vietnam, alternative power, Affirmative Action, fossil fuel, instinct, due process, Guantanamo Bay, War Powers Act, Roe v. Wade, think tanks, trickle-down economics, super rich, hope, Endangered Species Act, torture, gay marriage, Fairness Doctrine, welfare state, shame, Haliburton, Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Americans for Tax Reform, estate tax, death tax, regulations, the Florida election recount of 2000, WMD, Valerie Plame, ISIS.

Vice MESSAGE

 - The effects of the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney and the people in his power circle continue to be damaging for maintaining both security and political freedom.