The Wandering Earth | 2019 | NR | – 1.6.4

Why is “The Wandering Earth” rated NR? The MPAA has not rated this film. The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few suggestive remarks, many scenes of peril and planetary disaster as earthquakes rumble across Earth, tsunamis flood cities and there is an impending collision with Jupiter with people dying by being crushed or drowned and showing some blood on wounds, and some strong language.
Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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Chinese sci-fi movie set in the not too distant future when Earth’s survival is in doubt since the sun has begun to die. A risky mission is planned that it is hoped will propel Earth, now a planet-sized spaceship, away from the sun and toward another star. 17 years after the initial success of the mission, there is a new threat as Jupiter may be pulling the Earth into its orbit. With Chuxiao Qu, Jing Wu, Guangjie Li, Man-Tat Ng and Jin Mai Jaho. Directed by Frant Gwo. Dialogue is spoken in Mandarin, Russian, French, Japanese and Korean with English subtitles. [Running Time: 2:05]

The Wandering Earth SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A woman wearing a skimpy outfit that reveals cleavage, abdomen and legs to the thighs takes the hand of a man in a crowded marketplace area (there’s a possibly suggestive implication). A man makes a suggestive remark about “The girl from last night … I swear was totally voluntary.” A woman hits a man as they leave a place crowded with people and she says something about him being cheeky. A man goes to a jail to retrieve his grandson and he offers the guard a bribe of something he refers to as “a collection of hotties from the past,” he opens a box and it isn’t clear what it contains but we presume it is pin-up type photographs (we do not see enough detail to discern what it is).

The Wandering Earth VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 - Two astronauts prepare to go outside of a space station and they are blown out the airlock; one man's tether pulls loose and he is nearly struck by a moving piece of the station, but he is caught and reeled back in, the two men continue outside the station and it shoots at them, fragments of the vessel speed toward them and one man is struck and his helmet visor cracks, and then breaks apart and he floats away dead. Several people take refuge in a large plastic bubble to avoid being struck by large falling debris during an earthquake; they make their way to a building to get to the top and out of a crevasse and the people are pulled up with cables until the cables break and people fall; one man is swept down by a falling elevator car and out of sight and another is flung out of its path and onto another floor, but he is out of oxygen so he removes his helmet and we see his face freeze as he dies. A man collapses on the ground and dies; a woman tries to do CPR unsuccessfully. A woman shoots a device several times and a man holds a gun on her, he shoots repeatedly, but she is not struck. A man on a broken down transport truck has a bloody head wound and holds a wrench in his hand when others board and he screams at them; we see a dead body in the driver's seat. A woman is pierced through the chest by a piece of rebar and we see blood on the bar, her suit and pooled on the floor. A man is shown dead, slumped in a transport vehicle with a gun in his hand and another man takes the gun and shoots himself (we hear the gunshot). Several people go inside a control center and we see several dead bodies with some blood on wounds. A man with a bloody wound on his head falls dead. A man throws a bottle of alcohol into a machine that catches fire and fire spreads through a space station causing it to explode.
► A man puts his hand between jail cell bars to shake another inmate's hand and the other man bends his arm and we hear cracking as the man yells. A young man and a teen girl fall from a ledge and the young man creates a plastic bubble that allows them shelter from falling debris. A young girl is shown standing alone amongst rubble and crying. A huge flame is directed at a pocket of gas on a planet that causes an explosion. Volcanoes erupt and lava runs down the sides as chunks of rock are thrown through the air. A shockwave after an explosion throws a lot of rubble and debris around the surface of a planet and we see people being buried by rubble as they run screaming. Large transport trucks speed through an area as an earthquake rumbles and metal frames and rubble fall all around them; one truck is crushed and another is struck but gets away. Transport trucks speed through a narrow crevasse between two sheer walls of ice and rubble falls when the walls begin to break apart. Large planes lose control and smoke billows from their engines before they crash in the distance.
► A young man punches a cement wall and it cracks and then crumbles around him and others in a jail cell as an earthquake rumbles through the area; we see people running and being crushed by large pieces of buildings falling on them (there's no blood), the ground erupts and people fall and are thrown as we hear announcements that the "Earth engines are failing" and a collision with Jupiter is predicted in 37 hours. A young man and a man argue and struggle over the death of the young man's grandfather. A man yells at and slaps his grandson and raises his hand to hit a teen girl (no injuries shown). A few men approach a young man and a teen girl in a threatening manner and the young man engages a weapon that deploys a large plastic bubble that pins the threatening men until it is popped and they chase the two into a crowded security area.
► A man shoots at a window for an extended period and we see shell casings piling up on the floor until the window breaks out. A man shoots a large weapon at a planet far in the distance (there's no result). Armed police hold weapons on a transport truck with several people inside and the vehicle is commandeered with the people to transport a piece of equipment. A police vehicle stops in front of a truck driven by a young man and we see him and his younger sister in a jail cell later. A young man starts up a transport truck and drives it recklessly running into another truck and nearly hitting a pedestrian and a smaller vehicle before brushing a wall and speeding away. Large earthmoving vehicles dig into the ground and we hear they are mining for fuel.
► A young man takes his younger sister out of school, he steals a transport truck and they leave the safety of an enclosed city. A man leaves his young son in the care of his aging father to attend to a mission that will secure their survival. A young man leaves a note for his grandfather that says that he is leaving. People in a space station are placed in hibernation pods to conserve resources. People are shown looting in streets when the ground shakes and everything falls to rubble. A man squeezes through a narrow opening to get inside a room to repair a machine. A young man jumps across an open space and catches the other side, pulls himself up and crawls between two massive plates; he tries to repair the mechanism and the plates move down and close to crushing him but he is pulled out by another man with a cable.
► A warning announces that Jupiter's gravitational pull will cause a collision with Earth and that a "disaster protocol" has been initiated. We hear that 3.5 billion lives are at stake if a mission does not succeed. We hear reports of rampant wildfires, drought, vanishing cities, species going extinct and tsunamis (we see people in water and hear them screaming as cities are swallowed by the rising water) and there's a discussion about the sun engulfing the Earth. We hear that the temperature in a city is -87C as people put on thermal suits and helmets for protection. We see cities in rubble and completely covered in ice in a few scenes. A recording in a truck reminds drivers to be safe or "loved ones end up in tears." Two men talk about what it will be like when ice melts and becomes water.
► A teen boy yells at his father for letting his mother die; we see a woman in a hospital bed and then in a cardboard box before it and she are placed in an incinerator. A man's voiceover describes rescuing a child and raising her as his own (we see him being handed an infant wrapped in a blanket from out of water during a rescue).
► A man vomits twice into his helmet and we see goo as he vomits and then later we see liquid sloshing around inside the helmet and he is alarmed when he is told to put the helmet on. A man describes a woman's food as "incredibly salty."

The Wandering Earth LANGUAGE 4

 - 3 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (liar, stinky repair man, bastard, China-man, crazy), exclamations (shut-up, nonsense, whatever, hurry, screw you, freaking), 4 religious exclamations (God Will Bless Us, Oh My God, Holy Hawking, a man prays to Einstein). | profanity glossary |

The Wandering Earth SUBSTANCE USE

 - A man drinks from a flask of liquor, and a man gives another man a jar of clear liquid that he calls moonshine and he gives it back to him untouched. A man smokes a cigarette in a machine room as he makes repairs, and a man puts a cigarette in his mouth.

The Wandering Earth DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Survival of Earth, hope, planetary destruction, global warming, family, suicide, courage, money as a motivator, greed, abandonment.

The Wandering Earth MESSAGE

 - Hope is the only thing we have during disasters.