The Killer | 2023 | R | – 4.7.6

Why is “The Killer” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong violence, language and brief sexuality.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a brief sex scene with partial nudity, an exotic dance club with some partial nudity, a fully nude man without visible genitals, several murders by gunshot with bloody wounds shown, an extended fight scene ending with death and bloody injuries, a building being blown up, a dog being sedated, and almost 20 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When a hired assassin (Michael Fassbender) misses his latest target, cleaning up after the debacle becomes far more involved than he anticipated, challenging his unemotional and methodical killing procedures. Based on a French graphic novel series. Also with Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley, Sophie Charlotte, Emiliano Pernía, Gabriel Polanco, Sala Baker and Endre Hules. Directed by David Fincher. [Running Time: 1:58]

The Killer SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A couple is shown having sex in the distance through an apartment window; we see a person’s bare buttocks and back thrusting into another person, whose bare legs are visible. From a distance, we see a woman enter an apartment, she changes clothes behind frosted glass and appears wearing a tight-fitting leather corset, thigh-high boots (we see her cleavage and bare shoulders) and she carries a whip as a man sits on a sofa and she slaps the whip (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A fully nude man sits in a shower and we see his bare chest, partial abdomen and legs to the hips (his knees are bent to cover his genital area). A few men go to an exotic dance club and we see neon images of dancing women outside the building. A man changes his clothes and showers (we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and shoulders).

The Killer VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man holds a gun on another man in an office and threatens him; a woman in the office zip ties her own hands to a sink in a nearby bathroom and cries as she hears sounds of the man in the office using a nail gun to shoot a computer, and then he shoots the man in the chest three times (blood pours from the wounds as the man gasps for air). A man with a long-range rifle takes aim at a man from a distance and through an apartment window, he pulls the trigger and a woman is shot in the back (blood sprays) and the man is rushed out of the room by security. A man holds a gun on a taxi driver and the driver tries to give him his wallet; the driver is shot in the back of the head and blood sprays on the windshield. A man with a gun walks through a house and confronts another man; they fight and exchange blows, they slam each other into walls and a TV screen (it shatters), a glass bottle is slammed into one man’s head and it breaks, one man is held around the throat, one man is slammed onto a table and it splinters, one man uses a fireplace poker to hit the other man several times (it is stuck in the back of the man’s head and he pulls it out and they continue fighting), one man falls on a broken table leg and it appears to impale him through the leg (we see a lot of blood), and one man falls and a gun discharges (we see blood pouring from between his legs and the man is shot in the head as blood pours). A man with a gun follows a woman to the edge of a river, she slips on ice on a flight of stairs and he shoots her in the head causing blood to pour. A man walks behind a woman, snaps her neck and she falls down a flight of stairs dead.
► A man walks through a house where loud music plays, he sees blood on the floor and blood is smeared on the walls and on broken glass; he rushes to a hospital where he is told that a woman is bleeding internally and we see her on life support with heavy stitches on her forehead. A barking and growling dog chases a man out of a building and he jumps over a fence before throwing a lighted bottle of flammable liquid into the building; it explodes and the dog barks (the dog is not injured). A man pounds on a door and holds a gun to a man’s head when he opens the door; we later see the man (still alive) bound and gagged on the floor as the gunman stages the scene to look like a robbery.
► A man sneaks into a parking garage, goes to a man’s apartment and stands in front of him with a gun. A man sits at a table with a woman and takes a gun out of her purse; they then talk about killings. A man booby traps a door and waits in the dark holding a knife. A man retrieves a gun from a car’s glove compartment and runs through a property outside a house. A gunman leaves a place where he had attempted to kill a man, disguises himself with a helmet and speeds away on a moped as police arrive.
► A man builds a long-range rifle in a few scenes and prepares for a shooting; he points it at a door in one scene as a person enters the room but he does not shoot. A man opens an underground storage container that holds weapons. A man steps on his cellphone in a few scenes shattering the screen. A snake slithers across the screen along with glimpses of other methods of committing murder including explosions, poison, etc. A young boy plays with a toy gun and pulls the trigger while pointing it at a woman’s head (presumably his mother).
► A man stretches, does yoga poses and cracks his own neck as a fitness routine. A man cuts himself shaving (we see a trickle of blood). A man brushes his teeth and spits saliva and toothpaste into a sink. A man feeds sleep aids to a dog in a piece of raw meat (we see the dog sleeping).
► A man’s voiceover says, “Doing nothing is exhausting.” A man’s voiceover says, “What would John Wilkes Booth do?” A man says, “They came for you and they weren’t about to leave a witness.” An agent says, “The first suspect when a woman is found slain is the husband, when she has not been sexually assaulted.” A story is told about a man being sodomized by a bear three times. We hear that 1.8 million people die every second.

The Killer LANGUAGE 6

 – About 17 F-words and its derivatives, 2 sexual references, 2 scatological terms, name-calling (dog-eat-dog world, impatient, hurried, insanity, crazy, sloppy), exclamations (keep calm), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. I serve no God or country, good God, oh my God, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ). | profanity glossary |

The Killer SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man feeds sleep aids to a dog in a piece of raw meat (we see the dog sleeping). A man drinks liquor on an airplane, and a woman drinks a flight of whiskey in a restaurant. A man finds a pile of cigarette butts on the ground, and a man smokes a cigarette.

The Killer DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Luck, karma, justice, skepticism, cynicism, truth, survival of the fittest, cruelty, pragmatism, exploitation, hired assassins, eye-witness testimony, sleep deprivation, empathy, weakness, vulnerability

The Killer MESSAGE

 – Trust no one.