Parents Guide for
Aliens (1986) More at IMDbPro »

Suggested rating for american audiences : R for Strong Creature Violence and Gore, Terror, and Language

For UK audience's 15 by today's standards, 18 by 1986 standards. Strong Violence, Gore, Threat, and Language

Sex/Nudity: 2/10

When the team starts waking up, they are all in their underpants; the men are shirtless.

When Hicks is teaching Ripley how to use a gun, he uses some obvious sexual innuendos (i.e. "slam it in hard", etc...)

A brief nude photo can be see in the doorway to the hypersleeping room.

Violence & Gore: 9/10

An alien attacks a woman off-screen, but you see blood splattering all over the windows of the cockpit she was in (very bloody scene).

Dead corpses are seen wrapped in cocoons; a chestburster alien rips through a living woman's chest (blood pours).

A woman has a dream that an alien bursts out of her; the alien can be seen under her skin just before she wakes up.

Many aliens are shown being killed by the soldiers with machine and other guns (much gore from the aliens shown). In the 1991 Special Edition version, there are four sentry machine-gun turrets that tear through hundreds of aliens with lots of alien blood.

One marine character is fatally injured after being sprayed by acid (no blood, but there is a brief shot of his face being eaten away).

Several times, people are killed both on and off-screen with minimal and lots of blood.

A Marine character shoots an alien in the head and is burned by acid blood on his face and body (he is shown in extreme pain and with acid burnt armor and lots of smoke).

A human-looking android is impaled and torn in half. There is white synthetic blood spraying in all directions, and his insides (a type of intestines) are visible in the subsquent scenes. Although he is a robot, his insides look quite human and the audience has an emotional connection to this character by this time and may find this additionally disturbing.

Profanity: 5/10

Around 17 uses of "fuck" as well as some moderate profanity like "shit," "damn," and "ass"

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: 3/10

There are a few scenes with smoking. The main character Ripley smokes in a few scenes as does Hicks .

Frightening/Intense Scenes: 8/10

Several Marines are in danger of extremely scary and vicious alien creatures; throughout the film, a small girl is in occasional danger of being attacked and killed; there is one intense scene where Ripley and the girl are both in mortal danger of being "impregenated" by a crab-like creature that crawls around in an empty laboratory while they sleep; towards the end, the child's life becomes in jeopardy frequently until the climax.

To be blunt, this film not a horror. It is just the realism that makes this an 18. By today's standards this film would probably be a 15. Mainly because in 1986, this was very violent.