Parents Guide for
Watchmen (2009) More at IMDbPro »

Sex & Nudity - 7/10

Dr. Manhattan is seen fully nude most of the time, including his penis.

A man and a woman passionately kiss. The man unzips her "costume" and in the next shot, they are both seen naked (her breasts are show throughout the scene). The man falls back on a chair and the woman thrusts on top of him in somewhat of a slow motion sequence throughout the scene. He leans into her to kiss her bare breasts, but this specifically, isn't shown. They fall back onto the ground and the man thrusts on top of her. They both begin to moan loudly and their facial expressions changes leading to them both climaxing. They are later seen sitting in a chair, both fully naked but no nudity is seen. This is a lengthy scene and is very explicit, but keep in mind, the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen is played from start to finish, covering up most of the characters' moans.

A man and a woman passionately kiss on a couch. The woman leans back and they kiss. The woman pulls down the man's pants and realizes that he is not aroused. In the director's cut, the woman says they'll try again another time.

A woman is heard moaning and hands are seen caressing her face. Her eyes are closed as she moans more and sucks a man's thumb as he caresses her face. She opens her eyes in alarm and gets up off the bed.

A man attempts to rape a woman. He beats her up violently and forces her against a pool table, caresses his hand on her back, and begins to undo his trousers. He is then interrupted by another man. The attempted sexual assault is a fairly major plot point.

A man has a dream about him and a woman standing in the desert completely nude, though it is shaded where they are so it is a little difficult to point out any private parts. The woman's breasts are briefly seen. The two passionately kiss but the man wakes up.

After the man's dream, he is seen from an angle behind him, looking at his costume in it's casing, fully nude with his bare buttocks, back and legs visible. This is shown for just over 13 seconds.

A man walking down a seedy street passes a prostitute. The prostitute zips down her jacket and goes to show the man her breasts but stops. The prostitute tells the man that she'll give him oral sex for money, but the man walks away declining the offer. The woman is then angry and insults him.

A man is seen walking past a sex shop/pornographic video rental. No nudity is seen from the store.

A woman takes off her jacket and the camera is focused on her clothed breasts for about two seconds.

A woman shows her adult daughter a pornographic comic book based on her superhero alter ego. She says it's "flattering". A few panels show some sexual scenes, including giant cartoon genitals and breasts, but this is hard to notice and is seen very briefly.

In a flashback, a hooker is seen having sex briefly. She moans and groans and so does the man.

A picture with bare breasts is seen in the background of a scene.

Violence and Gore: 10/10

Violence to male groin.

The violence is very graphic and deliberately disturbing, but occurs infrequently

A man hacks another man's head with a cleaver. Blood is seen getting on the characters face and brains and matter is seen coming out. Very disturbing and shocking.

A man gets his arms sawn off. Lots of blood sprays on the wall. Very disturbing and shocking.

Dr. Manhattan literally blows people up. In one scene he blows several thugs up and their blood, guts, and bones are seen on the ceiling. On some others their bones, guts, and blood are seen.

A man with a graphically missing leg gets burnt to death with flamethrower. Very disturbing.

A man attempts to rape a woman, he also beats her in the process. He is interupted and he's punched a few times breaking his nose.

A man is brutally beaten and is then thrown out of a window with a twisted leg and laying in a pool of blood. Whole sequence is quite disturbing to watch.

A woman is shot in the leg and blood and flesh graphically spurt out, and then her fingers are blown off. Another man is then shot between the eyes.

John F. Kennedy's assassination is seen. This is from a distance so its hard to see what is going on but it's clear what happened.

In a very graphic scene where a man and woman are followed into an alley by some thugs, there is a fight. You see a compound fracture where an elbow pops out in slow motion as blood and marrow spray out, and a man has his leg broken. Another thug is stabbed in the neck, but little blood is seen. One of them is used as a human shield and shot graphically in the back with spurting wounds.

A man shoots a pregnant woman, killing her. While not very graphic, highly disturbing.

A man gets hot oil poured on his face.

New York City is destroyed by a weapon of mass destruction, although we do not see anything particularly gory.

A man gets shot by a grappling hook, but his bulletproof vests stops it and he is merely thrown back against the wall.

In two different scenes, men are lit on fire.

Dogs are shown fighting over a dead girl's leg bone.

Two young men tease a boy about his mother and make crude sexual remarks. The boy becomes enraged, strikes one young man with a hammer, and tackles the other and bites his face (we see the boy's bloody mouth, with skin in his teeth).

People's fingers are broken or dislocated as a form of torture. The fingers aren't seen and if they are it is very brief, but you hear them cracking and you see the people screaming.

Rorschach is disintegrated by Dr. Manhattan and there is a very large bloody mess on the ground

In a flash back, a young boy is beaten and verbally abused by his mother.

A man's head is slammed into a sink and he falls to the ground, lying still. Water from the sink flows to a damaged electrical cord the man is near and he is electrocuted.

Rorschach corners a man in a bathroom and kills him offscreen. The only thing heard is a toilet flushing. As he walks away, blood pours out from under the door.

DIRECTOR'S CUT

An elderly man is attacked by and gets into a fistfight with several young thugs. He is then beaten to death with a trophy. (Off screen)

A man punches a police officer. Then another policeman shoots at him and misses.

A man is shooting at people from a helicopter with a pistol.

A man shoots at rioters with rubber bullets and launches tear gas at them from a grenade launcher.

A man is shown getting punched in the face repeatedly. Afterwards, much blood and graphically knocked-out teeth are shown.

THE ULTIMATE CUT

All of the "Tales of the Black Freighter" segments are gritty and violent, but they are shown in a cartoon-fashion, so it isn't as graphic as it could have been.

Profanity: 6/10

22 uses of "fuck".

and "prick" and "dick" are used a few times (no mention of "cunt" or "pussy").

About a dozen uses of "shit".

"Damn", "hell" and "goddamn" are used.

"Faggot" is used.

Rude remark on oral sex.

There is a bit more language in the Director's Cut.

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: 6/10

- When the Comedian appears on-screen, he is often seen smoking a large cigar, drinking, or both.

- Several other characters also smoke and drink throughout

Frightening/Intense Scenes: 9/10

Violence to male groin.

The violence can be very disturbing to some.

The interrupted rape scene is very brutal and disturbing.

Some dramatic moments and shocking moments.

A man is accused of giving several people cancer.

A woman is seen bald (it is later implied that she has cancer and his going through chemotherapy).

The villain's scheme appears to succeed completely, causing the death of millions with the aim of averting the death of billions more in a possible world war. The heroes are thus confronted with an agonizing moral dilemma that most of them are forced to conclude that the villain and his scheme cannot be exposed for fear of endangering the world again.

Rorschach is killed by Dr Manhattan, which is very upsetting to viewers.

Watchmen is not ''typical'' superhero movie. It is VERY violent and sexual, achieving much of its punch by subverting or completely undoing typical superhero film tropes. Even the scenes with masked adventurers fighting clearly-denoted bad characters are brutal.

Total explicit estimation: 37/50. Recommended for at least 16 and over