Parents Guide for
The Dark Knight (2008)

Bruce walks into a room where we see a man and a woman buttoning their clothes up. It is implied that they were having sex, or were at least taking part in foreplay, but isn't very obvious.

The Joker asks some men if, "..their balls dropped off."

Torture, killings, violence against women, men, children and dogs.

Part of The Joker's make up includes two scars flanking the sides of his mouth.(very creepy)

An impostor Batman is hung from the side of a building (with a noose around his neck) and smashes into a window while a man looks through it.

A man is dropped from a building and we see his legs break, which is accompanied with a crunching noise, in an attempt to torture answers out of him.

The Joker takes 3 or 4 people by the neck and holds a knife to them harshly, ultimately killing one (though off-screen).

A man's head is slammed into a pencil stuck vertically on a desk. This is played for laughs, but it can still be disturbing to some.

There is an intense bank robbery scene at the start of the film.

A man is found to have a bomb surgically implanted into his body; scar is graphic, and you see the bomb's light inside of him.

There are shooting and fight scenes through-out the film.

A man has his face burned and the flesh become charred.

A knife is held in a man's mouth, although the end result is not seen.

Limited to milder profanities such as "son of a bitch", "damn" or "ass", which are used sparingly.

A mobster is seen smoking a cigar.

Some people hold glasses of champagne at a party.

People are seen drinking (the women have glasses of red wine, the men glasses of whiskey) after dinner at a fancy restaurant.

A character indicates he deals with stress by drinking as he gets out a bottle of whiskey and a glass.

Early in the film a man is seen hallucinating as a result of drugs he has bought.

The Joker could be disturbing to some viewers by the way he laughs and acts.

The Joker tells fairly graphic stories of how he got his facial scars to two different people, in both cases while holding a knife to their faces.

A man catches on fire, may be disturbing to some. Subsequently the severe damage to one side of his face is seen, in hospital and in a few scenes late in the movie.

There are some hostage situations: several patients and hospital personnel plus a news crew are taken hostage on a bus, one is forced to read a statement to the media, and some of the hostages are later disguised as the Joker's henchmen, to make them targets for police snipers (though they are not shot). As well, several employees in a bank are forced to hold live grenades during a robbery, and there are several scenes involving passengers on two disabled ferries scheduled to blow up together unless the passengers on one decide to blow up the passengers on the other. A woman and two children are threated by a man with a gun while the husband/father is forced to watch.

The Joker causes massive explosions of a police station and a hospital; The hospital was completely evacuated.

The way Two-Face's face looks may frighten some viewers.

The Joker gives some men pieces of a broken pool cue, on the understanding that they will have to fight to the death for a place in his gang or be killed anyway. (The fight is not seen.)