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Deepwater Horizon | 2016 | PG-13 | - 4.7.5

Based on actual events from 2010: An electrician (Mark Wahlberg) on a major offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico must survive a massive oil and gas explosion and help his crew to safety. The rig produced the largest oil spill in global history, becoming a major controversy. Also with Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien, Kate Hudson, Ethan Suplee, Henry Frost and Jeremy Sande. Directed by Peter Berg. [1:47]

SEX/NUDITY 4 - A husband asks his wife if she would like to have the 30-, 60- or 90-second sex package and she laughs, asking for the longest one (the man is shirtless, revealing his bare chest and back while the woman wears a T-shirt that bares her abdomen and upper hips above bikini panties); they kiss several times, he lies on top of her and they kiss in close-up with only their heads showing and the scene ends (sex is implied). A husband and wife in a car kiss goodbye as he leaves for work. A wife bites the back of her husband's neck.
 A little girl tells her parents, "I didn't knock [at their bedroom door], because I want a little brother," and her mother tells her she is not supposed to know about that [sex] yet. A man says, "My cat tried to mount my Labrador."
 A man's bare back and upper buttocks are seen briefly as he is thrown out of a shower in an explosion (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man dons a fire suit and we see his bare chest. A woman wears a V-necked blouse that reveals cleavage.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Shouting men rush toward lifeboats on an oil rig as a derrick swings at a tilt above their heads and someone shouts that it will fall; a man climbs up tall frameworks and secures the derrick, but it falls as it catches fire and slams the man into a deck far below, dead.
 We see several deep water scenes of gas bubbles rising in large groups, grimy machinery shuddering in the dark water and we hear it groaning while on the drill wellbore deck several grimy men wearing earplugs and fire suits see oily mud seeping up around the pipe; men shout and a geyser of mud, oil, and cement bits shoots into the sky, blasting men to the deck, into walls, and off-screen as they scream and one man shuts down the machinery to stop the geyser; a second, larger mud-cement geyser explodes, slamming more men into walls and the deck and we hear screams as metal structures on the rig break loose, slam into one another loudly, slam into decks, and some fall into the water; windows crack, mud and smoke blast toward the audience and clouds of bubbles under water look like an atomic bomb blast.
 We see a large crankshaft in close-up as it seizes and catches the oil and gas around it on fire causing a huge offshore oil rig to explode in multiple large bursts of flames and black tendrils of smoke for at least 40 minutes; four or five of the explosions are particularly loud and fill the screen with balls of fire and sooty smoke as large metal parts groan and slam into one another, derricks swing wildly, metal frameworks fall, and backdrafts rush throughout the tall oil rig, blasting men off-screen or slamming them into the deck hard and fast; a long shot shows the rig burning against the night sky with rolling waves of fire upward and outward as the waters catch fire around it and a man and a woman inside the rig argue about calling in a Mayday and she defies the man and calls it in as power dies on the rig.
 A man in a shower hears growing metal as he is blasted at high speed out of the stall and into a wall; the camera cuts away and back to find him sprawled in the dark, covered by grime, mud, oil, and broken cement bits (his face is burned red and has many bleeding cuts, his eyes are swollen shut and his face is swollen, and his arms and legs are covered with bleeding cuts); he pulls a large, shard of glass out of his heel and screams in pain as he pulls on a fire suit, shouting in pain and grimacing.
 A man trapped under a heavy sheet of metal climbs out with a long cut on his forehead and cheek; he searches for other men, finds one slumped on the floor and helps him up to limp down a dark corridor where they find a man with a leg stuck through the deck flooring up to the knee (the stuck man is covered in blood, screaming as he tries to pull his leg out); three men pull the stuck man and one cuts part of the man's leg to free it (he screams) and he is pulled free (we see blood covering a pant leg in the dark and part of the lower leg might be missing).
 People on a burning oil rig climb frameworks and release a life raft into the water between flaming oil slicks and several people jump in, leaving a man and a woman on the flaming deck; the two climb to another deck and argue, the woman shouts four times, "I don't wanna die!" as more explosions blast around them and the man throws the woman into the water between flames, and jumps in after her and they are submerged for a few seconds then rise gasping, and swim to a raft. A man collapses on the bridge of a burning and sinking oil rig after ordering the crew to lifeboats as a man helps him up and the remaining men and a woman see the last boat leave the rig; a man shouts, "They left us!"
 A large oil-covered pelican is blown into a heavy glass window on an oil barge and stunned, it crashes through an open door and into a wall where it shudders, flops on the deck and dies. Men wearing fire suits catch aflame in the dark in three separate scenes; other men help extinguish the flames on the victims, who suffer some bruises and reddened skin. We see a man slumped against a railing, shuddering uncontrollably. A person in a gurney is lifted by cables onto a helicopter and we see gauze around both arms, covered in blood stains. A man in a hotel lobby wears gauze around his arm and hand. Many men's faces are bruised red and purple, burned dark red, and long cuts are stitched closed. A man walks with crutches.
 A man is slammed into a wall by a much larger man and a woman accosts the man, crying and demanding information; security men pull them off and the first man reaches his room, where he rips off his shirt and falls to the floor, crying (we see many red cuts on his back).
 Machinery and collapsing metal above and below the water's surface screech with a deep pitch that sounds like roaring and metal arms and frameworks fall into the water, which is burning in higher and higher flames. A man presses a button to shut down and seal an underwater well, but it fails.
 A car backfires loudly twice, spewing smoke. A large helicopter near an oil rig jolts with a loud bang, passengers shout and the vehicle rights itself undamaged. A young girl simulating an oil drill stabs a pen into the bottom of an upturned soda can and seconds later, a geyser of soda explodes upwards.
 A roll call shows that all crew in the drill house of an oil rig were lost. Two men on an oil rig argue about an unstable drill wellbore, phones that don't work, and smoke detectors being offline; the second man orders the other one to start drilling and the first man throws a large plate of cookies down hard in front of the second man. Men argue about safety problems on an offshore oil rig. A male voiceover states that he heard hissing and a loud roar, and then saw projectiles propelling around him. A woman at home cries when she hears an oil rig is burning. A man says, "I'd kill for that money." Survivors of an oil rig explosion kneel on the deck of a barge and pray the Lord's Prayer. A caption on a black screen states that an offshore oil rig burned and leaked 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days; another caption states that two oil executives were charged with manslaughter in the disaster, but charges were dismissed in 2015. We hear a male voiceover stating that the alarms did not sound on an offshore oil rig before it exploded; he says he heard hissing, a loud roar, and then saw projectiles around him.
 We see a series of snapshots showing men who later died on an oil rig.
 A man spits white spittle onto an oil rig deck. A man says, "I'm gonna go take a leak." A man says about drill sludge, "When I was potty-trained, I was taught to flush." A man raises his arms to show very large sweat stains under the arms of his dress shirt.

LANGUAGE 5 - About 3 F-words (some muffled), 46 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 17 mild obscenities, name-calling (craziest, stupid, lamer, monster, the help, itty bitty guy, money hungry, Democrat), exclamations (shut-up), 5 religious profanities (GD), 9 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, Holy [scatological term deleted], God, So Help You God, The Lord's Prayer, "Anything that big should be made by God").

SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks from a bottle of Pepto Bismol, a man asks another man if he is taking medication and the second man just smiles, and a man jokingly asks his girlfriend if she is using drugs and she laughs and nods (she is not using drugs). A woman drinks from a beer bottle on a laptop screen during a Skype conversation, and a man asks another man if he received a bottle of wine he sent and the second man says yes and that he drank it.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Big Oil, offshore oil rigs, bypassing required inspections, greed, safety practices, danger, fear, risk-taking, disasters at sea, environmental damage, harm to wildlife, honesty, integrity, determination, courage, sacrifice, family, teamwork, survival, respect, justice.

MESSAGE - Cutting corners to save time and money led to the largest oil disaster in American history.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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