What age is Don't Look Up appropriate for?

Rated R in the US. 17, alone or with a parent; 13 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is Don't Look Up not recommended under 17?

What's in it: the official rating, first; the end of the world, for real; sex, drugs and television; a hundred swear words, and a riot. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

Don't Look Up: what age is it for? 17, alone or with a parent

From 17, alone or with a parent.

Movie · 2021 · 2 h 25 · comedy, science fiction, drama

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

89101112131415161718

not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralone

The official US rating is R, and we never go below it. Alone from 17, and not before, even with an adult.

Official US rating: R. In France, zinema would say 13.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

Two astronomers go on a media tour to warn humankind of a planet-killing comet hurtling toward Earth. The response from a distracted world: Meh.

Why 17

The official rating, firstRated R in the US (restricted, under 17 requires an accompanying parent). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.
rule
The end of the world, for realA comet is going to destroy the Earth and nobody listens; the film keeps its promise to the end, with a last hour in which you understand that everyone is going to die, and a final family dinner that is a farewell. Death threats keep coming back in the dialogue.
Sex, drugs and televisionAn affair between the scientist and a TV host, crude innuendo, a couple who take drugs and mock everything, cigarettes at every crisis. Nothing is shown for long, everything is said plainly.
A hundred swear words, and a riotOver a hundred swear words; demonstrations that turn into brawls, gunfire, explosions seen on television, a few jolts.

What the movie brings

A satire of what we do with bad news: plenty to say about screens, experts and what we choose to believe.
Two ordinary scientists facing ridiculous powerful people, and the anger of the woman who is right and is not heard.
A film that dares not to save the world, and makes its last dinner a moment of tenderness.

Watching it together

Before

Say beforehand that the film does not end well, and that it is on purpose; the sexual innuendo flashes by, the ending deserves a conversation.

After

at 17 and up

At the end, the characters choose to have dinner together rather than flee: what does that say about what matters?

See the facts

Death of a character●●● · saidmeasured

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A moment that calls for a parent●○○ · suggestedmeasured

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For the same age, on zinema

Gajab Raat 17
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist 13, 12 with a parent
Samuel Paty, le temps de la justice 13, 12 with a parent
Le Charles 13, 12 with a parent

The latest guides

Ted Lasso 17
Love of Your Life 17
Borgen 17
The Madison 17, 16 with a parent

A zinema reading from September 19, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made