Is Fast and Furious 9 (aka, F9) suitable for children to watch? The ninth installment of The Fast and Furious franchise is finally being released after a year-long delay due to the global pandemic, shutdowns, and subsequent movie theater closures. The sequel, which has already opened overseas, sees the return of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his crew as they team up for a new adventure. The franchise has always included a lot of action and dramatic sequences and F9 will be no different.
After spending years racing cars, driving them out of helicopters, through buildings, and otherwise going on plenty of adventures, F9 sees Dom slowing down a bit. He and Letty have settled into a quieter life with his son Brian, but of course it wouldn’t be a Fast and Furious movie if he wasn’t pulled back into the action somehow. This time around, Dom and his crew square off against John Cena’s Jakob, his and Mia’s estranged brother, while also tackling other subplots and a surprising trip to a new location.
F9 is officially rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of violence, action, and language. Of course, The Fast and Furious franchise has always included plenty of thrilling action sequences and gun-toting characters— in more recent sequels, there has been an increase in federal agents as well. In F9, Dom wields a gun and aims at someone; there is also a machine gun being shot at a truck. Dom is also beaten up by a group of men at some point. However, there isn’t very much blood throughout the film (if at all) and the film is never overtly violent. When Dom is caught in a physical altercation, the audience sees the first blow, but the camera pans away from the rest of the beating for the most part.
The car chase sequences are more intense than anything and, similar to previous movies in the franchise, F9 includes quite a few crashes, vehicles flipping up and over dramatically. There is also a shot of a car hitting Letty’s motorcycle and sending her flying through the air to land on top of Dom’s car. There are even a few scenes involving the characters jumping out of buildings and being thrown through the air, hitting objects and walls. But again, there is no real gore and the action is exciting, but tame enough for children to watch with parental guidance. These sequences aren’t really going for brutality and F9 avoids blood and excessive violence, replacing it with dramatic flair and thrills.
The thing about many of The Fast and Furious films’ action scenes is that they’ve always been somewhat unrealistic. So even when they’re high-octane and suspenseful, it’s rare that anyone is grievously injured or dies violently onscreen. To that end, F9 is certainly suitable for kids to watch so long as they’re aware of what’s going on. If they’ve seen other films in the franchise, then F9 will be par for the course. The action and stunt sequences have gotten a lot bolder and more adventurous over the course of each movie, but F9, like its predecessors, isn’t scary, bloody, or vicious enough that children would have to avoid it.