Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is an action-heavy thriller based on eye-witness accounts of the events leading up to the attacks on the temporary American mission in Benghazi and the secret CIA annex on Sept. 11, 2012. Directed by Michael Bay, the movie is based on a memoir written by a group of CIA contractors who claim they were ready to help the ambassador and his small U.S. State Department detail but were told to stand down by their base chief. The movie is seen as highly political by some and shouldn't be considered an impartial narrative of what happened on that fateful night. Frequently violent and bloody, the movie shows dead bodies, including that of a prominent character. People die from bullet wounds, explosions, and fires/smoke inhalation. There's also a fair bit of strong language ("f--k," "s--t," and more) and a few mild innuendoes.
Sexual
Content
No sex, but an American man asks a Libyan man whether Gaddafi's guard was really composed of solely beautiful women, and a Libyan man makes gestures indicating big breasts and a curvy, tall build. A female CIA agent is tender and almost flirtatious toward a male contractor, but there's nothing between them but obvious fondness.
Violence
Combat scenes include shoot-outs between heavily armed U.S. forces/security detail and a Libyan militia. Machine guns, RPGs, and explosions. Men die from bullet wounds and smoke inhalation. A man walks around with part of his forearm and wrist detached from his body, spraying blood everywhere. Another man with debris stuck in his body also bleeds profusely. Lots of blood and dead bodies are visible. A prominent character's dead body is thrown off a building.
Language
Lots of swearing in the movie's high-stakes, life-or-death environment, including "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "s--tstorm," etc.
Social
Behavior
Pays tribute to the uncredited "shadow soldiers" who protected the state department and CIA agents; per the movie, they prevent the Benghazi incident from becoming even deadlier. Suggests that disobeying orders is OK if it means saving lives and that bureaucracy is the reason so many lives were lost that night in Libya.
Consumerism
Almost all of the tricked-out, bullet-proof cars are Mercedes.
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Adults smoke cigarettes and a hookah and drink in a few scenes.
