Inception: parents' guide

Frequent gun battles, car chases, explosions, stabbings and hand-to-hand fights across dream levels. Most of it is bloodless and many deaths only wake the dreamer, but one man coughs up blood and another is shot in the head.

Some profanity, though light for an action film: a few s-words including "bullshit," plus "damn," "hell," "ass," "bastard," "bloody," "goddamn" and "Jesus Christ," and one f-word cut off before it's finished.

No sex or nudity. Two characters share a brief kiss, a few women wear low-cut tops, and the hero's scenes with his late wife are tender rather than physical.

Adults drink wine, beer and champagne socially. IV sedatives are used to share dreams, and a room of people who come daily to dream hints at dependence, all within the sci-fi premise.

Tense, layered action, a freight train plowing down a city street, a menacing vision of the hero's dead wife, a fall from a high ledge, and the threat of being lost forever in limbo. Grief and guilt run throughout.