World War Z: parents' guide
Best for ages 13 and up. Rated PG-13 for intense frightening zombie sequences, violence and disturbing images.
A fast, frightening global-disaster thriller for young teens who like intense action more than gore. Brad Pitt plays a former UN investigator racing around the world to find the source of a zombie plague while his wife and daughters wait on a navy ship. Bites and kills are mostly kept off screen or bloodless, but the swarming attacks, a plane crash, a severed hand and shootings are relentless. Some characters kill themselves rather than turn, and children scream in terror. Language is moderate, with about ten s-words. The sustained intensity makes 13 a good starting point.
What's in it
Violence
ModerateHuge zombie swarms, shootings, explosions and a nuclear blast, but little blood. Gerry spears and clubs zombies, cuts off a soldier's bitten hand, and wakes after a plane crash with metal through his side.
Language
ModerateAbout nine or ten s-words, a few uses each of hell, ass, bitch and bastard, and God's name misused around six times, sometimes with damn.
Sex and nudity
NoneNo sexual content. A married couple shares a bed and kisses.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
MildGerry accepts a beer from a family that shelters them. He gives a wounded soldier small bottles of liquor for pain and uses vodka to clean a wound. No drug use.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongSustained terror: panicked crowds overrun by sprinting zombies, a boy's parents killed as the family flees, an outbreak on a plane, and ash-covered corpses. Some characters take their own lives to avoid turning, and Gerry nearly does too.
Sensitive topics
- Suicide
- Death of a parent
Worth talking about
Gerry solves the crisis by noticing details and thinking it through, not by fighting harder. When has slowing down to think helped you more than acting fast?
On our lists
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Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, bbfc.co.uk, the MPA, movieguide.org, Wikipedia. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.