PG-13 Movies With No Sex Scenes
PG-13 covers a lot of ground. The same rating sits on superhero films with one kiss and on teen comedies built around losing your virginity. If sex scenes are what you'd rather not navigate with a 12- to 15-year-old on the sofa, these are strong, rewatchable films where you won't be reaching for the remote.
The list is built from our parents' guide with one rule: rated PG-13, with a sex rating of none or mild. In practice that means kissing, innuendo or, in a couple of cases, brief nudity that isn't sexual, and each note says which. The useful distinction is that no sex scenes doesn't mean nothing to know. A Quiet Place has no swearing at all and is genuinely terrifying. Ford v Ferrari has more than 25 s-words and nothing scarier than its racing crashes. Knives Out turns on a suicide. Every note names the trade-off.
For the younger end, start with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Free Solo or Barbie. Leave The Dark Knight until about 14: nothing sexual, but the most sustained menace here. For more by age, see Movies for 13-Year-Olds and Movies for 15-Year-Olds. When your teen is ready for more, try R-Rated Movies That Are OK for Older Teens.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Movie · 2021The broadest pick here: Peter Parker's secret identity goes public, and villains from earlier Spider-Man films come pouring through the multiverse. Romance stays at kissing and one awkward safe-sex talk from Aunt May. The trade-off is a rough, bloody fight and the death of someone Peter loves, plus a few s-words and a cut-off f-word.
The Martian
Movie · 2015Matt Damon stranded on Mars, solving one problem at a time with science and sarcasm. The only nudity is a brief rear view of him naked and gaunt, showing his weight loss, not anything sexual. Otherwise expect a couple of f-words and about ten s-words, a bloody scene where he staples his own stomach shut, and long stretches of peril.
Knives Out
Movie · 2019A twisty whodunit that teens and parents can solve together, with Daniel Craig's detective unpicking a rich family's lies. Nothing sexual beyond crude talk. Know that the patriarch's death is a suicide with a knife to the throat, shown briefly, and that there are nearly 30 s-words, two f-words and a joint passed around.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Movie · 2016Taika Waititi's comedy about a city foster kid and his gruff foster father on the run in the New Zealand bush, with a national manhunt on their heels. There's no sexual content, only a false rumor, played for laughs, that Hec molested Ricky. What to know: a loving foster parent dies early, a boar fatally wounds a dog, and the swearing is moderate.
Free Solo
Movie · 2018The Oscar-winning documentary about Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan with no rope, and proof a film can be nerve-shredding with almost nothing to flag. He shares a bed and a house with his girlfriend, with nothing sexual shown. One f-word earns the rating. The stress is real, though: practice falls hurt him, and the film remembers climbers who died.
Godzilla Minus One
Movie · 2023A monster movie that's really about a former kamikaze pilot's guilt in ruined postwar Japan, and it won an Oscar for its effects. There's a slow, mostly unspoken romance and nothing sexual, and the language is mild. The trade-off is scale: people crushed, a city flattened by an atomic-style blast, and wartime grief throughout. Subtitled.
The Hate U Give
Movie · 2018A 16-year-old watches a police officer shoot her unarmed friend and has to decide whether to speak up. A drama made for parent-teen conversation. Romance stays at kissing, and Starr makes clear she isn't ready for sex. What else is here: the shooting itself, riots, gang threats and drug dealing, teen drinking at a party, an f-word or two and about two dozen s-words.
Barbie
Movie · 2023Greta Gerwig's comedy is sharper than the pink suggests, and the jokes land at different levels for parents and teens. No sex or nudity, just double entendres and gags about the dolls having no genitals. One f-word is bleeped, the violence is a brawl fought with plastic sports gear, and the Kens drink a lot of beer.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Movie · 2001Three hours of quest with no swearing at all, and romance limited to one kiss between Aragorn and Arwen. A bare-breasted statue appears briefly in the background, and that's it. What earns the PG-13 is battle, with orcs beheaded and a hero dying full of arrows, plus the shrieking Black Riders, who rattle sensitive viewers.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Movie · 2018The entry many fans rank highest in Tom Cruise's stunt-driven series: a helicopter chase, a cliff-edge finale and a bathroom brawl that wrecks the room. Romance is a single kiss. The PG-13 is for violence, harder-hitting than earlier films in the series, with stabbings and a man dragged off a cliff, plus one f-word and a nuclear nightmare.
Arrival
Movie · 2016A linguist tries to talk to aliens before the world's armies lose patience, in a quiet, cerebral film for patient teens. There's no sexual content at all and only one f-word. What lands hardest is grief: repeated scenes of the heroine's daughter falling ill and dying, ending at a hospital bedside.
Jojo Rabbit
Movie · 2019A 10-year-old in the Hitler Youth whose imaginary friend is a clownish Hitler, until he finds a Jewish girl hidden in his house. Satire that turns tender. There's a crush and a refused pity kiss, nothing more. The hard parts are hanged bodies in the town square, one of them a parent the boy recognizes, child soldiers, and one f-word.
Ford v Ferrari
Movie · 2019Matt Damon and Christian Bale build a Ford that can beat Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966. A sports film about stubbornness and friendship, and a natural pick for car-mad teens. Nothing sexual beyond a married couple flirting. Expect more than 25 s-words and an f-word, fiery crashes, and the death of a main character late on.
A Quiet Place
Movie · 2018John Krasinski's near-silent creature thriller, and a first real horror film for many teens: no swearing, no sex, no drinking. The family speaks in sign language, and Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf, plays the daughter. The cost is terror: a young child is killed in the opening minutes, a grieving stranger calls a creature to him on purpose, a parent dies later, and the suspense barely lets up.
Black Panther
Movie · 2018A Marvel film with real ideas about power and history, and Michael B. Jordan's villain has a point, which is why he lingers. Romance is a few kisses, with no sexual scenes. The PG-13 is for close, bloody ritual duels, a woman shot in the head, a boy finding his father's body and a wounded villain who chooses to die. Language is light: a handful of s-words.
The Half of It
Movie · 2020A shy, brainy girl ghostwrites love letters for a sweet jock to the girl she secretly likes herself. Alice Wu's take on Cyrano is gentle and thoughtful. Kissing only, including between two girls. The bigger thing to know is a party where Ellie gets drunk and throws up; swearing is light, with a single s-word.
Dune (2021)
Movie · 2021Denis Villeneuve's desert epic, covering the first half of the novel, for teens who can settle in for two and a half hours. No sex: Paul's parents are seen clothed in bed, and the villain's bare body is shown briefly, not sexually. Battles are big and brutal but mostly bloodless, soldiers threaten to rape a captive, and a parent dies.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Movie · 2023A fantasy heist comedy that works whether or not anyone in the room has rolled a die. Chris Pine's bard leads a crew of misfits, and Hugh Grant plays a smirking con man. Sexual content is a married couple cuddling in flashback and a cellmate's sleazy pass that gets him beaten. Fights kill many, mostly bloodlessly, flashbacks reveal the hero's wife was murdered, and there are a few s-words.
Jurassic Park
Movie · 1993More than thirty years on, still the film that turns kids into movie fans: Spielberg's dinosaurs break loose with two children inside the park. Nothing sexual beyond flirting and a bikini screensaver, and only one s-word. The trade-off is sustained terror: the T. rex crushing a car with the kids in it, raptors in the kitchen, and a severed arm.
Dunkirk
Movie · 2017Christopher Nolan's account of the 1940 evacuation, told by land, sea and air with barely any dialogue. There's no romance or sexual content of any kind. What it has is relentless dread: men drowning in sinking ships, a teenage helper's death, and a soldier who walks into the sea, apparently to end his life. At least two f-words, little blood.
Inception
Movie · 2010Christopher Nolan's dream-heist puzzle, the kind of film teens argue about on the way home. No sex or nudity, just one brief kiss, and the language is unusually mild for an action film. What to know: near-constant gunfights, mostly bloodless, and the hero's late wife, whose suicide is shown and drives the plot.
Thirteen Lives
Movie · 2022Ron Howard's version of the 2018 Thai cave rescue, with Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as two of the British divers. Knowing the boys survive helps through the long, claustrophobic stretches. No sex and no romance. A volunteer diver dies on screen, the boys are sedated for the dive out, and there are a couple of f-words.
The Dark Knight
Movie · 2008The superhero film that plays like a crime thriller, with Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning Joker. Nothing sexual beyond kisses and a hinted tryst, and the language is mild, with no f-words or s-words. The issue is menace: a pencil killing, a man set on fire, a gun to a boy's head and a half-burned face. Better from about 14.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Movie · 1986The 1986 skip-day comedy parents can quote and teens still find funny. Sex stays at making out, a racy candygram and a nude drawing on a computer screen, the one bit of nudity. Language is the bigger issue, with frequent s-words and one f-word. The violence is slapstick, and Cameron's cold father gives it a sad edge.
Interstellar
Movie · 2014Nearly three hours of space, time and a father's promise to his daughter, for teens who love big science. Nothing sexual beyond a celebratory kiss. The peril is intense but bloodless, including one astronaut trying to kill another, and the family grief hits hard. Language is one f-word and a few s-words.
Still can't decide? Let us pick →
More lists like this
The Best Movies for 13-Year-Olds
Twenty-five movies a 13-year-old will actually want to watch, each checked against our parents' guide.
24 picksMovies for 15-Year-Olds
More grown-up picks for mid-teens, from The Dark Knight to Everything Everywhere, with what each one contains.
21 picksR-Rated Movies That Are OK for Older Teens
Great R-rated films for 15- and 16-year-olds, with exactly what earned each R and what isn't in it.
21 picksShows to Watch With Your Teen
Series a parent and a 12- to 15-year-old can both enjoy, from The Good Place to Arcane, with what to know on each.
21 picksComing-of-Age Movies for Teens and Parents
Films about growing up that a teen and a parent can watch together, from CODA to Stand by Me.
Picks are editorial recommendations. Streaming availability changes by region and over time — the “where to stream” links check current availability on JustWatch.