What You Should Know Before Seeing the New Pirates of the Caribbean With Kids

By Alessia Santoro
Everett Collection
Everett Collection

Whether you've seen all or none of the movies in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the latest and fifth installment, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was worth seeing on its own. However, before taking your kids along to the theater, there are a few things you should know about the hilarious and action-packed PG-13 film.

Ahead, a few light spoilers and everything you should know before heading out for a family movie day.

  1. It has its usual share of violence and weapons. As with the last four installments, some of the best scenes are those in which Captain Jack and his friends are in peril (it happens a lot in this one!), or when the bad guys and good guys are duking it out. There are plenty of sword fights, gun fights, cannon fights (all of the fights), as well as a scene where Jack is about to be beheaded by a guillotine while another character only just gets saved from hanging.
  2. The crazy-angry bad guys are truly scary (and a little gross). The villains in this one, Captain Salazar and his ghost crew, are majorly creepy (see above). Along with their ship, which turns itself into a giant mouth of sorts to destroy all other sailing ships, and their dead shark "pets," the sailors are completely terrifying, especially at first. They're usually seen in darker scenes, which makes their interesting burn-like injuries look even worse, and they're pretty mean, so there isn't much comic relief to alleviate the horrifying bits of the film they're in (like with past villains).
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  1. There's a witch with crazy scars all over her body (who scared the crap out of me). I'm no baby, but I don't love gross and scary things, especially paired together. There's a witch character in the film who appears for a total of maybe five minutes, but it looks like someone literally tried to cut her up with a thin knife while spinning her in a circular motion. She also has an eery voice that gave me, a 27-year-old, goosebumps, so I have a feeling kids might be a little creeped out by her in general.
  2. There are several sexual references. Although most of it might go over a younger kid's head, there was some talking and joking about prostitution, and plenty of subtle — and not-so-subtle — sexual references usually coming from, you guessed it, Captain Jack Sparrow.