10 Most Intense PG-13 Movies, Ranked

Obviously, R-rated movies tend to be more intense than PG-13 ones. Basically, the former is a rating in the U.S. that is given to movies that should be watched by adults, and anyone under 17 needs an adult guardian. The latter rating is given to movies where parents are “strongly cautioned,” basically meaning that if someone is around the age of 13 or younger, they might well benefit from watching it with an adult.

That’s the quick way of defining both ratings, and they do indeed apply to the U.S., rather than globally, but lots of movies are made with the intention of fitting into one or the other rating. R-rated movies are generally more full-on, but some PG-13 movies are similarly intense, even if they’re not quite as in-your-face with their violence, sexual content, or otherwise adult-oriented stuff.

10

‘A Quiet Place’ (2018)

Lee Abbott (John Krasinski) leads Marcus (Noah Jupe) and Regan (Millicent Simmonds) through a wheat field at night in A Quiet Place

Image via Paramount Pictures

The premise of A Quiet Place is pretty great, since it’s about people trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world that’s populated with aliens that are all blind, but able to hunt through hearing. The stakes are established as being high pretty much right from the start, and A Quiet Place also does a great job at making you feel the horror that comes with any sort of sound being made.

It’s become a whole franchise since this movie came out, for better or worse, and maybe some of those follow-ups have been intense as well, but it’s a case of the first movie being the best. A Quiet Place doesn’t over-complicate things and it works as a genuinely quite scary science fiction movie, and all that’s enough. It’s sufficiently tense, in other words.

9

‘Casino Royale’ (2006)

The James Bond series is where it’s at, as far as spy movies go, generally speaking. There have been so many of them, and a decent number are good, even if a few are (perhaps infamously) not super intense. The Daniel Craig James Bond movies, though, do have a reputation for taking the series in a relatively dark direction, with Casino Royale kicking all that off, being the first James Bond movie that starred Craig and all.

It really works as a reboot, or a re-energizing of the franchise, since Daniel Craig was indeed a new James Bond (obviously), but also, this film served as an origin story for the character, in many ways. It’s a good starting point for anyone who’s somehow not seen a 007 movie before, besides the fact that this’ll possibly give you the impression that the series is a horrifically intense and violent (not to mention torture-filled) one. It’s only that sometimes. But it is that quite a lot in Casino Royale.

8

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War is a remarkably heavy blockbuster, among the grimmest of all time, so long as you ignore the events of Avengers: Endgame. Also, ignore the events of so many MCU movies and shows that came out post-Endgame, with the big old depressing ending here being expectedly reversed, but – in some capacity – bringing back Loki, Vision, Gamora, and… well, basically everyone who died except Heimdall.

It’s cheap. And Heimdall even had a cameo in the cursed abomination that was Thor: Love and Thunder. But it’s also the MCU. The two actors whose characters died in Endgame? One came back for a prequel, and the other is back as a new character. One character was bid farewell in Endgame but is back for Avengers: Doomsday. There’s no finality anymore, and little by way of stakes. But Infinity War convinced us there was, for a while. And it felt monumentally intense at the time, albeit not so much if you revisit it in 2026, with the knowledge of where the f**k the MCU has gone since.

7

‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ (2005)

Palpatine talking to Anakin in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Maybe the best of the Star Wars movies would be The Empire Strikes Back, and that’s famously considered the darkest one at times, but it’s also PG-rated, so it technically can’t be slotted in here. So, let’s go with Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Truth be told, this one’s bleaker than The Empire Strikes Back, though the darkness here might not be as surprising as how dark The Empire Strikes Back got, since Revenge of the Sith was, as a prequel, always going to have a tragic ending.

Revenge of the Sith goes hard as a tragedy, being a bit like a particularly overblown Shakespearean play (not one of the funny ones, either), but in spaaaaaace. It’s Anakin finally becoming Darth Vader, and all the seemingly good stuff about the Jedi Order coming to an end, too. And you know it’s always going to be that way, owing to how the first Star Wars movie begins, but it still hurts to see it all play out like that here.

6

’10 Cloverfield Lane’ (2016)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michele by a door, John Goodman as Howard on the other side, 10 Cloverfield Lane.

There was a big monster movie in 2008 called Cloverfield, and it was fine, and then it got a movie that might sound like a sequel (on paper) in 2016, with 10 Cloverfield Lane. It’s not a real sequel, though. If you’re after big monsters – or even creatures of any kind here – you might well be disappointed, but if you want a tense survival thriller of sorts, that is indeed what you get here.

Above anything else, 10 Cloverfield Lane is incredibly claustrophobic, taking place mostly inside a bunker with just three prominent characters, one of them holding the other two in said bunker purportedly for their own good. There’s constant uncertainty, though, and that leads to a good deal of anxiety, and hey presto, you’ve got yourself an incredibly intense movie, with only a little by way of violence that comes close to feeling beyond PG-13 territory.

5

‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)

Batman racing through the streets on a motorcycle in The Dark Knight (2008).

The Dark Knight is a relentless crime/action film that also works as a grand superhero movie; easily one of the best not just of the century so far, but of all time. You could describe the narrative without making it sound too exciting, seeing as it’s about Batman and the Joker and Gotham City and crime and moral questions and yada-yada-yada, but it’s all in the execution.

Those moral questions are particularly interesting, and this take on the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) is especially compelling. There are various other things in The Dark Knight, of course, that make it a pretty much perfect movie/blockbuster, which you’re likely aware of by now, but yeah, it really is all that good. Everyone knows that by now. And also widely known: The Dark Knight is one of the more violent/intense PG-13 movies ever made.

4

‘Captain Phillips’ (2013)

Tom Hanks being held at gunpoint by Somali pirates in Captain Phillips

Based on true events, Captain Phillips is about modern-day pirates hijacking an American cargo ship, and the ensuing hostage situation that followed. It was directed by Paul Greengrass, and the films he directed for the Bourne series that were rated PG-13 proved to be pretty intense, too, but Captain Phillips goes the extra mile on that front, with the whole true story angle being a pretty big reason for that.

You could almost call it too simple to sustain more than two hours’ worth of runtime, or you might before seeing how Captain Phillips executes the whole thing, because it really is all in the execution, and the acting. And some other things. It’s really good, and it sustains the feeling of being remarkably real/grounded without going too extreme with the content featured, even if the true story it’s based on was an eventually violent one.

3

‘Gravity’ (2013)

Dr. Stone is tangled in a parachute cord. She holds a broken tether as she watches her colleague float away in Gravity – 2013

It’s neat what Gravity does with such a simple premise, since it basically boils down to: “Hey, these people are trapped floating in space, not far away from the Earth, and they gotta get back down to the surface.” It’s like a disaster movie that’s sort of minimalist, given the short runtime and the very small number of characters, though on a production value front, Gravity is quite the blockbuster.

It’s a good mix of grand and intimate. Also, it’s extremely intense without being overly graphic, outside of one moment where you see the body of someone who died earlier in the movie (basically during the whole opening sequence). That part’s pretty gnarly for a PG-13 movie, but otherwise, Gravity works in a level of suspense that feels R-rated without actually having too much graphic violence or persistent profanity.

2

‘Titanic’ (1997)

Like Gravity, Titanic is also a disaster movie, but this one is considerably more of an epic in the traditional sense, made obvious, first and foremost, by the fact that it’s over three hours long. It pushes things as far as PG-13 movies go for sure, too, since it’s got quite a bit more by way of intense violence and sexually charged scenes that you’re likely to see in the vast majority of PG-13 movies.

Once the disaster part of Titanic kicks in (that iceberg does have to be collided with, after all), it’s relentless and honestly pretty stomach-churning.

It’s obviously not super intense before the halfway point, but when the disaster part of Titanic kicks in (that iceberg does have to be collided with, after all), it’s relentless and honestly pretty stomach-churning. James Cameron pushes things just far enough, and also does a good job of balancing the sentimental romance stuff with the more visceral survival/thriller/disaster parts of the film.

1

‘The Zone of Interest’ (2023)

Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss, Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss stand by a river bank in The Zone of Interest.

There are bleak movies released every year, but it feels like there was an especially high number of them released in 2023, for whatever reason. The Zone of Interest can count itself within such a group, seeing as it’s about the commandant of Auschwitz living, with his family, just outside the concentration camp, with all the horrors happening within earshot, but not actually seen on camera.

That approach is what prevents The Zone of Interest from having a higher rating, as you don’t see a great deal of confronting images directly. You just know that they’re happening, and you hear a great many disturbing things, and that ends up being almost as impactful as seeing the horrors… or, some might argue that hearing everything is just as bad as seeing it. The approach plays into the idea of the characters all ignoring the horrors playing out right next to them, and the film putting you into the same “zone” as them is ultimately horrifying and eye-opening (or ear-opening?).