Content and Trigger Warning Guide: Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood

Note: This guide may contain spoilers.

Synopsis: A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles. (Source: IMDb)

MPAA Rating: R

Estimated Self-Censored Rating Using Full Guide: R (The film is still full of profanity)

Watch On: Amazon, Starz

Content Warnings

• Graphic Violence/Blood (3)
  • 00:07:34-00:08:50 In clips from a Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) film we see Nazis shot and burned alive with a flamethrower. They run around while on fire. 
  • 01:50:23-01:51:58 Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) punches a hippie 3 times. Blood is coming out of his mouth and nose. The hippie is forced to change a tire he slashed with his face covered in blood.
  • 02:23:26-02:29:53 Tex (Austin Butler) kicks in Rick’s front door with Katie (Madisen Beaty). Sadie (Mikey Madison) comes in a side entrance. The women are armed with knives while Tex has a gun. Brandi, Cliff’s dog, bites Tex’s arm and makes him drop the gun. Tex repeatedly punches Brandi. Sadie charges at Cliff and he throws a can of dog food at her face. She bleeds from her nose. Brandi switches to biting Tex’s leg, then proceeds to bite his genitals. Cliff then sics Brandi on the bleeding Sadie. Tex tries to stab Cliff, but it is blocked, and the knife ends up in his own leg. Cliff knocks Tex down and breaks his nose. Francesca (Lorenza Izzo) punches Katie. Cliff stops Tex’s head in on the front door threshold. Tex’s head basically explodes under Cliff’s boot. Brandi bites Sadie’s genitals. Katie tackles Cliff and stabs him in the hip. Cliff grabs Katie by the hair and repeatedly slams her face first into the telephone, Rick’s movie posters, the wall, the mantel, and the coffee table leaving blood stains everywhere. Her face is so bashed in that it doesn’t even look like a face anymore. Cliff passes out while Sadie grabs the gun and runs outside to the backyard covered in blood and screaming. She goes through the glass door. Her face is shown covered in blood with glass sticking out of her cheek. She falls into the pool and is freaking out. Rick gets his flamethrower and burns Sadie to death in his pool. She freaks out while on fire before dying. Cliff’s hip is shown bleeding. Sadie is shown completely burnt floating in the pool. 

Trigger Warnings

• Domestic Violence (1)
  • 00:42:58-00:43:28 There is a flashback within a flashback that implies Cliff may have murdered his wife at sea with a harpoon gun. 

• Racist Stereotypes (1)
  • 00:40:53-00:49:54 A flashback is shown of Cliff Booth on the set of the Green Hornet television series. He has a confrontation with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh). Lee is presented as a stereotypical arrogant martial artist, including making the stereotypical noises associated with kung fu and Bruce Lee movies. He is not presented as a realistically complex person.

• Slurs (2)
  • Beaner (2)
  • Cocksucker (1)

This guide was completed by Robby Moore, a film lover/critic in Pleasant Grove, Utah.