Ghost in the Shell (2017) Parent Guide

Ghost In The Shell is a live-action (although a lot of the movie is bathed in CGI effects) retelling of a 1995 Japanese anime that every Ghost fan must see, or they will be out of the club. In my case, I’m so far out of the club, I don’t even know where the parking lot is. Instead I approach this film with the expectations of seeing a Blade Runner-esque story about a woman who can’t be killed.

Expectations met.

Scarlett Johansson plays The Major, a fully robotic female fighting machine with only one human characteristic: her brain. In the opening scene we learn about the Hanka Corporation, which is in the business of developing a robot that houses human wisdom inside a mechanically perfected body. The Major is their first such success, and a year after her “birth”, the fembot is assigned to be a member of the local police force in New Port City.

Her buddy cop is Batou (Pilou Asbaek), a guy who is still mostly human but has had various “enhancements”—a term tossed around in this society meaning you have had work done to replace malfunctioning human parts. The ham-fisted government, over which Hanka Corp has great sway, gives the duo plenty of opportunity to carry out raids. But when The Major comes into the realm of an elusive cyber-terrorist (Michael Pitt), she discovers there is more to her past than her single year of memories.

From this point the protagonist’s mission switches from a crime fighter to a personal quest to discover who she really is and what secrets are veiled inside her human mind.

Heavy on action and relatively light on new story ideas and surprises, this US PG-13 rated film trades sexual content and profanity in order to include more violent scenarios. The lack of sexual activity may seem surprising if you’ve seen the trailers that show Johansson taking on bad guys wearing what appears to be nothing at all. Her robot birthday suit, while form fitting, lacks any anatomical details making it not much different than if she were wearing ballet-style body tights. And, in case you’re wondering, it offers the functional ability of near invisibility for short periods.

More concerning for parents should be the many combat interactions that result in faces, limbs and other body parts being disintegrated and/or blasted away. What saves Ghost from a more restrictive rating is the clear majority of the destruction involves mechanical beings who are either repaired or traded in for replacements. They also don’t bleed. Yet, for young viewers, this won’t make the carnage any less bothersome. You will also hear a handful of mild and moderate profanities along with seeing a raised middle finger. A character smokes a cigarette on at least two occasions as well.

The takeaway warning here is no matter how advanced the technology, artificial intelligence requires a human component—in this case the biological brain within the robot that becomes the ghost in the shell. With major corporations feverishly working to bring AI (Artificial Intelligence) to reality on our highways and in many other aspects of our lives, Ghost in the Shell opens an opportunity for after-movie discussions. However, parents may want to seek other less violent options (Tron, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bicentennial Man) that preach a similar concern.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.