21 poster

21 (2008)

Film · 2h 3m · Rated PG-13

Crime, Drama

An earnest student enters a gritty, tense world of card counting to afford medical school.

Suspenseful. A full-attention watch at a brisk pace. Emotionally it is heavy. Based on a book.

Not on a US subscription service as of Oct 26, 2026.

21 parents guide

No surprises for a PG-13: some innuendo or implied sex and some strong language.

Our estimate: fine from about 13. Rated PG-13.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
Mild
Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is 21 about?

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

Bittersweet. It earns its ending, but not everyone gets what they want.

Cast and crew

Directed byRobert Luketic
StarringJim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts

More like 21

21 is on our True crime list.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Stressful.

Five more like 21

Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.

Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.