What is Midnight Special about?
A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
It leaves the ending open to interpretation.
A father and son race across the South, their intimate bond tested by the boy's mysterious powers.
Suspenseful and earnest. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.
Not on a US subscription service as of Oct 28, 2026.
Midnight Special parents guide
It stays inside its PG-13, with no sex or nudity and mild language.
Our estimate: fine from about 13. Rated PG-13.
- Scare
- Mildly scary
- A few tense or eerie moments.
- Jump scares
- A couple
- One or two sudden jolts.
- Gore
- No gore
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- None noted
- Language
- Mild
- Mild words like damn, hell or crap.
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.
Three questions
- Is Midnight Special scary?
- Only a little. Midnight Special has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
- How gory is Midnight Special?
- No gore and strong violence.
- What is Midnight Special rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Rated PG-13. Expect strong violence, so it suits teens more than kids.
Cast and crew
Directed byJeff Nichols
StarringMichael Shannon, Jaeden Martell, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, David Jensen
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More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
Lists with the same feel: Late night.
Five more like Midnight Special
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.