Skimpily clad women are seen dancing at a rave party.

A scene takes place in an outdoor night club (topless pole dancer briefly shown). This is in the middle of a action sequence so it's a blink and you miss it. Only one dancer is shown

The movie's general theme is violence: Drug dealers control the slums of Rio with an iron fist, prompting an ever increasingly violent police response.

Several police officers as well as a large number of drug dealers are shot to injury or death; BOPE officers (the protagonists) kill corrupt police officers without distinction. Civilians are regularly caught in between.

Some BOPE recruits suspected of corruption are verbally and physically abused in order to make them quit.

When interrogating criminals or suspected criminals, police officers will regularly use strong language and some form of torture: One suspect is almost made suffocate on a plastic bag, another is threatened that he'd be sodomized with a broom stick.

The movie's main antagonist murders a couple of lovers whom he thinks betrayed him: The woman is shot in the head, her boyfried is "necklaced" (he is put in a stack of gasoline-soaked tyres and burnt alive).

Strong language is a regular occurence. Lots of verbal abuse is hurled at both police recruits and arrested suspects.

Marihuana and cocaine consumption is a regular occurence throughout the movie. Drug dealers and students do drugs often. A student is caught peddling marihuana on the university campus.

The movie follows the main protagonist's inner decline. Influenced by the things he's seen and done, he developss an anxiety disorder and becomes estranged from his wife.

Some viewers will find the torture scenes uneasy to watch, especially when a juvenile criminal is involved.

Innocent bystanders are sometimes caught in the crossfire.

The sequence where the main antagonist executes two students whom he thinks betrayed him is most uneasy to watch. The woman is shot to death in full sight of her boyfriend. A moment later he is burnt alive. His screams of agony are met with the drug dealers' glee (perhaps the most shocking aspect of the whole scene).

Conclusion: Not for the faint of heart.