Sexy Movie Scenes

Sexy Movie Scenes

Christopher is a Southern California-based editor and has been with InStyle since 2018. He covers all things entertainment, celebrity, and culture.

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From Fifty Shades to Eyes Wide Shut , when movies go there with sex, it makes for plenty to talk about. From uproar over explicit content to the fine line between being rated R and the ever-elusive NC-17, movies are always trying to find a sweet spot between showing too much and expressing the artistic vision — and shock — that can come with a steamy sex scene.

According to Esquire , one of the very first movies to be screened for the public was 1896's The Kiss , which featured a full-on kiss and shocked the prim and proper 19th-century mindset. Moviegoers have come a long way since then, especially with the movies on this list, which range from full-on explicit to laugh-out-loud disbelief. With names Amy Schumer involved alongside Tom Cruise, it's no surprise that there really is something for everyone.

One of the '90s most eyebrow-raising movie moments happened when threesomes became part of normal conversation thanks to Denise Richards, Matt Dillon, and Neve Campbell looking to shed their glossy teen-movie personas.

According to Esquire , this unforgettable scene, which involved Jack Reynor, Isabelle Grill, and just about a million extras, took two weeks to film.

Say what you want about the not-so-vanilla scenes in this much-maligned movie series, the steamy, softcore BDSM sequences between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan got people talking.

For another take on BDSM, viewers can check out this cult-favorite 2002 film starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. Gyllenhaal sauntered in her stockings and heels so Dakota Johnson could bring BDSM to the mainstream.

It's hard to believe that Showgirls is rated NC-17. It does, however, have the honor of being the highest-grossing movie with that rating. Elizabeth Berkley and Kyle MacLachlan star in everyone's favorite worst movie, which comes with a laughable sex scene for good measure.

While not exactly arousing, the gold medal-worthy sex scene between Sebastian Stan and The Big Bang Theory 's Melissa Rauch can best be described as "athletic." It's as far from a CBS sitcom as you can get.

Another scene that was meant to get laughs, John Cena and Amy Schumer reportedly ad-libbed the whole thing for a cringe-worthy moment that involves "there's no I in team," "just do it," and even phrases in Mandarin Chinese.

The sequel? Really? Even though the first Basic Instinct has some iconic film moments, the second installment included masturbation, an orgy, and a threesome. The threeway had to be cut so the film could avoid a NC-17 rating.

If viewers are looking for laughs alongside the love scenes, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder deliver more on the former than the latter in this rom-com.

What's more iconic? Tom Cruise's underwear-clad dance sequence, his Ray-Bans, or the train scene with Rebecca De Mornay?

Of course, Cruise had to be on the list twice. Who could forget this Stanley Kubric classic? Co-starring his then-wife Nicole Kidman, the couple was reportedly pushed to their limits during the production. They'd eventually divorce in 2001.

There's more than one unforgettable scene in this movie, but the scene-stealer in every single one might be Mark Wahlberg's enthusiasm — and his prosthetic penis, which was originally a foot long and had to be shortened because it looked too ridiculous.

Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman's on-screen tension comes to a head in one of the award-winning movie's most memorable scenes.

The movie that launched a million peach memes (and Timothée Chalamet's career) had more than a few steamy scenes.

OK, while this isn't technically a sex scene, it's an informative educational moment that brings the laughs no matter how many times people have seen it.

There are sex scenes, and then there are sexy scenes. We all know what we're gonna get in a sex scene, but what's great (honestly, even better) about a sexy movie scene is that it can be almost anything. You might witness a sultry song performed by a paragon of sexuality like Marilyn Monroe and David Bowie —or there may be no dialogue at all, like the wordless listening-booth scene in Before Sunrise . People disrobe (to a degree) in sexy scenes, sure, but amid the expected kisses and classic seductions (here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson!), they might also throw pottery, learn to whistle, play paintball or even do something as G-rated as take off a... glove.
A truly sexy movie moment transcends time, so for our selection of sexiest scenes ever, you'll find everything from a 1932 bubble bath to a 2019 pole dance. Whatever your genre or sexual preferences, if you’re looking for some Valentine’s Day viewing, there’s bound to be something here to get your heart racing.
(Note: We didn’t include foreign language films this time around, but that’s not an indictment of their sexiness. Quite the contrary: If we looped in the films of Sweden, France, and Hong Kong, not to mention India, South Korea, and Mexico, there is no way this list could be contained to a mere 50 films.)
Without further ado, here are our picks for the 50 sexiest movie scenes of all time.
Related: The Best Outlander Love Scenes to Ever Steam Up Your Small Screen—Caution, NSFW!
As the raw, rugged Stanley Kowalski, Marlon Brando makes his entrance in a sweat-stained T-shirt—which he immediately changes in full view of his Southern-belle sister-in-law, Blanche Dubois ( Vivian Leigh ). It’s a jolt to Belle’s fragile sensibilities, and a different kind of jolt to an audience experiencing young Brando’s raw magnetism for the first time.
Playing the sexiest handyman in film history, Gina Gershon (as ex-con Corky) is hired by bored housewife Violet ( Jennifer Tilly ) for a plumbing job that turns out to be a blatant seduction. Violet recognizes Corky’s lesbian-coded arm tattoo, and shows off her own ink—which requires pulling down her bra strap.
The sexual chemistry between Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney is off the charts in this Steven Soderbergh thriller, in which the two A-listers respectively play a U.S. Marshal and a bank robber who becomes enthralled with one another when she tries to take down his operation. Before the big heist, they meet at a hotel bar and she proposes a “time out” from their roles. The heated conversation is intercut with a playful scene of the couple taking off their clothes for one another, then falling into bed.
“Take off your panties,” mysterious billionaire Christian Grey ( Jamie Dornan ) tells publishing assistant Anastasia ( Dakota Johnson ) over dinner. Then, as they squeeze into a crowded elevator to get to his hotel room, he puts his hand up her skirt, bringing her perilously close to orgasm as the rest of the elevator’s occupants remain oblivious. It’s not the most explicit sex scene in the Fifty Shades trilogy, but it shows how Ana and Christian’s S&M dynamic can sizzle in any situation.
In what would become the first film of Richard Linklater ’s decades-spanning trilogy, a directionless American ( Ethan Hawke ) and a French student ( Julie Delpy ) engage in a whirlwind romance over the course of a single night in Vienna. They spend most of that time in deep conversation, but are silent during the film’s most electric moment: crammed in a tiny listening booth at a record store, listening to a love song (“Come Here” by Kath Bloom ), the strangers blush and avoid eye contact in the way that people only do when they’re secretly dying to kiss.
With the Germans invading outside the café window, lovers Rick ( Humphrey Bogart ) and Ilsa ( Ingrid Bergman ) top off a whirlwind Paris romance with one last drink. Rick believes this is just the beginning; Ilsa knows it’s the end. “Kiss me,” she begs. “Kiss me as if it were the last time.”And he does.
Titanic passenger Rose ( Kate Winslet ) raises the heat on her flirtation with lower-class artist Jack ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) asking him to sketch her, gazing directly into his eyes as she models her heart-shaped necklace (and nothing else).
It may not be as iconic as Monroe standing above a subway grate in The Seven Year Itch , but no moment captures the actress’s playful sex appeal better than her performance of “I Wanna Be Loved By You” in Billy Wilder ’s gender-bending comedy. Monroe, playing unlucky-in-love chanteuse Sugar Kane, croons the song wearing a slinky gown with a sheer, strategically sequined bodice. The spotlight dancing over her famous bust creates a shocking nude illusion, while her winking performance makes it clear that she’s in on the fun.
Before he becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts, fairytale dreamboat Wesley ( Cary Elwes ) is a simple farm boy—who answers every request by Buttercup ( Robin Wright ) with three simple words and a gaze that would make any maiden swoon.
It takes first-time actress Lauren Bacall all of 90 seconds to melt the formidable Bogart into a puddle, in their most famous scene from Howard Hawks ’ wartime drama. After surprising him with a kiss, she suggests that if he needs her again, he should whistle: “You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.” That chemistry led to real- life sparks; the couple married a year later, despite the 25-year age difference, and remained together until Bogart’s death.
We all know that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie fell in love making this sly spy comedy (while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston ), and their taboo sexual tension is palpable. The best example is the tango scene, in which Pitt’s character knows that his wife (Jolie) is trying to kill him. The sexy secret agents grope and embrace on the dance floor, searching one another for weapons while breathlessly confessing long-held secrets.
Anyone who’s lived in an American city can tell you that having sex on public transportation is a thoroughly unappealing prospect. However, it looks like the hottest thing ever when Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay go at it on a late-night Chicago train ride in Cruise’s breakout blockbuster.
No one has ever been as flustered by a woman’s advances as Benjamin Braddock ( Dustin Hoffman ), who sputters, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me!” when his father’s friend’s wife ( Anne Bancroft ) makes her move. But can you blame him? Bancroft is so cucumber-cool in this scene, playing her young suitor like a harmonica as she casually elevates her miniskirt-clad leg—leading to the famous shot of Hoffman framed by Bancroft’s bent knee.
Years after a teenage sexual enounter that was secretly meaningful for them both, Miami diner waiter Kevin ( André Holland ) calls Atlanta drug dealer Chiron ( Trevante Rhodes ), asking if he’ll come visit him at work. At the diner, Kevin plays the song that made him think of Chiron: Barbara Lewis ’ dreamy “Hello Stranger.” Though sensitive Chiron has spent his life building a tough façade, the two men look into each other’s eyes, and everything between them crackles to the surface.
There are plenty of delicious moments in this schlocky, Dangerous Liaisons- inspired teen romance, but none so enticing as when prep school nightmare Katherine ( Sarah Michelle Gellar ) dictates the terms of a fateful wager with her stepbrother ( Ryan Phillippe ). If he fails to seduce the headmaster’s virgin daughter, she gets his vintage car; if he succeeds, she’ll let him have the one thing in his life that’s off-limits: her.
While sitting in the lap of wheelchair-bound photographer L.B. Jefferies ( James Stewart ), fashion magazine editor Lisa Fremont ( Grace Kelly ) casually announces that she’s staying the night—and reveals that her bag contains nothing but a filmy nightgown and slippers.
On their road trip to escape the men who have abused and neglected them, Thelma ( Geena Davis ) and Louise ( Susan Sarandon ) encounter a charming hitchhiker ( Pitt ) who confesses to being a robber. After rocking Thelma’s world in a motel bed, he gives a little demonstration on respectful outlaw techniques, wearing only unbuttoned jeans and a cowboy hat. When he ends up taking the ladies' money, Thelma still considers it a good trade.
“There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour.” “How fast was I going, officer?” So begins one of the steamiest bits of banter ever committed to film, between Barbara Stanwyck (as scheming housewife Phyllis Dietrichson) and Fred MacMurray (as smitten insurance agent Walter Neff) in this noir classic.
When Lee Holloway ( Maggie Gyllenhaal ) takes a job as a secretary for lawyer E. Edward Grey ( James Spader ), she is trying to escape her overbearing family and establish some independence after a stay in a mental hospital. Instead, she finds a thrilling BDSM romance. The scene in which Grey instructs her to bend over his desk, spanking her for every mistake in a letter she typed, would be a straightforward H.R. nightmare in real life. In Secretary, we watch Lee discover a deep desire to be dominated, and see two lonely people start to realize that they might be sexual soulmates.
Cecil B. DeMille ’s melodrama about the fall of Rome scandalized Depression-era audiences with scenes of orgies, same-sex flirtations and Christians being mauled by lions and elephants. Most of this seems a little silly now, but Claudette Colbert still sizzles as Nero’s wicked wife Poppaea—particularly her opening scene, bathing topless in a marble bath full of milk with kittens lapping at the edges.
Nick Cassavetes ’ romantic drama follows the lifelong romance between Noah ( Ryan Gosling ) and Allie ( Rachel McAdams ), beginning in 1940. In the young lovers’ pivotal scene, Allie, who believes that Noah forgot her after their teenage fling, learns that he wrote to her every day for a year—even though she never got the letters. “It wasn’t over,” he tells her, in the pouring rain. “It still isn’t over.” Kissing her, Noah carries Allie into the house they dreamed of living in together when they were seven years old. Swoon.
Chess is the ultimate game of the mind—unless you’re Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway , in which case it’s a full-body sport. In Norman Jewison ’s neo-noir, Faye’s investigator challenges McQueen’s suave criminal to a match, during which she subtlety fondles herself and the chess pieces. It’s clear from the start that he hasn’t got a chance at winning—but in a bigger sense, they both win.
A drama about American soldiers and their wives stationed in Hawaii before the Pearl Harbor attack, Fred Zinnemann ’s Best Picture winner feels surprisingly contemporary—and contains the enduringly hot scene in which Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr roll around in the Oahu surf, carrying out their illicit affair.
In this sixties-set romance, Catskills resort dancer Johnny ( Patrick Swayze ) has only a few days to teach uncoordinated guest Baby ( Jennifer Grey ) his sexy ballroom routine. He starts out by placing his hand on his heart to teach rhythm, and through a classic eighties montage set to “Hungry Eyes,” their awkward steps begin to sync, their clothes become skimpier in the summer heat, and the sexual tension crackles.
Working late in the office, Florida Keys police chief Matt Lee Whitlock ( Denzel Washington ) receives a call from a woman, Ann ( Sanaa Lathan ), reporting a break-in. When he arrives, she describes the perp: “He kind of looked like you.” “So he was good-looking?” asks Whitlock. “No,” she replies, straight-faced. The scene gets uncomfortable as Ann describes the criminal assaulting her—until it becomes apparent that there was no break-in, these two already know each other, and the whole thing is a role-play leading to a very steamy hookup.
About to enter a marriage of convenience, Italian Brooklynite Lorraine ( Cher ) attempts to reconcile the relationship between her fiancé and his estranged brother Ronny ( Nicolas Cage ). Instead, they have a heated argument—which ends with Ronny knocking over the table and pulling Lorraine into a kiss. “Wait a minute, wait a minute!” the level-headed Lorraine cries, then leaps back into his arms, and into his bed.
Young Paul Newman is hotter than a burning barn in this Mississippi-set drama, playing a drifter who entangles himself in a small town’s affairs. When he makes his move on the local plantation owner’s daughter ( Joanne Woodward, who he married the same year Long Hot Summer was released), murmuring, “I’ll show you how simple it is—you please me and I’ll please you,” it’s easy to see the chemistry that charged the actors’ lifelong romance.
In this screwball comedy, uptight heiress Ellie Andrews ( Claudette Colbert ) goes on an unlikely road trip with down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter Peter Warne ( Clark Gable ). The strangers end up crammed in a motel room, and when it’s time to undress for bed, Peter makes a show of it, teasingly removing one item at a time. Ellie, on the other hand, modestly hides behind the room’s improvised blanket divider, tossing her stockings over the top. Gable’s little striptease is sexy, but Colbert’s implied nudity somehow tops it.
Bowie’s presence as the spandex-clad Goblin King dominates Jim Henson ’s fantasy film, not to mention plenty of other fantasies. His most seductive moment occurs during the ballroom sequence, a fever dream created to trap heroine Sarah ( Jennifer Connelly ) in her own imagination. The beguiling villain spies her across the room and slowly lowers his mask, then holds eye contact as he muscles through the crowd and into her arms.
There’s a specific kind of energy around most early sexual experiences; they’re enthusiastic, shy, clumsy, overwhelming. The first hookup between teenager Elio ( Timothee Chalamet ) and grad student Oliver ( Armie Hammer ) captures it all. A nervous Elio throws himself at the older man, literally, trying to touch as much of him as possible. Then he gets embarrassed and they sit side-by-side, touching only their bare feet. Then things progress, and their post-coital conversation includes the role-playing dialogue that gives the film its title.
Despite a clear attraction, Princess Leia ( Carrie Fisher ) spends the first two and a half Star Wars movies fending off the advances of “scoundrel “ Han Solo ( Harrison Ford ), not least of all because “nice guy” Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill ) seems like a safer option. (Look, she didn’t know he was her brother, okay? It was a different time!) But everything becomes clear when Han is forced to undergo the life-threatening procedure of carbonite freezing. As he walks to his potential death, they both go in for one last passionate kiss, and she finally admits she loves him. “I know,” he replies—and then goes under.
The lifelong friendship between neighbors Monica (Lathan) and Quincy ( Omar Epps ) turns romantic their senior year of high school, when the two realize they’d rather be with each other than their spring dance dates. Consummating the relationship in Monica’s bedroom, they keep up the chemistry and communication they learned playing one-on-one basketball games. It’s a first-time scene as sweet as it is sensual.
In Jamie Babbit ’s satirical teen comedy, popular cheerleader Megan ( Natasha Lyonne ) is blindsided when her parents, suspecting she’s gay, send her up for a conversion therapy camp. Once there, she finds herself bonding with a fellow camper, unapologetic lesbian Graham ( Clea Duvall ). When they finally hook up, it’s slow, tentative, tender, and entirely without shame.
Anyone who thinks communication and consent aren’t sexy should be required to watch this steamy Boogie Nights scene, in
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Sexy Movie Scenes

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