70 of the Hottest Movie Sex Scenes Ever Filmed
On-screen erotica comes in many forms.
Do you remember the first time you were sexually excited by an image on a screen? (We do!) (Here too!) It might've been a music video to a teen-pop bop, or a particularly mushy episode of Buffy. Most likely, it was a movie of the PG-13 persuasion, which you snuck a viewing of far from the eyes of your parents when you were nowhere near the age of 13. Looking back, those scenes were cute. Harmless. Nowhere near the sex scenes you've seen in movies since you branched out into the R-rated category and beyond.
Sex scenes are nearly as old as movies themselves. In fact, one of the first films to be screened for the public debuted in 1896 and was called The Kiss. It was quite steamy for its time, featuring a full-on brushing of the lips, which, let us tell you, really riled up the modest-minded folks of the late 19th century. But these days, a movie sex scene has to accomplish a lot more to be memorable—especially when we've been so impressed by the earth-shattering sex scenes appearing in television shows of late (see: Normal People, I Am a Virgo, and Sex/Life). It has to be downright crazy.
"Crazy" can be broadly interpreted in the realm of onscreen sex. There's the hot stuff that begs for repeated watchings. There are downright hilarious sexual interactions that involve comedic timing, musical numbers, awkward improv, and/or puppets. There are scenes from horror movies that make us recoil in disgust, and boundary-pushing vignettes that inspire a trove of thought pieces. There's most of what Micky Rourke touched in the '80s. Here's a selection of 70 such movie sex scenes, from the classics to recent releases, each one seemingly steamier than the next.
Bound
Released: 1996
Directed by: The Wachowskis
Actors: Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon
Fun fact: Writer and sex educator Susie Bright choreographed the sex scenes.
Ghost
Released: 1990
Directed by: Jerry Zucker
Actors: Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore
Fun fact: The film inspired a musical stage version, Ghost: The Musical, where the two sing during the famous pottery scene.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Released: 2021
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Actors: Andra Day and Trevante Rhodes
Fun fact: The premise that Bilie Holliday was stopped from performing Strange Fruit by Philadelphia police is actually hotly debated by jazz historians who say it never happened.
Chloe
Released: 2009
Directed by: Atom Egoyan
Actors: Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, and Liam Neeson
Fun fact: Just a few days after the death of Liam Neeson's wife, the actor returned to the set and filmed the remainder of his scenes in just two days.
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Brokeback Mountain
Released: 2005
Directed by: Ang Lee
Actors: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
Fun fact: With Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee helped put LGBTQ+ stories into the mainstream, and the film won three out of its eight Oscar nominations.
Jolt
Released: 2021
Directed by: Tanya Wexler
Actors: Kate Beckinsale and Jai Courtney
Fun fact: Benckinsale's character in the film suffers from intermittent explosive disorder, which is enhanced by jolts of electricity that give her superpowers.
Carol
Released: 2015
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Actors: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara
Fun fact: Director Todd Haynes described the filming of the sex scene as "very much like shooting a musical number." Sure!
The Last Temptation of Christ
Released: 1988
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Actors: Willem Dafoe and Barbara Hershey
Fun fact: Audiences lost their minds when Jesus had sex with Mary Magdalene and fathered a child, but the film ultimately got away with it because it was technically during a hallucination that occurs as Jesus is nailed to the cross.
Do the Right Thing
Released: 1989
Directed by: Spike Lee
Actors: Spike Lee and Rosie Perez
Fun fact: Rosie Perez's dance sequence at the beginning of the film to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” took over eight hours to film.
Moonlight
Released: 2016
Directed by: Barry Jenkins
Actors: Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome
Fun fact: It was the first time either actor had ever filmed a sex scene, and the film almost lost Best Picture at the Oscars to La La Land simply because presenter Faye Dunaway was given Emma Stone's Best Actress card to read by mistake.
God's Own Country
Released: 2017
Directed by: Francis Lee
Actors: Josh O'Connor and Alec Secăreanu
Fun fact: O'Connor and Secăreanu worked on a farm for weeks to learn how to handle farm chores and animals...and presumably, how to roll around in the mud.
Titane
Released: 2021
Directed by: Julia Ducournau
Actors: Agathe Rousselle and a Cadillac
Fun fact: In all 11 drafts Ducournau wrote for Titane, the sex scene between Rousselle and a classic muscle car remained the same in each version of the script.
White Tiger
Released: 2021
Directed by: Ramin Bahrani
Actors: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rajkummar Rao, and Adarsh Gourav
Fun fact: Chopra Jonas is so famous in India that to facilitate the film's shooting, most of her scenes (much like this voyeuristic one) take place inside a car instead of out in public settings.
Blue Valentine
Released: 2010
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Actors: Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling
Fun fact: This film was originally slapped with an NC-17 rating because of its realistic oral sex scene, giving some interesting insight into how female pleasure on screen is critiqued. Gosling's response: “You shouldn’t be penalized for doing a good job.”
Teeth
Released: 2007
Directed by: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Actor: Jess Weixler
Fun fact: This film, about a woman whose vagina bares teeth to horrifying mid-sex results, has a shocking 80 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Atonement
Released: 2007
Directed by: Joe Wright
Actors: Keira Knightley and James McAvoy
Fun fact: Though the library sex scene is now considered iconic, it is somewhat overshadowed by the downright legendary green dress Knightley wears in it.
Duck Butter
Released: 2018
Directed by: Miguel Arteta
Actors: Alia Shawkat and Laia Costa
Fun fact: The basic premise of this film as that two women attempt to have sex once an hour for 24 straight hours.
The Handmaiden
Released: 2016
Directed by: Park Chan-wook
Actors: Kim Tae-ri and Kim Min-hee
Fun fact: To shoot the lesbian sex scene in a way that made his leads feel comfortable, Park gave the male crew members the day off, hired a female boom operator, and filmed the encounter with a remote controlled camera.
Call Me By Your Name
Released: 2017
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Actors: Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer
Fun fact: In the first and only rehearsal for this film, Guadagnino had his actors immediately act out the scene where they make out furiously. (This is also the film that launched a thousand peach memes.)
Monster's Ball
Released: 2001
Directed by: Marc Forster
Actors: Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton
Fun fact: Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for this movie. Twenty years later, she remains the only Black woman to have won it.
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