The Sexiest Movie Scenes of All Time, According to Women

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and by this point you’ve (hopefully) already figured out the essentials — gifts, flowers, date location. But whether you’ve opted for a chill night in or just need a few hours to sit on the couch and digest that big, fancy dinner before you two get down to business, putting on a V-Day-appropriate movie is always a great option.

But how do you choose from the thousands of romantic love stories and horny dramas? If you’re looking to set the mood, your best bet is to go with something she will find sexy. There are so many bad sex scenes out there, whether they’re creepy and objectifying or the kind of unrealistic nonsense where some conventionally attractive woman has an orgasm after a few seconds of jackhammer sex. So when a movie actually gets it right, or even goes out of its way to cater to the female gaze, it leaves a lasting impression.

With that in mind, I asked the women of InsideHook to tell me what they consider to be the sexiest movie scene of all time. To be clear, these aren’t all sex scenes — sometimes a passionate kiss or even a situation where there’s no actual touching but the sexual tension is too much to bear can be just as impactful. So without further ado, we present the sexiest movie scenes of all time, in no particular order, according to InsideHook’s female staffers. May they serve as inspiration.

Moonstruck, “You’re a Wolf”

I don’t think the silver screen has seen two people more gorgeous than Cher and Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck. Cher is basically the most iconic beauty in the world, and no one has better chest hair than Cage in one of the greatest movies of all time. Their love story is classic. He’s mad at his brother for making him look the other way in the family bakery, after which he accidentally chops off his hand. Cher’s engaged to said brother, a dry-as-toast man who she’s only marrying because her former husband got run over by a bus. When she meets Cage on a mission to help the brothers make up so he’ll come to the wedding, both parties get swept up in a romance after drinking glasses of J&B Rare Blended Scotch, a bottle that every respectable Italian American household kept stocked at all times in the 1980s. Tables were flipped, affairs were had and the rest is history. — Amanda Gabriele, Senior Editor

Notorious, Two-and-a-Half-Minute Kiss

Once upon a time in Hollywood, major film studios in the United States were governed by strict guidelines. From 1934 to 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code — commonly referred to as the Hays Code — regulated the moral content of films, restricting profanity, nudity and other obscenities including “scenes of passion.” It went as far as to prohibit “excessive and lustful kissing.” However, some directors at the time found ways around the ultra-conservative guidelines, the most notable being Alfred Hitchcock. In his 1946 film Notorious starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, Hitchcock worked around the ridiculous rule of three-second-kissing by having both actors break off every three seconds, talking and walking in between kisses. Ironically, the entire sequence spans two and a half minutes and is now one of the most memorable kisses in film history. The prolonged scene also makes it one of the steamiest, in my opinion. You have the beautiful Ingrid Bergman sexily whispering into a very handsome Cary Grant’s mouth, lustfully gazing up at him and kissing him while he’s on the phone, all in a close-up shot. The scene is almost too intimate as a viewer — like I’m interrupting. — Logan Mahan, Commerce Editor

Brokeback Mountain, Reunion Kiss

Jake Gyllenhaal has claimed that Heath Ledger kissed him so hard in this Brokeback Mountain scene that he “almost broke” his nose. That alone warrants its inclusion on this list, but what really takes it over the edge is the reckless abandon with which Ennis (Ledger) plants one on Jack (Gyllenhaal). For most of the movie, Ennis is closeted and deeply repressed. (Ledger once said in an interview that he saw the character as “a clenched fist.”) His reunion kiss with Jack is one of the first times we see him crack a smile, and even though he pushes Jack against a wall where his wife can’t see him — spoiler alert: she actually can — he doesn’t seem particularly concerned with getting caught. It feels out-of-character in the best way. — Bonnie Stiernberg, Managing Editor

Don’t Worry Darling, Dinner Table Scene

It’s not the first time we’ve seen someone go down on a woman with fervor on the silver screen (Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman in Black Swan, anyone?), however there’s something about this Harry Styles/Florence Pugh scene in Don’t Worry Darling that, for whatever reason, really sets it apart from the others. Maybe it’s because it’s him? Or, more likely, because it’s her — despite the cataclysm that was the press tour, and even the big, and ultimately extremely creepy, reveal at the end, this scene stands out as one of the sexiest to me in recent years. Say what you will about Olivia Wilde, but the sophomore director certainly knew how to conduct a good sex scene between two hot people. — Lindsay Rogers, Travel Editor

Mamma Mia, “Lay All Your Love on Me”

Hear me out: While this Mamma Mia musical number isn’t sexy in the conventional sense, it’s dripping in the sparks-flying, flame-burning excitement of the honeymoon phase — when you’re just so obsessed with your partner to the point of rolling in the sand on a Greek beach because you can’t get enough of ‘em. Before leaving for their bachelorette and bachelor parties, wide-eyed Sophie (played by a young Amanda Seyfried) and her dark and handsome fiancé, Sky (Dominic Cooper), declare their mutual adoration in one of the film’s goofiest numbers. They’re rolling in the sand, drenched in sweat and salty seawater, and half naked, Love Island-style. They’re jealous! They’re begging! He’s riding off into the sunset! It’s the Euro summer dreams are made of. — Zoe de Leon, Social Content Coordinator

Blue Valentine, “You and Me”

It feels wrong to mention Blue Valentine on this list without mentioning the oral sex scene that earned it a controversial NC-17 rating. (It’s Ryan Gosling in his peak “Hey Girl” era going down on a lady, so yes, obviously it’s very hot.) But for all the pearls clutched over that scene — which Gosling defended by pointing out that the MPAA is fine depicting women being raped and tortured all the time, but for some reason receiving pleasure from sex is a bridge too far — it’s actually pretty tame. The one that really sticks out to me comes later on, when Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Gosling) are fooling around in her childhood bedroom and he pauses to whip out a CD and inform her he’s found “their” song. Maybe I’m biased because I think staring into someone’s eyes as they listen to a song you suggested for the first time is one of the most intimate things you can do, or because someone who looks like Ryan Gosling making out with me and then turning me on to an obscure soul song from the ’70s is basically my dream. But this scene has everything: romance, the sexiest accessory a man can wear and whatever that face-grab move Dean does while mouthing “you and me, baby” is. — BS

Atonement, Fountain Scene

There’s something to be said about the silence in this scene. Of course the chemistry between Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in the much more objectively sexy library scene is off the charts, but part of the build-up that makes it so hot comes from this scene. There’s almost no dialogue, but between the cuts to McAvoy looking away and him holding the broken vase (think Mr. Darcy’s hand flex), so much goes on between the pair. — Hanna Agro, Assistant Editor

Pretty Woman, Piano Scene

This scene is a particular standout. For one, it’s incredibly powerful without even seeing Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward (Richard Gere) so much as kiss. The delicate, detailed movements between Gere and Roberts are the ones that really linger in a gentle yet commanding way: Gere pulling Roberts closer by the waist, her hands in his hair, him plopping her on top of the piano. On one hand, as viewers, we’re observing such a vulnerable and intimate moment between the two of them. On the other, it’s still laced with so much passion and need, but it’s performed with such simplicity. Every unfolding movement between them happens so naturally and subtly that you don’t want to miss a moment, like their eye contact and the silence that quickly overcomes them. And also, it’s Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. — Joanna Sommer, Editorial Assistant

Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Bella and Edward’s Honeymoon

Okay…bear with me on this one. I was 14 when I read the first Twilight book, and 17 when I read the fourth, Breaking Dawn, which was released just a few months prior to the first movie. In other words, by the time the fourth movie came out in 2011, I had already waited three years for those losers Bella and Edward to fuck, and then another three years after that for Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart to fuck. Talk about a slow burn. The scene itself is obviously pretty underwhelming by today’s standards (and probably those at the time, too), but I was young and I’d been invested in this series for a third of my life at this point, all right? That one Sleeping at Last song is playing, they’re skinny dipping (and inexplicably seeing each other naked for the first time), he breaks the headboard…it was a lot for me at the time, and, unfortunately, still kind of is. — LR

It’s a Wonderful Life, Phone Scene

sBack in the 1940s when this Christmas classic came out, the aforementioned Hays Code banned “excessive or lustful kissing” from movies and limited on-screen smooches to three seconds or less, but this scene is further proof that there were plenty of other ways to convey lust back then. George is trying to push Mary away because he knows that if he gives in to his feelings for her, it’ll mean staying in Bedford Falls and giving up his dream of traveling the world. When their old friend Sam Wainwright calls to give them some spiel about investing in plastics, they’re forced to huddle together over the phone to hear, and thus begins some of the most electric sexual tension to ever grace the screen. While Sam talks, it becomes clear that George is fighting extremely hard against his urge to kiss Mary. He’s breathing heavy, eyeing her up and down and smelling her hair, until finally he can’t take it anymore. As soon as he tosses that phone onto the floor, we know he won’t be leaving Bedford Falls after all. — BS

The top comment on this YouTube video? “Special thanks to Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried for making my teenage years ten times more complicated with this scene.” Good to know it’s a universal experience: stumbling across this movie (or even just the clip) and watching it for the first time and suddenly questioning everything. This movie is iconic for a lot of reasons, but the dynamic between Fox and Seyfried is just too good. And this may go down as one of the greatest makeout scenes in history. — JS

Pride and Prejudice, Hand Flex Scene

Ask any woman what the steamiest movie scene of all time is and there’s a good chance she’ll say the hand flex moment from the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. Yes, it is formally known on the internet as “the hand flex.” Hundreds of tweets have referenced its cultural impact, articles have been penned about the power of it and numerous TikTok videos have commemorated it. (And honestly, I squeal every time I watch it.) What is so breathtaking about this split-second hand touch? Well, it’s the first time Darcy touches Elizabeth (and back in the 18th century, men and women didn’t really do a whole lot of hand touching, or even handshaking). While the touch in itself is shocking, it’s Macfadyen’s (improvised!) hand flex that has the girls screaming. There’s so much sexual tension and desire burning in that hand of his. Swoon. — LM