Modern movie audiences are as prudish as ever when it comes to sex and sexuality on the big screen. Online discourse frequently runs to the tiresome topic of whether or not sex scenes are strictly "necessary" to the plots of any particular film. I'm not nearly convinced that movies ought to be so laser-focused on plot that anything extraneous ought to be tossed in the bin—reducing a Shakespeare play to just the dialogue that advances "plot" would have us in and out of a theater in around 20 minutes.
2023 was a banner year for this discourse, with sex scenes in Beau is Afraid, All of Us Strangers, Infinity Pool, Passages, and Saltburn traumatizing unwary theatergoers. 2024 is off to a similarly scandalizing start with Poor Things—the Frankenstein-inspired dark comedy follows Bella Baxter, a young woman resurrected following her death by suicide, who begins a journey of liberation and sexual exploration in Victorian London. Some explicit scenes have drawn controversy and criticism, particularly in the UK, where only a censored version of the film has been released.
Talk of the necessity of sex scenes in movies aside, there are films for which we can draw a straight line between sex scene and plot, or which use sex to reveal character (no pun intended). Consider these 18 films, and see if you come away feeling any better about the existence of characters who fuck.
Though the sex isn't wildly explicit, it would be altogether silly for a film set in and around the world of 1970s cinematic porn to skip the sex scenes entirely. One moment in particular comes at the outset of Dirk Diggler/Eddie Adams' career, as he's filming his first explicit scene with Julianne Moore's Amber Waves/Maggie. The moment captures Eddie's nervousness as well as his sexual charisma, while also making clear that this is a job for everyone involved. The crew looks on while Maggie gently guides her co-star through his first on-screen orgasm. It's not an overwhelmingly passionate scene, but it is a surprisingly tender one.
Where to stream: Digital rental
OK, granted, the impromptu sex scene at the center of Brokeback Mountain was clearly choreographed and performed by people with only the vaguest notions of what sex between two men can look like—as if there exists not a single queer in Hollywood who might have been consulted. The moment pays off sexual tension that has been building between Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) from the first frame. It's significant that the filmmakers choose to make clear that sex is a component of the attraction here, beyond the cutesy stuff.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Park Chan-wook's action classic is not for the faint of heart on any level, and that includes the sex scene between Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) and Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). It's not that the moment is itself wildly explicit, but the movie's last-act reveal of Mi-do's true identity is genuinely shocking in context, and brings the 15-year timeline of revenge and counter-revenge full circle.
Where to stream: Netflix
A nearly three-hour journey into the headspace of the deeply anxious title character (Joaquin Phoenix), Beau is Afraid was one of the last year's most polarizing films—and it's probably my favorite of 2023. Many of Beau's troubles stem from the vaguely psychosexual manipulations of his mother, Mona (Patti Lupone), who made sure to describe to the young Beau the mid-coitus death of his father in excruciating detail. Sexual phobias aren't the entirety of Beau's problems, but they're a key component of his inability to connect with other people. When he does finally have sex, at the movie's climax (ahem), it only makes things so, so much worse for a guy who cannot catch a break.
Where to stream: Paramount+
Another of the year's most hotly debated films, Saltburn transports The Talented Mr. Ripley to Northamptonshire, England, with mixed results. Scholarship student Oliver (Barry Keoghan) has pursued Felix (Jacob Elordi) from Oxford all the way to the guy's ancestral home, only for Oliver to find (*major spoilers coming*) that his plans of getting in with the posh crowd are going to need to involve murder. His dreams of sex with Felix having gone down the drain (somewhat literally), Oliver instead fucks Felix's fresh grave. The scene is there for shock value, sure, but also makes clear that Oliver's machinations to that point were never purely strategic, and that his lust/obsession with Felix was very real.
Where to stream: Prime Video
The love scene between Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is neither particularly hot nor explicit, but it is essential to the film, and the franchise as a whole. Without the sex-on-the-run between the two, John Connor will never be born to save humanity, and won't be around to send Kyle Reese back in time to train Sarah. Very timey-wimey. The moment makes the great Terminator 2 possible, but also a series of largely forgettable sequels—so it's not all good news for humanity.
Where to stream: Max
Set over the course of, nearly, a lifetime, Atonement kicks off with Briony (Saoirse Ronan) witnessing mildly rough sex between her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and the housekeeper's son Robbie (James McAvoy). Jealous and confused, the young heiress mistakes what she sees for rape, which clouds her judgement when she accuses Robbie after an actual sexual assault occurs shortly thereafter. Briony's allegation sets in motion a cascade of events that darkens the lives of those around her, allowing the real assailant to go free. As the movie's title suggests, Briony spends much of her life trying to make amends for her mistake.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Guillermo del Toro's fantasy romance involves love between a deaf custodian and the mysterious fish man with whom she forms a bond. From that premise, del Toro crafts an instant classic that earned him Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. When Eliza (Sally Hawkins) makes love to her amphibian companion (Doug Jones), it's in a bathroom that's entirely submerged, with an explosive release of water taking the place of a more traditional climax. Eliza later explains the mechanics of the event to a friend—all of this serving to make clear that this love story is both emotional and sensual, and not merely the chaste romance of a Disney movie about mer people.
Where to stream: FXNow
Not much of a spoiler here, since the inciting incident occurs within the first 10 minutes of this Stephen King adaptation: Jessie and Gerald Burlingame (Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood) arrive at an isolated lake house, where Gerald tries to engage in a rape fantasy that Jessie is deeply uncomfortable with. The interaction makes obvious the rift that has developed in their marriage, but before Gerald can take things further, the two have a fight during which he has a heart attack and dies...leaving her handcuffed to the bed and totally isolated. Stephen King-style shenanigans ensue. The opening is more troubling than explicit, but without it, the movie doesn't happen.
Where to stream: Netflix
Nagisa Ōshima's gorgeous art film was wildly controversial upon release, largely for the very realistic sex scenes—realistic, because they were largely unsimulated. It's based on the true story of Sada Abe (Eiko Matsuda), a one-time sex worker who begins an obsessive affair with a patron (Tatsuya Fuji) of the hotel where she works. Sada Abe's refusal to conform to societal expectations of her gender and class don't make her a hero, exactly, but it does bestow upon her a strange sort of freedom. The impact comes in part from the film's refusal to undersell Sada Abe's sexual power—sex is a critical part of her story, in the movie and in real life, and Ōshima isn't afraid to show rather than merely tell.
Where to stream: The Criterion Channel
Analyzing any given David Lynch movie points us immediately toward the problem of determining whether a sex scene is "necessary to the plot," since figuring out the plot is a trick unto itself. Mulholland Drive is a tiny bit more approachable than most of his output, following "Rita" (Laura Herring), an actress who suffers from amnesia following a Los Angeles car crash, who stumbles into a wholesome midwestern transplant (Naomi Watts), who is setting out to become a star. The two set out to uncover Rita's true identity, before engaging in some undeniably hot sex. I'm not sure to what extent it impacts the plot, but the sex scene represents a liminal moment between the two characters, each inhabiting multiple potential identities—for those few moments, the characters connect with such intimacy that questions of identity don't matter in the least.
Where to stream: Digital rental
The climax (ahem) of Alfonso Cuarón's instant-classic Mexican road trip film finds the central characters (Luisa, Julio, and Tenoch) engaging in a rather sweet threesome. The trio have been circling one another, emotionally and physically, for the entire film, and this moment flips the script, briefly, on their apparent love triangle—offering the possibility that none of them needs to choose.
Where to stream: AMC+
Forget about the orgy sequence; let's focus instead on the earlier sex scene between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman that formed the basis of the scandalous teaser trailer (a true tease back when no one knew what the movie was going to be about). She's mostly focused on looking at herself in the mirror, and while the scene approaches something sweaty, what we mostly feel is the lack of connection between the two. In the context of the film, the sequence makes clear this is a marriage already in the process of disintegrating.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Nicolas Roeg's haunting thriller includes one of the most notorious sex scenes in film history, infamous in part because of rumors (still promulgated and still disputed) that the intimate contact between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland was unsimulated. Whether there's any truth to that or not, it certainly speaks to the authenticity of the moment, which is hardly gratuitous: The movie follows a couple shattered by the death of their only child, and the sex scene is a major emotional turning point: a moment of clear connection right before things go even more wrong.
Where to stream: Pluto TV
It Follows isn't about just one thing, but there's certainly a pervasive air of tension around young sexuality and its potential consequences, both physical and emotional. Fear of sexually transmitted infections is certainly one lens through which to view the movie's horror conceit—a curse that literally follows its subjects to their deaths, unless and until they're willing to pass it along to someone else via sex.
Where to stream: Netflix
As the title of this Hedy Lamar film might suggest, sexual and romantic passion are very much our subjects. Lamar (credited as Hedy Kiesler) plays Eva, a woman in a loveless, passionless (at least on her part) marriage to a rich older man. A nude swim draws the attention of Adam (Aribert Mog), with whom she soon commences an affair. The love scene, which eschews the bare flesh that can be found elsewhere in the film, focuses almost entirely on Eva's face, and shows us she's finally experiencing the passion missing from her marriage. Aside from being central to the movie's plot and themes, it was also shockingly ahead of its time in its emphasis on female sexuality.
Where to stream: YouTube
Martin Scorsese's oft-banned portrait of the final days of Christ (Willem Dafoe) pissed off a lot of people for its hallucinatory sex scene between Jesus and Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey). The scene itself isn't even PG-13 level, but the very idea sent scolds into apoplexy and fanatics off to firebomb theaters. Unsurprisingly, they'd missed the point entirely: In context, the scene is part of a ploy by Satan—the titular last temptation. He's showing Jesus what his reward might be if he turned away from mankind: a long and normal life instead of an agonizing death on the cross. That moment of lovemaking is central to the sequence, and helps to make clear everything he's sacrificing for humanity.
Where to stream: Digital rental
Sean Baker's brilliant, ultra-low-budget comedy-drama follows a Christmas Eve in the life of trans sex workers Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor). The sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking film rides high on gritty realism, and it wouldn't be the same if it didn't give us a sense of their work lives. A central scene finds Alexandra taking refuge from a bad day in the car of a cab-driver client. He's happy about giving her a blowjob while they go through a car wash, and she's happy to earn a few extra dollars from a friendly, trustworthy client. As car wash blowjobs go, it's genuinely sweet, while also making clear that sex workers, too, have their good and bad days on the job.
Where to stream: Digital rental
