Best Movie Sex Scenes: 19 Steamiest Film Moments

So you like something a little steamy, a little bit raunchy, in your movies. Well, look no further. We've compiled a list of the best movie sex scenes.

These are films that feature some of the most erotic scenes in all of cinema history. Let's take a look!

Needless to say, this is not safe for work...

What Are movie sex scenes?

If you are a movie buff, then you might know that there is something special about watching sex scenes in movies.

These scenes usually involve two people getting it on in some shape or another.

When it comes to movie sex scenes, they are not just restricted to romance. There are plenty of different waysin which people show their affection for their partner.

Best Movie Sex Scenes

Let’s take a look at the best movie sex scenes of all time.

Every film in this guide

Bound (1996)

Bound is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller written and directed by the Wachowskis (credited at the time as Andy and Larry Wachowski) in their feature directorial debut. It stars Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantoliano.

Corky (Gershon), an ex-convict working as an apartment renovator, begins a relationship with Violet (Tilly), the girlfriend of mob money-launderer Caesar (Pantoliano), who lives next door.

Together, Corky and Violet hatch a plan to steal $2 million in mob money passing through Caesar's apartment and pin the theft on rival mobsters, a scheme that spirals into a tense night of double-crosses once Caesar grows suspicious.

Bound received strong reviews from critics on release, was recognized at the Deauville and Outfest film festivals, and is now regarded as an influential entry in queer cinema and the erotic-thriller genre alike.

Carol (2015)

Carol is a 2015 British-American romantic drama film directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay, written by Phyllis Nagy, is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.

The film stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, and Kyle Chandler and tells the story of an aspiring photographer in 1950s New York City who becomes involved with an older woman going through a difficult divorce.

Carol was produced by Elizabeth Karlsen and Christine Vachon of Killer Films with Todd Haynes and Arnon Milchan, among others.

It received largely positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of stars Blanchett and Mara, cinematography, and visual style, although some criticized its pacing.

A burgeoning romance between two women in 1950s New York is interrupted by discovering a young girl who threatens to reveal their relationship to the world in this adaptation of a novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Disobedience (2017)

Disobedience is a 2017 British-American drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, based on the novel of the same name by Naomi Alderman. The film stars Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, and Alessandro Nivola.

Set in North London, it concerns a woman who returns to the Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her years earlier for an attraction to a female childhood friend. The film was shot on location in London and Brighton starting in October 2016.

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2017. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2018 and in the United States on March 23, 2018.

The film received positive reviews from critics who praised its performances (mainly Weisz’s) and Lelio’s direction; some found it too similar to his previous work.

Weisz was nominated for several awards for her performance, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama and the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress.

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American drama written, produced, and directed by Spike Lee, who also stars as Mookie, a pizza delivery man in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Set over the course of the hottest day of the summer, the film follows the rising racial tension between the Black residents of the block and Sal (Danny Aiello), the Italian-American owner of the local pizzeria, culminating in a confrontation that turns violent.

The film features a landmark ensemble cast, including Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, and Bill Nunn as Radio Raheem, and was scored in part by Public Enemy's "Fight the Power."
Do the Right Thing was widely praised on release for refusing easy answers about race, class, and violence in America, and it remains one of the most studied and influential American films of its era.

Chloe (2009)

Chloe is a 2009 erotic thriller directed by Atom Egoyan, a remake of the French film Nathalie... (2003).

Suspecting her husband David (Liam Neeson) of infidelity, gynecologist Catherine Stewart (Julianne Moore) hires an escort, Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), to test his fidelity by seducing him.

As Chloe reports back on her supposed encounters with David, Catherine finds herself increasingly drawn into a dangerous and unexpected intimacy with Chloe herself.

The film builds toward a tense psychological climax as Catherine's assumptions about her marriage, and about Chloe's true intentions, are upended.

Body Heat (1981)

Body Heat is a 1981 neo-noir written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan in his directorial debut, and is often cited as a key influence on the erotic thrillers that followed it, including Basic Instinct a decade later.

William Hurt stars as Ned Racine, a small-time Florida lawyer who begins a torrid affair with Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner), the unhappily married wife of a wealthy businessman, Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna).

As their affair intensifies, Ned is drawn into Matty's plan to murder her husband for his fortune, only to find himself outmaneuvered at every turn.

Turner's performance as Matty made her an overnight star, and the film's steamy Florida atmosphere and twisting plot have made it a genre touchstone ever since.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British drama directed by Stephen Frears and written by Hanif Kureishi, made for Channel 4 on a modest budget before becoming a theatrical hit.

Set in Thatcher-era London, it follows Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young British-Pakistani man who takes over his uncle's rundown launderette and rekindles a romance with an old friend, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), a former skinhead.

The film was praised for tackling race, class, sexuality, and immigrant entrepreneurship in Thatcher's Britain without flattening any of its characters into simple heroes or villains, and it helped launch Day-Lewis's career.

9 1/2 Weeks (1986)

9½ Weeks is a 1986 erotic drama directed by Adrian Lyne, based on Elizabeth McNeill's memoir of the same name.

Kim Basinger stars as Elizabeth, a Manhattan art gallery employee who enters an intense, increasingly controlling relationship with a mysterious Wall Street trader, John (Mickey Rourke).

The film divided critics on release for its explicit content and was a modest theatrical performer in the US, but it became a major hit internationally and on home video, and its style has been widely imitated in the erotic-thriller genre since.

Boogie Nights (1997)

Boogie Nights is a 1997 American drama film written, produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley and focuses on a group of individuals working in the porn industry during the 1970s and 1980s.

The film’s title refers to the 1970s disco song Night on Disco Mountain by MFSB.

The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, and Heather Graham, and was released in the United States on October 10, 1997.

It was well-received critically and garnered multiple awards and nominations after its release.

The film launched the careers of several actors including Wahlberg, Reynolds, Moore, Cheadle, and Macy, and it revived Reynolds' career as an A-list actor. Boogie Nights is now considered by many to be one of the best films of the 1990s.

Anderson's sprawling ensemble structure and roving camerawork track the rise and fall of its characters across the disco-to-rock transition of the film's era, and the movie has since become a touchstone for how to handle a large cast without losing any single character's arc.

Secretary (2002)

Secretary is a 2002 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Steven Shainberg and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway and James Spader as E. Edward Grey.

The film is based on a short story of the same name from Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill. It explores the relationship between a dominant lawyer and his submissive secretary.

Don’t Look Now (1973)

Don't Look Now is a 1973 British psychological horror film directed by Nicolas Roeg, based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier.

John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) travel to Venice to restore a church after the accidental drowning death of their young daughter.

There, they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic and warns them that their daughter is trying to reach them from beyond the grave, sending John down a path of visions and mounting dread through the city's canals and alleyways.

Roeg's fractured editing style and Venice's disorienting geography of narrow streets and waterways became one of the most influential visual templates in horror cinema.

Persona (1966)

Persona is a 1966 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It follows two women: one who is a famous actress and the other her nurse. The identities of the two women are blurred as they swap personalities, living out each other’s lives and dreams.

The film explores themes of dualism, identity, truth, and reality. Persona won international recognition and was nominated for Academy Awards in Sweden and the United States in 1967.

Bergman wrote the screenplay himself, partly inspired by his professional relationship with Swedish actress Bibi Andersson during the filming of his earlier film Winter Light (1963), during which the two had argued over interpretations of the script.

For example, Andersson wanted an upbeat ending, which Bergman thought would negate much of the psychological drama that preceded it.

A young woman is hospitalized in Sweden. She claims she has no memory of her past. A young nurse, Alma, is assigned to look after her. The two women develop a bond, but the patient remains nameless.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus.

Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by Ossana and Larry McMurtry.

The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams, and depicts the complex emotional and sexual relationship between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two sheepherders who meet working a summer job in Wyoming and carry on a secret relationship across two decades and their own marriages.

Brokeback Mountain won three Academy Awards, including Best Director for Ang Lee, and was widely credited with bringing a same-sex love story to mainstream American audiences with a seriousness rarely afforded the subject at the time.

Ledger and Gyllenhaal's performances, and Annie Proulx's source material, ground the film's sweeping Western landscapes in a story about repression, longing, and the cost of a love that has no safe place to exist.

Basic Instinct (1992)

In 1992, Sharon Stone had reached the pinnacle of her profession, starring in the highest-grossing American film of the year Basic Instinct.

Basic Instinct is a neo-noir erotic thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.

The film follows a police detective, Nick Curran (Douglas), investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy rock star.

During the investigation, Curran becomes involved in a torrid and intense relationship with the prime suspect, Catherine Trammell (Stone), which threatens to compromise his ability to solve the crime.

Last Tango In Paris (1972)

Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

Brando plays Paul, a middle-aged American hotelier in Paris grappling with his wife's recent suicide, who begins an anonymous, emotionally charged sexual relationship with a young Frenchwoman, Jeanne (Schneider), in an empty apartment they are both considering renting.

The film was hugely controversial on release for its explicit content, and decades later, Schneider revealed that a key scene had been shot without her full consent, a revelation that has permanently reshaped how the film is discussed and taught.

Despite, or because of, that controversy, Last Tango in Paris remains a landmark of 1970s art-house cinema for Brando's raw, largely improvised performance.

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Read next: A Most Violent Year: The Meaning Behind the Moments, What Is Anagnorisis in Literature? Moments of Transformative Insight [Ultimate Guide], and What Is An Apple Box in Film? The Multipurpose Tool Behind the Scenes.

Further reading

Release years, credits, and list history should be checked against a catalogue, not copied from memory. Start here:

• IMDb
• BFI
• Wikipedia: Film
• AFI Catalog

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