# POLL: Best sex scene in a "mainstream" movie \*NOT\* porn **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562 "2002-12-09T18:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/1 "2002-12-09T18:13:18Z")
Just like the title says. My vote (the first that jumps to mind): Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas in **Basic Instinct**. IMHO Sharon Stone was hotter than liquid fuck in that movie. I haven’t seen it, but a couple co-workers say that a scene that Halle Berry is on the receiving end of 'ol Billy Bob in **Monsters Ball** is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![VanLandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/eb9ed0/32.png) [@VanLandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanLandry)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/2 "2002-12-09T18:40:24Z")
Most love scene’s from “Personal Best” with Mariel Hemingway. Maybe it because I was a because young teen when I first saw it, but damn that was good. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/3 "2002-12-09T18:46:29Z")
_Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!_ No contest. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/4 "2002-12-09T19:08:18Z")
The first one that came to mind when I read the post was the scene between Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin in _The Big Easy_. Watching her cold exterior melt…hmmmm Ellen Barkin. And, IMHO, the scene in Monster’s Ball is NOT sexy. True watching Halle Berry’s body go through a number of positions is sexy in and of itself, but the scene is not intended to be sexy, nor does it come across that way to me. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/5 "2002-12-09T19:18:17Z")
The one with the two women in Mulholland Drive. That was exquisite. The Monster’s Ball ones cracked me up. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/6 "2002-12-09T19:22:33Z")
Embarrassingly enough, I have a large, expansive Jean Claude Van Damme video collection. His movies are great because they include a lot of gratuitous, anonymous and pointless sex. Maximum Risk has a lovely lovely sex scene between JCVD and Natasha Henstridge. You can see their tongues. And that’s what it’s all about. And also Double Impact. They sure don’t make sex scenes like they used to. ---
**Author:** ![Young\_Mr.Grace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e47c2d/32.png) [@Young\_Mr.Grace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Young_Mr.Grace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/7 "2002-12-09T19:47:17Z")
I’d have to say “Enemy at the Gates”. Something about being all surreptitous about it in a crowded barracks does it for me. Besides, I’ve liked Rachel Weisz ever since “The Mummy” ---
**Author:** ![B.Pants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@B.Pants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Pants)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/8 "2002-12-09T19:58:34Z")
_Wild Things_, hands down. A three-way with Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, and Matt Dillon? Gimme gimme! ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/9 "2002-12-09T20:40:41Z")
I’m going to have to watch **Monsters Ball** this weekend just to find out. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/10 "2002-12-09T20:45:43Z")
Maybe a cliché by now, but the ice cube scene from _9 1/2 Weeks_. ---
**Author:** ![metroshane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/11 "2002-12-09T20:59:19Z")
hotter than liquid…oh nevermind. The “love” scene in Out of Sight was amazing! ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/12 "2002-12-09T21:05:05Z")
I seem to remember _Prizzi’s Honor_ being pretty good, although it’s been some time since I’ve seen it. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Siemsi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Siemsi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siemsi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/13 "2002-12-09T21:08:45Z")
The love scene in The English Patient (with Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Thomas)… ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/14 "2002-12-09T21:13:34Z")
Hmmm…I guess I don’t watch the same movies as some of you, or I just don’t remember them well, because I’m drawing a blank on the best sex scene. However, the most emotionally charged love scene (in my opinion) is between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in _Witness_. It was just kissing, but _very_ emotional and dramatic—and with that great Maurice Jarre score in the background. (What a great movie.) ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/15 "2002-12-09T21:14:56Z")
For some reason I like the one in Meet Joe Black between Brad Pitt and Claire Forlani. It’s not nasty or anything and has no nudity (if I recall) but it’s good nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/16 "2002-12-09T21:26:34Z")
**Young Mr Grace** beat me to it. That scene in Enemy At The Gates was so very sexy and there’s no way it should have been (with the exception of Rachel Weiss was in it.) But the two of them among a crouwd of others, just trying to make love before they may never see each other again. It was just a realistic scene and I think that’s what may make it all the sexier. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/17 "2002-12-09T22:05:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyla \* > \*\*_Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!_ > > No contest. \*\* A bit of a contest-- with another Almodovar film-- _High Heels_. The protagonist has a frantic, over-the-edge shag while helping her friend change out of his drag outfit, suspended from one of those rolling wardrobes. (He performs in a club doing an impersonation of her estranged _mother_, an ex-patriot actress.) :eek: More recently, the scene in _Unfaithful_, when Diane Lane is “cleaning up” in the bathroom of a moving train after her tryst with Booklover guy. Quick cuts between the rocking of the train, water sloshing in the sink, and flashes of them back in his loft. Yow! Sexiest bit of homodiagetic analepsis I’ve ever seen. (Golly, that sounds positively dirty in this context, doesn’t it?) ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/18 "2002-12-09T22:06:03Z")
**Delicatessen** must be seen - words would not give justice to the poetic symphony of the squeaky mattress. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/19 "2002-12-09T22:09:32Z")
[cue to red head boy sitting on a bridge playing banjo and grinning.] “I can’t believe no one here has mentioned Ned Beatty’s scene in Deliverance…” ---
**Author:** ![ShetlandPony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@ShetlandPony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShetlandPony)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562/20 "2002-12-09T22:19:06Z")
Don’t Look Now Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie No competition [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-sex-scene-in-a-mainstream-movie-not-porn/141562.md?page=2)