The Breakfast Club (1985)

Against-StereoType Kisses

John Hughes' influential and classic, dialogue-rich coming-of-age teen film told about five teenagers who were forced to serve out a Saturday detention together at Shermer High School.

Each of the five individuals represented different stereotypical characters or cliques.

By film's end as they left the detention session, two couples were kissing:

• letter-jacketed varsity wrestler/"jock" athlete Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) with troubled, self-proclaimed liar and kleptomaniac misfit and outcast Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy)
• trouble-making and rebellious John Bender (Judd Nelson) with popular, spoiled, pampered and virginal "princess" Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald)

Desert Hearts (1985)

Romantic Lesbian Kiss

This ground-breaking low-budget film was a seminal gay film from first-time director Donna Deitch. It was the first full-length lesbian-themed feature film written and directed by a woman, in a story about a lesbian relationship in the late 1950s. Reportedly, it was the first mainstream lesbian movie to end positively. This film won a Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1986.

The two lovers were:

• Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver), a thirty-ish prim and meek literature professor from NYC
• Cay (Patricia Charbonneau in her first film role), a lusty, free-spirited casino worker, and the ranch owner's beautiful step-daughter

Vivian was at the Reno-area ranch while she was seeking a divorce. She slowly explored a romantic and intimate lesbian relationship with Cay during her stay. This led to their first kiss in a rainstorm when Vivian rolled down the passenger's window and briefly succumbed to Cay's advances. Cay asked: "Where'd you learn to kiss like that?" but Vivian was reluctant: "I don't know where that came from" and didn't want to talk about it.

And later, the two tried to have a "mature conversation" about the repercussions of the kiss, in Vivian's room in the town's Riverside Hotel and Casino:

Vivian: "What happened between us was innocent more than anything else."
Cay: "And friendly, don't forget that one."

Vivian claimed that she was a "respected scholar" and called the kiss "a moment's indiscretion" and a "fleeting lapse of judgment." After pouring herself a drink in the kitchen, Vivian turned back toward the bedroom, where Kay was topless and sitting in her bed - she asked: "What do you think you're doing?" Kay replied: "Waiting for you" and she insisted on staying. After putting the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, Vivian admitted: "I wouldn't know what to do." Cay began with a series of long and passionate kisses, with Vivian confessing: "I don't know if I've ever felt this way before."

Vivian's robe was removed as the lengthy, non-exploitatively-filmed love scene (shot in real-time) began. It ended by slowly fading to black.

Lifeforce (1985, UK/US)

Alien Vampirish Life-Sucking Kisses, Kisses of Death Literally

Tobe Hooper's Alien-like sci-fi/horror film had the working title Space Intruders or Vampires from Outer Space - similar to the name of the original 1976 novel The Space Vampires upon which the film was based.

It starred a stark-naked Mathilda May throughout much of the film as an energy-sucking, humanoid 'space-girl' vampire who was brought back from Halley's Comet from the interior of an alien ship. At London's European Space Research Centre, the female alien creature suddenly awakened, sat up, slipped off the examining table, and smiled/glared at a guard.

The beautifully naked, human-looking creature removed the guard's helmet, and kissed him - sucking the energy or 'lifeforce' out of the guard, and turning him into a dessicated, shriveled-up mummy corpse with leathery withered skin.

She and the other two male alien creatures would soon terrorize London, seeking more life-energy and turning its inhabitants into zombies.

In the finale, astronaut and chosen one Col. Carlsen (Steve Railsback) wished to be reunited or "mated" with the "Space-Girl." On a cathedral altar, he gave her back the energy she had originally given him by accepting her entreaty: "Be with me. Come with me, Carlsen." During an ecstatic nude embrace and kiss, she admitted:

"You're one of us. You always have been. You're like me. Be with me. Just a little more."

Self-sacrificially, he then skewered both of them with a leaden stake mid-coitus, as electric red and blue rays and swirls emanated from their bodies. Their souls merged together into a gigantic blue column of light that ascended and funneled into the umbrella-shaped alien mothership above, before the vessel departed.

Kissing, Reuniting, and Merging-Mating with the "Space Girl"

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985, UK)

A Champagne Male-to-Male Kiss to Celebrate Opening

In director Stephen Frears' subversive drama, two men engaged in a cross-racial, forbidden homosexual relationship in Thatcher's England:

• South London laundry businessman Omar (Gordon Warnecke) from a Pakistani-immigrant family
• his old Anglo-Saxon school friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), an ex-National Front member and blonde street punk

In the film's most erotically passionate love scene, the two embraced each other in the back manager's room of the laundromat (Johnny slipped his hand beneath Omar's shirt and dribbled champagne from his mouth into Omar's mouth) to celebrate the laundromat's grand opening.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

A Loving Freddy Krueger Kiss

In the second film in the long-running horror film franchise, girlfriend Lisa Webber (Kim Myers) assured possessed boyfriend Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) that he needn't feel overtaken by demonic, gloved killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). She urged him to fight back against his nightmares and bad dreams:

"You created him. You can destroy him...He is living off of your fear...He doesn't even exist."

During a final showdown against Freddy in an abandoned Springwood power plant, she spoke directly to Jesse inside of him: "Jesse, I know you're in there. Stop him!" When she was grabbed and Freddy threatened to kill her, she vowed: "I love you, Jesse" to weaken Freddy's power.

While ignoring his maniacal threats and assertions that Jesse was dead, she thwarted the killer with a firm and angry statement:

"I am not afraid of you. He's in there and I want him back. I'm gonna take him away from you, and you are gonna go straight back to hell, you son-of-a-bitch!...Come back to me, Jesse. I love you. Come back to me."

To help Jesse fight Freddy from the inside, through the power of love, she strengthened Jesse as Freddy lost control: "He can't hold you, Jesse. He's losing his grip. You can get out." She grabbed Freddy, removed his hat, stroked his head, pressed her lips toward him and kissed him, even as Freddy asserted: "He'll die with both of us." He pushed her away, as the pipes and railings in the factory caught on fire, and he was consumed in the flames, melting his flesh and causing his demise.

Afterwards, the charred corpse suddenly moved -- and Jesse emerged from Freddy's blackened and singed ashes.

A Room With a View (1985, UK)

A Passion-Awakening Kiss

This typically-Edwardian, Merchant Ivory-produced repressed-romance drama was an elegant film adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel of the same name, set at the turn of the century.

Young feisty, passionate and ravishing Britisher Miss Lucy Honeychurch's (Helena Bonham Carter) heart and restricted sexuality were awakened during a chaperoned trip to Florence with her older cousin serving as her chaperone, Aunt Charlotte (Maggie Smith).

She shared an unexpected, sensuous and impetuous embrace and kiss in a wheat barley field delivered by handsome and intense free-spirited admirer George Emerson (Julian Sands). Charlotte was upset to witness her spontaneous emotional act with an improper suitor.

Eventually, Lucy broke her betrothal engagement to prissy, uptight wealthy suitor Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis).

By film's end, Lucy was honeymooning with new beau George at the Italian pensione where they first met, residing in the "room with a view" and kissing each other at the open window.

The Sure Thing (1985)

Meaningful First Kiss Under the Stars

Director Rob Reiner's romantic comedy told about a cross-country journey experience shared between two seemingly-incompatible coeds, both college students, traveling from New England to the West Coast:

• freshman Walter "Gib" Gibson (John Cusack)
• smart Alison Bradbury (Daphne Zuniga)

He was on his way to meet a "sure thing" dream date in Los Angeles -- a sexy "blonde in a string bikini" (Nicollette Sheridan), while she was traveling to UCLA to visit her boyfriend Jason (Boyd Gaines).

Afterwards, they both returned to the East Coast school after Christmas vacation, where an English essay he had written titled The Sure Thing was read outloud by his teacher Professor Taub (Viveca Lindfors) in the class that they shared:

"'It could be tonight,' he thought, as he stood in the corner pretending to have a good time. He would meet her tonight. All his young life, he had dreamed of a girl like this. 5 foot 6, silky hair, trim, nubile body - ('Nubile,' by the way, is spelled with a 'u.') - nubile body that really knew how to move, and soft, deeply tanned skin. Now, as for personality traits, she needed only one. She had to love sex, and all the time. To arrive at this moment, he had traveled vast distances enduring many hardships: abject poverty, starvation, show tunes, you name it. From across the room he saw her. She was perfect. He knew almost nothing about her, and she didn't know much more about him. It was exactly how it was supposed to be. He brought her to his room. The lights were soft. The moment was right. Then she leaned over and whispered in his ear: 'Do you love me?' Thoughts raced through his mind. Did she really want him? What had he done to deserve this bounty? Does God exist? Who invented liquid soap, and why? 'Do you love me?' Staring into her eyes, he knew that she really needed to hear it. But for the first time in his life, he knew these were no longer just words. And if he said it, it would be a lie. 'Do you love me?' she whispered. 'Do you love me?' It would not be tonight. The answer was 'no.'"

One student called out: "He was a traitor," and Walter was pelted with a wadded piece of paper. But at that moment, Alison realized that he probably didn't sleep with his "sure thing." She turned to him:

Alison: "You didn't sleep with her?"
Walter: "Still seeing Jason?"
Alison: "We broke up."
Walter: "That's too bad."
Alison: "You didn't sleep with her."
Walter: "She wasn't my type."

Suddenly, they weren't in the classroom anymore, but were sharing a curtain-closing, feel-good ending kiss under the stars.

Witness (1985)

Forbidden Passionate Kisses

Peter Weir's suspenseful and dramatic thriller began with the murder of an undercover cop in the rest-room of a Philadelphia train station. The sole witness was a young 8 year-old Amish boy named Samuel Lapp (Luke Haas), who was traveling with his widowed mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis).

While investigating the murder and also seeking refuge (after being wounded by a gunshot) in the isolated, peace-loving, idyllic Amish community (Lancaster County), city detective John Book (Harrison Ford) ("The Englishman") began to establish a beautifully-realized yet illicit and romantic relationship with Rachel.

There were a few erotically-charged scenes in the midst of their cultural differences, building up to romantic kisses, such as:

• when Book was repairing his non-functioning car, they playfully danced together in a barn to the car radio playing Sam Cooke's "(What A) Wonderful World", illuminated by the car's headlights - a behavior that was frowned upon by the Amish. They almost kissed, but were interrupted by Rachel's scolding father-in-law Eli (Jan Rubes). She argued back: "I committed no sin" although she faced the possibility of being shunned by the community.
• Rachel's bathing from a bucket with a sponge - she realized that she was being watched by Book from a doorway and turned to boldly face him, lingering for a few moments bare-breasted. He averted his eyes momentarily, but then they both looked at each other with longing.
• the evening before Book was planning to leave the community, Rachel set her white bonnet aside before running to him, outdoors in the twilight, where they shared a deep and passionate series of kisses.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

An Impulsive and Uncontrollable Kiss

Woody Allen's finely-honed drama-comedy, full of urban New York angst, told about the intertwined lives of three sisters:

• nurturing Hannah (Mia Farrow)
• reformed ex-alcoholic Lee (Barbara Hershey)
• insecure, ex-drug addict Holly (Dianne Wiest)

The first shot of the film was an extended, medium shot of the ravishing, youthful Lee in her grey sweater, the object of desire for Elliot (Michael Caine) - the bored husband of her sister Hannah.

In voiceover, he pined for her, as the camera (representing Elliot's point-of-view) followed her around Hannah's crowded apartment:

"God, she's beautiful. She's got the prettiest eyes, and she looks so sexy in that sweater. I just want to be alone with her and hold her and kiss her and tell her how much I love her and take care of her. Stop it, you idiot. She's your wife's sister. But I can't help it! I'm consumed by her. It's been months now. I dream about her. I, I, I think about her at the office. Oh, Lee. (sighing) What am I gonna do? I hear myself mooning over you, and it's disgusting."

When she squeezed by him in a doorway with a tray of hors d'oeuvres, he admitted:

"Before, when she squeezed past me in the doorway, and I smelled that perfume on the back of her neck... Jesus, I, I thought I was gonna swoon! Easy. You're a dignified financial advisor. It doesn't look good for you to swoon."

Later in the film, Elliot planned on non-chalantly bumping into Lee on the street, where he complimented her on how "bright and charming and beautiful" she was before they visited a bookstore together. And then shortly later, they were left alone in her loft studio-bedroom, where he was overcome with desire and lust over the beautiful young woman. He had been pondering how to cautiously seduce her with a verse of E.E. Cummings poetry (from page 112) in a book he had bought for her. As he stared at her, he thought to himself:

"I want so badly to kiss her. Not here, you idiot. You've got to get her alone someplace. But I've got to proceed cautiously. This is a very delicate situation. Okay, uh, ask her if you can see her for lunch or a drink tomorrow. And be ready to make light of the offer if she's unresponsive. This has to be done very skillfully, very diplomatically."

He suddenly grabbed Lee and kissed her wildly, unable to control his lustful passion. She cried out in surprise: "Elliot, don't!" He babbled:

"Lee! Lee! Lee, I'm in love with you!"

He kissed her again. When she pulled away, she smashed into a turntable playing a Bach concerto, and the needle loudly scratched the record. Shocked, she gasped: "What are you doing?!" He frantically replied:

"I...I'm-I'm-I'm-I'm sorry. I have to talk to you for... There's so much that I want to tell you...I have been in love with you for so long."

He ruined his plans for subtlety and left Lee shocked and flabbergasted at him, although later, he expressed wide-eyed, childlike delight at discovering she was attracted to him as well: "I have my answer! I have my answer! I'm walking on air!" - and soon after, they began having an affair.

Howard the Duck (1986)

A Strange Duck/Human Kiss

Marvel's comic book character became the main star of this George Lucas-produced sci-fi comedy film - often considered one of the worst films ever made. It was nominated for seven Razzie awards, and won four of them: Worst New Star ("six guys and gals in the duck suit"), Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Visual Effects (Lucas' ILM). The outer-space Howard the Duck was inexplicably propelled by an errant laser beam from his alien planet (a parallel universe inhabited by anthropomorphic ducks) to Earth.

After being befriended by struggling Cleveland, Ohio punk-rock musician Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson), visiting Howard T. Duck (somewhat of a lecher who told Beverly: "I have developed a great appreciation for the female version of the human anatomy") was invited to share her bed to watch David Letterman. She proceeded to seductively consider what it would be like to fall in love with a duck:

"Aw, do you think I might find happiness in the animal kingdom, duckie?"

After more of her come-on lines, such as: "OK, let's go for it, Mr. Macho" and "I just can't resist your intense animal magnetism," she proposed to the nervous duckie: "Just one goodnight kiss, sweet duckie."

Their series of short kisses on his extended duck bill were viewed in silhouette after she turned out the light. However, three intruders interrupted them. When Carter (Miles Chapin) witnessed what was going on, he stated: "My god, this relationship defies all the laws of nature."

Top Gun (1986)

"Take My Breath Away" Kiss

Director Tony Scott's homoerotic, adrenalized and formulaic action film ("I feel the need, the need for speed") about young pilots in advanced training at Fighter Weapons School.

Although it was a cliched, sometimes unbelievable and distracting romance, it was nonetheless stylishly-executed between:

• arrogant and cocky Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) - a naval ace fighter pilot
• intelligent, civilian-contracted dogfight instructor and astrophysicist Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood (Kelly McGillis)

He entered into the romance with surprise, after they first met at a bar and he serenaded her karaoke-style with You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling -- amidst the aerial scenes and muscle-bound volleyball game scenes.

In one dark scene, they kissed each other during a make-out session, to the tune of the Oscar-winning song Take My Breath Away. In the final scene, Maverick was sitting alone at a bar, listening to the Wurlitzer juke-box playing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" - he was drinking a beer and reminiscing about his meeting, during the same tune, with Charlotte. Suddenly, she appeared from around the corner and they briefly reunited:

Charlie: "Hello, Pete Mitchell. I heard the best of the best were going to be back here, so uh..."
Maverick: "This could be complicated. You know on the first one, I crashed and burned."
Charlie: "And the second?"
Maverick: "I don't know, but uh, it's looking good so far." (As they were about to kiss, the screen faded to black, followed by the credits)