The Worst Movie Kisses Of All Time, Ranked

From "Casablanca" to "The Notebook," few theatrical experiences are as thrilling as seeing two lovers, having overcome insurmountable odds, express their unbridled feelings for one another in one passionate, cathartic kiss. It's without question one of the most powerful things that can be depicted on screen — though it also has the potential to be one of the most uncomfortable.

Whether due to bad writing, muddled chemistry, or just plain terrible technique, audiences have suffered through more awful kissing scenes than we care to remember. Sometimes the actors just don't have the right dynamic, while in other cases the filmmakers don't get the mood or staging quite right. Unfortunately for us, we've gone through decades of sloppy lip locks to find the absolute worst, most cringe-inducing kisses ever trapped on film.

In the good Captain's defense, Steve Rogers is not at all aware his unassuming neighbor Sharon has anything to do with SHIELD — much less one of its founding members — when he first starts crushing on her. But neither this fact nor the efforts of Chris Evans and Emily VanCamp really help lessen the discomfort when the pair lock lips for what is, in our opinion, the worst kiss in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In case you forgot or didn't know, Sharon is revealed at the beginning of "Captain America: Civil War" as the niece of Cap's World War II flame Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Despite this (and having very few scenes together that meaningfully build a romance between them), Sharon and Cap share a passionate pre-battle kiss in front of his two best friends — one of whom also knew Peggy.

And if this wasn't awkward enough, the end of "Avengers: Endgame" reveals that Steve went back in time to live out the rest of his days with Peggy, which — in addition to confirming that he was still pining for her while dating her niece — begs the question of whether or not he was technically kissing his own step-niece. Even if Steve built a life with a variant of Peggy in a divergent timeline, it was probably awkward for him when he met that Sharon variant — that is, if his actions didn't erase her from existence entirely. It's all too complicated and weird, and just one of the many questionable things we ignore in the "Captain America" movies.

Let's make one thing clear: the young cast of "The Twilight Saga" have been mocked enough — arguably even unfairly — for their work in these films. But while Edward Cullen actor Robert Pattinson was at least beyond high school age for the first film at 22, teenagers Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner were only 18 and 16 respectively at the time. To a certain degree, it's impressive what actors so young were able to do with material that was often lacking.

Case in point — Bella Swan (Stewart) and Jacob Black's (Lautner) climactic kiss in "Eclipse," one of the many over-the-top moments that comes in the series' third film. In order to manufacture an obligatory love triangle, Bella is depicted as infuriatingly ambivalent about her romantic choices, even after she accepts a marriage proposal from her eventual beau Edward. When Jacob learns of the engagement while trying to help protect Bella from evil vampires, Bella reacts to his anger by awkwardly shouting at him to kiss her.

Performance-wise, it seems Stewart is trying to sell a pretty wonky scene by leaning into the confusion, hesitation, and inner discomfort created by her decision. But this reasonable choice isn't supported by the way the scene is shot and scored (with all the melodrama of a soap opera), making Bella seem unjustifiably repulsed in a moment of pure romance. It certainly doesn't help that Jacob is written as being completely oblivious to any social cues, ending the scene apparently uninterested in her sudden change of heart and instead just grunting "I gotta go."

Given that they're perhaps the most classic comic book couple of all time, it isn't at all surprising that Zack Snyder brought Superman and Lois Lane together in "Man of Steel." In fact, their pairing is such an important and expected part of the story that it's not even worth arguing whether or not stars Henry Cavill and Amy Adams have chemistry. They're individually great as their characters — but their eventual kiss itself isn't worth getting worked up over.

The timing is a whole other issue entirely. Lois and Clark share a smooch not before his epic battle with General Zod (Michael Shannon) or at some appropriate time afterward, but a few minutes after Superman snaps Zod's neck, with the city of Metropolis literally on fire behind them. There are people crushed underneath rubble, children left stranded without their parents, and probably some folks trapped in burning buildings, but Kal-El is apparently too busy for them.

For a character that's supposed to be faster than a speeding bullet, every second he spends making out with his almost-girlfriend reasonably represents a life he could save. Meanwhile, subsequent DC Extended Universe films show just how many innocent civilians are endangered indirectly by Superman's battle. Batman (Ben Affleck) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) probably would prefer getting romantic to running into a war zone — but they have their priorities straight.

A few of the entries on this list — though definitely among the worst kisses ever put on film — are almost works of art in and of themselves.

Ignoring completely the dark fan theory that changes everything about "Napoleon Dynamite," the 2004 indie comedy is set in the small-ish suburban town of Preston, Idaho, where a handful of quirky, insular, and uniquely ambitious young adults go to strange lengths in order to change their otherwise dull lives. Kip Dynamite (a socially awkward wannabe entrepreneur, played by Aaron Ruell) does this in part by taking a chance on an online relationship with a woman named LaFawnduh Lucas (Shondrella Avery). After attempting to change himself in many misguided ways to better meet his idea of LaFawnduh's standards, he — like most of the characters in the film — finds happiness in embracing the most authentic, awkward parts of his personality.

This all culminates in one of the greatest wedding sequences in a movie, wherein Kip and LaFawnduh share their first kiss as husband and wife. In reality, it's less a kiss and more two people technically placing their lips in close proximity to one another. The reactions from the couple's bewildered families are hilarious, not to mention the fact that Kip follows this up with a serenade that's 50% an ode to his wife and 50% a love letter to technology.

Similar to Kip and LaFawnduh's kiss in "Napoleon Dynamite," the kiss between Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) is supposed to be, well, bad. In this case, however, production really went above and beyond to make this moment of passion deeply uncomfortable to watch — perhaps even too uncomfortable.

If you're struggling to recall any romantic moment between Harry and Hermione (who never date each other and go on to marry members of the Weasley family), that's probably because it's not technically them. While attempting to destroy the Horcurxes (pieces of Lord Voldemort's soul) in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," Harry and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) unleash a vortex of powerful dark energy from Salazar Slytherin's locket. To dissuade Ron from destroying it with the Sword of Gryffindor, Slytherin's locket projects a vision of Harry and Hermione berating Ron — and when that doesn't inspire him to turn on the real Harry, the fake one begins aggressively making out with the fake Hermione.

It's an immediately jarring scene, not least of all because it contains more nudity than anyone expected to see in a "Harry Potter" film. But the cruelty of it all combined with how sweaty and slimy the locket makes them appear as they unnaturally and almost vindictively writhe around makes for a kiss we wish we'd never seen — which, to be fair, is something that happens in basically every "Harry Potter" movie.

"The Sandlot" is part of a long tradition of dreamily nostalgic movies that yearn for the simpler days of boyhood. Set in the '60s, it follows a group of elementary school-aged boys who connect over endless games of baseball at a small field (or "sandlot") in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, in the midst of healthy competition and some occasionally good-natured teasing, part of this nostalgic boyhood fantasy also includes harassing a woman with impunity.

In a quintessential piece of "boys will be boys" storytelling, "The Sandlot" includes a comedic storyline in which Squints (usually the one doing the teasing) plots to steal a kiss from a high school-aged lifeguard named Wendy (Marley Shelton). While the rest of the boys are content to make weird comments and creepily leer at her from the pool, Squints (Chauncey Leopardi) goes as far as pretending to drown so that she'll perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After a few minutes of this, he grabs the back of her head and forces her onto his mouth.

In addition to being incredibly gross, the fallout seems to justify Squints' attempt to "get the girl." Though he's thrown out of the pool, she later gives him a smile, as if to imply that all is forgiven — or, much worse, that she admires him for what he did. In the film's final moments, it's revealed that she even agreed to marry him at some point in the future. The kiss and storyline as a whole can't help but feel like wish-fulfillment validating pretty disgusting behavior.

Fans of the MCU might recognize Howard the Duck as a glorified Easter egg from James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy. They may be surprised to learn that he was once the star of his very own film, made long before general audiences knew or cared about Rocket Raccoon.

The 1986 film is a bit of an odd duck itself, waddling the line gracelessly between science fiction drama and absurd comedy. When Howard begins spending more time with a musician named Beverly (Lea Thompson), it's often hard to tell what the film intends for their relationship. After all, it'd be ridiculous to pair a duck and a human together, especially in a live-action film. Yet their early scenes together are written as though she's the Lois Lane to his Superman.

This all reaches an unthinkable peak when Beverly invites Howard into her bed one night and, apparently as a joke between friends, pretends to be initiating sex with him. What's the joke? Who knows, but the seduction is enough to make Howard (and presumably the audience) wildly uncomfortable. She caps off the "joke" with a lips-to-bill kiss, shoving her face into his plastic mouthpiece. Despite being hidden behind a curtain, it's just too awkward for a movie already struggling to be taken seriously, even as a comedy.

The Skywalkers might be the least romantic family in that galaxy far, far away (as well as the family responsible for the majority of said galaxy's warfare). Anakin Skywalker's (Hayden Christensen) entire courtship and eventual relationship with Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) is almost impossible to watch, with their obviously ill-fated marriage creating the operatically dysfunctional circumstances that would lead to their two children kissing one another. 

Indeed, for a long time, Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia's (Carrie Fisher) kiss on Hoth in "The Empire Strikes Back" reigned supreme as the worst kiss in the "Star Wars" canon — until the Supreme Leader himself threw his cracked helmet into the ring. The "Empire" kiss is mostly bad because it was retroactively made incestuous by revelations in "Return of the Jedi." On the other hand, the kiss between Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver) and Rey Skywalker (Daisy Ridley) in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is indefensible from the start. 

There's no reason for these two characters to be so intimate, and about 1,000 reasons for them not to be (him being a genocidal dictator who tortured her being key among them). It's a forced twist in a story that transparently wants to have its cake and eat it too, so baffling and controversial that Daisy Ridley is still explaining it years later.

It shouldn't be shocking to anyone that "The Room" — perhaps one of the most romantically uncomfortable-slash-deranged movies ever made — is represented on this list. Written, directed, and produced by leading man Tommy Wiseau, the film presents itself as a serious, occasionally erotic drama-thriller, but ultimately winds up being an unintentionally hilarious farce about an emotionally unstable man named Johnny (Wiseau) who is somehow blindsided when his openly hostile girlfriend Lisa (Juliette Danielle) leaves him for another man.

Before their relationship fully goes off the rails, however, Johnny and Lisa do share a night of passionate lovemaking, which Wiseau bravely depicts almost in real time. Unbearable duration aside, this profoundly unsexy sex scene features the two characters sharing many, many kisses, almost all of them conveying a level of realistic emotional and physical intimacy you haven't witnessed since whenever you last saw someone smack the faces of Barbie dolls together.

These flat, retreating pecks are even more cringe-inducing as the scene tries to convince you that something approximating sex is taking place. The dissonance between the actor's faces and the rest of their bodies is so distracting it borders on breaking the fourth wall, as you can't help but pity all involved in Wiseau's all-too-revealing fiasco.

Arguably one of the worst scenes ever produced by the House of Mouse, the climactic kiss between 11-year-old Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall) and 31-year-old FBI agent Shay Stanley (Karen Duffy) in the 1994 Disney movie "Blank Check" is completely indefensible. 

To simplify a fairly convoluted plot, the film follows Preston after he accidentally comes into possession of $1 million in stolen cash — all the while Shay is investigating the criminals now in Preston's orbit as they attempt to recover their lost fortune. During the course of her investigation, she goes out on a "date" with Preston, and, after revealing herself to be an FBI agent at the end of the film, tells him to call her when he turns 17 and kisses him on the lips.

In recent years, the scene has gone viral and attracted an intensely negative response from new viewers. When Disney made the controversial decision in 2020 not to include the queer TV series "Love, Victor" on Disney+, the company was called out for the hypocrisy of shielding young viewers from the apparently inappropriate themes of the show while allowing them to stream "Blank Check." For his part, Bonsall has said online that he enjoyed making the movie, and is happy to see it finding an audience three decades later.

There are many terrible on-screen kisses in movies, most of which we haven't had the space to list here. But from our point of view, none are so obviously reprehensible both in the context of the story and the real world than the one that takes place during the opening moments of the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller "The Beguiled." Directed by Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry" fame, it stars Eastwood as John McBurney, a critically wounded Union corporal trying to hide from Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War.

The first person he encounters as he seeks refuge is Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin), a 12-year-old girl who lives in a secluded all-girls Christian boarding school, where she eventually brings McBurney. Before that sequence of disturbing events can transpire, however, John must keep Amy quiet on the road to avoid detection from passing soldiers — and horrifyingly, he does so by kissing her on the lips.

The scene is made all the more disturbing by persistent yet unconfirmed rumors that Eastwood and Siegel didn't tell Ferdin before they began filming that he would be kissing her. Ferdin talked about the scene on her Facebook page in 2022, and while she didn't address the rumors, she said of the kiss, "I don't think that would be allowed in today's culture, but it made for a great scene."