The Best Last Kisses In Movies

All good things must come to an end, including movie love stories, and there's no better way to go out than with a final kiss that fans remember long after they forget the plot. But the kisses on this list aren't just kisses that come right before the credits roll. These are the last kisses two characters exchange before death, fate, or a change of heart pulls them apart forever. 

Some kisses come in the gap between a relationship and its breakup. Many of them come right before (or after) one character dies. Some are public, others are private. Some are big and dramatic, others small. Most come with tears ... either the characters' or ours. Not all of them are the most famous kiss from their movie, but all of them tell us something about the characters, the story, and the complexities of love. Say hello to the best last kisses in movies.

Last kisses in movies tend to come with tragedy. Gladiator takes that rule to its heart-rending extreme.

Hispano-Roman soldier Maximus (Russell Crowe) faithfully serves the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), who selects him to be his heir over his own son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). So Commodus murders his father before the decision becomes official. When Maximus refuses to serve him, Commodus has him arrested. Maximus escapes and rides home to his wife and son, only to find that they and everyone else on their farm have been murdered. Maximus tearfully kisses his wife's scorched feet before collapsing. He's then kidnapped by a slave trader and sold to a gladiator trainer, but he swears that he will exact revenge on Commodus.

Supported by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard's powerful and devastating score, this scene is the heart of a movie full of epic fight sequences. It reminds us that behind Maximus's soldierly exterior, he's just a man who loves his wife and son. The deaths of his family become the driving force behind his actions in the rest of the movie. It's only after he's killed Commodus that he succumbs to his own wounds, knowing that he's completed his mission and can reunite with his family in the afterlife.

In Moulin Rouge!, the tragedy of the last kiss between tragically impoverished writer Christian (Ewan McGregor) and courtesan/aspiring actress Satine (Nicole Kidman) is that it follows a major victory for the couple. They've finally ousted Satine's controlling patron, the Duke (Richard Roxburgh), and delivered their vibrant, wild, Bohemian musical to Belle Époque Paris. But thanks to an opening scene featuring a devastated Christian, the audience has known all along that Satine was going to die. And by the time we reach the movie's grand musical finale, Satine also knows she has fatal consumption (although it doesn't stop her delivering impassioned musical numbers minutes before dying).

As Satine and Christian exit the stage, Satine collapses. The red confetti all around them evokes the blood she's been coughing up. We see Christian slowly realize what's happening. He holds her, kissing her tastefully sweat-beaded forehead as she begs him to tell their story. Their final scene brings together the fantastical Moulin Rouge! stylization with heartbreakingly authentic human drama. As writer and director Baz Luhrmann told The Guardian, it's all about "the transition of youthful idealism to when you realize that there are things bigger than you — people die, some relationships cannot be — and you are destroyed by that."

Shakespeare in Love takes liberties with history and doesn't shy away from tongue-in-cheek humor, but the love story at the center feels absolutely authentic.

Wealthy Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) is prevented from acting on the London stage by sexism and her social status. So she dresses up as a man and lands the starring role in a new play called Ethel the Pirate's Daughter by some mediocre playwright named Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes). Shakespeare falls in love at first (well, second) sight with Viola, and the two begin an affair after Shakespeare figures out that his leading actor and his crush are the same person. He starts writing what becomes Romeo and Juliet based on their relationship.

But it's doomed from the start. Viola is engaged to evil Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), and they're moving to Virginia. But even though they marry on the morning of the play, she rushes back to the theater. Through various circumstances, Shakespeare and Viola end up playing Romeo and Juliet, respectively. But when the play ends — to thunderous applause — they have to say goodbye.

The scene doesn't rely on dramatic music or even tears. We already know that the couple has only seconds together before they'll never see each other again. Viola kisses Will one more time, then leaves without looking back. The fact he writes Twelfth Night in her honor doesn't make up for the devastation.

Not many teens have a ghost as a best friend, but in 1995's Casper, Kat (Christina Ricci) is used to being odd, thanks to her dad's paranormal investigations. As a result, she meets the ghost Casper (voiced by Malachi Pearson) when they move into his ancestral home, Whipstaff Manor. Although their initial meeting is awkward — she, understandably, faints — Casper wins over Kat and her dad, James (Bill Pullman). Casper has a crush on Kat even before they meet, thanks to a news report about James' work, but the whole being dead thing throws a wrench in the would-be romance.

However, in the basement, Kat and Casper discover the Lazarus machine, which Casper's father built to bring his son back to life. But there's only enough formula for one ghost-to-human transformation. And when James dies in an accident, Casper sacrifices his shot at resurrection so that Kat doesn't have to lose her dad. As a thanks, Kat's mom returns from the afterlife and makes Casper human (played by Devon Sawa) ... but only for the night of Kat's Halloween party. Casper dances with Kat, and they kiss, right as he turns back into his ghost form. It's sweet, it's sad, and it's also a little funny. What more could you ask of a final kiss?

The sexiest kiss in 1990's Ghost happens in that pottery scene. But the last kiss between Demi Moore's Molly and Patrick Swayze's Sam is by far the most emotionally impactful — maybe of all the movies that came out that year.

After being murdered by a mugger, Sam becomes a ghost. He can see his girlfriend Molly, but she doesn't know he's there. He then stumbles across a supposedly fake psychic, Oda Mae (Whoopi Goldberg), who can hear and see him. Oda Mae tries to convince Molly that she's communicating with Sam, but grief-stricken Molly is skeptical. Meanwhile, Sam learns to move physical objects with his ghostly energy, and eventually, he rescues Oda Mae and Molly from the man who had him killed.

Suddenly, Molly can see and hear Sam, too. He realizes that now he's saved her and avenged his own death, he has to move to the afterlife, andthe couple says goodbye to the soundtrack of the now-iconic Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." They kiss one more time, surrounded by an angelic glow.

Swayze and Moore absolutely deliver the bittersweetness of the final kiss. It was Swayze's audition for this scene that convinced the previously skeptical filmmakers to cast him, and Moore perfectly balances confusion, joy, and sadness. No wonder it beat the likes of Home Alone, Pretty Woman, and Dances with Wolves to top 1990's worldwide box office takings and scored two Oscars.

Adapted from the book by David Nicholls, One Day jumps into its two main characters' lives every July 15 from 1988 to 2006. Some July 15s are monumental, and some of them just show everyday life stuff. That means you never know when a major life event is coming.

In 1988, we see working-class aspiring writer Emma (Anne Hathaway) and wealthy unfocused playboy Dexter (Jim Sturgess) spend an awkward (unconsummated) night together after their graduation. The two stay in touch via letters and become best friends. Dexter aimlessly travels the world and works as a hard-partying TV host, and Emma makes it through a series of unfulfilling jobs and eventually teaches while trying to become a full-time writer.

After various successes, losses and relationship breakdowns, they finally declare their feelings for each other — in Paris, in 2003 — and they get engaged in 2004. By 2006, they're married and trying to have a baby. That morning, they have a row and make up before work. Dexter hugs Emma and kisses her cheek. But later that day, Emma is hit by a car and killed.

Unlike other movies on this list, it's the ordinariness of this couple's last kiss that gives it impact. It reminds the audience that no matter how epic a love story is, no one can predict when it will all be taken away.

Every summer romance has to have a final kiss, and Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver's (Armie Hammer) sums up the passion of their short but deeply felt relationship.

Adapted from André Aciman's novel, Call Me by Your Name tells the love story of 17-year-old American-Italian Elio and American graduate student Oliver. The couple meets in 1983, when Oliver stays with Elio's family in Italy so he can work with Elio's archaeology professor dad. Elio initially resists his attraction to Oliver and even tries to be hostile in a surly teenage way. When he does hint at his feelings, Oliver rejects them. However, eventually, they give in to their irresistible connection and fall in love, although they try to keep the relationship secret. In their last few days together, they travel to the city of Bergamo. Drunkenly stumbling through the dark, empty streets, they lean against a wall, and Oliver pulls Elio into a deep kiss.

The couple's final parting takes place at a station, but since 1980s Italy was generally hostile to gay couples, they don't kiss goodbye. The kiss in the silent streets of Bergamo is their last. It contains all the longing and imminent loss that comes with the end of a summer love that turned out to be true. Just a few months later, Oliver is engaged to someone else, leaving Elio heartbroken.

If you're into movies that show the slow, painful disintegration of a once-hopeful romance that has become tortured and twisted, Blue Valentine has a last kiss to make your shattered heart break just a little bit more.

Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) fall in love at second sight when she's a pre-med student and he's delivering furniture. When Cindy finds out she's pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child, she and Dean get married. Five years later, their relationship is cracking under his drinking, their money worries, and her despondency. Dean insists the two of them take a vacation to a cheap motel to work things out, but they end up arguing bitterly. When Cindy leaves to go to work, Dean shows up drunk at the clinic and gets her fired.

At her parents' house, Cindy tells Dean they have to break up, but he tries to convince her that they should stay together. He walks over to her and hugs her, even as Cindy tenses up in his arms, and kisses her on the head. The physical contradiction of his hug and her stiffness reflects the way that they don't fit together emotionally any more. What was once a gesture of love becomes a moment of goodbye. The ending of the scene — as Cindy pulls away — is intercut with footage from their wedding day, showing just how far they've come from their hopeful younger selves.

If there's one movie that sums up the burden of impossible love, it's Casablanca. Grouchy American Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is keeping a low profile in Casablanca during World War II when his long-lost love, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), walks into his gin joint ... and she's accompanied by her husband, Czech Resistance leader Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid). Rick hasn't seen Ilsa since the previous summer, when they fell in love in Paris, only for her to abandon him suddenly. Now, she and Lazlo are trying to reach America to escape the Nazis, and Rick has the exit papers they need.

Reunited and still in love, Ilsa and Rick plan to use the papers to leave together. But Rick has a change of heart, and he puts Lazlo and Ilsa on the plane, knowing that Lazlo needs Ilsa to continue his important work. Many people think that Rick and Ilsa's last kiss happens at the airport, but that would have been a massive giveaway to her husband. It actually happens at Rick's apartment the night before, when Ilsa tells him, "If you knew ... how much I still love you." After this declaration, they let loose all that pent-up longing in a perfectly angled, dramatically soundtracked kiss — which proves to be their last.