The Most Twisted Weddings In Movie History
In the rules of Shakespeare, if a play ends in a wedding, it's a comedy. But that's not always the case in the movies. Movie weddings can be fun, funny, and full of love and hope, sure. But other times, there's violence, tragedy, and even a touch of the supernatural. In other words, these nuptial celebrations can get pretty twisted.
And for the most twisted movie weddings, we've got a list here of comedies and dramas. Some go beyond this world with a planetary disaster, some venture into the afterlife and the depths of Hell, and others have really weird musical accompaniment. Then, some just have old-fashioned family drama like drug abuse, fake orientations, and sham marriages. It's all good. Whether you've been married for decades, are just about to head down the aisle, or want to avoid the tradition for good, watching weddings in movies always allows for a bit of catharsis, especially the messed-up ones. So here are the most twisted movie weddings in history.
Kill Bill's wedding is a bloody affair
Quentin Tarantino's two Kill Bill films star Uma Thurman as a mysterious female assassin known at the start of the saga only as "the Bride." The first movie jumps around a bit in time, following the Bride as she hunts down her former colleagues and taking them out in a series of bloody, epic battles. And as the Bride continues her reign of revenge, we learn just what exactly her former assassin buddies did to earn her ire.
The Bride, whose real name is Beatrix Kiddo, learned she was pregnant and wanted out of the assassin life. So she faked her own death and got together with regular guy Tommy Plympton. But her old flame, Bill (David Carradine), and her fellow assassins found out about her scheme and ambushed the wedding, murdering all of the guests and the groom. Beatrix survived the massacre, as we know, and goes on to enact her revenge against Bill and the gang, but the wedding was gruesome, obviously, since it's a Tarantino movie.
The wedding in The Graduate leaves us feeling worried
In Mike Nichols' 1967 classic, The Graduate, Dustin Hoffmann plays a young recent college grad named Benjamin Braddock who begins having an affair with the much older and wiser Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). But Ben also begins dating Mrs. Robinson's college-aged daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). The whole tale is a coming-of-age male fantasy, but the real kicker is the twisted wedding that wraps the film up.
After discovering that Ben was having an affair with her mother, Elaine gets forced into a marriage to a former boyfriend by her disgruntled father. But Ben shows up at the wedding, fights off the groom, Elaine's father, and a number of guests with a giant crucifix, and then he runs off with Elaine. The duo board a bus, with Elaine still in her wedding dress. But their moment of elation quickly turns to one of doubt, as their faces change from heaping joy to "what have we just done?" uncertainty.
The Princess Bride's wedding is incredibly weird
The Princess Bride is an absolute comedy classic. The fairy tale story of a young hero named Westley (Cary Elwes), the love of his life, Buttercup (Robin Wright), and a merry gang of goofy accomplices has gone from cult classic to beloved family film over the past several decades. From "as you wish" and the R.O.U.S.'s to the swashbuckling Spaniard played by Mandy Patinkin, there are so many things to love.
And the wedding is super weird! Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon) forcing Buttercup into marriage was bad news already, but the actual ceremony itself gets points for just how absurd it is. Fans will always love to reenact the priest's (Peter Cook) inability to say the letter "w," resulting in declarations of "mawiage!" bringing us together today. But with Fezzik (Andre the Giant) pretending to be a demonic pirate outside and scaring the guards away and creating chaos, Humperdink has to act fast and basically forces Buttercup to marry him. But as Westley assures her later, she didn't say, "I do. " As he puts it, "You didn't say it, you didn't do it." Therefore that incredibly twisted wedding is totally void.
The marriage in Beetlejuice is all sorts of wrong
Even though we love him, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is technically the villain of Tim Burton's 1988 movie, so it makes sense that he'd be involved in a coerced marriage. The twisted fantasy film revolves around a normal couple, Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin), who suddenly die and find themselves navigating the land of the dead. In order to attempt to maintain some semblance of normalcy in their own home, they hire Beetlejuice, a demonic "bio-exorcist," to scare away the Deetz family who've since moved in. But Beetlejuice has his own plans and wants to stay in the mortal world.
In order to save Barbara and Adam, who've become the victims of an exorcism, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) agrees to marry Beetlejuice. And, man, this is one twisted wedding. The officiant is some kind of small, undead goblin, and Lydia magically appears in a blood red dress. Beetlejuice forces Lydia to agree by putting his hand over her mouth and faking her voice. Who knows if the wedding is technically valid in this Burton universe, but it doesn't really matter when Beetlejuice is eaten by a giant sandworm. Guess Lydia is a widow now, which to be honest, kind of goes with her whole aesthetic.
Tragedy lingers everywhere in Rachel Getting Married
In Rachel Getting Married, Anne Hathaway stars as a young woman named Kym who leaves her rehab facility for a few days in order to attend her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. But Kym's history of drug and alcohol abuse linger over the family reunion and her emotional instability and outbursts threaten Rachel's big day. Ultimately Kym's guilt over causing the death of their younger brother years before while driving under the influence is a huge stain that can't be lifted from this family dynamic.
Eventually, Kym, so distraught with guilt, attempts suicide on the night before Rachel's wedding but survives. When Rachel learns that her last remaining sibling was almost lost, the two sort of repair their shredded relationship, at least in time for Rachel to have a seemingly normal wedding. The trauma and tragedy are on full display here, though there are moments of comedy and touching sisterly moments, even if the days leading up to Rachel's wedding are fraught and twisted.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Poor Armond and Albert had it rough in The Birdcage
Based on the 1978 Franco-Italian film La Cage aux Folles, The Birdcage stars comedy master Robin Williams as nightclub owner Armond Goldman and Nathan Lane as his husband, Albert, the nightclub's drag star. Armond and Albert's son, Val (Dan Futterman), comes home to tell them that he's engaged to be married and that his fiancée is the daughter of a prominent conservative Christian politician. However, he'll never get the go-ahead to marry her if his parents are two gay Jewish men. Armond and Albert then agree to a scheme that would never pan out in real life but makes for a hilarious movie plot. Albert is going to move out for a bit, their home is going to be transformed into a move conservative-looking environment, and Val is going to pretend to be the son of a "normal" husband and wife.
But the twisted wedding in this scenario isn't the one that closes the film, where the cat's out of the bag and the drag queens and flamboyant show biz types finally reach across the aisle to the conservatives. No, the twisted part is that poor Armond and Albert agree to the whole scheme in the first place. What Val thinks he's going to do with his wife for the rest of his life, pretending to have a set of straight parents, is anyone's guess. But the fact that he asked to begin with is truly twisted.
Julia Roberts keeps taking off in Runaway Bride
Can you go wrong with a '90s Julia Roberts rom-com? No, you cannot. This one was directed by the wonderful Garry Marshall, so there's no denying that the romantic comedy stars aligned when he reunited his heroine with her Pretty Woman co-star, Richard Gere. Roberts plays Maggie, a woman who's left a trail of fiancés waiting at the altar, earning her a tabloid reputation and the nickname "Runaway Bride." Gere plays Ike, a journalist assigned to cover her story who naturally falls in love with her.
At Maggie's fourth would-be wedding, she and Ike finally get together and admit their feelings, much to the chagrin of her fiancé, Bob (Christopher Meloni). Maggie and Ike decide to use that planned wedding to marry each other, but Maggie bails once again, her fear of marriage and the unknown getting in the way, not to mention her inability to stop conforming herself to all of her fiancés' wishes. Eventually, Maggie apologizes to Ike, and the two are married in a lovely private ceremony where the pressure of crowds and the expectations of big traditional weddings don't scare her off.
Corpse Bride gets pretty dark for a kids' movie
Weddings in Tim Burton movies are super weird. Heck, everything about Tim Burton movies are super weird, but that's also what makes them great. For example, take Corpse Bride. This one is a stop-motion film about a young 19th-century lad named Victor (Johnny Depp) who's excitedly yet nervously planning his marriage to Victoria (Emily Watson). But while practicing his wedding vows outside one night, he inadvertently marries himself to a corpse, that of a young woman named Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), who was murdered by her previous fiancé.
Burton's story takes Victor to the land of the dead and back to the land of the living again in order to free himself from marriage to Emily and reunite with Victoria. Emily, knowing the heartbreak of loss and inspired by Victor's devotion, allows him to return to Emily after they realize that Victoria's new fiancé is actually Emily's murderer. This is all pretty intense for a supposed kids' movie, right? But if anything, Burton has a way of making the darkest things sweet and funny.
The hero of Muriel's Wedding is focused on all the wrong things
Released in 1994, Muriel's Wedding is an Australian comedy that put Toni Collette on the map. She stars as the titular Muriel, a poor young woman from the small town of Porpoise Spit, Australia, who dreams of a big, fancy wedding to a stylish and handsome groom. But her family life is a disaster, her friends are incredible jerks, and she kind of has a bit of a stealing problem. She just can't seem to get her life together, nor does anyone seem supportive or helpful except her one true friend, Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths).
But when Muriel finally does get married, Rhonda doesn't approve, probably because Muriel's wedding is actually a sham. She agrees to marry South African swimmer David Van Arkle (Daniel Lapaine) for $10,000 in order for the guy to have Australian citizenship and join their Olympic swimming team. Muriel gets the white wedding of her dreams but soon realizes that she's been focusing on the wrong dreams to begin with. When tragedy strikes, however, Muriel is shot back into reality and is able to move on from her wedding fantasy world.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry has a truly twisted and offensive wedding
One of the most messed-up weddings on this list just so happens to be the most offensive. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a Kevin James and Adam Sandler "comedy" that feels like its from another, outdated time, even though it was released in 2007.
The comedians play two best friends who work for the fire department. After a near-death experience, Larry (James) asks Chuck (Sandler) to marry him so that his kids will be able to inherit his life insurance policy should he ever die at work. The whole thing doesn't make a lick of legal sense, and the movie features a metric ton of homophobic jokes and stereotypes that simply have not aged well. The climax, where the two have to kiss, is just gay panic on steroids. Somehow, these two end up with new girlfriends at the end of the movie, too. Honestly, this one is pure garbage.
Melancholia is incredibly melancholy
There's no way a wedding in a Lars Von Trier movie was ever going to be anything other than twisted. In this film, Kirsten Dunst plays a young woman named Justine whose messed-up wedding takes up the first half of the film. Justine suffers from severe depression, and it's not hard to see why when you consider her family. Her sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and Claire's wealthy husband, John (Kiefer Sutherland), have paid for a lavish wedding, but they treat Justine like an ungrateful brat, telling her she'd "better be f*****g happy." Justine and Claire's acerbic father is emotionally abusive, and their mother is just as distantly depressed as Claire. During the wedding, Justine's boss harasses her, and Justine runs off in the middle of the reception to have sex with a co-worker.
The entire wedding, however, is just a precursor to the rest of the film, in which a rogue planet is careening through the solar system on a collision course with Earth. Spoiler alert, the film ends with the total destruction of the planet and everyone on it! That kind of puts the bad wedding into perspective.
The wedding in Mamma Mia! is musical and absolutely mad
A movie that's based on a musical that in turn was based on a bunch of ABBA songs is bound to be a little bit twisted. In Mamma Mia!, 20-year-old bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) secretly invites three men to her wedding without telling her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep). Sophie has no idea who her father is, but she's learned that these three guys all slept with her mom 20 years ago. Certain that one of them must be her father, she invites them to her wedding on a Greek paradise island, hoping to discover which dude is her dad.
Of course, things get silly. The three men are played by Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård, and they all sing and dance with differing abilities. On top of that, the whole island gets in on some musical action. The ABBA songs don't really match up to the story, but that's pretty usual for a jukebox musical. However, when Sophie decides to postpone her wedding, followed by Donna and one of her former paramours getting married instead, that's when things get super weird. But hey, it's all in good '70s Swedish pop fun, right?