Top 10 Movie Kisses That Rocked Our World as Kids

Kissing in the rain is always going to be romantic. But there’s one specific kiss in the rain that we just can’t get out of our heads: 2004’s “A Cinderella Story”. With two major stars in Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray, there’s just no way it could fail. After Sam gives Austin a scathing telling off for how he’s treated her, he finally decides to stop messing around. Sam’s speech, the football game location, and the palpable tension of the moment always make this one a go-to. As the two kiss in front of the whole school, rain starts to pour, and a cult classic was born.

During childhood, true love’s kiss was a tried and true fairytale concept. We saw it many a time: “Snow White”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”... And we were so used to the convention that when “Shrek” turned it on its head in 2001, it blew our minds. The romance between a princess and an ogre was starting to feel a little familiar, until it turned out that the princess was the one with the curse. We’re reminded that “love’s true form” looks all sorts of ways, and the kiss does work, just not quite as expected.

When you’re a kid, kissing feels like such an adult thing. And the curiosity and apprehension that Vada and Thomas J. have on the subject was very relatable. The sweet, innocent peck shared by the two unlikely friends was brief, but certainly impactful. Especially because it was followed by unimaginable tragedy. As Thomas J. goes looking for Vada’s mood ring, he returns to the beehive the pair had investigated earlier. When he is stung by a bee, he suffers from an allergic reaction and passes away. It’s a gut wrenching, devastating moment for both Vada and the audience, as well as an early example of love lost that we still remember profoundly to this day.

This kiss definitely rocked our world, but maybe not in the way the filmmakers expected. “Never Been Kissed” stars Drew Barrymore as Josie Geller, a 25-year-old reporter who goes undercover as a high school student for a story. As the film goes on, Josie develops a crush on her English teacher, Sam Coulson. She forms a sort of friendship with him, one that’s definitely a little outside of the norm and one that he encourages which, yeah, probably borders on inappropriate. After she reveals that she’s not a high school student, he kisses her on the baseball field in front of everyone. Listen, we know she’s not actually a teenager. But this one just skeeves us out.

Sometimes, the best kiss is not the one at the end of the movie. From the moment we first see Kat and Patrick together in “10 Things I Hate About You,” it’s clear they belong together. They might not see it through all their bickering, but we definitely could. The chemistry is already there when they don’t really like each other, so when they start to get along? It explodes. It’s nearly out of control when the pair go on a paintball date. Which, naturally leads up to the moment when, sweaty and covered in paint, they share a kiss. As a kid, you expect movie kisses to be perfectly put together in that fairytale way. This kiss was messy and fun, and something that definitely stuck with us.

A good adventure should always end with a kiss. “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” is a swashbuckling grand ol’ time. But underneath all that action, there’s a swooning romance waiting to be discovered. Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have amazing chemistry, filled with the perfect amount of yearning. By the end of the film, Will has just accepted his identity, complicated as it may be. And in this moment, Elizabeth shows him she has too. The music swelling and the beautiful ocean behind them makes for a moment straight out of a storybook.

If you’re a fan of Anne Hathaway, then there’s no doubt you know about the foot pop. The actress popularized the concept in the 2001 movie “The Princess Diaries,” and it remains something we quote to this day. In the film, newly crowned Princess Mia Thermopolis has dreamed about the perfect kiss for her entire life. At first when she thinks she’s found it, she’s proven wrong. But, when she finally kisses Michael, the boy who’s been there all along and who likes her for her… her wish finally comes true. For an entire generation, the foot pop symbolized the pinnacle of romance, and was something to strive for.

It’s the romantic drama kiss scene to end all romantic drama kiss scenes. You’ve seen the clip about a hundred times by now, we’re sure – but there’s good reason for it. Between the boat ride in the downpour and the tension of their miscommunication from their time apart, there’s so much to love in this scene. The dramatic dialogue, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the reveal of his letters… It’s no wonder it’s cemented itself as such a classic scene in pop culture. The unbridled passion of it all shook us then and today, well, we can pretty much recite the lines in time with the actors.

Honestly, we’re thinking this is probably a lot less comfortable than it looks. But as a kid, you wouldn’t know that so it didn’t matter. “Titanic” is one of the greatest romance stories of all time, and a lot of that has to do with the chemistry between Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. They bring a spark to Jack and Rose that undeniably brings the movie to life. Plus, they manage to make this sort of uncomfortable-seeing kiss look great. Standing on the bow of the ship together, anyone would be swept up in the moment as Rose is when she cranes her head around to kiss Jack. But not before uttering that iconic line.

Defying the laws of physics? Just another day at the office for a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. But Peter Parker’s superhero work lands him in a scenario that seems even more mind-blowing somehow. With Peter masked, his long time crush Mary-Jane Watson doesn’t know his real identity. But after he swings to her rescue for a second time, she definitely feels a closeness with him. MJ respects his secret, only unmasking him enough to kiss him. And the secret identity angle adds another layer of pizzazz and electricity to this tender moment in the rain. You didn’t have to be a kid to be blown away by this scene when it first hit theaters.