Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

"How Dare You Kiss Me!"

This was the second follow-up adventure film detailing the further exploits of Indiana Jones.

Adventurer and archaeology Professor Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) was searching for his estranged father Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery) who was seized by the Nazis during their mutual quest for the Holy Grail ("a race against evil"), in order to acquire immortality.

Indy traveled to Venice where he met his father's sultry blonde Austrian colleague and femme fatale Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), who was secretly working undercover with the Nazi leader and art collector Walter Donovan (Julian Glover).

Indy angrily told Elsa:

"Since I met you, I've nearly been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and chopped into fish bait. We're caught in the middle of something sinister here. My guess is Dad found out more than he was looking for. And until I'm sure, I'm gonna continue to do things the way I think they should be done."

He forcefully kissed her, and she exploded back at him: "How dare you kiss me!" but grabbed his head and aggressively lip-locked with him.

When he finally came up for air, Indy threatened: "Leave me alone. I don't like fast women," although they continued their passionate kissing as she bit his ear and replied: "And I hate arrogant men!"

They sank down to have sex, presumably, as Indy sighed: "Ah, Venice!"

Say Anything... (1989)

Kiss in the Rain, and "I Need You" Kiss

One of the most delightful teen romantic comedies (and high-school films) of all time was this effort from writer/director Cameron Crowe.

It followed the relationship of two mismatched teen students post-graduation from a Seattle school:

• Diane Court (Ione Skye), a beautiful straight-A valedictorian student, with a scholarship to study in Europe
• Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), an average, underachieving, irresponsible army-brat student, an aspiring kickboxer

In one scene, they experienced a three second kiss in the pouring rain.

There was an additional scene of them kissing and passionately making out in a steamed-up parked car.

Their relationship was tenuous because of the opinions of Diane's divorced father Jim (John Mahoney), and they broke up for a time (Diane: "I think we should stop going out on dates"). She gave him a pen and made a request: "Please take this pen and write me." By film's end, when she found out that her father was guilty of theft and tax fraud, she came to Lloyd, apologized, explained that she had left home, and pleaded:

"I need you...Everything else means nothing to me. If I hurt you again, I'll die...I love you...I love you. How many more times do I have to say it?...I love you. Please, I love you."

He was skeptical and asked one question: "You're here 'cause you need someone or 'cause you need me? Forget it, I don't care." They kissed and made up and vowed their love for each other.

However, those scenes were outranked by the more famous non-kissing scene of Lloyd serenading Diane by holding aloft his boom-box that was playing Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." She heard the tune through her open window.

When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

New Years' Eve Kiss

Director Rob Reiner's popular romantic comedy followed the relationship over many years of two friends who became lovers:

• Harry Burns (Billy Crystal)
• Sally Albright (Meg Ryan)

Although they had kissed earlier in the film, the best kissing scene was in the New Years' Eve sequence at the film's conclusion.

Harry raced through Manhattan toward a formal party where Sally was located - he found her painfully lonely after ditching her date. He professed his long-last love for her, just after the stroke of midnight:

"How about this way? I love that you get cold when it's seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're lookin' at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely. And it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

Although she felt manipulated, she also melted:

"You see. That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you."

They kissed and kissed. After discussing the meaning of the song Auld Lang Syne, they kissed again as the camera pulled up and away from them, showing them engulfed by others on the dance floor as the film concluded.

Ghost (1990)

Pottery Wheel Kisses

Director Jerry Zucker's popular romantic melodrama (and slightly supernatural film) told about the love between:

• Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), a young stockbroker
• Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), his beloved

During an early scene at her hypnotically-spinning pottery wheel, she sensuously molded, formed and sculpted a phallic-shaped clay object to the tune of "Unchained Melody" when she couldn't sleep. Shirtless Sam kissed his lover Molly as he was seated behind her. He assisted her in reshaping a collapsed piece of pottery (her failed "masterpiece") by putting his hands together with hers. The sequence continued with their extended love-making and kissing ("hunger for your love") in their darkened apartment.

Extended Kissing Following the Pottery Scene

Shortly later, the film shocked with a serious and unexpected incident, when Sam was violently murdered and died in the hands of his beloved. But then he came back as a spirit to warn her about a threat to her endangered life.

While she was seated at her pottery wheel, she spoke to herself about how she was still reeling from his death:

"...I broke into tears. It's like I think about you every minute. It's like I can still feel you."

The recently-murdered ghost-spirit Sam was crouched next to her and reassured her: "I'm here, Mol." She sensed his presence and asked: "Sam?"

Ghost (1990)

Final Goodbye Heavenly Kiss

In the finale's tear-jerking scene, Sam became visible to the grieving Molly. He explicitly told her about his love and gave her his last goodbye - within the light, before he passed on into heaven:

Molly: "Sam?"
Sam: "Molly."
Molly: "I can hear you. Oh, God." (They kissed. He bid goodbye to spiritualist Oda Mae (Whoopi Goldberg).)
Sam: "I love you, Molly. I've always loved you."
Molly (tearfully): "Ditto."
Sam: "It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you. See ya."
Molly: (responding likewise) "See ya. Bye."

The Grifters (1990)

Seductive, 'Incestual' Kiss Before Accidental Murder

Director Stephen Frears' complex post-noir crime-drama story (with the tagline: "SEDUCTION. BETRAYAL. MURDER. WHO WAS CONNING WHO?") set mostly in Los Angeles was about three con artists whose lives were inextricably intertwined, especially the two females who were engaged in a deadly power-struggle love-triangle for the male's allegiance:

• Roy Dillon (John Cusack), a 25 year-old, two-bit small-time hustler/con
• Lilly Dillon (Anjelica Huston), a 39 year-old, experienced horse-gambler and Roy's estranged mother
• Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), a high-stakes sexual swindler and corporate scam artist scheister, Roy's 35 year-old girlfriend

In the film's conclusion, vengeful Myra was shot to death by Lilly (off-screen) during a murder attempt, and then Myra's face-blasted and disfigured corpse was made to look like Lilly's. Then, Lilly was confronted by Roy as she appeared to be stealing his money in his LA apartment.

She argued that she was on the run and needed his money, and claimed she might make a break to get out of the con games and grifting (although she'd never had a legitimate job in her life) - she desperately begged and begged for his money, to tide her over:

"I need this money! I can't run without money! And if I can't run, I'm dead!...I want that money, Roy, I need it. Now, what do I have to do to get it? You mean you won't give it to me, Roy? Will you or won't you? What can I do to get it? Is there nothing I can do?"

When she came close and seductively kissed him, he asked: "Lilly, Jesus, what are you doing?", she replied: "Nothing at all, nothing at all," but then in a bizarre twist, she swung an attache case full of cash at her son's head as he was drinking water from a glass. The glass smashed and cut an artery in his neck - and he profusely bled to death on the floor in front of her!

Red-dressed Lilly gathered up the strewn cash, descended in an elevator, and calmly drove away.

Mermaids (1990)

Sinful Kissing

Director Richard Benjamin's enjoyable comedic drama told about a Jewish family of fatherless daughters living with their eccentric mother Mrs. Rachel Flax (Cher) in a small Massachusetts town in 1963.

Precocious, gawky 15 year-old Charlotte Flax (Winona Ryder) dreamed of becoming a Catholic nun, but was torn between God and sex. For example, she prayed in voice-over: "Please God, don't let me fall in love and want to do disgusting things."

First time sexual kisses for her weren't what she thought they would be, when she developed an immense crush on handsome, 26 year-old local Roman Catholic nunnery-convent caretaker/handyman Joe Porretti (Michael Schoeffling) who was ringing the church bells in the tower next door to her home.

As she kissed him (on the day of President Kennedy's assassination), the guilt-ridden Jewish girl feared that the religious statuary around her was witnessing their forbidden lust. She broke off the embrace and ran hurriedly down the tower stairs, repeating The Lord's Prayer as fast as possible.

She took a cleansing shower to purge her sinful ways (and thoughts), as she worried and feared eternal damnation (in voice-over) and fantasized that she was pregnant (although she was still a virgin):

"I'd turned into a fallen woman overnight and no one can tell. I've been as bad as I can be. I should be burned at the stake. Bless me father for I have sinned. And in a holy place, I kissed him. I will starve myself until I purge every single thought about Joe Porretti from my soul...The sins of the saints never go unpunished. Joan of Arc got burned at the stake. OK, so what are you gonna do to me, Lord? Flagellation? Mutilation?...Well you think about it. Get back to me...Oh Lord, no. Anything but that...I'm pregnant. Lord, how could you do this to me? How could you be so strict?...Mary didn't even kiss Joseph and look what happened to her...I may be pregnant with the next Jewish-Italian messiah."

Pretty Woman (1990)

Fire-Escape "Hollywood" Kiss

Director Garry Marshall's improbable Pygmalion story told about how a Hollywood hooker was transformed by a business tycoon into a stylish modern princess.

In the film's famous Cinderella-like fairy tale ending, rich businessman client Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) pulled up outside Hollywood prostitute Vivian's (Julia Roberts) hotel apartment in a white limousine with the horn-honking and opera music blaring.

From the open sunroof, he held out his arms to her with a closed black umbrella in one hand and a bouquet of red roses in the other; he called out: "Princess Vivian, come down!" and then commented: "It had to be the top floor, right?"

Fearing heights, he climbed up her outside fire-escape ladder with the bouquet of flowers clenched between his teeth while she climbed down partway on the ladder to meet him. He held out his arms with the roses and professed his love, by asking about the ending of her childhood fantasy of a knight's rescue:

Edward: "So what happened after he climbed up the tower and rescued her?"
Vivian: "She rescues him right back."

Kisses on the Fire Escape

The film ended with the camera pulling back, overhearing the words of a Happy Man (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) crossing the street:

"Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here. This is Hollywood! The land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't. But keep on dreamin'. This is Hollywood! Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'."

Total Recall (1990)

Dream (?) "Kiss Me Quick" Kiss

In the conclusion of director Paul Verhoeven's mind-bending, futuristic science-fiction action film, Martian settler and resistance fighter Melina (Rachel Ticotin) gazed at the breathtaking vista, now that fresh air had been pumped onto the red planet's surface, and spoke to secret agent (?) Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger):

Melina: "I can't believe it. It's like a dream. What's wrong?"
Quaid: "I just had a terrible thought. What if this IS a dream?"
Melina (invitingly): "Well then, kiss me quick before you wake up!"

As they passionately kissed, the screen faded to a brilliant white, hinting with previous hidden clues that the entire film was indeed a fantasy memory implanted by Rekall, as promised by the "Blue Skies on Mars" dream vacation ("By the time the trip is over, you get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the entire planet!")

Quaid was either actually waking up (and everything was a dream), or maybe he had to be lobotomized to cure his delusionary state, brought on by a glitch in the programming? Was everything part of the VR 'dream' vacation implant? Or was what he experienced real? Did he get lobotomized (the flash of white light), to bring him back to the real world from a failed memory implant procedure that caused psychotic delusions and psychological trauma?