10 Great Movie Bar Scenes
This week marks the 24th anniversary of Cocktail hitting theaters, a movie that put mixology and flair bartending on the map. On the occasion of Cocktail's birthday, here are a handful of notable movie scenes featuring the complement of the perfect accompanying libation.
1. Cocktail
As far as bottle flipping, drink juggling and showy mixology goes, Cocktail is the ultimate tribute. Throughout the film we see Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown mix it up behind the bar, but the scene that sums up the energy of the film the most is this one where we see the star bartenders rocking out to Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love." The whole crowd is bursting with energy while we see one starstruck woman quietly swooning over Cruise as he drops the volume out during the chorus. The two bartenders would quickly move onto more fame and fortune, serving up swanky drinks at Cell Block, but this scene shows the pair in their prime.
2. Star Wars
The Cantina at Mos Eisley Spaceport is a rough bar but a stop there turned out to be essential to Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi's mission in Star Wars. As Luke gets a drink, a couple of thugs pick a fight with him but Obi-Wan in typical fashion has got it covered.
3. Three Amigos!
Three out of work actors, known on the silent screen as the Three Amigos are visiting Santo Poco, Mexico, for what they think is a stage show with the "infamous" El Guapo. Little do they know, El Guapo is actually a real-life Mexican gangster terrorizing the town. In this scene, the three arrive in town and order tequila at the local bar, all of which are oblivious about what the drink actually is.
4. The Shining
Jack Torrance (portrayed by Jack Nicholson) gets more than he bargained for when he takes the job as caretaker of a vacation resort in The Shining. As he slowly gets sucked into the hotel's evil clutches, he begins getting served bourbon on the rocks by the ghost of Lloyd the bartender. He's got $60 on him but little does he know that the credit of his stay is his soul.
5. Groundhog Day
Bill Murray is big on his nights out. He has a few crazy ones when he gets the same day over and over as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, but here we see him in the local hotel bar as he tries to get on Andie MacDowell's good side. While Murray's first go-to drink is a Jim Beam with ice water, he switches to MacDowell's sweet Vermouth on the rocks with a twist. He may not be able to guess MacDowell's favorite toast, but he gets plenty more chances as the movie progresses.
6. Hang 'Em High
In the height of the spaghetti western craze of the '60s, there was no star bigger than Clint Eastwood. In Hang 'Em High, Eastwood plays Jed Cooper, a marshal on a mission to take down the men who tried to lynch him. One of those men he confronts here in this scene while the perpetrator sips on what will turn out to be his last drink.
7. Casablanca
Rick's Café in Casablanca is one of the most famous bars in movie history. Run by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), its owner is a tough but fair American looking to keep his nose clean. Rick is well known for never drinking with the customers, a rule he breaks a couple times in the movie, including here when a young Joy Page pleads for help obtaining exit visas. Despite his hard stance on the matter, he ends up helping Page and her husband. Rick may have a reputation for "sticking his neck out for no one," but he proves shortly after this conversation to be a true "sentimentalist" after all.
8. Lost in Translation
Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson become fast friends during their stay in Tokyo after this meeting at the hotel bar in Lost in Translation. Murray suggests "For relaxing times, make it Suntory Times," based on the commercial he's filming in there. She orders a vodka tonic, but they still hit it off nevertheless.
9. The Color of Money
In The Color of Money, Paul Newman trains pool prodigy Tom Cruise in the art of hustling. In the scenario known as "Two Brothers and a Stranger," the two lure the bartender into taking a pretty large bet against Cruise while Newman taunts him from the bar, Wild Turkey in hand as usual.
10. Every James Bond Movie
While Daniel Craig in the role of James Bond may be switching to a Heineken for at least one scene in Skyfall, the classic 007 drink has always been the vodka martini, famously shaken, not stirred. While Bond occasionally doesn't have time to specify his preference and at others is incredibly specific about how it's prepared, the drink has always been his calling card, no matter who is portraying him. Compiled above is a collection of some of Bond's most memorable orders of the cocktail.
