What's one thing that all these classic movie scenes from cinema history have in common? You guessed it—they all feature Taylor Negron.
Just kidding—they all feature coffee as a crucial plot point. So sit back, relax, and pour yourself a cup of coffee, as I count down 7 memorable coffee scenes from cinema history.
#7 - Goodfellas (1990)
"The **** you doin'? It's a joke. Put the ****in' pot down!"
The otherwise violent scene in which Samuel L. Jackson is executed by Joe Pesci (well, I mean their characters) becomes darkly comedic when Pesci sarcastically asks Frankie to make them some coffee.
Pesci shoots Sam Jackson, then tells Frankie, "...make that coffee to go."
Frankie fumbles around with the percolator, and Pesci gets mad at him for not understanding that he was being sarcastic.
It's an extremely rare thing to see Joe Pesci angry in a movie, which is part of why this coffee scene makes the list.
#6 - Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
Perhaps the most accurate, true-to-real-life coffee scene of all, the memorable "Don't Panic" scene from Airplane II goes like this:
MARY THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT: We've been thrown off course just a tad.
PASSENGER: What exactly is "a tad?"
MARY: In space terms, about half a million miles.
The passengers all react freakishly calmly to this news. You can hear someone mumble "Oh, that's interesting."
MARY: "The bumps you feel are asteroids smashing into the hull of the ship. Also, we're flying without a navigational system, and can't seem to change course."
PASSENGER: "Miss, are you telling us absolutely everything?"
MARY: "Not exactly.... We're also out of coffee."
The passengers instantly erupt into total chaos and start fighting each other upon hearing that there's no more coffee on board. The "Don't Panic" sign sparks and goes up in flames, revealing a second sign flashing: "Okay, Panic." Need I say more?
#5 - Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)
Not one scene per se, because this entire film is made up of lots of short scenes of strange celebrity conversations over coffee and—yup—cigarettes.
My personal favorite is the scene with The White Stripes, where after a full minute and a half of silence and staring at each other over coffee, Meg White suddenly asks Jack White out of nowhere:
MEG WHITE: "So Jack... you going to tell me about your Tesla coil?"
It’s so odd that—just like Boulevard of Broken Dreams or Hollaback Girl—I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since 2004.
This movie has quite a few memorable scenes of people conversing over cups of coffee—including one where The RZA from Wu-Tang Clan asks Bill Murray: "Are you a bug, Bill Murray?"
He also calls him "Bill Murray" instead of "Bill" every single time:
BILL MURRAY: (coughs)
RZA: "That don't sound too good, Bill Murray."
#4 - Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
The scene where Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) and The Bride (Uma Thurman) fight at the beginning of Kill Bill is an extremely intense, fast-paced fight, using all kinds of colorful household items as weapons.
When Vernita's kid comes home from school during the fight and the two pretend they weren't fighting, they cool down long enough for Vernita to ask "...You want some coffee?"
After a few minutes of coffee talk in the kitchen, Vernita suddenly tries to shoot The Bride with a gun hidden in a cereal box. After barely missing the bullet, The Bride dropkicks a mug of hot coffee across the room, almost nailing Vernita in the face, and distracting her long enough for The Bride to pull out the knife on her hip and throw it across the room directly into Vernita's heart.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they should probably try decaf.
#3 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
I hate to rely on the tired old "Quentin Tarantino movies have a lot of bad words" thing, but there's really not a lot I can say about this infamous scene, other than it features Vincent (John Travolta), Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), and "Jimmy" (Q.T. himself) drinking and discussing coffee.
JULES: "Mmm! *******, Jimmy! This is some serious gourmet ****! Usually, me and Vince would be happy with some freeze-dried Taster's Choice, right? But he springs this serious GOURMET **** on us!"Well, coffee isn’t all that they end up discussing in this scene, because it turns out that coffee isn’t what's on Jimmy's mind. But besides its notoriously inappropriate dialogue, this scene is also infamous for showcasing director Quentin Tarantino's acting abilities at their peak… okay?*
(*If you've seen it, you get it.)
#2 - The Big Lebowski (1998)
A memorable scene from a movie with countless memorable scenes (and no, I'm not referring to the darkly hilarious scene where Walter empties Donny's ashes out of a coffee can and the wind immediately blows Donny all over Dude's sunglasses.)
In this other coffee-related scene from The Big Lebowski, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and The Dude (Jeff Bridges) are sitting at a diner counter drinking coffee, and as usual, Walter can't stop getting worked up and screaming curse words, getting the attention of everyone in the diner. The waitress meekly asks him to please calm down, and Walter tries to turn it into a first amendment issue.
The Dude silently walks out the door, leaving Walter to awkwardly sit and proclaim to the restaurant, "I'm staying."
A long silence.
"Finishing my coffee."
Even more silence.
"Enjoying my coffee."
#1 - Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
"Put. That coffee. DOWN. Coffee's for closers only."
This famous scene from 1992’s Glengarry Glen Ross features Jack Lemmon as Shelley (who happens to be the inspiration for "Gil" on The Simpsons) and one of the Baldwins (I forget which) as the guy who’s "here from downtown."
Baldwin comes to light a fire under all of the under-performing salesmen in the real estate office, and he doesn't take kindly to Jack Lemmon pouring a cup of coffee while he's giving his speech to the office.
This incredible scene from a great film has deservedly achieved its "iconic" status. And while it's clearly meant to show how overly harsh, unforgiving, and cruel the world of "leads" and "sales goals" can be, these days the "Coffee's for closers" meme from this scene gets referenced all the time in grind/hustle culture. Sometimes with irony, often without.
This scene is also unique in that Alec Baldwin is playing a character who's much nicer than himself.
That's why this scene wins first prize—a Cadillac El Dorado.
The second prize? A set of steak knives.
Third prize? You're fired.
Get the picture?
The End
Well, there you have it—I'm positive I've included all of the most memorable coffee scenes from cinema history in this article, and haven't left a single one out.
Other than that one where Kylo Ren drinks coffee while he's teaching Thanos how to drive the Batmobile. But other than that scene, yep—Got all 7 of them.
If I have somehow left a famous coffee scene from a movie out, well... I can only hope that someone will be kind enough to let me know that I messed up.
In the meantime, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee, and enjoy looking up these famous coffee scenes on YouTube, or wherever you watch copyrighted movie scenes!
