Heterosexual Life Partners/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Film - Animation


Film - Live Action

  • Sherlock Holmes and Watson, for decades.
  • Laurel and Hardy, despite the former always getting the latter into "another nice mess". This carried over into Real Life; when Hardy died, Laurel was devastated and never appeared again on film.
  • Any Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson film with the possible exception of the Focker trilogy where they are rivals.
  • Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. And their Jewish counterparts, Rosenburg and Goldstein.
  • Mark and Roger from Rent. In fact, fans seem to prefer pairing those two together rather than Roger and Mimi.
  • The trope name comes from Jay and "hetero-life-mate" Silent Bob of The View Askewniverse.
    • Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes may be real-life versions of this trope, as Jason lived for quite a while with Kevin and his wife.
    • This can apply to Dante and Randall from The View Askewniverse as well.
    • In fact, all of the main characters in said films come in pairs, most with the same dynamic. The most apparent being Holden and Banky in "Chasing Amy"...whose relationship gets to the point that Holden suggests a three-some just to see if they're really in love with each other.
  • In the movie Stick It (A gymnastics star who walked out of a national-level event for very valid and personal reasons, takes it back up and discovers it's fun. Also much snarking and funny), the main character has two goofy male friends, one of whom introduces the other as his 'hetero life partner'. And they manage to portray that, despite one of them trying on a dress when they take the gymnastics team out dress-shopping.
  • Pintel and Ragetti in Pirates of the Caribbean, too (although they bicker Like an Old Married Couple). Allegedly, they were uncle and nephew.
  • Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's characters in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. And very much so in Real Life, and that friendship was simply translated onto the screen.
    • Shaun and Ed in SOTD is a particularly interesting case, as the movie bills itself as a "romantic comedy with zombies", presumably the romance between Shaun and his girlfriend Liz. But it's really more about the friendship between Shaun and Ed as the movie ends with them, the idea being that not even being a zombie (and in a sense death) can prevent Ed from being with his best friend.
    • In the Shaun of the Dead commentary, Simon Pegg mentioned that Nick had actually lived on his couch for a while in Real Life exactly like Ed does in the movie. Art imitating life indeed!
    • Again, in the Spaced tv series.
      • One of the commentaries on the USA DVD release of Spaced actually has Simon getting permission from Kevin Smith to use the expression to refer to his relationship to Nick Frost.
    • Early drafts for Hot Fuzz had a female love interest for Pegg's character; in the end they cut her out and gave the lines to Nick Frost.
    • And again in the upcoming Tintin movie, as Detectives Thomson and Thompson.
    • Simon has refered to his and Nick's relationship as this a number of times.
  • Harry and Lloyd of Dumb and Dumber. You could not find a better example.
  • Marwood and Withnail from Withnail and I. As Paul McGann said on the commentary, 'it's like a marriage going wrong.'
  • Dan Cain and Herbert West in the first two Re-Animator movies. In the first, they start out mutually suspicious but grow closer as they work together; by the second, they are sharing a house and West is actively jealous of Dan's girlfriend.
  • Detectives Hughes and Costanzo in Running Scared (1986).
  • Jesse and Chester in Dude, Where's My Car?. Though they have girlfriends in Wanda and Wilma, they live together and seem to be with each other more often.
  • Bill and Ted.
  • President Andrew Shepard and A.J. MacInerney in The American President. Granted, they were the original models for Jed and Leo of The West Wing.
  • Star Wars
    • Han Solo and Chewbacca. They live in the same ship and travel everywhere together, for god's sake. How much more life partner can you get?
    • In the Star Wars prequels and the Expanded Universe, Obi-Wan and Anakin. That is part of the reason their climactic fight was so tragic. It's been commented -- accurately -- that they bicker like an old married couple.
    • R2-D2 and C-3PO, technically asexual life partners, being droids and all.
  • Dale, Saul and Red in Pineapple Express, making up a rare trio example. It is Lampshaded. The end of the film does not see Dale tearfully reunited with his (presumably still in hiding) girlfriend Angie, but hanging out with Saul and Red instead.
  • Abbott and Costello. Only on-screen. In real life, they were not particularly close (and at one point, at the height of their fame, spent a year not speaking to one another except when the cameras were rolling).
  • The title characters in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who had been together for some time before the movie started.
  • Rick and Sam. At the end, we are to assume that Rick and Louis will be heterosexual life partners, as Sam is staying in Casablanca, and the other two are going to Brazzaville to fight Nazis.

Louis, I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

  • Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu in Red Cliff. Ironic, considering the two most likely never met historically, and in the book Zhou Yu was constantly trying to kill Zhuge Liang.
  • Seth and Evan in Superbad. Remember this scene?
  • Poppy and Zoe from Happy-Go-Lucky teach at the same primary school, share a flat, are best friends, and have travelled the world together. They have have a regular very silly rapport all through the film, and it's implied that if they ever want to give up the flat, they'd buy a house together too. Throw in a few "jokey," Les Yay comments and another character thinking they actually are couple, and if Poppy hadn't started dating a social worker guy...
  • Billy Mack and his manager, Joe, from Love Actually. Solidified at the end where Billy returns early from a party at Elton John's house to spend Christmas with Joe, who he confesses has been his best friend for countless years, and is essentially "the fucking love of my life."

Joe: Well, this is a surprise. Ten minutes at Elton John's and you're as gay as a maypole.

  • By the fourth Lethal Weapon, Riggs and Murtaugh certainly qualify.
  • Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in all the four films they did together: Silver Streak, Stir Crazy,See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Another You
  • Andy and Red in The Shawshank Redemption
  • The film Becket depicts King Henry II of England (Peter O'Toole) and Thomas Becket (Richard Burton) as heterosexual life partners until Henry made the mistake of making Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket took the job very seriously and defied Henry's rulings in favor of the church. Henry then acts like a Woman Scorned, exiling Becket and later has him killed. Becket: "He never forgave me for loving God more than him."
  • Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris's characters in Appaloosa, whose relationship gets thrown for a loop with the arrival of Renee Zellweger.
  • Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan's characters in the movie Cop Out, in a typical buddy cop manner.
  • Corey Mahoney and Terrence Christian in the Syfy channel original Soulkeeper
  • Roger and J.P. in the old Disney movie Angels in the Outfield. Despite only having been in a foster home with each other for a few months, and despite Roger being approximately four or five years older than J.P., they were best friends and went everywhere together. At the end, Roger refuses to allow himself to be adopted (he wanted a family more than anything in the world) unless J.P. could come with him.
  • Connor and Murphy McManus from The Boondock Saints. They're twins and so have spent their entire lives together; they work in the same meatpacking plant, live together, and would do anything for each other. This includes pulling a toilet out of the floor and dropping it on the head of a Russian mafia man from five stories up.
  • The various interchangeable characters played by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the Road To ... movies.
  • Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, as mentioned in Literature, but emphasized in the film. These sorts of relationships were essential to life in the British Navy, though.
  • Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) from Easy Rider. Reputedly an Odd Couple due to Real Life Writes the Plot, with Fonda as the Straight Man and Hopper as the Cloudcuckoolander best friend.
  • Gary and Julius from Remember the Titans become this over the course of the movie. After Gary's accident, Julius talks to Gary in the hospital about how race won't always come between them and essentially growing old together.
  • Thelma and Louise
  • In Strange Brew, Bob and Doug McKenzie are temporarily split up. They immediately go through withdrawal symptoms and become completely useless until they are reunited.
  • Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple
  • The eponymous Mystery Team has shades of this, especially near the end.
  • Eddie(Bruce Willis) and Tommy(Danny Aiello) in Hudson Hawk are in a May-December Bromance.
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