The Big Damn Kiss

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"Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind."
—The Princess Bride

The moment when awesomeness and romance meet, when an otherwise epic scene is topped with a kissing scene that is quite epic on its own as well.

Visually, it might be supported with Stuff Blowing Up in the background. In more mundane settings, it might still be enhanced with tropes like Dramatic Wind, Scenery Porn, or Orbital Kiss camera movements. In the narrative, it can be signified as the the characters' First Kiss, maybe the long-awaited end of the Unresolved Sexual Tension, a Now or Never Kiss, or referenced as True Love's Kiss.

In media forms that use background music, it might often overlap with a Crowning Music of Awesome as well, or at least it will be located at a climatic part of the soundtrack.

Some tropes—such as Smooch of Victory, Hollywood Kiss, Concert Kiss, Beach Kiss, and Lip-Lock Sun-Block—are almost always examples of this as well.

Examples of The Big Damn Kiss include:

Advertising

  • The two minute mark on this old car advert here.
  • Parodied in a 4G Epic commercial.

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Runaways: Chase plants one on Gert right after she saves his life with CPR right after he saves her from a giant, flaming rock monster.
  • Occurs at the climax of the second volume of Miki Falls.
  • The kiss between Superman and Lois while on the moon during All-Star Superman. (Grant Morrison considered doing a From Here to Eternity Beach Kiss reference here, but ended up going with something else.)
  • The first kiss between Scott and Ramona in Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.
  • In the Spider-Man comics Peter and MJ share their first kiss in a mostly empty section of JFK airport (well mostly empty sans Robbie Robertson whom was there too) with a big snowy window behind them before Peter went on assignemnt in France. It may not have been upside down, but as MJ said "Wow, why didn't you ever tell me you could kiss!" Followed by after she let it sink in for a minute "Far freaking out." (made even funnier by the fact the kiss was her idea).

Fan Works

  • A Growing Affection has Naruto and Hinata's First Kiss causing the two of them to forget where they are for about a minute. Where are they? In the Leaf Stadium, surrounded by almost every Leaf and Sand ninja, at the conclusion of Naruto's trial.
  • Shards of Memory has this in Chapter 19 when Terra tries to free Cloud from Sephiroth's mind control.
  • Javert and Valjean's kiss in Roommates may count, but fandom reaction has certainly been...enthusiastic, even attracting several new shippers.
  • There's one between the isekai character and Sailor Jupiter in Isekai by Moonlight, just before the Sailor Senshi take the battle to the Dark Kingdom. Bittersweet because she knows from him that she probably isn't coming back... and it's her First Kiss, too.

Film

  • The famous upside down kiss from the first Spider-Man movie.
  • A rather famous one in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. The censors at the time didn't allow for a kiss to last longer than 3 seconds. The Big Damn Kiss moment in that movie breaks up the kiss at just the right moments to have the couple keep repeatedly kissing each other.
  • At the end of Demolition Man.
  • The kiss between Will and Elizabeth in Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End after their marriage at sea: Surrounded by an Epic Fight, trading blows between exchanging vows, culminating in an Orbital Kiss a few minutes before Will is killed and comes back from the dead. There's a Big Damn Kiss at the end of all three movies, too.
  • Judge Dredd. The scene at the end when Judge Hershey (Diane Lane) kissed Dredd (Sylvester Stallone) was supposed to be one of these, but fell kind of flat. You can judge for yourself: it's here, at 5:20-5:40.
    • Lane does a more passionate one with Michael Pare in Streets of Fire, complete with dramatic rain.
  • Speaking of sci-fi cop movies, before the movie Runaway ends, after Dr. Charles Luther (played by Gene Simmons... yes, THAT one) gets attacked by his own robots, injected with acid, and roasted alive by his own robots' self-destruct program, Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay (Tom Selleck) and his new partner Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) lock lips amid a shower of sparks.
  • The unforgettable kiss done by Seymour and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at the end of the "Suddenly Seymour" number. Aww...
  • Speed and Trixie's kiss at the end of the Speed Racer live action movie.
  • The reunion scene between Forrest Gump and Jenny Curran before the Washington Monument.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies, as a nuclear warhead goes off in the background.
  • The Simpsons Movie has one near the end between Homer and Marge while driving a motorcycle.

Marge: Best kiss of my life.
Homer: Best kiss of your life so far.

  • The 1978 Danish film Du er ikke alene (You Are Not Alone) ends with a show the boys at a boarding school put on to illustrate the Ten Commandments. 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' is illustrated with a short movie showing 15-year-old Bo, a pupil at the school, and 12-year-old Kim, the headmaster's son (Kim is a male name in Denmark) hugging and kissing. It packs quite a punch, both within the film itself and within the context of the time when the film was made. The film became iconic for being the first Danish film to show a homosexual relationship.
  • Double subverted in Thor where Thor and Jane almost kissed with Thor uncertainly pulling away before it happened and he kissed her hand for a second time. But Jane pulls him into the kiss anyways.
  • Averted in Mystery Team. As Kelly described it, "He breathed in [her] mouth".
  • The climax of A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! has Timmy admitting his love for Tootie and then passionately kissing her in order to save the lives of his fairy godfamily.
  • In the mind-synching scene of ET the Extraterrestrial, Elliot emulates the movie E.T. is watching at home, culminating in the film's Big Damn Kiss.
  • The Kiss from The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, that one.
  • Anakin and Padme's Now or Never Kiss en route to the arena in Attack of the Clones.
  • The Princess Bride: "Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind."
  • Beauty and the Beast: Belle and Prince Adam's kiss.
    • Heck, many animated Disney couples do this.
  • Speaking of Disney films, National Treasure featured one. Two words: "Come here."
  • Rio: Blu and Jewel, during the film's climactic "falling" scene.

Literature

  • Hermione gives Ron one after retrieving the Basilisk's fangs in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
    • Seriously? Harry. Ginny. The Half-Blood Prince. "Harry looked around; there was Ginny running towards him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him. And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her."
      • Ron and Hermione still win, since A) They had sexual tension earlier B) As Harry so politely lampshades, "OI! THERE'S A WAR GOING ON HERE!" C) You could hear the cheers rock the planet with cries of "FINALLY." No "seriously" about it.
    • It's even more of a Big Damn Kiss in the movie. Hermione has just destroyed a horcrux, they're both drenched with water and suddenly they pounce on each other, complete with epic kiss music. This all happens in the Chamber of Secrets.
  • "Think of life!" In The Old Kingdom, this describes Sabriel and Touchstone's first kiss - bonus points because she's kissing him to resist the lure of Astarael, the bell that can send them both into Death, easily.
  • Alec in Mortal Instruments finally outs himself in City of Glass by kissing Magnus in front of, well, everybody. Jace and Clary's first kiss in City of Bones, and their kiss in the faerie court, also count.
  • Alec and Seregil. Twice up til now. First time after a reunion, second time in the face of death.

Live-Action TV

  • The Ninth Doctor gives one to Rose after what has to be the absolute worst pun ever delivered in the series ever. It could be argued that he was only kissing her to draw the time vortex out of her so she wouldn't die but we all know the truth. It's also one of the very last things he ever does.
    • When River Song and the Doctor get married, the ensuing kiss restarts time again. The Power of Love indeed!
    • Before that, River saved the Doctor's life, giving him all her remaining regenerations by kissing him.
      • Rory and Older Amy have an absolutely romantic one in The Girl Who Waited.
  • Lost promised its viewers a spectacular kiss in the season 4 finale. Halfway through, it seemed to be Kate and Sawyer in the helicopter. Then later in the episode it was topped by Desmond and Penny's reunion.
    • In the finale, Kate and Jack have defeated the Man in Black, and realize they're never going to see each other again. The ensuing kiss is quite epic.
  • When Odo finally kisses Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he does so in the middle of the very crowded Promenade (just outside of Quark's, no less) immediately following a very loud, very heated UST-charged argument between the two. Bonus points for everyone else stopping what they're doing to turn and stare as Odo and Kira kiss.

You're right, who needs dinner?

Spike: "We kissed, you and me, all Gone With the Wind with the rising music and the rising...music."

  • When Angel becomes human in "I Will Remember You"; Buffy finds out about it when he walks up to her in the sunlight and sweeps her into his arms for a passionate embrace.
  • Babylon 5 gives John Sheridan and Delenn theirs in "And the Rock Cried Out 'No Hiding Place'" after Delenn shows Sheridan a whole fleet of fast, maneuverable, highly advanced White Star spaceships. Keep in mind that he'd confessed his love for her nine episodes earlier. It would be easy to assume this wasn't their First Kiss, except their body language screams that they've never done this before (although they got pretty close once). Apparently that pesky war kept getting in the way...

Delenn: We finally have, as you say, a fighting chance.
Sheridan: [after a long Held Gaze] ...I don't know what to say.
Delenn: Then say nothing...
[Sheridan proceeds to snog her senseless]

  • Horribly averted on The X-Files. Viewers waited through seven seasons of UST for Scully and Mulder to have their moment, only to find out...they already did. Off camera.
    • The X-Files LOVED to avert this trope. They also did it with the hallway kiss in "Fight the Future;" Mulder does all but say the words "I love you" and they're about to kiss...when Scully is stung by a bee. The next season has the episode "Triangle;" a high-action plot climaxes with Mulder and Scully standing on the deck of a large cruise ship trying to thwart Nazis. Mulder is about to jump over the side of the ship and pulls Scully into a passionate kiss. Except....it's not Scully, and Mulder is probably dreaming.
    • Also averted by their real first kiss, which is hailed by fans as the Big Damn Kiss only because they waited seven seasons for it. However, it happens during a very quiet, non-action-packed scene in a hospital. Same goes for their touching kiss at the end of "Existence," the scene is awesome because Mulder and Scully are fawning over their baby and they finally admit their feelings for each other (in their vague, Mulder-and-Scully way), not because there is a lot of action.
  • Castle: Beckett and Castle finally kiss for keeps after 4 seasons of UST!

Theatre

  • The Phantom of the Opera combines this with a Tear Jerker Downer Ending beautifully.
  • In Bye Bye Birdie, to grab one last bit of publicity out of Conrad Birdie before he is inducted into the Army, he is to give "One Last Kiss" to one girl "chosen at random from 1,200,000 hysterical teen-agers." Unfortunately, what the television cameras capture is not Conrad Birdie planting a kiss on Kim MacAfee of Sweet Apple, Ohio but Kim's boyfriend Hugo flooring Conrad with one blow.

Video Games

  • Mass Effect features this for the final romance scene, if the player pursues that option. Given that an Almost Kiss had happened very recently beforehand, it makes it all the more meaningful.
  • Executed brilliantly, beautifully, heartwarmingly well at the conclusion of Lair of the Shadow Broker between Shepard and Liara in Mass Effect 2.
    • Though this is only if Shepard romanced Liara in the first game. If not, Liara just hugs him/her.
    • Perhaps making up for the Headbutt of Love in the second game, Garrus and female Shepard have two of these in Mass Effect 3 if their relationship continues. The first is during their date high atop the Presidium when Shepard agrees to be his girlfriend, and the second is in London before the final battle for Earth. And if Shepard's reaction is any indication, Garrus is one hell of a kisser for a guy that doesn't have lips.
  • BioWare loves this trope in general, as the same thing happens in Dragon Age 2 as Hawke's having one last conversation with the party members before the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. It's especially poignant if Hawke's Love Interest is either Fenris (due to the Second Act Breakup they had) or Anders because he's a fugitive terrorist at that point.
  • The Scott Pilgrim video game ends each of the first four levels with one between Scott and Ramona.
  • Final Fantasy X had a 2-minute long sequence of this between Tidus and Yuna.
  • Brutal Legend has the awesome moment where Eddie and Ophielia kiss for the first time while the Screaming Wall blares a shockwave of sonic energy, causing hair to billow dramatically.

Visual Novels

  • An omnipresent trope in the Renai genre. Kissing scenes are always one of the few that get their own unique CG art, while the rest of the story uses character sprites.

Web Comics

Tarvek: When she kissed Wulfenbach, my glasses started to melt.

Western Animation

Lisa: Eww, Knock it off!

Real Life

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