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Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone! As we march toward Turkey Day we are counting down the 15 best Thanksgiving scenes from movies.
Hollywood has long neglected Thanksgiving as a holiday in comparison to Christmas and Halloween. But there have been some Thanksgiving classics throughout the years and we are paying tribute to those today.
Ranking The 15 Best Thanksgiving Scenes And Thanksgiving Movies
Coming in hot at #1 below we have a re-imagining of the first Thanksgiving through the eyes of the Addams children.
1. Addams Family Values: The First Thanksgiving
Coming in at the top is the ‘First Thanksgiving’ scene from Addams Family Values where Wednesday Adams played by Christina Ricci lets her freak flag fly. Wednesday had been playing nice for a bit at camp to convince them she was a saved soul in their eyes, a changed individual.
Then she unleashed a fiery imagination of what things would have been like if the indigenous peoples fought back on the first Thanksgiving and shortly thereafter Camp Chippewa is set ablaze in the Addams’ reimagining of Thanksgiving.
2. Funny People: Adam Sandler’s Character Gets Dark
Judd Apatow’s Funny People (2009) was a polarizing film when it came out. A lot of people saw Judd Apatow’s name attached and Adam Sandler as the lead, as well as Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, and assumed it was be a classic Sandler slapstick film and it was anything but.
This movie was a glimpse into the life of fictional comedian George Simmons (played by Sandler) who is actually written as “a crooked version” of Adam. Basically an Adam Sandler from an alternate reality where he didn’t find happiness.
In the film, George is coming to grips with a cancer diagnosis while connecting with younger comedians and he is invited to their Thanksgiving ‘friendsgiving’ where the wheels legitimately come off. It was a hard scene to sit through the first time I saw the film but later I came to appreciate it as a truly masterful take on the personalities in this film and the life of a comedian.
3. Son in Law: Pauly Shore at this Best
I cannot begin to fathom how many times I must’ve watched Son In Law (1993) as a kid in the 90s. Did I get all of the jokes? Absolutely not. Was Pauly Shore at the peak of his career and hilarious from start to finish? 100%.
In Son In Law he is brought home for Thanksgiving by Rebecca Warner played by Carla Gugino and he’s meant to embody everything weird and quirky about coastal Californians that is off-putting to small town folks which is who he ends up spending Thanksgiving with on the farm. It really is worth a re-watch if you haven’t seen it in a few years.
4. Rocky: ‘It’s Thanksgiving’
This one gets a shout out as an oft overlooked moment in Rocky. But it is a pivotal scene that bonds Rocky and Adrian together while outing Paulie for not being what anyone would consider the world’s best brother.
Rocky repeatedly asks Paulie that his sister knows he’s coming over for Thanksgiving only for her to immediately reveal she had no clue Rocky was coming. A sibling fight ensues. Rocky’s left hanging in the wings like ‘Paulie, bro, you hung me out to dry on this one.’
5. The Doors: Jim and Pam Crash Out on LSD
If you are a fan of messy family and friends Thanksgivings where ‘messy’ refers to unresolved trauma, resentment, and pent up jealousy and anger manifesting itself at the dinner table then boy oh boy do I have a scene for you! The Thanksgiving scene from The Doors is probably the best Thanksgiving scene on this list in my eyes.
My only real issue with the scene is the notion that anyone would have an appetite while under the influence of a ton of LSD. Who would want to be eating a full Thanksgiving meal on that?!
6. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: The First Friendsgiving
What can I say about A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that hasn’t been said at some point by someone else? This is the most classic Thanksgiving film of them all and this scene where they band together to make Thanksgiving dinner is arguably the best scene from the movie, in my humble opinion. Their overcoming adversity after all the plans bailed through and showing up for Charlie Brown is the best.
7. Scent of A Woman: Al Pacino’s Epic Thanksgiving Speech
I’m not big on Thanksgiving speeches on Turkey Day but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to watch it on film. It is entirely different when the weird uncle is going around the room saying things that catch everyone off guard and when Al Pacino is winning the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ which he did in this film. One has to wonder how many people said ‘let East meet West and we’ll build a golden bridge’ after the start of this scene.
8. Spider-Man (2002): Peter, MJ, and the Osborns
Mary Jane, Aunt May, Peter, and Harry Osborn host Norman over for Thanksgiving while Norman is crashing out, losing his grip on reality between himself and the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn is on high alert for Spider-Man. Peter Parker is losing his ability to mask his alter ego. Shortly into the meal, Norman realizes that Peter Parker is in fact Spider-Man and he books it out of there in a hurry setting up the next showdown between hero and super villain.
9. Little Fockers: Carving the Turkey
It’s safe to say that by the time Little Fockers (2010) came out six years after Meet the Fockers that interest in this franchise was waning. But it was still a comedy featuring Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Owen Wilson, and other heavy hitters.
Little Fockers is often an afterthought in the discussion of the best Thanksgiving scenes and films but Ben Stiller’s character nearly becoming an amputee while carving the turkey is a classic scene that deserves to be recognized.
10. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: From Start to Finish
There isn’t a specific scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that stands out above all to me so I am just calling the entire film as worthy of being on this list. The very last scene of the movie is when Steve Martin returns home and brings John Candy with him, presumably on Turkey Day, after they have moved heaven and earth to get home for the holiday. Hollywood just doesn’t make movies like this anymore.
11. The Blind Side: Thanksgiving with the Tuohy Family
2009’s The Blind Side which was based on the real life of Baltimore Ravens star Michael Oher reaches an inflection point on Thanksgiving. It is during this meal when Michael Oher is seen to be really embraced by the family and the situation he’s in. The warmth of Thanksgiving does a lot of work in this scene.
12. Dutch: Ed O’Neill and Ethan Embry
1991’s Dutch starring Ed O’Neill and Ethan Embry might have been lost to the annals of history. I haven’t seen it on TV or available on streaming at any point in my adult life. But this entire film about Ed O’Neill picking up his girlfriend’s son from prep school to be home for Thanksgiving is a classic head-butting comedy between two strong personalities. The film culminates with Ed O’Neill shooting Ethan at the table (with a BB gun) in a scene that’s great from start to finish.
13: Free Birds: Turkeys Take Action
It is kind of astonishing that it took until 2013 for an animation studio to step up and say ‘hey, we should make an animated film about Thanksgiving because kids love the holidays’ because it felt like the first animated Thanksgiving film since the Snoopy days about Thanksgiving. The plot of the film is to remove turkey from Thanksgiving menus which, of course, isn’t what Big Thanksgiving™ wants to see happen.
14. American Gangster: Turkey Scene
2007’s American Gangster this turkey scene stole the show. Did you expect American Gangster to sneak its way onto a list of the best Thanksgiving scenes? Probably not. But here we are, though technically it’s Thanksgiving leftovers as he’s making the traditional next day turkey sandwich.
15. Beethoven: He’s A Good Boy
Last but not least we have Beethoven. It was impossible to find the exact scene I was looking for but this but this video of Beethoven being a good boy and causing chaos suffices as we can clearly see him housing the turkey in the thumbnail. Frankly, we don’t have enough scenes of dogs going to town on turkeys during Thanksgiving which is an all too real phenomenon in life for dog owners.