Sony Pictures
The best movies, regardless of genre, have the power to transport you — to make you feel specific emotions and take your heart and mind to places they don’t often go. Sometimes that extends to something as simple as making a cold beer look like the most refreshing thing on earth.
From sweaty dive bars to beach-front pubs, from Nazi-filled taverns to prison rooftops, Hollywood has a long and under-appreciated history of making beer look extraordinary. These are the seven most refreshing-looking beers in movie history.
Ranking the top seven most refreshing looking beers in the history of movies
7. Top Gun: Maverick
While Tom Cruise the actor likely doesn’t drink beer — at least anymore — his Top Gun character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell certainly does, as he enjoyed a cold one at the bar owned by his former flame Penny Benjamin, The Hard Deck, in the early stages of the film. Maverick also wound up buying a round for the entire bar.
6. Inglourious Basterds
While the “La Louisiane” basement tavern in the village of Aubervilliers, Nazi-occupied France would likely be near the bottom of a list ranking the best places in movie history to enjoy a pint, the Das Boot (bierstiefel) that Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom was nursing before all hell broke loose certainly looked tasty. The only casualty of this scene that outpaces American spies and Nazi troops, unfortunately, are split drinks.
5. X-Men: First Class
Before exacting revenge on the former Nazis hiding out in Argentina — a very real phenomenon that unfolded in the wake of World War II — Michael Fassbender’s Magneto made sure to enjoy a few sips of classic German beer first. Hard to blame him considering he’s about to put a knife through three of the most evil men in the world.
4. Titanic
The only thing better than a cold beer is a cold beer at a party. And the only thing better than a cold beer at a party is a cold beer at a party with a woman you’re falling in love with, which is exactly what Jack experienced with Rose aboard the Titanic. And she can drink him under the table. No wonder he (needlessly) gave up his life for her.
3. The Fast and the Furious
While they’ve since become something of a meme — as has the franchise at large — Coronas have been a staple of the Fast & Furious franchise ever since the original 2001 film, serving as the drink of choice during a “La Familia” barbecue. Ten movies later and the crew is still crushing Coronas, whether they’ve just returned from the ice sheets of the Arctic to the edges of outer space.
2. Django Unchained
What makes the beer in Django Unchained so uniquely refreshing-looking is that the scene was seemingly conceived and shot with the specific intention of making it appear that way, as Dr. King Schultz goes through a routine of pouring it that was similar to an ASMR Instagram video. King is a dentist, he’s an ace assassin, he’s a damn good man, and he’s always apparently a professional bartender.
1. The Shawshank Redemption
While many of us likely cannot relate to being in jail, we virtually all know the pleasures of a cold beer and a hot summer day. Combining those two factors makes the rooftop suds scene in The Shawshank Redemption the undisputed king of cinema’s most refreshing beers. It’s literally a drink of freedom, a beer of liberty — that’s impossible to beat.