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Withnail And I (1987)
The Rain: As Withnail and Marwood walk through a sodden Regent's park, the latter insists he finish his journey alone. The pair now separated, Withnail stares disconsolately into the adjoining London Zoo and sombrely recites the soliloquy from Hamlet .
Thematic Resonance: It provides a terribly melancholy end to the film, although a more upbeat one than the original conclusion, which had Withnail blowing his brains out at the close!
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)
The Rain: Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke indulge in one of many sex scenes in a murky alleyway, with the rain pounding down around them. Those two just do not care, do they?
Thematic Resonance: The rain is here to show how our amorous couple are into each other enough to get it on anyhow, anywhere.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Rain: So iconic is the scene in which Brad and Janet flee to Frank N Furter's castle to escape a downpour, that audiences have been known to fire water pistols int he air to recreate the effect. It takes all sorts.
Thematic Resonance: It's their desire to get out of the rain that drives Brad and Janet to arrive at the castle in the first place. Therefore, it's kind of important.
Forrest Gump (1994)
The Rain: Forrest's period in Vietnam is constantly spent enduring the rain. "We been through every kind of rain there is," he explains. "Little bitty stingin' rain, and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."
Thematic Resonance: War is hell, but war in the rain? Well that's even worse. No Vietnam sequence would be complete without some.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
The Rain: Neo goes toe to toe with Agent Smith towards the end of the film, as the rain comes down in buckets. Turns out not one of those watching Agents remembered to bring a brolly.
Thematic Resonance: Some of the raindrops are actually lines of code, demonstrating how the Matrix is beginning to destabilise.
Return Of The Living Dead (1985)
The Rain: As a poisonous, corpse-reviving gas is released into the atmosphere, it comes down in one hell of an acid-rain storm. As a result, the dead rise en masse and go on the hunt for brains. And who can blame them?
Thematic Resonance: It's a key plot point that facilitates pretty much everything else that happens in the movie.
Suspiria (1977)
The Rain: As Suzy Banyon arrives at her Freiburg ballet school, the raging storm and ominously brooding building should surely tell her to turn tail and run!
Thematic Resonance: The storm makes this early scene a truly nightmarish proposition. It's already bloody scary and the film's barely even started…
Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994)
The Rain: Andie McDowell and Hugh Grant share a kiss while being pelted by buckets and buckets of rain. "Is it still raining?" she asks, irritatingly. "I hadn't noticed."
Thematic Resonance: The rain is in attendance purely so that McDowell can utter that teeth-gnashingly awful line. Gaaah!
Aliens (1986)
The Rain: The crew make their landing on the newly terraformed LV-426, where a nasty storm is raging. Having touched down safely, the marines make their way cautiously into the eerily abandoned colony…
Thematic Resonance: As well as demonstrating the planet's new atmosphere, the rain also serves as an ominous portent of things to come.
Raising Arizona (1987)
The Rain: In accordance with Hollywood law, all jailbreaks must take place in the pissing rain, and John Goodman and William Forsythe are no exceptions to that rule.
Thematic Resonance: The rain is here for mud-coated comic effect, as Goodman and Forsythe go slip-sliding all over the place.
