40 Most Awkward Sex Scenes

The Room (2003)

The Sex Scene: Take your pick - there are numerous forehead-slapping sex scenes in this "Citizen Kane of bad movies", mostly involving Lisa (Juliette Danielle) and Mark (Greg Sestero).

Most Awkward Moment: Any time the thrusting starts to look just a bit, er, wrong and the scenes outstays its welcome by a good few minutes.

Don Jon (2013)

The Sex Scene: Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) finally gets into the pants of Perfect Woman Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), except he just can't seem to enjoy it as much as he knows he should be.

Most Awkward Moment:
When Babs has fallen asleep, Jon boots up the laptop and starts jerking off to porn - only to be caught by a horrified Babs…

Risky Business (1983)

The Sex Scene : Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) kicks his relationship with prostitute Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) up a notch by deciding to have some rather public sex with her on a train.

Most Awkward Moment: The whole thing doesn't exactly look comfortable, does it?

Shame (2011)

The Sex Scene: Sex addict Brandon (Michael Fassbender) has anonymous sex with a random woman in a New York hotel room.

It's basically a human version of the puppet sex scene in Team America, considering the number of different positions the pair get through.

Most Awkward Moment: The pair do it up against a window - despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they're in full view of the street.

Wild Things (1998)

The Sex Scene: "Do exactly as I say," commands Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) as he instigates a threesome with students Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) and Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell).

Except it seems that Kelly and Suzie aren't exactly in the sharing mood.

Most Awkward Moment:
"Never let the sun go down on an argument," says Sam, dealing out trite counsellor bullshit that should really have the girls giggling maniacally.

Then all three of them pile onto the bed in a tangle of limbs that looks really, well, awkward.

Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

The Sex Scene: Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) makes her comeback (so to speak) by racing through London in a flashy car with footie star Kevin Franks.

Pushing Franks' hand downstairs, Tramell increases the speed of the car until they're careering dangerously…

Most Awkward Moment: The car plunges into the West India docks and Tramell's beau drowns.

"I guess my life was more important than his…"

Ted (2012)

The Sex Scene: Sex at work! Ted (Seth MacFarlane) proves that just because he's an adorable little teddy bear doesn't mean he's lacking in primal urges.

Which is why he ends up in the back room of a supermarket with a pretty co-worker.

Most Awkward Moment: "Stick your finger in the loop on my tag!" insists Ted, just as his boss walks in and catches him in the act. Embarrassing…

(500) Days Of Summer (2009)

The Sex Scene: During their 'happy happy' early days, anything goes (well, within reason) between Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel).

Including, apparently, shower sex.

Most Awkward Moment: Turns out shower sex isn't as sexy (or easy) as it seems, as the pair slip over and wrench the shower curtain free.

In The Cut (2003)

The Sex Scene: Frannie Avery (Meg Ryan) and Giovanni A. Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) take their relationship away from the murder case Malloy's investigating and into the bedroom for some sexually-aggressive shenanigans.

Most Awkward Moment: Giovanni gets in on a little foot-sucking action.

Hey, we're not judging, but it's like he's serving her foot up for dinner or something.

MacGruber (2010)

The Sex Scene: After having sex with Vicki (Kristen Wiig), MacGruber (Will Forte) feels like he's betrayed his dead wife Casey (Maya Rudolph).

So he visits her grave, where Casey's apparition appears to him and they have ghost sex against her headstone.

Most Awkward Moment:
The gardener sees MacGruber thrusting away at, er, nothing, because he's the only one who can see his dead bride.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.