Thor (2011)
Out Of Sight (1998)
The Drinking Scene: Snow's falling. Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) is sitting alone when Jack Foley (George Clooney) strolls up.
"Can I buy you a drink?" he asks. "Yeah, I'd love one." Cue fireworks…
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Puh-lease, like these two need any booze to ignite sparks. Here, it's pretty much surplus to requirement.
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
The Drinking Scene: Vomit creature! Steven (Craig T. Nelson) swigs down a bottle of Tequila, even downing the worm at the bottom.
This being a Poltergeist flick, that worm then turns into a hideous monster which births itself when Steven voms onto the carpet…
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: The booze is sort of integral to this one, though we'd like to think that even without it, Steven would have had a similarly hideous encounter with a monster. This is Poltergeist , after all.
Young Adult (2011)
The Drinking Scene: “Shots!” Divorced writer Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) makes a total fool of herself when she heads out to a bar and meets up with high school boyfriend Buddy Slade (Patrick Wilson), then suggests they hang out together in a ploy to get him back. Awkward.
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Mavis would probably have skipped the pretences and just rammed her tongue down Buddy's throat. Who needs subtle when your biological clock is ticking?
Before Sunrise (1995)
The Drinking Scene: Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) go for a coffee in Vienna, where Celine makes a fake phone conversation to her boyfriend and describes how amazing Jesse is. Bless.
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: These two are drunk on unexpected love rather than alcohol, so booze isn't a requirement.
Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (2009)
The Drinking Scene: An ingenious moment of tension-cranking lifted straight from the book as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) go in search of a piece of Voldemort's soul. Dumbledore must drink from a well in order to release a magical locket, but each mouthful slowly drives him mad…
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Technically, it's not booze, but a poisonous potion. And without it, the scene wouldn't be even half as horrifying.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
The Drinking Scene: Charles (James McAvoy) and Eric (Michael Fassbender) approach a mutant in a bar, hoping to make a new ally.
Except Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) isn't in the mood for making allies. “Go fuck yourself,” he growls.
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: To be honest, Wolvie seems more interested in his cigar than the glass resting in front of him, so it probably wouldn't have made a massive difference.
Still, if it hadn’t been booze, we imagine he’d have been nursing a protein shake.
Ice Cold In Alex (1958)
The Drinking Scene: Captain Anson (John Mills) and his fellow travellers finally make it to Alexandria and head straight to a bar for that much-dreamed-about lager. Except then a Military Police officer arrives to arrest Captain van der Poehl (Anthony Quayle)…
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Anson would have thrown a massive, MASSIVE hissy fit.
American Mary (2012)
The Drinking Scene: Surgeon-in-training Mary (Katharine Isabelle) is invited to a party hosted by some of the surgeons from her hospital. Any pretence at civility goes out the window, though, when Mary’s drink is spiked and she’s brutally attacked. Which leads to the birth of one of horror’s most awesome anti-heroines.
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Her attackers would have injected Mary with a cocktail of drugs. They are surgeons, after all…
Tombstone (1993)
The Drinking Scene: A sweaty, sick-looking Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) meets Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) in a bar and wastes no time verbally abusing him. While sipping a brew. Then Ringo takes out his gun and flips it around a bit - prompting Doc to show off some considerable skill with his tin cup.
If The Booze Hadn’t Been There: Doc would've impressed everybody with a card trick instead.
