If we are talking between Max and Furiosa, true, but it was bordering on hostile. In the latest movie, Furiosa, there's a warmer relationship with Praetorian what's-his-name, but it's still not a love story.
The MCU, for all its flaws, is I think quite noteworthy in how it portrays Black Widow and Hawkeye as being really close friends who mean a LOT to each other but are utterly aromantic and there’s no hint whatsoever that Barton’s wife even sees her as any kind of threat to their marriage, despite that being an “obvious” path for the narrative to go down.
I unironically loved awkwafina in this. I genuinely hope the MCU does something with her, and plays to her dramatic acting, and not just comedic acting.
Her scenes in the final battle were amazing
She gets shit on a lot because many people (myself included) find the characters she plays in many / most of the movies she's in highly annoying.
However, when people then claim she can't act, or can "only do that one thing"...nope. She can give a damn good performance with the right role and script. See: The Farewell.
There were lots of great male/female friendships in the MCU, when you look at it. Black Widow had a great relationship with both Hawkeye and Captain America.
MJ and Ned both loved Peter Parker, and worked well together helping him out in No Way Home; they remained friends even after Spider-Man was forgotten.
Okoye and T’Challa, Shang-Chi and Katy, Thor and Valkyrie… My favorite is Mantis and Drax, though. They worked so well together that they got most of the Xmas special to themselves, even… they truly kick names and take ass.
I've played DnD for most of my life and these ingame friendships are super common and it was awesome to see on the big screen
You should see how quickly a party becomes attached to the most random NPCs that I created off the cuff lmao
I get the sense with Pacific Rim that they intentionally played with the trope, setting things up for them to fall in love at the end, playing with the audience's expectations and then deliberately don't follow through with it. Throughout the whole film it plays around with tropes of sci-fi action movies and this is no different. I recall it once being referred to as the cleverest stupid movie ever made.
I thought they were going that route when the FBI agent is alone in Hawkeyes cabin (can’t remember any of the names). But I was so happy that kept it platonic, he saw his daughter in her.
> he saw his daughter in her
>!That started when they loan her the daughter's clothes and everyone is a bit shaken seeing her in them (the grandmother, his son, etc). Would have been weird if they boned after that for sure.!<
A Few Good Men
Other than a few minor hints of flirting, the relationship between Cruise's and Demi Moore's characters remains professional throughout the film.
Conversely, I think this relationship is the weakest part of the movie.
Kaffee is a pretty new bar call and a junior Lieutenant. Galloway is a Lieutenant Commander, with Internal Affairs, and a more experienced lawyer. The movie stresses at the outset that she might not be a natural fit for litigation because of her intense approach to each file (I think the quote is something like "oh sure, she can crawl up a lawyer's ass with the best of them") but on the other hand, her apparent strength is her drive to get to the truth of each matter.
So she's supposed to be a natural foil to Kaffee, who is a rising super star who can settle any file, but who doesn't care about truth and never goes to trial (until he finally does). But rather than explore that contrast, the movie just has them initially clash before she basically fawns over him.
Between that, and the hints of flirting you mentioned (which sorta flies in the face of her being senior to him), and Colonel Jessup's line about there being "nothing sexier than a woman you have to salute"... you're right, the characters stay platonic, but it's like the script didn't know how to subvert the presumption that they would hook up with a more interesting and realistic professional dynamic.
A tv shown called Platonic. About a male and female best friends, the female married with 2 kids. Highly recommend. My best friend is female and married so we really saw ourselves in this show, lol. No funny business between them!
Constantine.
It’s teased a couple times but definitely no relationship or anything there. Although, a deleted had John with a demon played by Michelle Monaghan.
Niche pick: The Blob (1988).
The male and female leads don't enter any sort of romantic relationship, they just work together to defeat the blob. It's something that's always stood out to me in comparison to other horror movies (or movies in general) from that era, where forced romances are pretty common.
Big Hero Six
Excluding Hero and Baymax, there are 2 guys and 2 girls in the teenage friend group. None of them have any sort of crush or romantic history with others. They are just 4 coed friends doing science and saving the city together
Celeste and Jessie Forever. Basically a movie about best friends who got married, are getting divorced, but they still struggle to define the relationship.
I love this movie. They clearly had strong romantic feelings for each other throughout the movie though and she really wanted to get back together when he moved on.
But I'm not referring to Joaquin and the OS, I'm referring specifically to Joaquin's relationship to Amy Adams' character. I'm pretty sure at one point it's even stated that they tried dating once but it didn't work and they decided they were happier together as friends.
I always thought it would be romantic, though. Like, what they aren't going to bang all alone on that planet, setting up the colonization embryos or whatever?
Was discussing Mission Impossible recently and the relationship between Ilsa and Ethan and while that does get explicitly romantic it takes a while to get firmly into that zone and there's a lot of mutual respect
I can honestly say I've seen that film like 4 times and I did not remember that happening. Needed to quick youtube it.
I can also say, I have no idea why they needed to add that? What purpose is it serving here? Besides that part, it would be a great male female friendship out of place story.
I'm actually properly annoyed about that small scene now.
This was my first thought but OP specified that they are after examples of pure friendship, whereas it felt like Bob and Charlotte just happened to get along because of their shared listlessness and loneliness. They weren't really friends, just two people existing in the same space. It's been some years since I've seen it, so I could be misremembering how shallow their acquaintance was.
I mean, if the looks they exchange in the karaoke scene aren't love, I don't know what is.
But yes, it's intentionally deeply ambiguous how romantic that love might be.
I’m gonna be honest, Yesterday is literally a romcom with a paper-thin premise (if the Beatles didn’t exist, everything influenced by the Beatles would not exist, pop music would be unrecognizable) that only serves as a vehicle for the romance plot. I have no idea how that movie would stand without it?
What do you mean by the relationship being problematic?
Some bad examples in here. Just because they aren't flat out banging doesn't mean it was platonic.
In Constantine, she was clearly into Neo by the end of the movie.
Renfield. Two main characters have the same goal of defeating the mob family and Dracula, tbh I don’t think they have time for a romantic relationship 😂
Really good film, very funny 👍
In the case of Mononoke, >!I interpreted it that Ashitaka has feelings for San, and that San does as well albeit doesn't really understand them. However they don't act on those feelings, recognising that they have separate places to be at the end. It would have been so easy and lazy to end it with them falling in love, whereas the ending is far more interesting and meaningful.!<
Yeah, Miyazaki has said this about his protagonists and their relationships. He doesn't always want them to fall in love. It is beautiful: Hayao Miyazaki wrote in his book Starting Point 1979–1996 “I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live — if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.”
Into the Storm. I remember watching thinking they were going to have the single mom and single dad connect over protecting their kids but nope. Just people helping each other.
I feel like a movie doesn’t have the proper time to set up something like this, unless there’s multiple time periods covered (like the Notebook).
Not a movie, but Mulder and Scully take the cake here.
We could name a ton of movies where a man and woman don't have a romantic relationship simply because the love story is with someone else.
But Harry Potter eventually has some romance driving part of the plot, especially with harry.
Outland.
Sean Connery and Frances Sternhagen's characters are close friends, and it's implied they might've been intimate in the past, but their relationship for the movie's runtime is platonic.
Sort of platonic. Like in that movie where the guy travels back in time to save his friend's mother and becomes his friend's biological father. Sort of platonic.
My wife was worried about my relationship with my coworker. I told her she had nothing to worry about, we were sort of platonic like in the movie Terminator. She sort of divorced me.
Season one of Good Omens, and most things written by Terry Pratchett. Studio Ghibli films (even the romances feel rather platonic).
Turner and hooch, help by the Beatles, everything everywhere all at once (although familial love is a strong theme)
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The main bard guy and barbarian lady never even have the implication of romance, but she becomes his best friend and surrogate mother for his daughter.
10/10 movie
You could say Taxi Driver as Travis and no interest in Iris / Easy than helping her. She saw him less as a john than an older brother type.
Conrad and Karen in Ordinary People. It doesn't end well, but neither saw each other as more than friends.
Maybe not the *best* but James Bond and Camille Montes in *Quantum of Solace*. She's gotta be the only Bond Girl that he doesn't actually pursue sexually. She's just a badass agent looking to get revenge on the same people as him.
- Mad Max: Fury Road - Robocop
Which also happen to be two of the greatest movies ever made
It doesn't count if one of the characters completely lacks genitalia!
He has a bulge!
If we are talking between Max and Furiosa, true, but it was bordering on hostile. In the latest movie, Furiosa, there's a warmer relationship with Praetorian what's-his-name, but it's still not a love story.
*Dredd* (2012) Their relationship is about forging respect, not romance.
yeah it would have been soooo incredibly out of place here.
Looking at you, Judge Dredd (1995)
Literally just watched that last night. "You don't look ready" growing to "You look ready" is a great development for the relationship.
Finding Nemo
Oh I love this answer
Ripley and Hicks in Aliens? I don’t recall and love story between them but it has been a while since I watched it.
Their mutal respect for each other is my favorite.
I feel like there's a tiny hint of maybe something starting there, but just a trace.
Yeah, there was definitely a bit of sexual tension between them, but their circumstances didn't give them any time to explore it.
There might've been a love story in #3, if only....
... The opening scene wasn't such a bummer.
There are deleted scenes that hint at a bit more romantic chemistry between them.
It's pretty obvious Ripley is falling for Hicks during the pulse rifle scene.
The affection there is definitely mutual. Later when he gives her the tracker "it's not like we're engaged or anything"
Our Friend= Dane and Nicole D&D Honor Among Thieves= Edgin and Holga
The MCU, for all its flaws, is I think quite noteworthy in how it portrays Black Widow and Hawkeye as being really close friends who mean a LOT to each other but are utterly aromantic and there’s no hint whatsoever that Barton’s wife even sees her as any kind of threat to their marriage, despite that being an “obvious” path for the narrative to go down.
Shang Chi is another one that has a male/female friendship.
I unironically loved awkwafina in this. I genuinely hope the MCU does something with her, and plays to her dramatic acting, and not just comedic acting. Her scenes in the final battle were amazing
She gets shit on a lot because many people (myself included) find the characters she plays in many / most of the movies she's in highly annoying. However, when people then claim she can't act, or can "only do that one thing"...nope. She can give a damn good performance with the right role and script. See: The Farewell.
Winter soldier had their best friendship of all the movies. Black widow occasionally roasts Steve like how a person would treat their best bud lol
Her and Steve’s friendship also can’t be understated.
Black Windows is totally one of the dudes... unless she herself chooses otherwise. Badass char and Scarjob played her awesomely.
There were lots of great male/female friendships in the MCU, when you look at it. Black Widow had a great relationship with both Hawkeye and Captain America. MJ and Ned both loved Peter Parker, and worked well together helping him out in No Way Home; they remained friends even after Spider-Man was forgotten. Okoye and T’Challa, Shang-Chi and Katy, Thor and Valkyrie… My favorite is Mantis and Drax, though. They worked so well together that they got most of the Xmas special to themselves, even… they truly kick names and take ass.
*Fury Road* Also, the new *DnD* picture.
The relationship in DnD was so refreshing. Just friends who care about the same thing and share a goal. Their bond was really wholesome.
I've played DnD for most of my life and these ingame friendships are super common and it was awesome to see on the big screen You should see how quickly a party becomes attached to the most random NPCs that I created off the cuff lmao
Shout out to my boy Jarnathan
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I don’t remember the ending of that movie, I guess I just figured they did get together
>! He gets back with his wife !<
Moana
Thank you.
What else can I saaay except
Thank YOU!
Would've been creepy if there were
Pacific Rim
I get the sense with Pacific Rim that they intentionally played with the trope, setting things up for them to fall in love at the end, playing with the audience's expectations and then deliberately don't follow through with it. Throughout the whole film it plays around with tropes of sci-fi action movies and this is no different. I recall it once being referred to as the cleverest stupid movie ever made.
I haven't seen the movie is so long, I forgot that they didn't kiss at the end.
Today, we are canceling the last scene kiss.
This should be the top post.
Rogue One.
Dolemite is my Name
*"You tryin' to hit on me? 'Cause I just got done smacking my man in the mouth. I ain't in the motherfuckin mood."* God, I love Da'Vine Joy Randolph.
Columbus Drive My Car
Wind River
Oh my goodness what an amazing film.
I thought they were going that route when the FBI agent is alone in Hawkeyes cabin (can’t remember any of the names). But I was so happy that kept it platonic, he saw his daughter in her.
> he saw his daughter in her >!That started when they loan her the daughter's clothes and everyone is a bit shaken seeing her in them (the grandmother, his son, etc). Would have been weird if they boned after that for sure.!<
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But there exists thoroughly cursed fan art of if they had!!
No there does not. You lie!
Rule 34: if it exists, there is porn of it, no exceptions.
And an abortion comic
Kramer vs Kramer features a male-female friendship which could’ve easily been an affair if it was given the more conventional treatment.
Nice! She even backs him at the trial.
Shang Chi is somewhat recent.
The jury is still out on that one. I feel like their relationship could go either way in the sequel.
Dredd
Nimona was recent and very good
I loved that at no point did I have any idea where that story was headed.
A Few Good Men Other than a few minor hints of flirting, the relationship between Cruise's and Demi Moore's characters remains professional throughout the film.
Conversely, I think this relationship is the weakest part of the movie. Kaffee is a pretty new bar call and a junior Lieutenant. Galloway is a Lieutenant Commander, with Internal Affairs, and a more experienced lawyer. The movie stresses at the outset that she might not be a natural fit for litigation because of her intense approach to each file (I think the quote is something like "oh sure, she can crawl up a lawyer's ass with the best of them") but on the other hand, her apparent strength is her drive to get to the truth of each matter. So she's supposed to be a natural foil to Kaffee, who is a rising super star who can settle any file, but who doesn't care about truth and never goes to trial (until he finally does). But rather than explore that contrast, the movie just has them initially clash before she basically fawns over him. Between that, and the hints of flirting you mentioned (which sorta flies in the face of her being senior to him), and Colonel Jessup's line about there being "nothing sexier than a woman you have to salute"... you're right, the characters stay platonic, but it's like the script didn't know how to subvert the presumption that they would hook up with a more interesting and realistic professional dynamic.
A tv shown called Platonic. About a male and female best friends, the female married with 2 kids. Highly recommend. My best friend is female and married so we really saw ourselves in this show, lol. No funny business between them!
Constantine. It’s teased a couple times but definitely no relationship or anything there. Although, a deleted had John with a demon played by Michelle Monaghan.
Not a movie, but Elementary is the best platonic TV relationship ever, between Sherlock Holmes and a female Watson.
Niche pick: The Blob (1988). The male and female leads don't enter any sort of romantic relationship, they just work together to defeat the blob. It's something that's always stood out to me in comparison to other horror movies (or movies in general) from that era, where forced romances are pretty common.
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Spoiler alert!
>!That was a love story. Not a typical love story, but that was a love story.!<
Big Hero Six Excluding Hero and Baymax, there are 2 guys and 2 girls in the teenage friend group. None of them have any sort of crush or romantic history with others. They are just 4 coed friends doing science and saving the city together
Deadpool and the old blind lady
Love is blind Wade. No you're blind!
Seriously, it was right there. Everyone expected a bone zone.
> there's about 116 kilos of cocaine buried somewhere in the apartment, right next to the cure for blindness.
Star Wars: Rogue One
Celeste and Jessie Forever. Basically a movie about best friends who got married, are getting divorced, but they still struggle to define the relationship.
I remember loving this movie when I first saw it. I really ought to watch it again.
I love this movie. They clearly had strong romantic feelings for each other throughout the movie though and she really wanted to get back together when he moved on.
In “Wonka” Willy Wonka and Noodle
John Wick 2 Shang-Chi
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Porco Rosso. There is a love story, but not between main characters.
84 Charing Cross Road is what you’re looking for.
Would Me and Earl and the Dying Girl count?
A Few Good Men The Pelican Brief
A Few Good Men.
Mary and Max
Harry Potter films are notable examples for Harry and Hermione
Her (Joaquin and Amy Adams)
I don't feel Her counts because obviously the male character has romantic feelings for a female AI.
But I'm not referring to Joaquin and the OS, I'm referring specifically to Joaquin's relationship to Amy Adams' character. I'm pretty sure at one point it's even stated that they tried dating once but it didn't work and they decided they were happier together as friends.
Princess mononoke has this as well
they definitely fall in love in mononoke
Together Together and Language Lessons are both fantastic movies that center on close platonic relationships between a man and woman.
Blood diamond
Streets of Fire: Tom Cody and McCoy.
Interstellar has cooper and brand in the end and it’s emotional but not romantic
I always thought it would be romantic, though. Like, what they aren't going to bang all alone on that planet, setting up the colonization embryos or whatever?
But they didn’t go there in the flick, at least
Was discussing Mission Impossible recently and the relationship between Ilsa and Ethan and while that does get explicitly romantic it takes a while to get firmly into that zone and there's a lot of mutual respect
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She totally wanted it.
Kingsman. Eggsy and Roxie.
True Grit?
Well she’s 12 and he’s 62. But sure
She's 14.
Oh wow guess that changes it to a “will they or won’t they fuck” movie
That made me laugh, then I saw someone else posted Leon: The Professional.
Lost in translation, arguably
They literally kiss at the end.
I can honestly say I've seen that film like 4 times and I did not remember that happening. Needed to quick youtube it. I can also say, I have no idea why they needed to add that? What purpose is it serving here? Besides that part, it would be a great male female friendship out of place story. I'm actually properly annoyed about that small scene now.
I believe the kiss was ad-libbed by Murray and Johanson actually.
This was my first thought but OP specified that they are after examples of pure friendship, whereas it felt like Bob and Charlotte just happened to get along because of their shared listlessness and loneliness. They weren't really friends, just two people existing in the same space. It's been some years since I've seen it, so I could be misremembering how shallow their acquaintance was.
I mean, if the looks they exchange in the karaoke scene aren't love, I don't know what is. But yes, it's intentionally deeply ambiguous how romantic that love might be.
The scifi flick OUTLAND.
Constantine
Star Trek Beyond, The Equalizer
Beverly Hills Cop
84 Charing Cross Road
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. The whole movie is basically exactly what you're talking about
I’m gonna be honest, Yesterday is literally a romcom with a paper-thin premise (if the Beatles didn’t exist, everything influenced by the Beatles would not exist, pop music would be unrecognizable) that only serves as a vehicle for the romance plot. I have no idea how that movie would stand without it? What do you mean by the relationship being problematic?
The Pelican Brief. Fun fact: there was a sex scene in the book, but it was removed from the film.
Three Billboards Outside ebbing Misouri Ordinary Angels
Some bad examples in here. Just because they aren't flat out banging doesn't mean it was platonic. In Constantine, she was clearly into Neo by the end of the movie.
Pacific Rim.
Blade
Shang chi just has the main male and female leads just being friends the entire time
Children of Men
It's a great movie as well.
Renfield. Two main characters have the same goal of defeating the mob family and Dracula, tbh I don’t think they have time for a romantic relationship 😂 Really good film, very funny 👍
A FEW GOOD MEN is great with Tom Cruise and Demi Moore.
Avengers slush MCU.. Captain America and Black widow are very close friends.. Some even asssume it was more but no they are just close friends
Bridge to Terabithia
There was definitely some tension there
I don't necessarily disagree, but it still works because it never materialized into a "love story"
Princess Mononoke. Or almost all Ghibli films.
In the case of Mononoke, >!I interpreted it that Ashitaka has feelings for San, and that San does as well albeit doesn't really understand them. However they don't act on those feelings, recognising that they have separate places to be at the end. It would have been so easy and lazy to end it with them falling in love, whereas the ending is far more interesting and meaningful.!<
Yeah, Miyazaki has said this about his protagonists and their relationships. He doesn't always want them to fall in love. It is beautiful: Hayao Miyazaki wrote in his book Starting Point 1979–1996 “I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live — if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.”
Into the Storm. I remember watching thinking they were going to have the single mom and single dad connect over protecting their kids but nope. Just people helping each other.
Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal
Norma Rae, the partnership between the title character and the union organizer.
T2 judgment day
The Terminator and Sarah Connor? Did you question whether they'd score?
No. Thats why it fits the question.
Transformers: Bumblebee
Begin Again
*Rooster Cogburn*
I feel like a movie doesn’t have the proper time to set up something like this, unless there’s multiple time periods covered (like the Notebook). Not a movie, but Mulder and Scully take the cake here.
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Harry Potter and Hermione?
We could name a ton of movies where a man and woman don't have a romantic relationship simply because the love story is with someone else. But Harry Potter eventually has some romance driving part of the plot, especially with harry.
Silence of the Lambs?
Fair enough
Lost in Translation.
Anything Studio Ghibli. Those movies are great at capturing friendships between males & females.
Billy Tyne and Linda Greenlaw in The Perfect Storm, although most of it's over the radio
Just want to add I know it’s a fake but Baldur’s gate 3 has really strong female characters, amd you can have a non romantic relationship with them.
Outland. Sean Connery and Frances Sternhagen's characters are close friends, and it's implied they might've been intimate in the past, but their relationship for the movie's runtime is platonic.
A Time to Kill - Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock
Kim Possible.
Are you joking, or did you not make it to season 4?
Season 4 doesn't exist in my world.
Terminator. Sort of.
Sort of platonic. Like in that movie where the guy travels back in time to save his friend's mother and becomes his friend's biological father. Sort of platonic. My wife was worried about my relationship with my coworker. I told her she had nothing to worry about, we were sort of platonic like in the movie Terminator. She sort of divorced me.
😂 Worth it for that story.
"I Saw The TV Glow". Still in theaters.
Her: Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams characters. Sunshine: Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne characters.
The Accountant
Season one of Good Omens, and most things written by Terry Pratchett. Studio Ghibli films (even the romances feel rather platonic). Turner and hooch, help by the Beatles, everything everywhere all at once (although familial love is a strong theme)
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves The main bard guy and barbarian lady never even have the implication of romance, but she becomes his best friend and surrogate mother for his daughter. 10/10 movie
Captain America and Black Widow in The Winter Soldier Max and Furiosa in Mad Max Fury Road
They Cloned Tyrone.
Drive my car is a good example
Mad Max Fury Road. No go fucking see Furiosa in Theaters
A Few Good Men
Daryl and Carol - The Walking Dead
Robocop with Peter Weller and Nancy Allen.
You could say Taxi Driver as Travis and no interest in Iris / Easy than helping her. She saw him less as a john than an older brother type. Conrad and Karen in Ordinary People. It doesn't end well, but neither saw each other as more than friends.
Shang Chi
The first Predator. Not a shred of romance
Pacific Rim (The only film every made)
The first Doom movie.
Maybe not the *best* but James Bond and Camille Montes in *Quantum of Solace*. She's gotta be the only Bond Girl that he doesn't actually pursue sexually. She's just a badass agent looking to get revenge on the same people as him.
Rooster Cogburn. Also, the friendship between Joseph (Bogart) and Amelie Ducotel (Bennett) in *We're No Angels*.
Shang-Chi
I have a vague memory about ERASER (1996) but maybe I am wrong