Six Movies Where Smoking Steals the Scene

1. The Graduate

Mrs. Robinson probably wouldn’t look quite as demure – and, well, let’s say it: seductive – without a cigarette dangling between her fingers.

2. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It can seem like Blondie is chewing on the same ratty cigar for the entirety of the film, but nothing punctuates a shoot-out like that single, swift readjustment at the end of this scene...


3. Pulp Fiction

 It’s easier to punctuate sentences in that awkward silence with a cigarette. You’ll note that it’s sometimes important for actors to have something to do with their hands – we don’t want things getting too awkward, after all…

4. Goodfellas

 De Niro doesn’t get anything in this scene except a cigarette, his eyes, and a badass tune. That’s all the master needs, though.

5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

It’s hard to imagine Depp’s Hunter S. Thompson without a massive cigarette holder clenched between his teeth, seemingly never smoking it, just holding on from start to finish like it’s the only thing of permanence in the entire film.

6. Girl, Interrupted

Cigarettes do a lot in films – here, Lisa Howe introduces herself, and we get to see a little bit of sociopathic behavior, all over a cigarette.