The 25 Hottest 1980s Movie Love Interests

Frankly, this one was tough to call. Our more rational and appreciative side wanted to pick Teen Wolf's kinder female, Boof (Susan Ursitti), the good chick that Michael J. Fox ultimately snags, but our inner horndog couldn’t resist the shallow temptations of Pamela (Lorie Griffin), the film’s conniving bad girl who's quick to disrobe. She’s the one that Fox wants throughout the movie, which qualifies her as a “love interest.” Something tells us that blondie Pam would be a little too kinky, though; it’s not until Fox becomes the hairy wolf-boy that she finds him attractive and wants to howl at his moon, so to speak. Guys without lycanthropy powers would need some kind of edge; nothing a Halloween costume couldn’t fix.

Of all the “Corey” movies, License To Drive is the best next to The Lost Boys, due in no small part to pre-Boogie Nights Heather Graham’s turn as a temptress in a skintight dress. Corey Haim plays a 16-year-old kid who flunks his driving test and lies to his parents about it, just so he can use his dad’s 1972 Cadillac to take Graham’s appropriately named Mercedes out on a date. In true comedic fashion, the night goes to hell, with multiple car accidents and a sloppy-drunk Mercedes ending up passed out in the trunk. Before she blacks out, Graham vamps it up in a role that’s solely conceived to make the movie’s prepubescent audience salivate. Over 20 years later, we’re still drooling.

As Hollywood legend has it, Michael J. Fox wasn’t the first person cast to play the now-iconic Marty McFly; Eric Stoltz had the role first, but producer Steven Spielberg wasn’t feeling him after four weeks of shooting. Lea Thompson, however, was on board from jump street, and it’s easy to see why—only a blind man would have a change of heart about her. Blessed with girl-next-door looks, some fiery desire, and vulnerable eyes that could melt a glacier, Thompson has achieved long-term dreamgirl stature thanks to the classic Back To The Future. She even looked good under pounds of prosthetic makeup as Marty’s future mother. You know Doc Brown wanted to hit that.

Lonely guys with extensive blow-up doll collections must’ve fainted while watching Mannequin. As a department store dummy that comes to life and loves wearing scant outfits, Kim Cattrall (who went on to play the world’s horniest cougar on Sex And The City) is the definitive sex toy. Her dumb backstory says that she was once an ancient Egyptian lady, giving an already outlandish film extra layers of boneheaded mythology. It’s not like Mannequin was vying for any Best Original Screenplay awards; Cattrall’s Emmy is just so much hotter without a convoluted biography. No man buys a blow-up doll and wonders if she was once the Queen of Sheba.

Most guys probably forget that Courteney Cox was even in this phenomenally low-rent He-Man film. When seen during the pre-teen years, Masters Of The Universe worked simply because little kids aren’t Roger Ebert savvy; as long as Skeletor shows up and wrecks shop, and there’s at least one Grayskull reference, boys clutching their action figures are satisfied. Revisiting the movie as an adult, however, is an altogether different experience, one best maximized with the help of alcohol and/or Wiz Khalifa’s favorite accessory. One upside to watching Masters Of The Universe as a grown-up is being able to ogle a young, and more innocent in her allure, Cox. Who said growing up sucks?

A movie title can’t get much more ’80s than Rad. Apparently bored with generic high school settings in teen flicks, the filmmakers behind this obscure and laughably dated pic used a BMX racing backdrop to tell a standard tale of a youngster and the girl of his dreams (Lori Loughlin, best known as Rebecca on Full House). Motocross heads should swoon at her bike’s kickstand, especially after seeing how she puts it down during the school dance scene. Instead of slow-winding with the story’s lucky hero, Loughlin teases him with a series of freestyle bike stunts on the dance floor. It’s not as bad as the choreographed prom sequence in She’s All That, but it’s up there.

Only an immature screwball like Pee-Wee Herman could be absent-minded enough to misread Dottie’s obvious passes. For whatever reason, Pee-Wee’s cutest friend (played by Elizabeth Daily) fiends for a guy who names his furniture (Chairry) and travels cross country to find a bicycle with a horn attached to it. Clearly unable to find a real man, Dottie repeatedly fails in her attempts to pop Mr. Herman’s cherry. It’s hard to hate Pee-Wee, particularly when thoughts of that timeless classic show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse come to mind, but watching him deny the adorable Dottie a good, we think it's a shame he doesn't have a segment called "pants-off time."

Stepping into the role of Princess Vespa, Daphne Zuniga had some rather big heels to fill. Vespa is the Princess Leia of Mel Brooks’ Star Wars spoof, and any sci-fi fan knows that Carrie Fisher’s Leia is out-of-this-world perfection to George Lucas’ worshippers. If you ask us, Zuniga rose to the challenge admirably; playing Vespa with the snootiness of an older My Super Sweet Sixteen rich bitch, the stunning brunette made it easy for us to overlook her snobby tendencies. Though we say that as casual viewers behind the fourth wall; there’s a reason why we say, “Check, please,” whenever a girl asks how much money we make on a first date.

Here’s what we call “Western hospitality.” Just because he’s the man, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) spends much of his trip to Okinawa, Japan, working his charms on local hottie Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). Being Okinawa’s finest tour guide, Kumiko lets him sample her special homemade tea, which isn’t quite as erotic as it sounds, but that’s due to the movie’s PG rating. We’re pretty sure that our boy Daniel-Son got a closer look at her Bonsai tree once their drinks were done, even though The Karate Kid Part II doesn’t let the scene play out. If not, Miyagi should’ve beaten his ass.

With the scenery covered in snow and the wardrobe mostly consisting of parkas and goose-down coats, the beloved comedy Spies Like Us is light on warmth. Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase must’ve given each other high-fives and chest bumps then, when Donna Dixon walked on set to play the movie’s female lead, and potential love interest for either guy. Starting her career off as a beauty pageant contestant, Dixon caused men to sweat for a living. And what’s better in freezing temperatures than some good old-fashioned body heat?

Without Ione Skye, pop culture wouldn’t have one of its sappiest yet undeniably memorable professions of love: John Cusack holding a boombox in the air while Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” blasts out through the speakers. The scene has been spoofed, imitated, heralded, and referenced by disgruntled girlfriends as they berate their aloof dating partners. The reason why dudes can’t muster up the nerve to pull a Cusack in real life is basic: It’s soft-batch like some Granny Annie’s Cookies. You can’t blame Cusack’s character for resorting to such corny measures; Ione Skye is fine enough to drive any guy to the brink of both humiliation and emasculation.

Give it up for Swampy. Life handed him a green pile of shit and he found a way to turn it into gold. Getting to carry around a lingerie-clad Heather Locklear seems like a nice consolation prize after being turned into a disgusting green monster. Even better, Locklear takes a liking to Sir Thing, looking past his grossness to see Swampy’s inner gentleman and give the vile beast some cheap thrills. Would she need a weed-whacker to find his junk? Never mind. We’re sure Swamp did his thing.

If you know a guy in his mid-to-late twenties who strictly goes after redheads, chances are he grew up in awe of Molly Ringwald. An exemplary ’80s teen movie queen, the crimson-haired Ringwald brought the subtle sexy to John Hughes classics like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. In Pretty In Pink, written by the inexhaustible Hughes, she played the object of affection for both Andrew McCarthy and Jon Cryer, putting her in the middle of an awfully dressed sandwich. For real, look at the dress she’s wearing in the photo above—it’s a testament to Ringwald’s sexiness that she’s able to distract us from the hideous ’80s prom dress she’s wearing.

It’s pretty unbelievable that sales of pocket protectors didn’t catapult within the first month that Revenge Of The Nerds was in theaters. Filling all bookworms with pride and inspiration, geek supreme Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) uses his large brain to have sex with the quarterback’s knockout of a girlfriend, Betty (Julia Montgomery). In a masterful stroke of craftiness, Lewis pretends to be her boyfriend during a costume party, which leads to a triumphant sexual episode. The film’s message: Revenge is a dish best served while banging your enemy’s chick.

Take a look at that body in the above picture—would you pay $1,000 to tell people you’re hitting that for a month? A wise man would negotiate a money-back guarantee if no physical contact happens during the 30-day period, but that’s not how the stereotypical high school nerd (Patrick Dempsey) flips it in Can’t Buy Me Love. He just drops the cash and walks around with a false sense of popularity, which does lead to a kiss before the film’s closing credits. This is an ’80s teen comedy, after all—it’s not like he wouldn’t get the girl. If your man had a financial advisor, merely reaching first base would mean Peterson had to give $800 back. What a boob.

In this case, “love” is a loose term, but we defy you to complain. Back in the ’80s, Jennifer Beals was the hottest thing smoking, a fact proven by her gyrations and ability to sweat with eroticism in the 1983 hit Flashdance. Six years later, she turned up alongside a frenzied Nicolas Cage in the dark comedy Vampire’s Kiss, playing a seductress with sharp fangs and the ability to turn men into bloodsuckers after sex. As far as Cage’s on-screen persona is concerned, Beals is a person of high interest, this qualifying her for this countdown. But, again, are you really going to argue with that (see above)?

For all of the fanboy accolades she’s received from the Alien movies, there’s one thing about Sigourney Weaver that’s mentioned far too infrequently: She’s always been exceptionally attractive. The best evidence for this claim is Ghostbusters, in which she plays a double role of sorts. First, she’s a haunted woman who hires the supernatural exterminators and becomes a romantic conquest for Bill Murray. Eventually, though, she gets possessed and takes on the identity of “The Gatekeeper” Zuul. As the scene where Dana/Zuul tries to seduce Murray with heavy breathing and a phone sex operator’s vocal tone shows, Zuul is also a sexual fiend. There’s a porno version of Paranormal Activity just waiting to be written.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of Mischief. Ranking somewhere on the 1980s movie scale beneath The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Mischief is an uneventful teen comedy that’s only unique distinction is its 1956 setting. The main character is a shy dweeb who longs to get freaky with a hot blonde. Sorry, Mischief actually has two unique distinctions—the second is Kelly Preston, who’s on board to play the aforementioned hot blonde. There’s only scene worth checking out in the entire film, and it’s a whopper: Finally ready to break off the dweeb, Preston takes it all off, showing everything to the camera, and, trust us, it’s a great look.

For the majority of the slept-on horror-comedy Night Of The Creeps, Jill Whitlow plays your typical movie crush, abnormally hot yet routinely unavailable to the film’s nerdy hero. Like most movies of this kind’s sweethearts, her sorority girl character is nice to the geek, in this case a nebbish college student (Jason Lively, Gossip Girl star Blake Lively’s older half-brother) who’s understandably smitten by her. It’s not until the zombie bumrush at the end of Night Of The Creeps that Whitlow goes from just sexy to dangerously smoldering. As an army of undead frat-boys converges on her sorority house, Whitlow grabs a blowtorch and helps Lively exterminate the whole ghoul troop, and, presumably, they live happily ever after. Zombies, fire-powered weapons, and love—it doesn’t get much more romantic than that.

Thank your lucky, um, stars that there’s no real-life women like Jamie Gertz’s character in The Lost Boys. Though she’s not a vampire herself, Star lives with the leader of the film’s vamp gang, David (Kiefer Sutherland); meaning, any guy normal enough to push up on her ends up introducing himself as either a hot meal or a recruit to David’s undead crew. If girls of her ilk were real, and prowled skuzzy bars nationwide, the vampire community’s population would dramatically increase. It’d be like True Blood out in the streets.

In the real world, girls as pretty as Elisabeth Shue in the The Karate Kid would most likely scoff at Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) while necking with Johnny Lawrence (’80s douchebag extraordinaire William Zabka). Not that we’re bitter over a superficial high school crush or anything. Note to self: Must get over that she-devil who denied more nerds than a varsity coach. Mr. Miyagi and the Cobra Kai dojo are products of fiction, though, so Shue’s Ali Mills not only gives the picked-on LaRusso the time of day—she chooses him over Johnny. And that, fellas, is the kind of girl we’d take home to mom...on a night when mom’s not home and the bedroom is spic-and-span.

We know, we know—Phoebe Cates’ greatest ’80s moment came in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, when she peeled off that red bikini and dripped her way into our hearts. But she’s not a love interest in that movie; she's merely the sexually knowledgeable best friend. Yet, this list would be naked without her, so it was on to Option B: Gremlins, in which Cates plays the main character’s girlfriend. Unfortunately for Gizmo and little monster rivals, Cates doesn’t even show any cleavage in director Joe Dante’s creature feature, let alone that infamous red two-piece. It’s a good thing that, back in the ’80s, Cates looked dreaming even when coughing—or telling morbid holiday stories, as in the clip above.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) had the right idea when he played hooky from school, but come on: Why the hell would he spend the bulk of the day goofing around with his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara) and Cameron (Alan Ruck). Sure, Cam lends the film some great comedic bits, but, as the old saying goes, “Three’s a crowd.” How it should’ve gone down is, Ferris ignores Cam’s phone calls, hits the nearest convenience store, stocks up on prophylactics, and invites Sloane over to his empty house. When you’ve got a chick as fierce as Mia Sara calling you “baby,” there’s no logic in second-guessing such a plan. Cam should understand.

Dream A Little Dream’s plot sounds like an overcooked yet teenybopper-approved ’80s version of something a young Christopher Nolan would’ve written, if he were a hack: A professor’s experiment leads to both his and his wife’s souls switching bodies with a high school kid (Corey Feldman) and the girl he likes (Meredith Salenger). Unsurprisingly, that ambitious concept is poorly executed, leaving the entire film to rest on the exotically hot Salenger’s back. At the very least, she’s beautiful enough to give Dream A Little Dream a look if it ever pops up on cable. For that, Salenger deserves a lifetime achievement award of some kind.

Countdowns of 1980s movies just don’t feel right without the Berry Gordy-produced cult flick The Last Dragon. An urbanized and pretty silly Bruce Lee knockoff, the kung fu pic is famous for, amongst other kitschy elements, its villain, the Shogun of Harlem himself, Sho’nuff! He’s cool and all, but The Last Dragon lives on as a Complex favorite more so because of its eye treat, one-time Prince underling Vanity. Steaming the camera up as a Downtown Julie Brown-like TV host, Vanity completely sells the movie—who wouldn’t bust out some karate moves on a bunch of stock character goons to save her? We’d save our best tactic, however, known as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Penis,” strictly for Vanity. Word to Old School.