The Coolest Barbecues in Movie History

You’re starting to feel the heat, which could only mean one thing: BBQ season is fast approaching. Take a steel brush to that grill, re-up on your charcoal, and make sure to stock your freezer with the finest slabs of grade-A meat you can find because you better believe that everyone and their mom is planning the same thing.

This also means that you’ve got to find a way to differentiate your little get-together from the raging block parties that you know everyone’s going to be talking about. So take some pointers from these films and figure out your own game plan. These are The Coolest BBQs in Movie History.

You can guarantee that frat-hosted BBQs are going to get wild, but add Seth Rogen, Dave Franco, and Zac Efron to the mix and it takes it to the next level. Eager sorority pledges, endlessly flowing booze, a pool packed with gorgeous people, and an ab-off between Rogen and Efron make this day of debauchery one you want to be a part of (and never speak of again).

Four new friends—Justice (Janet Jackson), Lucky (Tupac Shakur), Iesha (Regina King), and Chicago (Joe Torry)—take a detour on their trip to Oakland (in a mail carrier, no less) to a roadside family reunion BBQ. There, they flirt with guests and pretend to reminisce with dozens of ‘family’ members for the sake of some delicious smoked meat. You gotta do what you gotta do.

BBQs don’t have to get crazy to be unforgettable. Leave it to Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his extended family to teach you what barbecuing should be all about: bringing people together. Forget wet T-shirt contests and beer pong; sometimes all you need are some Coronas, close friends, and the L.A. sun setting against the smoggy skyline for the perfect party. Oh, and someone coherent enough to say grace to the car gods.

Every day at camp in Wet Hot American Summer is basically a barbecue. However, the most memorable one of them all has to be the afternoon that saw Elizabeth Banks’ character with sauce on her face and a half-eaten rib in her hand. Who doesn’t dream of a moment like this? Sure, our fantasies are a little less messy and meaty, but at least the beautiful, blonde, bikini-clad woman is on point.

You can’t get more red-blooded American than this. James “I Don’t Want Your Life” Van Der Beek and Paul Walker pal around with friends and fam over some football, barbecue, and beer on a sunny Texas day. Of course, a team BBQ isn’t complete without a contest between the boys, as their fathers obnoxiously challenge them both to knock cans off their heads to prove which one is the more deserving quarterback. While Walker easily tips back the can, it’s Van Der Beek who makes this scene one for the books, clocking his overbearing dad directly in the face to shut him up.

When you’re in the middle of nowhere with the sun scorching everything in sight, do you even need a grill to cook your meat? As the Griswolds learn while they camp out with their extended hillbilly family in the Nevada desert, sometimes all you need is a hot rock to roast a slab of meat. It’s at once barbaric and convenient, but also supremely clever. Plus, you wouldn’t need to worry about scrubbing the charred remains off your personal grill.

This scene puts all of your kickbacks to shame. Just imagine being surrounded by Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nia Long, and Regina King, filling up your plate with trays and trays worth of meat, blasting old school hip-hop, and socializing with L.A.’s finest. It couldn’t possibly get any more laid back.

There’s no better way to celebrate a successful car heist than by hosting a BBQ at an auto body shop and converting a junkyard vehicle’s hood into an impressive grill. Add to that a scrappier version of Ocean’s Eleven, and it becomes one stylish party that you wouldn’t want to miss. Come on, who wouldn’t want sit at a table with Nic Cage, Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones, and Chi McBride? That scene gave us FOMO before we even had the means to tweet about it.