Follow TV Tropes

Following

Shirtless Scene / Film

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_phantom_38043_high.jpg
Just a typical conversation with your dead dad.

  • The Fighting Seabees: Some of Donovoan's workers go shirtless, given the hot climate.
  • Red Rock West: Michael is introduced doing pushups shirtless on the road.
  • Matthew McConaughey did this so often in the years before his Career Resurrection that he became the personification of the Walking Shirtless Scene. Sahara (2005); Surfer Dude; Fool's Gold...a cornucopia of shirtlessness. In Reign of Fire McConaughey willingly takes his shirt off twice—the second (and last) time being when he throws himself at a dragon, which eats him. Though the amount of protection provided by his shirt against the dragon's teeth is debatable, he nonetheless had little reason to take it off apart from showing off his tattoos.
  • Reign of Fire, Christian Bale's shirtless scene
  • The Twilight Saga:
    • Robert Pattinson has one in the first film, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn: Part 1, though he has a justification for all of them: in the first two, he is showing his true nature as a vampire (since vampires sparkle in the sunlight), while the latter is part of a lovemaking scene. On the other hand, Cam Gigandet bares his body all the time, but has no justification for it.
    • Also, Taylor Lautner in New Moon. The rest of the werewolf pack each have one too. As the Spoony One says in his review of the movie, its biggest draw was Native American muscle.
      • According to Lautner, one scene originally had him take off his shirt as he was walking to school, but he thought the blatant fanservice went too far and objected.
      • Lampshaded in Eclipse when Edward and Bella meet Jacob, only to find that he had driven there shirtless, leading Edward to ask "Does that guy own a shirt?"
      • Also parodied in Vampires Suck. When asked why he just took his shirt off for no apparant reason, the Jacob Expy reveals that it's in his contract to do so every ten minutes of screen time.
  • 300: Basically every male with a pulse.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This qualifies because in the book Harry sinks until his entire body up to his neck is underwater so Myrtle can't sneak a look at him. In the film, he's not so prudish, but does make an effort to cover his more delicate regions with bubbles. Censor Steam meets Hand-or-Object Underwear! Though saying that, he doesn't seem to mind Myrtle looking at him when he's underwater with her.
    • There was also an audible response from certain members of the audience when he strips to his underwear to retrieve a sword in a frozen pond in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In Part 2 after the trio escape from Gringotts and fall in a lake, Ron and Harry promptly strip off their shirts to change into drier clothes. Unfortunately for the straight males/lesbians/bisexuals in the audience, Hermione does not do the same.
  • Related: Daniel Radcliffe played a mentally atypical boy in the play Equus. One scene calls for him to strip onstage and stay that way until the end of the play.
  • Tobey Maguire has gotten quite a few of these in the Spider-Man Trilogy films.
  • Comes up several times in Stomp The Yard. The training sequence that occurs just before the climactic championship faceoff ends with the hunky protagonist and his equally ripped team members jogging up a mountain in nothing but their shorts. When they reach the top, the team stands on the peak staring off into the sunrise for a good couple of seconds, to give the audience a moment to fully enjoy it.
  • Mortal Kombat: The Movie featured a lot of shirtless men, most notably Liu Kang.
  • Casino Royale (2006) gave us more than enough of Daniel Craig's massive pectorals, massive shoulders, and complete lack of neck. He's also completely expressionless. Daniel Craig is often called "Casino Royale's Bond Girl". Not to mention his instantly-legendary walk out of the ocean in those little blue swim trunks. Blatant, blatant Fanservice.note 
  • During the climax of 28 Days Later, Cillian Murphy is topless and bloodstained. Of course, this is comparatively a blessing, because he also gets completely naked for no good reason in other scenes.
  • Help! has a scene in which The Beatles, taking refuge in a bathroom, get attacked by a hand-dryer that conveniently sucks up most of their clothing, George's shirt in particular. And that's not even getting into the part where Paul shrinks and his clothes don't...
  • Film and stage performers were doing the shirtless scene long before the invention of television. The ur-example of modern times has to be Clark Gable in the 1934 film It Happened One Night. Gable's rugged good looks and rough charisma had already made him a star. Here, he is wearing the standard garb of an early 20th century middle-class male: white shirt, suit, tie, and fedora. When he "takes it off" in a motel room in front of Claudette Colbert, the audience learns that, beneath those mundane clothes, Gable is... not wearing an undershirt. Gable in an unbuttoned shirt with his buff, manly chest showing has been claimed to have caused sales of men's undershirts to crash in America. (Snopes doubts it.) It allegedly took World War II and/or the acceptance of T-shirts as outerwear for the T-shirt industry to recover.
  • In Hands Across the Table, Ted needs to look like he was in Bermuda, so Regi gets a tanning lamp from the barbershop. He’s then shirtless for a long period. However, Regi doesn’t seem to mind.
  • In the film featured in the MST3K episode "Future War", the male lead takes off his shirt while he's about to kill the a bad guy near the end of the film. This is so strained and awkward that one can't help but think he would be better off waiting until the evil cyborg about to kill him was disposed of...
    • He tugs on it for a second or so while making a constipated face.
    • Not quite as awkward as the headbutt-induced Clothing Damage.
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • The Return of the King has Frodo shirtless during his capture in the Tower of Cirith Ungol in which Sam rescues him - where you can see some of the horrific injuries he's received throughout the trilogy such as the stab-wound from the Morgul blade and the very recent paralysing sting from Shelob. It's actually downplayed compared to the book, where he was completely naked.
    • Then there's Gandalf being resurrected in The Two Towers, though we don't get to see much of it.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
    • Dead Man's Chest had its fangirl-drool-inducing scene with a shirtless Orlando Bloom getting flogged.
    • Also, there was a brief shot of a shirtless Jack in the third film, during the Davey Jones' Locker sequence. Turns out he's got some really impressive tats.
  • The beach-volleyball and locker scenes in Top Gun, and the dogfight football scene in Top Gun: Maverick. Both involve Tom Cruise and a number of other attractive men taking their shirts off.
  • Hoot has one of these featuring then-teen idol Cody Linley.
  • Both combatants of the climax fight of the martial arts movie Undefeatable suddenly turn the whole scene into a Shirtless Scene for no reason at all mid-combat by tearing their shirts off in a hilariously inappropriate over-the-top macho manner while growling bestially. The narm this causes must be seen to be believed. (TROPER'S WARNING: NSFW and probably not good for your sanity either.)
  • Robin Williams in The World According to Garp, The Survivors, Moscow on the Hudson, The Best Of Times, Club Paradise, Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire (in a case of Fan Disservice), Fathers' Day (1997), and License To Wed (more disservice).
  • In Way of the Dragon before their iconic showdown at the Colloseum, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris both take off their shirts and then start pulling off martial arts stances. Not one to be outdone, Bruce Lee starts cracking his back and shoulders which also helpfully causes his pecs and delts to pop out.
  • In Working Girl, Harrison Ford gives his stenopool an eyeful when he changes shirts without closing the blinds on the glass separating his office from theirs.
  • Disney's Swiss Family Robinson has the four Robinson men - including the youngest son - shirtless several times throughout the film. Fritz and Ernst almost go into Walking Shirtless Scene territory during their time exploring the island.
  • In The Long, Hot Summer, the director decided to take advantage of Paul Newman's impressive physique to make the in-story heroine visibly uncomfortable. Didn't make her too uncomfortable in real life, however.
  • The Chosen One in Kung Pow! Enter the Fist rips off his shirt in one particularly odd arm-move at the start of the movie.
  • In the end of Kung Fu Hustle, Sing's use of his ultimate fighting move turns the shirt he was wearing into shreds.
  • Obligatory in each installment of the Transporter franchise. In the second one, he fights shirtless and covered in oil; in the third, he fights a group of Mooks while using first his jacket, then his tie, then his shirt as Improvised Weapons, then proves to have a back up suit, which he puts on while the woman he's transporting claps.
  • Lucky Number Slevin has Josh Hartnett spend a large portion of a day wearing nothing but a towel. Convenient that the gangsters had time to spare for a chat, but not enough time to let the poor guy get dressed.
    • Not that anybody's complaining about that particular plot hole...
  • The Monkees' film Head features a long (and awesome) scene with Micky Dolenz shirtless in a desert; also a scene with Davy Jones as a boxer fighting Sonny Liston.
  • Lord of the Flies: Most of the boys are shirtless.
    • Depending on which film you watch (specifically the 1963 version from The Criterion Collection, half of the boys are completely naked, as they are in the book before they learn what a sunburn is firsthand.
  • The Drover in Australia apparently showers by taking off his shirt, soaping up, then dumping a bucket of water over his head.
  • Shua gives us a nice one in Sky Blue.
  • In Mulan, Shang takes his shirt off just before the Training Montage for apparently no reason other than fanservice. The gratuitousness of this is lampshaded by Yao: "I'll get your arrow, prettyboy. And I'll do it with my shirt on."
    • The scene was deliberately added by the production team in order to give Mulan some fanservice to look at.
  • The sixth rule of Fight Club is "No shirts, no shoes."
  • Parodied in Walk Hard when Dewey and Darlene had sex for the first time. She didn't know he was so buff.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • X-Men Origins: Wolverine took this to an extreme, much to the delight of Hugh Jackman fangirls. During a dramatic escape scene, not only does he erupt from a tank of water completely shirtless (and indeed naked, muscles + dripping water...), but he then proceeds to escape, running and fighting his way out of the building. Viewers get a lovable full-body shot (in which censorship is barely provided by his leg from a mostly-side-shot) when he jumps off a waterfall.
    • X-Men: Days of Future Past: The younger Magneto is bare-chested when he's analyzing the Sentinel schematics.
    • X-Men: Apocalypse:
      • The body Apocalypse is transferring himself into at the beginning of the film is wearing nothing but a loincloth.
      • Angel is bare-chested when Apocalypse transforms him into Archangel.
      • Wolverine is seen shirtless when he escapes the Weapon X facility.
  • Hugh Jackman in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006). A quite unexpected and totally gratuitous shirtless scene. He's in the bedroom pondering about some magic trick, while his girlfriend is fully clothed.
  • In Dead Poets Society, Neil gets a Shirtless Scene at a very... weird moment.
  • The film adaptation of The Outsiders had two gratuitous shirtless scenes: One is Dally in the hospital, laying in his bed after stating that "The nurse gave him a dress but he didn't want to wear it" and a strictly Fanservice moment of Sodapop getting out of the shower, just barely after he got a Modesty Towel on.
  • Lowriders. In the film when Theo Rossi's character lets in his brother to his house, he isn't wearing a shirt. For the rest of the scene he walks around shirtless, revealing his toned, tattoed body.
  • Youngblood (1986) Rob Lowe walks to the locker room wearing a towel which drops to the floor and Cynthia Gibb gets an eyeful.
  • Parodied by Chris Farley in Billy Madison.
  • The 1936 Flash Gordon film serial has many, many scenes with Flash shirtless (or nearly so), especially while fighting, being whipped/tortured, or working up an sweat olive-oil coating. Basically, the whole series seems built on pulp sci-fi, Yellow Peril, and multiple varities of Fanservice.
  • In Escape from New York, Snake is stripped to the waist before engaging in a Blood Sport with a huge guy (you also briefly glimpse him shirtless in the sequel), revealing the upper part of a large cobra tattoo on his stomach. Makes you wonder what the rest of the tattoo looks like...
  • Yul Brynner in The King and I and The Ten Commandments. A shirt can never contain his awesomeness.
  • Will Ferrell seems to almost insist that every movie he is in have some shot of him shirtless, at best. In worst case scenarios, he's flaunting around in wet bikini style briefs. Always assume you will see the latter in a movie starring him.
  • Used to great effect in American History X. In the flashbacks showing Derek Vinyard during his stay in prison and his time as a gang leader he is often shirtless or in a tank top to show off his Nazi tattoos. During the scenes set in the present and after his renouncing of his Nazi ways he's always wearing a shirt that hides the tattoos, which combined with the different haircut and the usage of black and white in the flashbacks disassociate him from his past. After he tells his story and officially rejects his former gang he steps out of the shower, the audience sees his tattoos and the disassociation is shattered, driving home the point that no matter what he does in the future he will always have been a skinhead, will always be that man and will always carry the scars of his past.
  • The entirety of Cool Hand Luke. Good Lord.
  • Tim Allen has a shirtless scene in Galaxy Quest. Of course, like most of the film, this is meant to lampoon Star Trek (where Kirk frequently went topless). In case it wasn't totally obvious to everyone, Alan Rickman lampshades it at the very end of the scene when he comments "I see you managed to get your shirt off."
  • Will Smith's character Del Spooner in I, Robot has two which were a blessing to fangirls (and some boys) since he was in probably the best shape of his career. And he also had a Shower Scene. He has some nice shirtless scenes in various other movies, too.
  • If it stars Bradley Cooper, there will always be a reason for him to take his shirt off.
  • Only after Sendhil Ramamurthy had joined Its A Wonderful Afterlife, Gurinder Chadha wrote a completely gratuitous shirtless scene for his character. "When I signed up for the movie, that scene was not in there. My mother was thrilled: Can't you keep your clothes on in something?"
  • In Equilibrium, Preston (played by Christian Bale) wakes up from a rather intense dream shirtless and sweaty, which kinda detracts from the drama of the scene.
  • The original TRON gives us Jeff Bridges taking his shirt off when he walks into his office with his best friend and his best friend's girlfriend (who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend). Other than "Flynn was really working up a sweat from playing video games," no explanation for shirtlessness is given. And given a Fanservice Shout-Out in the sequel when Alan shows up to tell Sam about the page. Of course, Sam does explain it by saying he smells "like jail." There's a second where the Armory Sirens strip Sam to his shorts before fitting him with a gridsuit.
  • Most of the male cast of Exit to Eden.
  • 1/3rd of Youth in Revolt has Michael Cera shirtless.
  • The opening credits of the 1993 film adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing" features much of the male cast washing up before meeting with Leonato and his household.
  • In Walk Like A Man, there's a deleted (?) scene where Colleen Camp is in the backyard being pampered by two smooth chested, blond and buff young men while three other smooth chested, blond and buff guys next door look on.
  • Sebastien Guy doesn't wear a shirt for longer than 10 seconds in Close Enough To Touch.
  • The film of Master and Commander has one midshipman going shirtless while in sickbay. And there's Dr. Maturin going shirtless as he operates on himself to remove a bullet.
  • In Withnail and I, Paul McGann seems to lose his shirt (and trousers) every couple of scenes. This comes back to bite him when he attracts unwanted attention.
  • A lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies. Notable is Commando where he dons a tactical vest on the beach before leaving to attack the compound in Val Verde, but he of course sheds it in the first few seconds of the fight for no particular reason.
  • Jean-Claude van Damme; that is all.
  • Jack gets three in Oblivion (2013).
  • The Balcony, the 1963 adaptation of the Jean Genet play, featured a pre-Spock Leonard Nimoy shirtless in a prison cell. I said goddamn, goddamn!
  • Raleigh is seen without his shirt a couple of times in Pacific Rim. His first Shirtless Scene in his introduction is justified, as he and his brother have just been woken at 2 a.m. by a kaiju alert. His second one is more gratuitous - he is changing his shirt in his room while the door is wide open - but it is used to build up the Unresolved Sexual Tension between him and Mako, who is shown Eating the Eye Candy.
  • The Lightning Thief: Remember those two scenes with Percy swimming, which was the first thing shown in the commercial? It wasn't in the book.
  • Vlad gets a few in Dracula Untold. After turning into a vampire, he gets a partial one, waking up in the river with his armor now missing sleeves, exposing Luke Evans' well-toned arms.
  • Count the number of times in Beyond the Lights that Kaz removes his shirt. Special shout out to the time he rips his clean white shirt off to tend to Noni's bleeding arm and hand.
  • A nasty version in the original Die Hard, where McClane loses his undershirt because he uses it to bandage his lacerated feet after running over broken glass.
  • Assassin's Creed (2016): In Cal's third Animus scene, he hooks up to the machine without his shirt. It is not clear why. He also fights bare-chested during the Assassins' revolt at the Abstergo facility.
  • This trope seems to happen at least once a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly with its hunky lead actors:
  • Every movie in The Dark Knight Trilogy contains a few scenes of Bruce Wayne without a shirt.
  • Star Wars
    • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones briefly shows Anakin waking from a nightmare, not wearing a shirt.
    • Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith has a similar scene of a shirtless Anakin awakening from a nightmare, this time standing up and walking out of the bedroom, partially covering himself with a loose robe.
    • The Last Jedi shows Kylo Ren shirtless while communicating with Rey across the galaxy, though this is Played for Laughs as well as Fanservice, as he's not thrilled to be having a conversation while half-dressed, and she frustratedly asks him if he has anything he can put on. Snoke's the one establishing their Force Bond, so Kylo can't simply not turn it off or avoid establishing the Bond to begin with.
  • According to Eddie Redmayne, there was one planned for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Newt would strip off and be revealed to have lots of scars and war wounds - but still be pretty ripped. He trained for seven months to properly bulk up for the scene, which ended up cut. And not included on any DVD extras.
  • Othello (1995) was notable for being a Hotter and Sexier take on the Shakespeare play, giving the titular protagonist a few shirtless scenes. The poster even features a sexy makeout between Othello and Desdemona.
  • Stop-Loss:
    • Brandon finds his friend Steve dealing with PTSD from Iraq by digging a fox hole in his front garden. While also shirtless. When he wakes up the next morning, he only puts pants on.
    • Brandon gets one, but it's more Fan Disservice, as Michelle is helping him stitch some wounds together.
  • The 1996 film adaptation of The Phantom offers a nice long scene early on the Skull Cave with a buff and shirtless Billy Zane, under the pretext of his manservant treating a recent minor stab wound. The scene is long enough for him to have two separate conversations. After that, it's up to your imagination.
    Director Simon Wincer: Before every scene he'd be there with weights and push ups, while legendary actor Patrick McGoohan [who played The Phantom's ghost father] would just roll his eyes.
  • Siren (2010): Ken spends much of his time on the island shirtless and, when he does put a shirt on, he usually doesn't button it up.
  • In The Deserter, all of the squad expect Kaleb are shown shirtless when Kaleb orders them to strip so they can experience the direct heat of the desert sun.
  • The Martian has a decidedly fanservice-free example early on when Mark Watney has to perform some emergency Self-Surgery.
  • Ekipazh (Flight Crew): You'd think the very handsome and hunky star of this adrenaline-packed airplane action thriller, Danila Kozlovsky (as maverick ex-military pilot trainee Alexey), would get at least one of these, especially with all the heat generated by that erupting volcano; but he remains firmly encased in his increasingly battered pilot's uniform shirt for the whole film. Instead it's the heroic flight attendant Andrey (Sergey Kempo) who gets to show his defined torso toward the end. It's while they're patching people up and he's a bit battered, but it's there, and it's the only skin in the film.
  • Plan B has several scenes where Bruno and Pablo sleep next to each other in just their underwear with no blankets covering them, leaving the camera (and the men themselves) free to lovingly focus on their mostly-naked bodies.
  • Dolemite: Dolemite spends about 1/3 of his screen time without a shirt on, putting actor Rudy Ray Moore's husky physique on full display in all its glory.
  • Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears: When Phryne gets trapped in quicksand, Jack strips off his shirt and uses it as a rope to pull her out. Phryne ends up collapsed on top of him, with her head on his naked chest.
  • Brad Pitt removes his shirt while hopping on a roof in the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
  • DC Extended Universe:
    • In Man of Steel, not-yet-Superman Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) helps evacuate oil rig workers from an accident while shirtless.
    • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both title characters each get shirtless. Bruce's (Ben Affleck) scene is combined with a Training Montage while Clark gets two - one in a sex scene with Lois and another when he's lounging at home.
    • Wonder Woman has a Bathtub Scene featuring Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) completely naked. Even Diana, who had never met a man in her life before, seems to approve.
    • Clark is given this again in both the theatrical and director's cut of Justice League, when he fights the rest of the League (Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg), wiping the floor completely with them while wearing nothing but pants. Worth noting that when Superman's body is being unearthed, he is wearing his funeral suit. After he is resurrected, he sheds the suit jacket, shirt, and shoes, but keeps the pants.
      • Aquaman (Jason Momoa) also gets a couple - first when he takes off his sweater and goes swimming away from the Icelandic village and a second after he rescues a lost fisherman.
    • In The Suicide Squad, Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Peacemaker (John Cena) each have a scene.
  • In Backstreet Dreams, Dean takes off his shirt to go swimming with Stevie.
  • In God Told Me To, Pete gets one while he's lying in bed with his girlfriend.
  • In Tuff Turf, Morgan is shirtless when the gang beats him up in the locker room.
  • In Superdome, McCauley (Tom Selleck) and his teammates are shirtless in the locker room.
  • In Electra Glide in Blue, Wintergreen's Morning Routine includes working out in his underwear.
  • 40 Carats: In Greece, Peter swims shirtless with Ann before they have sex.
  • Lycan: There are multiple lengthy ones with Blake and Irving, who show off their six packs by doing so (with no particular reason for it).
  • Augustin from Passion in the Desert sheds more clothing the more time he spends in the wilderness with Simoom the leopard. He stops wearing a shirt fairly early on.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick has several, including the "three days and no shower" scene.
  • In Turning Red, the mental image Mei invokes in order to transform is a merman form and shirtless Robaire.
  • Mission: Impossible Film Series has a couple, usually featuring the lead Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Ghost Protocol has a memorable scene featuring Ethan escaping from a Russian hospital while shirtless. Another notable one is in III, where Ethan and the equally pretty IMF agent Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) strip off to change their clothes in quick succession during the mission in the Vatican.
  • In Are You Being Served?, Mr. Humphries is shirtless upon returning from his swim, and later when he dresses in Mrs. Slocombe's clothes.
  • Doctor... Series:
    • Doctor in the House (1954): Mr. Briggs takes off his shirt during all three of his examinations.
    • Doctor at Sea:
      • Wilson has one during his examination, revealing a giant tattoo.
      • Trail has one when the SS Lotus prepares to leave Bellos:
        Trail: Madam, it is the Lotus and I am the Third Officer.
        Miss Mallet: Oh, so sorry, but you do look a little jim-jammy in that get-up.
    • Doctor at Large: Dr. Benskin and the Maharajah both have one when Dr. Sparrow returns from his date with Kitty and catches them doing yoga.
    • Doctor in Love:
      • Drs. Hare and Burke get one during their burning hot shower at the Foulness Anti-Cold Research Unit and another shortly after when they are left in the Cold Room.
      • Sir Lancelot gets one when Dr. Hare examines his belly.
    • Doctor in Distress (1963): Sir Lancelot has one when Iris examines his back.
    • Doctor in Clover: Wendover's pajama jacket is removed, leaving his body exposed for his blanket bath from Matron.
    • Doctor in Trouble:
      • Wendover has one when he shows up for dinner naked, and another when he goes to enjoy the pool.
      • When Roddy gets the models to pose on the stairway, he is wearing nothing shorts, as is Basil, who also has a scarf around his neck.
  • On the Buses films:
    • On the Buses: Jack has one when Stan catches him about to have it off with Sally.
    • Mutiny on the Buses: Arthur has one when he refuses to wear his pyjama shirt after Olive has sewed tennis balls to the back of it.
    • Holiday on the Buses:
      • Arthur has one at the indoor pool.
      • Mr. Coombs is shirtless before his shower.
  • Up Pompeii:
    • Lurcio has one when he is disguised as a Nubian eunuch.
    • Lurcio, Prosperus Maximus, Odius, and Villanus all go shirtless in the steam baths.
  • Twice Round the Daffodils:
    • John has one as he undresses for bed remarking that it's lucky he's only at Lenton Sanatoriumfor observation.
    • Bob is shirtless after his collapse while Nurses Catty and Beamish sponge him down.

Top