Not Love Interests in live-action films.
- Anatomy of a Fall: Sandra's lawyer Vincent is an old friend of hers and is set up as a potential love interest for her, becoming her confidant and the person she trusts most, and he even admits that he was in love with her when they were younger. However, no romance ever develops between the two, largely due to the fact that Sandra is on trial for murdering her husband and might've potentially done it.
- The most important relationship in Attack the Block is that between Sam the nurse and Moses the teenage delinquent. The film actually begins with Moses mugging Sam just before the alien invasion starts, and the progress of the film is marked out by their silent Held Gazes and growing trust in one another. By the end, Moses gives her back the ring he stole and they work together in order to defeat the aliens.
- Axel and Jenny never become more than just friends in Beverly Hills Cop, even though Jenny otherwise filled the role of love-interest. Axel even had to storm the villain's castle to rescue her at the end of the movie.
- Edmund and his sister Lucy, from the film adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia, become this in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, due to the fact that they always look for one another and desperately call each other's name when they are separated.
- In the film adaptations of both The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, the love interest aspect of the female leads Sophie and Vittoria are removed, when they were quite present in the books. In Da Vinci Code, Robert is kind of an uncle figure/protective older brother to Sophie, and in Angels and Demons he and Vittoria are pretty much strictly business. Tom Hanks explains that the frantic pace of the plot of the latter led the filmmakers to excise the romantic subplot.
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◊ is from the 2005 Doom film adaptation, which took a certain pleasure in subverting the typical hero/heroine love interest angle (as well as other tropes). Samantha and John Grimm are estranged but loving fraternal twins, and form a surprisingly effective Brother–Sister Team in the film's second half as they both learn to take better care of their relationship with one another. There's even a scene where John testily corrects one of his squadmates who had assumed that because of them sharing the same last name, Sam is John's ex-wife. - Barney and Sandra in The Expendables. He ultimately decides to return to Vilena with his crew and rescue her, but it's because he respects her courage in standing up to the Big Bad, not because he's fallen in love with her. The sequels ditch the "love interest" role completely, with the female teammates being there not to give the heroes someone to rescue in Act III or kiss at the end, but rather to kick ass and make quips, just like the guys do.
- Wendy and Kevin of Final Destination 3 become closer to one another after losing both of their dates, and work together to try and save the rest of the cast for most of the movie. It can be easy to interpret this as a growing relationship, but they both are still mourning for their losses after the roller coaster crash claimed them. Then it's implied that they both die in the subway crash at the end of the film.
- Averted in the novelization. Wendy and Kevin discover that they do have feelings for each other, and even come to kiss. But they decide that they will talk about their relationship after they finish dealing with Death's plans.
- Danny is this to Nicholas in Hot Fuzz. Word of God says that in the original script Nicholas had an actual love interest, but she was cut and some of her storyline and actual lines were given to Danny.
- In House of Wax (2005), Nick and Carly seem very much like estranged ex-lovers who will reconcile at the end, since everyone else is dead, and their entire character arc in the film is about them reaffirming their relationship with one another following past estrangement thanks to lingering childhood trauma Nick suffered through and which Carly was trying to help him deal with. There's also Nick's jealousy over Carly's new boyfriend Wade getting to spend so time with her. But as Nick and Carly are actually twin brother and sister, any Relationship Upgrade won't happen.
- Ariadne and Dom in Inception. Ariadne is the Naïve Newcomer whom Cobb personally mentors when he manages to convince his father-in-law (and Ariadne's professor) to let her in the team, and she accompanies him to the limbo when their mission goes awry, and almost single-handedly saved his soul. However, Cobb is still a little hung up on his deceased wife and Ariadne gets more Ship Tease with Arthur, and there's a tiny bit of an age gap too.
- Calvin and Spooner's relationship in I, Robot shows all the classic signs of them becoming love interests — even a Scar Survey — but by the end, there's nothing to suggest they're going to be more than friends.
- James Bond: Quantum of Solace: Despite Camille Montes nominally being a "Bond girl" and a major female ally to Bond throughout the film, in a rare subversion for the series she and Bond neither sleep with each other nor seem to have any overt romantic or sexual tension. Which makes sense, since she spends the entire film on an obsessive revenge quest against the man who raped and murdered her family, and Bond himself is clearly not even remotely over his trauma from the death of Vesper Lynd.
- In The Kissing Booth, Lee and Elle actually stay best friends in the end. They have a Platonic Life-Partners type relationship.
- Life Partners: Sasha is this to Paige. She plays a more significant role in the story than Tim, but Tim is the real love interest.
- Snow and Emilie in Lockout. The former is sent on a mission to save the latter when she is held hostage onboard a giant orbital space prison. The two bicker and banter and Snow basically acts like a jerk towards her the whole time, but they grow to genuinely care for each other. The epilogue when they arrive back on earth teases a romance and includes an almost-Almost Kiss, but the movie ends with them still just friends.
- The relationship between Max and Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road never gets an upgrade. Probably in foresight of a Furiosa-less sequel.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In general, Black Widow is a Not-Love Interest to most of the boys:
- Her closest bond is with Hawkeye. He's the main reason she joins the team, and they have by far the closest relationship of the group, but they're never shown to be anything beyond extremely close friends. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we find that Clint Barton is married and with a family, sinking the Clintasha ship, though Natasha was the only member outside of Fury to know and is even viewed as an aunt by Clint's kids. Even in Hawkeye, Clint is completely devoted to his wife and kids, but still thinks of Natasha constantly and every episode has some reference to her.
- In addition to Hawkeye and Captain America, she was the one who recruited Banner to the team, is the only one Tony had a past connection with, she's shown to be close with Coulson and Fury, but so far every relationship is completely platonic. It makes her something of One of the Boys. Though Age of Ultron teases Natasha/Banner. She's attracted to him because "he is the only man who will run from a fight he knows he can win", and they bond over their sense of isolation (as well as being robbed the opportunity to have a family). But it doesn't last, as they're split up at the end of the movie; and their past relationship is given only token acknowledgements later.
- The Captain America movies in particular indulge in this:
- In The First Avenger, Cap does have a Love Interest, British Agent Peggy Carter, but the actual catalyst for his heroics comes from Bucky Barnes. It's for his sake that Cap raids the Red Skull's base, and that leads to him forming the Howling Commandos to finish destroying HYDRA, and it's to avenge him that Cap takes the mission that ends with him freezing to not-death in the Arctic. Peggy serves as a supportive, encouraging mentor — her affirmation steels his resolve both times he goes to bat for Bucky — but Bucky is his motivation.
- In The Winter Soldier, the lack of a Love Interest is almost a running gag. Steve still loves Peggy, but she's well into her 90s and suffering from dementia. His post-war comics Love Interest, Sharon Carter/Agent 13 is introduced in this movie, but they speak to each other exactly thrice (and the last occasion has Steve upset at her). Instead, the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson, and Natasha Romanoff all take different aspects of The Not-Love Interest: the Winter Soldier serves as Steve's primary motivation, because he's actually a brainwashed Bucky Barnes; Sam Wilson is his emotional support, with whom he's able to talk about his feelings for once; and Natasha is his character contrast, companion through most of the action, and gives the movie its flirty banter, though it's made subtly clear that the two of them have a platonic "work wife/husband" type of relationship and most of that banter revolves around her trying to set him up with other women.
- In Captain America: Civil War, while Steve has more interactions with Sharon Carter, including some clear sexual tension between them which was somewhat resolved with The Big Damn Kiss early on, his primary motivation and catalyst for his actions is again, Bucky Barnes, who, by this point, is cemented as the second most important character in the Captain America films, after Cap himself. Steve is so loyal and devoted to Bucky that he's willing to split up the Avengers, become a fugitive, desecrate his name and legacy, and more-or-less take on the entire world for him. Bucky, on his end, seemed to stay away from Steve for so long because he didn't want to cause his best friend any more pain. Natasha and Sam also reprise their roles in this film as well, with Natasha proving Steve emotional support at Peggy's funeral (thus the literal rather than the trope form of Comforting the Widow) and particularly Sam, who quickly engages in a semi-friendly rivalry with Bucky that feels an awful lot like interactions between one's first and second wives.
- Steve's relationships extend into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where Steve is gone and both Sam and Bucky are still struggling to deal with the loss in the way that one would with The Lost Lenore, despite Steve technically being only a friend of theirs.
- Mantis to Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. While they do form a tighter emotional bond than either has with the rest of the team, he makes it clear that he finds her utterly hideous to look at.
- Valkyrie and Thor in Thor: Ragnarok. They become close Fire-Forged Friends, but Valkyrie is still mourning the loss of her Lost Lenore, her fellow Valkyrie who Took the Bullet for her against Hela. Thor, meanwhile, isn't entirely over Jane after their breakup, and ends up getting back together with Jane in Thor: Love and Thunder, where he and Valkyrie remain this.
- In Captain Marvel (2019), Maria Rambeau is Carol's Not-Love Interest. Maria and her daughter Monica are Carol's Family of Choice, and Monica calls her "Auntie Carol". The actresses even refer to their characters' relationship as the movie's non-romantic "love story" and explicitly compare them to Steve and Bucky in Captain America.
- In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Katy serves as Shang-Chi's Muggle Best Friend and emotional support; but the romantic tension between them is almost zero. Katy's grandmother may think they're romantically involved (and in a deleted scene, so does Shang-Chi's sister Xialing before Katy corrects her), but they're firm in confirming that they're Like Brother and Sister instead.
- In general, Black Widow is a Not-Love Interest to most of the boys:
- On Mary Poppins, Bert. He's the titular protagonist's best friend, but their relationship is platonic. Bert/Mary is still the Fan-Preferred Couple, however.
- The plot of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Greg even notes the fact that if it were a different kind of story, there would've been more romantic tropes instead of a strong friendship. Nevertheless, Greg's growing friendship with Rachel is the main focus of the film.
- Mako Mori for Raleigh Becket in Pacific Rim. The two of them quickly go from wary apprehension to mutual respect, culminating in the dojo sparring scene, which was intentionally shot in such a way as to invoke a lovemaking scene instead. It is at this point that Raleigh realizes that Mako is "drift-compatible" with him (the film's Techno Babble for "our brains are similar enough to be directly linked together" — the only other person thus compatible with him was his late brother Yancy) and insists on her as his mech co-pilot for the rest of the film. Despite all this, however, their physical intimacy never goes beyond tightly hugging each other and both smiling with a Headbutt of Love at the end of the movie, suggesting that their relationship will only be platonic. Hasn't stopped them from becoming a popular ship, of course.
- In Scanners, there's never a hint of romance between hero Cameron Vale and his ally Kim Obrist, because they're too busy fighting for their lives to fall in love. Also, Cameron is terrifying and emotionally stunted because of his psychic affliction.
- Shall We Dance (2004): John joins the dance classes due to admiring instructor Paulina from afar, and she mentors him in sometimes sensual dances and opens up to him a lot, but John ultimately still loves his wife, and Paulina makes it clear that she only has professional interactions with her students and never shows any romantic passion expect when she is reflecting on her ex-boyfriend.
- In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard and Lily’s relationship hints at a possible romantic interest between them, but ultimately amounts to Picard giving Lily a peck on the cheek before returning to the 24th century.
- Dr. Gillian Taylor is similarly this to Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The character was changed from a male biologist when William Shatner demanded Kirk have a love interest, but nothing ultimately happens between them aside from a kiss on the cheek.
- Star Wars:
- In the original trilogy, Leia is this to Luke Skywalker. He's fixated with rescuing her from the moment he sees her, she's the one whose name he screams when he is dangling off a Bespin tower, she's his main confidant and comforter, and threatening to turn her to the Dark Side is his Berserk Button. She's his sister, natch. Of course... other people have interpreted their relationship in other ways. Of course, in this case it's because she was set up as his Love Interest early on, with Luke's sister being planned as a completely different character.
- In Rogue One, Cassian is this for the protagonist Jyn. They get off on a very wrong foot from the start, but gradually warm up to each other while facing one perilous danger after the other together, and the last we see of them in the movie is a tight hug for courage as the Death Star obliterates them and a good chunk of the planet they're on.
- Top Gun had a romance between a pilot and his instructor, hence when Monica Barbaro was cast as a pilot in Top Gun: Maverick, news quickly painted her as a love interest of Miles Teller, and in the movie turns out they're only close friends and brother/sister-in-arms with a great deal of trust in each other, with the actress noting that one of her favorite parts of the character is that she's just One of the Boys.
- Quorra to Sam in TRON: Legacy. She rescues him, they battle together and defend each, she confides to him her desire to see a real sunrise, and the two sometimes have awkwardly cute moments with each other. At the end of the film, though, Quorra and Sam are not dating: a deliberate choice by her actress Olivia Wilde, who knew such a romance would feel unbelievable.
- Wonka: Lottie Bell when she's introduced is quiet and shy and being the closest to Wonka's age of the adults, it could be interpreted that she'd be set up as his future romantic partner. However, when she starts being more open once feeling the need to speak up and be heard—while also having been quiet because she's a telephone operator now unable to do her job at that point in time, no kind of attention is given to the idea. Lottie's relationship with him is ultimately no different than his dynamic with the rest of the adults or hers with them.
- Nancy to Max in The Final Girls. While Max does have a romantic relationship with another of the film's leads, you'd be hard-pressed to argue that the central relationship of the film isn't between her and the character her mother played in the movie-within-a-movie.
