Make-Out Point

"Ah, Makeout Reef. Good times, good times."

— Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob SquarePants

A standard teenage hang out where all sorts of canoodling takes place in cars. Usually features a father and/or police finding young people there to "break it up" and drag people back home. Depending on the broadness of the comedy (and the innocence — or lack thereof — of the setting), Don't Come A-Knockin' may be in play.

Often involves a tourist-trap-type scenic bluff, so as to overlook the city lights at night... as if you're looking at that when you're up here. Alternately, it could be a Drive-In Theater. Also a standard set up for Out with a Bang in horror movies, as the people in the car are... distracted, to say the least. Similarly, it seems being at Make-Out Point makes you immediately a Weirdness Magnet — the first people to see the falling meteor, the mutant escapee, or the alien invasion force tends to be such a couple; see Terror at Make-Out Point.

This does count as a subtrope of Making Love in All the Wrong Places, especially with more mundane interruptions such as a jilted lover, a less-romantic rival, or even a police officer that just happened by.

Often, starting in The '50s, the makeout place is a Drive-In Theater.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Shirogane of Ayakashi Triangle is such a prude because he was once worshiped as a god, but eventually most of the "visitors" to his shrine were couples looking for a private spot to meet. The sex-changed spell he used on Matsuri was originally met to punish them, though that proves for naught as the place was destroyed to build a dam while Shirogane was away learning it.

Comic Books

• Spider-Man: The roof of the Empire State Building is this for Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker. During "The Wedding" issue, she and Peter swung there and described it as their spot. Later issues also built on it, most notably "To Have and to Hold" and Dan Slott's Spider-Island brief Ship Tease about Peter and MJ was related to the fact that the story ends with them surveying the city atop the ESB and later seeing their spot lit up in red and blue colors.

Film — Animated

• Monsters vs. Aliens has two teenagers trying to make out in their car out in the woods when they are interrupted by the giant alien robot. In a hilarious Gender-Inverted Trope, the cheerleader is trying to force her attentions on the high-school jock, and ends up Bridal Carrying him to safety when the alien spacecraft lands nearby.
• An early 20th century period-piece version appears in Lady and the Tramp; this is where the title couple end up at the end of the "Bella Notte" scene. As the camera pulls back, a number of couples in carriages can be seen.

Film — Live-Action

• Pleasantville had Lover's Lane, which before the Trapped in TV Land girl got there was apparently for hand-holding.
• Night of the Creeps plays with the trope. The police officer who goes patrolling at the Make Out Point is there because there's a serial killer loose in the area, so he's warning kids to go home. One of the couples he interrupts is made up partly of the girl he loves, cheating on him.
• The aliens from Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman spies on Billie Jo romancing a sailor who's name she doesn't know at the local make-out place.
• The Lost Boys David rips the roof off a car where two kids have pulled over to make out, and eats them.
• Grease - the place is actually a no-parking zone. Also the Drive-In shown in Sandy, but inverted in that when Danny tries to put the moves on Sandy, she storms off.
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space has two brothers driving around the local make out point, trying to sell ice cream to the couples there. They aren't successful.
• The Music Man is set in 1912, so cars aren't quite widespread enough for this trope to be played straight. However, an invitation to "the footbridge" automatically implies canoodling.
• Briefly shown in Saved!, where the large SUV owned by the Christian protagonists is the only car not rocking.
• In The Mothman Prophecies, the Mothman inevitably shows up at one of these. The teens walk away mostly unharmed, but the boyfriend somehow gets red burns around his eyes from the encounter.
• Visited repeatedly by the Omegas in Animal House. Curiously, the same song is always playing on the radio when they do.
• Night Claws begins with a scene of two throwaway characters getting killed here in an extremely predictable way.
• In Splendor in the Grass, the area by the waterfall is full of teenagers making out in cars. The film begins with Bud and Deannie making out there, setting the stage for their sexual frustration. Later, Deannie escapes being date-raped there and tries to drown herself in the waterfall, while a number of romantic couples look on.
• Manos: The Hands of Fate has a subplot about two teens making out in a parked car, apparently for days on end.
  Sheriff: Well, whatever it is you're not doing, go don't do it somewhere else.
• Invasion of the Saucer Men and its remake The Eye Creatures both involve large groups of teens in parked cars. They ultimately get to be the Big Damn Heroes, since Adults Are Useless. Not far from the Point is the home of a frustrated old man, outraged by all the "smoochers" driving past his house.
• In Hobgoblins, some of the characters visit "Reputation Road." The area is surprisingly well organized, including helpful signposts to tell you where to park if you want to just make out, or if you want to "go all the way".
• In The Creeping Terror, where the monster repeatedly "sneaks" up on teenage lovers.
• The Blob (1988) has a genuinely disturbing scene of the local Jerk Jock getting more than a little date rapey at such a location. He and his intended victim are both eaten by the blob before he can get very far.
• I Know What You Did Last Summer has its four leads discussing different versions of the Hook Hand story (see below under Folklore) while drinking and making out on the beach.
• The beginning of The Giant Gila Monster shows a teen couple making out on a lover's lane, who end up becoming the monster's first victims.
• Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind. Chuck's sexual frustration is shown by an Imagine Spot where the girl he's with in the theatre keeps brushing off his attempts to kiss her while every other seat is filled with teen couples making out.

Folklore

• The setting of two popular Urban Legends. Both are thought to have originated as cautionary tales in the 1950s or thereabouts, given their Can't Get Away with Nuthin' vibe.

Literature

• Fanon has it that this is the true purpose of the astronomy tower in Harry Potter, to the point that "The Astronomy Tower" is the name of the FictionAlley shipping section. ^note Fridge Logic sets in when you realise that most people visit Make-Out Point at night, which is also when the Astronomy Tower is most likely to be in use for its intended purpose. Then again, the dragon caper in Philosopher's Stone may be seen as precedent of sorts. The Room of Requirement has also been known to fulfill this purpose.
• Briefly featured in Good Omens as the road behind the military base, noted as appearing to be "paved with rubber". Mention is also made of a river where the deliveryman would go with his future wife to spoon, and on one notable occasion, fork.
• The novel Chase by Dean Koontz (collected in Strange Highways) concerns a murder that occurs at such a place.
• In The Face on the Milk Carton, the Scenic Overlook is nicknamed "Sexual Overlook" due to the amount of amorous teenaged couples.
• In Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, Tall Walnuts, a public park in Putnam's Landing with the finest walnut trees in New England, is the favored location for moonlit trysts for everyone from Guido di Maggio to Grady Metcalf.
• Sweet Valley High has Miller's Point.
• Lover's Lane from Anne of Green Gables, which is simply a path in the woods where a couple can walk around and be alone for awhile (it, like many of the other locations around Avonlea given names by Anne and her friends, was named more for the sake of giving it a suitably romantic-sounding name than for any other reason).
• Evidence of Things Not Seen: The highway pull-out where Tommy's motorbike is found is a popular spot for horny teenagers, as well as the subject of a lot of terrible jokes about girls putting out or boys pulling out.

Live-Action TV

• The 7th Heaven episode "Let's Talk about Sex" featured a "MacArthur's Point," which served to demonstrate that this trope is not very convincing when set in the present day.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • "Phases". Xander and Cordelia are making out in her car when a werewolf attacks them. The following night Buffy and Giles are searching for the werewolf and Giles suggests knocking on a few car windows and asking if anyone's seen the creature. Buffy gives him a look. "Giles, no-one's seen anything."
  • "All The Way". Dawn and a schoolfriend sneak out of the house to canoodle with a couple of boys, only for them to turn out to be vampires. The Scoobies track them down only to find themselves surrounded by carloads of teenaged vampires.
    Buffy: Didn't anyone come here just to make out? [two human teenagers raise their hands] Awww... that's sweet. Run.
  • One of the books revisits this point, again at night and again, horrible monster attack and death. Stop going out at night, people!
  • In "Enemies", Buffy and Angel emerge from a theatre with rumpled clothing after watching an erotic French film.
• "Blowie Point" at Josh and Rebecca's old summer camp in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Rebecca thinks the name refers to high wind, and is sure to wear a windbreaker when she meets Josh there.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation has the ravine (a literal ravine near the school). In later seasons it becomes a much more platonic hangout spot, and is replaced by the boiler room (which only saw a few hookups, but they were so notorious among the student body that it gained a reputation anyway).
• Family Matters. Mama Winslow tells Laura that she saw her boyfriend with another girl at "make out mountain". Carl demands to know "Mama, what were you doing at "make out mountain"?"
• Happy Days had Inspiration Point, where the cast were always desperate to get to, although they seldom did... at least not after the show began being filmed in front of a live audience...
  • Early seasons also mentioned going to the "submarine races."
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding", Lestat and Claudia are at a lover's lane to prey on unsuspecting couples. Claudia is innocent when it comes to human sexuality, so Lestat employs euphemistic language to explain to her what "the meat" do here.
  Lestat: This is what the meat calls a "lover's lane," and by my estimation, no blood is sweeter. Young people, swollen with passion, denied spirits by this senseless prohibition, park along this lonely stretch to contemplate that most mysterious of mathematical equations — how one plus one becomes one.
• In the British murder-mystery series Jericho (not that Jericho (2006)), a movie theater screening The Bridge on the River Kwai is full of teenagers crassly making out, indifferent to the portrayals of death and heroism on the screen, as part of the series' general deconstruction of 1950's British society.
• The Mentalist: In 'Rose Tinted Glasses,' this is where the Victims of the Week, a married couple, are found. Likely nostalgia as they were going to his high school reunion.
  Van Pelt: Little old for necking, aren't they?
  Jane: There's an age limit on that?
• Mr. Belvedere: The episode "Homecoming" saw Heather and her boyfriend, Keith, go to a Make-Out Point to, well, make out... until Keith tries to take things a step too far.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 has featured a few of the movies listed above under Film, including Manos: The Hands of Fate, Hobgoblins, The Creeping Terror, and The Eye Creatures.
• Our Miss Brooks:
  • On radio and television, the Everytown, America setting of Madison had Outpost Road, a scenic sight in the country outside of town. It's the focus of the radio episode "Outpost Road". Walter Denton and Harriot Conklin had been caught necking out on Outpost Road, but to avoid being identified after their narrow escape, they claimed to have loaned his jalopy to Miss Brooks and Mr Boynton. An interesting prospect for Connie, but she doesn’t want to be dragged into the mess. Connie only agrees to play along if Mr Boynton does. Amazingly, he does, and the two teachers plan to return to the scene of the crime for their own necking session.
  • Due to Executive Meddling, the fourth season of the television program was set in the Los Angeles area with little explanation. On a couple occasions, gym instructor Gene Talbot attempts to take Miss Brooks out to Mulholland Drive. Miss Brooks resists.
• The Partridge Family:
  • Danny once asks the eldest son where he intends to go on a date. "If I'm unlucky, the pizza place. If I'm lucky... Muldoon's Point."
  • In one episode, the family (as part of a bet — for charity) has to evade a private eye for 24 hours. They park at Muldoon's Point on a busy night. The first gag is that Laurie chides Keith for bringing them to this place; but when asked what the place is, she answers "Muldoon's Point" a little too quickly. Then they see the private eye's car pull into the crowded parking lot. They need a distraction. Reuben, their manager, honks their car horn, then yells out the window: "All right! I know my daughter is here and I'm going FIND HER!" Every car starts up.
• In Pretty Little Liars, Rosewood has a spot in the forest called 'The Kissing Rock', which Alison fantasizes about having been used for trysts for hundreds of years, and that the ghosts of the past lovers are pressuring you to 'do it' when there. Later, she admits she made that up, but that it's still true.
• Star Trek: Voyager: In "Lifesigns", the Doctor has a date with Denara Pel, so Tom Paris lends them his holodeck program involving a '57 Chevy overlooking a city on Mars. In "Repression", Tom creates a movie theatre on the holodeck and demonstrates the Yawn and Reach for his own girlfriend B'Elanna Torres.
• Lampshaded in Step by Step when the adults call the place "Make Out Point" and the kids say it is now known as "Suck Face Hill".
• Later seasons of That '70s Show have Mt. Hump, lampshaded when Donna wonders if it's called that because of why people go there, or if people go there because of what it's called.
• In Wings, the Make-Out Point on Nantucket is Indian Point, where Joe and Helen have their first kiss (with Brian hiding in the backseat).

Music

• In Trisha Yearwood's song "She's in Love with the Boy", young couple Katie and Tommy go to the drive-in, where "They're too busy holding on to one another to even care about the show."
• Nick Waterhouse's song "I Feel an Urge Coming On" is a song about how he wants to have Intercourse with You here.
  Come on and meet me, baby,
  Down in lovers' lane

Newspaper Comics

• Foxtrot:
  • One strip sees Jason and Marcus use a powerful telescope to spy on the former's brother and his girlfriend at one of these.
  • During an arc where Paige goes to a dance with the school's resident Handsome Lech, he tries to take her to one of these despite her protests. He finally relents and drives her home after she threatens to mace him.

Puppet Shows

Fraggle Rock: One episode has Uncle Matt not even getting the hint when the Storyteller asks him if he'd like to go with her to Kissing Chasm.

Video Games

• Brain Guzzlers From Beyond! has one called the Parking Spot. The game begins with Bonnie doing a magazine quiz and Jimmy complaining that they're there to "park".
• There's one in the Freemium game Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff called "Anal Point". It's a patch of woods with a dirt clearing, with tire tracks moving in a way as to be reminiscent of a colon (the organ, not the punctuation). The action on the location is called "Attempting ATM". Presumably, it has nothing to do with obtaining $20 bills from a machine.
• Final Fantasy VIII Balamb Garden has a secret area in the Training Center which is clearly one of these.
• Referenced in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which has a region south of Las Venturas called Hankypanky Point.
• There's one in Halo: Reach, of all places: an area called "Boardwalk" has one of its Call-outs named this. Granted, the invasion doesn't start there, but...

Visual Novels

• Two of these in Double Homework:
  • Lauren takes the protagonist to the park for their second date. It becomes abundantly clear that all sorts of things are happening in the wooded area, and sure enough, Lauren offers him a handjob.
  • Later, Morgan (if she’s still a romantic option) takes the protagonist to a lakeside area on a motorcycle. She wants to have sex right there, and says that nobody would care, because everyone else there is doing the same thing.

Web Original

• Parodied in Berserk Abridged: Statutory Point is "the most romantic spot in all of Midland". Really.
• Parodied in Homestar Runner. When Strong Bad and The Cheat get trapped in an old car that doesn't open from the inside, Homestar comes along to "break it up." "All right, young lovers. Move it along! What do you think this is, Make-out Point?"
• Chakona Space: There's a "Lover's Lane" in the city where Forestwalker lives. And to quote Lupu, "It's 'Lover's Lane', not 'Kissing Korner'".
• Parodied in Hello, from the Magic Tavern. Chunt takes a few dates out to Make Out Point, which Arnie expects to be like this trope, but it is actually nothing like it. Make Out Point is a place full of dangerous monsters, and if you and your date "make it out" alive from there, you know they're the one.
• Best of the Worst: Black Spine Junka 2: One of the videos the gang (with special guest Macauly Culkin) watch is If You Love Me... Show Me', an educational cartoon promoting abstinence. In the video, a boy is driving his girlfriend somewhere and complaining that she's leaving town soon. Tim quips that he's bringing her to "Fuck Butt Point" to get one last chance with her. Surely enough, the couple immediately drive past a sign reading "Windy Point," and the boy starts pressuring the girl to have sex with him.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers: In "Seaplane!", Linda goes for flying lessons, only to discover that her instructor "Upskirt" Kurt is a playboy who likes to take bored housewives to Quippiquisset Island (AKA "Quickie Kiss-It Island"), fake an emergency landing, and seduce them.
• The Simpsons on multiple occasions:
  • Marge and Artie Ziff went to one after their high school prom, though it didn't turn out quite as planned. In another one, when Apu and his wife were having fertility problems, Homer brings them here. "This scenario is guaranteed to cause pregnancy." Another episode depicts an adjoining "Let's Just Talk Point."
  • There's also a "Make-Out Creek" referenced in one episode (season 11's episode "Faith Off").
  • And parodied as "Contraception Overlook" in another episode, one that takes a peek at a possible future, obviously by then they'd run out of names.
  • One 20th season episode features 3rd Base Point.
  • Another episode features "Holding Hands Peak".
• Blatantly abused in Clone High as "Teen Sex Cove".
• In the robot propaganda film in Futurama the robot teens go up to one of these spots and are attacked by a "human".
  "Relax, Wendy. Humans will never come to our defenseless little town. It's perfectly safe to let our guard down, even for a second."
• Spongebob Squarepants had one in the episode where they all get superpowers. To quote Squidward- "Ah, Makeout reef. Good times, Goood times." The villains are terrorizing the kids making out there... and inexplicably come across a guy making out with a PILLOW. "Hey man. That's not cool..."
• Subverted in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "P.O.I.N.T." The KND are investigating somewhere teenagers go called "The Point", where "You go up a boy and come down a man." There are numerous, extremely-obvious hints that the teens are having sex, but the KND assume it's a factory turning teenagers into adults. After setting the place up for destruction via Kill Sat, it turns out to be a roller rink.
  You go up a boy and come down a man... who knows how to roller-skate!
• Parodied in the Family Guy episode "McStroke" where teens go to "Anal Point".
  Brian: Ah, I've heard about that place.
  Stewie: Really? What's it like? 'Cause I have no idea.
  Brian: Well, uh... I suppose if you imagine it like a parking space that you think "Gosh, there's no way I'm gonna be able to fit in there," but then you fold in the side-view mirrors and sure enough, well, look at that.
  Stewie: Well, in that scenario, it sounds like I'd rather be the parking space than the car.
  Brian: Yeah, that's what I've always guessed.
• Inspiration Point from Moral Orel, where Orel and his sweetheart go to... pray. No, really.
• In the Adventure Time episode "Trouble in Lumpy Space", a MacGuffin needed to cure Jake of "the lumps" is found in Lumpy Space's Make Out Point.
• The Replacements features a Make-Out Point in the in-universe B-Movie Splatter Train. The plot revolves around a ghostly train killing teenagers who have been making out at the local Make Out Point. The climax of the movie involves the protagonist luring the train to the Make Out Point and then jumping out of the way, so that the train goes over the edge and smashes itself on the rocks below.
• King of the Hill:
  • There's a version of this trope when Hank takes Ladybird to a moonlit bluff to practice dog dancing.
  • As well as a place in Arlen called "The Caves": a place where teens went to make out, drink beer, and do drugs back in The '70s.
• In W.I.T.C.H., Hay Lin mentions to Will that teens go near a relatively abandoned train track to kiss. Shgre then wonders if Will's mom goes there with her new boyfriend.
• In an episode of Gravity Falls, Robbie takes Wendy to a place called the Lookout Point, which is the popular teenage hangout spot in the titular town.
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: One episode has the supposed puritan judge Hebediah Grimm attacking "indecent" teen couples at Crystal Cove's make-out point. While on the hunt for him, Mystery Inc. run into Mayor Nettles and Sheriff Stone on their own date here, showing it's not just teenagers using the place.

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