14 greatest literal stolen-heart scenes in TV and movie

This Valentine’s Day, we’re not in search of cutesy conceits. Significantly, skip all of the star-crossed nonsense. Spare us the sappy theatrics. And for the love of Cupid, put the poetry down.

What we wish is hearts. Literal hearts.

A “stolen coronary heart” is a metaphor to most. You say somebody stole your coronary heart whenever you fall in love with an individual or a pet. It is a description of an emotional response so massive it is best likened to having part of you taken and ceaselessly saved by one other. It is a feeling.

However on display screen, stolen hearts will be — and sometimes sufficient are — literal. Throughout motion pictures, TV, and video video games, hearts are continuously getting scooped, sucked, snagged, and snatched proper out from below their rightful house owners’ ribs. Sure, a lot of those scenes symbolize emotions of affection or, conversely, hate. Nonetheless, they’re rooted in actuality for a cause. Literal stolen hearts signify a few of the most fun leisure moments ever, heightened by the grounded realness they require.

It is a trope we have grown keen on through the years. Some would possibly even say it has…stolen our hearts. So, to deal with ourselves this V-Day, we have combed by all our favourite cardiac crimes and chosen 14 of probably the most iconic hearts ever actually stolen on display screen.

Most “Buzzy”: Yellowjackets

Some will say that not sufficient folks bought eaten within the Yellowjackets finale (a paltry zero!). However we glimpse the women’ violent trajectory due to a bear that Lottie stabs within the woods. Alongside Van and Misty, she later presents its (huge) coronary heart at an altar. “Spill blood, my buddies,” Lottie says in French. “Let the darkness set us free.” 

It is a key second within the women’ journey from frightened survivors to full-on cannibal cult. Within the current, Taissa has killed her household’s canine and supplied up his coronary heart at a makeshift altar of her personal, and now we all know it is solely step one in a a lot darker journey. —Proma Khosla, Senior Leisure Reporter

Most Formative: The Simpsons

There is a cause they’re referred to as crushes, and it is as a result of they are often crushing. And also you always remember your first. In “New Child On the Block,” Bart falls laborious for snarky teen Laura Powers (voiced by Roseanne‘s snarky teen Darlene, aka Sara Gilbert). When he finds out she’s bought a boyfriend, his heartbreak is illustrated by this scene, the place she not solely rips out Bart’s coronary heart — earlier than punting it right into a trash can — but in addition quips, “You will not be needing this!” Been there. Felt that. —Kristy Puchko, Deputy Leisure Editor

Most Costly: Titanic

He put the diamond within the coat. He put the coat on her!

Titanic‘s jaw-dropping “Coronary heart of the Ocean” necklace is likely one of the most recognizable film props ever made. No, the dear gemstone, modeled after the precise Hope Diamond, wasn’t maintaining Cal alive. And no, Rose wasn’t technically attempting to “steal” it when she waded into the icy depths not figuring out her pockets’ contents. Nonetheless, the opulent jewellery, famously referenced by Britney Spears in “Oops!… I Did It Once more,” suits the spirit of this curation completely. Cal completely had a coronary heart stolen. But it surely bears repeating: He placed on the coat on her. —Alison Foreman, Leisure Reporter

Crustiest: Pirates of the Caribbean: Useless Man’s Chest

Jack Sparrow is as baffled as anybody when Tia Dalma items him a jar of dust in Useless Man’s Chest, however it’s precisely what he must stash Davy Jones’ coronary heart throughout the movie’s climax. Norrington takes the chest that originally contained the guts into the jungle to attract away Jones’ henchmen, however not earlier than rigorously appraising the jar. When Jack and the others return to the Black Pearl, he taunts Jones with the jar solely to seek out out that it’s empty. 

“The place is the thump-thump?” Jack mutters anxiously. Alas, we cannot see it once more till the sequel. —P.Okay.

Most Stolen Hearts (Within the Mixture): Bizarre Disney franchises 

For probably the most half, Disney and Disney-adjacent franchises use “stealing hearts” as a straightforward, kid-friendly metaphor for falling in love. Apart from Snow White, which makes use of stealing hearts as a not-metaphor for slicing somebody’s coronary heart out and giving it to an Evil Queen. And As soon as Upon a Time, the place many characters attain into one other’s chest and rip their coronary heart out to make use of as a type of thoughts management and/or homicide. And Kingdom Hearts, which is frankly inexplicable however includes smacking the hearts out of hundreds of thousands of little shadow dudes to make a large moon-heart within the sky. —Alexis Nedd, Senior Leisure Reporter

Most Stolen Hearts (Per Capita): Organ horror

In the actual world, there are only some methods to steal somebody’s coronary heart. All of them are unlawful and most of them are gross. Take into account the Hollywood trope of organ-stealing horror, which crops as much as simply determine villains and make folks really feel squicky about their bodily autonomy. There’s Repo! The Genetic Opera and Repo Man, two motion pictures that each cope with a dystopian future wherein firms can repossess transplanted organs when folks do not sustain with their funds. Or Turistas, which is about backpackers getting kidnapped by an organ harvesting syndicate and, properly, getting their organs harvested. In fact, even when organs are harvested responsibly, there isn’t any assure that they will not be stolen later (see: The Goodest Coronary heart Thief). —A.N. 

Goodest Coronary heart Thief: One Tree Hill

Medical exhibits have lengthy made scrumptious drama out of stolen, misplaced, or in any other case placed-in-peril donor organs. However no collection did a affected person dirtier than One Tree Hill, wherein the villainous Dan noticed his alternative coronary heart dropped after which carried off by a golden retriever in Season 6, episode 18, “Looking for a Former Readability.” It is and away the nuttiest factor this present, or actually any present, has finished with the stolen coronary heart trope. However who can keep mad at that face?! —A.F.

Finest Intentions: Spongebob Squarepants

There’s not a greater buddy in Bikini Backside than Spongebob Squarepants. In Season 1’s “Valentine’s Day,” all people’s favourite yellow sponge decides to present his pal Patrick a big chocolate coronary heart balloon. However when scallops assault the floating confection, Spongebob’s hyping up of the shock backfires, and Patrick’s intense pleasure turns right into a full-on meltdown.

“PATRICK NEEDS LOVE TOO!” the emotionally unstable starfish screams, whereas destroying a Valentine’s Day-themed carnival piece by piece. Fortunately, Sandy manages to save lots of the day and the enduring duo’s friendship by utilizing her Texas abilities on the unruly mollusks. Yeehaw! —A.F.

Cute, however Cursed: Howl’s Transferring Citadel

Howl’s Transferring Citadel is stuffed with discuss of witches and wizards stealing hearts, however just one individual really loses theirs: Howl. The infamous wizard offers it to the hearth demon Calcifer as a part of a magical deal. This implies he is cursed to lose his humanity, however not less than he will get to hang around with Calcifer, whose grouchiness solely makes him cuter. 

Don’t fret an excessive amount of about Howl: Even after the Witch of the Waste tries to steal his coronary heart, Sophie manages to place it again, making this the one entry on this listing wherein somebody regains their stolen coronary heart. —Belen Edwards, Leisure Reporter

Problematic Fave: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Even when it got here out in 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was criticized for racist stereotypes, misogynistic jokes, and blatantly misrepresenting Indian tradition with scenes of monkey-brain feasts and ghoulish human sacrifice. Whereas this scene particularly is deeply problematic, it is also undeniably iconic. The over-the-top temple manufacturing design, the throbbing rating, the fearsome crimson lighting, the sensible results that detailed a human torso right down to a subject of chest hair and pliable flesh, all units the stage. Then, Amrish Puri made it his personal as a excessive priest who loves getting his palms soiled. All these years later, we’re nonetheless screaming. —Okay.P.

Worst Date: Iron Man

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts had been the MCU’s initially romantic relationship, and it began with this Iron Man scene. A panicked Pepper has to drag a copper wire out of Tony’s chest to interchange his arc reactor, and finally ends up sending him into cardiac arrest simply earlier than they succeed, her palms nonetheless dripping with plasmic discharge.

“Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do something like that ever once more,” she says as they snicker with reduction.

“I don’t have anybody however you,” Tony says softly, and so they share the briefest of moments. He tells Pepper to eliminate the outdated arc reactor, however it finally ends up being some of the poignant props in MCU historical past, even after Tony is gone. —P.Okay.

The Circle of Life: Video video games

In video video games, hearts signify life, demise, and the infinite cycle of rebirth that’s distinctive to this taste of leisure. We start with full hearts solely to look at them slowly diminish as recent challenges ship classes packaged in pains and failures. When all of the hearts are gone, so is our life — however it’s simply one in all many. And so the cycle continues. Not each sport makes use of the heart-shaped iconography that Zelda followers (amongst others) know so properly. However so many adhere to the multifaceted spirit of beginnings, endings, and renewals. —Adam Rosenberg, Senior Leisure Reporter

Thanks, However No Thanks: Dumb and Dumber

In his personal thoughts, Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) is the hero of an epic romance, nobly touring cross-country to return misplaced baggage to his dream lady Mary (Lauren Holly). She’ll reject him ultimately, however in his fantasy sequence of their reunion, it is another person whose coronary heart will get ripped out. Past imagining hearth love-making, Lloyd envisions an opportunity to defend Mary’s honor in opposition to overly amorous restaurant staff. Taking macho shows to a ridiculous peak, Lloyd in the end tears the guts out of a chef’s chest, then places it in a doggy bag so as to add insult to damage. Positive, it is hilarious. However bro, Mary’s simply not that into you! —Okay.P.    

Queen of Stolen Hearts: Emilia Clarke

Past stealing our hearts along with her charismatic performances, Emilia Clarke has solidified herself because the MVP of literal on-screen hearts. As Daenerys Targaryen in Recreation of Thrones, she consumed a complete horse’s coronary heart — made from solidified jam — in one in all Season 1’s most hardcore scenes. She then went on to star in vacation rom-com Final Christmas, which takes Wham!’s lyrics “final Christmas, I gave you my coronary heart” very actually. You’ll be able to’t waste a coronary heart transplant from Henry Golding, Emilia Clarke! However you possibly can settle for your crown as queen of this listing. Congratulations! —B.E.