Most True To Life Movie Drug Scenes

Hollywood isn’t always accurate when it comes to drugs and their effects. Sometimes though, they get it right. Here is our list the best and most true to life drug scenes throughout cinematic history.

Quite a few movies involve characters that take drugs for any number of reasons. Most of the time however, Hollywood is anything but accurate when it comes to portraying the effects of these substances. Although the time of government-sanctioned “Reefer Madness” propaganda is gone, finding a “real” depiction of drugs in film isn’t always easy. On occasion, some directors portray drug experiences that are shockingly close to the actual ones, heightening the narrative chops of the movie. Here is our list of the most true to life drug scenes from the silver screen.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998)

Drug: LSD

Most folks who have experience taking psychedelics like LSD agree that the portrayal of Raoul’s LSD trip in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is probably one of the best and most accurate in history. We are talking about the scene where Raoul (Johnny Depp) gets to the hotel all loaded up on acid. He then sees the carpet writhing and creeping up the wall. Many think that this is quite a spot-on interpretation of the visuals one sees on an acid trip. Aside from that famous hotel scene, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas also does a great job recreating the effects of marijuana and other drugs.

ENTER THE VOID (2009)

Drug: DMT

Calling Enter the Void psychedelic would be an understatement. After all, this flick is about the spirit journey of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer in Tokyo who was killed after a bust has gone bad. His soul is now on a psychedelic tour of the afterlife that journeys from past, to present, to future, in which he observes the repercussions of his death in the search for resurrection. Experienced psychonauts say that the movie has one of the most accurate DMT scenes.

TAKING WOODSTOCK

Drug: LSD

The 2009 indie dramedy Taking Woodstock has some good and true to life LSD scenes in it. In one of them, we see Elliot (Demetri Martin) tripping at home on what may be a small dose of acid. Check out the moving and wavering patterns on the wall and the ceiling! In another scene, he’s really tripping balls, standing on top of a hill, watching the crowd move in waves like a giant ocean. We think this comes pretty close to the visuals on a trip, wouldn’t you agree?

IN BRUGES (2008)

Drug: Cocaine

In the movie In Bruges, two hit men (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) go to Belgium to hide out and let things cool off a bit after a drug deal has gone wrong. The movie is quite funny and features one of the most accurate (and funniest) cocaine scenes ever committed to celluloid. Colin Farrell does coke with a little person; after insulting him, the jittery Farrell and his friend get coked-up and launch into a bizarre racist rant that nails that feeling of finding yourself in a crazy conversation after doing some lines.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013)

Drugs: Quaaludes, Cocaine

The Wolf of Wall Street has many good drug scenes, but one of the best is that hilarious scene where Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes an ungodly amount of ‘ludes and then has to snort a line of coke so he can do the Heimlich manoeuvre on a choking Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). That scene isn’t just pure comedy gold to watch, but it also accurately shows what may happen if someone takes too many ‘ludes.

NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994)

Drugs: Mushrooms

Oliver Stone is a master of creating scenes in movies where you really feel like you’re tripping. He often does it in subtle ways with the effect that this adds to even more realism. In Natural Born Killers, we see Micky (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) taking a whole bunch of magic mushrooms out in the dessert. No doubt, this isn’t the best place for tripping, but seeing that the whole movie is about the two “attractive serial killers” making one bad decision after the other, this doesn’t really come as a surprise.

SPUN (2002)

Drug: Meth

The movie Spun is pretty true to life when it comes to depicting the effects of drugs. However, if Spun does one thing particularly well, it is highlighting the often big disconnect between users and reality. There is this one scene where Ross (Jason Schwartzman) and Nikki (Brittany Murphy) do some ungodly amount of meth while driving. While they are talking, Nikki about her baby and Ross about his girlfriend, it becomes clear that these are sad lies and delusions. The scene with the characters’ faces superimposed over the night highway doesn’t leave much doubt about that.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

Drugs: LSD

Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), "the Dude" is a laid-back, easy-going burnout who happens to have the same name as a millionaire whose wife owes some dangerous people a lot of money. Sounds like some decent movie to watch on a Saturday night, right? The flick also has a quite accurate drug-infused dream sequence with lots of really weird stuff happening. Men in red suits running around with giant scissors, dancing Viking women, and bowling balls falling from the sky are just some of the psychedelic craziness in this scene.

ROMEO+JULIET (1996)

Drug: Ecstasy

In Romeo+Juliet, the classic Shakespearean tragedy has been adapted for the screen and played out in the postmodern city of Verona Beach. We are not sure whether Shakespeare would have approved this new interpretation, with scenes such as one where Mercutio gives Romeo a hit of "Queen Mab" (MDMA, a.k.a. ecstasy) before a party. "Thy drugs are quick!" Romeo says before his eyes roll back in his head and Mercutio in drag performs a disco number.

CHOPPER (2000)

Drug: Cocaine

This after-drug scene in Chopper is done very subtly and one would probably have to watch it a few times to catch the hints. For others, it may be more obvious to spot. The scene is ever-so-slightly sped up and disjointed, making the conversation look fidgety, bizarre, and amped up, which some see as a clever cinematographic hint about Chopper (Eric Bana) and the other guy being high on blow. Those who doubt whether the scene is really intended like that just need to watch the seconds before this scene where you can see both doing lines.

EASY RIDER (1969)

Drug: LSD

For some older folks, Easy Rider may be the first time they heard about LSD. In this classic road movie, two hippies, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are travelling across America on their Harleys in search of spiritual truth. During their search, they’re taking plenty of drugs, but must also face the bigotry and hatred of small-town America. At some point, someone gives them acid, but not without telling them to take it “at the right place”. They find the “right place”, which happens to be a cemetery in New Orleans just about at the end of the movie where they drop the acid with two prostitutes. Of all the scenes in the movie, the acid scene is the one most people remember and the one that most people were freaked out by.