And the second most romantic scene Tom Cruise ever performed, the most romantic being the Jerry Maguire finale (“You had me at hello”).

What makes this Born on the Fourth of July scene so poignant is that it seems so unreal. You’ve got a naive and patriotic nerd who doesn’t attend the Massapequa High School senior prom because his dream girl (Kyra Sedgwick) is going with another guy, but at the last minute the nerd runs through a rainstorm to attend on his lonesome. He strolls soaking through the gymnasium, finds the dream girl (who of course is bored with her date), asks her to dance and then kisses her, and she’s totally into it.

Awkward high-school romances never experience this kind of perfect romantic climax…I know this for a fact! I went through high school and it was nothing but frustration and heartbreak. But that’s what makes this scene so sweet. Because we want to believe it even though it’s bullshit. (And I don’t care if this actually happened to poor Ron Kovic — it’s still a fantasy.)

Released on 12.20.89, BOTFOJ cost $17.8 million after reshoots. The blistering, well-reviewed anti-war drama grossed over $161 million worldwide, and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cruise; Stone won for Best Director. It also nabbed four Golden Globe Awards — Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Today it wouldn’t even open in theatres, and if it did the teens and 20somethings who blew off West Side Story would ignore it. But they would definitely support Spider-Man: No Way Home.