Saunas are still growing in popularity in Western culture but overseas, in European, Asian, and Middle Eastern cultures, they’ve been around a long time.
Little do people know how often saunas have shown up in major Hollywood motion pictures, indie films, and movies from all over the world. If you’re looking for some movies to get you in the mood for your next steam or sauna, here’s a few of our recommended picks.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
This American movie classic receives a lot of attention on its soundtrack and music-centric humour, and rightfully so but a sauna actually pops up in a single scene and makes more than a few drops of sweat. In The Blues Brothers, the scene we are talking about has the two leads sitting together in a sauna in an allusion to a popular Blood, Sweat & Tears album called No Sweat. Absolutely classic!
247 Fahrenheit (2011)
This might not be the kind of film you want to watch before stepping into a public sauna. This Georgian film is based around a group of friends who get trapped in a sauna and slowly, they descend into madness trying to escape. Though seemingly impractical, especially with the way saunas are built in North America, 247 Fahrenheit actually isn’t a bad movie overall!
Lost in Translation (2003)
If you blink, you’ll miss it. A Japanese sauna pops up ever so briefly in this Sofia Coppola film. Depicting Bill Murray as an aging actor who befriends a college graduate student in a Tokyo hotel, Lost in Translation has one scene where Murray’s character spends time in a sauna with two German-speaking men. He leaves quickly and gets into a tub of water for a nice cool soak.
Spirited Away (2001)
Though not technically a ‘Hollywood film’, Spirited Away is Japanese anime film, becoming a massive hit and in fact, became Japan’s highest grossing film in history. In the West, it’s been named one of the best films of the century by the New York Times and is regularly ranked as the best animation film ever. In the film, a young girl works at a bathhouse where guests soak in big baths, surrounded by steam and a very sauna-esque atmosphere.
Evil Rising (2008)
Originally titled ‘Sauna’, the Finnish horror film Evil Rising involves two Finnish brothers in the early 1600s who arrive in a mysterious village. It is there that the brothers find a sauna in which they believe the power exists to wash them of their sins and experiences from the Russo-Swedish War. Don’t ask us why saunas tend to pop up in Eastern European horror from time to time but admittedly, it’s an interesting premise.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Yes, another Bill Murray film has made the list. Someone should really ask him, what the deal is between him and saunas. In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, he lives on a submarine which improbably has a library and a sauna though it resembles more of a steam bath. As you may have noticed, saunas in the movies are frequently either the source of comedy in American-friendly films or horror in European-based films.
Other films you’ll find a sauna in
Over the decades, saunas have come up in a number of movies, including Hotel Transylvania (2012), The Rose (1979), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), the original Alfred Hitchcock-directed Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), Air Force One (1997), Garden State (2004), and plenty more.
Despite saunas showing up from time to time, there hasn’t been a significant depiction of saunas in Hollywood-based films nor has there been a major English-language documentary on saunas or sauna culture.