Milk: perhaps one of humanity’s staple beverages, its properties and nutritional value has been enjoyed across tribes and cultures since the dawn of time. Its traditional use in the animal kingdom (including humanity) seems to reflect an aspect of innocence and youth, with its maternal implications being its assumed association. Milk seems to be one of the few things which unite all mammals; we all drink our mother’s milk (although humans are the only weird species that drinks other animals’ milk).

Our first ever experience of nourishment and link to survival has seen itself carefully woven into the films that choose to get it out of the refrigerator. What’s one of the first things we see Luke Skywalker attend to in Star Wars: A New Hope? You guessed it, a glass of milk (albeit “blue milk,” but milk nonetheless). Purity and good-heartedness is traditionally reflected in the dairy product, but its use extends beyond being enjoyed by a heart-of-gold protagonist. And as always, filmmaking knows no coincidence.

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Popcorn and a Milk?

     Walt Disney Studios

So then, what’s the deal with milk in the movies? When its traditional connotations are subverted, the results can be pretty unsettling. Something of an internet inside joke in the modern era, drinking milk as an adult has become something of comedic taboo. While this doesn’t have everything to do with its film use, it still helps peer into the benignly evil implications it can place on characters.

While Skywalker provides an example of its use in innocence, it’s only able to work in that scenario due to the writing, and our lack of exposure to the character thus far. Surprisingly, the beverage has proved to be one of the most powerful props on set, when given to the right hands. Of course, in order to show Luke’s development and bitterness over time, The Last Jedi features him drinking milk, thick and green this time.

Is Milk Menacing?

     Universal Pictures

Enter Hanz Landa, the SS Officer tasked with rounding up the remaining Jews in France during Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglourious Basterds. Revered as one of the greatest monikers of evil in modern film thanks to Christoph Waltz’s great performance, Landa is the first character we’re given real time with in the film. Like all good filmmakers, Tarantino makes sure to punctuate his dastardly nature both in nature and in diet. As Landa sits, explaining his grossly malicious occupation as nonchalant in nature, pay attention to the beverage he’s presented with.

Milk, here offered as a gift to a visitor combined with Landa’s gross nature of ingestion, makes this already ticking time bomb of an opening scene double down on hostility. It’s a small yet seemingly integral detail to the character of Landa that unravels throughout the rest of the film. While drinking milk isn’t a telltale sign of Nazism, its cues can be seen in other villainous entities throughout film as well.

Milk as the Big Reveal

While Landa’s use of milk was more exclamatory, demanding trepidation in the films opening moments, the beverage has also been used to reveal evil as a narrative progresses. Take Jordan Peele’s Get Out as an example of milk capitalizing on a film’s twist and character subversions. An already eerie, increasingly discomforting watch, Get Out sees Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris Washington abducted by an affluent white family with the intent of placing one of their brains into his body.

When his girlfriend Rose, the only other character who up until this point appeared to be in Chris’ corner, is revealed to be in on the scheme, what is she seen drinking? You guessed it, milk, and an overly precise bowl of cereal (separated, no less). What’s interesting here is our exposure to this new Rose and how brief it is. While her body language changes and mannerisms are seen to be more robotic, our milky prop cue to this change is also equally cared over.

Innocence and Irony

     Warner Bros.

Not only is milk used as a piece of unsettling food on set, its symbolism can extend itself to a multitude of different facets. While milk, traditionally a symbol of youth and purity, has been subverted given the right character, sometimes the beverage’s two main uses coincide. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange centers around the idea of stripping humanity of its intimacy and individuality, all through the lens of a gang of teenage boys.

We see people (mostly women) treated as less than human, as Alex and his droogs treat their victims with an impersonal, malicious nature that simply defies the human condition. They’re a group of characters with little to redeem them, yet Kubrick still includes a poignant (or gross, depending on how you look at it) view of their youth. The now infamous dairy product makes its way to the big screen again as the gang is seen enjoying a couple glasses of milk at a milk bar, to remind audiences of how young the culprits of chaos truly are.

There is something oddly unsettling about seeing an adult enjoy milk on screen. Regardless of their narrative place within the script, the beverage provides an uncomfortable perspective on the character choosing to drink it. An eternal symbol of the first inklings of life being consumed by an infant sees a whole new meaning when being enjoyed by an SS Officer, crazy girlfriend, or a gang of violent teens. Whether a sense of false humanity or a purposefully added antagonizing element, there really is no refreshment that attracts more oddities than milk in the movies.