In Honor of 7-Eleven's Birthday, A Brief History of Convenience Stores in Movies

It's the unofficial 84th birthday of our favorite chain convenience store, 7-Eleven, meaning two things: First, you're entitled to a free Slurpee (at all participating locations) and second, it's as good a time as any to look back at some of the best scenes set in 7-Eleven-like establishments in movie history. Who knew that one-stop-shop marts were appropriate settings for pregnancy scares, super-human cyborgs, Michael Bay-directed hold-ups and most frightening of all, a skinny, '90s era Alec Baldwin in a track suit?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

In this coming-of-age comedy from Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe, Brad (Judge Reinhold) surfs from entry-level job to entry-level job to pay off his car, encountering Ridgemont High's perpetually unemployed and stoned surfer Spicoli along the way. Enjoy this clip then, as Brad (and a bathroom-bound Spicoli) thwart a robbery on the first day of his convenience store gig.

Robocop (1987)

Which is less realistic: Judge Reinhold outsmarting a gun-wielding robber or a super-human cyborg known as "Robocop" walking into a quickie mart and throwing its owner through the dairy case? You decide in the video below from Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi hit.

Raising Arizona (1987)

In perhaps the most endearing convenience store robbery included on this list, Nicolas Cage's well-meaning but criminally-inclined "Hi" McDunnough burgles a Short Stop mart by announcing, "Wake up, son. I'll be taking these Huggies and, uh, whatever cash you got." All while his loving family waits in the car outside in this Coen Brothers classic.

Miami Blues (1990)

There was a time in the early '90s when Alec Baldwin was skinny, tan and didn't look like an overly serious Little League coach. That moment was captured in the forgotten 1990 crime thriller Miami Blues, about a violent sociopath nicknamed "Junior" who steals a badge and starts policing the mean streets of Miami, one 7-Eleven at a time. Burgeoning crime fighters without a firearms license, take note of the way Baldwin's character uses a bottle of pasta sauce as a weapon.

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