Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. It is the first movie in the Before trilogy. In the film, Jesse (played by Ethan Hawke) and Céline (played by Julie Delpy) meet on a train and get off in Vienna to spend the night together.

Linklater worked with Kim Krizan, who had previously acted in his films Slacker (1991) and Dazed and Confused (1993), to create the screenplay. The casting process took nine months to find Hawke and Delpy for the roles. Most of the film was shot in Vienna. The story has few events and focuses on long conversations between the characters. It discusses ideas about life, love, time, death, self-discovery, and modern views on romance.

The film first showed at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 1995, and was released in U.S. theaters eight days later by Columbia Pictures. It earned $22.5 million and was praised for its writing, direction, and acting. Many critics listed it as one of the best films of the year. It later received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The sequel, Before Sunset, came out in 2004, and the third film, Before Midnight, was released in 2013. In 2025, Before Sunrise was chosen for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry because it is "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

Plot

On June 16, 1994, Jesse meets Céline on a train traveling from Budapest. They start talking. Jesse is going to Vienna with a Eurail pass to catch a flight back to the United States. Céline is returning to university in Paris after visiting her grandmother in Budapest. When they arrive in Vienna, Jesse asks Céline to get off the train with him. He says that in 10 or 20 years, she might not be happy with her current partner and might wonder how her life could have been different if she had chosen someone else. He also says she might realize that he is not very different from other people. Because they do not have enough money to rent a room for the night, they decide to walk around Vienna until Jesse’s flight the next morning.

After visiting some famous places in Vienna, they share a kiss at the top of the Wiener Riesenrad during sunset and begin to feel a romantic connection. As they continue walking, they talk more openly about love, life, religion, and their thoughts about Vienna.

While walking near the Donaukanal, a man offers to write them a poem that includes a word of their choice. Jesse and Céline choose the word “milkshake” and receive the poem “Delusion Angel” (written for the film by poet David Jewell). Jesse says sarcastically that the man likely already wrote the poem and simply inserts the words people choose.

Later, while playing pinball at a local club, Céline tells Jesse that her last boyfriend ended their relationship six months ago, saying she “loved him too much.” When asked about his past, Jesse explains that he originally came to Europe to visit his girlfriend, who was studying in Madrid. They broke up shortly after he arrived. He found a cheap flight home through Vienna, but it did not leave for two weeks, so he bought a Eurail pass and traveled across Europe. In a Viennese café, Jesse and Céline act out fake phone calls, pretending to be friends calling each other. Céline says she was ready to get off the train with Jesse before he convinced her to stay. Jesse admits that after breaking up with his girlfriend, he bought a flight that was not much cheaper and that all he truly wanted was to escape his life.

They admit they are attracted to each other and share how the night has made them feel, though they understand they may not see each other again. They decide to make the best of their remaining time together. They buy a bottle of wine and share it in a park, discussing whether they should have sex. Céline says she does not want to be just a one-night stand for Jesse. Jesse then says that, if given the choice, he would marry her instead of never seeing her again. They kiss passionately and embrace, and it is strongly suggested that they have sex in the park. The film ends the next day at the train station, where Céline’s train is about to leave. The couple decides not to exchange contact information but agrees to meet at the same place in six months.

Production

The movie Before Sunrise was inspired by a woman named Amy Lehrhaupt. Writer and director Richard Linklater met her in a toy store in Philadelphia in 1989. They spent time walking through the city and talked until late at night. In 2013, Linklater shared that Lehrhaupt had died in a motorcycle accident before the film was released.

At first, the screenplay did not clearly describe who the two main characters were or which city they were in. Linklater realized that because the film focuses on a conversation between a man and a woman, it was important to have a strong female co-writer. He chose Kim Krizan, who had small roles in his earlier films Slacker and Dazed and Confused. Linklater said he admired how Krizan’s mind worked, as she often shared many smart and confident ideas.

Linklater and Krizan discussed the film’s ideas and characters for a long time. Linklater wanted to explore how people form relationships and learn about each other. He decided to set the story in a foreign country because, as he explained, people are more open to new experiences when they are traveling. Together, they created an outline and wrote the screenplay in 11 days.

Finding the right actors for the roles of Jesse and Céline was difficult for Linklater. At first, he thought actor Ethan Hawke was too young for the role. After seeing Hawke in a play in New York City, Linklater changed his mind. For Céline, Linklater met Julie Delpy and liked her personality. After a final reading, he decided Delpy and Hawke were the best choices for the roles. Once they agreed to join the film, they traveled to Austin to meet Linklater and Krizan for several days.

In 2016, Delpy told a magazine that she and Hawke mostly rewrote the screenplay. She said the original version was not very romantic and focused more on talking than on romance. She explained that Linklater hired her and Hawke because he trusted their writing skills and wanted them to add romantic elements to the film. Delpy also said she doubted the film would have been made if she had been credited as the sole writer. In 2019, Krizan disagreed with Delpy’s claim and stated that Linklater and Krizan are officially credited as the writers of Before Sunrise. Delpy and Hawke are credited as co-writers of the sequels, and Krizan is credited for contributing to the story of Before Sunset and for creating characters in Before Midnight.

Themes

The movie Before Sunrise focuses on two main ideas: finding happiness through a romantic relationship and learning more about oneself through another person. These ideas are shown through a challenge: the characters must achieve their goals within 12 hours. The poem "Delusion Angel" supports these themes, showing a wish for deep understanding between two people in a world that feels confusing and uncontrollable.

A key idea in the film is responding freely to the world around you. Jesse and Céline act on an unexpected decision to leave the train together, which leads them to focus only on each other. Their shared thoughts and feelings help them escape from everyday life for a time. When morning comes, Jesse says they have returned to "real time."

Some people believe the film's main message is about life itself. In one scene, Jesse and Céline visit the Friedhof der Namenlosen, the Cemetery of the Nameless in Simmering. The people buried there are unknown, but Jesse and Céline find meaning by learning about each other, showing they are embracing life and ignoring the idea of death.

The film ends without telling viewers if Jesse and Céline will meet again in six months. Critic Robin Wood wrote that after publishing an essay about the film in 1996, the director, Linklater, told him that both he and the actors believed the characters would meet again.

The story takes place on June 16, which is known as Bloomsday.

Reception

Before Sunrise had its world premiere at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. It was released in the United States on January 27, 1995.

The film earned $1.4 million in 363 theaters during its opening weekend. In total, it made $5.5 million in the United States and Canada and $22.5 million worldwide. This amount was nine times the film’s budget of $2.5 million.

Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 51 reviews. The average rating was 8.4 out of 10. The site’s critics consensus stated, “Thought-provoking and beautifully filmed, Before Sunrise is an intelligent, unabashedly romantic look at modern love, led by marvelously natural performances from Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.” On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 19 critics, which indicates “generally favorable” reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B” on a scale from A+ to F.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave Before Sunrise three out of four stars. He described Julie Delpy as “ravishingly beautiful and, more important, warm and matter-of-fact, speaking English so well the screenplay has to explain it (she spent some time in the States).” In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, “Before Sunrise is as uneven as any marathon conversation might be, combining colorful, disarming insights with periodic lulls. The filmmaker clearly wants things this way, with both these young characters trying on ideas and attitudes as if they were new clothes.” Hal Hinson, in his review for The Washington Post, wrote, “Before Sunrise is not a big movie, or one with big ideas, but it is a cut above the banal twentysomething love stories you usually see at the movies. This one, at least, treats young people as real people.”

In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Peter Rainer wrote, “It’s an attempt to make a mainstream youth movie with a bit more feeling and mysteriousness than most, and, in this, it succeeds.” Marjorie Baumgarten, in her review for The Austin Chronicle, wrote, “Before Sunrise represents a maturation of Linklater’s work in terms of its themes and choice of characters.” In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote, “Just once, for a single day, Jesse and Céline have given life the sort of shape and charge that until now they have found only in fiction, and may never find again.” Entertainment Weekly gave the film an “A−” rating, and Owen Gleiberman wrote, “Small movies can be as daring as big ones, and Linklater, in his offhand way, is working without a net here. Before Sunrise may be the closest an American has come to the discursive talk gamesmanship of Eric Rohmer.”

Online film critic James Berardinelli has cited the film as “the best romance of all time.” Entertainment Weekly rated Before Sunrise #25 on its Top 25 Modern Romances list. In a 2008 Empire poll, Before Sunrise was ranked as the 200th greatest movie of all time. In 2010, British newspaper The Guardian ranked Before Sunrise / Before Sunset #3 on its critics’ list of 25 best romantic films of all time and #2 in an online readers’ poll.

Before Sunrise was entered into the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival, where Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director, and the film was nominated for the Golden Bear. Hawke and Delpy were nominated for Best Kiss at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards.

Sequels

A follow-up movie, Before Sunset, was released in 2004 and also received positive reviews. A third movie, Before Midnight, came out in 2013.

Jesse and Céline appeared in a short scene together in Richard Linklater's 2001 animated movie Waking Life.