NEVER FAILS TO MAKE ME CRY: Bryan Cranston near the end of Breaking Bad. He calls Skyler, knowing the police are listening, and tears into her. Just rips her apart all for the sake of getting her off the hook as an accomplice. Instead of saying goodbye, or apologizing, he has to say these awful things. And while he's cursing her out and talking to her like he's a real drug lord, tears stream down his face, his glasses fog up, he has to cover the mouthpiece so the cops don't hear him sobbing. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I'm tearing up just writing this comment.
Related, Bryan Cranston also said that if a character is crying or laughing in a script drama or comedy, it takes away because the audience doesn’t have to do either. But if they’re trying their best NOT to and they’re choking up, it gives the audience more room to act the way you want them to in the scene. Loved that idea in the perspective of how good it was in that scene and Breaking Bad in general
Maybe its because I'm married, but UP always puts me on the verge of tears. The obvious sad scene is when you watch Carl and Ellie grow up and become old together, only to see her die. But the scene that really wrecks me is the scene at the end of the movie when he finds the unfinished scrapbook was actually finished. He had felt extreme guilt the whole movie that he never helped accomplished her goals for her, and it's then that he finds out that her only goal was to have a happy life with him.
Even before I was married that intro would absolutely gut me. We see their whole lives, how they met, they find love for each other, try to have a family….find that isn’t possible, but they come together stronger for each other, and then the inevitable happens. Anyone who has ever lost someone knows how painful it is, and the fact that the montage shows how they met and their lives developed down to the small tiny human bits like them putting together their home and the mailbox…it is so human and that’s why it always makes me cry, even just thinking about it I’m tearing up.
The scene in The Fox and the Hound. She's driving her pet fox out into the woods to abandon him and he's smiling and sticking his head out the window, having the time of his life. Then he sees her expression and knows something is wrong.
"When you're the best of friends (doo-doo-doo-doo) having so much fun together..." 😢 My Achilles heel is movies with animals. I will cry all the way through Homeward Bound, even the funny parts. I loved The Fox and the Hound as a kid, but I don't think there is any way I could watch it as an adult. It would be a miserable experience.
"My friends, you bow to no one." - Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Breaks me EVERY time and I marathon the Extended Edition trilogy at least once a year.
To me it's the final scene, right as Sam closes the door of his home, and you realize that after so many wonders, tension and loss, life still goes on.
The climax of "It's A Wonderful Life" gets me every single time. It's just a wonderful showcase of building up tension for the entire runtime of a movie that doesn't get released until the very end all in one go and it's sooo well done.
Last time I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender (which is a masterclass of storytelling), I was very surprised with the part where I cried hardest. Most people talk about the emotionally touching moment when a certain two characters have a reconciling reunion at the end of season 3, but the part that I cried most was when Katara vents her emotions to her father. Why did this scene hit me so hard? I didn't have a particularly strained relationship with my father. I can relate to my dad not always being able to be around, but it didn't make my world feel so lost. But what I think I felt in this scene was actually for Hakota. The desire myself to be a strong mature father who loves his family, seeing him doing his best to protect the world while having to leave your family, and dealing with your own daughter being angry with you for trying your best. You know she understands and is not in disagreement with you, but all of that doesn't erase the emotions. How on the one hand you wish you could make all the pain go away, but on the other hand you are finally getting to hold your daughter close and have a heart-to-heart with her.
Captain Phillips, his break down after he's rescued always gets me. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Wills breakdown after his father leaves. That heartbreaking question, "Why don't he want me?" So reading this, I'll say what gets me is when a stoic character finally breaks, even if just for a moment, and let's all the emotions that were suppressed flood out
Old Man Marley hugging his grand daughter at the end of Home Alone gets me EVERY TIME. Even just listening to the incredible John Williams score from that scene can get me. As a kid, I loved the movie for its goofiness and slapstick. As an adult, who has now lost family members both to death and grudges, the enitre film hits different. All-time classic. Edit: made some changes because I noticed a grammatical error and couldn't live with myself posting one on a writing channel...now I lost my ❤️ from Brandon. Whoops.
And the moment really hits because just a moment earlier Fry says not to reanimate his dog because he lived a full life and moved on from Fry, but then we learn the truth about his dog’s loyalty.
For a show built upon, often absurd, comedy there are so many genuinely emotional moments. For every episode that ends on a joke there’s at least one that is heartwarming, like the montage of Leela's parents secretly watching over her during her childhood, or the reveal that Hermes was the inspector that verified Bender's construction despite spotting a fault in his design that would have otherwise meant he was disassembled. And then there's the Sting, an entire episode in which Leela mourns and is in denial over Fry's death (and somehow the reveal that it was just a dream does not undermine this.)
Would you consider doing a video just exploring "attacking and defending"? That's a thing you bring up every time you do a video on dialogue, but I feel like it's a model that's easy to use in some contexts but not in others. Feels like it'd be easy for writers to struggle understanding how to use it when writing conversations that don't involve an overt or strongly implied argument between characters.
The death of Jiraiya is one of the most impactful for me, especially when he revisits all the failures of his life before finally realizing the importance of his relation with Naruto. In particular, the scene where he learns that Kushina is pregnant and that Minato wants to name his son Naruto in his honor . ( sorry for my bad english )
Omg I am so happy to see you talk about this. That was such a painful death in that series and it was so well done. Anime doesn’t get as much attention.
Just watched it today for the first time, but (SPOILER ALERT) Logan’s death in Logan. The way Laura held back her tears and instead let out soft whimpers was hard enough, but when she called him Daddy, that truly stuck the landing
When Sam picks up Frodo on his back and carries him up the mountain. The final showdown between Ogami Itto and Yagyu Retsudo when Diagoro takes up his father's sword and continues.
I watched Gladiator the other day and like always, I was a blubbering mess at the end. I'm glad Ridley Scott made the decision to not make Maximus the triumphant usurper. His goal is the film was always to get back to his family, which he does in the end
The end of Dragonheart, every time, even just thinking about it. I know we're focusing on writing here, but undeniably, the images and music are a huge part of the effect of this scene.
A good piece of advice that I've stumbled into for writing scenes like this: Timing from the perspective of the writer is entirely different from the perspective of the reader. You might have a scene that you KNOW has deep emotional potential because the emotions and dialogue potentially might have you on the verge of tears but, after you're done, wait a while to let your mind's palette clear and then read it aloud to yourself or someone else. This will help you to recognize if you have the right timing and appropriate amount of narrative weight put into the scene or if you need to add more somewhere. I may or may not have had the experience of laying in too much emotion into dialogue too fast for a scene and then only proofreading it in my head after. It didn't exactly illicit the emotional response that I was looking for...not even from me. 😅
E. T. is my go-to-tearjerker movie. Two scenes. E.T.'s death scene which is symbolized by the plant dying. And, of course, E.T.'s tearful goodbye to Elliott. E.T. says, "Come." Elliott says, "Stay." They hug because they both know that E.T. must return home, but his friendship with Eliott will last a lifetime. E.T. comforts Elliott by pointing to him with E.T.'s glowing finger and says, "I'll be right here." Gets me every time! 😢
Holy crap, the entire scene in the makeshift hospital when Elliott talks to E.T. when he thinks he's died - Henry Thomas is AMAZING in that! I can't make it through that scene without sobbing. And then as E.T. starts to come back to life, Elliott has to pretend he's sad so the bad guys won't catch on - it's so brilliantly done, because it pulls you right out of that gulf of sorrow by making you laugh. "Would you like the plant?" "WAAAHHHHH!!!" Steven Spielberg is a genius.
7:43 "How are you getting off the plane?" had the unintended effect of making me laugh, not cry. I had expected the subtext to be an unspoken understanding of Jack's sacrifice, not an absurd question about how someone can escape a nuke in their prop-plane.
For me it's his look right AS he asks that question. "But is he smart or is he..." and he puts his hand on his chest and he looks absolutely heartbroken and terrifed. Gets me every time.
That’s a good point on different things make different people cry. - John Coffey’s death in the Green Mile made me cry (practically bawling). - Godzilla Minus one had choked up when Shikishima and Noriko made their attempted sacrifices, and when they were finally together again. I think the ones they get me are 1. Selfless sacrifices 2. True love in the face of death or uncertainty and 3. When a neglected character passes away, because they’re finally at peace. The third one gets me because of my own battles with adversity and being left behind by people most of my life. Great video overall!
Kieffer Sutherland totally nailed the delivery of “I’m not, honey.” The right performer sure makes a difference in terms of getting emotion out of your audience!
The scene which always gets me in Good Will Hunting is when Chuckie arrives to pick up Will for work and discovers he's up and left, just like Chuckie told him to. The therapy scene is the breakthrough, but that scene shows that Will is actually making good on what he's learned
I don't think my daughter was born when I watched that movie so it never hit me that hard... Until I just read your comment and a flood of emotions just hit me at once from your words on a screen... On a crowded bus... Thanks for that, my dude
For me, it’s moments of uncertainty where the parent or parental figure is just trying to appear strong for their kids. For example: in Lelo and Stitch, the night after they went surfing, Nani and Lelo are facing an uncertain future as Lelo is to be placed in foster care the next day. Nani doesn’t know how everything will play out, but without shedding a tear, sings a song to Lelo on what could be the last night they ever see each other.
I used to watch Homeward Bound with my son, and the part at the end when Sassy and Chance have come home, but everyone thinks that Shadow didn't make it, then he comes over the hill and says "I worried about you Peter" and it tears me up every time. Like I'm getting misty eyed just typing this out. The fact that the dog was worried about the boy when the dog was the one lost in the woods the whole time, it just DESTROYS me.
Fuck that movie. I cry through the entire thing from start to finish, even the funny parts. That movie has some voodoo curse on me. I can't even hear the theme music without feeling like I'm going to lose it. SHADOW! ugh...
When Littlefoot’s mother dies, it always breaks me every time his mom says I will always be with you even if you can’t see me. Then his response “What do you mean if I can’t see you? I can always see you.” Oh my god I can’t even type this without tearing up.
I played little league baseball when i was 10. One of my games my grandpa (who lived 5 hours away) showed up to cheer me on with my mom. For context i was the outfield kid tossing hos glove up in the air and always striking out. So i see him and run up and he tells me to hit a homerun. I then proceed to hit a homerun.... My grandpa was shocked. My mom was shocked. My team was shocked. And i was shocked. Frozen in amazement that i hit the ball... My coach screaming at me to run brought me back to reality. My grandpa looked at my mom and was like "so he hits alot of homeruns?" She responded, "no that was a first..."
So many movies make me cry, but the one on top of my brain is Steel Magnolias, the rant in the cemetery. Sally Field was never better. I bawl even if I just hear a part of that dialogue. 😭
When I was in the 5th grade, one of the classroom reading assignments was “Where the Red Fern Grows”. When one student revealed he wasn’t able to finish the book the night before, the teacher let him read it in the back of the room while the rest of us did our assignment. About 15 minutes later, we hear him desperately trying and failing to hold back tears. The class started laughing, but not at him. We were laughing because the book made wrecks of us all when we finished the book the previous night.
I will never not cry watching Avengers: Endgame when the voice of Sam Wilson (Falcon) comes through Cap's headset, "On your left." followed by Captain America's iconic, "Avengers... assemble." 😭 the triumphant feeling overwhelms me every single time 💗
I'm not usually a crier, but Good Will Hunting gets me every time. Perfect setup and character development, and the performances by Damon and Robin Williams are among the best I've ever seen.
I'm so glad you mentioned melodrama. Weirdly enough I'm working on the script for an upcoming chapter of my comic that involves and emotional moment. My script editor (at least I call her that. She's still a really good friend of mine) actually pointed out in that part of my script that it was too melodramatic and I had to have more subtle buildup. Couldn't have had more perfect timing on this, Brandon. Thank you!
I think there have been exactly three scenes in all movies I ever watched that made me shed a tear. The first one is from Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Iroh thinks about his dead son and sings a song. The second one is that famous scene from Interstellar where Cooper watches video messages from Earth. And the third scene is right at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, when Peter Quill reads a message from his mother. What all three have in common is the fact that they are all based on the theme of relationships between parents and children. Seems like this is a particularly touching subject for me pesonally.
The movie that most surprisingly brought me to the verge of tears was "Real Steel" -- yes, the one where Hugh Jackman plays a washed-up boxer-turned-trucker whose son finds and refurbishes a robot to fight in robot-vs.-robot boxing matches. You'll know the moment if you ever see it. Another one that brought me to the verge of tears, but not so surprisingly, was "Antwone Fisher", a story about a Navy soldier with a troubled family past who is helped by a therapist (played by Denzel Washington) to reconnect with his emotions and his family. Again, you'll know the moment if you ever see it.
"Characters crying can undermine the story's heartfelt moment." - Meanwhile, me crying every time the Pokémon cry when Ash gets turned to stone in the first Pokémon Movie~ Heartbreaking! ...Then they become happy tears when their tears revive my boi. :')
Oddly enough, click (Adam Sandler) always gets me. That scene with his dad and when he himself passes, oh boy. Yes i do have daddy/abandonment issues, why do you ask? 😂😢
A scene that is not often mentioned in this context, but makes me weep a bit is when Samwise Gamgee runs into the water to get on Frodo's boat because he promised Gandalf he would watch over Frodo. He starts to sink but his devotion to his friend wouldn't stop him from pushing on. He nearly drowns. "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. 'Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. Don't you leave him.' And I don't mean to. I don't mean to." Crying just typing this out. Love Samwise!
Between 2003 and 2006 each of my wife's 3 pregnancies ended in miscarriage. When we watched the opening montage in Up it hit hard. She died from breast cancer in 2016. I now know what Carl was feeling at the end of that montage.
Ladyhawke...both when they almost touch for the first time and at the end when the curse is broken. That one (and Spock's death in Wrath of Khan) get me everytime.
Casablanca- the scene where Victor Laszlo leads the band in that defiant rendition of 'La Marseillaise.' Many of those singing were real-life refugees from the Nazis. Gets me every time.
Mine is Harry Potter- Prisoner of Askaban. I grew up reading and loving the books. When I was a child, my dad killed himself. My mom remarried soon after and I had 4 step-siblings. We had a ranking on who was the favorite and my brother and I agreed that it depended on the day if it was him or I that was the most hated by our step-dad. I related to Harry Potter in so many ways- wanting to know everything that I could about my dad and every little story or bit of knowledge was so precious to me- to know more about this huge piece of myself that I had lost. There is a point in the story that Harry is being saved by his dad across the lake casting a patronus. He gets so excited to see his dad again until he realizes that it wasn't his dad saving him, it was himself. I wanted so badly for his dad to have come magically back to life- something I had wished every birthday candle blowout for years. I felt like I had to come to terms with my own grief over again when reading this part.
I haven't watched Good Will Hunting so I know nothing about the characters and have no emotional investment, but that example scene, less than a minute long, got me teary-eyed-that's darn good writing!
There were so many. But one for all - M*A*S*H episode Heal Thyself, at the end the doctor who is a temporary substitute in the hospital and a war veteran, seemingly immune from all the horrors occurring there, cause he has seen it all... at the end he just breaks, sits down quietly in the tent, losing idea of who he is and where he is, losing his mind. I always cried at that moment no matter how many times I've seen the episode. There were many very real moments in this ... sitcom.
The older I get the more things hit me in the feels. My emotional understanding of the world increases and acts of extreme sacrifice or kindness are my greatest triggers. I'll give 2 examples where Doctor WHO has hit me in the feels: Dark Waters episode - The Doctor gives his speech about Clara's betrayal, where he shows his anger and upset, but then helps her anyway, and says: "Do you think I care for you so little, that betraying me would make any difference?" 😭 Vincent and the Doctor episode, the ending always makes me cry when Vincent sees his life wasn't meaningless after all. The kindness of the Doctor gets me as well as Vincent's tears.
I'm pretty hard-hearted, but a scene that managed to put a tear to my eye was Rambo First Blood ending. You can totally see how Rambo turns out to be not the hero, but the victim. Stuck in a world that he no longer understands, with trauma that most people cannot comprehend.
Definitely the end of the color purple. When she sees her sister, it it reminds the audience of all the pain and suffering she’s gone through. And seeing her sister brings peace.
Driving Miss Daisy when Miss Daisy gets alzheimers and her driver stays with her at the end with the scene in the nursing home or Anne of Green Gables when Matthew dies. Those two movies and scenes get me every time, even though I've seen them literally hundreds of times.
I'm not picking on you, I swear - I'm simply using you in a last-ditch effort to save the thousands out there who still say they are "balling" when what they really mean is "bawling."
TMNT (1990) made me cry when I became a father. To see the way they contact Splinter and he tells his sons he is proud of them, and that he loves them, not knowing if he will ever see them again.
I’d say a good “over-the-top” reaction (even though it’s completely deserved) is the scene in Godzilla Minus One where Shikishima emerges from Godzilla’s attack on Ginza. That harrowing, rage-filled scream as he drops to his knees gives me goosebumps every time I watch.
John Lockes backstory in lost, specifically in S1Ep4. The major reveal of who he was before the island, and the cut to how the island changed him is incredibly done
The movies that have the pets in a sad scene always makes me cry. For example, Marley and Me and Homeward Bound have always made me cry. As a kid Land Before Time and My Girl used to get to me as well. And even though I've seen Titanic many times, it still has me crying. Now I see what you mean when you say that different people react differently to sad scenes through their own personal experiences. That makes a lot of sense. What's funny is that lately I'm working on a Fan Fiction that's been making me cry.
Thank you for this. You're telling me something I already knew but wasn't applying to my 2nd book, and I was struggling, I'd forgotten, caught up in other elements of the story. I need to show more of my main character's inner struggle instead of just focusing on the outer war.
Yondu's funeral scene in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was by far the most emotional scene for me that i ever saw in my life. And they were building up his character perfectly for that.
One of the movies that makes my eyes water is “A dog’s life”. I have a dog myself, and I’ve lost a lot of my loved ones along the way, so whenever Bailey dies, I cry from realization that my pet can die at any given moment too.
Only one story in the last 35 years has made me cry, and that’s the Reservation Dogs episode “Hunting”. The episode is mostly about Willie Jack and her dad talking about her friend Daniel’s suicide. It ends with Willie Jack standing over his grave and at one point says “I’m not mad at you anymore”. That line completely broke me, and it did because my mom passed away a few months earlier. She had been battling cancer for over a year, but there was still a really small chance she could pull through, but she didn’t want to. At that point, she had so many surgeries and organs removed that she was just done. I hadn’t properly processed her death, and that episode made me realize that I was (selfishly) angry at her for giving up. She had gone through the wringer and was ready to go, and whatever hope I had in me turned to poison. That episode hit me hard due to a personal connection to it, but it also helped me heal.
My favorite crying scene is of Godot at the end of Ace Attorney 3 “Mr Armando, your wound is bleeding!” “Have you forgotten already? In my world, the color red doesn’t exist. These must be… my tears.”
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is a masterclass in Fantasy storytelling. If you are an adult human being who's ever experienced loss and regrets over time, it will wreck you. In the best way possible. Also, if you ever want to see an example of a overpoweringly strong, emotionally repressed, female character made, not merely likable, but very relatable; the title character is the best I've ever seen.
The Color Purple makes me cry every damn time. Also, when ET gets on his ship “be good” 😭😭😭 Oh - also the end of Tangled when Rapunzel returns to her parents! 😭
first ep of the last of us and also the game intro when his buddy simply says "Joel..." the subtext is phenomenal, gets me every time. You know the bit if you've seen it.
The ending of Final Fantasy XV is something I love to see other people react to. The game is an unfinished, badly-told, no focus, incomplete mess, but there's still a lot I loved about it -- and the main reason I replay it all the time is the relationship of the four bros, Noctis and his escorts. SPOILERS BELOW At the post-credit sequence where he tells everyone that he has to sacrifice himself, everyone including him is playing it off cool, like how a guy would act to his friends. He says he's made his peace with it, but then he pauses, and you can see his lip quiver and he has a hard time getting his next words out. And then he says it. He's scared, and it's more than he can take. His friends then all admit to feeling the same thing, and he stands up and tries to say the following as best he can through his tears: "You guys are the best." Gets me every fucking time.
While they sometimes feel extremely rushed, I still really appreciate your videos and often learn something from them - or at least come away with something to think about. That said, I don’t understand the 24 example here. You mentioned how powerful it is because of the subtext, but as far as I can tell there was no subtext. Jack Bauer literally tells his daughter what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, where it’s happening, when it’s happening, and who it involves. It’s as literal as can be. I kept waiting for the “subtext” part, but he just kept on spelling it all out for us. Like when she asks how he’s getting off the plane and there’s a long pause I thought, “oh, THIS is what he meant; Jack’s going to remain silent and let the fact of the situation hang in the air between them, a heavy curtain of truth that words simply cannot - …” But then he says, “I’m not.” So even that moment was squandered. Lol. Am I missing something? Where’s the subtext in this scene?
The first film I watched that genuinely made me cry at a theater was Before Midnight (2013), which I attended with my college film class. I saw myself and my boyfriend (now husband) in the romantic leads, particularly in the scenes where they argue. I am also the child of divorced parents, so the story's conflict forced me to confront some serious unresolved emotional trauma that I had thought I had "gotten over" by then. Like damn, I just wanted to get some credits done over the summer semester 😭
When Markus Zusak was writing The Book Thief, a particular character's death made him cry as he was writing it. Also, in Lois Lowry's A Summer to Die, a girl's sister dies, and you know she's going to die (note the title), but it still hits hard.
I love the final scene of Captain Phillips. Maybe it’s just Tom Hanks incredible acting, but the release after all the tension worked for me in a big way. Seeing this competent, put-together guy finally break… wow!
Your channel is so good man, I always watch your videos as soon as they come out since they're just free inspiration. Easy to digest, good movie recommendations, and just valuable advice
Can you talk about pacing and how that looks in different genres? Some movies are action based, but you can’t always be super fast and have action every scene without any meaning, but then the meaningful scenes slow down the pace and of course movies and tv and books constantly struggle with that balancing. Also maybe another form of media doesn’t need action, but still. There’s sometimes a critique of “wow that moved so fast I couldn’t keep up!” Or maybe others where the author wrote and had one focus, and the audience was like “wait I wanted to know more about this other group!” Or… “wow nothing happens for a ton of pages!” Maybe different variations in different genres of the above. I know pacing is a delicate art but I am curious your take 😊
EVERYTHING makes me cry: sad moments, exceptionally happy moments, moments that I KNOW turn out ok, stressful moments. If there was a sad moment in a movie or show, it made me cry, even if I watched it every single day. Some movies are just tears through the whole run time (Atonement, The Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy 3). Fortunately, I LOVE a story that packs in emotion, even if that emotion is sadness. Suffice to say, basically every single Disney movie has made me cry, any death scene involving a character that is not hated (of course I cheer when a monster gets their comeuppance), each wedding or birth or they finally admitted they love each other or whatever other maximum emotional moment has brought tears to my eyes. Half of the problem could be in the music, because music also makes me cry. Maybe I just like to cry.
A strange one for me is from Ghost in the Shell TV series, when the Tachikoma sacrifice themselves to save the day, singing as they go to their doom. Silly little AI robots make me cry every time. It's because they had such good character development, from mindless robots, then slowing becoming self aware and learning, finally having their own personalities that made you care about them.
The movie "Somewhere in Time" where Christopher Reeves character accidentally pulled forward in time away from his love in the past, unable to return, and fell into a deep inconsolable depression and died. The brief last scene where they were reunited in the afterlife broke me.
I’m fascinated that I’ve now heard from at least two male actors or critics who believe that a character releasing tears undermines audience emotion, because I’m the exact opposite. Cry on screen, and I’ll cry along with you. I’m a woman, and I strongly suspect this is a male-female divide we don’t hear much about.
Very interesting point! I wonder if it's any different if it's a child on screen who's crying. (If you didn't cry along with poor little Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, you're a monster. Just sayin'.)
Some of my hardest hits are (SPOILERS): - Dean's last death in Supernatural - Captain America and The Winter Soldier: "I'm not going to fight you, you're my friend" "You're my mission" "Then finish it, cause I'm with you till the end of the line" - Recently in The Boys when Hughie tells his dad his hero was never a supe it was his dad (I can relate cause the story about the toy is relatable with my dad) - In Supernatural when they have some sort of wishing pearl and they accidently bring their dad back, when they finally say goodbye and Sam smashes the pearl to send him back, you can just see Dean's heart shatter again - Yet again, Supernatural, Lucifer possesses Sam and starts beating Dean and Dean keeps telling Sam it's ok and he's not going to leave him. I know there's a good bit more, but these are always some of the top ones I think about when talking about scenes that made me cry or almost
how on earth do i always stumble back to this channel... like i see a promising thumbnail or title and then the voice is the one i know so well and im like great, why did i ever expect otherwise
Rachel Getting Married. There’s an undercurrent of tension as everyone is suppressing their emotions around a past tragedy. When they all have to confront each other and let their real feelings show it is heartbreaking and cathartic. Makes me cry every time. Very underrated!
That movie messed me up. I feel like it is super underrated. Anne Hathaway broke my heart. For anyone who feels like the black sheep of the family, it's a rough ride.
In Fried Green Tomatoes when Ruth dies. It's such a quiet scene, the clock ticking in the background, the rain outside. Idgie going to the window to tell Ruth the story about the ducks flying off with the lake, and then upon finishing realizing that Ruth had passed. Sipsey covering the photograph, and stopping the clock, and telling Idgie, "Let her go. Ms. Ruth was a lady, and a lady always knows when to leave." Fuck...Even though I know it's coming I still sob uncontrollably every time.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity's ending absolutely wrecked me. It wasn't just about the ending, it was everything that lead up to "that"... Especially your partner's reactions and actions. Also, I don't know why, but the ending of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker always make me cry for some reason. 😭
[House of the Dragon SPOILERS!!!!!] . . . . . A very recent one was when Rhaenys and Meleys die at the battle of Rook's Rest. Oh my god, it was such an emotional scene. Not just their deaths, but the fight leading up as well. The way Vhagar and Meleys fought. Vhagar just tears into Meleys, her claws absolutely wrecking Meleys' body. And even though they're CGI, as an animal lover, it absolutely shredded my heart. Such a good moment in TV.
For me, I'm not easily moved to tears. Seeing something tragic isn't enough to get me. But it is always good dialogue that does it. Here's my Top 5 favourite emotional scenes: 1) Ford v Ferrari: "You promised me the ride. Not the win." (Ken Miles loses the race. But he's still best friends with Carol Shelby. In reality, Miles won the Lé Mans in the future and with Ford, the only American team to do so. Both Miles and Shelby are legends in the automotive world.) But in the movie, Miles is cheated out of victory but not defeated in spirit. Even Enzo Ferrari respects the man. 2) Vanilla Sky: "I'll see you in another life. When we're both cats." Tom Cruise repeats Penelopé Cruz's line when he's given a choice to jump off a building and wake up or continue to live in a lucid dream that is manufactured by a corporation. He chooses to face reality, even though he was left disfigured by a car wreck, unlike the dream where he was fixed. 3) 3:10 to Yuma. "I ain't ever been no hero, Wade." Another Christian Bale performance. Four sentences of a monologue. A man who only wants to be respected by his family. It turns Russell Crowe from being an outlaw to being a friend. 4) Dunkirk. "All we did is survive..." "That is enough." Harry Styles misinterprets a blind man's kind words as a jab. He views himself as a coward for running home instead of fighting. But all of Britain and Churchill hails them as heroes. 5) TDKR. "A hero can be anyone." I hated this movie. But loved this scene. It is a callback to Batman Begins. Batman reveals his identity to James Gordon in a manner similar to which he did to Rachel. And it is definitely something Batman would say to anyone who didn't believe in themselves.
The Movie I cried the most is "Room" and its not even close. After like 10-20 minutes in I cried during the whole movie. I think its because the movie has such a terrible and tragic setting/situation for the characters, but at the same time its told from the innocent point of view of a 5 years old child, who also needs to explore the world and is completly fascinated by the beauty of the world, which he was completely isolated from. The movie is beautiful and tragic at the same time. For everyone: Go watch this movie.
The suffering of animals is a reliable trigger for me. Some examples are the ending of Robert Bresson's classic allegory, Au Hasard Balthazar, about a donkey; the scene in Where the Wild Things Are when the bird gets its wing ripped off; and a scene in the Swedish film Kitchen Stories where a farmer is talking to his gravely ill horse.
NEVER FAILS TO MAKE ME CRY: Bryan Cranston near the end of Breaking Bad. He calls Skyler, knowing the police are listening, and tears into her. Just rips her apart all for the sake of getting her off the hook as an accomplice. Instead of saying goodbye, or apologizing, he has to say these awful things. And while he's cursing her out and talking to her like he's a real drug lord, tears stream down his face, his glasses fog up, he has to cover the mouthpiece so the cops don't hear him sobbing. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I'm tearing up just writing this comment.
@@mattsager914 Ozymandias was a crazy episode man
Related, Bryan Cranston also said that if a character is crying or laughing in a script drama or comedy, it takes away because the audience doesn’t have to do either.
But if they’re trying their best NOT to and they’re choking up, it gives the audience more room to act the way you want them to in the scene.
Loved that idea in the perspective of how good it was in that scene and Breaking Bad in general
I had my box of tissues, but I was definitely NOT ready. Brandon did not tell me to get ready.
This is a much better example of subtext than the 24 example in the video.
Ozymanidas may be the best episode of television ever. I bawled for like 20 minutes after it was over. Absolutely gut-wrenching.
Maybe its because I'm married, but UP always puts me on the verge of tears. The obvious sad scene is when you watch Carl and Ellie grow up and become old together, only to see her die. But the scene that really wrecks me is the scene at the end of the movie when he finds the unfinished scrapbook was actually finished. He had felt extreme guilt the whole movie that he never helped accomplished her goals for her, and it's then that he finds out that her only goal was to have a happy life with him.
I'm not married and I still cry at that one. Up is such a wonderful movie.
Even before I was married that intro would absolutely gut me. We see their whole lives, how they met, they find love for each other, try to have a family….find that isn’t possible, but they come together stronger for each other, and then the inevitable happens. Anyone who has ever lost someone knows how painful it is, and the fact that the montage shows how they met and their lives developed down to the small tiny human bits like them putting together their home and the mailbox…it is so human and that’s why it always makes me cry, even just thinking about it I’m tearing up.
The scene in The Fox and the Hound.
She's driving her pet fox out into the woods to abandon him and he's smiling and sticking his head out the window, having the time of his life. Then he sees her expression and knows something is wrong.
"When you're the best of friends (doo-doo-doo-doo) having so much fun together..." 😢 My Achilles heel is movies with animals. I will cry all the way through Homeward Bound, even the funny parts. I loved The Fox and the Hound as a kid, but I don't think there is any way I could watch it as an adult. It would be a miserable experience.
@@melodyhollis4422 same! i prefer to have fond memories of it :-)
"My friends, you bow to no one." - Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Breaks me EVERY time and I marathon the Extended Edition trilogy at least once a year.
Mine is "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Sam. Gets me every time
To me was: That scene in Mount Doom where Sam and Frodo are waiting to die surrounded by lava fields, but in piece after destroying the ring.
@@MSheen-ef3ly omg right? And this could come off as so cheesy, but it doesn't. And same, about the marathon once a year :)
To me it's the final scene, right as Sam closes the door of his home, and you realize that after so many wonders, tension and loss, life still goes on.
The climax of "It's A Wonderful Life" gets me every single time. It's just a wonderful showcase of building up tension for the entire runtime of a movie that doesn't get released until the very end all in one go and it's sooo well done.
Field of Dreams's "catch with dad"
I had never even heard of Goodwill Hunting prior to this video, but DAMN. If my therapist did that to me, I’d burst into tears too.
It's a wonderful movie. I'd recommend finding a chance to watch it
Amazing movie. Definitely worth a watch
Pixar's Up, the intro is brutal. And films with pets like Marley & Me.
Last time I watched Avatar: The Last Airbender (which is a masterclass of storytelling), I was very surprised with the part where I cried hardest. Most people talk about the emotionally touching moment when a certain two characters have a reconciling reunion at the end of season 3, but the part that I cried most was when Katara vents her emotions to her father.
Why did this scene hit me so hard? I didn't have a particularly strained relationship with my father. I can relate to my dad not always being able to be around, but it didn't make my world feel so lost. But what I think I felt in this scene was actually for Hakota. The desire myself to be a strong mature father who loves his family, seeing him doing his best to protect the world while having to leave your family, and dealing with your own daughter being angry with you for trying your best. You know she understands and is not in disagreement with you, but all of that doesn't erase the emotions. How on the one hand you wish you could make all the pain go away, but on the other hand you are finally getting to hold your daughter close and have a heart-to-heart with her.
Yes... I remember the scene. That time Aang left.
"You're talking about me too, aren't you?"
Damn! Remembering that scene again makes me tear up.
Captain Phillips, his break down after he's rescued always gets me. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Wills breakdown after his father leaves. That heartbreaking question, "Why don't he want me?"
So reading this, I'll say what gets me is when a stoic character finally breaks, even if just for a moment, and let's all the emotions that were suppressed flood out
The Captain Phillips scene was improvised. That was a real Navy medic, and the the only instruction she got was "treat him like any other patient."
Dude, I also said captain phillips before reading your comment. I’m with you on that one!
@DiMono her part was, but not Tom hanks, and it's his reaction in referring to
Fresh Prince hits hard.
That Captain Philips scene is Tom Hanks’s career-best work.
It's always good to make the audience care about your character(s)
it is shocking how many writers dont see it that way
Old Man Marley hugging his grand daughter at the end of Home Alone gets me EVERY TIME. Even just listening to the incredible John Williams score from that scene can get me. As a kid, I loved the movie for its goofiness and slapstick. As an adult, who has now lost family members both to death and grudges, the enitre film hits different. All-time classic.
Edit: made some changes because I noticed a grammatical error and couldn't live with myself posting one on a writing channel...now I lost my ❤️ from Brandon. Whoops.
The end of the Futurama episode, Jurassic Bark, is impossible for me to watch without shedding tears.
And the moment really hits because just a moment earlier Fry says not to reanimate his dog because he lived a full life and moved on from Fry, but then we learn the truth about his dog’s loyalty.
Yeap. Makes me think of my own fuzzy copilot Pepper every time. Loyal to the end.
For a show built upon, often absurd, comedy there are so many genuinely emotional moments. For every episode that ends on a joke there’s at least one that is heartwarming, like the montage of Leela's parents secretly watching over her during her childhood, or the reveal that Hermes was the inspector that verified Bender's construction despite spotting a fault in his design that would have otherwise meant he was disassembled. And then there's the Sting, an entire episode in which Leela mourns and is in denial over Fry's death (and somehow the reveal that it was just a dream does not undermine this.)
The most recent episode “Quids Game”, also ends on a pretty rough note. Not as brutal as Jurassic Bark, but it’s still brutal.
Gosh, yes! That scene made me tear up bad.
Would you consider doing a video just exploring "attacking and defending"? That's a thing you bring up every time you do a video on dialogue, but I feel like it's a model that's easy to use in some contexts but not in others. Feels like it'd be easy for writers to struggle understanding how to use it when writing conversations that don't involve an overt or strongly implied argument between characters.
I get what you're saying. I'll add this to my list. Thanks!
The death of Jiraiya is one of the most impactful for me, especially when he revisits all the failures of his life before finally realizing the importance of his relation with Naruto. In particular, the scene where he learns that Kushina is pregnant and that Minato wants to name his son Naruto in his honor . ( sorry for my bad english )
Omg I am so happy to see you talk about this. That was such a painful death in that series and it was so well done. Anime doesn’t get as much attention.
Just watched it today for the first time, but (SPOILER ALERT)
Logan’s death in Logan. The way Laura held back her tears and instead let out soft whimpers was hard enough, but when she called him Daddy, that truly stuck the landing
When Sam picks up Frodo on his back and carries him up the mountain. The final showdown between Ogami Itto and Yagyu Retsudo when Diagoro takes up his father's sword and continues.
Dead Poets Society. "Captain, my captain!" I can't even see that as a clip without crying.
I watched Gladiator the other day and like always, I was a blubbering mess at the end. I'm glad Ridley Scott made the decision to not make Maximus the triumphant usurper. His goal is the film was always to get back to his family, which he does in the end
The end of Dragonheart, every time, even just thinking about it. I know we're focusing on writing here, but undeniably, the images and music are a huge part of the effect of this scene.
A good piece of advice that I've stumbled into for writing scenes like this:
Timing from the perspective of the writer is entirely different from the perspective of the reader. You might have a scene that you KNOW has deep emotional potential because the emotions and dialogue potentially might have you on the verge of tears but, after you're done, wait a while to let your mind's palette clear and then read it aloud to yourself or someone else.
This will help you to recognize if you have the right timing and appropriate amount of narrative weight put into the scene or if you need to add more somewhere.
I may or may not have had the experience of laying in too much emotion into dialogue too fast for a scene and then only proofreading it in my head after. It didn't exactly illicit the emotional response that I was looking for...not even from me. 😅
E. T. is my go-to-tearjerker movie. Two scenes. E.T.'s death scene which is symbolized by the plant dying. And, of course, E.T.'s tearful goodbye to Elliott. E.T. says, "Come." Elliott says, "Stay." They hug because they both know that E.T. must return home, but his friendship with Eliott will last a lifetime. E.T. comforts Elliott by pointing to him with E.T.'s glowing finger and says, "I'll be right here." Gets me every time! 😢
I had a vivid nightmare when I was seven that ETs arms grabbed my ankles from under the bed and that scared scream he does woke me in utter terror
Same! I saw it at the cinema as a teenager- my 4 year old sister bawled like a baby!
Holy crap, the entire scene in the makeshift hospital when Elliott talks to E.T. when he thinks he's died - Henry Thomas is AMAZING in that! I can't make it through that scene without sobbing. And then as E.T. starts to come back to life, Elliott has to pretend he's sad so the bad guys won't catch on - it's so brilliantly done, because it pulls you right out of that gulf of sorrow by making you laugh. "Would you like the plant?" "WAAAHHHHH!!!" Steven Spielberg is a genius.
Even just watching the "Not Your Fault" scene for a couple seconds hit pretty hard!! 😪😪😪😪
That scene is one big punch to the heart
I’ve never even seen the movie and I was tearing up!!!
@@benledger6451 same
What's the name please!
@@reidchikezie1161 Good Will Hunting
7:43 "How are you getting off the plane?" had the unintended effect of making me laugh, not cry. I had expected the subtext to be an unspoken understanding of Jack's sacrifice, not an absurd question about how someone can escape a nuke in their prop-plane.
The look of relief when Forrest Gump asks Jenny if his son is smart and she says yes. Always gets me.
For me it's his look right AS he asks that question. "But is he smart or is he..." and he puts his hand on his chest and he looks absolutely heartbroken and terrifed. Gets me every time.
That’s a good point on different things make different people cry.
- John Coffey’s death in the Green Mile made me cry (practically bawling).
- Godzilla Minus one had choked up when Shikishima and Noriko made their attempted sacrifices, and when they were finally together again.
I think the ones they get me are 1. Selfless sacrifices 2. True love in the face of death or uncertainty and 3. When a neglected character passes away, because they’re finally at peace.
The third one gets me because of my own battles with adversity and being left behind by people most of my life.
Great video overall!
OMG The Green Mile is such an amazing film. Lots of huge sobs with that one.
When King Theoden and Aragorn lead the remaining handful of soldiers on a charge to certain death against an army of Urukai in TLOTR Two Towers 😁
I remember getting teary eyed the first time I watched T2, when they lowered Arnold into the molten steel.
Kieffer Sutherland totally nailed the delivery of “I’m not, honey.” The right performer sure makes a difference in terms of getting emotion out of your audience!
Absolutely. Even his tone when he says “I’m in a plane” is spot on
The scene which always gets me in Good Will Hunting is when Chuckie arrives to pick up Will for work and discovers he's up and left, just like Chuckie told him to. The therapy scene is the breakthrough, but that scene shows that Will is actually making good on what he's learned
The scene at the end of Interstellar
"Nobody believed me, but I knew you'd come back."
"How?"
"Because my dad promised me."
I don't think my daughter was born when I watched that movie so it never hit me that hard... Until I just read your comment and a flood of emotions just hit me at once from your words on a screen... On a crowded bus... Thanks for that, my dude
That movie killed me. Way too much lost from someone in such a terribly inexplicable and incomprehensible way for my heart to handle.
Such an amazing example of how to use emotional impact correctly. I've watched it prolly 20 times and it gets me every single time.
When McConaughey's character breaks down watching all of his daughter's videos, omg. Gets me every. Single. Time.
When General Iroh observes his dead son's birthday.
And to add to that, the moment was made in dedication to Mako, Iroh’s voice actor who had sadly passed away.
Yepp, gets me crying like a baby everytime
For me, it’s moments of uncertainty where the parent or parental figure is just trying to appear strong for their kids. For example: in Lelo and Stitch, the night after they went surfing, Nani and Lelo are facing an uncertain future as Lelo is to be placed in foster care the next day. Nani doesn’t know how everything will play out, but without shedding a tear, sings a song to Lelo on what could be the last night they ever see each other.
That song being "Aloha 'oe", which translates to "Farewell to you".
@@catipto I knew the name, just not the spelling. Also thanks for the translation. I never knew that.
I used to watch Homeward Bound with my son, and the part at the end when Sassy and Chance have come home, but everyone thinks that Shadow didn't make it, then he comes over the hill and says "I worried about you Peter" and it tears me up every time. Like I'm getting misty eyed just typing this out. The fact that the dog was worried about the boy when the dog was the one lost in the woods the whole time, it just DESTROYS me.
The music in Homeward bound is very good too.
Fuck that movie. I cry through the entire thing from start to finish, even the funny parts. That movie has some voodoo curse on me. I can't even hear the theme music without feeling like I'm going to lose it. SHADOW! ugh...
When Littlefoot’s mother dies, it always breaks me every time his mom says I will always be with you even if you can’t see me. Then his response “What do you mean if I can’t see you? I can always see you.”
Oh my god I can’t even type this without tearing up.
I played little league baseball when i was 10. One of my games my grandpa (who lived 5 hours away) showed up to cheer me on with my mom.
For context i was the outfield kid tossing hos glove up in the air and always striking out.
So i see him and run up and he tells me to hit a homerun. I then proceed to hit a homerun.... My grandpa was shocked. My mom was shocked. My team was shocked. And i was shocked. Frozen in amazement that i hit the ball... My coach screaming at me to run brought me back to reality. My grandpa looked at my mom and was like "so he hits alot of homeruns?" She responded, "no that was a first..."
So many movies make me cry, but the one on top of my brain is Steel Magnolias, the rant in the cemetery. Sally Field was never better. I bawl even if I just hear a part of that dialogue. 😭
She was incredible!
When I was in the 5th grade, one of the classroom reading assignments was “Where the Red Fern Grows”. When one student revealed he wasn’t able to finish the book the night before, the teacher let him read it in the back of the room while the rest of us did our assignment. About 15 minutes later, we hear him desperately trying and failing to hold back tears. The class started laughing, but not at him. We were laughing because the book made wrecks of us all when we finished the book the previous night.
I came here for this answer. It seems as close to a universal experience as anybody can find: if you've read the book, you've cried.
I will never not cry watching Avengers: Endgame when the voice of Sam Wilson (Falcon) comes through Cap's headset, "On your left."
followed by Captain America's iconic, "Avengers... assemble." 😭 the triumphant feeling overwhelms me every single time 💗
I'm not usually a crier, but Good Will Hunting gets me every time. Perfect setup and character development, and the performances by Damon and Robin Williams are among the best I've ever seen.
I'm so glad you mentioned melodrama. Weirdly enough I'm working on the script for an upcoming chapter of my comic that involves and emotional moment. My script editor (at least I call her that. She's still a really good friend of mine) actually pointed out in that part of my script that it was too melodramatic and I had to have more subtle buildup. Couldn't have had more perfect timing on this, Brandon. Thank you!
I think there have been exactly three scenes in all movies I ever watched that made me shed a tear. The first one is from Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Iroh thinks about his dead son and sings a song. The second one is that famous scene from Interstellar where Cooper watches video messages from Earth. And the third scene is right at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, when Peter Quill reads a message from his mother.
What all three have in common is the fact that they are all based on the theme of relationships between parents and children. Seems like this is a particularly touching subject for me pesonally.
The worst thing about Iroh's scene is that the episode was dedicated to his original voice actor, that have died.
The movie that most surprisingly brought me to the verge of tears was "Real Steel" -- yes, the one where Hugh Jackman plays a washed-up boxer-turned-trucker whose son finds and refurbishes a robot to fight in robot-vs.-robot boxing matches. You'll know the moment if you ever see it.
Another one that brought me to the verge of tears, but not so surprisingly, was "Antwone Fisher", a story about a Navy soldier with a troubled family past who is helped by a therapist (played by Denzel Washington) to reconnect with his emotions and his family. Again, you'll know the moment if you ever see it.
I walked put of the theater with my kids thinking Real Steel was better than it had any right to be.
@@coop1311it’s such a dopey film, but still entertaining as hell.
"Characters crying can undermine the story's heartfelt moment."
- Meanwhile, me crying every time the Pokémon cry when Ash gets turned to stone in the first Pokémon Movie~
Heartbreaking!
...Then they become happy tears when their tears revive my boi. :')
Oddly enough, click (Adam Sandler) always gets me. That scene with his dad and when he himself passes, oh boy.
Yes i do have daddy/abandonment issues, why do you ask? 😂😢
I was mad in the movie theater when I saw it the first time. I sit down to watch a comedy, not to cry, darn it!
;)
A scene that is not often mentioned in this context, but makes me weep a bit is when Samwise Gamgee runs into the water to get on Frodo's boat because he promised Gandalf he would watch over Frodo.
He starts to sink but his devotion to his friend wouldn't stop him from pushing on. He nearly drowns.
"I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. 'Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. Don't you leave him.' And I don't mean to. I don't mean to."
Crying just typing this out.
Love Samwise!
The proverbial answer to this question should just be "everything with Sam & Frodo" (mic drop)
Between 2003 and 2006 each of my wife's 3 pregnancies ended in miscarriage. When we watched the opening montage in Up it hit hard. She died from breast cancer in 2016. I now know what Carl was feeling at the end of that montage.
I'm so sorry for your loss 😔
Ladyhawke...both when they almost touch for the first time and at the end when the curse is broken. That one (and Spock's death in Wrath of Khan) get me everytime.
Casablanca- the scene where Victor Laszlo leads the band in that defiant rendition of 'La Marseillaise.' Many of those singing were real-life refugees from the Nazis. Gets me every time.
Mine is Harry Potter- Prisoner of Askaban. I grew up reading and loving the books. When I was a child, my dad killed himself. My mom remarried soon after and I had 4 step-siblings. We had a ranking on who was the favorite and my brother and I agreed that it depended on the day if it was him or I that was the most hated by our step-dad. I related to Harry Potter in so many ways- wanting to know everything that I could about my dad and every little story or bit of knowledge was so precious to me- to know more about this huge piece of myself that I had lost. There is a point in the story that Harry is being saved by his dad across the lake casting a patronus. He gets so excited to see his dad again until he realizes that it wasn't his dad saving him, it was himself. I wanted so badly for his dad to have come magically back to life- something I had wished every birthday candle blowout for years. I felt like I had to come to terms with my own grief over again when reading this part.
Grave of the Fireflies. Just hearing the music makes the tears start to flow.
"Good night."
I haven't watched Good Will Hunting so I know nothing about the characters and have no emotional investment, but that example scene, less than a minute long, got me teary-eyed-that's darn good writing!
There were so many. But one for all - M*A*S*H episode Heal Thyself, at the end the doctor who is a temporary substitute in the hospital and a war veteran, seemingly immune from all the horrors occurring there, cause he has seen it all... at the end he just breaks, sits down quietly in the tent, losing idea of who he is and where he is, losing his mind. I always cried at that moment no matter how many times I've seen the episode. There were many very real moments in this ... sitcom.
The older I get the more things hit me in the feels. My emotional understanding of the world increases and acts of extreme sacrifice or kindness are my greatest triggers. I'll give 2 examples where Doctor WHO has hit me in the feels:
Dark Waters episode - The Doctor gives his speech about Clara's betrayal, where he shows his anger and upset, but then helps her anyway, and says: "Do you think I care for you so little, that betraying me would make any difference?" 😭
Vincent and the Doctor episode, the ending always makes me cry when Vincent sees his life wasn't meaningless after all. The kindness of the Doctor gets me as well as Vincent's tears.
I'm pretty hard-hearted, but a scene that managed to put a tear to my eye was Rambo First Blood ending. You can totally see how Rambo turns out to be not the hero, but the victim. Stuck in a world that he no longer understands, with trauma that most people cannot comprehend.
Definitely the end of the color purple. When she sees her sister, it it reminds the audience of all the pain and suffering she’s gone through. And seeing her sister brings peace.
Driving Miss Daisy when Miss Daisy gets alzheimers and her driver stays with her at the end with the scene in the nursing home or Anne of Green Gables when Matthew dies. Those two movies and scenes get me every time, even though I've seen them literally hundreds of times.
The movie coco had me balling up from the pacing theme & relatability perfection
I'm not picking on you, I swear - I'm simply using you in a last-ditch effort to save the thousands out there who still say they are "balling" when what they really mean is "bawling."
The endings to both the animated version of "Charlotte's Web," and "My Dog Skip." Never fail to make me cry.
TMNT (1990) made me cry when I became a father. To see the way they contact Splinter and he tells his sons he is proud of them, and that he loves them, not knowing if he will ever see them again.
I’d say a good “over-the-top” reaction (even though it’s completely deserved) is the scene in Godzilla Minus One where Shikishima emerges from Godzilla’s attack on Ginza.
That harrowing, rage-filled scream as he drops to his knees gives me goosebumps every time I watch.
John Lockes backstory in lost, specifically in S1Ep4. The major reveal of who he was before the island, and the cut to how the island changed him is incredibly done
"Field of Dreams" That ending scene!
The movies that have the pets in a sad scene always makes me cry. For example, Marley and Me and Homeward Bound have always made me cry. As a kid Land Before Time and My Girl used to get to me as well. And even though I've seen Titanic many times, it still has me crying.
Now I see what you mean when you say that different people react differently to sad scenes through their own personal experiences. That makes a lot of sense. What's funny is that lately I'm working on a Fan Fiction that's been making me cry.
Lady in the Water.
Although panned by critics, the scene where Mr. Heep heals Story always gets me.
Thank you for this. You're telling me something I already knew but wasn't applying to my 2nd book, and I was struggling, I'd forgotten, caught up in other elements of the story. I need to show more of my main character's inner struggle instead of just focusing on the outer war.
Yondu's funeral scene in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was by far the most emotional scene for me that i ever saw in my life. And they were building up his character perfectly for that.
One of the movies that makes my eyes water is “A dog’s life”. I have a dog myself, and I’ve lost a lot of my loved ones along the way, so whenever Bailey dies, I cry from realization that my pet can die at any given moment too.
The movie 'A Silent Voice' is totally my no.1 pick. It still makes me tear up every single time I watch it. Genuine masterpiece
7:43 I've never seen 24 but this scene reminds me of Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 3, "Had to be me., some one else might have gotten it wrong."
Only one story in the last 35 years has made me cry, and that’s the Reservation Dogs episode “Hunting”. The episode is mostly about Willie Jack and her dad talking about her friend Daniel’s suicide. It ends with Willie Jack standing over his grave and at one point says “I’m not mad at you anymore”. That line completely broke me, and it did because my mom passed away a few months earlier. She had been battling cancer for over a year, but there was still a really small chance she could pull through, but she didn’t want to. At that point, she had so many surgeries and organs removed that she was just done. I hadn’t properly processed her death, and that episode made me realize that I was (selfishly) angry at her for giving up. She had gone through the wringer and was ready to go, and whatever hope I had in me turned to poison. That episode hit me hard due to a personal connection to it, but it also helped me heal.
My favorite crying scene is of Godot at the end of Ace Attorney 3
“Mr Armando, your wound is bleeding!”
“Have you forgotten already? In my world, the color red doesn’t exist. These must be… my tears.”
9 Days wrecked me good, and the ending of White Collar was tearfully cathartic.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is a masterclass in Fantasy storytelling. If you are an adult human being who's ever experienced loss and regrets over time, it will wreck you. In the best way possible.
Also, if you ever want to see an example of a overpoweringly strong, emotionally repressed, female character made, not merely likable, but very relatable; the title character is the best I've ever seen.
The Color Purple makes me cry every damn time.
Also, when ET gets on his ship “be good” 😭😭😭
Oh - also the end of Tangled when Rapunzel returns to her parents! 😭
first ep of the last of us and also the game intro when his buddy simply says "Joel..." the subtext is phenomenal, gets me every time. You know the bit if you've seen it.
Michael Cole's call when Mankind wins the WWE Championship from The Rock. I know it's not the same, but man, it hits every time. Even writing this.
The ending of Final Fantasy XV is something I love to see other people react to. The game is an unfinished, badly-told, no focus, incomplete mess, but there's still a lot I loved about it -- and the main reason I replay it all the time is the relationship of the four bros, Noctis and his escorts. SPOILERS BELOW
At the post-credit sequence where he tells everyone that he has to sacrifice himself, everyone including him is playing it off cool, like how a guy would act to his friends. He says he's made his peace with it, but then he pauses, and you can see his lip quiver and he has a hard time getting his next words out. And then he says it. He's scared, and it's more than he can take. His friends then all admit to feeling the same thing, and he stands up and tries to say the following as best he can through his tears: "You guys are the best."
Gets me every fucking time.
While they sometimes feel extremely rushed, I still really appreciate your videos and often learn something from them - or at least come away with something to think about. That said, I don’t understand the 24 example here. You mentioned how powerful it is because of the subtext, but as far as I can tell there was no subtext. Jack Bauer literally tells his daughter what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, where it’s happening, when it’s happening, and who it involves. It’s as literal as can be. I kept waiting for the “subtext” part, but he just kept on spelling it all out for us. Like when she asks how he’s getting off the plane and there’s a long pause I thought, “oh, THIS is what he meant; Jack’s going to remain silent and let the fact of the situation hang in the air between them, a heavy curtain of truth that words simply cannot - …”
But then he says, “I’m not.”
So even that moment was squandered. Lol. Am I missing something? Where’s the subtext in this scene?
The first film I watched that genuinely made me cry at a theater was Before Midnight (2013), which I attended with my college film class. I saw myself and my boyfriend (now husband) in the romantic leads, particularly in the scenes where they argue. I am also the child of divorced parents, so the story's conflict forced me to confront some serious unresolved emotional trauma that I had thought I had "gotten over" by then. Like damn, I just wanted to get some credits done over the summer semester 😭
When Markus Zusak was writing The Book Thief, a particular character's death made him cry as he was writing it.
Also, in Lois Lowry's A Summer to Die, a girl's sister dies, and you know she's going to die (note the title), but it still hits hard.
Bite the Bullet. The very last shot. Won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it but it says everything I need to know about honor and friendship.
I love the final scene of Captain Phillips. Maybe it’s just Tom Hanks incredible acting, but the release after all the tension worked for me in a big way. Seeing this competent, put-together guy finally break… wow!
Your channel is so good man, I always watch your videos as soon as they come out since they're just free inspiration. Easy to digest, good movie recommendations, and just valuable advice
Can you talk about pacing and how that looks in different genres?
Some movies are action based, but you can’t always be super fast and have action every scene without any meaning, but then the meaningful scenes slow down the pace and of course movies and tv and books constantly struggle with that balancing.
Also maybe another form of media doesn’t need action, but still.
There’s sometimes a critique of “wow that moved so fast I couldn’t keep up!” Or maybe others where the author wrote and had one focus, and the audience was like “wait I wanted to know more about this other group!” Or… “wow nothing happens for a ton of pages!”
Maybe different variations in different genres of the above. I know pacing is a delicate art but I am curious your take 😊
The movies that always make me cry are Up, In the Mood for Love, Sing Street, The Straight Story and It’s a Wonderful Life.
EVERYTHING makes me cry: sad moments, exceptionally happy moments, moments that I KNOW turn out ok, stressful moments. If there was a sad moment in a movie or show, it made me cry, even if I watched it every single day. Some movies are just tears through the whole run time (Atonement, The Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy 3). Fortunately, I LOVE a story that packs in emotion, even if that emotion is sadness. Suffice to say, basically every single Disney movie has made me cry, any death scene involving a character that is not hated (of course I cheer when a monster gets their comeuppance), each wedding or birth or they finally admitted they love each other or whatever other maximum emotional moment has brought tears to my eyes. Half of the problem could be in the music, because music also makes me cry. Maybe I just like to cry.
Hard Ball. G-Baby gets shot and we don't find out until the funeral what happened at the game. I was bawling when he scored the winning run.
A strange one for me is from Ghost in the Shell TV series, when the Tachikoma sacrifice themselves to save the day, singing as they go to their doom. Silly little AI robots make me cry every time.
It's because they had such good character development, from mindless robots, then slowing becoming self aware and learning, finally having their own personalities that made you care about them.
The movie "Somewhere in Time" where Christopher Reeves character accidentally pulled forward in time away from his love in the past, unable to return, and fell into a deep inconsolable depression and died. The brief last scene where they were reunited in the afterlife broke me.
I’m fascinated that I’ve now heard from at least two male actors or critics who believe that a character releasing tears undermines audience emotion, because I’m the exact opposite. Cry on screen, and I’ll cry along with you. I’m a woman, and I strongly suspect this is a male-female divide we don’t hear much about.
Very interesting point! I wonder if it's any different if it's a child on screen who's crying. (If you didn't cry along with poor little Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, you're a monster. Just sayin'.)
Some of my hardest hits are (SPOILERS):
- Dean's last death in Supernatural
- Captain America and The Winter Soldier: "I'm not going to fight you, you're my friend" "You're my mission" "Then finish it, cause I'm with you till the end of the line"
- Recently in The Boys when Hughie tells his dad his hero was never a supe it was his dad (I can relate cause the story about the toy is relatable with my dad)
- In Supernatural when they have some sort of wishing pearl and they accidently bring their dad back, when they finally say goodbye and Sam smashes the pearl to send him back, you can just see Dean's heart shatter again
- Yet again, Supernatural, Lucifer possesses Sam and starts beating Dean and Dean keeps telling Sam it's ok and he's not going to leave him.
I know there's a good bit more, but these are always some of the top ones I think about when talking about scenes that made me cry or almost
how on earth do i always stumble back to this channel... like i see a promising thumbnail or title and then the voice is the one i know so well and im like great, why did i ever expect otherwise
Rachel Getting Married. There’s an undercurrent of tension as everyone is suppressing their emotions around a past tragedy. When they all have to confront each other and let their real feelings show it is heartbreaking and cathartic. Makes me cry every time. Very underrated!
That movie messed me up. I feel like it is super underrated. Anne Hathaway broke my heart. For anyone who feels like the black sheep of the family, it's a rough ride.
In Fried Green Tomatoes when Ruth dies. It's such a quiet scene, the clock ticking in the background, the rain outside. Idgie going to the window to tell Ruth the story about the ducks flying off with the lake, and then upon finishing realizing that Ruth had passed. Sipsey covering the photograph, and stopping the clock, and telling Idgie, "Let her go. Ms. Ruth was a lady, and a lady always knows when to leave." Fuck...Even though I know it's coming I still sob uncontrollably every time.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity's ending absolutely wrecked me. It wasn't just about the ending, it was everything that lead up to "that"... Especially your partner's reactions and actions. Also, I don't know why, but the ending of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker always make me cry for some reason. 😭
[House of the Dragon SPOILERS!!!!!]
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A very recent one was when Rhaenys and Meleys die at the battle of Rook's Rest. Oh my god, it was such an emotional scene. Not just their deaths, but the fight leading up as well. The way Vhagar and Meleys fought. Vhagar just tears into Meleys, her claws absolutely wrecking Meleys' body. And even though they're CGI, as an animal lover, it absolutely shredded my heart. Such a good moment in TV.
"Several of my subscribers want to make people cry..."
Made me laugh out loud haha
For me, I'm not easily moved to tears. Seeing something tragic isn't enough to get me. But it is always good dialogue that does it.
Here's my Top 5 favourite emotional scenes:
1) Ford v Ferrari: "You promised me the ride. Not the win." (Ken Miles loses the race. But he's still best friends with Carol Shelby. In reality, Miles won the Lé Mans in the future and with Ford, the only American team to do so. Both Miles and Shelby are legends in the automotive world.) But in the movie, Miles is cheated out of victory but not defeated in spirit. Even Enzo Ferrari respects the man.
2) Vanilla Sky: "I'll see you in another life. When we're both cats." Tom Cruise repeats Penelopé Cruz's line when he's given a choice to jump off a building and wake up or continue to live in a lucid dream that is manufactured by a corporation. He chooses to face reality, even though he was left disfigured by a car wreck, unlike the dream where he was fixed.
3) 3:10 to Yuma. "I ain't ever been no hero, Wade." Another Christian Bale performance. Four sentences of a monologue. A man who only wants to be respected by his family. It turns Russell Crowe from being an outlaw to being a friend.
4) Dunkirk. "All we did is survive..." "That is enough." Harry Styles misinterprets a blind man's kind words as a jab. He views himself as a coward for running home instead of fighting. But all of Britain and Churchill hails them as heroes.
5) TDKR. "A hero can be anyone." I hated this movie. But loved this scene. It is a callback to Batman Begins. Batman reveals his identity to James Gordon in a manner similar to which he did to Rachel. And it is definitely something Batman would say to anyone who didn't believe in themselves.
The Movie I cried the most is "Room" and its not even close. After like 10-20 minutes in I cried during the whole movie. I think its because the movie has such a terrible and tragic setting/situation for the characters, but at the same time its told from the innocent point of view of a 5 years old child, who also needs to explore the world and is completly fascinated by the beauty of the world, which he was completely isolated from. The movie is beautiful and tragic at the same time.
For everyone: Go watch this movie.
The suffering of animals is a reliable trigger for me. Some examples are the ending of Robert Bresson's classic allegory, Au Hasard Balthazar, about a donkey; the scene in Where the Wild Things Are when the bird gets its wing ripped off; and a scene in the Swedish film Kitchen Stories where a farmer is talking to his gravely ill horse.
You'd probably cry for "Where the Red Fern Grows", but you should read the book, not watch the movie. The latter's not as good.