Greatest Film Tearjerking Moments H - L

The scene of Mumble's (voice of Elijah Wood) singing lessons by frustrated teacher Mrs. Astrakhan (voice of Miriam Margolyes), in which he ultimately launches into a powerful, virtuoso soft-shoe dance to a triumphant score -- to the utter dismay of his parents and Astrakhan; and the heart-wrenching scene when exiled Mumble futilely chases an "alien" fishing boat through large, choppy waves and ends up half-dead on the beach of a large city - he is placed in an aquarium where he slowly loses his mind, with the achingly-poignant moment when he performs a soft-shoe routine for a little girl (a biped "alien") on the other side of the display glass.

The emotional ending in which the trio of pets, Chance (voice of Michael J. Fox), Sassy (voice of Sally Field), and Shadow (voice of Don Ameche), finally complete their 250 mile journey home

The tragic death of Huw Morgan's (Roddy McDowell) father Gwilym (Donald Crisp) when he drowned in a mine shaft accident, with his last words to his son, who was cradling him in his arms: "There's a good old man, you are"; and the nostalgic ending in which Huw recalled the happier memories of his youth as a chorus sang during a montage of the Morgan family at supper time, of Huw's first view of Bronwyn (Anna Lee) with the double basket on her hip, of Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) at the gate watching and waving at Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon) and Huw returning through a hillside of blooming flowers - a view of Huw and his father walking hand-in-hand over the crest of a hill, as they did in the film's opening sequence, and a glimpse of the five brothers in an open field

The scene of virologist scientist Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) mercy-killing his loyal companion and dog Samantha ("Sam") after it was attacked and wounded by a pack of infected, zombie-ish dogs when trying to protect him from Dark Seekers; anguished, he cradled his beloved German shepherd in his arms after injecting it with an experimental serum and then sang Three Little Birds by Bob Marley ("Don't worry about a thing, 'Cause ev'ry little thing, Gonna be alright") - but after noticing the dog's hair loss, tooth growth and increasingly aggressive behavior, he realized it was infected and snapped its neck (or suffocated it); the next day after burying Sam, he visited the neighborhood video/DVD rental store where a pretty female mannequin was posed in one of the aisles, and went up to it - piteously entreating the unresponsive figure: "I promised my friend that I would say hello to you today. Hello. Hello. Please say hello to me. Please say hello to me."

The scene in an alley in which Frankie (Troy Donahue), the date of light-skinned Sarah Jane Johnson (Susan Kohner), racistly asked: "Is it true?...Is your mother a nigger?" - and then accused her of lying and slapped her to the ground; and later the scene in a Hollywood motel room in which Sarah Jane allowed her estranged black-maid mother Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) (who was in the employ of actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner)) to hold her just "once more...like you were still my baby"; and the funeral scene with Mahalia Jackson singing "Trouble of the World" as Sarah Jane returned for the funeral and sobbed at her mother's casket. [This film was a remake of director John M. Stahl's Imitation of Life (1934), with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers.]

There was one particularly tearjerking scene in writer/director Neil LaBute's disturbing drama about cruel, premeditated, retributive revenge sought against one innocent female victim. Handsome, misogynistic corporate ex frat-boy Chad (Aaron Eckhart) had proposed a "game" to bespectacled business colleague/nice-guy college pal Howard (Matt Malloy) that they find an unattractive woman, date her, and then unceremoniously dump her during their six week stint at a business branch office. Chad selected deaf and naive secretarial assistant temp worker Christine (Stacy Edwards), a dark-haired beauty, as their innocent, targeted female. In week five, Chad slept with her and she believed he was in love with her. Howard, on the other hand, had genuinely fallen in love with Christine, but was dropped by her. Howard decided to tell Christine (out of guilt, hurt, and jealousy) that Chad's love was a total sham and that they had planned the game together ("He doesn't like you. He loathes you. He detests you and your pathetic retard voice. That's what he calls it...You better wake up. You were used. It was a game"), but she had trouble believing him ("Chad would never do that"). In week six, she met Chad in a hotel room, and asked: "Do you love me?" and then admitted that she knew about his duplicity in the game ("I know what's going on...You two were playing a game on me, right?"). Chad quickly attempted to explain his participation in a "contest" to date Christine, but then admitted he couldn't keep a "straight face" telling the excuse. When he asked how she felt, she slapped him hard across the face. He asked: "It only hurts that much?" and then promptly left the room, dumping her ("The deed's done"). He left her in the room where the emotionally-devastated Christine sobbed uncontrollably.

The scene in which a deer was shot by hunters in front of young Hogarth Hughes (voice of Eli Marienthal) and his 50-foot robot friend The Iron Giant (voice of Vin Diesel); and the climactic sacrifice by the Iron Giant to save the small Maine town of Rockwell from a nuclear missile -- just before the explosion in outer space, the Giant realized his heroism: "I'm Superman!" to a swelling score.

The sorrowful scene in which George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), while dealing with a "Pottersville" alternate reality in which he wished he had never been born, found his former wife Mary (Donna Reed) - a sorrowful spinster librarian who didn't recognize him, and screamed to get away from him on the street; and the triumphant scene in which a joyful George Bailey was released from the hellish "Pottersville" reality: ("Ha, ha, ha, ha! My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleeding! Zuzu's petals... Zuzu... Merry Christmas!"), and George ran through the town of Bedford Falls, welcoming back his favorite places; and the miraculous heartwarming finale in which George ("the richest man in town") was surrounded by all of his friends and associates in his home next to the Christmas tree to sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Auld Lang Syne - all his friends have paid his rent, and he is toasted by his war-hero brother Harry (Todd Karns): "A toast...to my big brother, George. The richest man in town", as he and Mary looked at the handwritten inscription by angel Clarence in the front of the book Tom Sawyer ("Dear George: - Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence") and Zuzu noted how an ornamental bell was ringing on the Christmas tree: "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings" (signifying Clarence's promotion to an angel with wings.)

In an hallucinatory scene, lethally-wounded Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) had a horrific experience in hell/purgatory where he was bluntly told by an Evil Doctor (Davidson Thomson) that he was dead ("You've been killed. Don't you remember?"). He was then visited by his ex-wife Sarah (Patricia Kalember) and their two sons while in the hospital, as he asserted to her: "I'm not dead, I'm alive. I'm not dead." She responded: "Oh, Jacob. I still love you, whatever it's worth," but their reconciliation was dashed when a sardonic disembodied voice taunted: "Dream on" - causing Jacob to break down in tears, as he realized that her appearance was only a wish-fulfilling fantasy while he was dying (as he pleaded: "Help me"). Jacob experienced the ongoing trial of being reconciled with the death of his young 6 year-old son Gabriel (uncredited Macauley Culkin) while he was in Vietnam, when he remembered /imagined Gabe's death by an automobile when the young boy was picking up baseball cards he had dropped in the middle of the street while walking his bicycle. There were scenes of Jacob being thwarted by demons into seeing his son again - until the next-to-final scene (in his old apartment bathed in golden light) in which he finally accepted his own death. In the tearjerking climax, Jacob spotted his dead son Gabe, who was playing with a red music box (playing "Sonny Boy") on the stairs - the boy looked up and greeted him with: "Hi Dad!" As they hugged, Gabe reassured his father: "It's OK" - followed by Gabe telling him: "Come on, let's go up" - meaning their ascension up the staircase into the golden light. Jacob's death on an operating table in Vietnam was then revealed, as an army doctor stated: "He's gone. He looks kind of peaceful... He put up a hell of a fight, though."

The moving reconciliation scene in which jazz singer Jack Robin (Al Jolson) met his estranged dying father Cantor Rabinowitz (Warner Oland) and later decided to sing "Kol Nidre" in his father's place in the synagogue.

The off-screen death of HIV-positive, dim-witted Cats chorus member Darius (Bryan Batt) from a brain hemorrhage, and his middle-aged, flamboyant, quick-witted interior decorator/lover Sterling's (Patrick Stewart) hostile, teary reaction to scared and fearfully-celibate NY actor/waiter Jeffrey's (Steven Weber) feelings of sadness in the face of impending mortality: "You know, Darius once said you were the saddest person he knew...because he was sick, he had a fatal disease, and he was a million times happier than you"; and the scene of Darius' apparition telling Jeffrey: "Hate AIDS, Jeffrey, not life...just think of AIDS like the guest that won't leave, the one we all hate, but you have to remember: Hey, it's still our party" - and the parting glance between Sterling and Darius, as Darius added: "And be nice to Sterling."

Cocky sports super agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) admitted his love to his stunned wife Dorothy Boyd (Rene Zellweger) in front of her friends during a divorced womens' support group meeting in her own living room, stressing:

"I'm looking for my wife...If this is where it has to happen, then this is where it has to happen. I'm not letting you get rid of me. How about that?...Our little project, our company had a very big night. A very, very big night, but it wasn't complete. It wasn't nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I couldn't share it with you. I couldn't hear your voice, or laugh about it with you. I missed my wife. We live in a cynical world, a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors. I love you. You complete me, and I just...."

Dorothy interrupted with tears: "Aw, shut up. Just shut up. You had me at hello. You had me at hello" - they embraced (viewed from outside the window).

The criss-crossing stories stretching over 30 years told by the "Joy Luck Club" (a mah-jongg group of four aging Chinese women) - Suyuan Woo (Kieu Chinh), Lindo Jong (Tsai Chin), Ying-Ying St. Clair (France Nuyen), and An-Mei Hsu (Lisa Lu) - about their lives in China and their coming to America and their relationships with their Chinese-American daughters; including the hairdresser salon scene in which frustrated child chess prodigy Waverly Jong (Tamlyn Tomita) admitted to her passive-aggressive controlling mother Lindo how she never seemed satisfied with her: ("You don’t know the power you have over me. One word from you, one look and I’m four years old again, crying myself to sleep. Because nothing I do, can ever, ever please you"); the scene in which abusive husband Lin Xiao (Russell Wong) calls his wife Ying-Ying a whore while in the presence of his opera singer mistress (Grace Chang): "She is a whore, just like you"; and the semi-accidental, vengeful drowning of Ying-Ying's son while washing him in order to end the connection between herself and her cruel and unfaithful husband; and the scene of the older and mentally-unstable Ying-Ying telling her obedient daughter Lena (Lauren Tom) to demand respect and tenderness from her dominating, miserly husband Harold (Michael Paul Chan): ("Then tell him now. And leave this lopsided house. Do not come back until he gives you those things [i.e., respect, tenderness], with both hands open").

The senseless, cruel murder of a baby kestrel by protagonist Billy's (David Casper) older brother Jud (Freddie Fletcher)

The tearful reactions over the plight of Cambodia (abandoned by the callous United States, invaded by the vicious Khymer Rouge); the close relationship between New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and Cambodian assistant, friend and interpreter, Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor); their separation when the Khymer Rouge took over Phnom Penh; the trials Dith underwent while a prisoner of the Khymer Rouge and his escape through "the killing fields"; and the famous reunion scene and Dith's memorable response to Schanberg's begging for forgiveness: "Nothing to forgive, Sydney. Nothing", as John Lennon's "Imagine" played.

The scene in which separated dad Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) read a heartless letter from "Mommy" Joanna (Meryl Streep) to their young son Billy (Justin Henry): "Mommy has gone away...Being your mommy was one thing, but there are other things too and this is what I have to do...I will always be your mommy and I will always love you. I just won't be your mommy in the house, but I'll be your mommy at the heart. And now I must go and be the person I have to be"; and Ted's heart-felt defense plea on the courtroom witness stand at a child custody hearing, admitting that he's not a perfect parent, but pleading that his ex-wife Joanna should not take Billy: "Billy has a home with me. I've made it the best I could. It's not perfect. I'm not a perfect parent. Sometimes I don't have enough patience 'cause I forget that he's a little kid. But I'm there. We get up in the morning and then we eat breakfast, and he talks to me and then we go to school. And at night, we have dinner together and we talk then and I read to him. And we built a life together and we love each other. If you destroy that, it may be irreparable. Joanna, don't do that, please. Don't do it twice to him."

The joyous tearful reunion-celebration of the lovers Captain Etienne Navarre (Rutger Hauer) and Isabeau d'Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) - after the curse had been lifted as Etienne remarked: "You cut your hair!" - in the scene, their companions: the escaped thief Phillipe Gaston - the Mouse (Matthew Broderick) and cloistered monk Father Imperius (Leo McKern) tearfully looked on.

In this G-rated, animated feature (Don Bluth-directed / Spielberg / Lucas-produced), the emotional, heart-stirring scene of the death of the Mother (voice of Helen Shaver) of young Aptosaurus Littlefoot (voice of Gabriel Damon). She was mortally wounded after fighting off Tyrannosaurus Rex 'Sharptooth'; during a nighttime thunderstorm, she reminded him about the Great Valley before dying: ("Dear sweet Littlefoot. Do you remember the way to the Great Valley?" "I guess so. But why do I have to know? You're gonna be with me." "I'll be with you, even if you can't see me." "What do you mean if I can't see you? I can always see you." "Littlefoot, let your heart guide you. It whispers. So listen closely..."). Realizing that the scene would be devastating for family audiences, the film-makers added a post-death scene to soften the emotional impact. Soon after, a depressed, angered and confused, newly-orphaned Littlefoot accidentally slid down a ravine, where he bumped into a wise old armored dinosaur named Rooter (voice of Pat Hingle, who also narrated the film) who consoled him upon learning of his mother's death: ("It is nobody's fault. The great circle of life has begun. But you see, not all of us arrive together at the end." "What'll I do? I miss her so much." "And you'll always miss her, but she'll always be with you as long as you remember the things she taught you. In a way, you'll never be apart, for you are still a part of each other").

In this teen sex comedy's concluding segment after cute, curly-haired newcomer classmate Karen (Diane Franklin) had become pregnant (her shallow boyfriend Rick (Steve Antin) had made love to her under the school's bleachers and then dumped her when he found out), socially-awkward and sensitive nice-guy pizza delivery boy Gary (Lawrence Monoson) - suffering from unrequited love - helped her to acquire an expensive $250 abortion by selling some of his possessions (including his stereo equipment) and borrowing money in a montage/abortion sequence (to the tune of U2's "I Will Follow"); however, in the downbeat, unexpected, tearjerking ending, after Gary had taken care of her for the weekend in his grandmother's empty house and expressed how much he loved her and embraced her (and was planning on giving her a birthday present of a gold-heart locket with To Karen With Love inscribed on the back), she was back in Rick's arms at her own birthday party where a stunned Gary saw her passionately making out with him; when the two realized that Gary was watching them, they just stared back blankly, leaving a heartbroken Gary crying at the sight as he left and drove away into the darkness in his pizza delivery station wagon - the film's ending!

The romantic farewell scene in a cave behind a cascading waterfall between Nathaniel "Hawkeye" Poe (Daniel Day-Lewis) and redcoat colonel's headstrong daughter Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) as they were pursued by a Huron war party: "...You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you!..."; and the poignant eulogy by Chingachgook (Russell Means) for his son Uncas (Eric Schweig) after avenging his death by killing Magua (Wes Studi) - he spoke the film's final lines of dialogue: "Great Spirit, Maker of All Life. A warrior goes to you swift and straight as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him and let him take his place at the council fire of my people. He is Uncas, my son. Tell them to be patient and ask death for speed; for they are all there but one - I, Chingachgook - Last of the Mohicans" - and the tearjerking moment after he finished his speech, when he gave a tortured look to his adoptive European-born white son Hawkeye as they looked out to the New York wilderness.

The fishing scene in which ex-cowboy Sam 'The Lion' (Oscar-winning Ben Johnson) reminisced about a girl he swam nude with one day ("...she wanted to swim the horses across this tank. Kind of a crazy thing to do, but we done it anyway. She bet me a silver dollar she could beat me across. She did. This old horse I was ridin' didn't want to take the water. But she was always lookin' for somethin' to do like that. Somethin' wild. I'll bet she's still got that silver dollar"); and the scene of the senseless death of Sonny Crawford's (Timothy Bottoms) mentally retarded brother Billy (Sam Bottoms) -- hit by a truck -- and Sonny's anguished cry: "He was sweepin', ya sons of bitches. He was sweepin'!", before covering Billy's body with his letter jacket; and the scene of coach's wife Ruth Popper's (Cloris Leachman) tirade at Sonny for abandoning her when he returns to her after Billy's death ("What am I doing apologizin' to you? Why am I always apologizin' to you, ya little bastard?...") before empathically realizing Sonny's pain ("Never you mind, honey, never you mind...")

The scene in which family patriarch Colonel William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins), unable to speak after having suffered a stroke, wrote on a message pad: "AM HAPPY" - to middle son Tristan (Brad Pitt) on his return after years of self-exile; the accidental death of Tristan's "half-breed" wife Isabel Two (Karina Lombard) by a ricocheting bullet, and the reconciliation between the Colonel and his eldest, politician son Alfred Ludlow (Aidan Quinn) when Alfred saved his family from mobster John T. O'Banion's (Robert Wisden) gang.

The life-saving, imaginative illusion and play-acting that clowning, child-like hotel waiter Guido (Oscar-winning Roberto Benigni) gave his young son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini) to shield him from the ugly horrors of a Nazi concentration camp where they were interned - the fiction that the first prize in the game they were playing was a brand-new armored tank; and Guido's shocking death scene after he was caught by a soldier during an escape and deliberately clownishly marched to his execution by machine-gun fire (offscreen) when he realized his son (hidden in a box) was watching; and the joyous scene in which Giosue was reunited with his mother Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) after American troops liberated the camp, thinking he'd won the "game."

The extremely sad scene of the cruel death of "Lion King" ruler Mufasa after rescuing young son Simba from a large stampeding herd of wildebeests (the disastrous stampede was engineered by Mufasa's wicked, power-hungry brother Scar and the hyenas), and then falling to his death from a rock cliff to the valley floor far below when Scar wouldn't help him up. Instead, Scar pierced Mufasa's paws with his own claws, sarcastically exclaimed: "Long live the king", and tossed him off; afterwards, Simba vainly attempted to awaken his father, shed some tears, and then cuddled up next to him. Adding to Simba's misery, Scar led him to believe that he was responsible for his father's death, told him to run away, and then ordered his three hyena cohorts to kill Simba.

The scene in which beautiful actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) - the devoted lover of successful Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) cleansed herself in the bathtub/shower of the filth (both physically and emotionally) after a forced sexual encounter with Cultural Department head Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) in the backseat of his limousine, in exchange for prescription drugs and protection; also the heart-breaking scene in which a distressed Christa-Maria committed suicide by running in front of a truck after she believed that she had betrayed Dreyman by revealing the location of his incriminating red-ribboned typewriter that he had used to author an anonymous article (ironically about suicide in East Germany) for West German magazine Der Spiegel - made more tragic by the fact that sympathetic "guardian angel" secret police Stasi survelliance agent Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) had just before secretly removed the typewriter from under the apartment's doorsill to protect her and Dreyman - and the scene of Georg's anguish over her bloody death in the street; also the scene in which a demoted Wiesler quietly walked out of his dead-end mail-steaming job nearly 5 years later when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; and the final sequence in which Georg discovered that Wielser had protected him when he read the declassified surveillance transcripts on himself, and discovered a thumbprint smudge of red ink (from the red-ribboned typewriter) next to his official notation HGW XX/7; then, he located Wiesler (now a newspaper deliveryman) but decided not to introduce himself to the humbled man; and the final scene two years later when Wiesler saw a bookstore poster advertising a new book written by Dreyman titled "Sonata For a Good Man" and its dedication: "HGW XX/7 gewidmet, in Dankbarkeit. (Dedicated to HGW XX/7, in Gratitude)", and the film's final line: Wiesler's subdued, double-entendre reply to the cashier's question if he'd like the book he was purchasing gift-wrapped: "No, it's for me."

The farewell finale, in which weary and damaged hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), after succumbing to the One Ring's evil influence atop Mount Doom (where he destroyed the Ring) left Middle-Earth with his uncle Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), who was reaching death from old age; he was also accompanied in the goodbye scene by wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who bid farewell to the rest of the Fellowship (Frodo's three Hobbit friends), and then told Frodo: "It is time, Frodo", before departing with him for the Grey Havens (the elves' Undying Lands); the scene was highlighted by Frodo's explanation to his best friend and companion Sam Gamgee (Sean Austin) about why he was leaving: "We set out to save the Shire, Sam. And it has been saved. But not for me"; Sam begged: "You don't mean that! You can't leave!"; Frodo presented Sam with his handwritten book of The Lord of the Rings story: "The last pages are for you, Sam"; after hugging Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), he kissed Sam on the forehead, then boarded the vessel and gave one final look back; afterwards, Sam returned home to his Shire family as he remembered what Frodo had written him: (voice-over) "My dear Sam: you cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole for many years. You have so much to enjoy and to be, and to do. Your part in this story will go on."

The Christmas morning scene in this sentimental tearjerker in which Karen (Emma Thompson) received a Joni Mitchell CD for Christmas from her straying husband Harry (Alan Rickman), instead of the expensive necklace she discovered in his pocket -- and realized tearfully as she listened to Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" that he was having an affair with his seductive secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) - she forced herself to put on a happy face when she returned from her bedroom to rejoin her family in the living room

The scene in which Radcliffe music student Jennifer Cavalleri (Ali McGraw) made the famous statement to WASP Harvard law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal): "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Also, the scene in which she was discovered to be terminally ill ("very sick") while she was being medically tested for fertility and pregnancy ("She's dying"). And then her lengthy deathbed conversation with Oliver at the Mount Sinai Hospital in a tear-inducing closing. She told him: "It doesn't hurt, Ollie, really it doesn't. It's like falling off a cliff in slow-motion, you know. Only after a while, you wish you'd hit the ground already, you know." He stated he fell off a cliff when he met her. Then, she tried to bring up his spirits: "Now you've gotta stop being sick...that guilty look on your face, it's sick. Would you stop blaming yourself, you god-damn stupid preppy. It's nobody's fault. It's not your fault. That's the only thing I'm gonna ask you. Otherwise, I know you're gonna be OK. (pause) Screw Paris!...Screw Paris and music and all that stuff you thought you stole from me. I don't care, don't you believe that? (He shook his head no) Then get the hell out of here. I don't want you at my god-damn deathbed." He finally admitted: "I believe you. I really do." She responded with a last request: "That's better. Would you please do something for me, Ollie? (He kissed her hand) Would you please hold me? (He half-heartedly hugged her) No, I mean really hold me. Next to me." He reclined next to her on the bed. Afterwards, in the hallway, Oliver spoke to Jenny's father Philip (John Marley), who said with a choked-up voice: "I wish I hadn't promised Jenny to be strong for you." As he left the hospital, he ran into his father Oliver Barrett III (Ray Milland), who asked: "Why didn't you tell me? I made a couple of calls, and as soon as I found out, I jumped right in the car. Oliver, I want to help." His son simply replied: "Jenny's dead." When his father began to reply: "I'm sorry...", Oliver interrupted him and quoted his late wife's earlier remark, when referring to their past misunderstandings: "Love, love means never having to say you're sorry" - the last line of film dialogue. For the remaining three minutes in the touching finale, Oliver walked across the street to snow-covered Central Park as the poignant, award-winning "Love Story" theme music built up and played and he contemplated what life would have been like with Jenny, while sitting on a bench. The camera pulled away from him, shot from behind, before the closing credits.