Greatest Film Tearjerking Moments Q - Z

The scene in which Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) - embattled and despised by the British public for her family's silence in the week between former Princess of Wales Diana's (played by Herself in archival footage) death and funeral - drove into the country and wept after her Land Rover stalled in a stream, and then encountered by chance a large "14 point" stag on the Balmoral estate - she shooed it away to safety when hunters approached; and the upsetting symbolic scene in which she later visited the stag in a bleeding room - it had been killed and beheaded by a paying guest/hunter on a neighboring estate - and her statement: "I hope he didn't suffer much"; and the tearjerking scene in which the Queen, forced to have a royal funeral for Diana, perused the thousands of bouquets left for "the people's princess" in front of Buckingham Palace's gates - and saw such bitter, callous sentiments as: "You were too good for them" and "Your blood is on their hands"; and the sweet moment of vindication when a little girl told the thankful Queen that the bouquet she brought was for Her Royal Majesty ("These are for you") and not the Princess; and the formal, respectful curtseys and head bows by the mourning crowds as she passed them, and the final closing shot as recently-appointed Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and the Queen walked through the Royal Gardens at Buckingham Palace and amiably chatted about the issues of the day.

This nostalgic Victorian era family drama by writer/director Lionel Jeffries (his directorial debut film) was one of the best children's/family films ever made (it was also filmed as a 1968 BBC serial); the tearjerking, emotionally heart-swelling ending occurred when missing father Charles Waterbury (Iain Cuthbertson) returned after being framed and wrongly arrested for the crime of treason and sent away to prison during Christmas; he was reunited at the train station with his oldest daughter Roberta (or Bobbie) (Jenny Agutter), as she ran along the platform and called out: "Daddy! My Daddy!"

The emotional farewell scenes between idiot savant autistic Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman) and his slick, car-dealing brother Charlie ("main man") (Tom Cruise) after a memorable cross-country road trip together; they touch heads together (Charlie: "I like having you for my brother" Raymond: "I'm an excellent driver") and then the camera slowly zooms in - also their parting after a short discussion at the Amtrak train station: (Charlie: "I'll see you soon." Raymond: "Yeah, One for bad, two for good." Charlie: "Bet two for good." Raymond: "It's three minutes to Wapner." Charlie: "You'll make it." Raymond: "Yeah.")

The senseless death of loyal son Saburo Naotora Ichimonji (Daisuke Ryu) from a stray bullet as he rode on horseback with his newly-reconciled elderly father Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai), who had murmured into his son's ear how hopeful he was of their newfound relationship as father and son; and Hidetora's anguish over the death after Saburo slipped off his horse to the ground.

The marriage proposal scene between WWI-era amnesiac John Smith (or "Smithy") (Ronald Colman) and music hall actress Paula Ridgeway (Greer Garson) during a picnic in the countryside, as he told her: "My life began with you. I can't imagine a future without you..."; and the final revelatory scene about three years later at the countryside cottage in which wealthy aristocrat Charles Rainier (also Ronald Colman), who had lost all memory of his life with Paula, approached their familiar-looking old cottage after going through the squeaky gate and blossoming bough - he used a long-treasured key to open the door; behind him at the gate, his devoted and faithful secretary Margaret Hansen/Paula (also Greer Garson) (with tear-stained cheeks) softly called out to him: "Smithy? Oh, Smithy! Oh, darling" -- he unraveled the clue and recognized her voice - and remembered his former life being married to her - he turned around, softly responded "Paula!" to his long-lost love, and they came together to embrace and kiss as the music built to a crescendo -- and a fade to black as the film ended

In director Stephen Daldry's Holocaust love story, adapted by David Hare from Bernhard Schlink's neo-classic novel, the film flashbacked to the summer of 1958 when 15 year-old virginal German schoolboy named Michael Berg (David Kross, and Ralph Fiennes as an adult) engaged in an erotic, passionate and secret summer-time affair with beautiful, hard-working, uneducated, repressed 36 year-old tram conductor Hanna Schmitz (Oscar-winning Kate Winslet); they had sex on a regular basis, after which he would read literature outloud to her (The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, The Lady with the Little Dog, War and Peace, and Lady Chatterley's Lover); his life was forever changed by the relationship; as a law student in 1966 in Heidelberg, he witnessed Hanna's Nazi war-crimes trial for being an SS guard at a satellite of Auschwitz near Cracow during the war; the trial revealed that Hanna had the weak and sickly women also read to her outloud before they were sent to the gas chambers; she admitted, falsely to the judge (to conceal her embarrassment about being illiterate), that she had written the report about the deaths of 300 trapped prisoners in a locked church fire; unlike five other female scapegoating defendants who were sentenced to a few years in prison, she was sentenced to life imprisonment; in 1988 after almost twenty years in prison, Hanna was to be paroled in one week, and Michael saw her during a poignant, painful prison visit for the first time in decades during which there was no real physical contact; he had been sending her audio cassette tape recordings of his readings of her favorite books (and she had painstakingly taught herself how to read and write), fulfilling his role as "The Reader," without any other kind of correspondence or replies to her letters; she told him: "You've grown up, kid"; he detailed how he had made arrangements for a job and apartment for her after her release; he also revealed how his own brief marriage hadn't lasted and then asked: "Have you spent a lot of time thinking about the past?" - she asked: "You mean with you?"; he responded: "No, no, I didn't mean with me"; she told him about her thoughts of the past: "It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead"; he replied: "I wasn't sure what you'd learned"; she responded: "Well, I have learned, kid. I've learned to read"; when he came back a week later to pick her up, he sadly learned that she had committed suicide in her room - she had stacked up library books on a table (including copies of War and Peace and The Odyssey) before standing on them and hanging herself (off-screen); as he visited her cell, he was told: "She didn't pack. She never intended to leave"; in her 'will,' she had written: "tell Michael I said hello," causing him to sob uncontrollably; in the film's final scene in a steady rain, Michael took his grown-up daughter Julia (Hannah Herzsprung) to visit Hanna's grave in a church graveyard (where they had taken a bike ride when he was 15), as she asked: "Who was she?"; the film ended with them walking slowly away from the grave, with his voice-over: "I was 15. I was coming home from school. I was feeling ill. And a woman helped me"

The concluding tragic scene in which panicky teen Plato (Sal Mineo), with an empty gun in his hand, attempted to flee from the observatory, but was shot down by gunfire from the police cordon; anguished by the senseless killing and his failure to avert violence with his utmost effort, Jim Stark (James Dean) kneeled and crawled next to his friend's body, mourned the death of his surrogate 'son' who was unable to reach the adult world, and asked: "Hey jerk-pot. What did ya do that for?"; Plato's distraught maid/housekeeper (Marietta Canty) delivered his epitaph: "This poor baby got nobody. Just nobody" as Jim zipped up the red jacket on his friend's corpse, and told ambulance workers: "He was always cold."

The sad, tragic scene in this short 34-minute film in which bullies with a slingshot popped and deflated young towheaded schoolboy Pascal's (Pascal Lamorisse) beloved bright red balloon to the ground; and the very sweet, uplifting, magical surprise ending in which Pascal discovered his resurrected red balloon accompanied by thousands of other colored balloons from around Paris, that lifted him up and carried him off on a ride to another world

The melodramatic tragic death scene when young, red-headed prima ballerina Victoria (Vicky) Page (Moira Shearer) fell to her death just before an encore concert presentation of The Red Shoes ballet - the controlling red shoes willfilly took her to a balcony overlook and forcefully pulled her off (into the path of an oncoming train on the tracks below), followed by a closeup of her bloody legs (and tights) and feet wearing the shoes; when she requested that conductor-composer husband Julian Craster (Marius Goring) remove her red ballet shoes, she died; and the film's final images of the ballet being performed as planned without her (with a spotlight shining on the floor where she would have been dancing) and the announcement "There will be no performance of The Red Shoes tonight."

The scene in which rigidly polite, reserved British butler James Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) presided over an international dinner function, knowing his under-butler father (Peter Vaughan) had passed away; the touching scene in which Stevens was reluctant to reveal the book he was reading (a simple love story) to housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson); and the final scene of urgent, but unfulfilled and repressed longing and love between them in which Kenton, now Mrs. Benn, departed on a trolley car, after their lingering handshake in the rain - with Stevens finally showing the outward emotion of regret, crying in his car during a rainstorm - the splattering raindrops on the windshield obscured his own tears.

The heart-breaking scene in which RoboCop (Peter Weller) strolled through his former home (now up for sale), and had intermittent, ghost-like flash-backs of his old life as Police Officer Alex Murphy, with the POV shots of his wife Ellen (Angie Bolling) and son Jimmy (Jason Levine) -- at one point Ellen told him intimately: "I really have to tell you something...I love you!"

The climactic ending in which boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), after "going the distance" with Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), ignored interviewers and press crowding him in the ring, and instead called out for Adrian (Talia Shire): ("Adrian! ADRIAAAN!") - and finally after reaching her - holding and embracing her with a mutual "I love you!" to the sound of Bill Conti's triumphant score.

The scenes surrounding the traumatic death of Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone) long-time, loyal trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) - during Rocky's defense of his title against James "Clubber" Lang (Mr. 'T') in Philadelphia in 1981. Even before the big contest, a name-calling brawl broke out between the two opponents as they approached the ring. Mickey was shoved aside by a charged-up and angry Lang and suffered a heart attack. As ailing Mickey was cared for in the dressing room, he urged Rocky to go out and fight: "Take him, take him good. Get it over with, why don't you?...Now get out there and do it." Lang won the championship in an upset defeat of Rocky in the second round. Defeated, Rocky returned to the dressing room where Mickey was dying, and still awaiting an ambulance. He told Mickey about the "knock-out" defeat (misinterpreted by Mickey as a win for Rocky), to which the delirious trainer replied: "I love you, kid" - before expiring. Rocky collapsed onto the chest of his long-time friend and deeply wailed and mourned the loss ("Mick, don't go away. We got more to do...'). A small memorial service at a mausoleum led by a Jewish rabbi (Gravemarker: In Loving Memory, Mickey Goldmill, April 7, 1905-August 15, 1981).

There were two moving, tear-jerking scenes in this classic film:

First, the sad goodbye scene between Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) and commoner newspaper reporter Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) after they had spent a wonderful day together. She gave Joe difficult-to-hear directions after he drove her to the Embassy gate so she could return to her royal duties: "I have to leave you now. I'm going to that corner there and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you... I don't know how to say goodbye. I can't think of any words" - Joe suggested: "Don't try" - and they sadly hugged and kissed each other for the last time.

The second bittersweet scene was the Princess' final press conference in which Princess Ann said farewell to all the city's newspapermen - and to Joe - in the lineup. They both had to pretend that they didn't know each other. She could only be polite and impersonal: "So happy Mr. Bradley" and not reveal the secret of her day with him. During her final goodbye to everyone, she slowly turned toward the audience, gave a wide smile toward everyone (and then directly toward Joe), held the tear-inducing gaze, and then departed. After the press corps had left, Joe stared at the door through which she left, never to see her again - with echoing footsteps, he slowly walked out of the room. The camera with a backward-moving tracking shot followed his retreat from the girl he had loved, as he turned one last time at the end of the hall to sadly look back before leaving.

Franco Zeffirelli's beautiful version of the classic Shakespearean "tale of two star-crossed lovers", and the classic double-suicide, Romeo's (Leonard Whiting) poisoning and especially Juliet's (Olivia Hussey) "happy dagger" scene; and the final somber epilogue with the funeral procession of the corpses of the two dead teens to the tolling of bells, and the off-screen narration of Laurence Olivier: "A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head, For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

The climactic and inspirational scene (based on a true story) in which underdog, small-framed and big-hearted Daniel E. 'Rudy' Ruettiger (Sean Astin) beat unsurmountable odds - he heroically won the game; in the only play of his career, which lasted just 27 seconds, he sacked the Georgia Tech quarterback, and was then victoriously carried off the field on the shoulders of his Fighting Irish Notre Dame football teammates in 1975 - fulfilling his dreams and having his family witness his triumph.

The wrenching drama of abandoned eleven-year-old Krishna (real-life street rag-picker Shafiq Syed) who headed to the big city of Bombay (with demands from his mother to not come home until he had acquired 500 rupees to reimburse his brother for breaking his bicycle), where he joined hordes of homeless urchin children and down-and-out adults scrambling to survive the harsh streets; and the memorable heartbreaking scene when Krishna hires a letter-writer to send a message back home, only to realize that he doesn't even know where his village is, or what it might be called; also, Krishna (now called Chaipau - literally "tea boy") and his unrequited love for a terrified, captive 16 year-old Nepalese virgin named "Sweet Sixteen" Rekha (Anita Kanwar) who is being sold into prostitution in the red-light district, and his awkward attempt to set her free by lighting a fire; and his torturous existence in a harsh, high-walled reform school; and the famous image of Krishna running aimlessly down a Bombay street through traffic.

The poignant, sacrificial death of Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks), and his heroic, dying order to Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) with the terse words: "James... Earn this. Earn it"; and the scene 50 years later at Miller's grave as the older, teary-eyed Ryan asked his wife: "Am I a good man? Tell me that I have been a good man" and uncomprehendingly - she reassured him; also with the final image of a back-lit American flag billowing in the wind.

The upsetting, brutal scene of the clearing and liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto, and the fate of a girl in a drab red coat: still wearing her coat, she was later spotted on a cart piled with corpses; the exhumation and incineration of the corpses in graves, the arrival of a boxcar of female workers at Auschwitz and the intense shower scene; Schindler's heartwrenching goodbye to his accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) ("I didn't do enough") - and Schindler's final address to his workers following the war; also the final coda (in color) pairing real-life survivors with their counterpart actors/actresses as they placed rocks on the real-life grave of Schindler

The scene in which spirited Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet) discovered that womanizer John Willoughby (Greg Wise) - the man she had fallen madly in love with during a torrid affair - failed her and was instead engaged to a rich woman, and her trance-like recitation of William Shakespeare's 116th Sonnet ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds...") while staring at his mansion during a heavy rainstorm - leading to her near-death of pneumonia; and the surprising news from stepbrother-in-law bachelor Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) to his shy love interest Elinor Dashwood (Emma Thompson) that he never married greedy Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs) - but that his brother Robert (Richard Lumsden) did -- and Elinor's exultant, near-hysterical half-laughing/half-crying response to the news that he was now available; and the joyous double-marriage of Elinor with Edward and Marianne with the older, wiser Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), as the Colonel tossed coins in the air for the witnesses

The scene in which a teary-eyed C. S. "Jack" Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) realized he was truly in love with dying, cancer-stricken Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) during their first marriage of convenience: ("It's impossible. It's unthinkable. How could Joy be my wife? I'd have to love her, wouldn't I? I'd have to care more for her than for anyone else in this world. I'd have to be suffering the torments of the damned. The prospect of losing her..."); the scene in which Jack remarried Joy, this time for love; also Joy's deathbed scene, with Jack telling her: "Don't talk, my love. Just rest...just rest" - and kissing her just before she died: "I love you, Joy. I love you so much. You made me so happy. I didn't know I could be so happy. You're the truest person I have ever known..."; and the scene in which Jack and Joy's young son Douglas (Joseph Mazzello) shared tortured grief and uncontrollable weeping in the attic: (Douglas: "I would like to see her again" Jack: "Me too")

The poignant final goodbye scene in which young, anguished, and heartbroken Joey Starrett (Brandon De Wilde), with tears streaking down his face, sadly cried out after his hero/idol Shane (Alan Ladd): ("Pa's got things for you to do, and Mother wants you. (the words "wants you" echo) I know she does. Shane. Shane! Come back! 'Bye, Shane"), as the wounded gunfighter rode away on his horse toward the mountains, slumped in the saddle, in one of filmdom's most famous and haunting endings.

The liberating, uplifting scene of the Shawshank inmates drinking cold beers on the sunny rooftop and feeling like 'free men' while the heroic innocent convict Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) smiled off to the side in the shade, and the similar transcendental scene in which Andy played Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro over the Shawshank prison loudspeakers; the tragic scene of released aging prisoner Brooks Hatlen's (James Whitmore) suicide by hanging after carving "BROOKS WAS HERE" on the wooden arch above him; the image of Andy's "rebirth" after he escaped from prison in the famous overhead shot of him standing in the cleansing "baptismal" rain with his arms raised to the heavens; and the optimistic conclusion in which an escaped Andy and paroled Red (Morgan Freeman) re-united on a remote Mexican beach.

The ending in which hang-dog San Diego-based English teacher and aspiring writer Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti) listened to a reconciliatory phone call on his answering machine from estranged Santa Ynez Valley wine country resident and love interest Maya (Virginia Madsen), telling him that she really enjoyed his book: ("...Who cares if it's not getting published? There's so many beautiful and painful things about it...Anyway, like I said, I really loved your novel. Don't give up, Miles. Keep writing. I hope you're well. Bye"), and the final image of him knocking on her door - having traveled all the way back to the Valley to see her again.

The anniversary date dinner scene of psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) arriving late at the table with his troubled and depressed wife Anna (Olivia Williams) in a fancy restaurant; also the disturbing, heart-breaking scene in which clairvoyant Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) brought deceased daughter Kyra's (Mischa Barton) videotape to her father Mr. Collins (Greg Wood) to be played at the funeral reception - followed by the father's confrontation with the mother (Angelica Torn): ("You were keeping her sick") who deliberately kept her ill; and the mournful scene of Anna watching her wedding tape - in which psychologist Dr. Crowe finally let go - realizing that he never did survive the gun-shot wound in the prologue - when his wedding ring rolled noisily in a circle across a parquet-wood floor - with the startling revelation that he was one of the "dead people" seen by Cole.

The enchanting, dreamlike, pencil-animated 26-minute Christmas-themed, Oscar-nominated short told about an unnamed red-haired English boy and his snowman friend from his front yard (created on Christmas Eve) that magically came to life and joined him to fly all around, as choirboy Peter Auty sang the ethereal, emotional "Walking In the Air"; during their soaring journey, the boy visited with St. Nick at the North Pole, who presided over a celebratory party with many dancing snow-people guests; the short ended abruptly with a Christmas morning scene in which the boy rushed outside to play with his snowy friend again, but discovered that the snowman had melted and disintegrated into a small pile of snow - leaving him with only the blue snowman scarf Santa Claus had given him as a memento.

The scene in which the seven heartbroken, sobbing and sorrowful dwarfs held a bedside vigil (accompanied by organ music) next to their Snow White, and then placed her lifeless body in a crystal coffin or casket, where she remained through a full year - a cycle of seasons, as they stood around grieving. Finally, her Prince came and was relieved to find the ragged maiden that he had fancied at the castle; he gently kissed her cold red lips for farewell, not knowing that his Love's First Kiss would awaken her from her deathlike slumber. With great joy and cheering in the forest, Snow White went off with the Prince on his horse - "and they lived happily ever after," but not before she kissed each of the dwarfs goodbye. Her Prince had indeed come, and the song "Some Day My Prince Will Come" was heard celebrating his arrival.

The flashback scene of the excruciating, heart-rending 'choice' that Polish woman Sophie Zawistowska (Meryl Streep) had to make in a concentration camp with a Nazi officer. First, the officer told her that she was beautiful and he propositioned her: "I'd like to get you in bed." He then asked: "Are you a Polack?" She answered, trembling: "I am a Pole! I was born in Krakow. I am not a Jew. Neither are my children. They're not Jews. They are racially pure. I'm a Christian. I'm a devout Catholic." He slowly turned and asked a second time: "You're not a communist?...You're a believer," to which she affirmed: "Yes sir, I believe in Christ." Then, after obliquely referring to one of Christ's sayings, "Suffer the little children," he gave her a fateful choice: "You may keep one of your children." Sophie stuttered back: "I beg your pardon?" He repeated his order: "You may keep one of your chldren. The other one must go." She asked: "You mean, I have to choose?" He responded: "You're a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilege. A choice." She affirmed three times: "I can't choose." He threatened: "Choose! Or I'll send them both over there. Make a choice!" She begged: "Don't make me choose! I can't!" Exasperated, he ordered: "Take both children away!" She made a heart-wrenching ultimate decision: "Take my little girl! Take my baby." As her screaming daughter was taken away, Sophie's face displayed agonizing pain

Elderly Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson, who was dying during filming) experienced a poignant, painless and suicidal death in an euthanasia clinic amidst musical and visual montages of a peaceful green Earth, with his friend Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston, who shed real tears due to the real-life poignancy of the dying Robinson) in a nearby control room.

Before Sol died, he prodded Thorn to learn and then prove to everyone the major secret about Soylent Green:

Horrible. Simonson. Soylent. Listen to me, Thorn. Thorn, listen....You've got to prove it, Thorn. Go to the Exchange. Please, Thorn. You've got to prove it. Thorn. The Exchange.

After the quelling of the slave revolt, the moment when Spartacus was called forth by the Romans and all of the slaves cried out: "I'm Spartacus!"; and the duel to the death between Antoninus (Tony Curtis) and Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) when they were forced to fight against each other by Crassus (Laurence Olivier) - with Spartacus' killing of Antoninus to spare him from crucifixion (Antoninus' dying words: "I love you, Spartacus, as I love my own father" - Spartacus: "I love you, like my son that I'll never see. Go to sleep"); and the closing scene in which Varinia (Jean Simmons) held up their newborn son to a crucified Spartacus: "This is your son. He's free, Spartacus, free. He's free. He's free. He'll remember you, Spartacus, because I'll tell him. I'll tell him who his father was, and what he dreamed of." Forced to move along, she grasped his ankle for a few last words, begging him to die: "Oh, my love, my life. Please die, die. Please die, die my love. Oh, God, why can't you die?...(Looking back) Goodbye, my love, my life. Goodbye, good-bye."

In this coming-of-age film mostly told in flashback, the nighttime conversation between two twelve year-old schoolboy buddies, as they sat in front of a tree close to their campfire: tough Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and quiet/studious Gordon "Gordie" Lachance (Wil Wheaton) regarding how Chris was always labeled a 'low-life' due to his family's 'black-sheep' reputation as criminals and alcoholics ("It's the way the people think of my family in this town. It's the way they think of me. I'm just one of those low-life Chambers kids...I just wish that I could go some place where nobody knows me. (sobbing) I guess I'm just a pussy, huh?") in their town of Castle Rock in Oregon, and how he was poorly treated by his abusive father: (Chris: "I know how your dad feels about you. He doesn't give a s--t about you! Denny was the one he cared about and don't try to tell me different")

The scene of singer Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester (Judy Garland) singing the first chorus of "Lose That Long Face" followed by her breakdown in the dressing room confessional scene with Oliver (Charles Bickford) - forcing her to go back on stage to sing the song again; and the unforgettable poignant ending and closing tribute line to her husband Norman (James Mason) (after he had committed suicide with a sunset swim-walk into the sea to "It's a New World") in front of a large audience as she proudly identified herself: "This is Mrs. Norman Maine".

Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) choked-up sobbing as he told ship's counselor Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) about the death of his brother Robert and nephew Renee in a fire: ("I've been thinking about all the experiences Renee is never going to have -- attending Academy, reading books, listening to music, falling in love ..."); and the finale in which android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) cried yellow tears when he discovered his cat Spot alive and well after the U.S.S. Enterprise had crashed: (Data: "I am happy to see Spot, and yet I am crying! Perhaps the chip is malfunctioning?" - Deanna: "I think it's working perfectly").

The death scene of Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who had just sacrificed his life (after being exposed to radiation) to save the doomed U.S.S. Enterprise from a deadly explosion; before Spock went to his death, he transferred his katra -- his memories and experience -- to Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) with the word "Remember"; he reassured Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) as he died: "Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh (the needs of the few). Or the one. I never took the Kobayashi Maru test, until now. What do you think of my solution? (Spock knelt down) I have been, and always shall be, your friend. (Spock placed his hand on the chamber glass) Live long, and prosper"; Kirk placed his hand opposite Spock's hand as his friend slowly collapsed, slumped down and expired next to him; Kirk quietly said: "No" as Spock died; at Spock's funeral, Kirk delivered a heartfelt eulogy for his friend ("Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human") before Spock was ejected into orbit around a newly-birthed planet from the Genesis Effect explosion; also the subsequent reconciliation scene of Kirk with his son Dr. David Marcus (Merritt Butrick), capped by a hug: ("I was wrong about you and I'm sorry...And also that I'm proud. Very proud to be your son"); and Kirk's re-discovery of peace and purpose for his life ("'It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before.' A far better resting place I go to than I have ever known...Something Spock was trying to tell me on my birthday") and his response to his friend Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy's (DeForest Kelley) question: "You okay, Jim? How do you feel?" with his reply: "Young. I feel young!" -- the film ended with Nimoy's concluding, tearjerking voice-over rendition of the famous television Star Trek opening monologue ("Space, the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission to explore strange, new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.")

The startling, upsetting death of Genesis planet hostage Dr. David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) - stabbed in the throat by a Klingon on orders from treacherous Klingon Captain Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), and Admiral James T. Kirk's (William Shatner) stunned reaction to the news of the death of his son delivered by Lieut. Saavik (Robin Curtis) ("Admiral, David is dead") -- he stumbled backwards to the floor when trying to sit in his captain's chair on his own hijacked starship USS Enterprise, and croaked with anguish: "You Klingon bastard. You've killed my son. Oh! You Klingon bastard. You've killed my son! You Klingon bastard"

The eloquent speech by dying alien Starman (Oscar nominated Jeff Bridges) to scientist Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith) while trapped in federal custody in a restaurant: "We are... interested in your species...You are a strange species, not like any other -- and you would be surprised how many there are. Intelligent but savage. Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst"; and Starman's farewell to hostage-turned-lover Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) in the middle of the Arizona crater where he was met by an alien search party: (Jenny: "I'm never going to see you again, am I?"), and the final lingering shot of Jenny's face as Starman's ship departed home to the sounds of Jack Nitzsche's swelling score

The upsetting scene in which Shelby Eatenton Latcherie (Julia Roberts) collapsed into a diabetic coma - discovered by her husband Jackson Latcherie (Dylan McDermott) as her 1 year-old son Jack, Jr. (C. Houser) screamed in horror; Shelby's mother M'Lynn Eatenton's (Sally Field) round-the-clock vigil (humming "Mockingbird" to her, reading beauty tips from a fashion magazine, etc.); and the scene of mourning M'Lynn's musings about death and the moment that Shelby died (when everyone else had left after the machine was turned off): "Shelby, as you know, wouldn't want us to get mired down and wallow in this. We should handle it the best way we know how and get on with it. That's what my mind says. I wish somebody would explain it to my heart...I find it amusin'. Men are supposed to be made out of steel or somethin'. I just sat there. I just held Shelby's hand. There was no noise, no tremble, just peace. Oh God. I realize as a woman how lucky I am. I was there when that wonderful creature drifted into my life and I was there when she drifted out. It was the most precious moment of my life" -- she also delivered an angry post-funeral speech at the injustice of her daughter's death: ("I'm fine! I can jog all the way to Texas and back, but my daughter can't! She never could! Oh God! I'm so mad, I don't know what to do! I wanna know why! I wanna know WHY Shelby's life is over! I wanna know how that baby will ever know how wonderful his mother was. Will he EVER know what she went through for him? Oh, God, I wanna know whyyyy! Whhhyyyyy?! Lord, I wish I could understand. No! No! No! It's not supposed to happen this way. I'm supposed to go first. I've always been ready to go first. I don't think I can take this. I don't think I can take this. I just wanna hit somebody til they feel as bad as I do! I JUST WANNA HIT SOMETHING! I WANNA HIT IT HARD!") - humorously undercut by Clairee's (Olympia Dukakis) cathartic offer of her sour-puss best friend Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine) as a punching-bag target for M'Lynn's anger ("Here, hit this! Go ahead, M'Lynn. Slap her!").

Texas widow Aurora Greenway's (Shirley MacLaine) hospital scene when she panicked and shrieked over her 30 year-old daughter Emma Greenway Horton's (Debra Winger) terminal cancer and demanded that the nurses give her dying daughter (at past 10 o'clock) her overdue shot of morphine: ("I don't see why she has to have this pain....It's time for her shot, do you understand? Do something...My daughter is in pain! Give her the shot, do you understand me? GIVE MY DAUGHTER THE SHOT!!"); and the most tearjerking scene of all - Emma's hospital goodbye scene with her children when youngest son Teddy (Huckleberry Fox) told off his bratty older brother Tommy (Troy Bishop): ("Why don't you shut up?! Shut up!") as she explained to them that she wouldn't be around for her family in the future, that reluctant Tommy should "be sweet" and how he would eventually admit that he loved her after she was gone ("And stop trying to pretend that you hate me. I mean, it's silly...I know you like me. I know it. For the last year or two, you've been pretending like you hate me. I love you very much. I love you as much as I love anybody, as much as I love myself. And in a few years when I haven't been around to be on your tail about something or irritating you, you're gonna remember... that time that I bought you the baseball glove when you thought we were too broke. You know? Or when I read you those stories? Or when I let you goof off instead of mowing the lawn? Lots of things like that. And you're gonna realize that you love me. And maybe you're gonna feel badly, because you never told me. But don't - I know that you love me. So don't ever do that to yourself, all right?"); also the nurse's words to Emma's awakened husband Flap (Jeff Daniels): ("She's gone"), and the final scene of raunchy ex-astronaut neighbor Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson) providing needed support to the older boy following Emma's death.

The heartbreaking moments after Jack Dawson (Leonardo Di Caprio) and the love of his life Rose DeWitt Butaker (Kate Winslet) had survived the Titanic's sinking, and he helped her onto a large floating piece of debris. She complained of the intense cold and her frozen body, but he encouraged her to not give up: "Don't you do that, don't say your good-byes. Not yet, do you understand me?....Listen, Rose. You're gonna get out of here. You're gonna go on and you're gonna make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch 'em grow. You're gonna die an old... an old lady warm in her bed. Not here. Not this night. Not like this. Do you understand me?...Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you and I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful. You must, you must, you must do me this honor. You must promise me that you'll survive, that you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise." She promised, and he replied: "Never let go." She responded as she shivered: "I will never let go, Jack. I'll never let go." He kissed her hand before his corpse froze in the cold Atlantic Ocean, although they maintained their hand-grip; when she was about to be rescued by a boat by summoning it with a whistle, she let go of Jack's hand, although repeated the phrase: "I'll never let go. I promise" as he sank underwater; also the scene of elderly Rose (Gloria Stuart) tossing the priceless "Heart of the Ocean" blue diamond necklace overboard that she had shared with her now-lost love Jack; and the final dream sequence in which the young Rose imagined herself meeting - and kissing Jack at the top of the elegant Grand Staircase surrounded by an applauding audience of all those who died on the ship -- together forever.

Jesse's (voice of Joan Cusack) touching torch song: "When She Loved Me", describing how her beloved owner Emily matured into a teenager - and no longer played with toys - thereby abandoning Jesse under her bed - years later when the toy was rediscovered, Jesse's hopes were dashed when Emily left her in a charity donation box on the side of the road

The triumphant moment in which unwitting reality-TV show star Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) rejected omniscient, God-like producer Christof's (Ed Harris) plea to remain in the artificial world (where he had "nothing to fear" - "You belong here with me") rather than venture into the real world (with "the same lies, the same deceit"); Truman smiled beatifically at the camera, and sarcastically uttered his cheerful catchphrase: "In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!", took a deep farewell bow, and then exited from the massive set through the stage door to freedom from the virtual prison of Seahaven Island's massive set (to the sounds of Philip Glass' stirring "The Opening from Mishima") and a new existence - as TV's Truman Show ceased transmission.

The sad, long drawn-out death scene of time-traveling, delusional convict James Cole (Bruce Willis), shot in the Philadelphia airport by security guards, and mourned over by grieving present-day blonde lover, psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), as a young incarnation of himself (Joseph Melito) looked on and was knowingly recognized by Railly as he witnessed his own death, at the conclusion of the film

The emotionally deep, powerful and effective wordless 4-minute montage of 'married life' -- a man's entire relationship with his wife up until her death - in the person of two young kids who met and later married: balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) who worked in a zoo and adventurous, tomboyish Ellie (voice of Elie Docter). Theirs was a life journey of growing old, including buying and fixing up a dilapidated two-story home (soon threatened by encroaching city developers), painting their names (and leaving handprints) on their mailbox, taking frequent picnics to a hillside where they laid on their backs and observed cloud animal shapes, dreaming of having a family and setting up a nursery room but experiencing childlessness (miscarriage), his presentation of "My Adventure Book" to her with their mutual dream of going to Venezuela's Paradise Falls by saving spare coins for the journey (but they were never able to go, due to other obligations and debts), her tying of his necktie (numerous times to indicate the passage of time) as their hair greyed, his purchasing of tickets to Venezuela but the abrupt interruption of her failing health and death, and his expression of bereavement at her funeral before returning home alone - as the montage ended.

In the final scene of Pixar's and Disney's animated science-fiction, odd-couple love story, a crushed and 'dead' WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class) (voice of Ben Burtt), the last lone garbage-compacting robot on Earth, was rebuilt by EVE (short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) (voice of Elissa Knight), a sleek, white-shelled probe droid-robot, who used WALL-E's own spare parts collection to reconstruct him, but he appeared to have lost his acquired sentience, personality and memories; she tried to stir his memory by placing a lightbulb and Rubik's Cube in his grasp and by playing his favorite Hello, Dolly! tape recording - with no luck - he turned and began his task of trash-compacting; she tried to shake some sense into him, but it still didn't jog his memory - he stared back blankly; but then he remembered who EVE was after they clapsed 'hands' and she caused a small spark to occur when she touched his forehead - he came to life, focused his eyes on her, and they enjoyed a second longer kiss together

The "Bright Eyes" sequence in which Fiver (voice of Richard Briers) found out that Hazel (voice of John Hurt) had been badly wounded by a shotgun, and chased the ghostly Black Rabbit (voice of Joss Ackland) to reach Hazel before the angel of death could claim him, as Art Garfunkel's melancholy song was played: ("How can the eyes that burn so brightly suddenly burn so pale?"); and the touching final scene in which the Black Rabbit appeared to an aged Hazel, requesting: "I've come to ask if you'd like to join my Owsla [police force]. We shall be glad to have you, and I know you'd like it. You've been feeling tired, haven't you? If you're ready, we might go along now" - and reassured Hazel who had looked back at the young rabbits cavorting in the warren: "You needn't worry about them. They'll be alright, and thousands like them. If you come along, I'll show you what I mean" -- followed by Hazel's quiet death, his spirit joining the Black Rabbit's.

The poignant, powerful duet of "Somewhere" between star-crossed lovers: Caucasian Tony (Richard Beymer) and Puerto Rican Maria (Natalie Wood), and the tragic death scene of Tony, with a grieving Maria's anguished ranting at gang members - accusing all of them for being responsible for Tony's senseless death, and lecturing them at how hate breeds more hate: ("...You all killed him!...Not with bullets and guns! With HATE! Well, I can kill too, because now I have hate!") - and then her touching farewell to Tony, as she fell to her knees, weeping, and tenderly kissed the lips of Tony one last time and expressed her love for him in Spanish, with: "Te adoro, Anton", in the musical update of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. The two gangs, confused, stunned, ashamed and sobered by the unnecessary triple killings, finally put aside their enmity. As some of the Jets struggled to bear Tony's body away, a few of the Sharks assisted them. Together, they solemnly carried him down the street, with Maria following

The scene in which young Maori girl Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) gave her award-winning speech in school about her ancestors, crying profusely as she delivered it because her grandfather and Maori chief Koro (Rawiri Paratene) didn't show up; the mass beaching of whales and the desperate attempts by the Maori to keep them alive, and the mystical scene in which Paikea literally rode the back of the largest whale out to sea, having restored its will to live so it could unbeach itself: ("I wasn't afraid to die"); and Koro's acceptance of Paikea as a new Maori chief as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed; and the final shot of grandfather and granddaughter together at sea on the Maori long canoe, as she led the chant while wearing Koro's whale tooth necklace.

The tragic early scene in which pediatrician Dr. Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) lost his two children Marie (Jessica Brooks Grant) and Ian (Josh Paddock) in an off-screen car crash, with his melancholy narration: "It was the last time Annie and I saw them alive" -- and the shot of his son Ian inside his coffin; and then four years later, the scene in which Chris, now also deceased and in the afterlife but lingering on Earth - after another multi-car crash in a tunnel - attended his own funeral and comforted his still-living wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra); also his attempts to force despondent Annie to acknowledge his continued existence (after whispering in her ear: "This is Chris. I still exist," he made her scrawl the words: "ISTILEXST" in her diary, and then later tried to contact her at his gravesite: "Don't worry, baby, I'm not leaving you alone. I'm not goin' anywhere") -- and her violent sobbing reactions, forcing Chris to reluctantly leave her and Earth and journey to the afterworld to prevent any more harm ("The reality is it's over when you stop wanting to hurt her"); also the scene of despairing Annie committing suicide, foreshadowed by the death of her purple-flowered tree in the 'heavenly' painting, and her journey to Hell ("You never see her. She's a suicide. Suicides go somewhere else...The real Hell is your life gone wrong"); also Chris' sentimental apology to Annie in Hell for all the things he couldn't give her ("I'll never buy you another meatball sub with extra sauce -- that was a big one! I'll never make you smile..."), and the tearjerking 'feel-good' Hollywood finale that reunited wife Annie with him and their two dead children in the heavenly afterlife ("Travel here is like everything else, it's in your mind. All you have to do is close your eyes if you know where you're going. Looks like we did"). After she vowed to Chris: "I want us to grow old together. Can we do that here? I want it all. As long as it's with you," they experienced a spiritual reawakening in the bodies of two young children by a lake ("When I was young, I met this beautiful girl by a lake").

The crowd-pleasing, tearjerking finale featuring Sally Albright's (Meg Ryan) moving mixture of frustration, longing, loving, wariness and desperation after Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) had professed his at-long-last love for her at a New Year's Eve party: ("You see. That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you"), resulting in passionate kisses as they finally conquered their doubts over the budding romance born of an initially platonic friendship years earlier.

Dorothy Gale's bidding of farewell to all of her newfound friends in the Land of Oz: especially her sad goodbyes with the Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley): "Now I know I've got a heart, because it's breaking" and with the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) - highlighted by her final hugs and kisses reserved for him and her whispered sentiment: "I think I'll miss you most of all."