# Best tear-jerking line(s) in a modern movie. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971 "2005-06-20T00:58:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/121 "2005-06-23T00:02:05Z")
_ **Miller’s Crossing** _ Leo: Jesus, Tom, I’d give anything if you’d come to work for me again. It can be like it was, before! I know it! I just know it! And … as for you and Verna … well … you’re both young and … damnit, Tom, I forgive you. Tom: I didn’t ask for that and I don’t want it. Goodbye Leo. (Though mostly it’s Tom watching Leo walk away that gets me.) ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/122 "2005-06-23T04:24:23Z")
From the last scene of every film (and stage) version of _Cyrano de Bergerac_ (except Steve Martin’s _Roxanne_): Roxanne: I have only loved one man in my life, and I have lost him twice. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/123 "2005-06-23T04:55:30Z")
That _Babe_ line gets me, and it’s been mentioned before in this thread, but I haven’t seen anyone post the narrator’s line just before it, so I will:Narrator: And though every single human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say. Farmer Hoggett: That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.That line really sets up the tear-jerker. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/124 "2005-06-23T05:25:07Z")
At the end of _Mask_, Cher is crying and placing one pin after another into a wall map of places where her son wanted to visit some day: “You can go anywhere you want now.” At the end of _Schindler’s List_: > [@](#): > > There are fewer than five > thousand Jews left alive > in Poland today. > > ``` > There are more than six thousand > descendants of the Schindler Jews. > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/125 "2005-06-23T11:49:02Z")
> [@Moody Bastard](#): > > 😉 Sorry to be a wisenheimer but reading this thread is like eating too much cotton candy. I’m enjoying the heck out of this thread and I haven’t even seen 98% of these movies! How sick is that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/126 "2005-06-23T11:59:19Z")
“I was so scared. And I think it went pretty well, don’t you?” –Nod ---
**Author:** ![Studs\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Studs\_Murphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studs_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/127 "2005-06-23T12:03:23Z")
Angels With Dirty Faces: “It’s true, boys. Every word of it. He died like they said. All right, fellas. Let’s go and say a prayer for a boy who couldn’t run as fast as I could.” Jean De Florette: “I’m a hunchback - have you forgotten that? Do you think it’s easy? Is there no one up there?” ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/128 "2005-06-23T19:39:30Z")
I usually have ocular discharge difficulties in: **Scrooge** : “I’ve discovered that I. Like. Life.” **October Sky** : “I want to dedicate this rocket to Miss Reilly, my mom, and… my dad.” Also: “I heard you met your hero, Dr. von Braun. Ya met him and didn’t even know it.” “He’s not my hero, dad.” ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/129 "2005-06-23T20:01:15Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > **Mulan** > “The greatest _[gift and]_ honor of all is having you for a daughter.” (correction mine) Oh, dear Og yes. In my case it’s because I’ve always waited and am still waiting for my dad to say something like that or its equivalant. _sniffle_ ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Incognito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guy_incognito/32/3920_2.png) [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/130 "2005-06-23T21:25:55Z")
> [@SolGrundy](#): > > Well, if we can include TV shows, then I want to add one from “Cowboy Bebop”, the episode “Speak Like a Child,” where Faye Valentine is watching the video she made when she was a little girl and sent to herself as an adult, cheering her on and saying “Don’t lose me! Don’t lose me!” > > “I don’t know. I can’t remember.” My pick is from “The Real Folk Blues, part 2”. _“Bang!”_ - Spike Spiegel Another vote for the ending of \*Field of Dreams \*, and I’d also like to add the “Moonlight Graham stepping off the field” scene and the scene where Terrence Mann explains the significance of baseball: _And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again._ (I don’t know why, but this always chokes me up.) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/131 "2005-06-23T22:40:36Z")
> [@Guy Incognito](#): > > _And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again._ > > (I don’t know why, but this always chokes me up.) You might be interested to know, then, that this quote is painted on the wall of SBC Park in San Francisco. (along with other baseball-related quotes, sprinkled throughout the park.) ---
**Author:** ![BigDummy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@BigDummy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigDummy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/132 "2005-06-23T23:09:00Z")
The end of \*\*A League of Their Own \*\* always tears me up. If I haven’t started during the championship game when Kitt give up the lead, or during their scene after the game, or someplace else, the scene in the Hall of Fame when grownup Stillwell says “Mom died”. Every time. Before he can even get out the next line. ---
**Author:** ![Baggins111](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@Baggins111](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baggins111)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/133 "2005-06-24T03:47:57Z")
“Go get 'em Tiger.” - Mary Jane in the last scene of **Spiderman 2** Don’t ask me why, but that whole last scene when she shows up in his door just kills me. Other than that, The whole last half hour or so of **LOTR:ROTK**. Especially when the tower falls and Merry Holds up his sword and yells, “FROOOODOOOO!!!” ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/134 "2005-06-24T11:37:32Z")
“Earn this.” That one gets me every time. Must be a soldier thing. “This pin. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. One more person. A person, Stern. For this.” At least watching Goethe swing right after that line makes me smile. OK, so I’m a sucker for smarmy Spielberg endings. He even managed to get me a little misty-eyed with A.I., too. Dammit, I expect to be emotionally manipulated by Spielberg films and he still manages to make me teary. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/135 "2005-06-24T17:48:42Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > If you think that scene is good in the Disney version, you should see the Charles Laughton version. I get goosebumps just visualizing it. For some reason I keep picturing the Simpson’s episode where Homer runs into the church screaming “SAANCTUUUAAAARRYYYY!!!” and Lovejoy’s all like “I wish I never taught him that word”. **Legends of the Fall** when Alfred (Quinn) rejoins the family and the monolongue at the end about Tristen’s (Pitt) eventual fate. Also the closing scene/monologue of **Gang’s of New York** as the scene goes from old New York to modern New York as well as the final confrontation between Amsterdam (deCaprio) and Bill (Day-Lewis). It also just occured to me Henry Thomas meets a very unpleasent end in both films. Add in Theoden’s “Braveheart” speech in LOTR:ROTK. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/136 "2005-06-24T18:19:13Z")
City of Angels: “I’ll tell them it was you.” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/137 "2005-06-25T00:45:10Z")
“…dona eis requiem. Amen.”— _Amadeus_. (Sung) ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/138 "2005-06-25T01:45:01Z")
Also, in “Babe,” Farmer Hogget’s song for Babe when he’s sick. If I had words to make a day for you I’d sing you a morning golden and true. I’d make this day last for all time instead of falling into moonshine. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/139 "2005-06-28T02:28:47Z")
> [@marymargaret](#): > > \*\*Requiem for a Dream \*\* when the nurse tells Harry that Marion will come and Harry responds, “she won’t come.” Just thought of another line from the same movie, when Marion and Harry are on the phone- he’s in jail (I believe) and she’s drugged out of her mind- and she asks him in a child’s voice “Can you come today?” Apparently Aronofsky filmed them both on a real phone at the same time in different rooms to get real reactions. ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971/140 "2005-06-28T11:33:01Z")
**Spoiler warning** **Spoiler warning** **Spoiler warning** _Serenity_ I am a leaf in the wind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tear-jerking-line-s-in-a-modern-movie/308971.md?page=8)