Fellow sap checking in,
I’ve always been a sucker for movies with talking animals. That scene made me cry too.
I also cried the first time I watched Free Willy. Granted, I was young - but still.
The scene in AI where the little boy android is left in the woods and he begs his mother not to leave him, the scene where he is tortured by the crowd, and the scene under water. Some critics were so offended by Speilberg’s handling of these scenes they called it “emotional pornorgraphy”. I cried like a baby.
The end of “Raising Arizona” always gets a few tears out of me.
The end of “Remains of the Day” is a bit intense.
That reminds me. The end of “Old Yeller” got me good when I was a kid.
Sage Rat, I loved Meet Joe Black - don’t understand what people’s problem is with it - and understand exactly where you’re coming from. That scene definitely got me.
When I first saw Whose Life is it Anyway?, about 20 years ago, I watched it through a veil of tears so constant that I had to rewind it immediately and watch it all over again. Haven’t watched it since.
And of course Brokeback Mountain. Ennis’s final line: “Jack, I swear…” was so ambiguous and raw that it just finished me off. I’m getting dewy-eyed even writing this, and if any of the theme music comes on the radio or whatever I get a lump in my throat.
However, amusing for me as an adolescent was my sister’s reaction at the end of The Champ, where the child is standing by the body of his father, wondering why he wouldn’t wake up. She lay on the sofa and just howled for an hour. How I laughed!
My rule of thumb: If a movie leaves me so emotionally wrenched that I cannot speak afterward, I will never watch it again. For example:
Sophie’s Choice – yep, particularly That Scene.
Schindler’s List
The Elephant Man
There are certain scenes in a few movies where I’ll hide my eyes/turn away/leave the room, but it won’t stop me from watching the movie itself. Like Jaws, for instance. I’ve seen it probably a dozen or so times, but I’ll always leave the room during Quint’s death. Ditto for the silo scene in Witness. There are many others, but I won’t enumerate them here.
Breaking the Waves - Had me cringing and crying almost the entire time and so intense a movie I will never watch it again.
Dead Poets Society - I know, the emotional scenes were telegraphed but they got me anyway.
Ditto on most of the LOTRs movies.
The Last Samurai - The final battle is a killer emotionally.
Peter Jackson’s King Kong - Sobbing like a baby at the end.
A lot of the asian ‘hero’ self sacrifice movies. The beauty of the movies only makes it more intense.
Brokedown Palace when Alice makes a plea to the Crown for Darlene’s release
In Heavenly Creatures, when the two girls are out walking with Pauline’s mother – it’s a beautiful day, and Pauline’s mom is all happy and smiling, spending time with her misbegotten daughter – I was so sad for her, knowing that this was the last day of her life.
If it hadn’t been such a nice day, and if the scene hadn’t been so drawn out, it wouldn’t have been quite as effective.
I guess I’m going to have to see that movie. I don’t see how you can get so invested in it less than a minute into the movie. There’s hardly any buildup to characters or plots.
I must admit, I got a bit choked up during Monsters Inc when Boo finally gets home, then she opens the closet door to find it’s just a closet. “Kitty?”
Sniff.
A later scene in *Around the Bend * where Christopher Walken is telling Josh Lucas what happened on the stairway…I felt like I had been punched!
The plight of Connor in The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
I always SWEAR that I’ll never watch HC again because of this scene, but I always end up watching it when it’s on IFC or Sundance and sobbing my little heart out.
The big finish for “Becoming, Part II,” the last episode of Buffy’s second season:
When Buffy kills the newly ensouled Angel. Chris Beck’s score here is the best use of music I’ve heard on a television show.
I have to agree that there is no other film that has ever left me feel like I’ve been put through an emotional wringer more than that one.
I’m starting to cry thinking about the opening sequence.
By far the most crying I ever did in a cinema was during the scene where Jesus falls while carrying the cross and Mary has the flashback to when he fell over as a child. Thankfully, there was nobody sitting near me when I saw that film because I was absolutely bawling my eyes out in that bit.
The ending of Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet really got to me. It’s a sad story in its own right, of course, but that’s the version that brought it home.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)–the smothering scene.
Glory (1989)–the whipping scene.
Finding Neverland (2004)–four adults (acting as children) hanging from ropes and holding a teddy bear.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)–Clarice Starling: Tell me his name, Doctor!
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)–despite being #40 on the IMDB top 250, this is one of the best 10 movies ever made.
Reverend Sykes: Jean Louise. Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing.
…and…
Scout: Don’t you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one early morning, remember? We had a talk. I went and got my daddy to come out and thank you. I go to school with your boy. I go to school with Walter; he’s a nice boy. Tell him ‘hey’ for me, won’t you?
…and…
about 100 other scenes
And my personal favorite
A Man for All Seasons (1966)–pretty much every second of this fabulous piece of work, but particularly the scene between Thomas Moore and his wife, the long suffering Alice. Here’s a bit of it:
[after King Henry VIII leaves]
Alice More: What’s this? You crossed him?
Sir Thomas More: Somewhat.
Alice More: Why?
Sir Thomas More: I couldn’t find the other way.
Alice More: You’re too nice altogether, Thomas.
Sir Thomas More: Woman, mind your house!
Alice More: I am minding my house!
OMG, I started welling up just reading that. Thankfully, I came to my senses. Along those lines, Lilo and Stitch just killed me. I sobbed through the whole third act, and for an hour after. I must have been in a mood, but I’m terrified to watch it again.
The ending of Iron Giant always gets me: Superman…
I don’t mind the crash scene in Cast Away, Stillwell Angel - but the last scene with Kelly is just so sad. 
I just came in to this thread to mention this scene.
That movie gets me every time I see it. (and I still love it).