# Scenes that (unexpectedly) made you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514 "2016-05-11T00:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/61 "2016-05-17T16:52:08Z")
In the otherwise clichéd and overwrought Armageddon, when the survivors of the mission return and the one guy’s ex-wife is watching the TV report about it with her son. The oil rig worker had visited earlier pretending to be a salesman for the kid, because she didn’t want him to know that his father was an out of luck, broken down oil rig worker. When they see the guy, the kid says “Hey, it’s that salesman!” and the woman says “No, that’s your father.” I was a fairly new dad at the time, and it really choked me up for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/62 "2016-05-17T17:14:16Z")
Neville standing up to Voldemort in the final\* Harry Potter\* movie. Foolish, awkward, introverted, brave, honorable, loyal Neville. My wife and I had been early fans of Neville since the first books. _Lilo and Stitch_…the whole concept, really, which I see as a metaphor for pit bulls. Here is this creature bred to fight, and everyone wants to capture him to turn him into a weapon. He has no experience of being loved, of having a secure place in the world. He uses his teeth to express himself because he’s never been socialized. Everyone is afraid of him but a little girl. She has confidence he’s capable of love and good behavior – but she can’t give him security; she is constantly under threat of losing him. And yet that’s enough; he turns out to be the most loving and loyal comrade a child could have. Again this week, when the news showed pictures of people flying to safety from the Canadian wildfire with their canine and feline family members in their laps, I found myself thinking “_Ohana_ means family. And family means no one gets left behind.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/63 "2016-05-17T17:22:54Z")
> [@Totenfeier](#): > > The one that gets me is just before that, when Schindler looks at his car, his watch, etc., and realizes that he had resources that could have saved even more Jewish lives. Same for me…I can’t get through that scene without tearing up. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/64 "2016-05-17T21:11:09Z")
The end of “Secret of the Grain”. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/65 "2016-05-18T08:40:34Z")
[quote=“Banquet\_Bear, post:56, topic:754514”] …the ending of Luck of the Fryish actually hit me harder than the dog episode. [/QUOTE] Oh god yes. I broke down even just trying to describe that episode to my wife. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/66 "2016-05-18T15:17:53Z")
“Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your Father’s passin.'” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/q7CX_5D6y6E/maxresdefault.jpg "To Kill a Mockingbird (8/10) Movie CLIP - Your Father's Passing (1962) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7CX_5D6y6E) ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/67 "2016-05-18T16:27:32Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > In the otherwise clichéd and overwrought Armageddon, when the survivors of the mission return and the one guy’s ex-wife is watching the TV report about it with her son. The oil rig worker had visited earlier pretending to be a salesman for the kid, because she didn’t want him to know that his father was an out of luck, broken down oil rig worker. > When they see the guy, the kid says “Hey, it’s that salesman!” and the woman says “No, that’s your father.” > I was a fairly new dad at the time, and it really choked me up for some reason. That is not when they return, but just as they are leaving for space… I have no kids, but somehow it has a similar effect on me. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/68 "2016-05-18T17:13:52Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your Father’s passin.'” > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7CX\_5D6y6E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7CX_5D6y6E) For me it’s the scene near the end, when Scout finally sees [Boo Radley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRmIef02Ajk). It’s not a particularly sad scene, but something about the mixture of wonder, realization, and pure joy on Mary Badham’s face when she says “Hey, Boo,” really gets me. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/69 "2016-05-18T18:08:45Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I was watching a rerun of the Simpson’s episode Lisa’s Wedding several years ago and at the very end Lisa and Homer have a sweet moment as he music and dialog fades while he tells her about his day at the fair. My Dad had been gone for years at that point but for some reason it triggered a flood of my own memories and I lost it. > > To this day that episode makes me think of my Dad and there really is no reason why other than the episode is about Lisa’s feelings for her father. Or when Homer becomes super smart, and before he puts the crayon back in his brain he writes that letter to Lisa where he says he’ taking the cowards way out, but now he appreciates her even more. Someone mentioned Harry Potter, and I know this is a movie thread, but one line in the books that’s always touched me was when they were talking with Griphook in their family’s house in the 7th book, and he opines “So young to be fighting so many”. The most beautiful line in the whole series IMO ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/70 "2016-05-18T18:10:30Z")
You know, I hate to be that person, but did everyone read the OP before they replied? > [@elfkin477](#): > > There are certain scenes in movies, TV shows and books that are designed to evoke tears in the viewer/reader. When on **BTVS** Buffy finds her mother’s body, for example. Or Rose letting go of Jack towards the end of **Titanic** , or the deaths in **Grave of the Fireflies**. If you cried over these scenes, no one is surprised. > > But sometimes scenes catch you by surprise when they prompt waterworks. Some of them aren’t even particularly sad, yet you find yourself tearing up anyway. So if you cried at the end of **Jurassic Bark** , you were supposed to. If you cried when Oskar Schindler said “I could have done more,” you were supposed to. The idea is scenes like **GargoyleWB** ’s example of **Jurassic World** , that weren’t intended to strike deep in the viewer’s heart, but did anyway. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/71 "2016-05-18T18:39:26Z")
Of course “Goodbye May Seem Forever” from _The Fox and the Hound_ destroyed me; it was supposed to. But the scene at the very beginning of the movie, when Tod’s mother sets him down by a fence and licks him goodbye before running off and getting killed by a hunter, that one destroyed me too. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/72 "2016-05-18T19:11:24Z")
I haven’t seen _Reuben, Reuben_ in a really long time but I remember being really bummed, to the point of a quivering lip, when the main character (Gowan McGland) loses his teeth. Or whatever happened there. I can’t remember exactly but he had an affair with a dentist’s wife and the dentist gets back at him by offering him free dental care but then fucking up his teeth somehow (did he pull them all? - like I said, it’s probably been 30 years since saw it). Anyway, a central point was the character’s fear of losing his teeth. At the end he’s about to hang himself over it but then changes his mind for some reason. Of course the dog accidentally knocks over the guy’s stool and he ends up killing himself anyway. But that part made me laugh … it was his worse fear coming to realization - and, I suppose, a fear I share to one extent or another - that struck me hard. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/73 "2016-05-18T19:18:00Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > For me it’s the scene near the end, when Scout finally sees [Boo Radley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRmIef02Ajk). It’s not a particularly sad scene, but something about the mixture of wonder, realization, and pure joy on Mary Badham’s face when she says “Hey, Boo,” really gets me. “Hey, Boo” had much, much more impact in the book than in the movie. When I saw the fiml, I waited for it, and was disasppointed. Seeing those words in the book was like sticking a fork in a socket. It is almost sad enough to make me cry, to reflect on the fact that very few people will ever read the book now before they see the film. What a terrible loss. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/74 "2016-05-18T19:44:46Z")
Oh damn. I just found the scene to which I was referring. The movie is on YouTube in its entirety. [Reuben, Reuben.](https://youtu.be/jiRZTil_mRQ?t=4893) The scene in question starts at about 1:21:34. In it he is told by a reputable dentist that his last dentist (the aforementioned cuckolded guy) pulling his bicuspid was “as good as rendering you toothless.” I just watched it again and I need some sleepy time tea or something. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/75 "2016-05-18T23:14:47Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > . . . when Pippin lights the beacon and all the other beacons light up one after another. That one did it for me. > [@Loach](#): > > A certain type of scene always does it for me. It’s not sad or tragic scenes but ones with strong emotion. > > Like Mrs Lovell’s [moment of clarity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywErQpULc74) in Apollo 13. She got the best lines in that movie. I can’t suggest anything because I cry too easily in movies. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/76 "2016-05-19T00:47:49Z")
5 minutes ago in Saving Private Ryan now running on A&E when the War Office clerk discovers the death notices of the 3 other Ryan brothers and brings them to her supervisor. And now General Marshall is reading the letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston, the mother of “5 sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle” (from President Lincoln) in the War Between the States. Just an old Navy vet. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514/77 "2016-05-24T18:53:16Z")
In Season 6 of _Game of Thrones_: Lady Brienne vows to Sansa that she will protect her, blah blah blah. She recites an ancient Knight’s Vow. Sansa accepts Lady Brienne’s vow and recites the Oath of Acceptance (or whatever), but she doesn’t fully know the words, so Podrick (Brienne’s squire) helps her. It was just such a simple moment, but so deeply packed with meaning and emotion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-unexpectedly-made-you-cry/754514.md?page=3)