24 Of The Most Heartbreaking Scenes In Movie History That We Just Can't Get Over

You're going to need a lot of tissues for this one.

Liezel

• Published in Film & TV
• July 1, 2022

Is it weird that we love crying because of movies? Yes, it might be painful and gut-wrenching at the moment we do it but we love getting a good cry out of a film.

We don't think we're sadists or anything like that but maybe the reason we like the cry is that if a film makes us cry, it's kind of a good one because of how it wrenches the emotion out of us, or maybe it's because sad films or sad movie moments make us actually feel for something. Do you feel the same way?

Seriously though, filmmakers who know how to make a good heart-wrenching moment are geniuses. They deeply understand how their audiences think and feel and they know exactly what buttons to push to make them remember and feel for their film even years after it was released.

Also, they don't just hurt one generation of people. Since films do have a long lifetime, these filmmakers actually get to hurt generation after generation of people with their films and we love them for it.

With that, here are some of the most heart-wrenching movie moments in history that have completely torn us apart with some still continuing to do damage today.

1. When Jumbo is separated from her young child, chained, and locked away in Dumbo

Watch how she reaches out with her trunk to gently rock her baby here:

2. When the beloved dog dies in Marley and Me

Watch Owen Wilson's character saying his final goodbyes to the poor pup here:

3. When Private Ryan goes and visits Captain Miller's grave in Saving Private Ryan

It's the line where he says, "Tell me I'm a good man, tell me I've led a good life" that shattered us over and over again in this scene:

4. When Asa makes the decision to finally crawl under the fence to be with his friend Shmuel in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

As soon as he crawled into the camp in this scene, everyone just knew what was going to happen:

5. When Hazel Grace reads Gus' letter to Peter Van Houten after he dies in The Fault in Our Stars

His beautiful words have haunted us. Watch the scene here:

6. When the dogs keep trying to swim towards the island they thought was their salvation but which doesn't probably exist in The Plague Dogs

It doesn't help that one of the dogs in the opening scene dies from drowning after getting too exhausted. Watch the ending of the movie here:

7. When Hawkeye and Black Widow had to fight each other to sacrifice themselves for the soul stone in Avengers: Endgame

8. When Mark completely dilutes Eduardo's shares of Facebook in The Social Network

It was absolutely painful watching the end of their friendship in this scene:

9. When Okko breaks down in Okko's Inn after finding out that the man who killed her parents is staying at the inn

Watch the trailer of the film here:

10. When Jody is forced to kill the deer he had come to love so much in The Yearling

Our hearts break every time for the boy especially in this scene:

11. When little Dory overhears her parents' sad conversation in Finding Dory

12. When Jojo realizes his mother's body is hanging in the square in Jojo Rabbit

The whole time, they always focused on her shoes which made the realization in this scene a lot more painful:

13. When Ally performs her heartbreaking song "I'll Never Love Again" in memory of Jack in A Star Is Born

It got a lot more painful when they cut to the part of Jack singing the last part of the song:

14. When Joe Bradley walks away from the princess, knowing they'll never get to be together in Roman Holiday

15. When Beauty gets a chance to see Ginger one last time in Black Beauty (1994)

One moment, he's remembering his happiest days with Ginger and then the next, he sees her being hauled away in a cart, dead:

16. When Spider-Man gets dusted in Avengers: Infinity War

This scene reminded everyone that despite his powers, he was just a kid:

17. When Tommy got upset because he felt that his parents were too busy for him in The Rugrats Movie

We all wanted to hug Tommy here:

18. When Tom delivers the news that Sonny is dead in The Godfather

He didn't have to cry for his grief to be palpable to us in this scene:

When Beth suddenly dies in Little Women (2019)

20. When Vada sees Thomas J in his coffin in My Girl

The part where she says he needs his glasses breaks us every time:

21. When Bernice yells and chases after her dad as he leaves her behind in Hope Floats

It was so unexpectedly emotional and raw. Watch it here:

22. When Shoya is finally able to see the world around him with a new perspective in A Silent Voice

Overall, it's a beautiful film. Watch that scene here:

23. When Gamora realizes that her adoptive father was going to kill her in Avengers: Infinity War

The betrayal she must have felt. Watch the scene here:

24. When Charlie and Nicole's argument reaches its peak in Marriage Story and Charlie says he wishes Nicole was dead so he didn't have to deal with the pain of losing his marriage and his son

The scene was just so raw and real it was almost too painful to watch:

Most of these movie moments continue to haunt us even years after we've watched the film. And we think that they're brilliant that way.

Every time we remember them, they still evoke the same kind of emotion they did the first time we watched them and we think that's the mark of a great film. How about you?

Which one of these sad movie moments got you the most?

Liezel