What’s the most
random movie scene
that makes you cry?
I’ve never been shy about the fact that I’m a chronic movie-induced weeper, but I find that my tear ducts aren’t necessarily activated by the same onscreen moments that cause a lot of people to well-up. For example, I only wept during 18* of the 50 movies listed in this Buzzfeed post about famous tearjerkers, which may sound like a lot until you consider that GMP editor Joanna Schroeder scored 45 out of 50 (and probably would have scored 46 out of 50 if she hadn’t seen Harold & Maude when she was 14 and it just seemed like a movie about a weird dude falling in love with a grandma. She REALLY needs to see it again).
That said, there are plenty of movie moments that DO make me shed copious tears that might surprise people. Here are the first 5 that come to mind:
1) Natalie Maines puts on a brave face in Shut Up & Sing
I wasn’t a Dixie Chicks fan when I started watching this 2006 documentary about the controversy that followed lead singer Maines’ onstage criticism of President Bush, but that all changed by the time the movie was over. For me, the most powerful moment came in a scene where the band is shown the picture of a man who has sent them death threats and is believed to be dangerous enough to act on them. Maines is clearly terrified and stunned by the idea that someone would want her dead for what she said, but instead of giving into these emotions she looks at the photo and says, “He’s kinda cute.” Everyone around her laughs, because it’s such an inappropriate response, but she sticks to her guns and insists, “He is. He’s a good looking guy.” There’s a bravery in this that gets to me every single time.
2) Richie watches Margot get off the bus to pick him up in The Royal Tenenbaums
Whenever I’m asked to compile my Top 5 Movies of All Time, Wes Anderson’s 3rd film always makes the list. It’s full of many amazing moments, but the one that absolutely tears my heart out every time I see it is the one where Richie, the washed-up tennis pro whose career ended following a meltdown spurred by his adopted sister’s marriage, watches her get off a bus to pick him up at the docks after his trip sailing around the world. It’s a mixture of the blank look on Luke Wilson’s face, the beauty of Gwyneth Paltrow and the way the moment is perfectly summed up by Nico’s “These Days” on the soundtrack.
3) John Glenn proves how much he loves his wife in The Right Stuff
In her review of the film, Pauline Kael suggested it was the most romantic cinematic declaration of love between a husband and his wife she had ever seen and it’s hard for me to disagree. It comes after his launch has been canceled and Vice-President Johnson wants to turn the disappointing delay into a publicity op by consoling Glenn’s wife on live national TV. The problem is that Annie Glenn suffers from an extreme stutter and is terrified of the thought of being exposed like that. John’s superiors at NASA tell him that the Vice-President wants him to order Annie to do it and puts the two of them together on the phone to make it happen, but given the choice between his country and the woman he loves, John doesn’t even blink. He tells her that if she doesn’t want to do it, then she doesn’t have to and that’s that–the Vice-President be damned. And I lose it every single time.
4) Jackie Brown drives away to a new life in Jackie Brown
I tend to judge people by where they put Jackie Brown in their estimation of Quentin Tararntino’s oeuvre. A lot of folks put it near or at the bottom–mostly because they remember being disappointed that it wasn’t Pulp Fiction Part Two when they saw it when it came out, but it’s among my favourites simply for being one of the best depictions of the compromises we make once we reach middle-age and realize that the promises of the future have been broken and we have to decide what to do with the rest of our lives. At the end of the film, Jackie is on her way out of town–having scammed enough money to start a new life. Before she leaves she stops by at the office of bail bondsman Max Cherry and tries to convince him to go away with her, but he refuses, knowing he’s too old and set in his ways for a new beginning. She leaves and we see her drive away from Los Angeles and as she does Bobby Womack’s classic hit, “Across 110th Street” comes on the radio. It’s a song about being stuck in a terrible place you can’t escape from and Jackie begins to silently sing along–knowing that she is escaping and her future is truly in her hands for the first time in her life.
5) Lola wills a miracle to happen in Run Lola Run
Lola has only 20 minutes to get her hands on 100,000 Deutschmarks to save her boyfriend, Manni, from being killed. We watch as three different variations on this circumstance unfold, the movie playing out like a video game where its title character has three lives (and learns from past mistakes). In her third and final chance, she runs into a casino. She gives all the money she has to the cashier. It isn’t enough for a chip, but the woman sees the desperation in her eyes and forgives the difference. With her one chip, Lola goes to a roulette table and lays it down on 20. The wheel spins and she holds her breath. She wins. She leaves her winnings in the same spot and security comes to quietly get her to leave. She stops the man with a look and a word. He can see how important this is. The wheel spins and as it does she screams with all her heart and soul. Glasses shatter and people cover their ears, as she wills the ball into its spot because she has no other option. Everyone stands stunned, as she rushes to the cashier’s window to collect her earnings.
And. I. Am. Sobbing.
*Toy Story 3, Titanic, Field of Dreams, E.T., Brokeback Mountain, Armageddon, The Green Mile, The Fox and the Hound, Million Dollar Baby, The Shawshank Redemption, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Harold and Maude, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Iron Giant, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Love Actually and Up
The Rudy jersey scene gets me, too.
In Up, when the kid says he wants to get the merit badge so his dad will come to the award ceremony.
In Moulin Rouge, during the Tango de Roxanne sequence
The scene in “Rudy” where all the first-string players walk into the coaches office and lay their jerseys on his desk stating that they want Rudy to take their spot on the roster at the last home game of their senior year….(sniff)…it even chokes me up while I’m typing!
50 First Dates
Every time Adam Sandler’s character does something sweet to bring her up to speed. It’s like the best surprise of her life, every damn morning. Christmas, over and over.
Goosebumps just watching this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piwEWjChwcI
Near the end of The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy almost whispers to the Scarecrow, “I think I’ll miss you most of all.” It gets me every single time.
There are a few movies that will tear me up. The most random that comes to mind is the last scene in “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”, just after John Candy tells Steve Martin the sad story of his wife dying, when John Candy is standing and watching Steve Martin reunite with his family, the look on John Candy’s face is one of happiness (for Martin) and of terrible sorrow (for what he misses) at once. It breaks my heart every time.
I really like this list, too. I’ve always loved the scene in The Royal Tenenbaums when Margot gets off the bus, and The Right Stuff and Jackie Brown are two of my all-time favorite movies. The scene that gets me crying every time, though, is from Rudy, when Charles Dutton’s character tells Rudy, “You are 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing, and for two years you hung with the best college football team in the country. In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody.”
I love this list, and not just because I get a shout-out for being the cryingest human on the planet. I cried at REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK the other day. Yes, that happened.
Stranger than Fiction when Will Ferrell’s character gives “flowers” to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character. Not only did I cry at the theater, and every time I’ve watched since; I first sucked all the air out of the room in order to power my initial sob. The end of that same movie. I’ll cry right now if I don’t stop thinking about it.