Pajiba

i haven't even read the damn post yet...i laughed for 30 seconds after reading the title. THIS is why i come here...

The one and only single movie to have ever made me cry was the movie Bjork was in, Dancer in the Dark. I cried for at least a solid hour. Maybe because it's about sacrifice for a child, which is more tear jerky for me then romance.

That said, my boyfriend hugged me for days after watching Eternal Sunshine. Very emotional.

I love this line: "I loved almost every single episode, which I watched with the fervor of Ted Haggard with a checkbook and a room full of male prostitutes"

Haha, I did too.

Off the top of my head, Cinema Paradiso and Everybody's Fine both had me weeping like a kid with a skinned knee.

I agree with you somewhat on ESOTSM, but tearjerking? Maybe I am just a bit of a cold-hearted bastard, nevermind, I definitely am.

The end of the second season of the new Doctor Who series had me sobbing for hours.

And now I am trying my hardest to restrain myself. The memories conjured from watching the last episode of the Wonder Years was a kick in the jimmy.

Dustin, you're a douche for making me cry over the Wonder Years clip.

You have compiled a great list here. I agree with everyone of your picks, except for "Rattle and Hum," which I have not seen. I especially agree with your comments on "In America." Anyone who doesn't cry at it's ending is a cold-hearted bastard. Thanks for the list and clips - a great reference post for the future.

Wow, double doucheriffic for the Sunshine bawling... now I shall go listen to Sea Change and cut myself .

The Six Feet Under finale was some of the finest ever captured on film. Period. Not to mention the fact that I lost both my parents prematurely during the series' run--watching SFU was theraputic--the finale was a catharsis. I just wish my husband hadn't walked in 5 minutes before the end to witness me completely broken down...

It's been a while since I've seen the Wonder Years' finale and I don't think I'm ready yet...

the part in eternal sunshine that really gets me is when joel refers to clementine as "just some girl". its one of those lines that carries so much weight and it just breaks my heart every time. i, however, was not able to preserve that movie. im pretty sure ive seen a good 50 times or so. more recently, a scene that really gets me is the scene at the end of children of men, when clive owen is walking the girl and the baby out of the building and everyone stops fighting, and just looks on in awe at the baby, that really choked me up. i had to fight back tears all three times ive seen it.

I got about seven seconds into the SFU clip before I had to stop it. Holy shit. I always know intellectually how powerful that scene is, but I don't really get it until the song starts, and I almost immediately start bawling. Nothing has even happened yet, and I'm losing it. Your strategy with Eternal Sunshine is an interesting one, but it's never going to happen with that scene from SFU. It's just burned into my brain too well.

That damn Scrubs episode had me crying for weeks, due to personal reasons as well, and it also made me mad as hell that (correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not) frickin' John C. McGinley gets no recognition for the brilliance he brings to that role with any sort of nomination. Blah.

Good Lord, that In America clip also works 10 million times better if you've seen the movie, but even on its own, it kills.

The Eternal Sunshine clip is good, and I remember another one where Jim Carrey says something like, "Wait, let me keep this one memory", and that kinda killed too. Could just be a sap for that one too, but, meh.

Also, that moment in Billy Elliot, along with ever other damn scene in that entire movie (the scene with the ghost of his mother reminding him to put away the milk? The scene with the letter in the boxing ring with Billy's teacher? The damn final scene where the tears are streaming down Billy's father's face?) absoultely kill me. There's a reason why I could only watch that once.

Brokeback--I think so much of the emotion behind that movie comes through the score by Santaolla. Frickin brilliant.

...now I'm off to do what those damn Kleenex commercials tell me to do and let it out. Damn.

HAHAHA, Sandy! Sea Change makes me wanna bawl my goddamn eyes out too...and occasionally slit my wrists.

Dustin, it's so great that you have Six Feet Under in here, my favorite show. I cried at that finale too. It made me think of death for 4 months straight after that. The show seriously effected me on so many levels. The last season wasn't as great to me (I found it somewhat slow), but the finale more than made up for it.
And of course you have some of my favorites in here also: Dead Poets Society, Eternal Sunshine, and of course Billy Elliot, which I too avoided and took forever to see. I thought it was going to be one of those obvious bullshit tear-jerkers about ballet and I was so glad to be wrong. It made me cry for entirely different reasons though, and the actors in there did such a wonderful job.

Anyway, great list!

i cried in the theater during the scene in hotel rwanda where all the foreigners are evacuated from the hotel, and hotel employees, who sincerely realize they have been left to die, hold umbrellas over their heads to protect them from the rain. symbollically, it killed me.

also, kudos for inclusion of dead poets society. it seems like a hokey film when you think of it, like something to be embarrassed of, but that scene is undeniably gut wrenching the first time you see it.

That Scrubs episode kills me every time.

The endings of Il Postino and Un long dimanche de fiançailles.
Wilde, in prison, as the fairytale is read.

I've seen about half of these scenes so most of it is lost on me really. There is one thing though that will always make me cry. As ridiculous as is sounds, the end of that futurama episode where Fry tries to resurrect his dog has me bawling like a baby. In part because of the impossibly sad song and also because I have (and have lost) dogs myself.

This can be such a personal thing, so I'll throw mine in here: Royal Tennenbaums, Royal has just saved Chas' sons and gotten them a replacement for Buckley the dog, when Chas finally cracks and says "I've had a tough year Pop" and Royal replies, "I know you have Chas". Just KILLS me every time.

Ahhhh!!! That Wonder Years finale fucked and continues to fuck my shit up. I feel the ol' eyesockets start to burn just thinking about it. And I knew where that end link was gonna take me before I even clicked on it. Good lawd did I love that show.

The only TV moment I can think of that comes a close second is the S2 finale of Quantum Leap where Al dances with his wife to Georgia On My Mind. And THEN, I go and buy the S2 DVDs, park myself in front of the TV with a box of Kleenex and don't you know they swaped out the song??? Blasphemy.

I love In America! So glad you included it.

For me, the cry moment is the end of "Rushmore," especially when it goes all slow-motion ...

I never fall for typical maudlin crap, either. The Notebook made me want to hurt things. However, there are exactly four scenes in movies/TV that I can think of that make me lose my shit:

1) Iris. When Jim Broadbent breaks down in front of Judi Dench, playing author Iris Murdoch during her late-life Alzheimer's, and he starts crying and shaking her and you've seen the rest of the movie with scenes of their young life together interspersed throughout, man, it's hell.

2) Futurama, "Jurassic Bark". At the end of the episode, when Fry is about to resurrect his dog from when he was in 1999, he suddenly realizes that his dog lived for many years after Fry left 1999, and he decides not to do it, reasoning that the dog probably had a full life after he left. Cut to a flashback of the dog slowly aging, as the seasons change, and eventually laying down in sadness, outside of the pizza place where Fry used to work.

3) The Iron Giant. Okay, it's lame, but when that robot goes "Superman..." and then totally explodes at the end, I cried. I'm not ashamed.

4) Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Body". When Anya gives her little speech about fruit punch and not understanding death, I lose it.

Gosh, two were cartoons.

I don't even have to watch that West Wing clip to get all teary-eyed. Just thinking about it is making my eyes sting. Thanks for including it.

Good choices. I loved the Wonder Years -- why isn't it on DVD yet??

But that In America clip is definitely the winner for me. Rough enough here, but in the context of the movie, coming near the end as it did, it left me a worthless, quivering mass.

Nice call on Iron Giant, Helena. I don't think that's lame.

Totally agree with you Helena - I have never bawled as hard as I did at the end of that Futurama episode. And I cry all the fucking time.

Chris, thanks for reminding me about that scene in the Royal Tennenbaums - that got me all choked up. I also lost it when Royal is in the ambulance with Chas in there, watching his dad's final moments. Just the look on his face alone makes me tear up.
Love that movie. I think it's the only one where I actually liked Gwenyth (sp?) Paltrow - I usually can't stand her.

Yes to that Futurama episode (totally welling up just thinking about it) and double yes to Buffy ep "The Body." I always have to skip over that one on my dvd b/c it is too emotionally draining.

Also, I remember renting Billy Elliot thinking it was a comedy (based on the fact that it said "Hilarious!" on the box) which was a dirty trick. Still, an excellent movie.

Six Feet Under has got to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time and the finale has got to be one of the most beautiful scenes ever depicted in TV history. Why it was so sad is because for five seasons, you've followed this family and you've seen life occur right in front of their eyes. And how they chose to end it was without a doubt the only way it could have been done.
And yes, I haven't cried as hard as I did to those final five minutes.

Great choices, especially In America, which had me bawling like a baby. A brilliant film. One thing though: you think Emma Bolger should have gotten an Oscar nom over Sarah? Now, I think both Bolger sisters did a wonderful job, but Sarah's Christie is the soul of that film for me.

Watching that clip from Rattle and Hum was weird for me. At first I rolled my eyes and thought, "STFU Bono", but then I found myself really getting into it. Not quite tear-jerking though, and I've cried over the Troubles a few times.

JMW, the speculation is that getting the music rights for The Wonder Years is proving a serious challenge. That's not surprising, and it's also hard to imagine the show without the music, so the delay makes sense.

Helena, I'm with you on both The Iron Giant and the Buffy ep. My boyfriend made fun of me when I told him I cried at The Iron Giant, but once I explained the Superman line he said "aw, that is kinda sad."

My lame addition to the list is La Bamba. I watched that movie so much as a kid, and I still shed a tear every damn time I see it.

I'm completely bawling from the still shot of SFU. Thankfully, I just came from the eye doctor so my co-workers will assume that is the cause of the tears. However, I can't get all the way through without sniffling, so I had to stop. I just think about that ending and I cry, it's the greatest end to a TV show I've ever witnessed.

The SFU finale also made me sob like a baby, although its the preceding scene of Claire saying goodbye to everyone that gets me started. The Sia song intensifies it, then by the time it gets to David's death, I am completely gone.

how is it possible that i am a 30 year old U2 fan who never watched Rattle and Hum. Holy F that is a good clip. Am I pansy for tearing up at my desk?

and i can admit this now but i caught Jerry Maguire this weekend for the umteenth time (and I do agree that it was a good movie before it was pop-culture referenced to death) and that scene still gets me.

Yeah, the Wonder Years is being held up for music issues, but the upcoming release of WKRP is giving me hope.

The part where Wayne takes over the shop just fucking kills me.

And I was literally incapacitated after Eternal Sunset. I think I broke down and started crying something like four times on the fifteen-minute walk back to my apartment, while my girlfriend just tried to get me to realize it's all OK. God, that movie killed me. I've never watched it a second time despite my love for it, like Dustin.

Costner asking his dad "wanna have a catch" at the end of Field of Dreams. the quintessential father and son moment. and i can't stand Costner.

I would add the last 5 minutes of "Life As A House" to the list. Granted, for personal reasons, almost anything that has to do with fathers and sons gets me almost every time, but it is still a great scene.

Great list, keep it up Pajiba.

Oh man that's a good list.

Personally, I'm a sucker for the background music. I had to turn down the sound on Cinema Paradiso because the swelling music reduces me to a puddle and I couldn't actually see the kissing splices. If they ever put Cat Stevens' 'Father and Son' in a movie I'll bawl like a baby.

Likewise West Wing- the end of that scene with the beginning strains of 'Brothers in Arms' as the rain and wind whips around Bartlett on the steps of the National Cathedral is extraordinary TV.

I'd add a more recent movie- Whale Rider- to the mix. The scene where the grandaughter is giving her speech in the auditorium and she's crying and desperately trying to hold it together while staring at the empty chair where her grandfather should be, jeez I'm blinking just typing this, it just resonates without being over the top.

That's me two cents, A

P.S> Kudos for skipping Sports movies altogether- but Field of Dreams gets me every April.

Since several people have copped to crying at animated movies, I'll add my moment: Finding Nemo. The dad screaming "I promised his mother that I wouldn't let anything happen to him" got me a little teary-eyed. But then Dori says, "That's a funny thing to promise. If nothing ever happens to him, then nothing will ever happen to him." And I totally lost my shit. Sobbed like a baby in front of my kids, who immediately reassured me that (spoiler alert) Nemo would, in fact, be found.

I figure my kiddos will have to have kids of their own before they ever understand why that line knocks the air out of my lungs every time.

what always gets me is the end of "Empire of the Sun", granted i works after two and a half hours of the brilliance of Spielberg, Stoppard, and Bale, but the end of that movie when the boy can't recognize his mother, and he has to touch her, and the Welsh corus plays, gets me every time.

Yes, buffy, yes, the body, all of it.

The only thing that could help me recover after the Six Feet Under clip was the Chicken Dance clip-- thank you for that!

Oh my god, the Six Feet Under Finale.
How they hell does it work? I haven't met a single person who hasn't sobbed uncontrollably after watching it. It's got the swelling music, the dramatic camera movements, yeah. Plenty of movies use the same classic techniques to no avail. But with SFU... it's just perfect, but incredibly painful.

I agree that the last two seasons were pretty bad, in some ways. But the way they ended it guarantees a place in the hall of fame; it completes a really cohesive story arc.

I'm already weeping the moment he whispers in her ear, "you can't take a picture of this, it's already gone." And when Claire sees her brother disapearing in her rear view mirror.... ouch. I'm breaking up just thinking about it.

Talk about catharthis. I bet that's a show that made many of us confront feelings we had been unable to face before. At least for me.

Your list was great. If I may add my two cents worth mine are:

Leaving Las Vegas, The Color Purple and Regarding Henry. Those ALWAYS make me cry!!

I TIVO'd the final epi of SFU and I think I've watched it over 100 times (probably more, but who's counting, right?) Most finales just end...but this one took you years beyond to their "final breaths" and that is what was so heartbreakingly gut wrenching.

I'll be the first to admit that Hallmark commercials can get to me once in awhile (it's a woman hormonal thang...okay?) but there are the few that will get to me -- every. dayum. time.

I had to stop that Dead Poets Society clip after only about 5 seconds.
As for Six Feet Under, I've been stuck on the final season. I have an inkling of where it's going (I won't watch that clip, of course), and I'm terrified that I'll be right.

I would second Rosie's comment on the second season finale of the new Doctor Who. It is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking things I've ever seen.

For me, the tearjerkiest moments in cinema would be close to the end of Titanic. noooo, not when Rose lets go of Jack, that was stupid. Before the ship really goes down, the quartet is playing, the captain is standing in the wheelhouse, looking so...devastated. And the water starts coming in, crushing the windows,and he's still standing at the helm...The second is The Joy Luck Club. That whole movie is one big tear jerker, as I can identify with the daughters, but the stories of the mothers--WOW. Buy me stock in Kleenex, because by the time the ending rolls around, I can't stop crying.

Whoever mentioned the scene in "Royal Tenenbaums" when Chas's voice cracks while admitting that he's had a tough year, spot on. I bawl everytime.

And "The Body" episode of Buffy, too. I lost my mother around that time, and even though I have the entire DVD box set of the series, I still have to skip over that goddamn episode. I've only seen it once, and just thinking about it makes me sob.

I'd add the end of Finding Neverland, when they perform the play for Sylvia and the scene on the bench after with funeral with Peter and Barrie.

Go Billy!

From lost and confused grandma wandering in the hills in the beginning to Billy leaping onto stage at the end,a perfect movie.

And the Futurama episode with the dog. ach. so unexpected and beautiful.

I am all verklempt.

God, I love this post... I haven't watched half the clips because of the spoilers, but I plan to catch up on those movies as fast as possible.

I don't usually cry during films due to embarrassment, but one time I couldn't help myself was at the end of Gattaca, the scene with the incinerator. That one. Maybe it was the Michael Nyman score, but that scene went straight to the troat. Or maybe I was just fourteen years old.

What about the Buffy episode when Buffy dies? Her speech to Dawn before she jumps off the tower? Kills me everytime.

I much appreciated the first spot slot of Dead Poet's Society, but its not that scene that gets me, its the infinitely cheesier one at the end where the boys stand on the desks with the bagpipe music. Yes, I know, I'm lame. And amen on the WW clip. That show is the only one that ever had elicited actual emotions from me.

Peaces of April? To quote Gob - Oh, Come on! I hated every single thing about that movie. From the under written parents, to the bad cinematogrphay, to the subtle racism, to the idea that a professed virgin could play a boho artiste.

in the plus category: The last season of the Wire. When Dukie doesnt go to school, and ends up on the corner.

Great list, and I say that as an expert at movie-induced crying. I sobbed so loudly in the theater at Dead Poets Society that I embarrassed my mother, who, now that I think of it, hasn't asked me to go to anything but lame action flicks with her since.

The two movies that most fucked up my shit, though, were Kids and Breaking the Waves. They weren't good cathartic cries, and I haven't seen either movie more than once, but MAN did they make a wreck out of me.

I completely agree with the SFU love here. The moment that most moved me is when old David sees a young Keith coming for him. Damn.

I'm afraid after you've seen Born Free and maybe even Old Yeller, nothing else comes close.

These do not, however, qualify as "last 20 years" so I will meekly admit that I get wetly caught up in the moment every time Virgil starts beating on Lindsey's drowned corpse in The Abyss. And the cabaret scene in Mullholland Drive. And a certain famous moment in Babe that has made every guy I know acid-weep like a sliced red onion.

(Seriously, do not watch Born Free.)

I'm a wuss, and I have no problem admitting it. I'll even take the bait for obviously manipulative crap and laugh at myself for doing it. I've already copped to crying during the trailers of Marshall and Happyness--but I didn't actually see the movies. So I don't have a lot of cred...but I cried when Jim and Pam kissed on the (American) Office.

I cry myself stupid every time I watch Big Fish, but that's because that guy is basically my grandfather. Even if that guy isn't your grandfather, how can you not cry when the stuffy literalist son makes up a special crazy-ass tall tale for his dying father?

I was successfully manipulated and totally am every single time.

I totally agree with 6 Feet Under. Some of the best filmmaking (screen or tv) in the last 10 years.

One tear-jerking scene that always gets me is the weather scene in LA Story. It is such a great movie on so many levels but that scene where the weather goes all screwy punches me in the gut every time.

Mine would have to be the scene in season four of Buffy where Willow and Oz break up. It's when she says "Don't you still love me?" and he tells her "All my life, I've never loved anything more" and then he almost stays but leaves. Watching Alyson Hannigan cry is like the most heart breaking thing ever, every single time she cried on that show I cried.

I also found the scene at the end of X2 particularily moving, but not until Cyclops started crying, with poor old Wolverine holding him. Ratner never would have let Wolverine hold him if he had made X2.

My lame addition? When my husband and I watched "Dog of Flanders," and they were burying the boy and his beloved faithful dog IN ONE COFFIN, I fucking lost it. Even my husband had tears in his eyes. To be fair, I had recently lost my own Bouvier des Flandres (which was the whole reason we rented the movie to begin with).

Also "Prisoner of the Mountains" makes me cry every time at the end, when the protagonist is on the train at the end of the movie, talking about how he looks for all his dear friends in his dream, but they refuse to come to him.

The scene in Casablanca where everyone sings La Marseillaise brings me to tears every time (and I'm 99% sure I misspelled that).

The Fox and the Hound has me sobbing throughout the entire movie, but that's mostly an emotional resonance thing, cause the movie gets met thinking about my dearest friend in the whole world.

And Stella, I agree--I hate Titanic, but watching the quartet strike up "Nearer my God to Thee" as the ship is going down really gets to me.

Oh, I turn off "Jurassic Bark" every time when Frye says not to resurrect his dog. I can't watch the last few minutes: it's too much.

Another confession: When I saw "Finding Nemo" I took one of my neices with me--three years old, and she had to sit on my lap because she was too little for a chair by herself. And when Nemo and his dad finally reunited she reached back and held my face. That broke me as much as what was happening on screen.

I also lost it every time they said "clap if you believe in fairies" in Finding Neverland. For some reason that pushed exactly the right button.

I'm in complete agreement; Eternal Sunshine and Brokeback Mountain left me an emotional wreck long after the end credits rolled. In fact, I cried during them while sitting in the theater along with everyone else around me. Of course, it didn't help that I was dumped by someone three days before seeing Eternal Sunshine.

The moment I found myself tearing up during Brokeback was just before Ennis finds his and Jack's bloodstained shirts hidden away in the closet. The catch in Lurleen's voice and the tears that well up in her eyes when Ennis tells her that he and Jack herded sheep on Brokeback Mountain years ago was a quietly heartbreaking moment thanks to Anne Hathaway.

Les~, I have to agree with you about The Color Purple. Celie and Nettie running to each other through the field of purple flowers makes me choke up every single time. Aaaargh. Damn you Spielberg!

Yeah, the end of Big Fish fucked me up terribly, I'm not ashamed to admit. The first time I saw it, as my friend and I were walking out of the theater, eyes puffy and noses streaming, the guy behind the concession stand turned around, took one look at us, and casually said "Oh, you just saw Big Fish, huh?"

Also, everyone here needs to go and watch Grave of the Fireflies. If you don't completely lose it AT LEAST once during this movie, I'm convinced you have no soul.

Dustin, I think we're soul mates because every one of the clips you selected has deep, personal meaning to me.

Of them all though, SFU is by far my favorite. What an amazing show that was. Seeing Clare die old in her bed--oh, it gets me.

I'm only adding to the length of this column because no one's mentioned the one film that sent my shit further away than anything ever in my life:

Fearless. Peter Weir.

If you haven't seen Rosie Perez in Fearless I can understand your doubting. But if you have seen her performance--the scene where Jeff Bridges puts Rosie in the car and demonstrates to her that she could not have saved her son's life--I did not just cry; I howled like a hurt puppy. I had to stop the movie and just sit there and sob.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0106881/

No piece of fiction of any kind has hurt me more than that scene in that movie.

And to those of you above: Big Fish and Iron Giant: Yes and YES. Most sentimental shit leaves me cold, but those two films made my face leak.

Damn it. I refused to watch the Wonder Years series finale clip because I knew it would just be too much. I did however let my curiosity get the best of me and click the other WY link... and I immediately knew the episode and the exact clip I was about to see and couldn't stop myself and COMPLETELY LOST MY SHIT. And the thing is, I remember being.. 10? 11? and watching that episode and crying.

I remember after Life is Beautiful I bawled and bawled and my dad said maybe I should just not watch serious movies for awhile (I was 9 or 10 at the time). He also came downstairs after my first viewing of Dead Poet's Society and hurried over asking me what was wrong, my crying was so excessive.

Which also reminds me... It's a Wonderful Life. Gets me every time.

Listening to the commentary on the last episode of Arrested Development had me a bit choked up, if I remember correctly. I'm going to watch the chicken clip about 8 more times to whip myself back into shape.

I am an idiot for watching the SFU clip at work. Waahh... That last episode is just... freaking brilliant.

Another person mentioned Iris. That would have to be in my top five tearjerkers - one of the only times I have broken down and lost my shit entirely in a movie theater.

No movie has ever fucked me up more than Dead Poets Society. It's very, very lame of me, but I was not right for DAYS after that film. As soon as I saw the banner for this post, I knew that movie would be in here.

I went in to this post with one scene in mind. What really gets me is that you mentioned it, but it wasn't one of your choices, or even an honorable mention. The series finale of the british version of The Office, either when Dawn unwraps the gift in the cab, or when she returns with that damn song playing.

I really hate that you didn't throw that in.

People have already mentioned it, but I was actually a little shocked not to see anything from "The Body" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The first time I saw that episode, I did not stop crying for the entire hour. Literally. But the scene with Anya still kills me, even having seen the episode at least ten times.

Also, that SFU clip is actually the only thing I've ever seen of the show. I happened to walk in on a friend watching that episode, just when this exact clip started. And I cried, having no connection with the characters or the show at all. Watching it again, SFU Season 1 is definitely going on my Netflix. Amazing.

the secret of nimh? little adorable animated baby mouse who is sick and his mother has to brave ancient evil rats to get the cure? anyone? anyone? okay, i'll shut up.

Grave of the Fireflies was devastating. Eternal Sunshine certainly belongs, not only for its scenes, but also because it gives a nod to Pope's breathtaking Eloisa to Abelard.

Word on the Buffy and SFU clips as well as the Futurama scene. Animal stuff always gets me... Even in sappy Return to Me, when the dog just waits by the door waiting for the woman to come home after she died.... My dog will totally never do that for me.

OK, for me, it's the last 10 minutes of United 93. I saw it in the theatres, and the silence, my God, the silence when it was over. Just horribly painful silence. No one moved. They just sat there, and then the whole theatre started weeping, sniffles, tears, sobs.

I usually don't cry at movies or TV shows, but I got reduced to a puddle during Finding Neverland. Yes, I got choked up at the end, but the floodgates really opened during the part where Freddie Highmore's character destroys the set of his play because his mom couldn't see it.

The other big tearjerker for me is in Gandhi, when the protesters start walking up to the gates of the salt factory, and the soldiers just beat them mercilessly.

the thing about Big Fish that fucks my shit up is not the movie itself- which i thought was okay but nothing tear-jerking - is that it's supposedly the last movie that Spaulding Grey saw before he killed himself.

For those who don't know, Spaulding, the great downtown theater artist/monologuist, was in a horrible car crash in Ireland a few years ago. it seriously disfigured his face and sent the already depressive man into a spiral of grief. Even though he was working on New work, his heart wasn't in it. One day, he goes to see the movie, and it let him know that it was okay to say good bye.

He was missing for the next month - and the entire NY theater community worried, hoped he would be okay. His body was found a month later.

Brilliant list!

My friend and I skipped school to go watch ETOTSM and it was the best thing I did that year.

*Billy Elliot is just - guh! Every single damn time it comes on TV I just can't help crying like a total baby. Sigh.

*Helena - you are so right - Iron Giant is so damn good, but so very underrated. That move just silences me.

*Empire of the Sun - totally true Witnail - amazing scene. I watched that underage with my little brother and we were left sobbing at the end.

Oh, and I know this is a very, VERY girly choice but Roman Holiday just makes me all weepy.

To the person that mention the last scene in Finding Neverland, right on... gawd, just thinking about it gives me goosebumps... the big blue eyes full of tears... Also there's a french movie from way back, called "La guerre des tuques" there's scene where the kids are playing in a snow fort, and it comes down on one of the kids dog, and the kid digs the snow only to find the dog as died...

I knew better than to click on this link at work and did it anyway. The Scrubs post was the only one that I have seen (and remember), and then I had to scroll down and read the comments and start choking up again when "The Body" and The Iron Giant start getting props. I bawl like Silent Bob after he watches Sixteen Candles. "Superman..." And then the tears begin to stream...

As for Big Fish, I refuse to watch it as it will cause me to absolutely lose my shit. Ever since I lost my dad, any movie that has any kind of poignant moment between a father and son will reduce me to nothingness. I won't be right for days.

thank you thank you thank you for including in america. ever since it came out i've been telling people to go and see it. i saw it in theatres and no joke, not a dry eye at the end...the 40 year old man sitting beside me was blubbering like a little baby.
i'm not surprised you didn't include this, but one of my personal fave moments of all time is from the bridges of madison county. i weep everytime i see clint eastwood standing out in the rain, looking so defeated and heartbroken. i also need a "personal moment" at the end of adaptation when meryl streep is crying and wishing that she could be a baby again and start all over.

but that's just me...a softy for meryl streep-non cancer dying film fan.

ps. touche to the person that mentioned cinema paradiso, the clip montage of the kisses always gets me.

The scene in Eternal Sunshine when they talk about how it's probably not going to work out with them anyway but they aren't sure what to do... they seem at a complete cross purposes, and Jim Carrey just says "Ok." And they hug and kiss and try again.

The last twenty minutes of Millions. I love that movie. It's so much more than a kid's movie.

Pan's Labyrinth. I cried like a baby. Literally, though. I was crying so hard at the very end that I couldn't catch my breath until the end of the credits and I had to physically stifle myself to keep from pissing off the whole theatre. Of course, I'm a crier anyways, so it might not affect everyone like that.

Damn your Six Feet Under clip. I'd forgotten how much it got to me the first time and now watching it again...

"Grave of the Fireflies was devastating."

Jeysus I am glad I was not the only slain by that one. I mean it is a cartoon for god sakes. That thing was one of the saddest, most heart wrenching movies I have ever watched.

Dancer In the Dark also was a blubbering fest. Damn whole theater was bawling.

Rattle and Hum was my entire high school experience. I am the person I am today because of Bono and his "fuck the revolution!" You nailed it, the crack in his voice when shouting "No More!" kills me. It's a highly personal moment, it's not just about a general anti-war statement; instead, he transcends politics and brings the violence and horror of what was going on in Ireland to each and every person watching. I am serious when I say that his passion inspired me to take on my profession, which is conflict-management related. "Wipe your tears away, wipe your bloodstained eyes..."

And that version of Running to Stand Still takes my breath away. Every time. But possibly my favorite moment comes at the end of With or Without You, when he sings "we'll shine like stars in the summer night, we'll shine like stars in the winter night, one heart, one hope, one love." This was before One was written, possibly inspired by Bob Marley, but it really is my philosophy for life. Thank you for including Rattle and Hum, a much derided film but really the only thing that made high school survivable.

Rattle and Hum. I love the fact you included it. I went with my older brother (I was 13) to see it in the theater the day after it came out. Up to that point, I had little interest in music...but that film changed me. My jaw was open from the opening scene until the final credits. It was loud, larger than life, and so moving. I fell in love with the power of music on that night. And after that, I watched it more times than I can count. To this day I can probably repeat the entire movie word for word (and lyric for lyric). Still a big U2 fan, but that movie opened my eyes and later allowed me to expanded my musical horizons. An amazing moment. It's nice to know I'm not the only one...

Agreed for many points, including the Futurama episode with Fry and his dog. Shows that any medium can be moving.

I have a slightly off-topic question.

What program does everyone use(pajiba and commentors) to rip segments from dvd's into readable formats (avi, etc)? I have an old old program that works maybe 1/3 of the time, and would like something better. Thanks for any help.

First of all, don't talk shit about "Steel Magnolias"! I watch it for the laughs, not for Julia dying (who cares?)...
And I know this isn't in the last 20 years, but nothing, NOTHING has made me weep more than "Silent Running" which I saw at age 25, but was reduced to a bruised age 6. Traumatic, will never see again!

I have not seen that Episode of "Scrubs" but DAMN! YOU PICKED A GOOD ONE! I started crying almost immediately. Oh man.

A Very Long Engagement had me crying on like, three separate occasions. That was the first (and maybe only) movie I can remember crying at from Happiness.

BIG FISH. That movie completely wrecks my shit.

MOULIN ROUGE!...while the ending is slightly...I don't even know. Pulling strings, it still kills me. I saw it in like, 8th grade and watched it nearly every day my freshman year of Highschool...
It just gets me. Everyone always laughs when Ewan cries because it sounds ridiculous but I LOVE IT!

And this might seem strange but the '03 version of PETER PAN (I have an unnatural and unexplainable love for that movie. I don't even know why.) makes me cry at the end. I suppose its supposed to be happy but Peter is so pathetic and alone! And if I watch the alternate ending when he comes back for Wendy and she is grown up its even worse. OH MAN!

In Eternal Sunshine... when the house starts falling apart, I start bawling.

Six Feet Under has the best series ending ever?

Nay, my friend, nay.

I'm sorry to be cliche, but nothing beats the finale of M*A*S*H.

I nth the one about Fry's Dog. No matter how many times I've seen it, it still gets me. Also the scene in Nobody Knows where he takes his sister to see the planes. Totally bawl-worthy.

****sniff*****

I can't believe you made me watch the SFU finale scene! You are an evil, evil man.

But I am a huge sap. I cry during "Apollo 13" when they break radio silence. So silly, cause I know how it ends.

And in "Peggy Sue Got Married"? When Peggy Sue goes back in time to when she was a teenager? And her grandma calls on the phone? Only Peggy Sue knows that in the future her grandma is dead? And she starts crying and can't talk to her? I'm sorry...I need a minute.

I have only ever completely lost it once during a movie: at the end of "Dancer in the Dark." Seriously, it's the most aggressively depressing movie I've ever seen. Most of the clips listed above are meant to produce tears of melancholy or even joy. "Dancer" elicits tears of there's-no-fucking-justice-in-the-entire-world-how-the-hell-am-i-supposed-to-go-on-living-life? Seriously, I was crying tears of complete anger and hopelessness. It's not an experience I would recommend to many people, but damn, is it powerful.

I don't know, that Futurama scene where Zap Brannigan gets booted out of the D.O.O.P. and has to work the corner, a la Midnight Cowboy, gets me in that special place.

Haha, not really. Actually, Midnight Cowboy is tear-jerky as hell. And I just saw it, but Deepa Mehta's "Water"...that last scene. Dammit. I cried.

You guys! I knew better than to watch any of those clips, but everyone's comments got to me.

As soon as someone mentioned the Sia song in SFU, just brought it all flooding back...

I must agree with the scenes mentioned for "Big Fish", "Iron Giant" (even my husband teared up for that one, and he is notoriously all like 'I've got something in my eye' kind of guy)"The Color Purple", and "The Joy Luck Club". I never used to cry at movies, but now that I have produced offspring I seem to cry at everything. Even "Lilo and Stitch" - that scene where Nani is singing to Lilo...well, I have a big sister...

-ahem-

Anyway, the most recent movie I cried at was "Antonia's Line". See it, and if the last scene doesn't reduce you, well, you have a heart of stone.

Screw you all. I almost got Iron Giant out of my system, and then you had to bring it back. The tears won't stop, dammit, they won't stop. Stupid robot and his stupid, beautiful sacrifice. Screw you all.

"You are who you choose to be" "Superman..." Auuughh. The only other movie that made me go like that was Children of Men, like jordan said, during the crying baby scene.

While I still have some composure, I must say that Futurama episode got to me as well. Another scene that got me from Futurama was from the episode where Fry looks for his lucky seven-leaf clover, and they revealed that the brother he disliked for so long had named his son after him, who then went on to fulfill Fry's dream of being an astronaut. Surprising how the mind that spawned the Simpsons could pull off such a show, and yet that one was the failure.

I have to go now. Stupid robot.

Great list. There's a sub-genre of tear-jerkers that a few people have alluded to -- they're the ones that happen RIGHT at the freaking END of the movie, the ones that give you no freaking chance to compose yourself before the lights come on. I have a list of three, two of which have already been mentioned:

1) Pan's Labyrinth -- I won't spoil it, but that was just un-FAIR.

2) Billy Elliot -- That split-second reaction shot of the father in the audience. I had no chance.

3) The Ice Storm -- Nobody in that movie acted like they gave a damn about anyone or anything, until Kevin Kline breaks down crying in the car.

Aahh, cripes. I have to go now.

I've never seen any of Six Feet Under, but now I want to. I had heard from many different sources that it's an amazing series, but for some reason I never listened. the tear-jerkiness intrigues me. and I love Sia and had heard that one of her songs was used in the finale, so methinks I'll have to find a way to watch the whole series.

there's a little Icelandic movie called Noi that just destroyed me. the whole thing is quite depressing, but when it comes to the end...even though I kind of saw it coming, I just bawled. I've never felt so horrible for a fictional character.

I'm so glad someone else cried at The Office. I got a little weepy when Jim was walking away from Pam in the parking lot in Casino Night.

Definitely agree with In America, but for me, it was the scene where Christy is in the hospital and they need her to give blood. And she says "Don't "little girl" me. I've been carrying this family on my back for over a year." I lost it. Personal stuff there, but it hit home.

And it's a direct result of rewatching the movie, but as soon as "Needle in the Hay" starts playing in The Royal Tenenbaums - actually quite a bit before the bathroom scene - my stomach starts to knot. It's not just tears, it's an all-over physical reaction.

Dammit! Everyone's already been so spot-on and articulate about the things I wanted to add; The Joy Luck Club, Futurama (also the ep where Leela was stung by that space bee), Six Feet Under.

But I have to mention one that's a little obscure-- Oz, season 6, "A Day in the Death". When Ryan starts to cry and says "I'm so sorry for everything" to his brother, I lose it. I got the season 6 DVD, and I cried when I watched the episode... then I watched it with the commentary by the actors, who are brothers in real life, and it made THEM cry. So of course I totally lost it all over again.

Everyone is mentioning Buffy moments but the one that always gets me is when Willow goes to finally visit Tara's grave.
As soon as I see the grave I'd start tearing up, and it would reach that scene JUST before I had to outside to catch the bus. ACK!

ALSO: When Willow is telling Oz that she will always be waiting for him...even when she is old and bluehaired, that she'll always love him. ...Alsyon Hannigan is just a good crier.

That Futurama episode kills me. I'm crying just thinking about it.

Happy to see I'm not the only one in love with the UK "Office" series finale, both the secret-santa scene in the Christmas special ("Not anymore, I haven't") and the last series two ep where Tim gets up and rips the microphones out... such beauty, so seamlessly fitted into brilliant TV comedy.
But nobody... NOBODY has mentioned "Requiem for a Dream" yet? I don't know that it's exactly a tearjerker, more of just one solid punch to the gut after another, leaving you exhausted and broken and haunted for days... that whole final montage, from Harry's phone call on, I don't think I've ever seen anything so disturbingly powerful and heartbreaking... but in a pinch, that last shot, oh God, that last shot. Dammit, I don't cry at movies and I can't see my screen just thinking about it. Didn't leave me in tears so much as curled up in an emotionally wrecked little ball; I'm still surprised I've been able to get through it multiple times, because it just gets worse.

Ummm...Rocky 3, when Mic dies, and Turner and Hooch, when Hooch dies. Or any movie when a dog gets killed or almost killed, only to recover right at the end when he surprises the cop or kid who owns him by licking their face, thus confirming you suspicions that the dog would live
.

That Futurama episode, too. Throw in the one when Fry tries to impress Lela by moving the stars for her, only to see his creation destroyed by one of Farnswerths doomsday devices, too boot. It ends with his sad face and Bender softly whistling the harlem globetrotters theme:his own unattainable fantasy. He just didn't have what it took to be considered an "intergalactic jester of dunk."

pity

I'm not afraid to admit that I cry like a little girl at just about anything. Especially the episode of Scrubs on here, a lot at Eternal Sunshine. I'd list others, but it would take a long time.

Fantastic list. I don't even need to watch that entire scene from In America to start crying, just that line of "Say goodbye to Frankie" is enough to set me off.

The Buffy episode "The Body" gets me everytime too. I can't even pick one particular scene, the whole episode is just too real.

I'd add the scene from Junebug after she loses the baby. I found most of the movie pretty boring and kept wondering how Amy Adams got an Oscar nom for it. That scene was so out of the blue compared to the tone of the rest of the movie, and I never saw if ending that way.

Other ones which totally own my shit:

Pretty in Pink. Silent Bob's right. As a perennail Ducky, anything with Jon Cryer just fucks me up. His screaming at Andy when he sees her dating someone else. "He's going to use you and toss you away. And one of these days, I'm not gpoing to be ther for you." And when he lets her go at the end - and has to settle for a god-damned meaningless one-night stand, while the girl of his dreams goes off with another guy. And the fact that this was a STUDIO MANDATED RE_WRITE! Kills me every time. To the Duckys in the world, who believe that all it takes is a funky hat to get the girl of your dreams - I'm one of you.

And it's not a movie - a play actually, though it was on TV, the end of Angels in America "More Life. The Great Work Begins" gets me every time, too.

To add yet another Futurama moment (there seems to be a lot of them), in the episode "Luck of the Fryrish" at the very end when the last flashback ends and Fry finds out (SPOILER) that it wasn't his brother that stole his identity, it was his nephew who's life was dedicated to him, he cries and the camera pulls away to the theme from the Breakfast Club, I just lose it.

In addition, I refuse to watch "Jurassic Bark" and to hell with you all for reminding me of the Iron Giant.

I want to be another person putting my vote in for Six Feet Under's finale. Strange thing is I just watched it today for the first time after about 2 months of straight SFU episodes (thank god for Netflix).

I have never ever cried so hard from a movie, TV show, or book as I did while watching this ending montage. I didn't realize how closely I attached myself to these characters until I saw their life play out and end.

I have to disagree with the Season 4 and 5 hating. While it may have seemed they spun their wheels a bit, I still loved every damn minute of it.

So yeah, Six Feet Under.

Oh, the Wonder Years! Fred Savage was my first crush. I was so young, probably seven or eight, and wished that I could look just like Winnie Cooper.
In The Royal Tenenbaums, when Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson are sitting in the tent and Ruby Tuesday is playing...ugh, that movie kills me. And whoever said the cabaret scene in Mulholland Drive is so spot on. That a capella performance of "Crying" is, briefly, such a pure moment in an overwhelming film.

You guys are all pretty easy... ;)

It's a small movie, but damn if I can't stop crying in "Truly Madly Deeply."

Also, "Lilya 4-Ever". Man, that is one seriously hard movie to come away from. Lukas Moodysson's made some emotional stuff, but that one takes the cake.

Add another one for Jurassic Bark here. That one episode is one I point at every time I argue that Futurama was a better show than the Simpsons. I challenge anyone to find a SINGLE Simpsons moment that has the same effect.

Also, and I know it's a cliche one, but:

Rudy... Rudy... Rudy! Rudy! RUDY! RUDY!

I watched "Jurassic Bark" only one time. I have seen every other Futurama episode to the point where I have memorized them, but I can never watch that one again. I cried for DAYS. How come there is no love for Angel? The episode "I will remember you" messed me up so badly. That is the one where Angel was human for a day and he and Buffy were finally able to be together, but then he had to give it back and undo the day in order to be able to fight with her. When she looks at him and says, "But, I felt your heart beat", I LOSE it!

And you know what? I know it's not film in any way whatsoever, but I still well up every time I read the last Calvin and Hobbes.

Futurama "The Luck of the Fryrish": This ep resonates with me personally since I lost a brother years ago. Tear up just thinking about it. One of the best moments on televison. Boo to Fox for letting this show go.

The Joy Luck Club: The final moments when Jing-Mei tells her long lost sisters that their mother died and they all embrace and call each other "Mei mei"

Dancer in the Dark: was in the bathroom crying for 20 minutes are that one ended.

Angel "You're Welcome": Cordelia's death really got to me. I think its because very few characters from the Buffyverse ever get to say goodbye. Great scene considering David Boreanz and Charisma Carpenter are the best actors out there.

Oh man, I can lose it over a movie trailer if it's put together schmaltzy enough. But my faves are:




Last Unicorn: When Molly wails at the unicorn, "How dare you!" Even now, or when reading the book, the ferocity of this character gets to me.




Serenity: When Wash bites it. Totaly shock and then tears.




Terminator 2: Thumbs up at the end before he destroys himself. Granted I was probably 8 when I watched it, but I bawled like crazy.




Garden State: When Zac Braff says something along the lines of "It's sad, when you realize the house you grew up in is no longer your home." I was fine until... BAM. My parents were (still are) going through a divorce when I watched it, and I had moved out of my childhood home while my dad still lived there.




Princess Bride: "I want my father back, you son of a bitch." Or the scene in the book when Inigo's father is killed.




And then other typical ones, like Homeward Bound at the end (when I was a kid). The Futurama episode with the dog tears my heart. The U2 clip brought back so many memories, I'd watch that one with Running To Stand Still over and over again. My boyfriend loses it in Last of the Mohicans when the brother and dad die.

In the interest of a small post, I just want to say the last scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I, too, and part of the Pajiba-esque demographic that finds The Notebook laughable, but I sobbed for hours after Tiffany's.

I'm on board with most of these clips, particularly "Six Feet Under" because holy shit, the little smile on David's face when he sees Keith - young, healthy, strong, catch the football and just grin at him...my God, I keep Kleenex in business.

But I also have to be a sap and add...well...Lord of the Rings: Return of the King really fucking gets to me. Two moments - when Sam tells Frodo he can't carry the ring, but he can carry him, and then when Frodo is dangling over Mount Doom, Sam grabs his hand and his voice brooks absolutely no argument when he says "Don't you let go." Buckets of tears.

Oh, and hey, guys? If you want to know the trick for making The Notebook a REALLY enjoyable film (and I don't mean 'take a shot every time it sucks')?

Fast forward through all the shit with the old people. I'm so serious - you're watching it to watch Gosling and McAdams fuck in the rain anyway, right? Why not just admit it and cut to the good parts?

The moment in All About My Mother when Cecilia Roth's son is hit by the car and she is screaming for him destroys me.

Withnail, so with you on Empire of the Sun. Tears are completely earned, unlike, well, some of the above. You might be interested that the last scene of Withnail and I completely destroys me. When Withnail, having lost "I", recites a soliloquy from Hamlet? Devastating.

I'm shocked no one has mentioned my all-time tearjerker, Truly, Madly, Deeply. http://imdb.com/title/tt0103129/

My God, how could anyone not cry when Nina's sister asks her for her dead lover's cello: "it's like you're asking me for his body, you're asking me for his body!"

All I know is I lost two contact lenses, and didn't notice, because my eyes were so blurry with tears.

Six Feet Under makes me feel like killing myself, so I guess that's kind of sad.

In the few minutes I spent writing my post, someone mentioned Truly, Madly, Deeply.

Popular thread, eh?

Jenna's comment about her niece holding her face at the one scene in Finding Nemo, that movie didnt make me cry, now it will....damn.

I'll throw another one in for Cinema Paradiso the one-two gut punch at the end (return to the village, the kissing montage) screwed up my dating life for it's entire run. I always thought, "Okay, I know it's coming be strong -- be strong," but I'd always end up like a five-year-old watching puppies get gassed. Not many woman look at you the same way when you're blubbering away, spilling tears and snot down onto your shirt.

My wife let's me watch it alone at least.

I don't know how many people got to see the Italian mini-series "The Best of Youth". It was shown in Australia at 11:00pm and I was lucky enough to catch it early (only missed the first part of four). There are so many scenes in the series that just destroyed me. If you ever have the opportunity to see it you cant pass it up.

I also want to add in that the last scene in Jurassic Bark is better than anything the Simpsons have ever done.

Someone above mentioned The Simpsons as not having the tearjerker moments that Futurama does. I point to two (in nerdy Comic Book Guy fashion):

1) The episode where they explain why the family albums have no photographs of Maggie. It flashes back to before Maggie's birth. Homer has finally paid off his debt, and quits his job at the power plant to pursue his dream of working at the Bowlerama. Marge then tells him she's pregnant and he can't afford the new job anymore. He has to beg and grovel to get his old job back from Mr. Burns, who puts a sign in his workstation that says "DON'T FORGET, YOU'RE HERE FOREVER". The next time we see the sign, Homer has pasted pictures of Maggie all over it, so that it reads "DO IT FOR HER". Aw.

2) The episode where Lisa is inspired by her substitute teacher, who makes her feel proud to be smart and gives her hope that someday she'll be in a place where her intelligence is valuable. He has to leave and gives her a note at the train station, and tells her that it will give her confidence whenever she is down (or something like that). She's all heartbroken, and unfolds it to see that it says, simply, "You are Lisa Simpson." Cheesy, yes, but I think I was maybe eight and rather Lisa-like when I first saw it, and it still makes me a little verklempt.

Also, word to the end of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I'll admit I shed some tears at the end of A Very Long Engagment and when Goebells' wife decides to poison her children in Downfall. I'm trying to work up the courage to rent United 93 because I know I'll be sobbing througout most of that movie.

What about Fahrenheit 911? Maybe it doesn't belong on this list, but I've never cried so hard and so openly in a movie theater.

One night, I was flipping through the channels, and came across that scene in Dead Poets', which has always just torn me completely apart. I hit 'channel up' and right there was the scene in Moulin Rouge! where Ewan McGregor loses his shit at the end. It was not my night..

But god. Between 'In America', and 'Six Feet Under', I was bawling like a moron. (I'd never seen the finale before. Thanks muchly for posting it.)

Great entries. I'm all weepy, but then I cry easily.
I'm with Rocky and Janis. Truly Madly Deeply wrecked my world so hard, I had to call in sick to work from the migraine.

Good shout on Dead Poets, though the final scene is always the one that rips it out of you. Finding Nemo, where Marlon starts telling his story and it works its away across the ocean, instant welling up.

Worst of the last couple of years, Million Dollar Baby, when Clint tells Hillary what "mo cuishle" means, there were floods.

the first movie that made me cry was Gorillas in the mist, I was 6 and I was crying so histerically that my mom had to pull the tape from the VCR. the part when they cut the gorillas' hands to make ashtrays still makes me sad, and I haven't seen the movie since then.
one of the movies that got to me now that I am an adult (well, at least formally) was Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's Niceland.i know that most of you probably didn't have a chance to see it, but please try-the film is so simple, and yet so strong - it will stick with you for a long time...
i too have a couple of guilty pleasure scenes that make me cry - Love Actually - when the little girl sings All I Want for Christmas...i don't know what is it with this scene - it always gets me.

I dispise In America. I'll bash it some days just because I feel like it. And yes, I am one cold hearted bitch. If I had tearducts, I may have cried at something like Finding Neverland.

Excellent list. Dead Poet's Society still makes me bawl, as does that scene in Pieces of April where she runs out to the car and her parents have gone. . . gah, damn it all to hell. The first movie that ever, ever made me lose it though, was The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. That scene where lady of the house finds the little girl's panties in the handyman's toolbox and he just looks all lost as she freaks out? I bawled like a baby in front of a room full of people. I still can't watch that movie.

As a little boy, I remember crying my little eyes out when the horse drowned in quicksand in The Neverending Story.

A surprising sucker-punch was the Blackadder Goes Forth finale. Not sure if Blackadder has ever found an audience in the States, but anyone with an appreciation for British comedy ought to hunt it down, though I'd avoid the first series. ANYWAY, the end to Series 4 (...Goes Forth) when they go over the trenches into no-man's land... that gets me every time. Rowan Atkinson's "Good luck, everyone", and the fade-out into a poppy field... damn.

Oh, Jurassic Bark and My Screw Up. I can't watch them again.

And I'm more of a person to well up at books. Like White thorn, where the lead character's dog dies; who has been with him for so long, and was like the only family he had...

Gah! Can't write anymore. And I'm normally a cold-hearted bitch. See what you've done to me?

Buffy's speech to Dawn
The entire episode of 'The Body'
At the prom when Johnathan asks from the stage - "Is Buffy Summers here tonight?" its the look on Buffy's face that kills me.
Damn you Joss Whedon for destroying all of my masculine credibility. If he had killed Giles or Willow I think I'd still be crying.

Withnail's recitation of Hamlet at the end. Its just so so sad.

In isolation, Mr Incredible's reaction to what he truly beleives is his family's death. Its one of the most amazing pieces of animation depicting emotion I've ever seen or ever will. The resignation, the defeat, the rage. Jeebus its beautiful. Go watch it again.

The end of Blackadder Goes Forth when they go over the top into No Man's Land. It diesn't make me cry but comes bloody close.

Loads more that escape me.

The final episode of Angel, where Fred-the-ancient-god pretends to be Fred for Wesley when he's dying, and then Lorne and the final fight and oh dear god. Weepyness all around.

Liz, United 93 was THE best movie I saw last year. You know what happens, but you just go through all of the emotions of that week of September 11, but in reverse. Rage, Frustration, Pride, and just complete sorrow. The subtitles at the end, man it just makes you HATE what people did or didn't do.

It's not a movie or a tv show moment, and I'm a lily livered commie democrat, but whenever I hear a really good rendition of the National Anthem, I get misty. I can be out of commission for the first half of the first inning at Sox games.

And speaking of the BoSox, the ring ceremony after the won the Series.... weeping like a little girl, but that was HAPPPPPPPPPPY tears.

Yes, to above, who quoted my Film, the end of Withnail and I, when the depressed Withnail recites Hamlet in the rain to a bunch of mangy wolves in the zoo, having been just left behind by his only friend and companion. Withnail, a great talent, a greater arrogance, being left alone to wallow.

But a movie that will now and forever fuck my shit up is the ending to Nashville. We've just seen three hours of the best that Altman can do - high and low culture, comedy, drama, great musical scenes - for me the breakup song of "Since You've Been Gone" that preceeds the famous "I'm Easy" sung by Keith Carridine, where three women in the bar think he's singing it to them - and one knows he's not, Ronnie Blakley's nervous breakdown onstage, Gwen Wells awful, awful singing while stripping, it just goes on and on -
and then there's the final political rally, where we see Blakley sing again. It's beautiful. Everyone's there to see it, the entire cast.
And then she's brutally, senselessly murdered.
Henry Gibson demands that someone sing! This is not Dallas! This is Nashville.
And as the politicians speed away, one lone crazy hanger on, Barbara Harris, takes the microphone and sings "It Don't Worry Me". An ode to apathy, to passiveness, to faith in a time of great uncertainty and strife. The Gospel Chorus joins in behind her. And I've never felt more American.

The death of Wash, from Serenity.
It's not really a cry moment, because they all have to run at
once, but it really brakes my heart. Knowing the series very
well. Much stronger by the whole reaction of his Warrior
Woman.

Good list!

Oh God, I'm practically tearing up just thinking about the end of Blackadder Goes Forth.

As for The Body: I don't think I can ever watch that episode again.

Last night I watched the episode of Scrubs where Dr Cox loses the three transplant patients, and now How to Save a Life has just come on the radio. Woe...

Dustin,

How weird. I have the feeling I'm probably a few years younger than you, but the first movie I cried at was also Dead Poets. I was 9 and was watching it with my parents on VHS. I was embarrased as hell, and told them I had something in my eye. It wasn't the clip you picked, but the "captain, my captain" scene.

Forgot my addition. Don't think anyone has brought this up yet.

The Bicycle Thief, when the father is being accosted by men after he tries to steal a bike and his son is looking on at the devastating scene.

Retraction: Clearly, The Bicycle Thief was not made in the last 20 years. Sooooo, nevermind.

I'll replace it with Requiem for a Dream, the scene where two ladies visit Ellen Burstyn in the hospital and hug each other at the bus stop after the awful experience.

Eternal Sunshine. That movie, everytime I watch it, fucks me up incredibly.. that scene especially, easily one of the best. Though the ending itself.. agh.

Thirding the Doctor Who second season finale..agh.. that KILLED me. I sobbed for 2 hours striahgtt, and remained disconsolate for days. Which is somewhat pathetic, but.. it..so unfair!! Urgh. When my dvds get here I'll do it all over again, I'm sure.

That scene in the Incredibles when Mr, Incredible cries out, believing his family dead.

Peter Pan.. the '03 one.. I sob uncontrollably from tinks stealing his poison onward... then get somewhat and by that I of course mean intensely homicidal toward Wendy. Pan's just so..alone. Poor Pan. >.>;

And of course, as many others have said, 'Jurassic Bark'. I cannot watch that ending without humiliating myself utterly.

...CHICKEN DANCE! Bluths make everything better.

I thought about this for a while. I tend to allow myself to be pretty easily manipulated by entertainment(I admit and don't really care) but these hit me every time.

Eternal Sunshine - one of my favorite films ever and I was a wreck after seeing it.

Spiderman 2 - when Spidey stops the train and passes out. The crowd passes him over their heads and even though they see him without the mask one kid says "we won't tell." Kills me.

The Lion King - when Simba is trying to wake Mufasa and then just curls up against him and cries.

The Hours - the enormity of the ending just slays me. It's not even one scene, the whole final 20 minutes is just a pile driver.

United 93 - just brought the emotions of that day all back and that ending is brutal.

Buffy - "The Body" but also Buffy sacrificing herself and Xander finally breaking trough to Willow at the finale of Season 6. Although that entire season was a button pusher.

The Sixth Sense - When Bruce Willis says goodbye to his wife.

When Goose dies.

When Elliot the Dragon leaves Pete.

The finale of Quantum Leap when it says that Sam never returned home.

When Roland shouts the names of all his fallen friends as he enters the Tower at the end of The Dark Tower. (yeah it's a book but that scene is a killer and after 3000+ pages it's cathartic as hell).

So many tear-jerking moments.

Some for me:
Royal Tenenbaums... the ending Narration where you find out Chas and Royal made up and Royal's death. Gets me on personal levels.

The Finale of Babylon 5... I remember watching it when it first aired and crying solidly from the halfway mark on. The whole Sheradin/Delenn romance felt like a perfect ending, and then the damn music swell with the station going away...
It was the first time a TV show really felt like the end of a bloody awesome book, and I didn't want it to end, but I knew it had to.

very similar to:
Lord of the Rings:
two parts always get me in the movie, and moreso the book. The final charge of Theoden.. I have a soft spot for that, certain death lies ahead, but we have sworn oaths and so we go... thing.
And the grey havens... When Merry and Pippin ride up with Gandalf so Sam won't have to be alone...
"I will not say do not cry, for not all tears are evil."

Gets me every time.

Shawshank Redemption: Red's narration at the end and reuniting with Andy on the beach

I even like the end of Kill Bill, with Bills slightly dignified death.
ahh, the w33pies.

Wow, a lot of these are spot on. I don't even watch SFU, but when I saw that finale, I frigging bawled. That Scrubs clip? Seeing Brendan Fraser's big goofy face in that pic on top of that coffin? Heartbreaking. Of course, The Wonder Years, when they said that the dad died...absolutely killed me. Lost it completely the second they said it.

Now, allow me to place my dignity in the trash for a moment. Ever see that movie "A Walk To Remember"? When she told her bf that she had leukemia, when he proposed to her as they were stargazing, and of course, when she walked down that aisle in her wedding dress...I broke down. I sat there in the theater with my two friends, one whom was a boy, and we cried hysterically. I'm not much of a crier, and that movie had me sobbing in the theatre.

Now, one Disney movie that made me cry like a baby was Pocahontas. When she didn't get on that boat with John Smith, and they were crying and she runs to the edge of that cliff and watches that boat leave...that, paired with that damn "Colors of the Wind" song playing in the background, is a real tearjerker.

Oh, one to add...don't know if anyone has mentioned it, so I apologize if it's a double...

"My Life without Me" with Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, and Mark Ruffalo. Basically she plays a young mother who finds out that she's dying, and just a lot of shit in that movie kind of hits home for me. She does this thing where she records birthday messages for her daughters for every year up until their 18th because she knows she's not going to be around for them.

Damnit, I need a moment. It's too early for this.

Okay, SFU got me. Cried like a little bitch, I did. But if we want to talk about severe psychological damage.... anyone ever see Where The Red Fern Grows? It's old as the hills- I had to read the book when I was in fifth grade. It's about a little boy and his two dogs. Our teacher (Mr. Hutto) also got the movie and let us watch it in the classroom as a treat. Some treat. 35 9-10 year olds weeping copiously in the dark, heads down, tears flowing, snot bubbles popping. He had to let us all go home because we were too fucked up to be in class any longer.
Parents, seriously- DO NOT let your kids watch this movie or read this book. Not if you love your children. Because I still want to kill myself when I think of (SPOILER ALERT) Little Anne laying on Old Dan's grave, willing herself to die. Unless you are a balls-out Cat Person, this movie will ruin you. Or as we say down South, You will be ROONT.

agree with em, i'm not usually a sap but 'my life without me' is just a devastatingly beautiful film. thanks and kudos to director isabel coixet, this is more than a tearjerker and should've been nominated. if you've ever been close to someone who is functional with a terminal illness, you cannot watch this film without some waterworks.

Sorry to include a romantic comedy, but the funeral speech in Four Weddings and a Funeral absolutely killed me.

I can totally relate to the most of you who were about the same age as me when watchin DPS. It was the movie that got me hooked on movies.

Man, I thought I was weird for tearing up at those Futuramas, especially the one where Lila is stung by the space bee. "Six Feet Under" was the best show I've ever seen; intelligent and deep and emotionally honest in a way that so many relationship-based shows or movies rarely are. The last movie that made me cry was "Little Miss Sunshine." I know I know -- it's a film everyone has decided to be "meh" about. But it really moved me, I guess because I was like Olive when I was young, but I didn't have that kind of family to love and support me. The scene where she is standing up there with all those spray-tanned little freaks, just looking like a sweet and normal, hopeful and confused little girl -- I lost my shit. I guess because it's just so hard to be truly innocent in a world like this. I had to keep it together or I would have just bawled. I didn't know it at the time, but I was one week pregnant with my daughter (due in three months).

Great. I am at work, and now I can't even function. Just when I thought I had "Jurassic Bark" out of my head, here comes this post.

Dustin, where's that You Can Count on Me clip? That movie's full of moments for me, but my teariest is probably at the end when she implies the title of the movie, asking him about what they said when they were kids. Amazing.

Wanted to second The Best of Youth -- seek that one out.

And I guess I need to catch up on Futurama. But please, people, a little respect for the Simpsons. I'm an old man now, and some of you might know it most from its subpar recent seasons. But it's the best thing ever. Really.

Sorry, JMW. YouTube still hasn't uploaded the clip. I'm thinking they don't like it for copyright reasons, though it doesn't explain why they accepted all the other ones. At any rate, it's just the last five minutes of the flick, as Ruffalo goes off in the bus.

The end of Schindlers List, as the people he saved file past his marker and place stones as a mark of respect.

Because it's real.

YES! I love Blackadder, oh man that KILLED ME!
I actually felt the worst for Darling...:(

The Terminator thumb bit just reminds me of "Spaced" and I laugh now...

The movie DRAGONHEART is one of the first movies I remember bawling at when I was little...also THE YEARLING...I don't even remember what happens in that movie but I was like, 7 and it broke my heart.

THE NEW WORLD gets me at the end because its such a beautiful movie...and when Pochahontas goes back to John Rolfe after she realizes that she won't be able to love John Smith anymore...Ah.

"Little Mermaid", at the end where the king raises up out of the water to bless his daughter's marriage and sweeps a huge rainbow in the sky- oh, man, I busted out bawling every time my daughter watched it.

"Life is Beautiful" I think I may have shed a tear a time or two.

"showgirls" enough said...

Damn I forgot one..can't believe noones mentioned it
"project X"
when Matthew Broderick walks that monkey down the hall to it's impending death.

That scrubs episode was the first one I'd ever seen.
I hated my boyfriend for a day for not telling me. I started crying rediculously...I dunno.

I'm the kind of person who empathizes with characters a lot...and that episode reminded me of this particular time in my life.

I missed the season episode of SFU. I watched that...I had to keep pausing it so I could calm down.

Movies that make me bawl:
V for Vendetta. I know, I know. But for about 10 minutes after the "I dont know you but I love you" line...yeah.

LOTR: Too many scenes I bawl in. Weeping at the end of FOTR. I wish I had a friend like Sam.

Finding Neverland: The end when Kate Winslet's character...ack I tear up thinking about it.

Pan's Labyrinth. I can't give anything away...but the last 10 minutes I bawl.

But given, my friends call me the weeper. I try to avoid really sad films.
Let me explain why I'm called the weeper:

Big Daddy: When the boy is on the stand and promises not to sing the Kangeroo song anymore if they let him stay with Adam Sandler? Yep. Cried.

Pete and Pete: When Artie leaves.
From Hell: Ending. Yep. Cried.
POTC: DMC: Yep. Cried at the end. (Yes I know he's coming back)
WEDDING DATE: ........I cried. God I should be shot for that one.

DPS, heart-wrenching. I couldn't sit through Eternal Sunshine for some reason, which is weird 'cause I love Kate Winslet's acting. I cry everytime I watch her in "Sense and Sensibility".

"The Color Purple" = tears

"Dancer in the Dark"= sobbing and crying like a baby, especially when she sings "Favorite Things" at the end.

"Glory" Denzel Washington being beaten with one defiant tear coming down =box of Kleenex.

"the Shawshank Redemption" = cryfest for me and imo, best film ever.

I agree about the Notebook comment, leave the old people out, and it is "f'ing" fabulous and a tearjerker. Ironically, I read the book before I saw the film, and I wasn't as moved by the book. I thought it was boring.

Hattie - I had forgotten about Where the Red Fern Grows - Jesus. My parents must not have loved me. How about Running on Empty when River Phoenix's parents let him go?
I totally lost my shit for Alpha Dog. Even though I knew what was going to happen. A girl behind me was also blubbering and expressing a desire to go home.

I totally forgot...I watched Beyond Borders, My Life Without Me, and Sylvia within a week of each other. I was depressed for the rest of that month! Also, last season on The L Word, when Alice had been by Dana's bedside in the hospital for 3 days straight, and the nurse told her to leave for a little while, that everything would be OK. Then she comes back in and Dana has died, and she collapses and the toy she got from the giftshop starts playing "You Are My Sunshine" while she just sobs over the credits. My fiance and I cried all night long, and we knew it was coming!

I second Lilya 4-Ever. That film absolutely devastated me. I physically hurt and couldn't sleep for days.

When I saw The New World in the theater, I started crying about halfway through for no apparent reason, and couldn't stop. It was just so ... beautiful, affecting, and poetic.

My Life Without Me.

Noi the Albino also got to me.

Firefly -- "Out of Gas." The final flashback where Mal is in the shipyard and a salesman is trying to sell him a vessel, and his gaze wanders and he sees Serenity perched on a hill, and he falls in love ... ugh, it reduces me to tears every time.

Angel -- "A Hole in the World." Pretty much the whole episode.

Buffy -- "The Body" and "The Gift" ruin me.

Harold and Maude-he's found love and allowed himself to live only to hear that Maude has already taken the pills that will kill her. This is one of my all-time favorite movies; so funny and bittersweet. And, of course, Cat Stevens

That episode of "Heroes," in which there's a commercial for the Ghost Rider movie, starring Nic Cage. There's a line he delivers in that commercial that will always resonate in my colon - "feels like my skull's on fire, but I'm good." Many might not get that double meaning without putting it in context with the rest of the film.

That film, Nic Cage, Eva Mendez, that damn line. That made me cry.

So, it's that "Heroes" episode for me...I forget what it was about...

I have to say the only time I've actually bawled is at Radio Flyer.

It's shameful but when the little brother flies off into the distance...

I actually cried the other day when somebody brought it up.

I'm a little shocked no one has mentioned Gladiator. The very ending, with the different film stock, the music and the action (no spoilers here!) makes me cry like nothing I've ever seen. Similar to a couple of the scenes in SFU's finale.

The build to that moment is, imho, brilliant.

Wow, I watched the first four seasons of six feet under but I was only able the read the episode summuries after that on hbo.com as there was no HBO in my dorm,
Ther was definatly no description of that final scene... Wow amazing, its bee neyars and I was still totall crushed by it, but can any one who watched the show tell me who that man was clair ends up being with

Deepa Mehta's "Water." Abso-fucking-lutely. I had to leave the theater and walk it off for fifteen minutes outside without the three other people I went to see it with.

And "My Dog Skip." I wasn't right for a week.

De-lurking to say: 1)I love this site and all of your comments, 2) Dustin, this is an incredible list, and 3) I see nods to The Iron Giant, Futurama and Finding Nemo - how is that no one cried at Lilo and Stitch?

My little cousin tells me that, now, there are all sorts of terrible straight-to-DVD sequels and a bad cartoon based on the characters. Still, when the film was released I took my unemployed ass to see it in the middle of a Wednesday and cried so much I had to wipe my nose on my sleeve. I told my sisters who rolled their eyes, reminding me that I cry at everything. So I took them and they cried like someone stole their bikes.

Oh, and whoever mentioned The Color Purple - good call. It's a deeply flawed movie in some regards (and the book is, naturally better) but when Mr. seperates Celie and Nettie at the beginning I lose my shit completely and never really get it back.

Best of Youth, the final scene is too beautiful and sad to describe.

Most recently, revealing the anime geek in me, "Wolf's Rain" - a pretty damn depressing series in and of itself about the destruction of the world - Raganarok, essentially. The final disc - I started crying 15 minutes into the first ep., and didn't stop (literaly) for 2 and a half hours. I had a raging headache for days, and I haven't been able to watch it again since. As much as I want to watch "Grave of the Fireflies" - I'm terrified.

Nice list. Nicely done. That Scrubs episode never fails to make me choke up, and the finale of Six Feet Under destroys me, so I'll crack that open later.

Oof.