25 Tearjerker Movies That Have Broken Our Hearts

13. Brief Encounter (1945)

What could be more of a heartstring-tugger than a love that can never be? That’s the case in David Lean’s tale of two marrieds who randomly meet in the café of a train station and, due to an irresistible attraction, embark on a passionate affair, meeting once a week for over a month. The story is narrated in retrospect by a sentimental Laura (Celia Johnson) as she sits by the fire with her husband and imagines confessing all — once she and Alec (Trevor Howard) have said their final goodbyes.

KLEENEX MOMENT In their final days together, Alec knows Laura is slipping away. ”I shall love you always,” he promises, ”until the end of my life.” And we boohoo through every last word, knowing they are, indeed, among the last between them.

14. Old Yeller (1957)

When the stray mutt they name Yeller shows up on a dirt-poor family farm, he quickly becomes a loyal companion and gallant protector. While bonding with young Travis (Tommy Kirk), Yeller saves various family members from various dangerous critters, repeatedly displaying the heroism that will be his heartbreaking downfall.

KLEENEX MOMENT Having rescued the family from a rabid wolf, Yeller becomes infected, and the boy who loves him best must put him out of his misery. What gets you most isn’t when Travis pulls the trigger, but just before that, when he realizes he has to.

15. The Notebook (2004)

Why has this unassuming romance — about a young Southern girl (Rachel MacAdams) and a young Southern boy (Ryan Gosling) who struggle to be together while society strives to keep them apart — become such a perennial hit in the few years since its release? Simple: its firm statement that love truly never dies.

KLEENEX MOMENT Forget about choking up at all the kids’ stuff — the real tears flow when elderly Allie (Gena Rowlands) realizes that the story her old friend Duke (James Garner) has been telling her…is about them.

16. Field of Dreams (1987)

Do you want to know the honest truth? Guys are the bigger babies. Get them rattling on about old baseball players, mystical reclusive authors, or having a catch with Dad and — as a species — men are reduced to pathetic, whimpering heaps. And Field of Dreams? Well, Phil Alden Robinson’s movie, about a fella named Ray (Kevin Costner) who carves a magical baseball diamond out of his cornfield, meets his childhood heroes, and is offered a reunion with his pop, hits the absolute trifecta of guy gloppiness.

KLEENEX MOMENT Easy. At the very end when Ray’s dad comes out of the cornfield and they have a game of catch. It’s…uh…you know…just give us a second here…

17. Ghost (1990)

Who could forget that titillating pottery scene set to the Righteous Brothers’ ”Unchained Melody,” or Whoopi Goldberg’s Oscar-winning performance as a medium who finally meets a spirit she can talk to? The fun ends, however, when the movie tackles one of our biggest fears: losing a loved one in a senseless act of violence. Every mournful scene — Demi Moore holding a dying Patrick Swayze in her arms, Swayze seeing Moore vulnerable to the man responsible for his death — is made all the more wrenching with the aid of Maurice Jarre’s touching score.

KLEENEX MOMENT As Swayze is about to be taken to the next world, he and Moore exchange a bittersweet kiss and the killer line: ”See ya.” This tearjerker clip is shown below.

18. E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

In many ways, the extra-terrestrial in E.T. was just like all the other aliens who had appeared on screen before him. He was curious-looking, superintelligent, and possessed wacky magical powers. But in him, we also saw ourselves. After all, he was doing what all growing boys are supposed to do — scarfing down candy, swiping beer from the fridge, and being chased by the Man during kick-ass bike rides. It was this relatable human element that made it so unbearable when Steven Spielberg actually had the nerve to go and KILL HIM!!!

KLEENEX MOMENT Sure, the little guy comes back from the dead and finds his way home, but still, watching him flatline is one serious ouuuuuuuuuuch.

19. Brian’s Song (1971)

Yes, it was made for TV. But, really, there’s no way to omit Buzz Kulik’s ultimate straight-male love story, the Emmy-winning true-life drama of Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). Mirroring the less refined and even-more-dated Bang the Drum Slowly, this brief tale of two utter opposites whose on-field bond is only strengthened when one develops cancer has always been the tough guy’s best excuse to get misty — and to say ”I love you.”

KLEENEX MOMENT Sayers accepts a courage award by dedicating it to his stricken friend: ”I love Brian Piccolo. And I’d like all of you to love him, too. And tonight when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.” Touchdown.

20. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Ang Lee’s awe-inspiring Western masterpiece follows Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a tight-mouthed tough guy who falls in love with his fellow cowpoke Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) but is unable — or, rather, unwilling — to take the relationship past the occasional tryst. Two years since its release, there’s no denying that the whole hoopla over Brokeback and its frank sexuality overshadowed a poignant part of its narrative being: proof that cowboys most certainly do cry.

KLEENEX MOMENT His lifelong love dead, crestfallen Ennis clings for dear life to Jack’s tattered old shirt.

21. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The misty awwws for Frank Capra’s crisp holiday classic start as soon as the film opens with prayers for George Bailey (James Stewart). Bewildered angel-in-training Clarence will get his wings if he can save a distraught salt-of-the-earth Everyman faced with losing his good name, his family, and everything for which he’s sacrificed his own dreams. Clarence shows Bailey how different tiny Bedford Falls — and the lives of its citizens — would be without him, and when Bailey joyously returns home, embraces his family, and witnesses the love of his friends, tears start to swell in all of us on the other side of the screen.

KLEENEX MOMENT One by one, the townsfolk chip in to help pay Bailey’s bank debt. Then, war-hero brother Harry gives the emotional summation: ”To my big brother George, the richest man in town.”

22. An Affair to Remember (1957)

Mention the top of the Empire State Building and women everywhere swoon. After all, ”it’s the nearest thing to heaven.” Romantics know it’s the meeting place for Nicky (Cary Grant) and Terry (Deborah Kerr) six months after they fall madly in love while sailing back from Europe. The catch? She’s hit by a car on her way to meet him. There he stands for hours, never noticing the sirens on the street below. Terry may never walk again but she insists Nicky never know until she can stand to greet him.

KLEENEX MOMENT Nicky confronts his beloved but she still refuses to share her secret. He paces and accuses, all while she remains supine on the sofa. It is only as he prepares to leave her forever that he finally grasps the truth.

23. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

Almost from the instant you meet Sophie (Meryl Streep, who earned, along with an Oscar, her Queen of the Accents crown here, with mastery of three different dialects), you understand that she’s a damaged, haunted heroine who’s not likely to live happily ever after. But the real poignancy lies in Sophie’s tremulously maintained illusion of hope. Hers is a brave but fragile front that conceals the depth of her guilt and sorrow as a Holocaust survivor. You don’t cry for Sophie because she dies so young, but because she has suffered so long.

KLEENEX MOMENT In flashback, Sophie relives the dark night that a Nazi officer forced her to choose: Which of her two young children would she get to save, and which would be sent to a death camp?

24. Bambi (1942)

From the stillness of a doe and her newborn fawn to the fade-out, in which he watches over his own newborn offspring, Bambienchantingly touches on all the important stages in the cycle of life. Most of what The Lion King got right, it got from Bambi. But few films can match this movie’s visual beauty or its depth of emotion.

KLEENEX MOMENT That day when ”Man” enters the forest, wild things flee, a shot rings out — and Bambi learns he’ll never see his mother again. You witness this scene as a child and it stays with you forever.

25. Terms of Endearment (1983)

THE KOBAL COLLECTION/WIREIMAGE.COM (Tearjerker)

Blame it all on Huckleberry Fox. The towheaded tyke was only 8 years old when Terms of Endearment was filmed, but Fox, who played Debra Winger’s younger son, Teddy, in the cancer-in-the-heartland comedy-drama, delivered perhaps the most sob-worthy performance in screen history. Of course, he was beautifully guided by James L. Brooks, who won three Oscars for the film (for adapting Larry McMurtry’s novel, directing, and producing).

One-third of the way into the movie, when Mom comes up a few dollars short on the supermarket checkout line, young Huckleberry brings on the throat lumps by relinquishing his prized Clark bar, saying, ”I don’t need it.”

Credit – Tearjerker Movies

Next up: Can You Solve This Question On A Third-Grader’s Math Homework

Page 2 of 2