Film is a powerful thing. It is at the same time a comforting thing. Movies have been consistently dubbed as “cheap thrills” and for many reasons. I like to accept that title mostly for the reason that beyond any monetary reasoning, we as a group can sit down two hours at a time and have a vicarious experience without any of the consequences that come with that particular moment. Sometimes it’s as small as falling in love or as big as saving the world.

One of the things that I find most difficult, and I always laud a film that accomplishes this, for a movie to do is to make me cry. I don’t consider myself a hardened man, most times I’d say the complete opposite, but at the same time I’ve always had the ability to distance myself from the experience of the film. If I didn’t then I’d take things to heart such as the most gruesome scenes in Silence of the Lambs and Irreversible. That process of distancing doesn’t just work for me laughing at people being brutally maimed in horror, but also for those scenes that make a pregnant lady tear up during.

Note: The Following Comments Are Spoilers For THE FOUNTAIN

There are a few films that I’ve documented (for the purposes of knowing what not to watch around friends) to do this to me, but I don’t think a film (or a moment in film) has been able to do this everytime I watch the movie unlike the scene below:

For me it’s not so much about the loss that this character has just endured and has to manage for the rest of his life but also about how it ends up affecting those around him. For the entire film he’s been searching for a cure for this cancer so to save his wife, and suddenly he can no longer contain his emotions that he’s tried so hard (not always succeeding) to bottle up so as not to make his wife worry about it all. This is just the second half of the scene, but from the moment that Rachel Wiesz‘s character’s heart stops and Jackman‘s character attacks the doctor I’m trying my hardest to pick my heart off from the ground.

I’m used to film’s wearing off on me after time. A scene will be expected on my fifth, sixth and eventually twentieth viewing, but somehow this moment in The Fountain ends up getting me everytime. Even watching the video here makes it a little more difficult to read my words on the screen as I type them.

What’re some moments in film that make you tear up?