We've all done it. The camera pans, we hear the music, that one line that just feels like a sucker punch to the gut, and suddently we're a puddle on the floor.
Movies have this incredible hold on us, because the actors are brilliant and the directors and writers have figured out how to tell the story in just the right way that pulls at our heart strings. In fact, our brains can't even tell the difference between flashing pictures on a screen from real humans, so it's natural to cry.
In fact, if you cry at movies, you actually might be more empathetic, better with people, and an emotionally stronger person.
Redditor lituponfire asked:
"What film scene absolutely destroys you every time? No matter how many times you've seen it?"
Grab your tissues, you're gonna need them.
The Green Mile
"'I am tired, boss,' scene before the execution in The Green Mile."
"Got to say the execution scene is the clincher for me. Hanks was immense."
best movie GIFGiphyHomeward Bound
"Homeward Bound at the end where you think Shadow might not be coming home."
"When I graduated from college I had a set of friends after I moved and one came over one Saturday morning. He looked terrible. I asked him if he was hungover, and he said he had spent the last thirty minutes bawling over that movie. Hahahaha"
homeward bound 90s GIFGiphyLove Actually
"The scene in Love Actually where Emma Thompson realises that Alan Rickman is cheating on her but it's Christmas Day and the kids are happy, she gives herself twenty seconds listening to Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell and then gets back out there to be 'happy'. Two utterly brilliant actors at the top of their game."
"Oh f*ck, took me a minute to remember the context of this."
"She'd found the necklace previously and was expecting that to be the gift she received. Instead she got a CD. Rough stuff."
- mrdotkom
"If you look in the comments to the video link above showing the scene, a commenter also gives an interesting insight:"
"phoenixfriend: What makes this even sadder is that the CD was actually a thoughtful gift. It shows that he knows something about her and what's important to her. The necklace was expensive and glamorous but also meaningless and lazy. She asked for something pretty so he just went straight to the jewellery section and picked the first thing he saw that he thought would do. It speaks to how he feels about each woman and just makes his affair all the more foolish because he's risking a genuine connection for something shallow."
- Napron
WALL-E
"The end of WALL-E when he loses his personality."
"Before that. When he's keeping the door open. He didn't owe those people anything. Eve thought he was annoying. Nobody cared about him. Yet there he was getting crushed. Giving it his all. F*ck."
"Also the scene when his memories are being played back and she finally understands how much he cared for her and what he went through."
"When I was 15, I saw it in theaters while my parents were going through a nasty divorce. I remember him looking at the stars and wishing he had someone to hold his hand. I felt the exact same. I felt so alone just like he did. I cried and was happy no one noticed."
"I'm tearing up thinking about it now but I'm no longer saddened by it. It's bittersweet and I still love the short before it. I was alone then but I did get people who cared for me like Wall-E :) Happy endings can happen and you are never alone."
wall e GIFGiphyForest Gump
"'Bubba was going to be a shrimping boat captain, but instead, he died right there by that river in Vietnam.'"
"I just get really sad thinking about all of the 'Bubbas' who have senselessly died in war and never got to live their lives and follow their dreams."
"'I wanna go home Forrest' UGH I DIE EVERYTIME."
- K4R1MM
People Share Which Social Norms Absolutely Baffle Them | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"My answer to this post was going to be:"
"'You died on a Saturday morning, and I had you placed here, under our tree...'"
"I can't type anymore because I'll actually start crying. Every damn time, that scene."
"I remember showing my wife Forest Gump. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and remember it being a comedy."
"After it was over my spouse gets up without a word, goes to the bedroom, and starts crying uncontrollably."
"As a kid I thought it was about Forrest, but it was as much about Jenny and just how awful her life was. Just I was too young to understand it."
One Flew Over the Coocoos Nest
"When Jack Nicholson gets lobotomized in One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest. I'm not a cryer and I dont feel most of the emotionally charged drama scenes in Hollywood movies but that made me cry so hard in so much anger because of the injustice. I may be more calm in my reaction now but it always gets me."
"It's one of those scenes that hits hard when you realize that has actually happened to people."
The Fox and The Hound
"The Fox and The Hound, when the sweet old lady has to leave Todd behind in the woods. Everything about it: the music, the kindness of that lady, Todd not understanding that he has to stay in the woods. Especially the moment when you see a tear rolling down her cheek as she drives off."
"Oh man. I always cry when I hear them say, 'We'll always be friends forever.'"
history moment GIFGiphyLife is Beautiful
"The scene in Life is Beautiful when he puts his son in the locker and then walks away with the guards and makes it funny for his son while he knows he's going to be shot. Oh my god. That movie kills me every single time. I saw it when I was ten and cried for months even at hearing the name of the movie."
"The whole second half is excellent with the way he attempts to desperately and selflessly preserve his sons innocence in a concentration camp is heartbreaking. Then that scene happens and the movie ends with the son getting his tank."
"Whenever someone asks me what my favorite movie is, I always say this one. Refuse to tell them what it's about, because I went in blind and was completely shell shocked when the happy romantic story suddenly goes BOOM HOLOCAUST. The wife getting on the train, the silly walk moments before death, the tank, ugh I can't."
"Right? This film is a TEXTBOOK example of why, when recommending films to people, I tell them nothing about it other than the title."
"I've never understood people who give away what happens in a film, be it maliciously or not. I would never want to rob somebody of the chance to feel the intense emotional impact a film had on me, and that's something you just can't truly get when you know what's coming."
Big Fish
"Big Fish. The end when the son starts making up the story and then the funeral when you see the 'real' versions of those characters."
"The end of the movie has always killed me, but after my dad passed away 11 years ago it hit me on a completely different level. Then I became a father myself a couple years ago and then it got me on ANOTHER completely different level!"
"Calm down, Big Fish."
- tfbillc
"I watched this with an ex-boyfriend and he was joking for almost the whole movie. Until the last story, then he was crying. At first I thought he was making fun of me, but no, tons of real tears."
- MiaHouse
Shawshank Redemption
"Brooks was here."
- Zal_17
"'I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.'"
- redr2290
"I found the scene where he's struggling to keep up in the supermarket due to his arthritis hard to watch too (knowing the outcome)."
- Zal_17
the shawshank redemption life GIFGiphyLand Before Time
"This scene from The Land Before Time where Little Foot thinks he sees his mom, but it's just his shadow and the narrator says, 'Then Little Foot knew for certain he was alone.' still gets to me every single time."
- -eDgAR-
"That whole movie f*cked me up. I still can't watch it. I watched that movie at a very young age when I was still getting a grip on the concept of death. We had just given my goldfish a burial at sea, so his Mom dying in the rain really got me."
"To be fair, the original is a f*cking dark movie for preschool and young elementary kids. Like even the color scheme is dreary. I think it's probably the first movie a lot of kids in my generation remember watching and it was a doozy. Add on The Brave Little Toaster, The Secret of Nimh, and it makes me think that the animation studios hated kids or something lol."
"Fun fact: Secret of NIMH and Land Before Time were both Don Bluth movies. He left Disney because he felt the movies were becoming too 'soft.'"
"An explanation from the man himself:"
"'What we in the animation world are doing is presenting symbols that are reflective of real life,' Bluth says. 'If you show the dark moments, then the triumphant moments have more power. And if animators don't understand that, I don't think they're animating. What they're doing is drawing.'"
"Source: https://www.vulture.com/article/don-bluth-the-land-before-time-interview-animating-death.html"
Schindler's List
"'I could have got more...' - Schindler's List."
"That scene has made me sob since I was 10."
"'This pin. It's gold. That's two more people. They would have given me two more. At least one!'"
"My daughter came home from school and said her teacher had assigned her to watch Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. I warned her she should wait a bit in between watching them but she knew better and wanted to knock them out. So, after Schindler's List I asked if she was ready to watch Saving Private Ryan. In a very small voice she said, "No, mom" and went off to her room."
"Everyone should watch both movies but not back to back. Then give yourself a week before you watch Band of Brothers."
- ivylass
"Jesus Christ. I wouldn't assign those two films in the same semester, let alone the same day."
The Iron Giant
"When Iron Giant sacrifices himself to stop a nuke."
"For me it's the 'You stay. I go. No following.'"
"I loved the movie as a kid and handled it fine."
"I re-watched it in college and when that scene came up I felt myself welling up, man."
"Am I the only one who wishes he didn't get rebuilt?"
"I get it, and honestly I'm not sure. On the one hand, it is a family movie, and animated so you have to account for children, but the finality of death and wrestling with people dying is a central theme."
"The Iron Giant definitely makes a sacrifice when he decides to fly into the nuke and risk his life to stop it. I think the scene hits harder and is more powerful if The Iron Giant makes the ultimate sacrifice though. 'It's bad to kill, but it's not bad to die.' Brad shaped the script around that message as an attempt to deal with his own personal tragedy."
"I don't know who made the decision to show that The Giant didn't die, the studio or Brad, but I can see how that cheapens the sacrifice and undercuts a core message. The older I get, the harder this movie hits, but the more I love it (I saw it in theaters back in 99, as a small child, and it is still my favorite movie as an adult over 20 years later)."
feels love it GIFGiphyTitanic
We couldn't have a list of sad movies without mentioning Titanic.
"The scene at the sinking of the Titanic showing the 2 older couple laying on the bed, the husband holding his crying wife and kissing her on the cheek as she holds her eyes tightly shut and the water rushing in under their bed."
"Always. F*cks. Me. Up."
- SiNDiLeX
"The Strausses. The reality is so sad. He begged her to get on a boat and she said she'd lived her life thus far with him and she wouldn't live it without him. They were last seen together on one of the decks."
If this didn't make your eyes aren't wet, we don't know what will.
Actually, maybe it's better if you do cry. It has some serious benefits like releasing toxins and emotional stress from the body.
Here's to a good cry!
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.