Line #47 Main/HappierHomeMovie


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7	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AllGoodThings2010 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/allgoodthings_9289.jpg]]]]
8
9	->'''Britta:''' What are you doing?\
10	'''Annie:''' You know in movies where the hero's wife or girlfriend is dead or missing and so he sits in the dark and he watches her in a home movie? We're making footage of that for me in case I get kidnapped or murdered!
11	-->-- ''Series/{{Community}}'', "[[Recap/CommunityS6E12WeddingVideography Wedding Videography]]"
12
13	Is your character [[FriendlessBackground alone in the world]]? Have they lost a family member? [[TheExIndex Did they just break up with the love of their life?]] Do you want to show that no matter how much time has passed, they just can't get over it? It's easy: just have them watch a home movie of the happier times with that family member. Said movie will often include one or both parties declaring outright how much they love the other, just to drive the point home. For bonus unhealthiness points, have the grieving character [[RewindReplayRepeat rewind the tape and watch it over... and over... and over...]]
14
15	A character in desperate circumstances, perhaps alone, on the verge of death, or on the run, will come "home" to watch old videos of their past life, usually childhood videos or family outings, sometimes surrounded by [[KitschCollection items from their past life]] or [[MementoMacguffin memorabilia]] they have carried with them the whole way which turn out to be [[ItWasHisSled significant]] to learning more about their persona. A person trying to find them may find them watching the videos, even if they were strenuously attempting to avoid pursuit earlier; or the videos will have been left on.
16
17	May also be used to reminisce about life AfterTheEnd or set up a DisappearedDad or MissingMom.
18
19	A common subtrope is watching a Wedding Video. Sometimes this is after a divorce, an affair, or something else breaking up the couple. Or maybe it's after a death leaving one of the couple behind.
20
21	Compare FormerFriendsPhoto, FamilyPortraitOfCharacterization. See also AlasPoorVillain, ReallyDeadMontage, LostLoveMontage, and HappyFlashback.
22
23	Related to TroubledBackstoryFlashback. If it was made intentionally prior to death, see VideoWill.
24
25	!!As this is ''sometimes'' a {{Death Trope\|s}} but frequently an {{Ending Trope\|s}}, [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers abound]]. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned Beware]].
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28	[[foldercontrol]]
29	[[folder:Advertising]]
30	* A ScareEmStraight [[PublicServiceAnnouncement [=PSA=]]] about fire safety has a mother and father crying and watching movies of their child opening Christmas presents.
31	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhMiXDGiNvA These]] British public information films intercut between (staged) footage of a coroner conducting the autopsy of a young girl who died in a fire (the body isn't visible in the shots, but it's still pretty harrowing) and home video footage of the girl when she was alive, overlaid with the coroner's narration of exactly how she died.
32	* A series of anti-drunk driving [=PSA=]s in the 1990s and early 2000s featured home movies of individuals in happier times -- a child playing happily at home, a young man playing in his high school marching band, a young woman having fun hanging around with her friends -- only to reveal their names, the fact they were all victims of drunk driving accidents, and the age they were at the time of their deaths.
33	** A similar series ran in the UK, although the focus was on speeding rather than drunk driving. The spots juxtaposed (geunine) home video footage of children who had died in road accidents with a narrator reading poetry about death and grief. The most famous one featured audio of Creator/JohnHannah reading "Funeral Blues" from ''Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral''; another one had Creator/MichaelGambon reading Walter De La Mare's "November," and a third, rather than using a poem, featured a reading of the police protocols for informing parents that their child has died in an accident.
34	* Played for laughs in a commercial advertising financial solutions. A man is sitting in a dark living room, wistfully watching recorded news segments of skyrocketing stock prices during the [=DotCom=] bubble which...well...aren't quite as high anymore.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38	* Played with in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' when the crew receives a mysterious antique videotape, which leads first to amusing escapades as they try to locate a matching player and then to MoodWhiplash when it turns out to be a happier home movie the amnesiac Faye sent to her future self during the childhood she can't remember. Eventually, however, it becomes the key that unlocks her memories of the past.. only to trigger another MoodWhiplash when she realizes [[YouCantGoHomeAgain that world is gone for good.]]
39	* This shows up in ''Anime/GunBuster'', when Admiral Takayama watches the short clip of Noriko as he goes down with the ship.
40	* In ''Anime/{{K}}: Missing Kings'', in the beginning of the movie, Misaki is alone in Bar HOMRA, watching videos that [[PosthumousCharacter Tatara]] took, of his birthday party, and missing Tatara and [[spoiler: Mikoto, who died in season 1 getting revenge for Tatara]].
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Books]]
44	* In ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'', Squee's dad at one point watches a home movie of Squee's birth... playing it ''backwards''. Try to figure out what times daddy considered to be the happier times...
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Fan Works]]
48	* ''Fanfic/{{Fermeture}}'' opens with Marinette torturing herself with old Ladyblog videos, tearing up at the sight of her partner.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
52	* A video log version of this trope appears in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' when Hiro is shown the footage of Tadashi's test runs of Baymax [[spoiler: to pull him out of his HeroicBSOD]].
53	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', after Marge and the kids leave Homer to go save Springfield, Homer watches the video Marge left him that explained why they had gone. [[TapedOverTurmoil She had recorded the video over their wedding video]], and Homer watches the rest of the wedding video [[JerkassRealization as it finally hits him how much he's screwed up]].
54	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Jin finds the video Mei and her friends made of them having fun with Mei as a red panda and shows it to Mei to remind her of that side of herself.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
58	* After they make it to Jim's home [[spoiler:and find his dead parents]] in ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', Jim sits down and watches a home movie by candlelight. Sadly, the light is visible through the curtains...
59	* In ''Film/{{Akunin}}'', the father of the girl the main character murdered is seen sitting alone watching home movies of her childhood during her funeral.
60	* The opening credits of ''Film/AllGoodThings2010'' are underlaid with home video footage depicting the protagonist's happy childhood.
61	* A lighter version is the son in ''Film/AllIWantForChristmas'', about before his parents split up.
62	* ''Film/{{Basquiat}}'': After Creator/{{Andy\| Warhol}} dies Jean-Michel watches home movies Andy made of the two of them. In an unusual touch director Julian Schnabel uses stock footage of the actual Warhol and Basquiat.
63	* Mr. Freeze watches one from his wedding in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''.
64	* ''Film/TheBloodyMan'': Amy finds a videotape among [[TheProtagonist Sam]]'s stuff. When she watches it, she sees it's a video of their family when their mom was still alive having a picnic. [[spoiler:The family has a similar one at the end of the movie, with Kim, Stacy, and Sam's female friend.]]
65	* In ''Film/TheBoyWhoCouldFly'', Milly's DisappearedDad left one for the family [[spoiler: before killing himself due to his terminal illness.]]
66	* ''Film/AClassicHorrorStory'': Sofia watches a silly little movie she made with Mark at one point in the movie. Later, Riccardo is seen watching a video of his daughter.
67	* ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' features flashes of the home movie of Rob and Beth's trip to Coney Island a month before the events of the film, offered in glimpses as the malfunctioning camera is taping over the trip.
68	* In ''Film/{{Contact}}'', the heroine is shown video footage of her happy childhood.
69	* ''Film/TheDayAfter'' features one of these, in the form of flashbacks in the mind of the dying-of-radiation-poisoning Dr. Oakes, of the life he had before the nuclear war.
70	* The opening of ''Film/DeadMansShoes'' consists of heartwarming video footage of Richard and Anthony as little kids.
71	* ''Film/DeathSentence'' opens with a montage of home movies showing the progress of the Hume family. After his family seemingly wiped by Billy Darley and his gang, Nick Hume goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge to wipe out the gang. At the end of the movie, with his family now avenged, Nick returns home, watches his own family's movies and awaits his inevitable arrest. Detective Wallis comes to arrest Nick, but informs him that Lucas has moved and will now live. Nick becomes relieved and looks at the television, which shows the family singing on the couch.
72	* In ''Film/DogDays2018'', the elderly widower Walter watches a video from 2002 of his wife receiving their yellow car as a gift.
73	* In ''Film/DontBreathe'', the Blind Man has a video of his dead daughter running on his television when Money breaks into his bedroom.
74	* ''Film/DontListen'': After attending his son's funeral, Daniel is seen watching a home movie of him, his wife, Sara, and said son when they first moved into the house.
75	* Subverted in ''Film/FallingDown''. After [[VillainProtagonist D-FENS]] reaches his ex-wife and daughter's house, he starts looking through some home videos of when they were together. It brings him comfort, but at the same time, it [[HeelRealization makes him (and the audience) recognize the emotional abuse his wife left him over]]. The audience is treated to another view of the same video in the end [[spoiler:right after he dies]].
76	* At the end of ''Film/TheFalconAndTheSnowman'', the scenes of Boyce and Lee in prison for espionage are cut back and forth to home video scenes of them as recent high school graduates, altar boys at church, and birthday parties with friends and family.
77	* ''Film/TheFighter'' shows home video footage of the protagonists' happy teenage years.
78	* Most of TheOutsideWorld shown in ''Film/FriendOfTheWorld'' is through an older home video from a happier time.
79	* ''Film/IntoTheForest'': This trope becomes SeriousBusiness for two sisters living alone during a society-collapsing BigBlackout. Eva wants to use some gasoline to power the generator and, in part, see their late parents again through home movies, but the more practical Nell argues that they need to save the gas for emergencies, driving a wedge between the sisters. After a serious trauma, Nell relents, and the pair bond over happy home movies.
80	* Towards the end of ''Film/JohnDoeVigilante'', as the title character prepares to kill the man who raped and murdered his wife and daughter, he makes him watch a video that was taken of the three of them.
81	* Played with in ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'', which opens with a video [[CutenessProximity some children have made]] where they interview Superman at the scene of some of his heroics. The video abruptly cuts off, and after a BatmanColdOpen the audience is shown a world where people have lost hope because Superman is dead.
82	* ''Film/JustLikeHeaven'': David spends all his time watching his old wedding video and drinking due to his grief over his wife's sudden death.
83	* ''Film/{{Kidnap}}'' opens with a montage of videos showing Frankie Dyson growing up before cutting to the present, when he's six years old.
84	* ''Film/TheKingOfMarvinGardens'': After [[spoiler:Jason is killed]], Grandpa watches a film of a younger David and Jason playing on a beach.
85	* One scene in ''Film/{{Knowing}}'' has Caleb watching a video of his late mother.
86	* This is one of Creator/VincentPrice's most effective scenes in ''Film/TheLastManOnEarth''.
87	* ''Film/LastNight'': Patrick and Jenny's grandmother spends some of the last hours before TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt watching home videos of her family (and a hyper, presumably long-dead dog) at Christmas celebrations and birthday parties.
88	* ''Film/{{Matinee}}'' (1993, with John Goodman) combines this trope with [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar Nuclear Nightmare]], because the hero's DisappearedDad is on a boat in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
89	* The hero of ''Film/MinorityReport'' habitually watches hologram home movies from before his son was taken.
90	* In ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017'', Colonel Armstrong is shown in flashback watching a home movie of his (now-dead) family before he commits suicide. [[spoiler:Another flashback shows the murderers watching the same movie as they make their pact to kill Casetti]].
91	* ''Film/INotStupidToo'' ends with one of these, depicting the protagonist Tom Yeo's childhood, when he was 4 and his parents weren't the [[ParentalNeglect workaholic, neglectful]], and borderline unlikable jerkasses they are in the present. It ends with Tom's mother waving a chocolate bar to the then-toddler Tom, before unexpectedly segueing into the same mother waving a cane to beat him up.
92	* Less dramatic version in ''Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation''. Clark, stranded in the attic while the rest of the family is out shopping, kills time by watching old filmstrips of his childhood Christmases. It skirts the trope because he's looking at older, happier Christmases while the one ''he'''s trying to host is slowly [[HilarityEnsues and hilariously]] falling apart around him.
93	* In ''Film/ParisTexas'', Travis watches a home movie of the time he and Jane were still together.
94	* ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}'' ends with home movies of Andrew Beckett's childhood being shown at his funeral.
95	* ''Film/RedDragon'' has a very gruesome example of this, as the home videos of the two murdered families not only show them in happier times, but watching them is what made the man who edited them decide ''to kill them''.
96	* This was actually deconstructed on ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'', where the main character manages to get his ex-wife, whom he has seen in old home videos only to see how empty she is and erase said videos.
97	* ''Film/SecretsInTheHotSpring'': While searching through the old family hotel (which has been repurposed as storage space), [[TheProtagonist Qie]] finds a camcorder containing a video of his parents when they were alive and he was younger.
98	* In ''Simpatico'', Vinnie (played by Creator/NickNolte) spends his days drinking and watching home movies of his younger days, when he was care-free, cocky, making lots of money with a horse-racing scam, and in a relationship with the very attractive Rosie. In the present, Vinnie is an unemployed drunk who stumbles around town claiming to be a private investigator (he isn't) while living off charity from his friend Lyle (Creator/JeffBridges).
99	* The ending of ''Film/TheSixthSense''--[[spoiler: though to be technical, it's the main character's ''wife'' who's watching the video, since he's already dead]].
100	** Also when [[spoiler:the dead girl's father watches the movie in which her mom poisons her.]] Before he realizes what he's watching, he gets lost in the tape. [[spoiler: May not count in that he didn't choose to watch it, but it was given to him by Cole and the girl's ghost,]] but it still has the same effect on him.
101	* ''Film/SmartHouse'' has Ben and PAT watch one of younger Ben and Angie cooking with their now-deceased mother.
102	* ''Film/SoylentGreen'' has something similar in the suicide booths, only with footage from the world before its ecology was destroyed rather than home videos.
103	* At the beginning of the movie ''Film/{{Starman}}'', Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) watches old home movies of herself and her deceased husband. Though we don't see her do it more than once, it's implied that this is not the first time.
104	* ''Film/StrangeVoices,'' a LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek about schizophrenia, features one of these, about the happy family life the family had before schizophrenia struck.
105	* Variant in ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'': Norma constantly watches the old movies that she starred in.
106	* In ''Film/{{Super 8}}'' Joe watches a home movie of himself as a baby with his mother, who died in an industrial accident shortly before the start of the film.
107	* ''Film/{{Taken}}'' starts off with Bryan Mills watching a video of his daughter Kim's (who just reached the age of 17 in the present) fifth birthday.
108	* Max Walker watches a home movie of him and his late wife in ''Film/{{Timecop}}''.
109	* A variant occurs in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', when Eddie goes through old photos of him and his late brother Teddy and then-wife Dolores on a vacation.
110	* ''Film/{{Testament}}'' uses home-movie footage to contrast the happy times of the family members who are the main characters with life in the small town AfterTheEnd.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Literature]]
114	* In Creator/StephenKing's nonfiction book ''Danse Macabre'', he relates how his father, Donald, abandoned the family when Stephen was two and his brother David was four. Later, King writes, David found a roll of movie film in the attic over their aunt and uncle's garage. The two brothers pooled their money to rent a projector so they could watch the film. It turned out to be home movies taken by Donald:
115	--> My father turned the camera over to someone else at one point and there he is, Donald King of Peru, Indiana, standing against the rail. He raises his hand; smiles; unknowingly waves to sons who were then not even conceived. We rewound it, watched it, rewound it, watched it again. And again. Hi, Dad; wonder where you are now.
116	* The Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "The Dead Past" has a variation where, at the urging of a professor, an inventor produces an improved chronoscope (a device that allows you to view images from the past). The professor is horrified that his wife intends to use it to relive scenes from the life of their daughter who died as a child in a house fire, worried that she would be dangerously obsessive and end up living in the past. [[spoiler:He's also afraid that she might end up discovering the potential that it was his accidentally dropped cigar that started the fire that killed her.]]
117	* In ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]'', Peeta's brainwashing is heavily repaired after watching videos of his and Katniss's time together.
118	** Although the videos in question are of the Hunger Games so "happier" is probably not the right word.
119	* ''Literature/TheMermaidChronicles'': In the first book, Cordelia often watches the video of her and her twin brother Dylan's thirteenth birthday party, taken not long before the selachii attack that killed their mother and caused Dylan to be presumed dead for five years.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
123	* On ''Series/{{Angel}}'' after Doyle makes his HeroicSacrifice they watch the video he made at the beginning of the episode when Cordy was trying to make a commercial for Angel Investigations.
124	** [[TearJerker "Is that it? Am I done?"]]
125	** Angel and Cordy watch the video again in season 5 [[spoiler: before Cordelia dies.]]
126	* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' had a less dramatic version of this. Mr. Matthews watches videos of Cory as a kid after Cory gets his driver's license and decides to spend his birthday with his friends instead of his family. The videos appear to be the actor's actual home movies with overdubbed audio by the actors who play Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.
127	* It's not a ''video'', but in ''Series/BreakingBad'', Jesse calls [[spoiler:his former girlfriend's]] cell phone over and over after [[spoiler:she]] dies just to hear [[spoiler: her]] voice telling him to leave a message. The line is eventually disconnected by the phone company (presumably for non-payment). This puts him in a sort of DespairEventHorizon, but then repeatedly dialing the number to hear the message wasn't exactly a healthy way of dealing with it either, and it does prompt him to eventually put some effort into trying to get over it.
128	* The end of the ''Series/Charmed1998'' episode "Thank You For Not Morphing", when the Halliwell sisters reconcile with their estranged father.
129	* Utilized to cruel effect against Daniel Shaw by the Ring on ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. After being captured by the Director, Shaw is played a video made by his slain wife on his birthday. The video loops through a scene of her telling Shaw she loves him intercut with surveillance footage of Sarah Walker's "Red Test," in which she unknowingly shot and killed Shaw's wife, and is intended to manipulate him into making a FaceHeelTurn. [[spoiler:It works.]] This same video is later played by Shaw himself for Sarah in the opening of the next episode, and is also shown to be going through Shaw's mind before [[spoiler:he is shot by Chuck to keep him from killing Sarah in retaliation at the end]].
130	* In the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "The Road", the victim's fiancé is seen watching a video that's a montage of their greatest moments that was played at their engagement party. [[spoiler:Fortunately, she turns out to be alive.]]
131	* Invoked in the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Wedding Videography" when Abed and Annie deliberately film footage of her frolicking prettily around her bedroom just in case she gets murdered or goes missing at some point in the future, satisfying Abed's need for tropes.
132	* ''Series/CriminalMinds''
133	** In the episode "Slave of Duty", [[spoiler:Haley's death]] is pounded home when her son watches home movies of them because he "can't remember her".
134	** Also, in "Hanley Waters", the [[spoiler:[=UnSub's=] ex-husband]] managed to overcome the grief for their [[spoiler: son]]'s death by watching videos of them together.
135	** What kind of a "happier" home movie would a serial killer watch? [[spoiler: His abusive father killing his mother in a fit of jealous rage]], of course!
136	* In the ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', Drew announces that he broke up his engagement to Nicky during his and Oswald's bachelor party. After he gets home he puts in his VCR the homemade porno movie he and Nicky were filming days before. [[spoiler: When she takes off her clothes, Nicky sees how fat she's become and [[DownerEnding blames Drew for regaining the weight she had spent years losing and keeping off, and dumps him.]]]]
137	* On ''Series/{{ER}}'', after Doug's father dies, he and Mark watch home movies of his family, presumably taken before his father abandoned him and his mother.
138	* In one episode of ''Series/FullHouse'', the family watches the video of the now-dead mom arriving home from the hospital with then-newborn baby Michelle.
139	* Season five of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': While going through his lab, Walter finds a home video of one of the deceased [[spoiler:Etta]]'s birthday parties from her early childhood. He encourages her mother to watch it so she can face her grief, hoping it will prevent her from doing anything outrageous to cope. The scene of her watching the tape and dealing with the death is contrasted with the father going to nearly suicidal lengths to get revenge.
140	* In the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' episode "Grilled Cheesus", Kurt's father is in a coma after a heart attack, and Kurt sings [[Music/TheBeatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"]] and the performance is interspersed with a home video of a six-year-old Kurt having a tea party with his dad. FridgeBrilliance kicks in and makes the video extra-heartbreaking when you realize that it was probably Kurt's ''mother''--dead in the present--who filmed it.
141	* In one episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'', Miley watches a family Christmas from when her mom was still alive before she undergoes a throat surgery that might leave her never being able to sing again.
142	* ''Series/HappyDays'': A couple:
143	** The 1978 episode "Richie Almost Dies" (a show where Richie is critically injured in a motorcycle accident and is clinging to life), where Fonzie's girlfriend Leather plays the mournful ballad, "Find Strength in Your Friends" in the Cunningham living room as a cross-fade to a montage of Richie clips plays. Several are stock footage clips, while others come from the first 4,1/2 seasons of the show.
144	** The Season 9 opener, "Home Movies," which features Joanie and Chachi in happier times ... not long after which we see them fighting and their first major breakup.
145	* A variation occurs in an episode of ''Series/HomeImprovement''. After Mark gets dumped by his girlfriend, he reverts to his goth persona and shaves his head. Tim tries to talk with him but Mark refuses to and storms off. After he's gone, Tim looks down at a photo album the family has been working on and picks up a picture of Mark from the first season smiling and happy.
146	* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Selfish", when a young girl goes missing, we see the girl's grandfather watching a video tape of his family playing in the park as he falls OffTheWagon (the granddaughter, in question, being his main reason for having originally sobered up).
147	** A later episode begins with a video of a young girl singing, which cuts away to reveal that the girl, now in her teens, has become a celebrity singer. The episode ends with the same video clip being played on the news as part of the reporting on [[spoiler:the girl's death.]]
148	* ''Series/MadMen'' has a variation in the season one finale, when Don shows a slideshow of photographs (he's rolling out an ad campaign for the Carousel) of his happy family (which anyone who's watched the show would know is not exactly the truth).
149	* In the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Mercy Me," a man watches videos of his now-comatose son learning to walk and playing baseball.
150	* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS8E6 Hidden Depths]]", a has been celebrity who used to host a TV quiz show is shown at home watching a video of a command performance where he got to meet Princess Diana. He constantly rewinding and re-watching the part where Diana shakes his hand.
151	* Happens on ''Series/{{Monk}}'', after a JerkAss jokes about [[DudeNotFunny the title character's wife's death]], Monk watches their Wedding Video alone.
152	* ''Series/{{Motive}}'': In "Undertow", the killer is shown sitting at home alone watching a video of his dead son a rocking horse. The death of his son provided the motive for the murder, and earlier he had been shown disposing of the rocking horse because he couldn't stand to look at it any longer.
153	* The ending of "I Don't Remember Mama" from ''Series/TheNanny''. Then Gracie finally remembers her.
154	* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'': Callen is introduced as a man with no past. He goes by G, but doesn't even know what G stands for. It was simply on the paper work that accompanied him to the orphanage. The series eventually reveals that Callen was brought to the US with an older sister who died several years after the two were placed in separate orphanages. Later as Callen delves into the mystery of his family and his repressed childhood memories, he finds a video of himself, his older sister, and his father. They were playing together on a swing set in times that were clearly much happier than the childhood that would follow after his mother was murdered and his father, a spy, was forced into hiding, requiring him to abandon his children for their own safety.
155	* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Reese is shown sitting on a sofa and watching some of these, featuring his deceased ex-girlfriend. Only, it's not his house. He's waiting for her husband to come home so he can kill him.[[note]]Or possibly dump him in a Mexican prison under a fake name, it's not entirely clear.[[/note]]
156	* Alcoholic Tommy in ''Series/RescueMe'' lost his cousin and best friend in 9/11, his wife and kids have left him and he is in a relationship with a woman he hates who was also married to said friend. After watching an old home movie, he pours vodka all over and nearly immolates himself.
157	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': When Creator/AdamSandler hosted SNL in 2019, he performed a song that paid tribute to his friend and former SNL castmate Creator/ChrisFarley, which was accompanied by clips from SNL, Farley's film and TV appearances, and his childhood home movies with permission from the Farley family.
158	* The ending of the ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' episode Jordan first appears in, which is actually a video from the actress's real life wedding.
159	* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Clark Kent goes on a self-destructive, rage-filled course after his father Jonathan died. In the episode "Vengeance", he finally snaps out of it and cries when he sees an old video of Jonathan playing with him as a child and teaching him how to drive the tractor.
160	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "And The Children Shall Lead". Captain Kirk shows the children tapes of them playing with their parents to remind them of the happy life they had before Gorgon the Friendly Angel corrupted them.
161	* Used for a TearJerker in the second episode of ''Series/{{Weeds}}'', Nancy breaks the family video camera out of frustration which upsets Shane because he had been watching videos of his dad on it throughout most of the episode. It ends with various clips of Judah and a sad indie song.
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Music Videos]]
165	* The music video for the Music/BackstreetBoys' "[[GriefSong Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely]]" briefly shows Kevin Richardson viewing a tape of him young and playing with his father and family. This is further played considering the video implies all of the Boys are, InUniverse, recently-deceased.
166	* Music/PhilCollins' music video for his [[CoveredUp take on "A Groovy Kind of Love"]] has hints of this. The "home movies" he's watching are clips from ''Buster'', in which he played a real-life criminal who staged a "Great Train Robbery" during the 60s and spent much of his life on the run.
167	* Music/BrianMay's solo version of "Too Much Love Will Kill You" is intercut with footage from various home films as May sings to the camera.
168	* The end of Music/{{Ultravox}}'s "Dancing with Tears In My Eyes" features a young couple (of which the male component is played by Midge Ure) and their little girl having fun having at what looks to be a picnic in their back yard. [[TearJerker The last scene is of the little girl playing around in the yard,]] during which the film is [[GoingCritical burned by the nuclear radiation]].
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
172	* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'': In "Children of Lucifer", Blenkinsop shows the imprisoned mafiosi home movies of wife and daughter so they will understand why he is doing what he is doing just before he attempts to murder them in a BoardToDeath scenario.
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:Video Games]]
176	* ''VideoGame/ChildOfEden'' has the "Tree of Memories" during the credits, comprised of fan-submitted photos, and accompanied by [[AwardBaitSong touching]] TearJerker [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5f68qxAKME music]].
177	* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'''s ending montage concludes with a portrait of the player character and their father (James), accompanied by the NostalgicMusicBox tune heard at the beginning of the game.
178	** An audio version is used in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', where one of the possible companions, a super mutant Nightkin named Lily Bowen, carries around a recording of her grandchildren. Tragically, the medication she needs to treat her schizophrenia, which all Nightkin suffer from due to excessive exposure to the Stealth Boys, also gradually erases her memory of her pre-mutant life. There is no happy ending here, she will either eventually set out to find her lost past, and a family who is centuries dead, or she will begin taking the medication at full strength, curing her mental illness, but permanently taking away the memories of her grandchildren, leading to her discarding the recording. Or the worst ending where Lily stops taking her medications, which let her keep her memories... but day after day her instabilities got worse and worse until the sweet old granny who loves the Courier as if they were her grandchild becomes nothing more but a raving beast consumed by rage.
179	** Another audio version is used in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', if the Sole Survivor meets their robot butler/nanny, Codsworth, in the ruins of their old home. Near the end of their conversation, Codsworth will give the Sole Survivor a holotape from their spouse, intended to be a gift before the bombs fell. It features the spouse (either Nate or Nora, depending on who the player chose to play as) and their son Shaun playfully recording a message to the Sole Survivor telling them that they love them.
180	* In ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', you can make Ethan watch a home movie of his dead son -- how many times he watches it (and whether he even makes it all the way through) is up to the player.
181	* One scene in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' puts you in the POV of a man filming his wife and daughter on vacation in London just before they are [[ApocalypticLog killed by a gas attack]].
182	* Near the end of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'''s prologue, as Ori walks through the withered forest, a flashback montage is shown of his happier times with Naru. In the ''Definitive Edition'', the {{bonus dungeon}}s feature flashbacks to Naru's childhood, including her friendship with previous Light Spirits, and her home life with her father until his death.
183	* In the ''VideoGame/OuterWilds: Echoes of the Eye'' DLC, you can find a slide reel showing the alien inhabitants of [[RingWorldPlanet the Stranger]] succumbing to this out of homesickness after arriving in your solar system, [[spoiler:not helped by the fact that they [[YouCantGoHomeAgain reduced their homeworld]] to a PollutedWasteland in the process of building their ringworld.]] This drove them to develop a [[LotusEaterMachine virtual reality]] that recreated their homeworld even better than their ringworld's habitat. Unfortunately, it didn't work - if you enter the simulation, you can see one of the aliens ''still'' watching nostalgic slide reels of life on their homeworld.
184	* In ''VideoGame/{{Sanitarium}}'', we see a father doing this after his daughter's death.
185	* Used and subverted for creepiness in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''.
186	** The movie that serves as the opening to ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' falls under this trope by implication. It's rewound and replayed several times consecutively, as if to suggest that the watcher is really hung up on their loss. It's also [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] during the MultipleEndings, [[spoiler: and often {{Subverted}} with a final scene giving a clearer look at what Harry was really(?) like]].
187	*** Also, the first time the player sees the video being played over and over, they might think it's Harry watching the video because he's so worried about his daughter. After TheReveal, however, [[spoiler:you realize it's the opposite, and that Cheryl is the one watching it obsessively because [[TearJerker she misses her dad so much.]]]]
188	* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', [[spoiler: the main character Fei]] has a [[MentalWorld mental analogy]] of this trope going on in [[spoiler: his]] head. It's used to show [[spoiler: how his original "Coward" persona is hoarding all of his positive childhood memories (like playing ball with his mother) while leaving [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Id]] with all the negative ones (like said mother getting [[BodySurf possessed by Miang]] and [[WouldHurtAChild performing cruel experiments on him]]). It takes Fei's current personality [[WhatTheHellHero convincing the Coward]] to share his half of their memories with Id to reconcile all three of them back together near the end of the game.]]
189	[[/folder]]
190
191	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
192	* The protagonist of ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' watches a video of himself skiing that his parents recorded when he first emerges from his room after the Barbarossa incident.
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder:Web Animation]]
196	* An easter egg page on ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sadjournal/wonderyears.html The Secrets That I Keep]], features a brief clip that shows a whole other side of [[JerkAss Strong Bad]]. And [[TheEeyore Strong Sad]], for that matter.
197	* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', [[spoiler: The Director is found watching a video of the last time he saw Allison. [[RewindReplayRepeat Over... and over... and over.]]]]
198	[[/folder]]
199
200	[[folder:Web Original]]
201	* WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd has played videos of himself as a kid playing NES before showing a mortifyingly terrible game. He started off the review of the ComicStrip/DickTracy video game by showing a home movie of himself trick or treating as Dick Tracy. Young nerd re-enacts the "I got a rock!" scene from ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown''. Grown-up nerd reflects how he'd rather have a rock than the crappy game he now has to review.
202	[[/folder]]
203
204	[[folder:Western Animation]]
205	* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Ketchup," Marceline finds an old USB drive and asks BMO to download whatever's on it for her. It turns out to be slides of Marceline when she was a little girl, playing on the beach with her mother.
206	* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker''. The Joker and Harley Quinn kidnap Robin and torture/brainwash him into becoming their surrogate child Joker. Joker shows Batman their happy home movie, but it's of Robin StrappedToAnOperatingTable at the Joker's mercy.
207	* On ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', an old ''JustForFun/HorsinAround'' episode serves as one of these after [[spoiler:Bojack's former costar Sarah Lynn dies]].
208	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'', Jake Morgendorffer transfers old home movies to videotape, but cannot get past one of him falling off his bike as a child that serves to bring back traumatic childhood memories and unresolved conflicts with his father. He sits and watches the same thirty seconds on an eternally repeating loop until well into the night...
209	* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' animated TV special did a segment where a wolf is watching old home movies of his mate, the last one of which is said mate fooling around with a large animal trap.
210	* A variation in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In one episode, Fry sank into a deep depression and started watching all sorts of programs and shows from the 90's (he misses his family and much of the things he left behind when he was accidentally cryogenically frozen and revived in the year 3000).
211	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' episode "I Was a Teenage Stimpy", where Stimpy goes through puberty and Ren (acting as a father to him) watches an old home movie of him playing catch with a baby Stimpy.
212	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
213	** Parodied in "Three Gays of the Condo", where an aged Dr Hibbert is watching old video footage of his patients and lamenting that all he has left now is his tapes (it's explained earlier in the episode that he had been videotaping his examination room for years because he suspected his nurse was stealing sponges), with the video he's now watching being the ending of that particular episode. The nurse then walks past the camera with an arm full of sponges.
214	--->'''Old!Hibbert''': She WAS stealing sponges! I ''knew'' it!
215	** "The Wife Aquatic" has Patty and Selma accidentally bringing old home movies of the Bouvier family vacations to an island resort, which was Marge's favorite place as a child. She quickly becomes submerged in old memories, and is devastated when Homer brings her back to the resort, and finds it is now an impoverished slum.
216	** In "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore", Milhouse moves to Capital City. Bart tries to cope by watching a home movie of him and Milhouse as kids, playing a prank on Homer. He cries at it until Marge gives him something else to do.
217	** In "Lisa's Pony", Homer forgets to bring Lisa a reed for her saxophone, causing her to butcher a school concert performance. Lisa is understandably upset, and that night, Homer watches old tapes from when Lisa was a baby. He realizes that he never actually paid attention to her, and regrets his actions, making it up to Lisa by buying her a pony.
218	* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has one show up in the episode "Lion 3: Straight to Video," recorded for the not-yet-born Steven by his dad and mom, the latter of whom would need to pass away to bring Steven into the world. "Lion 4: Alternate Ending" reveals that Rose also recorded another tape just in case her baby was a girl.
219	* A variation in ''WesternAnimation/WatershipDown2018'' as rabbits don't have home movies, but Woundwort's TroubledBackstoryFlashback to when he witnessed the death of his family is like a [[{{Retraux}} scratchy silent home movie]].
220	[[/folder]]
221

Context Main / HappierHomeMovie