Tear Jerker / Elemental (2023)

Pixar is known for moving audiences to tears, but even then, Elemental could be considered one of their most tearjerking movies to date.

• Almost immediately upon their arrival in Element City, Bernie and Cinder are given hateful looks for being fire people. It continues when they're denied places to live by prejudiced landlords.
  • Following this, a different kind of tearjerker comes when Bernie sees two water youths coming into the Fireplace, playing around with each other and obviously planning to cause mischief. His previous difficulties with fitting in, and especially with water elementals, has him glaring angrily at them the whole time and cautioning Ember to 'watch them', his impressionable daughter getting all fired up to defend "their" store. When the water kids douse one of the hot rocks on display, Ember leaps in and scares them out of the shop, flaring herself up to look bigger and scarier until they run away. Bernie laughs at this with parental pride at Ember standing up for Fire people, but it's disheartening to see how he's unknowingly passing along the cycle of discrimination he faced to Ember by reinforcing her rejection of different elementals as a good thing, despite being an otherwise loving parent.
• Ember recalls a childhood memory where she wanted to see a Vivisteria flower (which can bloom around any element, even fire) with Bernie, but they were turned away for being fire people, even being met with racist jeering by the other elements.
• While Ember loves her parents and respects all they gave up for her, she also feels like it's a massive weight on her shoulders, a debt that she feels like she can never repay.
• While the food inspection sequence is mostly humorous, there is still an aspect of it that is rather sad. When Bernie catches Wade at the store and immediately accuses him as the city inspector who destroyed the basement pipes, both Wade and Ember lie to Bernie that Wade is a food inspector. Bernie seemingly believes them, so he gives Wade burning hot coals to inspect, insisting that he eats them. As Wade nervously eats and painfully swallows a spoon full of coals, Bernie watches with a malicious smile, clearly having fun seeing Wade in pain. Bernie keeps the inspection going by making Wade eat even bigger and hotter coals. Keep in mind that Wade is an innocent and very kind hearted person while Ember always look up to her father. Yet, here Bernie is, deliberately tormenting poor Wade out of prejudice. In a film where there is no antagonist, this is arguably one of the very few scenes where Bernie acts as a villain and Ember is very much uncomfortable with the situation. She clearly wants the inspection to stop, but is unsure of what to say as she is afraid of her father finding out that Wade is both a city inspector and someone Ember is dating.
  • When Wade eats a second spoon full of coals, he explodes and falls on the floor, spreading water around him. Ember looks at Wade in a worried expression, concerned that he is hurt. Bernie, on the other hand, just angrily tells Wade not to spill water in his shop.
  (Wade explodes, spreading water around him as he falls)
  Bernie: Hey! Watch your water! So, did we pass?
  Wade: (Nodding yes while still on the floor in pain) A+.
• Wade's Love Confession during the Crying Game causes Ember to have a vision of herself and Wade dancing around each other, only for them to attempt to touch and repel one-another, sending her flying into the distance. And she sheds a tear at what she sees as their impossible dream.
• After Wade and Ember discover that they can't hurt each other and finally embrace lovingly, Wade unwittingly says the same thing Bernie did about being "so lucky" to have her in their life. And remembering what Bernie had promised for her JUST THE NIGHT BEFORE, Ember breaks away from Wade's arms, thinking she HAS to end this relationship before it destroys her family. The fierce argument they have at the train station is heartbreaking, with Wade encouraging Ember to tell her father what she truly feels while Ember reinforces her stance by telling Wade that she can't throw away her family's wishes and sacrifices just to "follow a dream", since she went through a lot growing up. It's really tear-inducing to see Ember and Wade arguing in such a confrontational manner where mere moments before they were sharing what was a truly heartwarming moment between themselves.
  • At one point during the argument Ember actually flared up so much with purple flames that Wade actually held up a hand defensively as though fearing that she would outright burn him. He's not fazed, he's disappointed in her for not standing by her true feelings because of her fears of disappointing her family.
  Ember: I have to go.
  Wade: Wait, what? Where are you going?
  Ember: Back to my life at the shop where I belong. I take over tomorrow.
  Wade: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. You don't want that, you said so yourself.
  Ember: It doesn't matter what I want.
  Wade: Of course it does. Listen, listen. You've got an opportunity to do something you want with your life.
  Ember: "Want"? Yeah, that may work in your rich kid "follow your heart" family, but getting to do what you want is a luxury and not for people like me.
  Wade: Why not? Just tell your father how you feel. This is too important, maybe he'll agree.
  Ember: Ohh, yeah.
  Wade: Funny. And this whole time, I thought you were so strong, but it turns out you're just afraid.
  • Ember laying into Wade full force about how her background makes truly following her flame impossible to reconcile with. And Wade, ever so compassionate, gentle and flexible simply can't get why Ember would make herself miserably angry rather than just tell the truth. Giving Ember the excuse she needs to break up with him since she feels like they're two worlds apart.
  Ember: Don't you DARE judge me! You don't know what it's like to have parents who gave up everything for you! I'm fire, Wade! I can't be anything more than that! It's what I am and what my family is. It's our way of life! I cannot throw all that away just for you!
  Wade: I don't understand!
  Ember: And that alone is a reason why this can never work. It's over, Wade.
  • And even as Ember turns to leave by getting on the train, Wade still takes a few steps forward as though to pull her back but the doors have already closed. He is left alone at the train station, watching Ember leave him with an immensely sad look on his face.
• The Elemental novel “Unlikely Friends” delves into Wade’s heartbreak even more when she left him at the train station. He is sobbing to his mother that Ember disregarded his feelings and simply changed her mind.
• Although Wade initially believed Ember rejected him because she wanted to fulfill her father's dream, Cinder defends him by confirming that the smoke reading said they were a match. Ember angrily says the reading was wrong. This would convey to Wade that he wasn’t just being rejected for her career, but rather for himself. Considering he didn’t feel like he had a real purpose until he met Ember, this was a major blow to his self-esteem. Although there is a happy ending, her not considering his feelings through all of this, is bound to remain a scar. Wade in the future might be scared she’d reject him again in the name of her career or that she never really loved him.
• When Wade goes to profess his love for Ember during the celebration, she remains firm in her position that her duty is to run the shop, and she coldly tells him in front of all the other fire people that she doesn't love him. Wade leaves, utterly heartbroken. The fact that Wade, who is hysterically Prone to Tears over the most mundane and trivial things, was rather silent and tearless is a heart wrenching case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business. Rather than crying hysterically, he expresses a look of shock and pain. He just quietly hands her back her glass flower as if he was letting her go.
  Ember: Wade, go.
  Wade: But, Ember…
  Ember: I DON'T LOVE YOU!!! (glass seal cracking) GO!!! (angrily sobs)
  • Immediately following that, if that wasn't harrowing enough, Bernie chastises Ember for seeing a water element and starting the water incident in the first place, and tells her she absolutely will not be running the shop, as he himself holds off his retirement.
    Bernie: (angry at Ember) You have been seeing Water?! (coughs)
    Ember: Àshfá, I…
    Bernie: You caused leak in shop?! I trusted you! You will not take over the shop! (coughs) I NO LONGER RETIRE!!
• In the aftermath of everything, Ember goes to the bridge overlooking downtown Element City, looking to Fire Town, and to the high rises where she met Wade's family. Perfect Rule of Symbolism as she feels herself being torn apart.
  Ember: Why can't I just be a good daughter!?
  • She even thinks about throwing away the glass flower, but can't even bring herself to do that.
• Ember's rejection of Wade's love for her was so painful that the poor water elemental bought a one-way ticket to leave Element City and travel the world alone. His mother mourns for Wade in such a way that’s more than just her normal hysterical crying. She feels his pain and tells him to go travel the world and heal his broken heart and self-esteem while reminding him that he will always be her baby boy. He was seconds away from leaving if not for the dam's new seal breaking.
• During the flood, Wade holds the door while Ember frantically tries to protect her family's Blue Flame. As more water bursts through the shop, Wade urges Ember to evacuate to save herself, but she refuses to let her family's traditions get washed away, even at the risk of her own life.
  Wade: Ember! We have to go! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!
  Ember: I can't leave!
  Wade: I'm sorry to say this, but THE SHOP IS DONE! THE FLAME IS DONE!
  Ember: NO! This is my father's whole life! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!
• Ember and Wade become in the shop's furnace with no room to escape, and Wade is starting to evaporate from the trapped heat emitted by Ember. Although she tries to break through the pipes to save him, Wade tells her not to so that she won't be extinguished. The level of pure anguish in Ember's voice is truly gut-wrenching.
  Ember: I have to open that up!
  Wade: No! The water will come in and you'll be snuffed out!
  Ember: But you're evaporating! I don't know what to do!
  Wade: It's okay...
  Ember: (voice breaking) No it's not okay!
  (Ember turns to face Wade as he gently smiles and takes her by the hand)
  Wade: Ember, I have no regrets. You gave me something people search for their whole lives.
  Ember: (sobbing) But I can't exist in a world without you! I'm sorry I didn't say it before...I love you, Wade.
  (Wade smiles as he watches Ember's light reflect off the water in the room)
  Wade: I really do love it when your light does that.
• After Ember is saved from the fireplace, she mourns the loss of Wade and apologizes to Bernie for ruining his dream and being a bad daughter. When she finally admits to her father that she doesn't want to run the shop, Bernie's response is bound to set off the waterworks:
  Ember: (tearfully) This is all my fault. The shop. Wade. I need to tell you the truth. I don't want to run the shop. I know that was your dream, but it's not mine. I'm sorry. I'm a bad daughter. (cries openly)
  Bernie: Ember... the shop was never the dream. You were the dream. You were always the dream.
• Wade's restoration back to life is bound to bring on the happy tears, particularly when Ember gasps in joy and flings herself into Wade's arms.

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