History TearJerker / MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots

* In one codec call with Campbell at the start of act 2, he makes clear that while Snake may have taken the brunt of the Patriots ire, none of the good guy's came out of the Shadow Moses incident unscathed, and unlike him didn't have the luxury of just going on the run.

* [[ItMakesSenseInContext CQC hug]].

* CQC hug.

* The dying Big Boss painfully stands up to salute in front of The Boss's grave.

** The secret tapes received after completing [=MGSV=] shed more light on Big Boss and Zero's relationship. After the attack on MSF, Zero used his remaining days of clarity to keep the comatose Snake as safe as humanely possible. The final time Zero sees Snake is when he visits him in Cyprus, telling him his regrets while he thinks Snake can't hear. He sounds incredibly sad, and hopes Snake will recover and that he can forgive him. After he leaves, the remaining seconds of silence on the tape are broken by the sound of Snake moving in bed, implying this was after he woke up (but before Venom) and heard everything. Consider how this parallels Big Boss discussing Zero with Old Snake while he's vegetative in a wheelchair.

* Big Mama aka EVA's final moments in Act 3. While on the run from Raging Raven, EVA fell from her motorcycle and receives a similar injury that she had suffered 50 years ago during [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 Operation Snake Eater]]. As she struggles to get up, she briefly sees Old Snake as Naked Snake, the man she never stops loving all these years. After reaching the docks and watching as Vamp throws the comatose Big Boss into a burning wrecked hull of a ship, EVA, in a futile attempt to rescue him, jumps into the fire and is then shot by Liquid. Big Mama eventually dies, in the arms of her son. To make it even worse, Snake can't even hold his mother's hand before she died, and while he doesn't say anything, still, the look on his face sounds like he's sad about it. Also, the mission had ended in a disaster and Snake still had the knife in his shoulder as a result of the brief duel against Liquid Ocelot. His posture a few second later shows him resigned to his fate until Drebin catches up to him and gets the knife off of him.

** What makes the conversation even more poignant is that it's almost the complete opposite of the conversation Snake and Big Boss have in VideoGame/MetalGear2, shortly before Snake defeats him.

** Especially in Japanese. Unlike in English, the voice actor is actually sobbing in that scene.

** As if to hammer it in, when Naomi solemnly tells Snake that he has half a year to live, his Psyche Meter automatically drops by a whole block. And then when Naomi explains that the FOXDIE will mutate in three months ''his Psyche Meter drops down to half.'' The tone of his voice as he says "Three months!" is particularly full of shock. He has to face the mission of his life, his final mission, kill Liquid and commit suicide, all in three months before FOXDIE's mutation takes effect, just to keep everyone safe, being forced sacrifice his own life for the entire world before a world-scale epidemic occurs.

* The microwave room scene. The screen is split into section, one showing Snake and the other showing his allies fighting waves after waves of enemies. Already a dying old man, Snake slowly walks through the room, enduring the pain from the microwaves to the point the he is forced to crawl. Meanwhile, Johnny and Meryl continue fighting until they ran out of bullets, Raiden is overwhelmed too and the crew of the Missouri are being attacked by numerous Dwarf Geckos and Metal Gear Rays as well. Combined the the sad theme playing, one might expect that some of them to die but fortunately Snake succeeds.
* Big Mama aka EVA's final moments in Act 3. While on the run from Raging Raven, EVA fell from her motorcycle and receives a similar injury that she had suffered 50 years ago during [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3 Operation Snake Eater]]. As she struggles to get up, she briefly sees Old Snake as Naked Snake, the man she never stopped loving all these years. After reaching the docks and watching as Vamp throws the comatose Big Boss into a burning wrecked hull of a ship, EVA, in a futile attempt to rescue him, jumps into the fire and is then shot by Liquid. Big Mama eventually dies, in the arms of her son. To make it even worse, Snake can't even hold his mother's hand before she died, and while he doesn't say anything, still, the look on his face sounds like he's sad about it. Also, the mission had ended in a disaster and Snake still had the knife in his shoulder as a result of the brief duel against Liquid Ocelot. His posture a few second later shows him resigned to his fate until Drebin catches up to him and gets the knife off of him.
** It becomes harsher when it is revealed that EVA didn't die from her injuries but from a new strain of FOXDIE that Snake had contracted with, therefore, Snake essentially killed his mother. Even moreso, EVA knew about this but chooses to die with the knowledge that the Patriots' time is about to end.

* Ultimately Philanthropy fails miserably at its role of destroying the Metal Gear derivatives throughout the world. Why is this a tear jerker? because this was the task that gave Solid Snake back his reason to live, the reason why he stopped being the PTSD driven alcoholic mess that he became in the wake of Zanzibar Land, the reason why he still fights and goes as far in ''2'' as to claim that it is his legacy to future generations due to the fact that he can not have children of his own. And yet as we see in ''Revengeance'' he failed. Maybe he did succeed in finding another reason to live like he claimed at the end of ''4''; but it is still sad that the life's dream of one of history's greatest men went so unfulfilled.

* Drebin's endgame musing to Otacon at Meryl's wedding that with the Patriots gone, the society will no longer be kept in check and warfare will continue to erupt as the result. As later spin-off VideoGame/MetalGearRising reveals, as long as there is injustice and unfairness, conflict will never cease to exist.

* In the novelization, Snake says this before his abortive suicide attempt]]:

*** Especially in Japanese. Unlike in English, the voice actor is actually sobbing in that scene.