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Tear Jerker: Titanic

Given what the movie is about, you can expect that there was alot of these. In fact, for a while, the film surpassed Bambi as a pun for "films people cried at" (which was probably spurred on by having that reputation starting two days into wide release).

When the band starts playing.
"Gentlemen, it's been a privilege playing with you tonight".
Jack's death. He noticed Rose when she was at her most vulnerable (trying to kill herself) and was willing to listen and care about how she felt when no one else would. Just the thought that someone you need most comes into your life and just as quickly leaves it, yet they became so important to you and left such a lasting impression that you have changed for the better and will never forget them is a sad enough concept. This is not helped by the fact that Jack is one of the kindest, noblest and good-natured characters in the movie.
The woman putting her children to bed and talking to them about heaven. Aw Gawd.
- More specifically, about living forever. This troper was less upset by the old people—the part people generally cite when talking about the Tear Jerker elements—than by the bedtime story. Possibly because she saw it when she was about 12.
- It wasn't about Heaven, it was about Tir na nOg. It's a traditional Irish tale about an island far to the west where hunger, thirst, sickness and death don't exist. It could rate as Fridge Brilliance, if she'd previously told her children that America would be like that when they arrived.
The old man and his wife (Isidor and Ida Straus, owners of Macy's) who died together in bed.
- It's actually worse because that actually happened. As the ship was sinking, Isador and Ida were both offered a place on Lifeboat No. 8, but Isador chose to stay on the Titanic so long as there were women who remained on the ship. Ida refused to abandon her husband. Witnesses on the deck and in Lifeboat No. 8 heard Ida tell her husband, "We have been living together for many years. Where you go, I go." The couple was last seen sitting on a pair of deck chairs. Only Isador's body was recovered and identified.
Speaking of kids, remember that lost crying boy in the flooding hallway? Or how about that crying girl hiding behind the davit motor? Or the mom telling her son(?) that "It'll all be over soon" during the final plunge?
The scene where Jack convinces Rose to get on one of the lifeboats, assuring her that he and Cal will catch another one later. When it becomes clear that there isn't another boat waiting (for Jack at least), he continues to watch Rose being lowered down with the rest of the passengers. Then Rose, unable to go through with it, scrambles up the side of the ship and back to Jack. Of course, his reaction is what makes it all the more heartrending ("I couldn't do it, Jack!" "You're so stupid Rose, you're so goddamn stupid!" all the while kissing and hugging her).
This troper cries what she describes as "little-girl tears" every time she watches the sequence where the band plays "Nearer My God To Thee".
- This troper will see your little-girl tears and raise you Manly Tears. Seriously, it's one of the few scenes that this troper just can't hold back from crying during.
  - The scene is so powerful that just listening at the recording of the song on the soundtrack is enough for most people to relive it.
While Rose is in the lifeboat, Jack and Cal are watching her: "I always win, Jack."
- Because in that moment, he almost does.
This troper cries little girl tears at the scene with the Irish mother trapped with her children below decks— just trying to describe that scene more is making me cry at my desk. Not just get the sniffles, but big, fat, wet tears. The scene with the priest as everyone's filing to the lifeboats (and I shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death...) is pretty bad for me too.
- Not to mention the cluster of people seen clinging to one of the deck fixtures as the stern tips up, clutching at one another and reaching out to the priest, whose voice trembles with fear even as he keeps on praying aloud, offering all those desperate, doomed men what-little consolation he can.
The very end, when Rose dies, and we get a shot of the sunken ship transforming to all its former glory, as she dances with Jack, and we see all those previously mentioned 'alive' again, applauding.
- And the scene before that, where we see the elderly Rose sleeping in her bed, surrounded by photos of all the experiences she's had in her life, thanks to Jack's sacrifice...recalling his earlier line "you're going to go on and you're going to make babies and watch them grow and you're going to die an old lady, warm in your bed."
For some reason, this troper, who is usually very emotionally reserved, gets teary every time he watches the scene in the end where Rose, after failing to shout to the rescuers, take the whistle and blow frantically so they will know she is alive.
- Including her just barely able to whisper "Come back- come back!" Ugh.
- The expression on her face, utterly miserable and determined — her eyes dull with grief. Well played, Ms. Winslet. Well played.
- This tropers dad cried manly tears at that part as well, and he NEVER cries.
Hell, watching the officer in the lifeboat returning to the sea of corpses, crying out desperately "Is anyone alive out there?! Can anyone hear me?!" almost brought this troper to tears, especially when he moves his torch around and sees a dead woman and baby right next to him in the water.
- Gawd. That one second of the mother and her child made this troper, who is generally stoic, tear up, especially since her one year old sister was sitting next to her the whole time.
  - This troper hadn't cried in six whole months, but the dead mother and baby is what finally made her break.
- "Careful with your oars—don't hit them!"
- "We waited too long..."
The Unsinkable Molly Brown ordering the women in the boat to grab an oar, and the captain of the lifeboat refuses because they'd swamp the boat, and her reply, "I don't understand either one of you! What's the matter with you?! IT'S YOUR MEN OUT THERE!"
- Also constitutes as a CMOA- this troper literally yelled at the screen "Kick him in the balls, Kathy!"
The Syrian family seen in the corridors near the beginning of the sinking, trying to translate the direction signs. They don't speak English and they probably aren't getting out.
The moment where the young woman walks up to Captain Smith with her little baby and asks, "Captain, where should I go?" and he doesn't know what to say to her.
- Fridge Horror ensues when you realize it's the woman who later is seen frozen to death (see above).
Another moment is when the band splits and leaves the one man alone before they listen to the music and wordlessly choose to die together.
"It's goodbye for a little while. Only for a little while."
- "After this, another boat will come, and Daddy will be in it." Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
- Worse, that scene is based on an eyewitness account...
Watching the deleted scene where Cora and her parents die because of that locked gate just made me sob.
The little girl with the doll. Dear God, the little girl with the doll. She's just so cute and innocent, you hope she makes it out. Then we get a shot under water, outside the ship...Just floating in her little white dress... Then the ending where we see her ghost. Oh, dear God!
The pained looked in Bruce Ismay's eyes when he looks back at the Titanic sinking. He was a coward for running, but I felt for the guy.
The quiet dignity that Thomas Andrews (the shipbuilder) retains as his masterpiece, the Titanic, sinks.
"I'm sorry I couldn't build you a stronger ship, Rose."
- For this Troper, it's the way he resets the lounge mantelpiece clock to the proper time before it goes under. It's like he knows it's the only thing he can do now...
- What makes it even sadder is that, from historical accounts, we know that Andrews really was that much of a nice guy, as well his final fate in the movie being based completely on eye witness accounts.
"He exists now only in my memory."
The scene towards the end in which the orchestra plays the song "Nearer My God To Thee" which features Mr. Andrews, the old couple in bed, and the young Irish mother who are all about to die always gets to this troper.
After the emotional journey that is Titanic finishes, we get to hear Celine Dion belt out "My Heart Will Go On" during the closing credits, which can really keep the tears flowing.
The look on Mr. Guggenheim's face as he watches the water rising steadily towards where he's sitting; a mixture of fear and horror that he's going to die. To me he seemed to be thinking 'Not like this, oh God, I don't want to die here, not like this.' Also the part where the glass roof over the main staircase gives in and dumps the freezing ocean on the people still inside, killing everyone; the screams of the women trapped against the bannisters in particular are horrifying.
For this troper, the very first shot: the faux grainy-newsreel footage of the departure, everyone standing at the rails cheerily waving goodbye as the new ship sets out on its first voyage...
For this troper, just the act of Fabrizio removing Tommy's lifejacket is tearjearking. It almost seems as if he is avoiding looking at Tommy's body as he removes it, like he can't stand (even in the midst of the terrifying imminent-death) to remove something off of a dead friends body so he could possibly survive.
Just contemplate: The names on any list will be the ones Jack won the tickets off. So Fabrizio's mother will NEVER know where her son is and if he is alive, because he isnt on the list and its not exactly clear if Rose ever spoke about him to one of the list people.
It's very minor in comparison to all the other Tearjerkers that happen later in the movie, but Rose's attempted suicide was wrenching for this troper, especially in the extended scene where she trashes her room before sprinting to the bow of the boat. She just seems so lost and scared- she's trapped in this life that she has no chance of breaking free from and that's it. The scene where she runs the length of the boat gasping and sobbing, looking like a complete trainwreck is very sad and almost kind of scary.
- Its the same for this troper, mostly because he once attempted suicide for a similar reason
When Jack and Rose are trapped inside that gate, and the one man drops the keys, imagine what he was thinking as he ran up the stairs. He's terrified, and he's failed at saving their lives, selfishly leaving them and saving himself. He must have thought he was hearing their last screams as he ran off.... that must have stayed with him, especially if he survived and had to wonder if he could have saved them.
The sentence "This is where we first met" for some reason made this Troper bust up just in the preview, and not even the theatrical trailer, but one of those 'just to remind you this is rereleased!' 11-second-spots.
The shot of Jack and Rose standing on the railing at the prow, as the ship slowly transforms into the sunken wreck, going from their joy and love to the harsh reminder that it can't last.
- This troper found it tearjerking for another reason - the ship is going to sink, there's nothing anyone can do about, over a thousand people will die, and it all really happened.