The scene where the newsstand guy, in face of certain death, still attempts to protect the kid he's been arguing with for the majority of the comic. Note this is especially notable in the comic, as the two characters only have mere cameos in two of the three cuts.
Rorschach's death scene. One of the saddest moments in the film. "Suddenly you discover humanity. Convenient. If you had cared from the beginning, none of this would've happened."
When Rorschach crosses the Despair Event Horizon. The audio indicates that he's actually crying under the mask. This has to be a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Jackie Earl Haley's performance — you can see him crying under the mask and his face contorting in emotional agony. To be able to relay that through a mask designed to hide your face. Just wow.
Jon Ostermann's "death". He gets better, but still. The narration, the music... everything came together perfectly.
The Director's Cut has the death of Hollis Mason, which include him putting up more of a fight than in the comic, and intercutting the punches to flashbacks of busting up badguys. So many Manly Tears...
I lost it when I finally saw - you guessed it - the left hook that floored Captain Axis.Hope Spot much?
"Sorry, girl." Even worse in the French dub, where it's "Pardonnez-moi, ma belle."
Mothman being taken to the insane asylum during the opening credits, especially combined with the music.
Also from the opening credits, the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, and the National Guard opening fire on protesting students, both quite genuine events from history.
To tell the truth, the opening sequence always gets to this troper. The song, the scenes chosen, everything comes together so beautifully and I feel it's a true reflection of how so much can happen so fast and yet when it all happens, time seems to slow down... because every moment is a moment frozen in history. This opening was so well done that anyone can look back on their own life with the same song in a similar progression and feel the impact the characters were feeling during their changing world. Lastly, it gives us nearly all the information from the written sections of the comic book flawlessly without one word of dialogue ever uttered. Breathtaking...
