Tear Jerker / The Impossible

• Maria clinging to a tree while simply screaming towards the sky, assuming that her husband and children are now dead.
• The whole scene of Maria and Lucas continuously trying to get to each other as the water pulls them out to sea. They continuously fling themselves at each other, risking and sustaining serious injury just so they can at least be together.
• Maria collapsing in tears on the shoulder of a local woman who's helping her; despite their own misfortune and trauma, the locals are going out their way to help the tourists.
• Lucas coming back into the hospital ward to find Maria has been moved. Of course, he doesn't know that, so he completely panics when seeing his mother gone.
• Karl, a German tourist who graciously lends his cell phone to Henry, has just stated that he had been adamant that his little daughter see Thailand for Christmas, despite his wife's objections and his recent leg injury. What's worse, is that all he had left of them was a note his wife left him that said "We are at the beach"... which was where the first wave hit.
• Henry's phone call to Maria's dad is absolutely brutal. He completely breaks down sobbing, believing his wife and eldest son are dead, and has to hang up the phone. He says it's because he doesn't have much time for the call, and though that may be true, you can tell that the main reason is that he just can't keep it together.
• When Simon and Thomas run to reunite with Lucas, the other children on the bus watch them. Most of the children are Thai and many were likely orphans who had no family to return to.
• The German gentleman's deflated last given line is to the truck diver, "Let's go, no need to wait"; he has been helping Henry find his family and sees Henry suddenly reunited with all three of his sons. He's glad to see them reunited but he still has no idea where his wife and 2-year-old daughter are. It's painfully bittersweet, one father finds his wife and children and they all survive while another most likely will never see his wife and daughter again.
• The ending of the film. The family is back together again and on a plane leaving Thailand. But let's not forget about the 230,000+ people who were killed and the many more who lost loved ones and/or were left homeless. This is shown in the ending by Maria, who cries while looking out the plane window over Thailand, which has been reduced to nothing but ruins for miles.

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