The Lost Lenore in Live-Action Films.
By Creator:
- Christopher Nolan frequently invokes this trope:
- The dead wife in Memento fueling Leonard's quest for revenge.
- Mal in Inception who ended up killing herself and framing Cobb for her murder. An apparition of her frequently appears in his dreams.
- Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises manages to be this for two men, both Gotham's greatest protectors. In the former, her death causes Harvey Dent to make a Face–Heel Turn to become Harvey Two-Face. In the latter, she's this for Bruce Wayne himself.
- Julia in The Prestige, to the extent that she — or rather Angier's grief for her — causes the whole plot of the movie.
- The Disney Live-Action Remakes tend to portray the dead mothers as the widowed fathers' Lost Lenores, more explicitly than the animated versions do:
- In Cinderella, even after remarrying, Ella's father confesses that he still misses his first wife very much and calls her "the very heart" of their house. Unfortunately, his new wife overhears this, and her jealousy becomes a factor in her mistreatment of Ella. A deleted scene also implies that Prince Kit's late mother is the King's Lost Lenore, as he can't bear to visit the palace gardens she loved anymore.
- In Beauty and the Beast, the traumatic loss of his wife has made Maurice overprotective: this is why he and Belle live in the safe yet dull provincial town, even though neither is really happy there. Nor can he bring himself to tell Belle how her mother died, though she later learns what happened by magical means with the Beast. His introductory scene even shows him building a music box with tiny figures of himself, his wife, and baby Belle together.
- In Aladdin (2019), while not featured as heavily as the mothers above, Jasmine's mother's death is the motive behind the Sultan being overprotective to their only child. Apparently, she was murdered, and ever since, the Sultan has kept Jasmine confined in the palace to keep her safe, despite her objections. It's actually hinted that Jafar might have been responsible for her death because during the events of the movie, he seems keen on waging war against the Queen's land of birth.
- Mary Poppins Returns: Michael Banks's late wife Kate is a major driving element of the start of the film's conflict. After Kate unexpectedly passed of an illness, Michael's struggled to be able to focus on his responsibilities as a father—his sister Jane having moved in to help with his three kids; he sings "A Conversation" as a representation of his difficulty moving on; he's relied on the kids to help pretty much do everything without realizing it and as the family's about to lose the house due to Kate having been the one to deal with the finances, it presses on him even more than ever that he even unexpectedly gets agitated with the kids too.
- The Little Mermaid (2023): It's fully established here that King Triton's wife having been killed by a human is the major inciting incident to his intense distrust of the surface world to the point that he fears the same thing happening to Ariel when she continues to press upon her interest in it and wanting to not judge other humans by the same standard as her mother's killer.
By Title:
- In 45 Years, Geoff and Kate are approaching their 45th anniversary. Kate knows that shortly before they met, Geoff's girlfriend had died on a hiking holiday and they Never Found the Body, but as far as she knows it wasn't a serious relationship. When the girlfriend's body is discovered in a melting glacier, Geoff's obviously emotional reaction inspires Kate to delve deeper into the facts; she discovers that they had pretended to be married on the trip, and a slide collection hidden in the attic hints that she may have been pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, Geoff conceals his desire to go to Switzerland to identify the body, which he idealistically imagines to be a perfect, youthful Human Popsicle, and seemingly loses interest in making anniversary preparations with his wife.
- Victoria from The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again.
- Aleta: Vampire Mistress: At some point, Aleta killed the wife of Ivor Van Helsing. Ariana finds this out when she reads his mind.
- April Showers: April for Sean. Especially because he never told her he loved her.
- In Astro (2018), Jack Adams' wife, Julie, died some time ago from cancer.
- An Autumn Afternoon: Shuhei's wife is long dead when the movie begins, but she's still on his mind a great deal. A female bar-owner reminds him of her, even though he admits that the resemblance is not that great.
- The Body (2012): Jaime's wife who died in the car accident. The film takes place on the 10th anniversary of her death.
- In The Book Of Love, the hero's wife becomes this early on (as is evident from the trailer).
- Elisabeta in Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula kills herself upon hearing false news that Dracula has died. His reaction is to renounce God and become a vampire. The plot is also driven by him coming face to face with her reincarnation in Mina Murray.
- Murron in Braveheart. She gets killed as a way to motivate William Wallace to take up arms against the English, but he continues to mourn her loss and brings her up often enough for his comrades to notice:Hamish: It's no' about freedom; it's about Murron! You're doin' this to be a hero because ye think she sees ye!
Wallace: I don't think she sees me. I know she does. - Male example: Jodie Foster's murdered fiancé in The Brave One.
- Dr. Harvey's wife Amelia in Casper; his reason for working as a ghost therapist is because he thinks she must have become a ghost and wants to find her. At the end she finally appears to him and explains that she's not a ghost because she accomplished what she needed to in this life; she would Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and became an angel.
- In The Climax, the soprano Marcellina is this for Dr. Hohner, despite him being the one who murdered her. He still worships her and seeks to destroy Angela's voice because he believes it is Marcellina's and that no one should possess it.
- Coda: Henry's wife died a couple of years prior to the film. According to Paul, he barely spoke for two years, and the trauma of her death contributes to the Performance Anxiety he still has in the present.
- In Collision Course, a dramatisation of the events surrounding the 1976 Zagreb mid-air collision
, Richard Weston’s girlfriend Ruth, a stewardess, dies in the crash (doubly tragic as she is about twenty years his junior). He holds himself together very well (it helps that there is a Time Skip of several months between the first and second parts of the movie) and in fact surprises his colleagues by not going all Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the air traffic controllers. However, the contrast between his jovial, talkative self in the beginning of the film and the quiet, withdrawn, melancholy person he becomes after Ruth’s death speaks for itself. - Conan the Barbarian (1982): Valeria becomes this for Conan when she's killed. He still mourns her in the sequel and wants to bring her Back from the Dead. Although he's attracted to other women, he never acts on it after her.
- Conan the Barbarian (2011): Maliva, the mother of Marique. A rare evil example, as her equally evil husband Khalar Zym genuinely loved her and wants to bring her Back from the Dead.
- Shelly in both the comic and movie adaptation (1994 film and reboot) of The Crow.
- Dan in Real Life does this rather generically, albeit effectively.
- Darkdrive: Falcon's wife Julie was killed in a bombing meant to kill him. Afterwards, he became an alcoholic recluse, until his former employers convince him to do One Last Job. He runs into her virtual ghost in a bar in cyberspace and falls in love with her again.
- Deadpool 2: Vanessa is killed early on in the film by one of Deadpool's targets, who had managed to escape previously. It's played uncharacteristically seriously, and the opening credits yell at the writers for doing it. Deadpool goes through a good chunk of the movie going through the Five Stages of Grief, and almost every time he dies in the film, he visits Vanessa in the afterlife, each time getting closer and closer to them. It's subverted by the end of the film, where Deadpool gets his hands on a time travel device thanks to Cable, and he then uses it to go back in time and undo Vanessa's death by the movie's first mid-credits scene.
- DC Extended Universe:
- In the Knightmare timeline in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it's highly implied that Clark Kent went batshit insane after Lois Lane died and willingly became an enforcer for the invading aliens, though Zack Snyder's Justice League reveals Darkseid was also involved, turning Superman against humanity in this moment of despair with the Anti-Life Equation.
- Steve Trevor is Diana Prince's first love and will probably be that way for quite a while. After his death in Wonder Woman, Diana has not seen another man again for nearly a century. This is clearly shown in Wonder Woman 1984, where Diana's greatest wish is for Steve to come back for her, but she has to let him go if she wants to move on (and save the world).
- In The Deserter, every action on Captain Kaleb's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is inspired by the memory of his wife who died at the hands of the Apache.
- In The Devil Commands, Dr. Julian Blair is engaged in unconventional research on human brain waves when his wife Helen is tragically killed in a freak auto accident. The grief-stricken scientist becomes obsessed with redirecting his work into making contact with the dead. He moves his laboratory to an isolated New England mansion where he continues to try to reach out to his dead wife.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Discussed; one of Edgin's key goals throughout the film is to retrieve the Tablet of Revival to resurrect his dead wife. He justifies most of his less savory activities (most importantly, getting thrown in prison away from his daughter Kira for two years) by saying he needs to give Kira her mother back. However, he eventually admits that, since his daughter never met her, it was far more about bringing his wife back than bringing back Kira's mother. When his friend Holga dies in the final battle, Kira cries over her, and Edgin realizes she has always been the mother Kira needed. He uses the tablet to bring Holga back, trusting that his wife is satisfied in the afterlife.
- Endless: Chris remains Riley's Love Interest throughout the film despite being dead, though here he contacts her as a ghost, to her delight, with the entire plot centered on this.
- Parodied in Erik the Viking. The eponymous character connects briefly with a village maiden and saves her from a Fate Worse than Death by accidentally subjecting her to the latter. He remains haunted by her memory but when he reunites with her in Valhalla she is less than thrilled to see him.
- Helen Kimble's murder sets into motion the plot for The Fugitive, and several times throughout his flight does Dr. Kimble grieve for her.
- The Fast and the Furious:
- Subverted with Letty, whom Dom believed was killed while undercover in Fast & Furious. This ends up not being the case as Letty turns up alive in Fast & Furious 6, albeit with Easy Amnesia.
- Played straight in Fast Five, in which Fair Cop Elena Neeves is revealed to have lost her husband during a war. Until Letty was revealed alive, Dom and Elena bonded over their deceased lovers and started dating. Ironically, Elena herself becomes this when she was killed by Cipher in The Fate of the Furious, leaving her son with Dom in the care of Dom and Letty.
- F9 shows Han still carrying his girlfriend Gisele's death over his shoulders. It's also revealed that Gisele was the reason Han went to Tokyo in the first place and her death motivated him to continue his work with Mr. Nobody.
- In Godzilla (2014), Joe Brody dedicates nearly all of his attention to uncovering why his wife Sandra died.
- In Highlander, the protagonist Connor MacLeod is an immortal warrior from 16th Century Scotland who was Happily Married to a mortal blacksmith's daughter, and he was devastated when she died of old age. Even four centuries later, it is shown he keeps up a tradition of lighting a candle and saying a little prayer for her on her birthday. When the Big Bad reveals that he violated the girl as an act of dominance shortly after killing Connor's mentor figure, Connor is motivated to kill him not just for the Prize but also to avenge her.
- Hearts Beat Loud: Sam's mom and Frank's wife Danielle is long dead when the film takes place, but her presence looms over them both. Because of her death in a bike accident, Sam has not learned to ride a bicycle despite being in her 20s. She only does with the help of her girlfriend Rose. Frank's life meanwhile is implied to have heavily been mired in the past, brooding over his loss for years. He wrote a song in tribute to her as well, and is shown reflecting nostalgically over them singing together years ago.
- Sophie in The Illusionist (2006).
- James Bond:
- Tracy Bond (née di Vicenzo) from On Her Majesty's Secret Service was this to James Bond from the original continuity. Bond was leaving MI6 to be with her when she was gunned down by Blofeld as they were leaving for their honeymoon. Anytime her death is referenced in later Bond films is downright gut-wrenching. In GoldenEye, Big Bad Alec Trevelyan derisively mocks Bond's womanizing, noting that it's actually a mask to hide the inner sadness from the loss of the only woman he truly loved.
- Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale is this to Daniel Craig's Bond. Again, he intended to quit MI6 to be with her, when she betrayed him (out of a Blackmail from the Quantum organization, though she still tipped him off on Mr. White) and died in the process. Bond sought to avenge her in Quantum of Solace, and the memory of her was brought back for Spectre and No Time to Die. In the latter, his Second Love Madeleine Swann brings him to her grave in Matera, Southern Italy, so he can forgive her and turn the page once and for all (though sadly this is the moment Spectre chooses to ambush him, putting a bomb in her grave).Bond: ...I miss you.
- In No Time to Die, Bond himself becomes a male example of this to Madeleine, first when they're separated after the aforementioned attack leaves him thinking that she's betrayed him, then at the end when he's forced to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to keep her and their daughter safe.
- A rare male example is Kate's dead husband in A Knight's Tale. This serves as a Shown Their Work moment, as Kate is allowed to work as a blacksmith because her late husband taught her the trade and left no sons. There were cases of this in Real Life history.
- In The Last Witch Hunter, Kaulder has Helen, his Black Death-taken wife, as well as his daughter, Elizabeth, dead to the same disease. They're both very prominently featured in Lotus-Eater Machine he's trapped in at one point.
- Laura in the 1940s film of the same name.
- Victoria Riggs to Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon. Her death is the reason Riggs is a Death Seeker in the first film. It's only his unlikely friendship with Murtagh that later helps him get over it, though when The Dragon in the second film tells him that he killed her, Riggs goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Gender-Inverted in Love Again. Mira's beloved fiance John dies at the beginning of the film, and Mira trying to move on from him is the plot.
- Loving Annabelle: Ms. Bradley's first girlfriend had died years ago - she keeps her cross as a memento. It also subtly overshadows the film, as it's implied she's mourned ever since, and repressed her attraction to women (possibly both due to being Catholic, plus avoiding further heartbreak).
- Jessie's death in Mad Max causes Max's Despair Event Horizon and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. As a result, in the second film he's a lot colder, only warming to the refinery denizens after his Cool Car is destroyed.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Captain America and Peggy Carter are this to each other at different points. Steve being frozen for seventy years and presumed dead led this to him being this for her and it took a very long time for her to recover from his loss. Meanwhile, Peggy's death in Civil War marks her as this for Steve and it's clear she was the only one who ever truly held a place in his heart. Luckily, by the end of Endgame, Steve ends his journey by FINALLY allowing himself to go back and live out a peaceful life with Peggy.
- Janet van Dyne in Ant-Man. Her situation is left ambiguous, but she shrinks into the Microverse, a dimension from which there is no escape. As a result, Hank Pym becomes a hermit and forbids their daughter from using the technology that made them into superheroes. Though the fact that Scott escapes the Microverse in the movie's climax gives Hank hope that she might be Not Quite Dead.
- In Avengers: Infinity War, Gamora's death makes her this for Star-Lord. While the events of Endgame make this a bit more complex, it doesn't change the fact the Gamora he knew and loved is still essentially dead, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 establishes it had a severe lasting effect on him (years of alcohol abuse) but finally gives him a bit of closure by the film's end.
- Avengers: Endgame definitely makes Tony this for Pepper Potts after his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Arguably the most dramatic example is in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Wenwu's beloved wife is killed by a rival gang and his subsequent return to villainy is all about avenging her death. When he believes her spirit is calling to him from the legendary Ta Lo (her birthplace), he makes it his mission to find a way to get there and rescue her from her captivity.Wenwu: I have to save her. She's calling to me.
Shang-Chi: I wish that were true... - Spider-Man: No Way Home features Webb-Verse Spidey, who still carries the weight of Gwen Stacy's death HEAVILY on his shoulders. Thankfully, he's able to atone for it in this one. There is also the death of Aunt May, who easily becomes this for Happy Hogan, especially seeing as they were only just working through a break-up around that time.
- Hel, Freder's late mother, for Rotwang in the uncut version of Metropolis. Possibly inspired the Repo! example.
- Miao Miao has Bei and Chen Fei, in a heartbreaking male/male example.
- The central plot point of The Mothman Prophecies.
- Satine in the framing narrative of Moulin Rouge!.
- Paranormal Prison: Ashley tells Jacob that the reason she joined the group was that she wants to know if there's an afterlife. Before joining the show, she was in the army, watching out for attack drones with a guy named Chris. As they spent time together, they realized that there was clearly something between them. One day, Ashley didn't get enough sleep the night before, so Chris filled in for her. That day, an attack drone managed to evade detection by the perimeter guards and attacked the base, killing several people, Chris included. Ashley was discharged from her position after that.
- Passenger57 John Cutter's wife Lisa was killed in a convenience store robbery he was unable to stop, leaving him as a reluctant hero when the plane he boarded is taken over by terrorists. Things don't help when Marti reminds him of Lisa.
- Elena Korvin in The Phantom of the Opera (1983). She dies early on, and her husband's desire to wreak vengeance on those who destroyed her is what drives the plot. He also becomes obsessed with another woman because she looks like Elena.
- Miranda in Picnic at Hanging Rock, so exquisitely beautiful and poignant that Michael fell in love with her at a glance before she vanished forever up that damn rock.
- Allie's mother is this for her father Neal in Remember Me. Murdered in the subway by muggers when Allie was only a child, the mention of her causes Neal to flip out. He's insanely overprotective of his daughter as a result.
- Marni in Repo! The Genetic Opera. Nathan blames himself for his wife's death (he never finds out that her ex and his boss, Rotti, murdered her). He is overprotective of their daughter Shilo because she's all he has left of Marni.
- Adrian had become this as of Rocky Balboa. Instead of a quick throwaway line about how she had passed on to explain her absence in the final chapter, Rocky is shown to still be devastated and utterly heartbroken years after losing her to "the female cancer."
- Scream:
- Scream 3: Boyfriend Derek Feldman becomes this to Sidney Prescott after his murder at the hands of Mickey Alteri at the end of the second movie—with Sidney blaming herself due to Derek being tied up and her hesitating to help him because a lying Mickey got in her head and convinced her that he might be his Ghostface partner. This resulted in Sidney holding that guilt for years to the point that she not only kept Derek's fraternity letter necklace that he gave her, but also isolated herself to avoid being connected to anyone else she wasn't sure she could trust or didn't want to get hurt for being in her life. In this movie proper though, she meets Det. Mark Kincaid who it's revealed in the fifth film that she actually did marry and have a family with.
- Scream VI:
- Both at the end of Scream (2022) and in this film proper, Gale Weathers is shown to be deeply effected by Dewey Riley's murder at Amber Freeman's hands—to the point that she's confronting Amber directly and Sidney even passes Gale the gun to try to finish her off on behalf of Dewey too. He's not mentioned much in the sixth film, but Ghostface taunts Gale about him over the phone; she chose to write about the previous killings after all to avoid writing about Dewey; still has the picture of the two of them together right next to her gun safe; moved on with a Red Shirt to futher avoid her grief for Dewey and is clearly feeling the guilt when Sam and Tara Carpenter call her out for dishonoring his memory too.
- Mostly defied with Chad Meeks-Martin's late girlfriend Liv McKenzie who's also murdered by Amber at the end of the fifth film. Despite one of their last interactions being Chad admitting he thinks there's a small chance she might be Ghostface—only for Chad to nearly be killed shortly after that and then Liv almost getting blamed right before she's killed, he never brings her up in this film—or any guilt toward that. The focus instead is on the Shared Suffering romance developing between him and Tara. To be totally fair though, Chad vaguely implies her death still hurts even without saying her name.
Chad: Okay we've all been through some fucked up stuff and we're coping with it differently… - Second Hand Lions has Princess Jasmine (not that one), who died in childbirth, for Uncle Hub.
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Ivan and Marichka were Star-Crossed Lovers from feuding families, but after she dies in an accident while he's away working up a nest egg for them to elope, she falls into a river and drowns. He spends the rest of the film pining for her and is never able to give his later marriage to Palanha a chance.
- The Sixth Sense: A rare male example of the trope in that Malcolm's wife isn't surly and depressed over a neglectful husband. She's grieving for a dead one.
- Sara, The Huntsman's dead wife in Snow White & the Huntsman. Until it's revealed that she is still alive in The Huntsman: Winter's War.
- Hari in Solaris is a particularly interesting case: the prime mover of the story is Kris' guilt over her death and her doppelganger's reaction to the knowledge of it. Rheya in the 2002 remake.
- Steam (2007): Doris and August talk to each other about both their deceased spouses', relating how much they miss them.
- A very literal example in Taken 3 — Bryan's ex-wife and perpetual love interest is abruptly killed off at the beginning of the movie, leaving him with the driving mission of clearing his name and finding her killer. Guessing her name shouldn't be too difficult.
- Margot to Alexandre in Tell No One, although it's later subverted when it turns out she's been Faking the Dead.
- In Ten Dead Men, Ryan is completely devoted to his girlfriend Amy. When she is murdered by figures from his past, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Ryan's every act is driven by her memory, including his last: killing himself as the tenth man responsible for her death.
- Another male example in Terminator 2: Judgment Day: John morosely describes how his mother Sarah, despite having a string of lovers that she took specifically to teach John survival skills, never got over his father Kyle.John: She still loves him, I guess. I catch her crying about it sometimes.
- This is given as the protagonist's primary motivation for time travel in The Time Machine (2002).
- Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision: The death of his wife Sasha makes Miller more brooding and ruthless. He imagines a stranger having her face in one scene and is awestruck to briefly encounter her again when he travels back in time to 2002.
- Twice-Told Tales: In "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", Dr. Heidegger is still mourning the love of his life, Sylvia, who died on the eve of their wedding 38 years earlier.
- Unforgiven: Clint Eastwood's character remained so devoted to his dead wife that he graciously turned down a freebie from the Hooker with a Heart of Gold he was helping even though she was played by Anna Levine.
- In Vertigo, Scottie has a mental breakdown after watching his love Madeleine commit suicide with him being unable to stop her because of his vertigo. Then it's subverted in an increasingly disturbing manner when he meets Judy, who's the spitting image of Madeleine, and begins obsessively forcing her to undergo a makeover to look just like his lost love despite her tearful protests, not knowing that the Madeleine he loved never truly existed; the "Madeleine" he met was actually Judy doing a Dead Person Impersonation as part of Gavin's plan to get away with murdering his wife.
- Kayla Silverfox in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. She inspires Logan to gain his Adamantium bonding.
- In Zen Noir, the detective protagonist has been in a depression and nearly suicidal ever since his wife Nora died, and he frequently thinks of her.
