Tragic Keepsake / Live-Action Films

• Christopher Walken keeps his buddy's watch up his ass in a POW camp in Vietnam for two years so he could give it to (the child) Butch in Pulp Fiction. When the watch is left behind in his apartment, the now-adult Butch has to go back and get it, despite the risk.
• Inigo Montoya of The Princess Bride wields the sword that his father forged for Count Rugen, who killed him after he refused to sell the sword to him at only a tenth of the price that Rugen promised he would pay.
• The Bells of Death: The title refers to a set of silver bells belonging to protagonist Wei-fu's mother, who died with the rest of his family in a bandit raid five years ago, prompting Wei-fu to go through martial arts training to avenge his family. The sound of the silver bells later becomes a plot point, where villains who hear the sound of ringing bells will be destined to die by Wei-fu's sword.
• Susan "Curly Sue" from Curly Sue always wears a tin ring that belonged to her late mother until it gets stolen and pawned by one of their roommates at a shelter. Fortunately, Bill manages to get it back and Curly Sue wears it on her first day of school. Among the many trinkets that Curly Sue has in her traveling bag, there is a tin box with a vintage paper doll Valentine's Day card, dried flowers, and a tattered picture of a woman presumed to be Curly Sue's mother inside.
• Eric Draven from The Crow (1994) wears Shelly's engagement ring on a chain around his neck.
• Daylight's End: Sam wears her engagement ring (her fiancee is dead) on a necklace around her neck.
• Averted in the Award-winning Taiwanese film, The Dull Ice Flower. After the talented young protagonist Ming wins an International Art Award but succumbs to pneumonia at the end of the film, his father burns Ming's Award-winning artwork, together with the certificate commemorating his award, right at his grave.
• During The Reveal in Urban Legend, we find out that Brenda’s necklace is this. It was given to her by her fiancé David (because he couldn’t afford an engagement ring at the time) the very same night that he was killed in the car accident Natalie and Michelle caused.
  Brenda: (sadly) David and I were gonna get married that summer. Right after graduation. He didn’t have enough money to buy me a ring yet, so... (grips her necklace) he got me this instead. (angrily rips necklace off and glares at Natalie) The night YOU TOOK HIM AWAY FROM ME!!!
• Colonel Mortimer from For a Few Dollars More has a pocketwatch given to him by his sister. There's another pocketwatch that once belonged to the sister in question, but it was taken by Indio following her suicide as he was raping her.
• Topper Harley from Hot Shots! has his father's eyes. Literally. As in, in a little jewelry case.
• When James Bond went on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the movie Licence to Kill, his keepsake was the cigarette lighter he was given as a gift by Felix Leiter, the friend he's seeking to avenge. Becomes a Chekhov's Gun when he uses it to set the gasoline-soaked Big Bad on fire.
• Killer Under the Bed: Kilee's father died in a crash two years ago rushing to be at events for both his daughters. Kilee's been wearing his old jacket ever since.
• In Pirates of the Caribbean, Davy Jones keeps the locket of his love Calypso - the woman who broke his heart.
• Captain Vidal's pocketwatch in Pan's Labyrinth is a variation of this: the watch belonged to his father who, when he knew was about to die, broke it so it would stop at the exact time of his death, so his son "would know how a brave man dies". However, Vidal had it repaired seemingly out of spite and keeps it with him at all times. When he is later cornered by rebels, he prepares to break the watch so it can be given to his newborn son only to be told that, "He won't even know your name" and unceremoniously shot.
• Maverick keeps Goose's dog-tags in Top Gun
• In Law Abiding Citizen Clyde keeps his daughter's charm bracelet. The same one she was seen making for her mother at the very beginning of the movie.
• In Secondhand Lions, Uncle Hub keeps a photo of his lost beloved Jasmine in the attic.
• Dr. Serizawa's pocket watch in Godzilla (2014), which originally belonged to his father and was broken in the Hiroshima bombing.
• Erik's Nazi coin in X-Men: First Class.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Guardians of the Galaxy:
    • Peter Quill's Sony Walkman and the mix tape inside it, both of which are mementos from his dead mother. He also received a present from her before she passed away, but doesn't open it until the end of the film. It's another mix tape, "Awesome mix part 2".
    • Rocket Raccoon keeps one of Groot's twigs after the latter is blown up in a Heroic Sacrifice. Said twig regenerates back into a tiny Groot, who will eventually grow back to full size.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ends with Yondu leaving two such things behind. One is a Zune packed with hundreds of similar '80s tunes to Peter Quill's Awesome Mix tapes; the other is his signature Trick Arrow for Kraglin, who needs a little more time to master it. Just ask Drax.
  • Captain America: Civil War. Helmut Zemo has a recording from his answering machine of an innocuous message from his wife, made just before the death of his family.
• Paddington's hat. It used to belong to his Uncle Pastuzo.
• In Unknown (2006), the protagonist carries a lighter with his deceased daughter's name on it.
• Averted in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. While on the boat to France, Sherlock throws Irene Adler's bloodstained handkerchief overboard so he won't be distracted while investigating the conspiracy of her murderer, Professor Moriarty.
• There are two in Mr. Holmes. One is the grey glove, which belonged to the woman from Holmes's last case. She committed suicide because while he deduced what she was doing and why, he couldn't make that final leap of emotion to save her. Oddly, it was actually Watson who saved and hid it, possibly to keep Holmes from dwelling on it. The second is the writing desk, having belonged to Watson, who died just a few years after the last case and his estrangement from Holmes.
• In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, the pearl Peeta gave to Katniss serves as this.
  • In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, it is heavily implied that Katniss took Buttercup as her pet (despite them disliking each other) after Prim dies.
• In John Wick, there are a total of three: the bracelet John's late wife wore, the last video recording he had of her, and not far into the film, Daisy's collar. In the sequel, the destruction of the phone holding the recording is a plot point.
• The Force Awakens: When Finn and Poe Dameron crash their TIE fighter on Jakku, the only thing Finn can recover from the crash site is Poe's jacket. Finn wears the jacket for the rest of the film. Subverted when he finds out that Poe had survived the crash. He tries to give it back, but Poe lets him keep it: it looks good on him.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, after Clark's Heroic Sacrifice, Lois Lane gets the engagement ring he never got the chance to give her. She's wearing the ring during his funeral.
  • In Wonder Woman (2017), Diana's tiara came from her deceased mentor and aunt Antiope. Later, Diana keeps Steve Trevor's watch, which he handed to her before his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In Justice League, a photo of Jonathan Kent (who died in a tornado back in Man of Steel) falls in the Kryptonian ship genesis chamber's liquid as the body of Clark/Superman is lowered into it — he was buried with this photo next to his adoptive father.
    • In Zack Snyder's Justice League, Lois Lane keeps Clark Kent/Superman's red cape at her apartment along with a photo of them both.
  • In SHAZAM!, Billy Batson kept the toy compass that his biological mother gave him before abandoning him. Upon meeting her again, he finds out she doesn't even remember it.
  • In Birds of Prey (and the Fabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn), Huntress kept her brother's toy car which she held onto when she witnessed her family's murder. During the Final Battle, she gives it to Cassandra.
  • In The Flash (2023) Barry Allen blows up at his younger alternate-timeline self for attaching his plush monkey toy to a dartboard as a target. To Prime Barry, it's a reminder of his deceased mother; to Alternate Barry, whose parents are still alive, it's just a toy he's long since outgrown.
• Kong: Skull Island:
  • James Conrad carries a lighter that belonged to his deceased father. He trusts Mason Weaver with it, and she is able to use it to blow up a Skullcrawler.
  • Marlow originally used Gunpei's sword as a Weapon Tombstone, but when he finally decides to leave the island, he pulls the sword out of the ground and wields it. He clearly values it, and when he returns home, he keeps it in Gunpei's memory.
• Deadpool 2:
  • Deadpool keeps the skeeball token his girlfriend Vanessa gave him on the night of her murder.
  • Cable keeps his daughter's burned teddy bear before traveling back in time. The teddy bear eventually becomes pristine, a sign he succeeded in preventing his family's deaths.
• D-Tox: Malloy's fiancée Marie is murdered by the Serial Killer known as the Cop Killer. He then wears her engagement ring on a chain around his neck. After he has killed the Cop Killer, Malloy leaves the ring hanging on the branch of a tree and walks away.
• Jennifer in Love Story, an atheist, explains to Oliver that the gold cross she wears (on a welded chain so it can't be removed) belonged to her devout Catholic mother.
• In Reform School Girls, Lisa has a toy rabbit that belonged to her kid brother (who died as a result of their foster mother locking him in an icebox). She promised him she would keep it safe. Edna sets fire to it in the first of her Kick the Dog moments.
• In, I, Robot, Detective Spooner wears a girl's necklace with the name Sarah on it. In an unusual variation on the trope, he never even met the girl. She was in the car next to him when both vehicles went into the river and started filling up with water. He begged the robot who saved him to save her instead since she was just an innocent child, but instead, he left her to die because a healthy grown man was the "logical choice". So he wears her necklace as a reminder not to trust robots, seeing them as being too callous and animatronic to see the value of human life.
• Accident: The Brain treasures the shattered wristwatch his wife was wearing when she died in a car crash. When his safe is robbed, he thinks the thieves deliberately left the watch behind as a taunt at him. They actually just did not consider it worth taking.
• In Madhouse (1974), Paul has the pocket watch his fiancee Ellen gave him on the night she was murdered. It is stolen from him and used in an attempt to blackmail him.
• Bird Box:
  • The Hello Kitty keyring that Malorie gives Girl's biological mother Olympia as a gift, which is passed down to Olympia's daughter when Olympia dies and Girl is born. It apparently serves as a Security Blanket for Girl.
  • Malorie also has Tom's necklace, which he gave to her as a farewell gift before he sacrificed himself to save Malorie and the kids.
• In Disaster on the Coastliner, the hijacker keeps the shoes of his child, who died in a derailment, next to him on the train to remind himself of why he wants revenge.
• In Batman Forever, Bruce reveals to his therapist, Dr. Chase Meridian, that he kept his slain father's journal and that he wrote in the book every day of his son's life.
• At the end of Cruel Intentions, it's learned that Annette has both Sebastian's journal and his prized Roadster. It's particularly tragic because he died protecting her from a speeding car, but also important as the former's contents were crucial in bringing Kathryn down.
• Stargirl: Leo gets his dad's porcupine tie to wear for his funeral and then wears it for years. When some bullies beat him up and destroy it, he gets a new one anonymously. Years later, he learns this was from Stargirl, and she also sends him more over the years.
• A Score to Settle: Joey's favourite baseball card that Frankie carries with him to remind him of how he lost Joey's childhood by being in prison. Becomes especially tragic when it turns out that Joey is dead, and Frank has been conversing with a hallucination of him this entire time.
• Antebellum: When Captain Jasper forces Eli to clean out the burning shed, he finds his wife's cross necklace in the ashes. He wears it for the rest of the film.
• Hazmat: One of Jacob's female friends is revealed to have a watch that used to belong to her dad, who died when she was 16.
• Black Angel Vol. 1: When Mayo puts Ikko on the plane to America after her family is massacred, she clips a keychain with a fuzzy mascot on it to her coat as a good luck charm. Ikko is still wearing it when she returns 14 years later to start her Roaring Rampage of Revenge. It is only when Mayo sees it dropped on the ground after she has ambushed her that she realizes who the girl she just handed over to Nogi is.
• Loving Annabelle:
  • Annabelle carries Buddhist prayer beads her girlfriend had, whom she's been forcibly separated from.
  • Simone is shown to keep her dead girlfriend's crucifix.
• Louse from The Sense of Wonder wears her late husband's scarf, and buries her face in it when she's feeling sad.
• Whitewash: Bruce's wife, who died of cancer, used to make doll eyes for a living. Now Bruce has boxes and boxes of eyeballs around the house. Paul suggests that he sell them online for $10 apiece, but Bruce doesn't want to part with them.
• In The Bravados, Jim Douglass has a pocket watch with a photo of his wife and child inside the case. He shows it to each of the outlaws before he climbs them.
• In The Innocent (1994), Barlow's ex-wife still has their dead son Joey's bicycle. She plans to give it away, but Barlow takes it and keeps it for himself. He even takes it with him to the cabin, where he unsuccessfully attempts to teach Gregory to ride it.
• Xiaoming from Ming and Ming has a swan necklace given to him by his dead mother that he wears everywhere. He becomes upset when Daming tries to touch it.
• San Andreas: Blake explains to Ben and Ollie - two boys she meets in San Francisco - that the reason she wears two of the same necklace is because one of them was the last gift she gave to her sister before she drowned in a white-water rafting accident.
• Rob from We Too Together wears a medallion that used to belong to his mother, who died of cancer. His father gave him the medallion when he was ten.
• Eloïse's Lover: Àsia's mother gives her girlfriend Eloïse the drawing she had done as a momento after she dies.

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