History BreakTheCutie / LiveActionFilms

'''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''

* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'':
** Charles Xavier. When the movie starts, he's a friendly, happy-go-lucky, idealistic Oxford grad whose only interests are protecting his foster sister, studying genetics, drinking yards of beer and picking up coeds. His initial reaction to meeting other mutants is a puppyish eagerness to find others like him, as well as a gung-ho enthusiasm to [[TheyFightCrime work with a superhuman team to fight evil]]. During the climax, [[spoiler:he gets smacked around in a variety of ways, including telepathically experiencing Shaw's gruesome death at Magneto's hands, getting shot in the spine, and having the US government, his best friend, and his sister all turn against him. By the finale, [[HumansAreBastards his government is trying to hunt him down]], his [[FaceHeelTurn best friend is preparing for a war against humans]], and he's crippled for life in a wheelchair.]] We know from future installments that he never quite abandons his ideals, but he's frighteningly subdued and obviously much more cautious about who knows his secrets.
*** And then comes ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', by which point even his attempts to set up a school for mutants has come crashing down around him due to the outbreak of the Vietnam War. It's heartbreaking to see just how much those events have broken him, to the point where he's taking a serum designed by Hank that suppresses his powers and restores the use of his legs just so he can sleep at night without feeling other people's pain.
*** And then comes ''Film/{{Logan}}'', by which point mutants are just about extinct, everything Charles did for them throughout the series having [[AllForNothing come to naught]]. He personally killed seven of his beloved X-Men with his psychic powers when he had a seizure. He now lives in a metal tank, where Logan keeps him drugged up so he won't endanger anyone else. Throughout the film he sees people he cares about hurt and killed, accidentally harms a lot of innocent people with another seizure, and [[spoiler:finally is killed by Logan's EvilTwin, whom he believes to be Logan]].
** Hank [=McCoy=] starts off as the adorably awkward love interest for Raven. He then undergoes a KarmicTransformation after telling Raven that society would never accept them for the way they really looked.
** Raven Darkholme starts off as an innocent WomanChild who [[spoiler:turns into a villain by the end, after being harshly rejected by her love interest Hank, and being repulsed by both humanity's intolerance and by Charles' ideals]].
** Erik Lehnsherr as a child in the early scenes, where he is subjected to the harsh treatment of the concentration camps and is forced to watch his mother die simply because he couldn't move a coin in time.
* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'':
** For the past decade, Professor X has been very happy running his school with Hank by his side, and he's pleased by human society being more accepting of mutants. He's then kidnapped by Apocalypse (and with Magneto's assistance, no less), his home is blown to smithereens, and he's brought half-way across the world into a situation where's he's completely at the mercy of a mutant who's more powerful than he is. Apocalypse wants to cleanse the Earth of any mutant or human who isn't strong enough to survive the new world order, and he intends to [[spoiler:exploit Xavier's telepathy to facilitate this extinction-level event by taking control of him]]. For Charles, this is a far more terrible hell than what he had endured in the previous two films. Creator/JamesMcAvoy [[https://in.movies.yahoo.com/post/137684622919/x-men-apocalypse-on-set-of-the-darker- sums up his character's suffering as:]]
--->"It wasn't just the weight of the world I was feeling. It was the death of the world."
** ''Literally'' BreakTheCutie in the case of Quicksilver. He's a ManChild living in his mother's basement who simply wanted to meet his estranged father. When he seeks the Professor's help in locating Magneto, Peter is abducted, imprisoned and interrogated by [[spoiler:Stryker]]. He joins the X-Men when they head to Cairo, but the reunion Maximoff had longed for with Erik doesn't come to fruition because he learns that the older mutant has another family and is [[spoiler:mourning their deaths]]. Quicksilver fears that Magneto may not embrace him as a son because Lehnsherr doesn't love his mother, so Peter assists Mystique in attempting to take down Apocalypse. The god-like mutant then [[spoiler:breaks Maximoff's leg, which leaves the latter thoroughly vulnerable, and it seems that Quicksilver will meet his death at the tip of Psylocke's katana]].
* ''Film/DarkPhoenix'':
** Jean Grey. [[spoiler:She gets a serious case of PowerIncontinence when she absorbs Phoenix Essence so it won't kill her friends and the astronauts they just saved. As Phoenix power takes her over, she learns about memories that Charles blocked in her mind (again). Those memories? She unwittingly caused a car accident that killed her mother, but her father is alive and wants to do nothing with her. Afterwards, she unwittingly attacks policemen, ''kills'' Raven by accident, and then is pursued by alien race and their leader that wants to claim that power for herself. Good lord]].
** Charles Xavier again sees his efforts torn apart as [[spoiler:Raven is killed, Hank is alienated by his choices, notably regaarding his choice of suppressing some of Jean's memories, and joins Erik in his revenge quest, and Jean's attacks against humans reset the human-mutant relations back to the level seen at the end of ''First Class''.]]

* Jo in ''Film/TheManWhoKnewTooMuch'' has a HeroicBSOD after Ben tells her about Hank's kidnapping not only out of AdultFear, but also out of anger for Ben tricking her into swallowing a sedative beforehand, as an attempt to keep her nerves calm.

* ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Madison Russell]] arguably goes through this. She suffered the first stage before the events of the film in the form of her brother's death and the utter messes that her parents have both been since, but she's still a WideEyedIdealist with a profound awe for Titans such as Mothra as well as genuinely being concerned for both her parents' welfare (especially her father, who's been absent for years). Over the course of the film, Madison's wide-eyed idealism gets shattered when she personally witnesses malevolent Titans such as Ghidorah for the first time, she gets to watch her mother [[spoiler:knowingly put millions of people including her own father at risk and unwittingly leash a world-ending force]], and finally she watches [[spoiler:her mother's death]]. The novelization of [[Film/GodzillaVsKong the sequel]] also confirms that Madison has PTSD from her up-close experiences of [[BigBadWannabe Alan Jonah]] massacring Monarch outposts and her [[spoiler:close brush with Ghidorah when the monster was actively hunting her]].

* Betty in ''Film/{{Opera}}''. [[spoiler: Depending on how you interpret the ending, Betty may indeed have been broken.]]

* Happens to both Natasha and Yelena at the beginning of ''Film/BlackWidow''. They are first seen living fairly normal lives as innocent little girls before both being given to Dreykov and subjected to TrainingFromHell in the Red Room to become killers and serve as his personal pawns.

* This happens to Lisa, Karo's best friend, at the end of ''Film/DieWelle''.
* The cuties in ''Film/{{District9}}'' would probably be Christopher and his son who, while maybe not as dramatically abused in the film as Wikus, probably had to endure a lot more hardship. Tania may also qualify, given that she ends up traumatized by her father's lies and her husband's disappearance and frightened phone calls.

* ''Film/July22'': Viljar ends up being shot multiple times at the Utoya summer camp, has to recover from said gunshot wounds, and ends up sharing to the court for his experience at the camp.

%%* Nina, the protagonist of ''Film/BlackSwan'', spirals through this from beginning to end. This is from the director of ''Film/RequiemForADream''. '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''

* ''Series/AnneFrankTheWholeStory'': Since this movie goes into the concentration camp, unlike the black and white Anne Frank movie, this trope is played big time. Anne's breaking point is very clearly shown: [[spoiler: Anne tries to wake up her sister Margot, only to push her off the bed and kill her by accident. Anne looks up at the sky, defeated, and allows herself to die, since she thinks everyone in her family is dead. We learn later, however, that this was not the case.]]

%%* Pretty much everyone in ''Film/{{Blindness}}'', but most of all [[spoiler: the women who become violently gang-raped.]] '''Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotGeneral'''

* Gregg Araki seems to be fond of this trope in his films. Jordan White in "Film/{{The Doom Generation}}" and Brian in ''Film/MysteriousSkin'' definitely qualify.

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* In the {{biopic]] ''Film/YvesSaintLaurent'', young Yves is conscripted into the army, which causes him to have a nervous breakdown. In turn, he's fired from his position as Creative Director at Christian Dior. Yves and his partner Pierre believe the owner of Dior arranged the conscription after Yves's 1958 collection was financially unsuccessful. They successfully sue and use the money to start their own fashion house.

* ''Film/ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire'': Poor little Artemesia...
* What Adam tries to do to Ivan in ''Film/AdamsApples''.
* Max is a victim of this in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfSharkboyAndLavagirl''.
%% * ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence''

%% * ''Film/AmericanMary''
%% * ''Film/AnEducation''

* Asami comes conveniently pre-broken in ''Film/{{Audition}}''.

* ''Film/BatmanReturns'': Poor Selina.

* Nina, the protagonist of ''Film/BlackSwan'', spirals through this from beginning to end. This is from the director of ''Film/RequiemForADream''.
* Pretty much everyone in ''Film/{{Blindness}}'', but most of all [[spoiler: the women who become violently gang-raped.]]
* ''Film/BloodDiamond'': Standard procedure for the RUF in regards to making ChildSoldiers.

* Marilyn in ''Film/TheDivide'' on so many levels. Everybody else gets [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy Maddened Into Misanthropy]] or just plain dies.
* ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'': "You are ''not'' a pirate."
* ''Film/DontBeAfraidOfTheDark'': Poor, poor Sally.

* This eventually [[spoiler:leads to [[KillTheCutie killing the cutie]]]] in ''Film/DragMeToHell''.
* ''Film/TheDuchess''. Dear God...

* Basically, ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'', with Elizabeth being the operative cutie.

* When Mieke reads Scotty's e-mail in ''Film/{{Eurotrip}}'', she seems genuinely upset and hurt.
* ''Film/EvilEd''.
** [[spoiler:Evil Ed does this to Nick in the end.]]
* [[spoiler: Jeanie]] in ''Film/{{Flashdance}}''. Alex barely manages to bring her back to sanity.

* ''Film/JennifersBody'': Poor, poor Needy.

%% * ''Film/TheLastEmperor''
* ''Film/TheLastExorcism'': [[spoiler: Poor, poor Nell.]]

* Seth Brundle in ''Film/TheFly1986''. The isolated scientist, who has been working on a teleportation project all by his lonesome for six years, is the soul of {{Adorkable}} as the film opens and he is awkwardly flirting with a beautiful journalist, Veronica. His enthusiasm for his work and desire to share it ultimately helps him connect with her, and their blossoming love indirectly helps him figure out how to program his telepods to transport animate beings at last. But his insecurity over the nature of her relationship with her editor/ex-lover (which she doesn't go into much detail on because she'd rather not get him involved in that drama) leads him to misunderstand why she leaves on the night of his triumph, resulting in him getting drunk and teleporting ''himself''...not realizing that a fly is in the telepod with him, which results in a SlowTransformation into a HalfHumanHybrid. Initially, the positive side effects dominate (he has mild SuperStrength, amazing stamina and virility) and he even becomes DrunkWithPower, but when ''his fingernails start coming off'' it's not long before he learns what's actually happening to him -- [[BodyHorror that he is mutating and effectively dying]] -- and is brought back to his senses. He tries to see the bright side of his situation ("Don't you think [becoming "Brundlefly"] is worth a Nobel Prize or two?") but as he comes to understand that due to a SplitPersonalityTakeover he will become someone who would harm Veronica -- the only person he has in the world -- he is thoroughly broken and indeed ends up slipping into madness by the time the transformation reaches its endpoint. Incidentally, his {{Metamorphosis}} is the current page image for SlowTransformation -- who ''wouldn't'' have their psyche smashed to bits if they went through that?

** Hank [=McCoy=] starts off as the {{Adorkable}} love interest for Raven. He then undergoes a KarmicTransformation after telling Raven that society would never accept them for the way they really looked.

* They come pre-broken in ''Film/TheCrucible'', as In-ho quickly discovers.

* ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'' features a young British virgin woman being stalked by a LesbianVampire who wants to [[HumanSacrifice sacrifice]] her to an EldritchAbomination. She remains pretty strong until the end where [[spoiler: the aforementioned vampire turns into [[FullFrontalAssault a naked]] [[SnakePeople snake woman]] with a [[GagPenis strap-on]] and tries to [[LesYay take her virginity]] for her god. She gets [[BigDamnHeroes saved in time]] but is a sobbing wreck soon after.]]

* ''Film/TheHunt'':

* ''Film/TheWind'': Poor, poor Letty.

%%* Seth from ''Film/TheFly1986''.

* Chappie in ''{{Chappie}}''. Over the course of the film he's mistreated by Ninja, [[spoiler: has an arm cut off by Moore, has to come to terms with his own mortality, and his mother-figure die among other things, all whilst having a child's mentality for the most part. Ultimately Chappie become an IronWoobie due to it.]]

** Look at her face during the Albert Hall sequence, and you can see a woman who's about to lose it, who knows that something terrible is about to happen and cannot do a thing about it...until she just snaps and screams.

* ''[[Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' has Shilo. Given it's directed by the guy who did most of the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise, you just know she'll be broken by the end.

* Sara Goldfarb from ''Film/RequiemForADream''. And for that matter, the other three protagonists. [[{{Understatement}} This is not a feel-good movie]].
* ''Rescue Dawn'' has this to some degree with Steve Zahn's character. Considering the fact that he's been a captive of the Viet Cong for years, his cutie has presumably already been broken, but seeing this largely loveable character descend into madness before being[[spoiler:suddenly and brutally killed]] is heart-wrenching. The fact that it's BasedOnATrueStory and it happened much the same way in real life doesn't make it any less of an AudienceSuckerPunch.