History TearJerker / TheFly1986

* Seth saying "Help me! Please, help me!" to Veronica when he sees her after his month-long isolation. This is a line lifted from the oft-parodied spider scene in the original film, and Creator/JeffGoldblum sells it for all the heart-wrenching drama that it has.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fbfb411b_e3c1_4852_af1e_3e295dd3005f.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You have to leave now...and never come back here."'']]

--> '''Seth:''' You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh...
--> '''Veronica:''' I don't know what you're trying to say...
--> '''Seth:''' I'm saying... ''[[[EmergingFromTheShadows finally reveals himself to Veronica]], who fearfully steps backward]'' I'm saying I-[[Creator/{{Zhuangzi}} I'm an insect... who dreamt he was a man]]... and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.
--> '''Veronica:''' ''[looking close to tears]'' No, no... No, Seth...
--> '''Seth:''' I'm saying... ''I'll hurt you if you stay.''

** One comment on a youtube upload of the clip has even given insight into an alternate view of the scene:
---> '''Alegre Franz:''' This is not only Seth warning her that he was giving in to the insect instincts. It is the fly itself, aware of what IT had become. Wanting it more, but knowing it was slowly going back to that primordial brain. The fly gained some semblance of sentience, when they fused together, and the awareness was heavenly to it. It knew and understood what it meant to be alive, and love someone. So it wasn't just Seth losing his mind, it was both awarenesses warning their only love to go away.

--> '''Seth:''' Why did you want to ''kill Brundle''? The baby... might be all that's left of the ''real me''.... Please don't ''kill me...''

--> '''Alegre Franz:''' This is not only Seth warning her that he was giving in to the insect instincts. It is the fly itself, aware of what IT had become. Wanting it more, but knowing it was slowly going back to that primordial brain. The fly gained some semblance of sentience, when they fused together, and the awareness was heavenly to it. It knew and understood what it meant to be alive, and love someone. So it wasn't just Seth losing his mind, it was both awarenesses warning their only love to go away.

--> '''Seth:''' Why did you want to ''kill Brundle?'' The baby... might be all that's left of the ''real me''.... Please don't ''kill me...''

--> '''Veronica:''' I don't understand what you're saying.

--> '''Seth:''' I'm saying... ''[[[EmergingFromTheShadows finally reveals himself to Veronica]], who fearfully steps backward]'' I'm saying I-[[Creator/{{Zhuangzi}}I'm an insect... who dreamt he was a man]]... and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.

--> '''Seth:''' I'm saying... ''[[[EmergingFromTheShadows finally reveals himself to Veronica]], who fearfully steps backward]'' I'm saying I-I'm an insect... who dreamt he was a man... and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.

* It says a lot about how moving this film is that, after all the BodyHorror and NauseaFuel, people have been known to cry at the ending. Seth's just desperately trying to cling to his fleeting humanity and gets a few screws loose in his head while he's at it. He tries to absorb Veronica and their unborn baby into himself as his final transformation kicks in. After the botched final teleportation leaves him a [[BodyHorror horrific abomination of flesh, insect and telepod parts]], he limps over to Veronica in agony and, with the last of his humanity, puts her shotgun barrel to his head and silently begs her to put him out of his misery. Veronica, who is safe but thoroughly broken, can only oblige him. So tragic is the ending that none of the ''four'' filmed epilogues worked in test screenings, as the audiences were so devastated that they couldn't accept any sort of coda. The film just ends after Seth dies and we are left to mourn him.

** It isn't solely denial, though that is important. Upon realizing that he's becoming a new lifeform, the curious scientist in him wants to explore what he's becoming, if only for science. In fact, there's a part of him that is embracing the change and the new skills that come with it. "Most people would give anything to become something else", as he points out. But he's the only one who sees his transformation with wonder, the only one who can see something ''beautiful'' in it, before his mind starts to go. It's an achingly lonely state of mind to be in.

* It says a lot about how moving this film is that, after all the BodyHorror and NauseaFuel, people have been known to cry at the ending. Seth's just desperately trying to cling to his fleeting humanity and gets a few screws loose in his head while he's at it. He tries to absorb Veronica and their unborn baby into himself as his final transformation kicks in. After the botched final teleportation leaves him a [[BodyHorror horrific abomination of flesh, insect and telepod parts]], he limps over to Veronica in agony and, with the last of his humanity, puts her shotgun barrel to his head and silently begs her to put him out of his misery. Veronica, who is safe but thoroughly broken, can only oblige him. So tragic is the ending that none of the ''four'' filmed epilogues worked in test screenings, as the audience were so devastated that they couldn't accept any sort of coda. The film just ends after Seth dies and we are left to mourn him.

* It says a lot about how moving this film is that, after all the BodyHorror and NauseaFuel, people have been known to cry at the ending. Seth's just desperately trying to cling to his fleeting humanity and gets a few screws loose in his head while he's at it. He tries to absorb Veronica and their unborn baby into himself as his final transformation kicks in. It all ends with him becoming a BodyHorror and ''pulling'' the shotgun barrel to his forehead with what almost sounds like a cry of "Please." All Veronica, who is safe but thoroughly broken, can do is oblige him. It doesn't help that there's ''no epilogue'' and the film ''ends there''.
** In ''Cronenberg on Cronenberg'', the director-writer explains that the reason none of the ''four'' filmed "butterfly baby" epilogues worked in test screenings was '''because''' Seth's death was "so devastating that the audience could not recover for the coda; they couldn't switch gears." In a sense, the audiences needed time to ''mourn'' the death of Seth Brundle.

** Especially if you consider his transformation a metaphor for terminal disease, an idea Geena Davis mentioned in a documentary about the production.

** In ''Cronenberg on Cronenberg'', the director-writer explains that the reason none of the ''four'' filmed "butterfly baby" epilogues worked in test screenings was '''because''' Seth's death was "so devastating that the audience could not recover for the coda; they couldn't switch gears." Viewers were so brokenhearted that hope was wasted on them.

* Seth's YoureJustJealous rant to Veronica, just before he tosses her out, is tearjerking as well as terrifying because of DramaticIrony -- the ''audience'' knows she's absolutely right that he's (effectively) sick, but he's too DrunkWithPower and bitter over her allowing Tawny to leave the loft to see that. As Seth shows off his strength by punching the support beam, Veronica desperately begs him to stop, and after she's shoved out the door she breaks down in tears as she leaves the warehouse. She knows the sweet, gentle man she came to love -- and still loves -- is not himself in the worst possible way, but she's helpless to do anything about it.