Line #5 Tearjerker/PowerRangers2017


1	'''Moments pages are Administrivia/SpoilersOff. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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3	* The title in the opening ("Power Rangers") being nothing more than a crude, unceremonious font in the lower right corner so represents how our heroes are not the pure, ideal protectors we knew from the Television series, but rather [[HumansAreFlawed flawed human beings]] in a raw reality. What's more, it comes up right after Jason survives the car crash which [[DownerBeginning ruins his life]], as though the movie is expressing [[DisappointedInYou disappointment]] for his [[MyGreatestFailure actions]].
4	* It's clear Kimberly is rocked when her former friends inform her they are cutting her out of their lives. They make it literal by cutting up a photo to leave Kimberly out of it. While she knows she partly deserves it, Kimberly nonetheless is hurt by this cold dismissal of their friendship.
5	* Each Ranger's lot in life at the start of the film, especially since all of it is TruthInTelevision:
6	** Jason used to be the BigManOnCampus who could have written his own ticket but a poorly thought out prank ruined all of that. He's forced to wear an ankle monitor, ruined his knee and needs a knee brace (his ranger powers fix it later), has to attend Saturday school just to graduate, and gets continually derided by his own father.
7	** Billy has a FriendlessBackground and is the favored target of the school bully because he is on the autism spectrum. To make things worse, the person he was closest to, his father, has passed away.
8	** Kimberly used to be an AlphaBitch on the cheerleader team that got thrown out because of a mean-spirited prank. Her former friends abandon her and she openly acknowledges that she has only herself to blame.
9	*** The hints that Kim is suicidal. She takes risks, feels like she has nothing to live for... it makes her opening up the scissors and staring at the sharp edge take on a much sadder tone.
10	** Trini is a perpetual new student because of her mom constantly moving around for her job. What's worse is that she hasn't really been noticed by anyone at Angel Grove, correcting Kim's belief that she's been there for a month by saying she's been attending for a ''year''. She also has to deal with parents that [[WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent want her to conform to their preferences]], while also dealing with potentially being a lesbian and not able to tell anyone.
11	** Zack acts boastful and unconcerned to [[BeneathTheMask hide his worries about living in a trailer with his sick mother]] (who is the only family he has left).
12	* When Jason gets dropped off at Saturday School, his father gets on his case about why he's there. While justified in being upset, Jason's father goes too far when he [[KickTheDog denigrates Jason's refusal to sell out his friends who helped with the prank as stupid, not noble.]] He also insults the students that Jason will be attending with as "weirdos and criminals" (which is proven patently untrue later in the film).
13	** Later, Jason sees that his father has kept the wrecked car and thinks it's to serve as a reminder of his screw up. His father admits it isn't, but that this was the first thought in Jason's mind and that it is actually a reasonable assumption just highlights how bad things are between the two.
14	** A cut scene has the two of them get into a heated argument, Jason getting angry that his dad is ''still'' fixated on Jason being on the football team if he just does his exercises and physical therapy to get back in top form. Jason points out that Sam had asked the doctor about that and the doctor had paused before telling them that it was "possible". Jason further [[CallingTheOldManOut calls out]] his dad for pushing for the whole football career in the first place, even going to the local paper to have them write about Jason being the school's "Golden Boy". This scene also reveals that Jason sat in jail for ''three days'' following the prank.
15	* Zack, in an effort to bond with his newfound-but-barely-friends teammates, gave a heartfelt confession of his love for his bedridden elderly mother, the only family he has left, and his crippling fear of losing her any day. The sincerity of Ludi Lin's performance is a pitch-perfect portrayal of a young boy driven to bitterness by the sorrow of having a terminally ill parent. The most heartbreaking part is when he says "if...''when'' she goes".
16	** He even admits to sleeping at the mountain camp sometimes because he's afraid to sleep at home, fearing that one day he's going to wake up and his mom won't.
17	* Trini's confession is similarly heartfelt, and it's easy to understand why she's so aloof and snarky given her eternal outcast status. It will also resonate with a lot of teenagers who feel conflicted about their sexual orientation. She's in tears by the end.
18	** An extended version of her confrontation with Rita starts off with Trini sneaking back into her room and just sitting for a moment and ''crying'' before going to bed.
19	** And when Zack tentatively says "girlfriend troubles?", Ludi Lynn plays it almost as though Zack is realising what it must have been like for Trini to have him constantly hitting on her, and feeling ashamed for it.
20	* Again, the performance of ''genuine'' grief from Jason, Zack, Trini and Kimberly's actors and actresses drives home the awful loss of Billy at the taloned hands of Rita Repulsa; seeing the four surviving rangers solemnly and respectfully bearing Billy on their shoulders as an honor guard with the Bootstraps' version of "Stand By Me" in the background only lets the tears flow harder, a fitting song for a heartfelt and sorrowful sequence.
21	** Kimberly seems to take this the hardest, desperately trying to revive Billy and sounding heart broken as she says "he's dead". She also finds a note that she had passed to Billy in detention earlier saying "we should start a band", [[CerebusCallBack and burst into tears]]. Another layer of FridgeHorror to this is that Kimberly was the only one of the five who was outright kicked out of her friend group, and was still reeling from it and whether she even deserved to have friends at all after how awful she was. Here she gets confirmation that someone did love her as a friend, and this person is dead.
22	** Even though you ''[[DisneyDeath know]]'' everything is going to turn out fine, thanks to [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil trailers giving away]] that Billy does make it to the final fight and [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt this being Power Rangers]], it still manages to be a genuine GutPunch and legitimately sad moment.
23	** Jason apologizing to the others for not being a better leader to them.
24	* The Rangers struggling against Goldar in their Zords, being pushed slowly into the pit containing the Zeo Crystal. Having their faces exposed allows them and the audience to see how terrified they are: Jason declaring that no one's dying alone and Billy's fine with that even though he was brought back not too long ago, Zack passes out from the heat while Trini desperately calls out to him to wake up, Jason and Kim have a HeldGaze moment, Billy [[ItHasBeenAnHonor thanks the others for being his friends]], and as they fall in Kim calls out for them to hold on to each other.
25	** Then of course the tears of sorrow morph into tears of joy when the Megazord forms and rises from the pit.
26	* The anger and heartbreak in Rita's voice when she tells the Rangers "No matter what Zordon says, ''I AM WORTHY!''" right before she gets slapped into space makes you wonder if there's more to her story than what Zordon told the Rangers.
27	** Likely she was worthy at one point as Zordon DOES state they were friends. But either the power corrupted her and she began using it for her own selfish needs.... or someone began LYING to her and manipulated her into thinking Zordon hated her.
28	*** When Rita comes stumbling out of Goldar, screaming for them to wait, she starts ranting that their teamwork and trust won't always work out and that it will end some day. She angrily insists that they know this, and she sounds so outraged and upset by it... it's enough to make one wonder if that was what happened to her team. Zordon says she betrayed them, but never gives any details on what that entailed. And at the beginning of the film, she tells Zordon they could have ruled together. Putting the clues together, it might have been she tried to get stronger for the sake of the team through immoral ways and they tried to stop her, so she turned on them. Or she wanted to get stronger for her own sake and her team felt that they ''had'' to stop her. She does tell Trini that she, too, was an outsider on the team once upon a time.
29	*** I might be wrong, but wasn't Eltar (Zordon's homeworld) captured or destroyed at some point in the older lore? With the Zeo Crystal being able to bring life to a world, I could see a desperate soldier/guardian of a fallen world trying to harness something like the Zeo Crystal to fight back an invading force, or save their people from extinction. Transformers/Sentinel Prime style. If Rita tried to do that and Zordon's team refused to let her do so, I can see that causing the opening scene we got. Which would only make it sadder, of course, her descent into evil that is.

Context Tearjerker / PowerRangers2017