One example that is mixed with Tearjerker is the part of the narration that explained the fact that when the Sentinels started their genocide of mutants, many humans stood up for mutantkind. While it did not change the outcome, when it came down to the wire, a large chunk of humanity tried to do the right thing and did not simply abandon the mutants to their fate. Charles was right all along.
At the very beginning of the film before the title credits, we see a young mutant boy with a streak of white in his hair scavenging among the ruins of the decaying city shortly before a Sentinel catches up. It's a blink-and-you'll miss it sort of moment, but after Logan wakes up in the Good!Future, we see that same little boy walk past his door in the Xavier school, healthy, seemingly happy, and alive.
Possibly made worse by the fact that, visually at least, the most prominent male mutant with a skunk stripe (i.e. not Rogue) is a young Nathan Summers a.k.a. Cable, shown by his younger alternate counterpart Nate Grey. As the surnames suggest, both versions are the son of Scott and Jean - and while Scott and Jean didn't have children in the films, Nate Grey was canonically bio-engineered as a weapon, and there were other mutants in both families. In other words, this could well be a Grey/Summers relative.
A human Senator pointing out to Trask that if mutants exist, then they are living among humans peacefully. This guy in the 1970's is more tolerant than most of the humans we meet in the 21st century. Even more impressive is that he's clearly an older man (played by Michael Learner who was in his seventies at the time) and yet is still fairly open-minded and tolerant.
Mystique saving four mutants, including Havok and Toad from the horrible fate of being used as lab rats shows she's the only one fighting for mutant rights.
Havok attempting to talk down Mystique from killing Stryker. She may have abandoned the X-Men, but you can tell he's glad to see her and doesn't want her to pull the trigger.
Not to mention that when leaving, he pauses and asks, with a small amount of audible sadness, if she is going to leave with them. When she declines and goes to continue her plans, you can tell that Havok misses his old friend.
Logan proves he is who he says he is by telling Charles all the things Logan knows about him. About when Charles' powers started developing and how he'd thought he was going crazy. Charles admits he'd never told anyone about that. Charles told his most troubled student secrets about himself that he hadn't shared with anyone else. Not his best friend, not his sister, no one. And he knows more.
"Do you want me to go on?"
Logan's brief interaction with Peter's little sister. She walks up to him and introduces herself to him as a princess, and he smiles back at her and introduces himself. There's a good chance that Past!Logan wouldn't have been so friendly.
Watch Erik carefully in the scene where Peter is rescuing him. You can see that the man really wants to be annoyed with the younger boy because of his attitude, but is restraining himself because A) Said boy is rescuing him, B) Said boy is also a mutant, therefore a brother in arms, and C) depending on how you interpret his brief reaction to Peter's Mythology Gag (which is later confirmed to be canon in Apocalypse), he may or may not be his son.
The younger Charles' paternal side (which he has suppressed for a decade) surfaces for a moment when he assigns Peter a task which requires the latter to behave responsibly (i.e. returning the rental car) and tells him to "take it slow." Quicksilver's grin expresses more than simple amusement at the little joke; he comes from a fatherless household, and he generally disregards any form of authority, but you can sense in that moment that the teen thinks Xavier is a pretty cool guy. In X-Men: Apocalypse, it turns out that Maximoff hadn't forgotten the Professor's kindness because he chooses Charles to be his Parental Substitute instead of building a relationship with his biological father Erik.
Past!Erik asking Charles for a game of chess after they've had a huge argument, and Charles eventually agreeing. Plus, the way they almost casually say goodbye to each other when Charles lets Erik go after he's tried to kill the president, starting their strange Friendly Enemy relationship they'll have most of their lives.
Although the younger Charles hasn't seen Mystique in 11 years by the time he finds her at the Paris hotel, his first instinct after she is stunned by a Taser is to try to comfort her by caressing her hair and shoulder while telling her that he will keep her safe along with other soothing words. He also stands in between the barrel and his foster sister after Magneto points a gun in her direction, and Erik later has to use his power to change the bullet's trajectory so that it won't hit Charles in the head. Despite their estrangement, Xavier is willing to die for Raven to save her life.
And to add to this, Mystique seems genuinely happy to see Charles again when they first meet up.
Later, when Mystique is getting her leg bandaged, the nurse wonders if the mutant girl from the TV footage has a family. Mystique (in disguise) wistfully replies "Yes. She does."
In a bizarre way, Beast beating the heck out of Magneto and doing his best to drown him for trying to kill Raven. Hank still cares deeply about her.
Wolverine trying to comfort Charles after the latter's meltdown in Cerebro.
And beforehand, somehow even Cerebro's standard greeting is heartwarming: "Welcome Professor."
Also when he asks Charles to find him and all of the future X-Men and help guide them. It's a really sweet moment from a guy we're used to seeing act grumpy and cynical most of the time.
Also the fact that Wolverine is subtly admitting that his time with the X-Men has been the best times of his life.
Logan telling Xavier "I was your most helpless student once." It reminds us that in the first movie, when Logan was bitter and alone, Xavier was the one who guided him into both being a better person, and having a sense of purpose and belonging. Now the roles have reversed, and Logan is guiding the bitter Xavier into becoming a better man.
Logan: I don't know how long I've got here, but I do know that a long time ago, actually, a long time from now, I was your most helpless student, and you unlocked my mind. You showed me what I was, you showed me what I can be.
When Logan admits to Charles that he has no idea how to help him and instead redirects him to the one person he knows who can help anyone.
Future!Charles talking to Past!Charles and showing him all the good he can do, giving him hope again. And he finally starts acting like the Xavier we all knew.
One major thing that sticks out in their conversation is that Future!Charles still hasn't given up on humanity. This is a man who has seen the near complete genocide of his species, the deaths of countless numbers of his friends and students, all at the hands of homo sapiens. And he still has faith.
Future!Charles: Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, it doesn't mean they're lost forever. Sometimes we all need a little help.
Towards the climatic battle in the past towards the end of the movie, Hank asks Logan whether or not he makes it in the future. Logan truthfully replies that he doesn't to which Hank gives him a startled look, but Logan then kindly reassures him "But we have a chance to change that." It really encompasses the theme of hope in the movie.
After Future!Erik is hit by shrapnel and is dying, he does not fight the Sentinels but rather strengthens the Barricade. He uses the last of his strength not to fight his enemy like he's been doing his whole life, but to protect his friends.
It's established that Quicksilver hates being still, because of his accelerated sense of time. Despite this, he sits down to hold his little sister and watch TV with her.
Future!Professor X holding Future!Magneto's hand while the latter is dying. Plus Erik lamenting that they spent so many years fighting each other when they should have been working together.
This simple gesture, while brief due to the Sentinels about to barge in, shows that whatever difference these two had, they were still friends. And now they have finally buried the hatchet after all these long years. It's sad too, because they know there's nothing else for them since they'll both die soon, but at least they have finally made peace.
Magneto: All those years we wasted fighting each other, Charles. To have a precious few of them back...
Charles convincing Raven not to shoot Trask by appealing to her better nature. Despite that he could telepathically force her not to do it, Charles lets her make her own choices, stating that he has faith in her. And it works.
Before that, Mystique disguised as President Nixon offering herself to be killed by Magneto, in place of Nixon and his entire Cabinet. Then saving them all. Even though she has every reason to hate Nixon's administration for approving the Sentinel program.
Before she leaves, Raven looks at Charles and Hank and smiles warmly.
Nixon cancelling the Sentinel program, and potentially pardoning Mystique.
The ending, where Wolverine wakes up in the changed future.
He's walking around like he can't believe he's in such a cheerful and familiar place. Think about it; he spent decades in the Bad Future and now he's back in the closest thing he has to home.
He's overjoyed to see Jean alive again and even Scott too. "It's good to see you, Scott," is heartfelt considering their adversity in the first two films.
Just seeing the school bright and whole and full of children again.
Jean: Logan, is everything alright? Logan: ...yeah. Yeah, I think it is.
Early in the film Wolverine tells Beast "You don't know this, but you and I are gonna be really good friends." Even in the changed future this is completely true.
Logan in the righted timeline is a faculty member at the Xavier school; the history instructor. He truly found a place to belong.
Wolverine returning from the past to the peaceful, happier timeline of the present and greeting the Professor after seeing Scott and Jean. The way the Professor's face lights up when he realizes that this is the Logan that helped him in the past without any recollection of the last fifty years is full of relief and comfort for both Logan and the audience and a confirmation that Logan's hard work to fix things in the past paid off.
Charles: Welcome back. Logan: It's good to see you, Charles. It's good to see everyone. Charles: Well, I had a promise to keep. You and I have a lot of catching up to do. Logan:[smiles] Yeah.
For certain shippers, seeing Bobby and Rogue together again at the end.
With the film's explanation that the blue furry form for Beast is him hulking out when he loses control of himself, him being that way all the time in the future could be interpreted as Beast no longer feeling like he needs to hide that he is a mutant.
When Logan talks to Past!Magneto on the plane and the latter tauntingly asks him how being his enemy worked out for him, Logan simply replies "You're like me. You're a survivor." The fact that, out of all the other things Logan could have called him (murderer, terrorist etc.), he actually chooses to identify with his old enemy is rather touching. It also suggests that Future!Magneto may have further redeemed himself in Logan's eyes by genuinely fighting only for the survival of himself and his people, since in previous films Logan has always been quick to call Magneto out on any hypocrisy (like sacrificing Rogue rather than himself). Finally, it shows what a good influence the X-Men have been on him over the years; it's hard to imagine a younger Wolverine choosing to stand down from that sort of provocation instead of rising to it.
Another one laced with a Tear Jerker: Past!Charles deciding against using the serum that stops his powers and restores his ability to walk, despite it being the only thing that's kept him going for years. He really does still have hope.
When Past!Xavier uses his powers on Logan, despite how a lot of the film has been about him having trouble coping with his own pain, and having received a very nasty shock from Cerebro, his instant response to seeing Logan's memories - all their trauma included - is one of shock (at just what's happened to him) and empathy, demonstrating that even under the depressed, addicted, and bitter wreck he's become, he is still Professor X.
You poor, poor man.
The Rogue Cut
When Mystique asks Beast, "So you've been living here [Xavier's mansion] all these years?", his response is a matter-of-factly "Someone has to take care of Charles." He says it without any resentment (it's not easy looking after someone with mental illness) or resignation (so he doesn't feel trapped by his caretaker role). For Hank, there is no question about what he values more: living his own life, or ensuring that his severely depressed, alcoholic, drug-addled friend doesn't end up killing himself (accidentally or otherwise). Being in a codependent relationship certainly isn't a good thing, but McCoy's love and devotion towards Charles is nevertheless very touching.
When Magneto rescues Rogue, he threatens the Trask Industries scientists who were experimenting on her, but he doesn't kill them (even though the temptation must be strong—he was a lab rat once, after all), as we would normally expect. It goes to show that Erik is firmly a member of the X-Men, and he knows it's against Xavier's policy to harm people unnecessarily, so he restrains himself for Charles' sake at least, if nothing else. It's one of the very rare examples in the franchise where Magneto adheres to his friend's less violent approach instead of acting instinctively on his anger.
