Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- It may have been Played for Laughs soon after, but the movie begins with a Cubone wailing its head off in grief. The poor thing just looks so sad... at least until Tim tries to break the ice by remarking about it wearing the skull of its dead relative and tries capturing it, then it understandably gets very pissed off.
- Lucy tries to draw Roger Clifford's attention to the strange goings on, only for him to rudely dismiss her for chasing rumours; just to add insult to injury, he cruelly tells her to get a better fashion sense. She's very clearly near tears when she sees Tim is there to speak to her.
- Tim revealing what led to the rift between him and his dad: after his mom died, Harry moved to Ryme City and threw himself into his work, leaving Tim to be raised by his grandmother. Harry, later on, asked Tim to come and live with him so they could be a family again, but Tim refused to get on the train, angry at his father for abandoning him and seemingly caring more for Pokémon than him.
- The death of Tim's mother had an additional negative impact on him. The day she became sick, she was going to take him to watch a Pokémon League tournament (or possibly/additionally, see him off on a Pokémon trainer journey of his own; it's a bit ambiguous). But with her illness, sudden death, and his father distancing himself from Tim, it led to the young boy abandoning his dream of becoming a Pokémon trainer and to his jaded outlook on life.
- When Tim comes to his father's apartment in order to wrap things up, he finds a bedroom filled with Pokémon League stuff, which Harry clearly bought in hopeful anticipation of Tim coming to live with him, or at least visit. When Tim refused to reconnect with him, Harry left the room just as he'd arranged it, for years on end...
- When Detective Pikachu looks through the room Harry had made for Tim, he asks if the woman in the photograph is connected to the case. Tim soberly tells him she's not related to the case and explains that's a picture of his mother, and how she passed away when he was a kid. Pikachu is visibly saddened to have brought up such a sensitive topic.
- Believing Tim's claims of Harry being alive is just a case of denial, Hideo has no choice but to show Tim footage of the accident that killed his father. And it's done with a heavy heart at that.
- The scene immediately after this hit like a ton of bricks, as both Tim and Pikachu are confronting the fact that Harry seems to almost certainly be dead. Tim just can't hold it in anymore, as now he's lost both his parents and he never had a chance to reconcile with his dad. What Pikachu says afterwards hits home hard, especially in retrospect, given who he "is":Pikachu: I may have amnesia, but I know this... if your dad could see you now, he'd be damn proud of you.
- Tim pleading with the Bulbasaur to heal Pikachu after he is severely injured.
- When Detective Pikachu starts believing he betrayed Harry, he leaves Tim behind sadly claiming that he is always meant to hurt and betray the people he loves. Knowing that Detective Pikachu is Harry and Pikachu's Fusion Dance, it's highly likely it was Harry's part influencing Pikachu, and he spent the last ten years blaming himself for having pushed Tim away.Tim: I'm not letting you go! (is accidentally shocked by Pikachu)Pikachu: (looks ashamed) You see? I can't help that I hurt the people who need me. That's who I am. I'm sorry.
- Followed by Pikachu sobbing out the anime theme song on his way back to town.
- Mewtwo's body being taken over by Howard Clifford. Mewtwo barely has enough time to react (telling Tim to flee) before being doused with an extreme dose of Serum R gas and getting taken over by Howard's mind via the neural link.Mewtwo: RUN!
- Minor detail, but in the final scene, as they go out to get coffee, Harry remarks "I've felt that coffee has been on my mind a while", sadly suggesting all he remembers is the coffee and not the little adventures he had with his son. Granted, it might be for the best if Lucy's comment to Psyduck means anything, but that was how they rekindled their relationship before Mewtwo reversed the effects.
- Another minor detail, but the implied death of Detective Pikachu's personality, seeing as how many of his mannerisms seemed to have come from Harry's influence.
- And even if Harry's Pikachu maintained the habits he picked up while fused to Harry, with him Brought Down to Normal, he and Tim can no longer have the conversations they've had before.
- Psyduck. Think about Pikachu's initial reaction to it, the fact that the only one we see belongs to Lucy, and that they're capable of accidentally causing mass destruction. Seems like they tend to get rejected a lot.
- After Harry's car was attacked by the Greninja, his Pikachu can be seen pulling on the critically injured Harry's arm, as if saying Please Wake Up. This can invoke the same heartwrenching feeling back in the first anime movie where Ash's Pikachu attempts to wake up Ash who had been turned to stone.
- The fact that it has been so long since Tim has talked to his father that he didn't recognize his voice as Pikachu.
