Tear Jerker / The Towering Inferno

• Lisolette's rather thankless death even bothered test audiences, though it sets up a very bleak Downer Ending for another character.
  • Added to that, the ending, when Claiborne survives and goes to the lobby expecting to find her. He comes across the exhausted and shell-shocked Powers, who can barely maintain eye contact and tells Claiborne that she died.
    • Then it gets worse, as Claiborne refuses to believe him, continuing to call out her name. Then Jernigan calls out Claiborne's name, approaches him, and hands him Lisolette's cat, Elke, that he rescued earlier, pats his shoulder and walks away. You actually see the acceptance wheels turning in Claiborne's head as he lets out a sad sigh and cuddles the cat, realizing that she truly is gone.
• The firefighters taking heavy casualties and fatalities, and yet they can't fight the fire effectively.
• Bigelow and his secretary's death. Even worse with the slo-mo and John Williams' dramatic music playing as he hopelessly runs while on fire.
• Will Giddings' death, which happens off screen but is felt by Duncan and Roberts.
• Senator Parker's death. When Simmons tries to commandeer the breeches buoy, Parker does his best to try and save the lives of everyone else that's there and pull Simmons out of the buoy so the ordered evacuation can continue. Unfortunately, the combined weight of himself, Simmons, and two other men pull the buoy out of the safety of the window and into the open air. We can even see Parker's realization of what happened and he practically freezes in terror as he did not want to be out there, even muttering, "No...NO...." Simmons takes advantage of Parker's freezing terror and throws him off to his death.
• Also, Mayor Ramsay's death, especially since he got his wife to make the final trip on the scenic elevator by promising that he would "make it," and asking her if he'd ever broken a promise to her before. They had earlier both worried about their teenage daughter being concerned for them due to watching TV about the disaster, putting her happiness above their own lives. What makes it worse is that it happens after a lull in the explosions, and Ramsay is clearly starting to relax, thinking the worst is over. Then a late blast goes off, and a rushing jet of water erupts basically right behind him, and he has no chance of escaping its onslaught.
  • And as it's happening, Jim Duncan, who is Ramsay's friend, unties himself to try and help but it's too late. He calls out "Bob! Bob!" as Ramsay teeters on the edge of the big fountain, then Ramsay falls and disappears, leaving Duncan to bury his head in his hands and scream, "Oh my God!" as he's pelted by the remaining water.
• We also have to mention poor Carlos, who manned his post, even making ice cream treats for the Allbright children after they ended up in the Promenade Room. He was nothing but nice, yet ends up killed when a statue tumbles, breaks apart, and a piece crushes his chest. What's worse is the audience gets to watch along with Roberts as the weakened Carlos feebly tries to shove the broken statue piece off his chest before finally collapsing back, dead.
• The first lady in the buoy's husband is a guy with curly gray hair. Not only is he one of the group that falls in with Simmons' mutinous crew that attempts to cut in line and use the breeches buoy, but his allegiance to Simmons costs him later, as he's one of the three guys who ends up falling out the window with the breeches buoy while Simmons is in it, and he's the guy that Simmons kicks off to his death right after Simmons murders Sen. Parker.
• Patty's hysterical, sobbing reaction at the end of the film when she sees Simmons' corpse. Made even worse by the fact that the last visible conversation that they had culminated with Simmons basically telling her to piss off and leave him alone so he could get himself shitfaced. They're never seen interacting again. There's nothing left for Patty but to be consoled by her father, Jim Duncan, who vows to make sure the disaster never happens again as she cries into his shoulder. Simmons was a complete asshole, but Patty loved him and now he's gone for good.
• O'Halloran, exiting the building for the final time, turns and looks somberly at rows upon rows of shrouded corpses of the fire's victims, including fellow firefighters. He doesn't say a word, and he doesn't have to. We can see the emotions on his face without them being spoken.