Tear Jerker / Train to Busan

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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"It's all about sacrifice, right?"

All that can be said about Train to Busan is that when there is emotion, it hits you right in the heart in the most painful way.

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• Seok-woo's death is nigh-objectively the saddest part of the movie. He gets infected by Young-suk, the most despicable character in the film, and he stays human long enough to throw him off the train car and give a final goodbye to Su-an before staggering to the other end of the train car while Su-an cries out and begs him to stay. At this point, he breaks down sobbing and, at the exact moment that he turns, thinks of holding Su-an as a baby for the first time, which gives him enough peace to throw himself off the train car, smiling all the way.
  • The music that plays over this moment.
  • Shortly before, the expression on Seok-woo's face when Su-an begs him to stay with them. This is the face of a father who realizes that his daughter does love him more than he knew. And that's all the more reason to keep her safe from himself.
    • Compounding this is Su-an blaming herself while pleading with her father to stay — she believes that if she hadn't insisted they go to Busan, he wouldn't have been bitten.
  • And after this, we get a shot of the train chugging forward through the idyllic South Korean landscape. No blood, no smoke. Just a countryside visibly untouched by the outbreak — a sharp, deliberate contrast to the gory, tear-inducing majority of the film.
  • The ending, where the emotionally-wrecked and physically-exhausted Seong-kyeong and Su-an are walking down the final tunnel. Just as it seems that soldiers are about to shoot them, their not being zombies is proved by Su-an singing "Aloha 'Oe", the song she failed to finish singing at the recital as Seok-woo wasn't there, now repurposed into a memorial to her father.
• Sang-hwa performing a Heroic Sacrifice and asking Seok-woo to take care of his wife, who is looking on in tears. And to make it even more heartbreaking, Sang-hwa finally gives Seong-kyeong a name for their baby — just before the zombies smash the glass, and Seok-woo has to drag the despairing mother back.
  • Before the glass breaks, Seong-kyeong takes a few shaky steps toward him, crying. She knows what's going to happen, and most likely wants to die with her husband. At first Sang-hwa screams at her to get back, then pleads with her to stay away.
• Jin-hee becoming infected and infecting an emotionally-wrecked Young-guk, who is so distraught over Jin-hee's fate that he doesn't even try to save himself, instead crying in despair and holding her until she turns and bites him.
  Young-guk: I'm sorry...!
• Just the look of pure despair on Jong-gil's face as her sister In-gil sacrifices herself by staying behind so Seok-woo can close the door rather than risk the infected getting in while Seok-woo tries getting to her. The fact that In-gil smiles at her sister just a mere moment before the infected grab her only makes it all the more heart-wrenching.
  • Another tearjerker is after the sacrificing sister gets infected. As the zombies are trying to break through, they all look like the ravenous monsters they've been throughout the movie. That is, except for the newly-turned In-gil. She's not another blood-covered monster yet. She just looks confused, lost, like a child.
    • Jong-gil sits mournfully just before, thinking of In-gil and asking why her sister put others before herself and why she lived like that, before looking at the rest of the selfish front end passengers arguing amongst themselves. She looks through the glass door at her sister and tearfully thanks her for everything before opening the compartment to let in the infected, punishing the front end passengers for their selfishness.
      Jong-gil: What a load of shit.
• The woman who brings the virus onto the train apologizes over and over again, crying, as she desperately tourniquets herself in a futile attempt to stop the infection.
• The homeless man sacrificing himself to allow the others to escape. He already witnessed unspeakable horrors back in Seoul and was traumatized when he was discovered in the train's toilet, and he is clearly scared out of his wits... yet he still finds the wherewithal within himself to charge forth and replicate Sang-hwa's Heroic Sacrifice, buying enough time for Seong-kyeong and Su-an to escape before the rest of the zombies break through the other windows of the overturned train car and the car itself collapses on top of them.
• While it might be hard to feel too sympathetic to the passengers who throw Seok-woo's group out of the passenger car to protect themselves, keep in mind that they were just regular citizens who were whipped into a paranoid frenzy by the selfish Young-suk for his own safety.
• Just the look on Young-guk's face when they reach the compartment filled with his now-zombified teammates. The poor boy can only raise a shaky finger and point, even as the team attempts to swarm them. Even though neither Seok-woo or Sang-hwa ask him to help, with Sang-hwa even pushing him aside gently when he realizes how hard this will be for the teenager, it's pretty obvious that he's still heartbroken about having to see his friends this way.
• The poor train conductor. He had relative safety in his car and control over the train, giving him plenty of occasions to run off for himself. Instead, not only does he always wait to take in as many passengers as he can, when he finds the rails blocked he informs the passengers where he will bring the new train to give them a chance, and when he sees Young-suk tripping while running toward the train, what does he do? Get off and run to help. And in return, he becomes yet another person used by Young-suk as a human shield, getting devoured by the horde. To make matters worse, Young-suk himself is unable to avoid the infection before boarding the train car, putting the other survivors at risk.

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