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Tear Jerker / Zombieland

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Even an intentionally silly zombie apocalypse film like Zombieland isn't free from the sorrow it brings.

  • Columbus accidentally shooting Bill Murray definitely qualifies, even if his death is slightly played for laughs.
  • Wichita letting slip that Columbus is a ghost town and burned to the ground in the outbreak, indirectly revealing that Columbus's parents are almost certainly dead, or zombies. Once Tallahassee nudges her and silently reveals to her what she just did, she apologizes to Columbus. Columbus just looks like his world was shattered with that. What he says next in his voiceover is particularly tragic and likely to cause a few teary eyes:
    "I'm not sure what's more tragic: that my family's gone, or the realization that I never really had much of a family to begin with. Either way, I can't pretend that what I'm looking for, I'll find by going home. I have no home."
    • Even worse, the fact that Colombus' parents were shut-ins that isolated themselves, even from him. Meaning that his dysfunctional family before the apocalypse was WORSE than his dysfunctional family that he forged now.
      • Because at least Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock learned to lighten up with each other and with him as well and best of all they got along with Colombus, and even then in the middle of the movie after Colombus gets the group to settle down they at least were willing to form a mutual truce.
      • Colombus' first family, on the other hand, did not bother to even try to get along with Colombus.
  • Tallahassee tells Columbus of his puppy he used to have, how happy they were together and all the fun they used to have. Then the apocalypse rolled its way over and took his puppy from him, which sent him into Blood Knight territory. We later learn that it was actually his son that he lost.
  • The eventual reveal on Tallahassee's Bait-and-Switch dog story.
    • The first version, where Buck was Tallahassee's dog, can be its own Tear Jerker moment. But the instant we learn it was actually his son... Columbus' voice-over sums it up perfectly:
      "Take away a man's son, you've truly given him nothing left to lose."
    • And considering that some of the zombies in Zombieland are undead, it should also be taken into account that Buck most likely reanimated. And Tallahassee was most likely the one to put down the zombified Buck. No wonder Tallahassee is seen sobbing at this moment.
    • Columbus: "You know, their pictures were in someone's wallet too." Wanna know why this motivates Tallahassee to change his mind? Because he does NOT want the girls, especially Little Rock, to suffer the same fate his son did.
  • Then there's the scene with the soccer mum early on, glancing sadly at the toys on her dashboard after escaping from the zombie princesses. Of course two seconds later it's hilarious again, but when you think how one of those kids was probably hers...
    • Even if none of those kids were her children, this would STILL be a tearjerker if she knew at least some of the kids because of some other reason as implied by the toys in her vehicle, such as if she was an aunt to one of the kids.
    • Heck, the mere fact that in the Zombieland universe even kids can zombify is a tearjerker in of itself because those dead kids never even got the chance to live full lives in the first place as their lives have been taken way too soon.
    • One moment in the opening credits that is a gut punch is at a father-son three-legged race, and a dad is trying to pull his kid along desperately. You can see his son is tired, but they are being chased by fathers and sons who have already been infected. They look like they're goners.
  • The Deleted Scene of Columbus inspecting 406's body, finding the bite mark that turned her into a zombie. He gives her a Due to the Dead by duct-taping his shower curtain on top of her.
  • "I could tell she knew what I was feeling. We are all orphans in Zombieland." *Sniff*

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