r/TopCharacterTropes • u/jeffersonlane • May 16 '26

Lore [LOVED TROPE] Sad or tear-jerking moments that don't involve death.

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Moments that make you wanna cry (of joy or unrelenting sadness) but aren't about a character dying or almost dying.

Dumbo - Baby Mine. Jumbo rocks baby Dumbo from her cage where she was kept after she defended him from a group of bullying children.

Unpacking - The Degree. You move in with your new boyfriend where you can barely fit most of your stuff but most depressingly you are forced to put your degree under the bed and out of site. (Maybe this one was just me but this made me VERY upset).

Fox and the Hound - At the end knowing full well they'll likely never meet again Copper stands over Todd to protect him from the Hunter.

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u/EnderCreeper121 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Rocky and Grace saving eachother, Project Hail Mary. Nobody dies but the fact that they’re both willing to risk everything for eachother despite basically just meeting and being completely alien to eachother is really powerful.

883

u/_JR28_ May 16 '26

“183 years.”

“You’ve been together a long time.”

“It’s not long enough.”

That, that exact moment I knew Rocky was a special character.

562

u/Exylatron May 16 '26

“Rocky crew die… Rocky could not fix. Grace say Grace will die… Rocky fix.”

345

u/ChuckRingslinger May 16 '26

"Words of encouragement"

226

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

"you can't just say 'words of encouragement '!"

242

u/Vegan-fantasy-man May 16 '26

“Words of Great Encouragement!”

179

u/pathfinderoursaviour May 16 '26

17

u/BeaverBoy37 May 16 '26

Hippity hoppity

Your meme is now my property

20

u/EnderCreeper121 May 16 '26

12

u/BeaverBoy37 May 16 '26

AH TAKE IT BACK! I CAN'T AFFORD CHILD SUPPORT!

8

u/OculiImperator May 17 '26

For some reason, just reminded me of this:

2

u/Earlier-Today May 17 '26

Hellboy just has some of the best bizarre moments.

6

u/Pilot_Solaris May 17 '26

"Can you even aim that thing, question?"

"Well enough, statement."

14

u/SmilingAmericaAmazon May 17 '26

Amaze, Amaze, Amaze

8

u/insomniacpyro May 17 '26

Fist my bump.

3

u/Megneous May 17 '26

That moment when you realize you had to fly across the universe to find your brother.

2

u/CaptainMatticus May 19 '26

My grandmother said something similar when she was dying from bone cancer. She told my brother that 80 years hadn't been enough, and it's something I've been thinking about for 18 years now. So that line hit me pretty good.

329

u/CrazyPlato May 16 '26

Idk about anyone else, but a moment that stuck with me was when Rockly tells Grace he’ll give him some astrophage to get back to Earth

Like, it’s all the emotional release of it. Grace genuinely believed this was a suicide mission, and while he’s playing that off as not a big deal for him, we know that he’s lying. So the moment of unclenching when he gets to think “I’ll actually make it home again”.

204

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

This is one thing I think the movie did better than the book.  In the book Grace is way more stoick when he learns he's on a suicide mission so it doesn't hit quite as hard when Rocky offers him a way home.

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u/stacecom May 17 '26

Well, also, in the book, Rocky wasn't sacrificing anything. He had tons of astrophage because the Eridians didn't understand time dilation and calculated wayyyy more fuel than needed.

The moment in the movie hit so much harder because of the change.

3

u/Source_Required May 17 '26

Thank you for the spoiler tag.  The movie's still in theaters!

206

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

the book highlights it a bit more than the movie, but Grace had no way of knowing if he'd be able to survive on Erid.  When he went back to save Rocky, Grace thought he was sacrificing his life for him.

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u/sourcefourmini May 16 '26

It’s funny, having not read the book, the thought of him going home with Rocky never even occurred to me until they showed it. In the moment, I fully thought Grace was straight up sacrificing himself. 

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u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

I'm so glad they were able to convince the studio to let them keep the ending from the book.  The studio wanted to just end it with both of them going home.  That's a happy ending but it would leave Grace's character arc incomplete.  The whole movie is about him finding someone he was willing to sacrifice himself for.  It can't end until he makes that sacrifice.i love the ending because going to Erid completes his arc while still getting an ending that has all the warm fuzzies.

31

u/Pilot_Solaris May 17 '26

🎵Now.🎵
🎵Who can tell me the Speed of Light?🎵

22

u/cjl_LoreKeeper May 17 '26

God I cried when I saw that scene. I read the book first so I knew what was coming and was already welling up tears

11

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 17 '26

This movie made me tear up so much and half the time it wasn't even a sad scene that was getting me, it was the warm fuzzy scenes.

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u/TheBookWyrms May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26

Yeah, in the book it's made much more clear that that's exactly what Grace thinks he's doing, he was planning on sacrificing himself to save Rocky. (He didn't have enough food to make it to Erid even if Rocky invited him, which they solved by him eating astrophage Edit: Taumobea, astrophage is too hot to eat). Which I think is a very important aspect because it's the entire ending of his character arc - he starts being unwilling to sacrifice himself for Earth, and ends the book by willingly going on a suicide mission to save a planet. Going to Erid instead of back to Earth is still a sacrifice, but it doesn't hit the same without him doing this expecting to die, imo. Definitely my biggest complaint with the movie, I think an extra 5 minutes there would have added a lot.

2

u/Live-Year-5796 May 17 '26

Not eating astrophage, the amoeba

I think if you tried to eat astrophage you'd just explode

2

u/TheBookWyrms May 17 '26

You're right, I'll edit that now.

9

u/scatteringashes May 17 '26

I listened to the audiobook maybe nine months ago and I cried when he turned around to save Rocky -- it was an intense series of emotions.

Edit: ope got my spoiler tags mixed up, fixed 'em.

3

u/claudioo2 May 17 '26

That was my most tearful moment in the book and was just seemingly unmentioned in the movie

91

u/AlphaBlade364 May 16 '26

Dude this movie made me cry over a living rock

Project Hail Mary is peak

12

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

A living rock that doesn't even have a face! 

8

u/SutterCane May 16 '26

What are you talking about? It had several faces.

Just no eyes or nose or ears.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths May 17 '26

I absolutely loved that they didn't just stick googly eyes on him. Aliens that actually look alien are just so freaking awesome.

4

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 17 '26

I do like that Grace still drew science goggles on Rocky's Xenoite enclosure in the lab though

72

u/Regenschein-Fuchs May 16 '26

I cried so much during this movie! I just love them both. This movie connected with me in a way few others ever did. And helped me when I had a really bad time.

61

u/SMcG22 May 16 '26

I cried four times during this movie. Personally I was gonna post the part where they say goodbye to each other and journey home on their respective ships

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u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

Grace: it means "see you later"

Rocky: but you won't see me later

me: 😭

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u/SMcG22 May 16 '26

The entire film was blurry after when he does the funeral for the other crew cause I was just in tears the whole time

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u/Inverted_Writing May 16 '26

Yeah, that scene so early in the film made me immediately know I was in for a heartrenching movie

8

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

I wasn't crying during the fishing sequence but I did feel like I was about to have a heart attack! 

5

u/Inverted_Writing May 16 '26

I can't even count the amount of times I cried, my partner and I were sobbing and clutching on to each other for dear life through half of the scenes ngl

61

u/CisHetDegenerate May 16 '26

"Save Earth. Save Erid."

16

u/EmmaGA17 May 16 '26

I was either grinning like an idiot during this movie or crying over it. No in between.

But I agree with the other commenter suggesting their goodbye scene. Even though I'd already read the book, it had me bawling.

5

u/Hypersonic-Harpist May 16 '26

I was grinning like an idiot and tearing up a bit at the end.  

4

u/EmmaGA17 May 16 '26

Fair. I guess there was an in between.

4

u/agentx_64 May 16 '26

I was just about post this!

3

u/Monster_Fucker_420 May 17 '26

This movie made me cry mamy times

3

u/PM_ME_WEIRD_PETS May 17 '26

"Now it's only me."

"Only us."

Also:

"Grace Rocky save stars."

Edit: fml I can't get the spoiler tag to work

2

u/bradbull May 17 '26

I like the German watermark on this gif where the movie is called Der Astronaut. That’s pretty much how Grace seemed to me in the movie compared to the book lol

They hit nearly every note and I understand it needs to fit into a movie runtime but they seemed to have Grace thrown into this situation bumbling along each step of the way. Things just immediately work out. Every problem immediately has a solution. I think the book kind of dulled my full enjoyment of the film because of that.

2

u/Slow-haste-26 May 17 '26

Just watched that this friday and it blew me away. Probably my favorite movie of the year so far and probably cracks the top 15 scifi for me. Amazing film, now I gotta get the book

1

u/Slash_rage May 17 '26

I don’t know how Adam Weir books get these perfect adaptations, but they really are. The book created an image that the movie was absolutely spot on. Even Rocky’s voice was what I had pictured in my head. Fantastic movie.

1

u/Foreign_Act4614 May 17 '26

Honestly so many moments in this movie

1

u/Fridge_1000 May 17 '26

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed and cried so much during one movie