Here are some movies that have made me cry.
But First
This is a more personal gallery than we usually do at MovieMaker, and of course different people will cry at different things.
I don’t usually cry at movies. But when one gets me, it really gets me.
Also, I was born in 1975. So some of these movies made me cry as a kid, but don’t have quite the same power on me now that I’m a grown-up. There are also movies on this list that would have bored me to tears as a kid, but just bring me to tears today.
So here we go.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
This movie made me cry because I was scared and freaked out: Why was Han Solo being frozen in carbonite? Aren’t the good guys supposed to win? Always?
I saw this movie when I was four, and honestly think it’s the film that made Gen X so skeptical. It was the first movie for kids that told it how it really was: Life is full of problems, and disappointments, and the road isn’t going to be easy.
Or as another great ’80s movie once put it: “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Superman II (1981)
Same experience as with The Empire Strikes Back, basically.
When Superman goes into the chamber in the Fortress of Solitude to willingly lose his powers, I lost it. Again: Superman is supposed to be Superman. He isn’t supposed to lose his powers. This isn’t fair.
As an adult of course I understand that he thought he needed to be mere mortal Clark Kent in order to have a successful relationship with Lois. But even now I feel like he shouldn’t have to give up his superpowers to do it.
I saw this one at the South Bay 6 Drive-In in Carson, California, and very distinctly remember crying in the backseat of my parents’ car. Anyway, it’s one of the best superhero movies ever made.
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Saw this one on a trip to San Diego with my dad. Cute movie — until the tears.
I don’t remember what exactly made me cry during The Fox and the Hound — was it the scary bear attack? I don’t think so. I believe it was the greater sense of betrayal that came from The Fox (Tod) and the Hound (Copper) not being allowed to be friends anymore.
It may also have been the scene where Copper is forced to hunt Tod. I was six when this movie came out, and had definitely experienced the pain of losing a best friend (moving), so I think this one hit hard.
Glory (1989)
This is the first movie I consider an “adult” cry. I was fourteen when it came out, and it hits me exactly the same way now that it did then.
Glory is the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, a group of Black enlisted men who fought for the Union Army — and the freedom of enslaved Black people — during the Civil War. It’s an extremely good movie. The Black soldiers endure countless insults, including from an unnamed character, a white soldier with reddish hair and a mustache who insists that Black troops are unworthy of the uniform. They shrug it off, like they endure everyting.
Here’s the part that made me, a 14-year-old boy, start bawling in a movie theater, sitting next to my dad. The Union is mounting an attack on the Confederacy’s Fort Wagner, and the only way to take the fort is with a direct run on a strip of open beach, with no protection. It’s basically a suicide mission.
The 54th volunteers. As all the Union men watch the Black soldiers marching to their deaths, to do the thing they’re all afraid to do, the red-hair guy breaks the silence. “Give ‘em hel1, 54!” All the troops join in: “Give ‘em hell, 54!” My eyes are getting teary just writing this now. Please see Glory. It’s just one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
Awakenings (1990)
Funny story. After the crying at Glory, I thought: Am I a person who cries at movies now? So I went to see Awakenings, the story of catatonic patients briefly brought back to life by an experimental new approach. After their awakenings, sadly, they slowly lose their ability to speak and communicate.
As this fact became apparent, in a very emotional exchange between the Robin Williams and Robert De Niro characters, I felt tears start to well up: Is this it? Is this where I cry?
But then another thought entered my head: Nooooooope.
That made me laugh, really loud, during a part of the movie when many people around me were crying. I got a lot of dirty looks. Sorry, everybody.
But I did, technically, kind of cry.
Forrest Gump (1994)
This one didn’t get me in the theater. Good movie, sure, but I was more impressed by the special effects than moved by the very Baby Boomer story. I respected Forrest Gump but didn’t love it.
Thirty years later, after I had kids, the Instagram algorithm served up the scene where Forrest meets Jenny, his lifelong love, for the first time in many years. She introduces Forrest to a little boy with a bowl cut.
“His name’s Forrest,” she says. “I named him after his daddy.”
It takes Forrest (Tom Hanks) a few seconds to understand, and then he get it: He’s the daddy.
He goes quiet, looks panicky, back away.
But not for the reasons you might think. Forrest is what people used to call “slow,” and he’s worries that his son might be like him.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” Jenny says.
“He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Forrest says. “But… is he smart, or…?”
“He’s very smart,” Jenny says. “He’s one of the smartest in his class.”
Look, I’m not doing this scene justice, not at all. Just watch it. And know that I’m sitting in an office, in public, wiping away tears as I type this.
Queen of Katwe (2016)
This may be the best movie Disney has ever made. It’s the mostly true story of a young Ugandan girl who has a chance to escape poverty — and a child marriage — because of her brilliance at chess.
The moment that got me is simple. The girl goes with a bunch of other village children to a fancy chess tournament. At night, their adult mentor (David Oyelowo) can’t find any of the kids — they’re gone from their beds.
Then he finds them all, huddled together in one room, on the floor — they way they’re used to sleeping back home.
Here I am, blinking back tears years again.
Queen of Katwe is also on our list of inspiring movies that aren’t fake and annoying about it.
The movie was directed by Mira Nair, whose son became a music supervisor on Queen of Katye. Here he is in a South African interview — you may recognize him.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
I didn’t see this movie until about 2018, and laughed through most of it. All the complaining about “women’s lib” felt hilariously dated, and Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep were doing such serious acting. This was a big “issue” movie when it came out, and the issue was what was, in the ’70s, the increasingly common phenomenon of divorce.
As my wife and I watched, I kept sniping at little scenes, refusing to take it seriously. Then we got to the the end, where Streep and Hoffman have split up, and worked out custody of their son. She comes to Hoffman’s apartment to pick up the boy and take him to her new place.
But then she asks to meet her Hoffman downstairs, alone.
“I came here to take my son home,” she tells him. “And I realized he already is home.”
Woooooof. I lost it. Out of nowhere: bawling.
You win, Kramer vs. Kramer.
The Fighter (2010)
I watched this movie in a theater, after a few drinks, cracking wise here and there, taking note of who got the accent right and who was trying too hard.
Then we get to the end, where Mark Wahlberg’s character, boxer Micky Ward, has moved on from his old trainer — his addict brother Dickie (Christian Bale) — in favor of a more polished team. When Dickie comes home from prison, Micky’s girlfriend Charlene (Amy Adams) demands he turn his back on “junkbag” Dickie to work with his new, more professional trainer,  O’Keefe.
But Micky can’t do it.
“I’m the one fighting,” Micky says. “I know what I need. … I want Dicky back. And I want you, Charlene. And I want O’Keefe. I want my family. What’s wrong with that?”
“He just wants his family!” I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks.
This is one of my two favorite Mark Wahlberg movies.
The Florida Project (2017)
This film holds the unique distinction of being the only movie to make me cry based solely on its description.
In 2017, I mentioned on a podcast how much I’d enjoyed Sean Baker’s movie Tangerine.
“Oh,” said my co-host. “He has a new one coming out.”
I asked what it was about.
“It’s called The Florida Project, because that’s what Walt Disney called Disney World. It’s about a little girl, living with her single mom, and she keeps moving them from one cheap hotel to the next in the area around Disney World. The mom’s supporting them through prostitution to help the girl keep living in this kind of magical, childish world where she doesn’t know how much they’re struggling.”
Tears. An amazing movie, too. I’m sure I cried again when I actually saw it.
All of these movies are available on demand or disc, and we recommend them if you’re looking to cry. Or have no intentions of crying but somehow find yourself crying anyway.
And please let us know what movies have made you cry, here in the comments, in the safe anonymity of the internet.
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Main image: The Florida Project, one of the movies that have made me cry. A24
