A great movie can reduce an audience to sobs in a heartbeat. An even greater one can do that without anything massively tragic happening. These are those moments – the ones we can barely talk about without having a bit of a sob – where no one dies, but the world is still inconsolable.
Grab your hankies, it's going to get emotional.
1. Brief Encounter – fussy woman wants a cup of tea
One of the most understated movies ever ends with a monumental gut punch. A chance encounter at a railway station begins an emotional affair between a man and a woman who are both married to other people. Realising the damage they would do to their families they agree to part, meeting in the station tea room for their final goodbye.
But the moment is stolen from them by an incredibly annoying woman who joins them, insists Alec get her tea and then talks incessantly, denying them the chance to ever say goodbye.
2. Field of Dreams – Kevin Costner plays catch with his Dad
Technically this involves a dead person, but we're counting it. Any moment that includes father-son bonding is bound to be emotional, but this is the ultimate film moment.
After building a baseball pitch in his back garden (because the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson told him to, obviously), Kevin Costner's Ray Kinsella realises what the whole weird scheme was about. It was so his late father, appearing much younger than Ray ever knew him, could play one last game of catch with him, something they didn't do enough when he was alive.
Even though Ray and "John" have a brief catchup, neither of them makes it obvious that they know who each other is. Not until Ray says a pensive "Dad, wanna play catch?", sounding like he's reverted back to his 10-year-old self. One of those moments in which you probably called up your parents as soon as you'd watched it.
3. Castaway – Tom Hanks loses his volleyball
We've probably all lost something in the sea during a trip to the beach (or a booze cruise on a ill-considered party island holiday), but we doubt anyone was as devastated as Tom Hanks's Chuck Noland.
After spending years on a deserted island, his only friend, keeping him sane, was a Wilson-branded volleyball with a face crudely drawn on it. After Chuck finally attempts his grand escape, he falls asleep, not realising that Wilson has accidentally dropped off the raft.
Knowing he can't leave his raft behind, he simply has to let Wilson drift away forever. With Alan Silvestri's score soaring in the background and Tom Hanks's pained screams of "WILSON!", it's almost impossible not to tear up at Chuck's predicament.
Wilson's job was done. He kept Chuck sane, and it's as if he knows that Chuck will be alright.
4. Toy Story 3 – Andy gives away his toys
Guys of a certain age find the very end of the latest Toy Story movie almost impossible to cope with as young Andy – who's not so young anymore – says goodbye to Buzz, Woody and the gang. Yes it's sad when they're holding hands in the incinerator. But nowhere near as sad as when Andy teaches his young neighbour how to play with his former best friends.
We've grown up with Andy, you see. He's not just saying goodbye to his toys he's saying goodbye to his childhood. And it's not just him – we aren't as young as we were when the first Toy Story came out and we first met Woody and Buzz. It's all a bit much to cope with.
5. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – E.T. goes home
Okay ET, you'll still be there in our heads but you're still buggering off to another planet leaving us behind, aren't you?
We've already suffered the incredible trauma of thinking the extra-terrestrial has died. Suddenly he comes back to life, escapes authorities with kids on flying bikes and everything's okay again. But it's not, is it? He's going back to his own planet never to be seen again. Howl!
6. The Sixth Sense – boy meets his grandma
Okay, his grandma is in fact dead, but it's not her passing that's so bloody tragic, it's the conversation he has with his own mother.
Deep breath, because we really struggle to talk about this without crying...
Haley Joel Osment, the little boy who can see dead people has finally got his mum (Toni Colette) to believe him about his special power. He tells her that he's seen his late grandmother – her mum – and that she says that at Colette's dance recital, when she thought her mother wasn't there, she in fact was, standing at the back and watching every moment.
Then Osment says she has an answer to the question that his mother asked at her graveside. The answer is "every day."
He asks Colette what the question was. She says: "Do I make her proud?"
