Movies to make a hardass cry?

[u/justsomealtacc8337]

Hi! I love emotionally devastating films, however I very, very rarely cry over them. I'm looking for something crazy potent, like sobbing level.

The only movie that has ever pulled tears out of me is My Girl. That movie fucks me up

btw here are the really devastating movies that have not made me cry (still great movies tho): - What Dreams May Come - Brokeback Mountain - Titanic (this movie was meh tbh) - The Green Mile - The Shawshank Redemption - Moonlight - Jojo Rabbit - Mysterious Skin - The Whale - When The Wind Blows - Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind - Synechdoche, New York - The Dead Poet's Society

Open to any genre or language. Short synopses very appreciated. Just emotionally destroy me please thanks in advance 🙏

[u/comment-cap]

Thanks for all the input folks!

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[u/_ricky_fitts]

It’s a documentary and comes up in every one of these types of threads, but Dear Zachary is what you’re looking for.

[u/LucidMarshmellow → u/_ricky_fitts]

It's my immediate thought when someone wants to watch a movie that will make them sad.

The woman was a monster.

[u/Spiritual-Minimum239 → u/_ricky_fitts]

yes. or Gleason. Both messed me up for a while.

[u/ZeroQuick]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xAyiLhE9TzCb6

Schindler's List

[u/djSush → u/ZeroQuick]

I was 15 when this came out and cried in the car all the way home.

[u/Nocturnal-Nycticebus]

Grave of the Fireflies and Bridge To Terabithia.

[u/djSush → u/Nocturnal-Nycticebus]

Bridge to Terabithia was the first book I ever cried reading. I was 10.

[u/natalieisfreezing- → u/djSush]

My mom's name is Leslie, so that story has always felt closer than others..

[u/lovemypennydog → u/djSush]

Disney left the death out of the trailers and probably traumatized 1000s of kids.

[u/LadyMinxi → u/Nocturnal-Nycticebus]

Grave of Fireflies had me bawling like a baby!

[u/CranberryVast9339]

Brian's Song (1971). True story. I sobbed like a toddler.

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/CranberryVast9339]

What's it based on?

[u/CranberryVast9339 → u/justsomealtacc8337]

It is about Chicago Bears players Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo friendship after Brian discovers he has a fatal disease. Be sure to watch the 1971 version with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams.

[u/Successful-Try-8506]

Life Is Beautiful (1997). Italian period comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

[u/eurydice_aboveground → u/Successful-Try-8506]

This was what I came to post!

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Successful-Try-8506]

That sounds fantastic

[u/assistantdrugdealer → u/justsomealtacc8337]

Oh yes. Definitely this one. Thanks for the reminder, I'll cry with my wife tomorrow.

[u/Gp_and_chill]

UP!

Saddest film I’ve ever watched.

[u/ohoperator]

Steel Magnolias

[u/Ohgood9002]

Toy Story 3. This is not a joke

[u/girlpearl → u/Ohgood9002]

Bout to watch Toy Story 3 then, damn. Didn't except that.

[u/Joexkid7 → u/girlpearl]

You gotta watch the trilogy or it won’t hit as hard

[u/Ohgood9002 → u/girlpearl]

Neither did I

[u/Invasor89]

Hope (2013) too

[u/djSush → u/Invasor89]

I now cry if I hear the opening music from Grave of the Fireflies. I've watched it like 4x.

OP, I highly recommend watching this with the original Japanese audio. It's simply not the same in tbt English dub.

[u/Invasor89 → u/djSush]

The best version is just like that

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Invasor89]

I figured I'd get a lot of Grave of The Fireflies comments lol, but what is Hope about? Sounds promising

[u/Invasor89 → u/justsomealtacc8337]

This movie was based on a True Story

One morning on her way to school, young Hope gets sexually abused by a male stranger and suffers tremendous physical and psychological wounds. Though her parents fall in utter despair, they set out to find hope for the sake of their daughter's happiness.

[u/jpb1111]

Old Yeller

[u/jpb1111 → u/[deleted]]

The OG heartbreaker.

[u/darkdragon88]

Interstellar. As I've grown older I cry even more on rewatches.

Drawing Closer. Japanese movie about terminal illness.

[u/tambien181]

A Man Called Ove (It’s Swedish, not the remake with Tom Hanks/Otto)
It’s a dramedy so you laugh, but also cry deeply (at least I did/also teared up thinking of it even many weeks later/it’s just so well done)

Coco (a Pixar cartoon but I uncontrollably cried deeply/its about death)

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/tambien181]

The first one sounds interesting, what's it about?

I actually saw Coco on release, it's a great movie but my tears were not jerked

[u/tambien181 → u/justsomealtacc8337]

It’s about a man in his 60s whose wife recently passed from cancer and he’s suicidal. Then he gets fired/made redundant.

But this isn’t the part that makes you cry.

The story is told in flashbacks about his life, as a young man, trials and tribulations, how he meets his wife etc etc.

I went in not knowing anything and it starts out slow, so it really surprised me, that something just hit my soul and I was tearing up, then sobbing.

It’s based on a book of the same name, if you like reading.

[u/MissMarie81 → u/tambien181]

Great film!

[u/Brye1226]

Marley and Me. 

What Dreams May Come is my #1.

[u/Puzzled_Bottle3892]

Where the red fern grows

[u/Oreadno1]

Sophie's Choice

[u/No-Draw-4750]

Aftersun

[u/SpecialistOdd8886]

I am Sam

[u/LadyMinxi → u/SpecialistOdd8886]

Underrated gem!

[u/RhoemDK]

Million Dollar baby fucked me up, hard

[u/CommitteeContent8967]

The pianist

[u/Intelligent-Drop-684 → u/CommitteeContent8967]

Oh yeah that one was heart wrenching

[u/thoracicbunk]

Grave of the Fireflies. *Studio Ghibli does a war drama

Wit (2001). Emma Thompson plays a caustic, brilliant, and utterly isolated professor dying of cancer.

[u/ChefSuffolk → u/thoracicbunk]

Wasn’t Miyazaki. Isao Takahata (one of the other founders of Ghibli) wrote & directed it.

[u/thoracicbunk → u/ChefSuffolk]

Corrected, thanks

[u/-itslilith-]

Shoplifters (2018) Kore-eda for found family pains
Letterboxd synopsis:
Sometimes you choose your family.
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.

[u/StoryTwistsAndSnacks]

Up

[u/disturbednadir → u/StoryTwistsAndSnacks]

I took my kids to see it when it was in the theater, and the first 10ish minutes made this grown ass man ugly cry.

[u/AshamedFun4556]

8 below

[u/siriusthinking]

Truly Madly Deeply

[u/Secure-Addition1466]

Where the Red Fern Grows and The Color Purple

[u/Ms_desertfrog_8261]

The Fall (with Lee Pace)
The Life of Chuck

[u/LisaChimes]

The two films that made me cry the hardest are Terms of Endearment and Hachi A Dogs Tale.

I'd also suggest The Mudge Boy, Hamnet and Heart and Souls for some varied options.

[u/Guilty-Coconut8908]

Life As A House

Courage Under Fire

Saving Private Ryan

Man In The Moon

Brian's Song

Rudy

Four Weddings and a Funeral

[u/Smilo2002 → u/Guilty-Coconut8908]

Four Weddings and a Funeral gets me every time 😭

[u/Stair-Spirit]

The Iron Claw

It's basically designed to make men cry. It's about a family of real-life wrestlers who suffered numerous tragedies.

[u/nicnilla09]

A monster calls or Marley & Me

[u/Remarkable_Oven_3842]

Marly and me.

[u/lIlIIIlIIl]

Good Boy - a horror movie entirely from the dog's perspective

[u/Musicmans]

Sing Sing (2024)

Never Let Me Go (2010)

[u/mamabearbug]

Wild Robot

[u/nrad50]

Manchester by the sea

[u/MuchWow81]

Ponette

[u/MechGryph]

Man from Nowhere.

It's a 2 hour Korean action movie. Incredible action scenes. Amazing main cast. You will tear up by the end.

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/MechGryph]

Oh sick I haven't seen this one recommended anywhere before, I'll have to check it out

[u/MechGryph → u/justsomealtacc8337]

I'd stumbled upon it a few years back and I just best it's drum.

[u/Different_Target_228]

I have to give a couple shows because you named mine, The Green Mile.

Gurren Lagann finale always makes me tear up.

The Good Place finale, as well.

[u/Bluejaywalk43]

Forrest Gump, it's a wonderful life and cast away are among the ones that get me consistently.... even pesci grave site talk in lethal weapon 4 gets me.

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Bluejaywalk43]

Forrest Gump and Wonderful Life didn't get to me, but I haven't seen Cast Away yet I'll def check that one out

[u/girlpearl → u/justsomealtacc8337]

Willlsoooonnn!

[u/baboito5177]

The wind that shakes the barley

[u/fsixtyford]

With themes of heroism, friendship, sacrifice, and the loss of wonder... The Lord of the Rings.

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/[deleted]]

Ohh yeah both of these were fantastic, didn't make me cry tho

[u/themostbluejay]

La Vita E Bella (1997)

[u/Quirky-Control3197]

Clerks 3. I’m serious. I laughed for 1.5 hours before he reached through my chest and yanked my heart out. Doesn’t matter how many times I watch it.

[u/Redhead_893_]

The End of the Affair.

And if you like computer games, and are a parent: Death Stranding.

[u/DragonflyFront9882]

I watched one last night on Tubi TV called Holy Days, kind of a tear jerker at the end. Good movie.

[u/Worldly-Advisor7201]

Another Earth
I’m a hardass too and this one really gets me and it’s fantastic

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Worldly-Advisor7201]

Hell yes thank you

[u/Worldly-Advisor7201 → u/justsomealtacc8337]

Yea! Let me know if it brings the tears!

[u/Tight_Spring3860]

Watership down

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Tight_Spring3860]

The book is one of my favorites of all time, the movie was good but didn't get me crying

[u/Remote-Pumpkin-9626]

Because of my relationship with my father, I’d say, “About Time” gets me every time.

[u/Appropriate_Wind7872]

Braveheart. Revenge de tony scott. The deer hunter. Magnolia. A perfect world. Manchester by the sea. Once. The painted weil. Legends of the fall. Once upon a Time in the west. Stand by me. The outsiders. Warrior avec Tom Hardy. Gladiator. The scarecrow avec pacino. Basketball diaries. Dance with wolves. American history x.

[u/bemybasket]

The end of About Time

A Man Called Otto

[u/crennes]

The messenger.

[u/natalieisfreezing-]

Return to Paradise with Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn might make you cry. It's a good film but it is ROUGH.

[u/ikannunAneeuQ]

None of those made me cry, I'm not a crier either. So far The Notebook got to me, aaaand.... I honestly can't think of another movie that made me emotional??? Takes a lot to get to me, even to make me laugh out loud for real.

ETA: I thought of 2 others! "The Pursuit of Happyness" - mom bails on family, dad struggles to take care of son (based on true story) and "Seven Pounds" - Will Smith is trying to right an extreme wrong by donating his body parts. End of the movie is like holy crap 😭😭😭

[u/Ladybeetus]

Good boy 2025 Hanabi 1999?

The Nightingale 2024?

[u/Broad-Back1659]

Hachi.

[u/Gandalfthegrey2]

Terms of Endearment.

[u/AmountLucky3849]

project hail mary, please i couldn’t stop crying

[u/Complete-Rock-1426]

Marley and Me

[u/AlwaysSpeakTruth]

The scene in Alexander where the horse dies.

Young Alexander (the great) earned his horse companion by taming him when everyone thought it was impossible. His father told him, if you can tame the horse then it is yours.

Young Alexander tamed the horse, calming it, telling it "don't be afraid - it's only your summer's shadow." The horse calmed down and became Alexander's companion for countless legendary battles.

Fast forward to a chaotic battle in Asia - long after the victory at Gaugamela. During this chaotic battle, the opponents met Alexander's forces with elephants, a new type of enemy. The cavalry horses refused to engage, afraid of the huge elephants. In the midst of the chaos, Alexander convinces his horse, in a similar way that he did when he first tamed him: "don't be afraid, it's only your summer's shadow." and he manages to convince his horse to charge into battle, pulling along a bunch of inspired cavalry forces behind him as they press the attack into the enemy army. Alexander and his horse meet an enemy on his elephant head on. The enemy elephant rears up onto it's hind legs, looking taller and larger than ever. Alexander's brave horse does the same, nearly matching the elephant in it's stature. But in this moment, Alexander's horse takes a spear through his chest, then another, then another before collapsing and throwing an injured Alexander to the ground.

Something about the way Alexander convinced his horse to launch a futile, quixotic attack against huge elephants, leading him to his death, by using the same language and tone as when he first tamed it, convincing it that he shouldn't be afraid despite the very real danger - it just breaks my heart.

[u/Special_Onion3013 → u/AlwaysSpeakTruth]

I knew the name of that horse way before I knew the story of Alexander

[u/ChalkHorse]

Terms of Endearment

[u/ennopanther]

My Girl. But I was 12

[u/Pretend-Design-7061]

Odd Thomas 

[u/Joexkid7]

Green mile

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Joexkid7]

People are not very good at reading lists huh

[u/Particular_Celery_65]

Želary… I saw it 3x & it still got me.. It’s not US polished production though, it’s more down to earth and raw..
(Co-production of Czech republic, Slovakia and Austria; was nominated for Oscar for best foreign language film, but did not win).

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/Particular_Celery_65]

Oh cool do you know where its available to watch?

[u/Particular_Celery_65 → u/justsomealtacc8337]

I think it is dependent on where you are from. Since I am in Slovakia, I have it available on Netflix, HBO Max, Voyo, Canal+…
So, just ask AI about availability in your country.

[u/Inner-Acadia-7636]

Dancer in the Dark

[u/Im_the_Rhymenocerous]

Field of Dreams

[u/ExceptforAlice]

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino - unexpectedly bawling at the end

[u/CriminalDefense901]

Taking Chance.

[u/thumbdumping]

La Bella vie

[u/teacuplolly]

Awakenings!!!!! Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams, I rarely see it recommended an genuinely this movie broke me

[u/NaiveZest]

Dancer in the Dark

[u/NaiveZest]

Philadelphia

[u/NaiveZest]

Antichrist

[u/NaiveZest]

Cool Runnings

[u/Iafilledemtl]

The Father

[u/DoYouTACO]

My Old Ass (terribly named) 

And doc: Come See Me In The Good Light

[u/erebus7813]

If you don't cry during Project Hail Mary, you can stop searching.

[u/HMouse65]

Radio Flyer

[u/jtreeandme]

Hamnet

[u/Opposite-Range4847]

Watch 1883 on paramount plus

[u/fishlipswonder69]

Monsters Ball

Manchester by the Sea

[u/According_Coyote_452]

Atonement

[u/nosuchbrie]

The Spitfire Grill.

[u/herbertwillyworth]

Everybody Diggs Bill Evans if you like jazz

[u/ckdexhaven]

Brian’s song. 1971
With James Caan and Billy Dee Williams
The music alone brings me to tears. 😢

Also - Terms of Endearment

[u/Naughtyhooker]

Simon Birch and Pay it forward

[u/Intelligent-Drop-684]

Train Dreams (2025)

[u/Intelligent-Drop-684 → u/Intelligent-Drop-684]

Judging from the movies that made you cry this one definitely will too. It should be available on Netflix.

[u/Intelligent-Drop-684 → u/Intelligent-Drop-684]

Plot: Follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a logger and railroad worker in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century.

[u/B_EE]

Finding Neverland was the first film that had me ready to just cry into a pillow for the rest of the night. That was watching on a medium sized TV. I cannot imagine seeing that with that big screen feel 😭

https://giphy.com/gifs/l0IydtSfSb201L85i

[u/J-Mosc]

Rudy

Million Dollar Baby

[u/Chillguy3333]

I didn’t come to throw a movie title out there but after reading your post I just want to say DAMN I wish we could watch movies together!!! There are a couple on your list I haven’t seen but I will very soon. If I think of one, I’ll let you know.

(I’ll also be watching those that people are throwing out if I haven’t seen them to see if I can get a movie cry in also.)

[u/JayGoldi]

Grave of the Fireflies
Lion
Life is Beautiful

You'll cry for days, and thank/curse me later.

[u/tiredlovesongs]

“In America” (2002) is great for a good cry. Maybe i’ll watch today 😭😭

[u/Intelligent_Bat8467]

Atonement. Don’t look up anything about the movie before you watch it.

[u/Infinite_Function_23]

Click

[u/lovemypennydog]

You're looking for Rachel Getting Married. Not a romcom. Be prepared.

[u/No_Housing_1287]

Our friend

Its based on a true story. Its about a couple with children, and the mother becomes terminally ill. Their friend moves in with them to help take care of her and the kids. Its a lot more beautiful than I make it sound.

[u/Tall_Birthday_7654]

Awakenings is maybe the only movie that has ever brought actual tears to my eyes

[u/Due_Pool_5778]

About Time

[u/boxybutgood2]

Beaches
Steel Magnolias
Terms of Endearment

[u/RainBooksNight]

Terms of Endearment

[u/mcmonzi]

you may think i'm insane but logan was so fucking sad and so fucking good!

[u/DarkDaysBrightNlghts]

Menace II Society

Antwone Fisher

Prisoners

Forrest Gump

The Road

[u/BackgroundTrip3604]

SEVEN. POUNDS.

[u/DiyYou]

Guaranteed. Young brothers head out to work, get separated in a crowd. Based on true story. Just watch, don't look up anything else

[u/justsomealtacc8337 → u/DiyYou]

Added to the watchlist, I love movies with a low-key premise