18 Most Heartbreaking Moments In The MCU (So Far)

18. Buried Alive

Not a death, not even a sad moment overall, but a triumphant one, this particular scene stands out for how well Tom Holland portrays it. It's a scene ripped straight out of his comic book incarnation, and though some have considered it a "cheesy" portrayal, it's still a very effective and faithful rendition of its iconic comics counterpart.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, following his encounter with The Vulture, Peter Parker is buried under tons of rubble, trapped with no hope of escape. Though the audience knows he'll triumph in the end, his sobbing cries for help, screaming that he can't move, remind the audience in the harshest way that he's just a kid, a scared child who has no one looking for him, nobody who even knows he's there.

This makes his eventual escape, finding the strength within himself to lift the debris, even more satisfying, but the desperation and fear Tom Holland's Peter Parker portrays in this scene hurts the heart. It's especially effective for older audience members, who likely waffled between enjoying Spider-Man's heroic antics and being terrified for the well-being of the quirky, adorable teenager they formed the strange parental urge to protect.