10 Emotional Movie Scenes That Will Make You Cry

Surely this is it: the one tearjerker to rule them all. Steven Spielberg has made more than his fair share of wonderful movies that have entertained millions for decades, and expanded the horizons of blockbuster cinema - but surely none have had the same impact as ET.

Spielberg's 1982 film has struck a chord with generations of viewers thanks to the way it endeavours to show the world from a child's point of view, and explores the heartfelt bond that grows between lonely boy Elliot (Henry Thomas) and the diminutive, childlike alien explorer he dubs ET.

Then, once the bond between Elliot and ET reaches its peak - not just emotional, but an actual biological link, with the two sharing one another's feelings - the film hits us where it hurts with a painfully drawn out sequence in which the life slowly drains out of a hospitalised ET.

While this gut-wrenching sequence might be considered a bit of a fake-out considering ET promptly comes back to life afterwards, there's still no denying the heartache of the film's final scene, when the spaceship returns to take ET home.

It doesn't matter how young or old you are; that ending renders us all equal, every last viewer reduced to a blubbering wreck.