10 Movies It's Impossible To Finish Without Crying

1. Up

If you thought Up wasn't going to be on this list, well... I don't know why you would think that. This isn't a movie that you can't finish without crying; this is a film you can barely start without crying. The much-lauded opening montage of Carl Fredricksen's life and marriage with childhood sweetheart Ellie is ridiculously moving, and always comes up as a source of soul-crushing pain when discussed by fans of the film. After meeting as children and bonding over a shared sense of adventure and love of the famed explorer Charles Muntz, the pair evidently grow up together and we are "treated" to a montage of the beginning of their married life together. The montage goes through their wedding, the purchase of their first house, and the way they turn it into the house of their dreams. Life is good; so good, that they decide to have a baby.

That's where things go dark. The music slows as we see Ellie in hospital being consoled by Carl, clearly having lost her child to miscarriage. Ellie is almost lost to depression as she sits wistfully in the garden, unmoving. Carl comes to her rescue as they begin planning a trip to Paradise Falls in Venezuela; a dream they had had since they were children. They start saving... and then life gets in the way. Their car needs a new tyre, so they dip into the savings. Carl breaks his leg, and they need money to pay for his medical bills. Again and again the problems arise. It's all so devastatingly realistic. Until they wake up for work one day, and they're old. They're happy, but life happened, and they never got to go to Venezuela. Carl realises this, and finally books the trip, intending to surprise Ellie... but by this point, it's too late. Ellie is sick. Soon after, she passes away. Carl is left alone, and it's the most heartbreaking thing you've ever seen. It's a lot to handle; it's a lot to ask of your audience in the first eight minutes of the film. But we give ourselves over to Pixar, invest in their characters in that way, because they handle it so deftly. Pixar films are about shared universal experience, and this is none more evident than in the opening montage of Up. There are twenty-somethings who can relate to 80-year-old Carl and Ellie, and eight-year-olds who understand what is being shown to them with the bare minimum of explanation. Director Pete Docter and his team at Pixar proved themselves once again wizards of emotion and relatability. Which emotionally devastating films do you think deserve to be on this list? Share your thoughts below.