20 Movies You Weren't Expecting To Make You Cry
16. The World's End
The World's End - which sees five old friends getting caught up in an alien invasion while trying to do the Golden Mile, a legendary pub crawl - is a much darker beast than either of the Cornetto Trilogy first two instalments, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It's headlined by Gary King (Simon Pegg), by far and away the most tragic character in the trilogy. He's a depressed and immature 40-year-old alcoholic who's never really grown up; near the end of the movie, while fighting with his former best friend Andy (Nick Frost), it's even revealed that he recently tried to take his own life.
The scene in question is one of the saddest comedy movie scenes of them all, as both men reveal their terrible struggles with adult life; Gary is severely depressed and believes that the Golden Mile is all he's got, while Andy's marriage has broken down. It's a scene that's filled with painfully relatable dialogue, and Simon Pegg (who co-wrote the film) later revealed his own struggles with alcoholism influenced the screenplay.
Still, there might be some happy tears later on. Gary, bless his heart, gets the aliens to abandon their invasion and refuses an offer to become his younger self again without a second thought. Although humanity is sent back to the Dark Ages when the aliens leave, a now-sober Gary is afterwards shown to have found his place in the world at last. Good for him.