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| source// Marvel |
If there’s one thing Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has proved, it’s that nothing sells a comic book movie like wall to wall misery, pessimism and despair.
Relax, I’m just kidding! Although, let’s be honest now, it’s kind of true. Much as was the case with Man Of Steel before it, the Warner Bros/DC superhero showdown has drawn the scorn of a great many fans for its overwhelming bleakness, by contrast with the brighter, more optimistic vision of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But of course, there are also a great many fans who feel this darker, harder-edged approach makes for a refreshing change from the more chipper comic book films we’re more accustomed to.
Still, it’s hardly novel for comic book movies to go for the heart. While the movies don’t always wind up as downbeat as Batman V Superman, there’s no superhero saga out there that isn’t at least tinged with tragedy. Our protagonists are frequently orphans, outcasts, survivors of all manner of trauma, and this invariably informs the people they become when answering the call to tackle evil.
We typically come to comic book movies to stare in awe at the spectacle, gasp at the action, and laugh at the one-liners – but when they want to, comic book movies can really hit us hard emotionally, sometimes when we’re expecting it least.
10. Steve’s Reunion With Peggy – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Reappropriating a scene which had originally been intended for The Avengers, this was a moment that was always going to hit the audience right where it hurts. Super-soldier Steve Rogers has returned to the modern world having been frozen in ice, presumed dead, since 1943; and now, looking not a day older, he reunites with his ‘best girl’ Peggy Carter, now a bed-ridden 90-something.
While the moment is marred ever-so-slightly by the ageing make-up applied to Hayley Atwell (curious that, for all the advances in visual FX, filmmakers still struggle to convincingly make actors look older), it was always going to be a poignant reunion, and Atwell and Chris Evans perform it beautifully.
Just seeing the two together again is sad enough, but it’s almost too much to bear when, midway, the ailing Peggy forgets the entire conversation and relives the shock that the man she loved, and thought dead for 70 years, is sitting beside her looking exactly the same as he did back then.
9. Bruce Banner’s Suicide Confession – The Avengers
Mark Ruffalo arguably faced a greater challenge than any of his co-stars in The Avengers, given that he was the only actor in the core ensemble to be playing his role for the first time (though admittedly Jeremy Renner’s single scene in Thor didn’t amount to much).
However, both the actor and writer-director Joss Whedon ensured that his would be the Bruce Banner that audiences remember best of all, thanks to a softly-spoken, understated intensity which makes it easy to believe a Hulk-sized rage is hiding not far beneath the surface.
While Ruffalo’s coolest moment undoubtedly comes just as the climactic New York battle heats up (“I’m always angry”), the real punch to the gut comes with his room-silencing admission to having attempted suicide. It’s very much to both Ruffalo and Whedon’s credit that there’s absolutely no sentimentality here, no dewy-eyedness from either Banner or his fellow Avengers; just the blunt admission, “I got low.” The fact that he seems almost to shrug it off makes it all the more painful.
8. Tony Stark’s PTSD – Iron Man 3
In stark contrast (pun intended) with the mishandled mortality anxiety and daddy issues of the deeply flawed Iron Man 2, it was Iron Man 3 that finally allowed Robert Downey Jr to scratch all the way through Tony Stark’s overconfident exterior to the vulnerable man beneath.
While the circumstances around his trauma (surviving a near-death experience after carrying a nuclear missile through a wormhole in space to stop an army of alien invaders) couldn’t be more fantastical, the film’s treatment of the psychological fallout is considerably more down to earth. Retroactively refreshingly less concerned with setting up future Marvel movies than many of the films the studio have released since The Avengers, Iron Man 3 keeps the focus squarely on Stark, whose refusal to slow down barely masks his inability to cope emotionally.
All the scenes dealing with Stark’s PTSD pack a punch, but to my mind the most heartbreaking is his early panic attack in a bar, when the crowds closing in around him send Stark running away in a flood of anxiety – but unable to escape the root of his own distress.
7. The Murder Of Bruce Wayne’s Parents – Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is not without its fair share of sadness, and there’s certainly a case to be made for the more unexpected deaths in The Dark Knight or the climax of The Dark Knight Rises packing the most emotion. To my mind, however, nothing matches the harshness of the scene in which the Batman is born, as young Bruce Wayne sees his parents shot dead.
It’s an iconic moment which has been replayed many times over the Batman movies, most recently in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. However, Nolan’s take on the scene in his first Batman movie is surely the most effective enactment. Sticklers for loyalty to the source material may be a little annoyed that the incident occurs outside an opera, rather than the traditional cinema; but there can be little dispute that the scene really gets the point across.
It isn’t simply Nolan’s grounded, naturalistic aesthetic (free of the flourishes and slo-mo used by Burton and Snyder) that make his version the best; it’s also the zen-like calm of Linus Roache’s Thomas Wayne, never panicking even when a gun is pointed in his face, moving instinctively to protect his wife, not even showing any sign of fear or distress as he lies dying of a gunshot. As Gus Lewis’ terrified young Bruce sits weeping over his dying parents, alone in a dirty alley, his father’s haunting final words, “don’t be afraid,” really hit home for the character and the audience alike.
6. Magneto’s Memory Of His Mother – X-Men: First Class
Coming in the wake of two movies so bad they threatened to bury the franchise forever (X-Men 3: the Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, lest we forget), 2011’s X-Men: First Class had a huge responsibility on its shoulders to lift the X-movies back to their former glory. Not only did Matthew Vaughn’s film accomplish this; it also wound up the finest film yet made in the series. And a huge part of that came from exploring the emotional core of the characters.
Building on the brief but unforgettable Auschwitz prologue of the 2000 original (which is an emotional gut bunch by itself), First Class follows future Magneto Eric Lenscherr into adulthood as, fueled by an entirely understandable rage, he seeks vengeance on the Nazis who killed his family. However, whilst honing his skills under the tutelage of his new friend Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), the genial professor encourages him to access the light within him – and, to facilitate this, Xavier uses his psychic powers to draw forth Eric’s happiest memory.
The brief moment that follows achieves unbelievable poignancy through Fassbender’s magnificent acting, his face washed over with pure emotion in seconds, and clever editing, as footage of his younger self and mother by candlelight cross-fades into the main action. The single tear that McAvoy stoically brushes away in the following shot is just the icing on the cake.
5. The Death Of Jean Grey – X2
What was that I was saying about X-Men: First Class needing to reclaim the former glory of the comic book movie series? Well, they don’t come much more glorious than X2, which still ranks among the finest superhero movies ever made, and boasts one of the most tearful finales of any genre entry with the death of one of the central characters.
The important thing to remember is that, when X2 came out, it was still pretty early days for superhero movies as we now know them. The idea of a major franchise killing off one of its core ensemble was almost unheard of, even though those in the know were well aware that, following comics chronology, the character would later return in somewhat different form, subtly hinted at by the final shot (all of which sounds rather similar to a more recent superhero movie).
The finale of X2 sees our mutant heroes board the X-Jet at William Stryker’s Alkali Lake base, when the nearby dam bursts, and a malfunction prevents the jet from taking off. Seeing no other option – and possibly seeking release from the developing powers which she has struggled to contain – Famke Janssen’s Jean Grey exits the jet and uses her telekinesis to both hold the water at bay and lift the jet above; then, once the jet is safe, letting go and allowing the flood waters to consume her.
The real strength of Bryan Singer’s work on the X-Men movies is his knack for telling the story from numerous points of view, and getting us into the heads of all the characters; and that’s what really makes Jean Grey’s death so profoundly sad. We see the grief of each and every one of the X-Men for whom she sacrificed herself, and we feel their pain.
4. Graveside Reunion – The Crow
The Crow is, of course, a film that can never be disassociated from the real life tragedy that might easily have kept it from being completed when, with eight days of filming left to do, leading man Brandon Lee was killed on set by an improperly maintained prop gun.
This shadows falls heavily over the film, and only more so given the story centres on a man who returns from the grave to avenge the rape and murder of his fiancee. Factor in that the original comic book by James O’Barr was written as a means for the author to process his grief after his girlfriend was killed by a drunk driver, and one can be forgiven for almost feeling the film itself is somehow haunted.
Still, for much of The Crow the sadness is held at bay by the action, as Lee’s undead avenger Eric Draven kicks, punches, shoots and stabs his way through the city’s gangland to reach his targets. But once his mission is completed and Eric returns to his grave to rest, we see the ghost of his lost love Shelley (Sofia Shinas) return to his side; Graeme Revell’s stirring love theme swells, and there’s no one in the audience without a lump in their throat.
3. Peter’s Goodbye To Uncle Ben – Spider-Man
Yes, even the comics-averse among us are all well-acquainted with Spider-Man’s origin story now, the tale having been told twice on the big screen in less than a decade. This doesn’t make it any less hard-hitting watching Sam Raimi’s 2002 original, particularly once it comes to the pivotal moment when Peter learns about great power and great responsibility, the hard way.
As the film follows the same essential beats as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original Amazing Fantasy story which introduced Marvel’s most beloved superhero way back in 1962, anyone who knows how it goes should already be on tenterhooks once Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) drives Peter (Tobey Maguire) into the city, believing he’s taking his nephew to the library, when in fact the newly super-powered teen is off to make some money as an amateur wrestler.
Confronting him about a fight at school, Uncle Ben tries to impart some wisdom about right over might, dropping the immortal power/responsibility line in the process, but Peter doesn’t want to know; and then, as Uncle Ben sighs, “I know, I’m not your father,” his angry nephew spits back, “Then stop pretending to be!”
The sad smile on Ben’s face says it all – and to everyone familiar with the story, it’s like a knife in the gut, because we know very well that’s the last thing Peter will ever say to the man who raised him. Obviously it’s still a tearful moment when Peter later reunites with his uncle as he dies from a gunshot, but it’s those foolish, spiteful words that hurt the most.
Oh, and not to put too fine a point on it, but Man Of Steel tried its damnedest to replicate this moment by having teenage Clark tell Jonathan Kent that he isn’t really his father, minutes before the old boy gets killed by a twister. A more spectacular demise, but also a rather more manipulative moment.
2. “Take My Hand, Peter” – Guardians Of The Galaxy
While it may be renowned for its anarchic sense of humour, Guardians Of The Galaxy kicks off on a major down note. We meet young Peter Quill as very much an ordinary Earth boy, dealing with one of the worst Earth boy problems: a terminally ill mother about to breathe her last.
Showing the action very much from the child’s perspective, director James Gunn ensures we have a deep emotional connection to the protagonist – not to mention his sacred mix tape – from the get-go, meaning that when we see Chris Pratt’s adult Quill behaving like a maladjusted blaggard in deep space later on, we can be at least a little more understanding.
The frightened boy’s refusal to take his mother’s hand just as the life leaves her body is a painfully sad moment – and it all pays off beautifully later on, when Quill hears her voice once more, and must take the hands of his friends to defeat the villainous Ronan.
1. Valerie’s Letter – V For Vendetta
When it exploded into cinemas a decade ago, the big screen adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s groundbreaking graphic novel was unlike anything produced by a major studio in many years; and thanks to the Guy Fawkes mask’s subsequent prominence in political activism, it remains an iconic, influential work. In its heightened yet frighteningly plausible portrayal of a near-future Great Britain under a totalitarian regime, V For Vendetta can easily draw fear and anger from the audience; yet in one particular sequence, it also draws tears by the bucket.
Natalie Portman’s Evey, a young woman who has inadvertently been caught up in the activities of the masked freedom fighter V, is taken prisoner and undergoes lengthy, systematic torture. Her one respite comes from the letter she finds concealed in her cell; the last written testimony of Valerie Page, an actress who was taken into that same facility because of her lesbianism.
As the letter is read aloud quite beautifully by actress Natasha Wightman, we are shown the key events of her life as she recounts them: meeting her first girlfriend at school, being chastised by a teacher, disowned by her distraught parents, and finally taken away by armed police when the fascist Norsefire Party takes over the country.
The scene is a heartbreaking reflection of the baseless bigotry and hatred faced by non-heterosexuals to this day, and a decade on it has a particular resonance given what we now know about screenwriters and producers the Wachowskis (who were still going by Andy and Larry at the time). But regardless of the viewer’s sexual orientation and/or identity. Valerie’s letter is both a vital warning about how easily our personal freedom might be taken away, a rallying cry to never give up that last “inch” of personal integrity, and a reminder that, even in the most dire of circumstances, there may yet be a glimmer of hope to be found.
Did these comic book movie moments leave you an emotional wreck? Any other scenes you think warrant a mention? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
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