11 MORE Nerdy Moments Guaranteed to Make You Cry
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @AdamReisinger
Sometimes I find Twitter to be relatively useless, but then there are those moments where I absolutely love it. For example, today, when I saw this tweet:
Things That Make Nerds Cry: http://bit.ly/cFHQhV
That bit.ly link leads to this incredible Topless Robot post about "11 Nerdy Moments Guaranteed to Make You Cry".
To be honest, I only agreed with about three of the choices on the list, but the comments that accompanied the post got me crying for the second time today (the first was when I found out my favorite football team handed over a five-year, $78M contract to a 34-year-old quarterback who hasn't even averaged a touchdown a game this season).
So, inspired by all the suggestions in the comments, and my own opinions, I put together this list of 11 MORE nerdy moments guaranteed to make you cry. I tried to limit the list to sci-fi and fantasy, to stick to the nerdy theme, and I've listed them in chronological order, so not to play favorites. I've also tried not to go to the same movie or TV show more than once, otherwise the list would be nothing but moments from "Buffy" and "Angel".
Oh, and there's no Pixar on the list, because otherwise the whole list would be from Pixar movies because they're a goddamned crying factory that preys upon our emotions like tear-eating wolves or some shit. Seriously, "Toy Story 3" was just unfair. And "Up"? Throwing the emotional scene at us 10 minutes in? WTF? I had to go see the movie a second time to figure out what happened in the 45 minutes I missed crying my eyes out.
OK, on to the list…
The Death of Gwen Stacy - The Amazing Spider-Man (1973)
Yeah, it happened seven years before I was born, and yeah, I knew it was coming the first time I read the issue. I still cried.
Artax Drowns - The NeverEnding Story (1984)
I was only four years old when this came out, so I was at the age when I didn't really understand what was happening. But when Artax didn't emerge from the swamp, I figured it out quickly, and it made four-year-old me pretty sad.
"The Leap Home" - Quantum Leap (1990)
"Quantum Leap" had a ton of tear-jerking moments during the series, but the reaction of Sam's sister to his performance of "Imagine" really puts this one over the top.
The Death of Dan Turpin - Superman: The Animated Series (1998)
These two scenes (Turpin's death and funeral) packed more emotional punch than every "Superman" movie combined.
The Iron Giant's Sacrifice - The Iron Giant (1999)
When people talk about the great animated movies of all-time, this one gets left off the list WAY too often. This ending was as good as any Oscar-winning actor could hope to perform during his life.
"The Body" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2001)
It's incredibly hard to limit myself to just one "Buffy" moment on this list, but this one stands out above the rest. Well, this episode does. The entire thing is just one long tear-jerker. I can generally keep it together up until the moment when Buffy says "we're not supposed to move the body." Then I'm done.
"Jurassic Bark" - Futurama (2002)
I don't even like dogs and I cry every time I see this.
Gandalf on Death - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
All of the clips of this speech have embedding disabled on YouTube, but here it is to watch. Gandalf's words are just incredible here.
"A Hole in the World" - Angel (2004)
"Why can't I stay?" I'm crying right now just writing those words. Joss Whedon, I both hate and love you.
The Secret of Miranda - Serenity (2005)
I've written about this scene before. I literally cannot watch it without crying. I can barely think about it without crying.
Jin and Sun Die - Lost (2010)
This is kind of cheating, since Topless Robot's list had a Lost entry, but I wanted to get more specific. I mean, I knew not everyone was going to make it to the end of the season, but Jin AND Sun? Really. That's just unfair.
Note: this post originally appeared on AdamReisinger.com
