History TearJerker / XMenDaysOfFuturePast

* Overlaps with meta-example: When Charles said that Raven's heart belongs to somebody else now, we are shown a glimpse of a saddened Hank. Creator/JenniferLawrence and Nicholas Hoult once dated, but now they are separated.

-->'''Erik:''' Angel, Azazel, Emma, Banshee. Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others, experimented on! Butchered! [[WhatTheHellHero Where were you, Charles?! We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you?! Hiding! You and Hank! Pretending to be something you're not! You abandoned us all!]]

-->'''Future!Charles''': It’s not their pain you’re afraid of; it's yours, Charles. And frightening as it may be, their pain will make you stronger, if you allow yourself to feel it. Embrace it. It will make you more powerful than you ever imagined. It's the greatest gift we have that can bear pain without breaking, and it's born from the most human power--hope. Please, Charles. We need you to hope again.

* When Trask is analyzing the bit of blood they got from Mystique, he turns around, looks at a young Colonel Stryker, and asks about his son.

** Ironically enough, Stryker gets another [[PetTheDog surprisingly humanizing moment]] a second later. When Trask asks him how many men were lost in the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, Stryker takes a moment to look down at his feet in genuine grief. Seems he did have the capacity to care, once.

*** Given that he's no longer there in the bad future, while Jean was already dead and we know from supplementary material that Hank died elsewhere, it's likely that the X-Men found was Scott.

** Magneto ''almost'' managing to stop the Sentinels, then looking slowly downward after the explosions cease... and pulling a shard of shrapnel from his chest, the tip [[NightmareFuel visibly soaked in blood.]] He [[TheDeterminator doesn't even flee after that]], using scraps of metal to reinforce the entrance behind him, ''fully willing'' to die out there, and he probably would have, had he not been pulled to "safety" by Kitty and Blink, so he instead gets to slowly bleed out inside the stronghold.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/days_of_future_past_tearjerker.png]]

-->'''Erik''': Killing one man isn't enough.
-->'''Raven''': ...It never was for you.

* Everything to do with Rogue. She spends an unknown amount of time being experimented on in what was once her home, her former boyfriend dies horribly rescuing her, and just a few hours later, the Sentinels kill what's left of her friends, and march on her. Paquin's acting, slowly breaking down into tears as the Sentinels break through the door, really sells the scene.

* As Past!Charles looks into Logan's mind, he sees images of Logan's lifetime, which include his being part of the Weapon X program, his love for Jean, and ultimately having to kill her as Dark Phoenix. Past!Charles' devastated and horrified reaction to this says it all:

** Really Kitty in general by the end. Picture this: she is constantly in excruciating pain, to the point that she is in tears, from when Logan accidentally cut her and is slowly bleeding out. Meanwhile she has to keep fighting through the pain and stay focused on Logan and keeping him in the past, or she may cause an even worse future for her kind, all the while knowing that all of her remaining friends, including aforementioned ImpliedLoveInterest Bobby, are fighting a hopeless battle that will unquestionably end in their horrible deaths, ''including [[BigGood the Professor]]''.

* Everything to do with Rogue. She spends an unknown amount of time being experimented on in what was once her home, her former boyfriend dies horribly rescuing her, and just a few hours later, the Sentinels kill what's left of her friends, and march on her. Poor girl just can't catch a break.
** Paquin's acting also really sold the scene. Seeing her slowly break down into tears as the Sentinels broke through the door drove this troper over the edge.

** Also, even though [[spoiler: the bad timeline of the future gets erased because Logan's mission ends up being successful]] those mutants are still dead in the bad timeline, because Logan arrived in the past only after they were killed already.

** [[spoiler:You have to watch this ''twice''; once in the opening and again during the climax.]]
** It's even more brutal [[spoiler:the second time because the first time, they die relatively quick. The second time feels like a last stand because they know that, one way or another, their ''existence'' will be wiped out. Should Wolverine succeed, they will cease to exist with their timeline. Should Logan fail, no one will be able to come back, which means this will be their true death with no reset. So they fight with every last bit they had and end up dying horrific deaths.]]
** During the final battle, Kitty's look of absolute, tear-stained despair after [[spoiler:seeing Bobby, whom she's hinted to be in a romantic relationship with, die horribly while making the last stand to protect her and the others left inside.]]
** Really Kitty in general by the end. Picture this: [[spoiler:she is constantly in excruciating pain, to the point that she is in tears, from when Logan accidentally cut her and is slowly bleeding out. Meanwhile she has to keep fighting through the pain and stay focused on Logan and keeping him in the past, or she may cause an even worse future for her kind, all the while knowing that all of her remaining friends, including aforementioned ImpliedLoveInterest Bobby, are fighting a hopeless battle that will unquestionably end in their horrible deaths, ''including [[BigGood the Professor]]''.]]

** [[spoiler:Storm's death hits the hardest. The music and the reactions from Professor X and the rest of the X-Men sell it as a tremendous tragedy, and it makes her death feel like it has a lot of weight to it.]]
** [[spoiler:Magneto ''almost'' managing to stop the Sentinels, then looking slowly downward after the explosions cease... and pulling a shard of shrapnel from his chest, the tip [[NightmareFuel visibly soaked in blood.]] He [[TheDeterminator doesn't even flee after that]], using scraps of metal to reinforce the entrance behind him, ''fully willing'' to die out there, and he probably would have, had he not been pulled to "safety" by Kitty and Blink, so he instead gets to slowly bleed out inside the stronghold.]]

** [[spoiler:During one point in the film, when Logan, Hank, and Charles are coming back to the school, Charles begins to collapse from the agony of Hank's drugs wearing off. He begins crying out in pain that the voices are coming back and begs Hank to "make them stop."]]
*** Worse, [[spoiler:Charles pressing the needle of the syringe with the serum in it against his arm, conflicted and sobbing, before finally deciding to try and help again, slamming the needle down and burying his face in his hands.]]
* Erik [[WhatTheHellHero lashing out at Charles]], [[spoiler:mentioning how so many of the cast of ''First Class'' suffered a BusCrash. Although most of the mutants were either enemies or betrayers of Xavier whose deaths he likely won't mourn, it's Sean Cassidy's name (Banshee) that really hits home. It's the only one that pulls a visible and heartbreaking reaction from Charles.]]

* The moment when Mystique is finally [[spoiler:pointing a gun at Trask and Xavier gets into her head one last time to convince her not to do it]] and the subsequent montage of the faces of the mutants whose fates rest in her hands.

* Erik coming to the conclusion that [[spoiler:he has to kill Mystique to prevent the BadFuture from occurring. Creator/MichaelFassbender's conveying of Erik's deep personal conflict both when he first comes to this realization and as he's preparing to shoot her after she tries to escape really brings home the sting. Not to mention Mystique's look of confusion and despair when he first points the gun at her.]]
* Magneto's lament to Xavier as the former [[spoiler:lays dying]].

* When Past!Charles [[spoiler:is attempting to convince Mystique to stop her mission of killing Trask at the airport, he uses multiple people to speak through to try and communicate with her before he is able to make an apparition of himself. Despite attempting desperately to plead with her and change her mind, she ends up rebuffing him and literally ''walks through him''.]]
* After Logan's [[spoiler:memories of Stryker are triggered by the man twitching on the ground before him, his past self temporarily resurfaces. After he regains stability, Charles asks him what's wrong after Logan watches Stryker get away]]. Logan is one of the toughest characters in the series, but his future self almost collapses in panic and [[spoiler:his past self acts scared]].

* The Paris sequence is a pile-up of Tear Jerkers. [[spoiler:Logan is having a panic attack, Erik is trying to kill Mystique, and Charles is powerless to stop any of it. To top it all off, the sequence ends with Hank, in full-on Beast mode, displayed in front of dozens of terrified civilians like some kind of freak show. Keep in mind that this was the guy who was desperate to appear normal even back when his only problem was "weird feet." Now he's a snarling, furry blue monster and ''everyone'' can see him.]]

* When Trask is analyzing the bit of blood they got from Mystique, he turns around, looks at [[spoiler:a young Colonel Stryker, and asks about his son]].
-->'''Past![[spoiler:Stryker]]:''' Oh, [[spoiler:Jason?]] He just turned ten, sir.

* Although it may be very subtle, the moment Magneto lands in the RFK Stadium and the custodian asks if he can help him (out of confusion for appearing suddenly), Erik simply replies "No...you can't". At that point in his life, Erik can't look back on his actions and has to be Magneto before [[spoiler:attacking the White House]].

* Everything to do with Rogue. She spends an unknown amount of time [[spoiler:being experimented on in what was once her home, her former boyfriend dies horribly rescuing her, and just a few hours later, the Sentinels kill what's left of her friends, and march on her.]] Poor girl just can't catch a break.

* Bobby is [[spoiler:killed earlier than in the theatrical version when he rescues Rogue, who is unable to help him because she's barely recovered from the experiments done on her. Bobby and Kitty are actually revealed to be in a relationship, and she begs him to bring himself safely back as well. The look Rogue gives Kitty when she asks where Bobby is says it all, and Kitty absolutely breaks down crying upon hearing the news. To rub more salt into the wound, Rogue has to steal Kitty's power right then so she can take over projecting Logan into the past, adding more (and physical) pain for Kitty to endure in her grief]].

* The [[http://www.25moments.com/ 25 moments]] viral site reveals several events in mutant history in the original trilogy/BadFuture timeline, including the fates of some of the original characters after ''The Last Stand''. Kitty Pryde is imprisoned in a mutant internment camp and subjected to a power inhibition collar created by Trask, Angel is killed by Sentinels during an Occupy protest, and Beast is brutally murdered outside his home by an anti-mutant group (especially horrific because, as the site points out, he was "the mutant most famous for successfully integrating with human population"). The accompanying image for the latter event shows Magneto standing at his grave.

** Also, even though [[spoiler: the bad timeline of the future gets erased because Logan's mission ends up being successful]] those mutants are still dead in the changed future-timeline, because Logan arrived in the past only after they were killed already.

** [[spoiler:Magneto ''almost'' managing to stop the Sentinels, then looking slowly downward after the explosions cease... and pulling a shard of shrapnel from his chest, the tip [[NightmareFuel visibly soaked in blood.]] He [[TheDeterminator doesn't even flee after that]], using scraps of metal to reinforce the entrance behind him, ''fully willing'' to die out there, and he probably would have, had he not been pulled to "safety" by Kitty, so he instead gets to slowly bleed out inside the stronghold.]]