Tear Jerker / Boyz n the Hood

• Ricky's senseless death scene.
  • Compounded and made doubly tragic when his SAT test scores are revealed. He passed.
  • Fridge Horror: Made even worse once you realize Ricky's son will grow up without a father to guide him. Unless, Furious becomes a father figure to him.
• Doughboy's drunken breakdown in despair over Ricky's death and society's apathy toward the plight of the 'hood.
  • His Fade Out and the title card: "The next day Doughboy saw his brother buried. Two weeks later he was murdered."
• "You're my only son and I'm not gonna lose you to no bullshit, you hear? I love you, man." Best. Dad. Ever.
  Furious: Give me the motherfucking gun, Tre!
  • Laurence Fishburne himself said that overnight, the role made him "father to a generation of fatherless children."
• The targets of Doughboy's revenge for Ricky's murder. Made especially heartwrenching when two of them are shot as they crawl away, in agony, one pleading that he didn't kill Ricky before being shot.
• The film score qualifies as heartrending in and of itself.
• The opening title cards: "One out of every twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime", followed by "Most will die at the hands of another Black male." All this is played over the intense sounds of arguing, gunshots, children screaming, and one child crying, "They shot my brother!" Cue the opening shot of a STOP sign.
• Tre visibly fearing for his life at the hands of a police officer. However, the officer does seem to show remorse upon seeing tears roll from Tre’s eyes. His subsequent emotional outburst in front of his girlfriend will definitely get the waterworks going.
• Doughboy's mother's treatment of him from him and Ricky getting into a fight to after Ricky's murder for the death.
  • Worse is Doughboy telling Tre his mother wants nothing to do with him anymore after Ricky's death. Fridge Horror sets in when you remember she (inadvertently) lead him down that path of destruction and later on would lose him as well.
• Ricky's death was probably all the worse for Doughboy when you consider the very last interaction the two brothers shared was an acrimonious brawl. The fact that Doughboy later tries to rescue Ricky from Ferris and his thugs makes this even more touching.
• When Doughboy is about to kill Ferris, tears can be visibly seen coming from, which shows that vengeance won't bring his brother back.