Tear Jerker / Captain Phillips

• Captain Phillips asking, almost begging the pirates to kill him [Phillips] instead of the other man (his co-worker). He even literally says "Pick me, pick me!", and later even "Kill me, kill me!"
• One of the pirates steps, barefooted, into shattered glass and suffers terrible Agony of the Feet for the rest of the film. He also becomes pretty much useless for the other pirates from then on, and it's clear they only see him as a nuisance from then on.
• And this pirate who gets his feet all cut up, is a teenager. Even Captain Phillips feels for him especially, because he can't be older than 16-17, which makes him more naive than the other pirates.
• After being a pretty stoic Determinator for most of the movie, Captain Phillips breaks down completely when he realizes that he is about to get killed. All he thinks about in this moment, is his family, and he desperately tries to let them know he loves them. It's even more heartbreaking because one of the pirates tries to rip the paper Phillips frantically is writing a message to his family on, out of his hands thinking he's writing something that could somehow help him escape, literally denying Phillips his last dying wish.
• As for Captain Phillips' last message itself, it is chilling, coming out as an almost Madness Mantra.
  Captain Phillips: Is anybody hearing this? Tell my family I love them! Andrea, I love you. I love you, Ange! Honey, I love you! I love you, Danny! I love you and I'm sorry! I'm sorry I'm here and not there with you!
• The pirates, in general... These are the kind of people who are usually seen as ruthless cold-hearted criminals, but the movie does well in fleshing them out as human people, not heartless killers who do what they do For the Evulz. While their actions of piracy are of course undeniably wrong, knowing of their background (the "stolen fish" etc.) at least explains what led them to these actions. Not to mention that one of them is still a teenager, and way in over his head.
• Seeing how traumatized Captain Phillips was after he was rescued. The man could barely speak...
• The ultimate fate of the pirates is a real downer. Three are shot dead, the fourth is sentenced to 33 years in prison in America (ironically, at the beginning of the movie he touts how much he wants to go to America—so eventually he indeed went, only to spend it all in a prison cell...)
  • Even sadder is that prison will mostly likely be better than the environment he came from. The look on his face when they start "reading his rights", is the look of a man who has never had anyone acknowledge him as ever having any.

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