As the film climaxes, the British government and the refugees begin a full-scale war, but the fighting briefly comes to a halt when the fighting refugees and soldiers, for the first time in eighteen years, hear the sound of a crying baby. Everything goes still. All the soldiers and Fishes and refugees stop fighting. Total silence in the warzone as soldiers part to let the baby through, several of them dropping to their knees and making the sign of the cross. Once they're free of the building, someone fires a shot and fighting resumes in a viscerally realistic way.
Making the scene particularly memorable and heart-wrenching are the incredibly human reactions of the refugees and the soldiers. The refugees — of all races, colors, and creeds — let it all out, crying and rejoicing at the same time. The soldiers, meanwhile, mostly stare at the baby with silent amazement. A few get down on their knees to pray. A couple try to hide tears with sniffles. Another guy looks on completely oblivious to his commander squawking on the radio. And yet it seems as though every one of them is saying, "Oh, God. Our lives were not wasted." A great performance by the movie's "extras."
While this is going on, there is a woman with a clearly fatal stomach wound, and what is she doing? Singing to calm the baby down.
A sign of the significance of the birth. That rocket flew close enough to them that, had there been any shrapnel, it might have killed them. The rebels didn't get any more shots off after someone fired that rocket.
Also, earlier in front of the same apartment building, a group of unarmed refugees walk out and are promptly riddled with bullets by the soldiers.
Jasper's poor wife. She was a famous political journalist, put into a a catatonic state from MI5 torturing her. The scene where Jasper says goodbye to her is done beautifully and tragically.
Jasper's death. He gets shot by the Fishes. Theo's reaction is full of a mix of sorrow and anger at seeing his only friend being killed in cold blood.
Theo:You tell me the fucking reason in that.
Julian's death and funeral, with Miriam tenderly laying her to rest in the forest under a burial shroud.
As Miriam is performing the rites, Theo steps behind a tree to smoke a cigarette. Before he can even light it, he breaks slumps down against the tree and breaks into quiet tears of despair. Clive Owen portrays it so realistically that it's hard not to cry with him.
The death of "Baby Diego," the world's youngest person at a mere eighteen years of age; stabbed to death all because he refused to sign an autograph. Even worse, he was the last known child born into the world; the image of dozens of people mourning all over the city, crying at work and laying down flowers at makeshift memorial sites, is what sets the tone for the entire film.
Not to mention that Diego's death sets up the next youngest person on Earth, an 18-year-old girl, to be hounded by the media and obsessives in exactly the same way that got him killed.
The scene of Theo and Kee stopping to rest at an abandoned school, with Kee sitting on a swing set and having collected a teddy bear for her unborn baby. Every single school in the world has met this same fate, complete with the remains of childhood happiness fading into alien notions.
Human civilization breaking down into complete anarchy, with the explicit implication that Great Britain may be the only "functioning" nation remaining. One scene has Theo's colleagues having gotten back from the Louvre in Paris, recovering the remains of Michaelangelo's David and cobbling the remaining pieces of him together but reporting that the Pieta had been desecrated beyond recognition. Theo knows that these efforts to preserve what remains of their culture holds no meaning anymore, and asks his cousin what keeps him going.
Nigel:You want to know what it is, Theo? I just don't think about it.
Miriam getting pulled off the bus in Bexhill, sacrificing herself to a brutal fate of terror, assault, and likely death, if the way the guards pull that execution bag over her head is anything to go by, all to make a distraction long enough to get Kee off the bus. The whole entry into Bexhill scene can blur into Nightmare Fuel, especially if you know your modern history.
Sirdjan being executed by Patric.
Luke, the resident Big Bad, is holed up in the building facing off with British soldiers. He starts crying for the baby, saying that he had forgotten how small and beautiful they are, and when desperately holding his gun on Theo, he's told that the baby is a girl. He then confesses to Theo about how he once had a sister. It becomes clear just how scared he is, and seems to be a brief Heel Realisation for him, as if it occurs to him that he can't remember exactly when he became a violent terrorist. It gives you the sense that he probably joined the Fishes with good intentions and then became increasingly ruthless over the years without realizing it.
Luke: A girl... I had a sister.
Marishka leaving Theo and Kee in the boat while Theo implores for her to come with them, and she refuses, only for the audience to see a fleet of jet fighters fly overhead towards Bexhill moments later as soon as Theo and Kee row away out of the camp.
