"I'm just a piece of junk."
- Three words. "This is junk..." For context, Flint not only throws away his inventions and calls them junk, but lies in the trashcan and calls himself junk too.
- The opening scene is pretty heartbreaking.Flint: I wanted to run away that day... but you can't run away from your own feet.
- Flint's father solemnly grinding sardines into chum, because he doesn't know what else to do after Flint refuses to shut down the machine and their argument at the restaurant. He even gently covers his face with his hand, the biggest show of grief Flint's father had shown thus far.
- There's also the visual of the raining hotdogs knocking off the "and Son" part of his son after he and Flint's fight at the restaurant.
- When Flint's latest invention accidentally ruins the grand opening of Sardine World, the only thing that stands between him and the angry townsfolk is a giant fish bowl. He can't even hear their angry yelling and screaming. Yet, underneath that glass bowl, he's exposed to their disapproval. He's never been more humiliated or hated in his entire life. Yet the most painful sight among those sea of angry faces is his own father's sad, disappointed expression.
- Really, the entire thing is a microcosm of Flint's life- he wants to help people with his inventions, but they always end up accidentally doing more harm than good.
- Flint's initial refusal to grant Earl's wish to make special food weather from Cal's birthday, out of a combination of the way he treated him and not wanting to overwork his machine. Earl simply accepts his decision sadly, even admitting that he knew that it was a long shot.
- Actually, Flint's reason for changing his mind, too. Earl's willingness to do anything for his son and his sadness at not being able to give him something special for his birthday reminds Flint of his own poor relationship with his dad, prompting him to reconsider.
- Sam recounting her childhood where she was teased for being nerdy. She changed her appearance so she'd look conventionally cute and from that day on hid her intelligence and interest in meteorology so other people wouldn't mock her.
- Flint and his father's entire relationship is sad. His father loves Flint, but doesn't know how to show it, and Flint wants his father to be proud of him and tell him as such. When his father asks him to work out at the shop with him, he does it because he wants to spend time with his son, but Flint takes it as his father not caring about his inventions (and therefore not being proud of him). Then there's the dinner scene...
- ...It's like this: Flint has finally become a celebrity in his own town who can get his father into any restaurant of their choosing (namely a roofless one), he sets it up so that it rains his father's favorite food, and to top it all off, Flint announces to his father that he's been chosen to cut the ribbon. Flint is chomping at the bit for his father to express pride as he eagerly asks "Aren't you proud of me?" You can see that the father would've readily said yes. ...If not for the abnormally big steak that falls on his plate. Rather, he mentions it in order to share his personal worries about the food with Flint. As expected, Lockwood and Son's rocky relationship comes to a head in the form of a tired argument, which ends with Flint's father calmly saying "Well, you know what you're doing. I'll just get out of your way."
- Really, just the fact that Flint's mother died when Flint was growing up.
- The way the television show works around the Negative Continuity: Sam is hesitant to become Flint's friend because her family moves a lot. Flint agrees that if she moves again, he'll create a memory eraser that will wipe both their memories of each other. It basically means that, if one is to count the series as canon, Sam does move again, both their memories will be wiped, and neither of them will remember each other when they reunite.
- Arguably the saddest moment in the film is Flint's Heroic Sacrifice in which he uses his Spray-On-Shoes to destroy the FLDSMDFR once and for all, but in the process supposedly killing himself.
- Even worse is when the gang finally lands. They walk out of the Flying Car 2, one by one, but as Tim (Flint's father) goes up to the car with open arms, waiting to give his son a big bear hug, Sam closes the door even though Flint hadn't come out.
- Everyone is quiet as they pay their respects to the now late Flint. Not even Steve utters one of his non-sequitur lines.
- Of course, as it turns out, Flint hadn't been dead at all, proven when a flock of ratbirds brings him to the burger on which the gang are standing upon, but still.
