Tear Jerker / First Man

• Everything involving Karen, Neil's 2-year-old daughter. She dies of a brain tumour shortly into the film, and it's made clear throughout that her death has affected him greatly. At the end of the film, he takes a bracelet with her name on it to the Moon and drops it in a crater.
  • An early scene shows her funeral and wake. Neil keeps a stoic demeanour the entire time, but as soon as he's alone in his study he bursts into tears.
  • He later imagines seeing her at another funeral.
• Especially if you're a NASA geek, watching the Apollo 1 astronauts climbing into the command module can get the tears running as you know they will never climb out.
  • Pat is numb after finding Ed White died. Janet finds her at the trunk of her car staring into space, and it's clear that, despite trying to hold it back, Pat is devastated.
• Gilruth and Slayton reviewing the press release that is to be issued in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin are stranded on the moon with no hope of rescue. It underlines that there are very real risks that they may never return.
• Neil's stoic demeanor makes it hard for him to relate on a personal level with people. This comes to a head just before he leaves for Apollo 11 when Janet forces him to have a talk with his kids about the risks of the flight. He answers his kid's questions almost exactly like he did at the press conference.

  Rick: Do you think you're coming back?

  Neil: We have real confidence in the mission, and there are some risks, but we have every intention of coming back.

  Rick: But you might not?

  • Not to mention Janet's speech to Neil where she makes it clear that he will tell his kids there's a chance he doesn't make it home.
    Janet: Pat doesn't have a husband. Those kids, they don't have a father anymore. Do you understand what that means? What are the chances that's going to be Ricky and Mark? And I can't tell them that their dad spent the last few minutes packing his briefcase! You're gonna sit them down. Both of them. And you're going to prepare them for the fact that you might not ever come home. You're doing that. You. Not me. I'm done.