As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Even for a modern adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express turns out to be a pretty emotional movie.
- Poirot's picture of Katherine. After the avalanche that stops the train, the picture frame is broken. Poirot looks upon the broken picture forlorn, as though the crack were a scar upon her face. And later, Poirot tells the picture about how he can't piece the mystery together like he normally does.
- During his interrogation of Masterman, Poirot learns through careful deduction Masterman's "toothache" is actually metastasized thyroid cancer he's been covering up. When the interrogation is finished, Poirot can do little but sadly tell the old butler he's sorry about his "toothache".
- Bouc, the lone innocent bystander in the story, is clearly bewildered and aghast to come face to face with the grim reality of his Belgian dining companion's crime-solving, and is horrified by the murder itself, the Armstrong tragedy that incited it, and what it's doing to Poirot to confront its moral quandary. It's going to take a long time for him to regard his old friend with anything like his usual fond bemusement.
- In a Deleted Scene, Pierre Michel, one of the conductors, reveals that he had to care for his mentally ill mother, and had only died a month ago. Poirot is clearly moved by the story.
- Made even more disheartening when you bear in mind he also lost his sister Susanne in the Armstrong case. When she died, he was left all alone to take care of her. It's bad enough he had to take care of his mother, but he also had to deal with both the loss of his mother and his sister.
- Not to mention how Madam Michel's mental illness is implied to have been brought on because of how Susanne died. Yet more evil, wrought by Cassetti's hands.
- The Armstrong Case. One big tragedy of how a family of three died and the lives of so many people connected to them were ruined. A gangster named Cassetti kidnapped Captain Armstrong's little daughter Daisy. The parents paid the ransom, but Cassetti killed the daughter anyway. When Armstrong's wife (who was expecting a child at the time) heard the news, the stress put her into premature labor. Neither she nor the baby survived. Armstrong was so depressed by the loss that he killed himself. The flashback actually shows Sonia Armstrong learning of her daughter's death and falling to the ground, screaming in utter despair. We cut to Captain Armstrong watching a recording of their happy family on a projector and bent, doubled in grief, just before we learn that he shot himself.
- MacQueen: His father was the District Attorney on the Armstrong case and, for being pressured to indict someone and getting the wrong suspect, his reputation was destroyed. When Poirot brings this up, MacQueen is on the verge of tears recalling the incident.
- Princess Dragomiroff: She grows more sympathetic when you learn she was dear friends with Daisy's grandmother Linda Arden, and was herself Daisy's godmother. After the death of the Armstrong family, Linda became a shut-in recluse who disappeared from public. So not only did Dragomiroff lose her god-child, but a dear friend.
- Pilar: She was the nanny who was watching over Daisy Armstrong the night Cassetti kidnapped the child. She blames herself because she was asleep from drinking wine that night.
- Hardman: He was in love with Susanne, the Armstong's maid, who was wrongly accused of being involved in the kidnapping and committed suicide as a result. At one point, he talks of it.
- Arbuthnot: Armstrong's friend and fellow soldier, who owed Colonel Armstrong everything, and was prepared to take the fall for Cassetti's murder to protect everyone else, particularly Mary.
- Pierre: seemingly totally unconnected due to just being the conductor, turns out to have been the maid's brother, heartbroken over the death of his sister.
- Caroline Hubbard (aka Linda Arden) was Daisy's grandmother, who became an isolated recluse after the death of one of her daughters and both her grandchildren — Princess Dragomiroff notes the theatre world lost a genius that day. What's sadder is, Poirot describes her as the one who suffered the most from the Armstrong family's death. Also Hubbard's heartwrenching offer to let the other passengers go free, and for Poirot to arrest her only. Michelle Pfeiffer does an amazing job conveying guilt and desperation in her pleas."No one should hang for this but me! It was my plan! Tell the police that it was me, alone. There's no life left in me anymore. They... have a chance now. Helena, I pray, has a... has a chance. They can... go, live, find some joy somewhere. Let it end with me. They're not killers. They're good people. They can be good again."
- Even Poirot was hit hard by the Armstrong case. He had agreed to take on the case for Armstrong to find Daisy — but by the time he arrived Daisy was dead and Armstrong had killed himself. The end of the film has Poirot "writing a letter" to Armstrong, telling him the case was finally over and he could rest now.
- It's heartbreaking when Poirot sadly offers that they shoot him in order to keep the murder conspiracy a secret. For a moment, you actually do believe it's going to be a Bittersweet Ending where he'll finally be with Katherine. Becomes a bigger Tear Jerker when, instead of trying to kill Poirot, Linda tries to kill herself because she can't live with being a murderer. Thankfully, it turns out the gun was empty all along. It's still sad when she breaks down, realizing that her real sentence for murder is, not hanging or suicide, but to live with her crime.Poirot: There was right. There was wrong. Now there is you. I cannot judge this. You must decide. You wish to go free without punishment for your crime, then you must commit one more. [Places gun on the table] I will not stop you.
Bouc: You can't let them kill you.
Poirot: You give my body to the lake, and you walk away innocent at the station. You must silence me. Bouc can lie. I cannot. [Beat] DO IT! ONE OF YOU!
Hubbard grabs the gun and aims it at Poirot.
Helena: No!
Hubbard: I already died with Daisy.
Hubbard aims the gun to her chin and pulls the trigger while the others shout at her to stop, but only a "click" sound is heard. She then breaks down emotionally. - The Flashback of all 12 would-be murderers, watching a film footage together of the Armstrong family, before the fateful tragedy. There's a poignant connection that they can all relate to how the loss of one family lead to their lives being shattered. And they aren't just watching this to motivate themselves to go through with the murder. This is a memorial.
- The cherry on top? The music accompanying this whole summation: Patrick Doyle's "Justice"
.
- After The Summation, we have a montage of the passengers as their train ride resumes its course. They seem to be going about their business, but there's a somber atmosphere where you just feel that after their experience, they may never be the same again. Crosses into Heartwarming Moments if you interpret they are also beginning to heal from their personal ordeals.
- Particularly with Helena pouring out her bottles of barbitol.
- The ending, where we hear a voice-over of Poirot narrating his long overdue "response" to Captain Armstrong's letter. He tells how this mystery has changed his black-and-white view on right and wrong, and how he's witnessed the fractured human soul at its worst. Just as they will have to live with their murder, he will have to live with lying to the police about Ratchet's killer, making him an accomplice."My Dear Colonel Armstrong. Finally, I can answer your letter, at least with the thoughts in my head and the feeling in my heart that somewhere you can hear me. I have now discovered the truth of the case and it is profoundly disturbing. I have seen the fracture of the human soul. So many broken lives, so much pain and anger giving way to the poison of deep grief until one crime became many. I have always wanted to believe that man is rational and civilised. My very existence depends upon this hope, upon order and methods and the little grey cells, but now perhaps I am asked to listen instead to my heart."
- The final theme, sung by Michelle Pfeiffer. Dear God! And to make it worse, if you listen to the lyrics and have seen the film, you know that it's an elegy sung by a grieving mother to her late daughter.
