Tear Jerker / Star Trek Into Darkness

Kirk: I want to tell you why I couldn't let you die. Why I went back for you.
Spock: Because you are my friend.''

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

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• The Nibiru volcano scene. While it's a Foregone Conclusion that Spock survives, the looks on the crew's faces, especially Uhura's, as he tells them to forget him are heart-tugging.
  • Spock telling the Enterprise to leave him to die:
    Kirk: What would Spock do if I was there and he was here?
    McCoy: He'd let you die.
  • For a brief second, Spock drops his stoic face and you can see the fear in his face as he prepares for his death.
• When Pike yells at Kirk for breaking the Prime Directive and lying about it, capping it off by telling him that he's being sent back to the Academy because he's not ready for command, Kirk looks absolutely crushed. As much as he needed to be told that he was arrogant and reckless and would someday do something stupid that would get his people killed, it clearly hurt him like hell.
• Thomas Harewood commits a suicide bombing for Khan in exchange for his daughter being cured of her illness.
  • The scene right before he goes to the Archives, he injects the phial of Khan's blood into his daughter's IV line and he watches her vitals improve dramatically on the monitor. The look he gives as he kisses her forehead goodbye seals it. This is a man who knows he can't turn back now.
  • When the bombing happens, we see the perspective from what's presumed to be Harewood's home office. More specifically the desk with photos of him with his wife and one of his daughter. The camera zooms on the picture of his daughter as we hear screams.
• Pike's death. It's not even a typical death scene. Pike doesn't give any parting words; no speech, no nothing. He simply stares uncomprehendingly at Spock, clearly scared out of his mind. And then when Spock mind-melds with him, the former's normally emotionless facial expression morphs just enough that we get an idea of what Pike is feeling.
  • Kirk's reaction is to check Pike's pulse and then break down crying. Then, still crying, he buries his face in Pike's jacket and clutches his uniform. He's just lost the closest thing to a father he had.
    • You can tell by the look on his face that he's trying to stop crying. Even though he's pretty much heartbroken, he knows he can't sit there mourning. He has to get the son of a bitch who did this.
    • The real kicker? Pike dies mere seconds before Kirk comes into frame. Kirk didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.
  • And then afterwards, Kirk slowly stands up and wordlessly places a hand on Spock's shoulder before walking away.
  • The scene beforehand when Pike tells Kirk that he deserved a second chance and that he believed in him. The moment he said those words, you knew he was doomed.
• This issue here:
  McCoy: Ten hours ago, you were in a damn firefight. Now, it's my duty as the ship's...
  Kirk: I'm fine, Bones.
  McCoy: [stops Kirk in place, looking him right in the eye, obviously meaning Pike's death] The hell you are.
  Kirk: [Beat] I'm fine.
  • You could tell McCoy is well-aware of just how hard Pike's death affected Jim.
• The look on Scotty's face when Kirk accepts his resignation. He's just been utterly dismissed by his captain and lost his ship and his career, all for trying to do the right thing.
• Spock and Uhura's argument about his apparently not caring if he died in the volcano in the opening scene. Spock is eventually driven to admit that he forced himself not to feel anything when it seemed he was doomed, as he never wants to feel even a fraction of his emotional reaction to the destruction of Vulcan again.
• It's brief, but look at the expression on Spock's face when Uhura offers to confront the Klingons herself.
• Kirk, who has spent all of both movies having every one of his snap decisions, wild guesses, and gut feelings turn out for the best, turns and looks at his crew when he realizes that Admiral Marcus isn't going to let any of them live no matter what he says or does. The hopelessness and defeat in his voice is so jarring.
  Kirk: I'm sorry.
  • Wanna make it worse? At the beginning of the movie, Pike berates Kirk for his recklessness, insubordinate attitude, and arrogance, telling him that it was only his blind luck that had kept him and his crew alive. Now Kirk knows he was right all along.
  • Also making it worse is Uhura's gasp at Kirk's defeated apology, showing just how hopeless the situation is.
• Kirk decides he needs Harrison's help in order to defeat Marcus, so goes to talk to him. Spock follows, trying to talk Kirk out of it. Then Kirk admits to what Pike was trying to tell him after the Nibiru mission; that he's not ready to be a captain.
  Spock: I cannot allow you to do this! It is my function aboard the ship to advise you in making the wisest decisions possible, something I firmly believe you are incapable of doing in this moment.
  Kirk: You're right! What I am about to do, it doesn't make sense, it's not logical; it's a gut feeling! I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I only know what I can do. The Enterprise and her crew needs someone on that chair who knows what he's doing. That's not me. It's you, Spock.
• Scotty, who appears in this timeline to be channeling the Fourth, Fifth, or Tenth Doctor, has a genuine moment of anguish when he has to tell a guy he's going to do something that will end very badly for the mook:
  Scott: I'm sorry about this.
• There's something to be said for Spock asking his time-displaced older self about his encounters with Khan in the prime timeline. You can tell even a hundred years later, Spock Prime is still haunted by what it took to defeat him the first time.
  Spock: Did you defeat him?
  Spock Prime: ...At great cost, yes.
  • When Spock Prime reminds Spock of the vow the former had taken to not divulge information because "your path is yours to walk and yours alone", Spock lowers his eyes, a sign that he's lost his last hope that he can help Jim, Scotty and the rest of the crew.
  • This scene is much Harsher in Hindsight because not only was this Leonard Nimoy's last scene as Spock in a Star Trek production; this was his last movie role ever. This means that Nimoy's last scene of his lifetime was him as his most iconic character warning his younger self of the hardships he's faced over the years and remembering his own famous Heroic Sacrifice. Truly a perfect Passing the Torch moment and a fitting epitaph to one of the greatest actors of our time.
• The moment where Carol is pleading to her father to spare the Enterprise as she's still on it by forcing him into a Sadistic Choice, only for him to sidestep it and teleport her aboard his own ship, the Vengeance. The fact that she still pleads even when it's apparent she can't affect anything is just depressing.
  • And she gets her leg broken by Khan and watches her father die right before her eyes. Poor woman needs a hug.
• Harrison/Khan may be the Big Bad of the film, but the fact that he's crying when he recalls how he couldn't save his crew from Admiral Marcus is heartbreaking. The music accompanying it (starting at 1:10 and ending at 3:38) just makes it worse.
  Harrison: Marcus took my crew from me! [...] He used my friends to control me. I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I have designed. But I was discovered. I had no choice but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Marcus had killed every single one of the people I hold most dear. So I responded in kind. My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?
  • If there’s any doubt that he’s crying Crocodile Tears, he does all this crying while he’s turned away from the crew, meaning he has no reason to be faking.
  • His anguish when he thinks he's killed them all, too.
  • When Harrison asks Kirk if there's anything he wouldn't do for his family, there's a clear shot of Kirk's face. We know from his actions that there's nothing he wouldn't do to save one of his friends and crew if the situation called for it. He directly disobeyed the Prime Directive in the first scene to save Spock. Harrison's question made Kirk realize they're no different.
• There's a small moment when Harrison is confronting his ally Admiral Marcus, and he's just seething with rage at the Insane Admiral's betrayal and manipulation. But what does he say? "I will destroy everything you've ever loved?" "I will conquer the stars with your own ship?" No. "You should've let me sleep!" Deep down, Harrison knows who and what he is, and how his time has passed, and trying to use him in this new era is a mistake. While he wants to survive, he knows it would be safer, for everyone, if he was just left alone.
  • Although considering Harrison's rage during that scene, one could easily have taken the unstated above as implied, which pushes it from Tear Jerker to Nightmare Fuel.
  • Take a note of Harrison's last scene. Harrison is smiling. He may be a horrific monster, but he is back with his family, and at peace.
• Kirk going to his death to repair the damaged reactor room while Scotty watches on.
• There's also Spock's reaction when Scotty calls him down to Engineering. He doesn't even know what it is, but he knows something terrible has happened to Kirk and he legs it so fast, he doesn't even give the legally required order that someone take over. Then you see him running through the halls, and the sheer, utter panic on his face is something to behold.
  • Spock desperately pleading to Scotty to let Kirk out, but Scotty sadly says he can't do it because it would kill everybody in Engineering. Then the two have a final conversation, and Kirk dies.
    Spock: (desperately) Open it!
    Scotty: (in tears) The decontamination process is not complete; you'd flood the whole compartment. The door's locked, sir.
  • Kirk admitting to being scared and asking Spock to help him not be. Spock, who is crying at this point, tells him that he doesn't know how to anymore.
    Kirk: I'm scared, Spock. Help me not to be. How do you choose not to feel?
    Spock: [in tears] I do not know. Right now, I am failing.
    Kirk: I want to tell you why I couldn't let you die. Why I went back for you.
    Spock: [tear falls from his cheek] Because you are my friend.
    [Kirk nods and puts his hand on the glass, and Spock does the same, mirroring the famous Wrath of Khan pose, and Kirk dies.]
    • It's the famous pose that really drives it home. Those who had been able to hold back their tears until then just lost it at this point.
  • Followed by Uhura showing up just in time to see Kirk take his last breaths. She remains teary-eyed until Spock beams down to catch up to Khan.
  • After Kirk dies, you can see Spock's grief turn into pure rage.
    Spock: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
  • The track for this scene, "Buying the Space Farm." Just...listen to it. It's Spock's emotions put to music.
    • Not only is it a Crowning Music of Awesome, but a Fridge Brilliance as well, as the track for this scene sounds like "Labor of Love," the music when George Kirk was saving the USS Kelvin (Kirk's birth!) and Spock's theme put together.
    • Not just put together. It's not just that the scores are overlayed together; they weave in and out with one character's motif taking the lead before it fades back while the other character's comes to the forefront, before finally combining into a single whole.
  • Spock crying. When the Vulcan loses it, we don't stand a chance.
  • When Kirk dies, Spock has this very sharp intake of breath, like he still can't believe this just happened.
  • Spock's pursuit of Khan. Yes, it's awesome and incredibly badass, but it's a bullet to the heart. We got a glimpse of this level of rage in the first movie, but seeing Spock lose control so thoroughly and for so long is hard to handle. He even attacks Khan with a mind-meld, using either his physical pain or more likely his own rage and grief to incapacitate his opponent. How many Vulcan laws did he break with that move?
• McCoy seeing Kirk's body and just walking away, sitting at his desk, and breaking down. The look on his face is just so utterly heartbreaking.
  • Made even worse when you remember that McCoy was Kirk's first friend at the Academy, and they were shown to routinely hang out while there. They've spent years together and he's just seen his friend's body, and it's too late to save him (or so he thinks).
  • Worse still when you consider the number of times McCoy tells Kirk to be careful or expresses worry for him throughout the movie.
  • Watch the background as McCoy walks away from Kirk's body. A dark-haired male extra beautifully portrays the disbelief and grief of the crew to his captain's death.

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