Tear Jerker / The Great Escape

• The deaths of Ives and Blythe.
  • After Hilts allows himself to be recaptured to help the escape, he bounces his ball very sadly compared to earlier. Ives' death clearly affected him deeply. By the time he's let out, he's not even playing with the ball anymore, sitting solemnly in his cell.
• The cold-blooded murder of the 50 prisoners. Von Luger could barely contain his shame as a German Officer when forced to lie about Ramsey about The Fifty "being shot (IE. murdered) while trying to flee from the Gestapo"; the sheer grief he felt for the enemies that he actually respected was heartbreaking to behold.
• Colin. Poor Colin. Despite everyone, including himself, knowing he is in no condition to escape, Hendley is determined to escort the man himself over the Swiss border. They even manage to steal an airplane and get within sight of the Swiss Alps, only for the plane to suffer engine trouble and crash land. He survives...only to be gunned down by a German patrol closing in on the crash site.
• The ending.
  "Was it worth it?"
  "That depends on your point of view."
• "This film is dedicated to the fifty."
• The sheer amount of Hope Spots in the film is absolutely heart-wrenching, such as Mac's ironic English flub, Hilts being captured mere yards from the Swiss border, Bartlett eluding a Nazi patrol only to be recognized by another Nazi officer, Hendley and Colin's ill-fated plane flight...the list goes on.
• Ashley-Pitt. At the time of his death, it came across as a sad, but heroic sacrifice. However, his death becomes sadder as the film goes on, as the man he died in order to protect, Bartlett, was captured and killed anyways, making his sacrifice pointless. Since Ashley-Pitt had no way of knowing that would happen, you have to give him credit.