A woman, who has just survived a nuclear bomb, holding her child, who hasn't.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The childlike awe with which Bob, Jimmy's friend, reacts to the mushroom cloud over RAF Finningley. He genuinely seems broken by the sight of it.Bob: Jesus Christ, they've done it. [quietly, holding his thumb to his mouth] They've done it...
- Jimmy's father, seen dealing with the early stages of radiation sickness, is shown sitting under a statue several days after the attack, staring at Michael's handheld videogame console and breaking down. And this is the last time the audience sees him.
- As shown in the page image, Ruth's walk through the ruins of Sheffield is utterly devoid of music and set against difficult images — people in the midst of shock, an man whose head is covered in bandages, having a breakdown, and a woman holding the corpse of her child in her arms, looking at Ruth with a Thousand-Yard Stare. And worse yet, this incident causes Ruth to suffer from a Heroic BSoD — she barely speaks for the rest of the film, being so traumatized by what she saw that she resorts to near-animalistic behavior just to survive.
- Ruth finding, and holding onto, Jimmy's book until her death 13 years later. Worse yet, Jane doesn't understand the significance of it, and leaves it behind, instead opting to take a hairbrush and scarf as she leaves.
- It's really damn hard to not feel terribly at the woman who's so terrified, she wets herself.
- Ruth's poor grandmother. She's bundled into a basement, frightened and confused, the city gets bombed and she suffers the indignity of soiling herself, all the while sobbing about how she feels embarrassed and like a baby. And then she dies. The last we see of her, some looters walk past her rotting corpse and it's very strongly implied the rats will eat her - she suffers the gruesome indignity of unburied death.
- As Ruth's poor parents hastily cover up the grandmother's body, Ruth flees the house in terror, leading her mother to break down in sobs at the door.
- Most of the entries in the movie's Nightmare Fuel entry also double as Tear Jerker.
