Most heartbreaking deaths in cinema?

Mufasa in The Lion King.

The re-make of On the Beach... (Technically a made-for-TV movie.)

As the cloud of post-nuclear war radioactivity reaches Australia, Australian naval officer Lt. Peter Holmes goes home to his wife. They gather on the bed together with their young children who are blissfully unaware of what's to come.

We see the parents take some pills and give some to each of their trusting kids... the pills that will kill them all before the radioactivity reaches them. The parents calm their kids and lie down with them to await the end, infinite sorrow on their faces.

I was watching with my wife and I had to leave the room because THERE WAS SOMETHIN' IN MY DAMN EYES!!!

The thought that we could leave this entire planet a barren rock with nothing to signify our civilization, or the 3 billion years of life before us, is too goddam depressing to think about.

Upclose and personal