Revealed: 10 saddest on-screen moments guaranteed to make you ugly cry!

• The top ten saddest on-screen moments revealed
•  Mufasa’s death in The Lion King ranked the biggest tearjerker (25%)
• Majority of saddest on-screen moments involve non-humans (60%)

From the death of Dobby to the final scene of Friends, we’ve witnessed some real tear jerkers over the years. But which on-screen moment is guaranteed to make you bawl and break your poker face?

Free poker site, Replay Poker ran a poll¹ to unveil how the nation reacts to emotional scenes in film and TV and which on-screen moments they found the saddest. Tissues at the ready…

According to the findings, the top ten saddest on-screen moments of all time are as follows:

• Mufasa’s death in ‘Lion King’ (25%)
• Marley’s death in ‘Marley and Me’ (21%)
• Bambi’s mom in ‘Bambi’ (20%)
• Tony Stark in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (19%).
• Old couple cuddling in bed before the ship sinks in ‘Titanic’ (19%)
• Will being stood up by his biological father in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (16%).
• Dobby’s death in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1’ (13%)
• When the toys are in the incarcerator in ‘Toy Story 3’ (13%)
• The final scene, leaving the keys on the table in ‘Friends’ (12%)
• Ellie’s death in ‘UP’ (11%)

Unsurprisingly, the much-loved Disney film ‘The Lion King’ still gets us whimpering, with a quarter (25%) voting Mufasa’s death as the top tearjerker. And it’s 25-34 year old’s who are most likely to rank this moment as the saddest (30%) – perhaps because they’re more emotionally bonded with the film as it was released in 1994. In fact, after the movie’s remake in July 2019, Google searches for ‘Mufasa’ skyrocketed by 204%!

As a nation of animal lovers, it’s no surprise that the majority of Brits feel more emotional over an animal character’s death than a human’s. Out of the ten saddest moments, the top three were animals (Mufasa, Marley, and Bambi’s Mum deaths) with a further three (Ellie, Dobby, and toys from Toy Story 3) involving animated non-human characters.

Interestingly, when ‘Marley and Me’ was released in March 2009, the question ‘Why did Marley die’ saw a huge 285% increase in searches from viewers. And when Dobby pledged his loyalty to Harry by sacrificing himself, there was a 733% increase in searches after the movie was released in November 2010.

Looking at the women vs men divide, it seems women and men don’t get emotional over the same on-screen moments. Based on the results, the tragic death of Mufasa was the first choice for women (27%), whereas Tony Stark’s death made 23% of the male respondents tear up the most!

Stimulatingly, only 7% of respondents unveiled they haven’t been reduced to tears during a sad moment.

Commenting on the research, Thibault Richard-Folian, General Manager at Replay Poker says: “Showing emotion is something you don’t want to do when playing poker and you need to make sure your poker face is strong so nobody can read you – but a good cry can be therapeutic.

“With the current global situation, we know that people are spending more time at home and watching more TV and film than ever before. We conducted this survey as a fun and interesting way of understanding the psychological link between entertainment and emotions, and how the emotional elements of film and TV can really affect viewers. This in turn provides insight into how different situations can affect our players, helping us find new ways to offer the best user experience to them from an emotional standpoint.”

To find out more about the saddest on-screen moments, please visit: https://www.replaypoker.com/blog/tear-jerkers-the-saddest-moments-in-film-and-tv/