When we watch movies, my mother always cries at goodbyes. Me, I cry at arrivals. This is just one of the many things that separate us.
She cries in the moments you might expect someone to cry: the ending of Where the Red Fern Grows; the opening montage of Up; when Mufasa is killed. My dad loves telling the story about catching her red-eyed, watching My Little Pony and weeping. I came home from work and I thought something terrible had happened, she was bawling so hard, he said. I thought someone was dead. But it was just Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash exchanging a tearful farewell.
As a kid, I would roll my eyes at her every time: You’re crying? Again? It’s an early example of the ways we would never understand each other. Cinematic sadness rarely gets me down. You think I cried for Jack in Titanic? I did not.
Now that I’m older, though, when and what brings me to tears is starting to feel more significant. I can’t sit through the moment the Riders of Rohan appear in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers without my eyes watering up. All night at Helm’s Deep, Théoden’s army, alongside Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, have fought greatheartedly against the Uruk-hai, but they have lost their ground. They ride out one more time as dawn arrives, but the Uruk are just too many. The heroes are overwhelmed. It is abundantly clear they are about to lose.
And then.
Tolkien says it best himself: “There suddenly upon a ridge appeared a rider, clad in white, shining in the rising sun. Over the hills the horns were sounding. Behind him, hastening down the long slopes, were a thousand men on foot; their swords were in their hands. Amid them strode a man tall and strong. His shield was red. As he came to the valley’s brink, he set to his lips a great black horn and blew a ringing blast.”
In the Peter Jackson movie version, they are on horseback. The music swells. On the horizon, Gandalf astride a white horse. Next to him Éomer, shouting, “To the King!” It’s the moment that changes the tide of the battle: from there, it is minutes’ work for the heroes to gain ground, for the Uruk to fall back, for the day to be won.
The Two Towers premiered in 2002, but I would think of this moment again over ten years later while watching Jurassic World with a friend. When Owen (Chris Pratt) held the head of the dying Apatosaurus, I thought, Mom would cry so hard at this. I was shaking my head. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a sad scene. I just didn’t have any tears.
That is, until later, during the final battle scene with the Indominus Rex. Things are going poorly for our heroes. Indominus has pretty much decimated all the raptors. The T-Rex, our heroes’ last hope, is down. Indominus approaches; she opens her jowls. It is abundantly clear they are about to lose.
And then.
There is a beat, just one, in the music. In the distance, a small dinosaur scream. The music lifts and—there!—the raptor Blue charges out of the wreckage and launches toward the back of the beast.
That’s where I started crying, all snotty and sniffling and obvious, surprising myself and the friend next to me.
Turns out I am a sucker for this kind of moment. I’m talking goosebumps and tears and guttural sounds. Even writing this, I’ve given myself chills.
Let me give you another example (spoilers for the Avengers franchise ahead!): I was completely dry-eyed when half of the Avengers turn to dust in Infinity Wars—even though both Dr. Strange and Spider-Man, my favorites, disappear—but I completely lost it in Endgame, when Thanos has beaten Captain America nearly senseless, and as Cap rises again, there’s a soft, small voice in his ear… cue Sam: “On your left.”
I’ve taken to calling this type of narrative turn “the rally,” or “the Riders of Rohan phenomenon,” after the scene when I first noticed it, and the effect it has on me. I’ve tried googling it—the specific moment I’m talking about doesn’t appear to have a name. It’s important to stress that the rally is not the climax—it’s certainly part of what one could call “the climactic scene,” but it’s not the actual moment of climax (after all, when the Riders of Rohan appear on the horizon, the battle isn’t actually over).
Sometimes the two might come so closely together it seems to be the same, but in other stories—like Jurassic World—it’s clear they’re separate: The RoR moment is when Blue arrives on the scene; the climax is when Indominus Rex is snapped up by the Mosasaurus some minutes later. Or in The Return of the King, the climax is when Frodo casts the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom; the RoR moment is several scenes before, when Frodo, defeated, collapses on the ground, and Sam says, “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.” So the RoR moment falls somewhere between “the dark night of the soul” and the climactic scene—indeed, it marks the transition from one to the other.
A term that almost comes close to defining this moment is Tolkien’s own word “eucatastrophe,” or “the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears.” You’d think, the way I always cry at the RoR phenomenon, this term would fit perfectly; but while it applies to scenes related to what I’m describing, it isn’t exactly the same. For example, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey features a eucatastrophe. Chance the bulldog and Sassy the cat have made it home, but Shadow the Golden Retriever isn’t with them—he couldn’t get out of the mud pit. His young owner, Peter, stares across the field. He waits. “He was old,” he says. “It was too far.” He turns back toward the house—and then. On the horizon, a golden head appears. There’s Shadow, coming home. There’s Peter, running. And there’s me…well, you know.
In this case, Shadow appearing on the ridge is a eucatastrophe. But it’s not a Riders of Rohan phenomenon. Tolkien calls Christ’s resurrection a eucatastrophe. In his own work, a frequently cited example is when Gollum attacks Frodo and thereby ensures the destruction of the One Ring. Neither of these are Riders of Rohan moments, either.
What’s the distinction I’m making between the Riders of Rohan phenomenon and eucatastrophe? Consider the difference between when Gollum fights Frodo at the edge of Mount Doom and the earlier moment when Sam carries Frodo. What makes one a RoR moment and the other not is simple: friendship. Gollum’s attack on Frodo is random, violent, and selfish, and the resulting happy ending is mere coincidence (a “sudden happy turn”); Sam makes the decision to help Frodo in his time of need and their resulting success is made possible through teamwork. So while you might argue that all RoR moments are eucatastrophes, not all eucatastrophes are RoR moments. The Riders of Rohan phenomenon is a specific kind of eucatastrophe that warrants a closer look.
The RoR phenomenon should likewise not be confused with deus ex machina (literally “god from the machine”), the well-known narrative device in which an unwinnable situation is resolved by the sudden appearance of a deity or other unlikely occurrence outside of the hero’s control. In The Lord of the Rings, the Eagles are the prime example of deus ex machina—such sudden arrivals of aid, though serving a similar narrative function as the Riders of Rohan, are in fact quite distinct (and don’t have the same effect on me, personally). It boils down, again, to the relationships and motivations involved: Sam is Frodo’s partner, someone to fight with but not for him. And that’s quite different from a mystical mostly-absent feathery creature magically dispatched only in times of great need.
To qualify as a Riders of Rohan phenomenon, then, the relationships must be between comrades: Sam carrying Frodo on his back. The Avengers surrounding Cap. A raptor, fighting a much larger predator for the sake of a human she loves and has bonded with. The Rohirrim, coming to the aid of the king who’d banished them. People who would have otherwise been alone suddenly aren’t. And in all these cases, it’s their friends that are there for them—not coincidence, not a divine being, not even a parent or authority figure, but the people they have chosen, who have chosen them.
I’m interested in naming and studying this key rally or turning point both as a narrative tool and for its cultural significance. While I don’t intend to set up a false dichotomy—plenty of people cry at sad and joyful scenes, or never cry at movies at all—I asked other sci-fi and fantasy fans how they respond to the Riders of Rohan appearing on the horizon, and I discovered I’m far from the only one who cries exclusively at that moment. Several conversations in several bars (seriously, ask anyone who knows me—I never shut up about this) revealed many others in my chosen communities who felt the same. One friend explained that “sad movies are just like meh” to her—but show her “moments where people find a ray of hope in the midst of despair,” she said, “and I am broken.”
What is it about this moment that speaks to so many people? What is so powerful about those figures on the horizon? Does it have to do with hope? The tenacity of the human spirit?
Some people I’ve spoken with think so. Several of them explained that these displays of “hopefulness in the face of seemingly impossible odds” used to be really moving to them. Those who are not as affected by the RoR phenomenon as they used to be now feel more connected to the moments of complete despair just before it. They wondered if the change had occurred because they were feeling more cynical or pessimistic about the world these days, which suggests that the Riders of Rohan are a symbol of optimism, and that it may be this metaphorical message that viewers are responding to.
I certainly see how this might explain why these moments matter, but for me, that’s not quite it. After all, though I’m deeply moved when Aragorn convinces Théoden to ride out with him in the name of Rohan—that mouse-charging-a-lion display of optimism and courage—I don’t actually cry until I see those riders on the horizon. I think the real heart of what makes this phenomenon so powerful is in the very name I’ve given it: Riders—plural, as in a group—of Rohan—as in belonging to a place, a community.
This isn’t just a “sudden happy turn” in a narrative: as I’ve argued, what sets these scenes apart from other kinds of eucatastrophes is that the RoR phenomenon is specifically a choice made by a community. This is the moment your team shows up. Another friend agreed, explaining, “What makes these scenes so important is that often it’s chosen family who is arriving in these moments of great need, when things are darkest and most unwinnable.” She stressed the importance of “chosen family” for “marginalized people, queer people, single people,” and explained that “having people show up for you (especially in force) when you’re in crisis…is something deeply felt for people with chosen family in particular.”
In other words, it matters that in the Riders of Rohan phenomenon the reinforcements are not religious entities or even family members, but peers and pals. It matters to people who have been isolated for their race, religion, sexuality, gender. It matters to people who don’t get along with their mothers.
Though there are several kinds of narratives that might contain such a rally (sports movies come to mind—and this “Lost Puppy” Budweiser commercial, which is only one minute long and still makes me cry), there is something within the RoR phenomenon that feels unique to science fiction and fantasy genres. For me, what science fiction and fantasy stories do best is make spaces to belong for those who traditionally do not belong. Nothing says I don’t fit in here like stories about superheroes, aliens, hobbits leaving home.
In his essay “On Fairy Stories,” Tolkien speaks to the “Consolation of the Happy Ending” being a requirement of fantasy—the guarantee of dawn after darkness. But what I want to emphasize is that the quality of Companionship is just as necessary, if not more so, than the three aspects—“Recovery, Escape, Consolation”—that Tolkien finds vital to the fantasy genre (after all, “Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam”).
Such stories allow people who have long felt on the outside of society, isolated perhaps even from their own families, to find representations of themselves in these narratives. And for such viewers—those like me, whose life has been spent searching for family who sees the world like I do—I argue that the greatest “Consolation” of the fantasy genre isn’t the happy ending: it’s Companionship. The promise not just of dawn but of community. Even more than that: the implication that it is the community who will bring the dawn.
That’s why I cry. It’s not simply because it’s happy. It’s not for optimism or hope or even joy that tears come to my eyes when the Riders of Rohan, in whatever form, in whatever film, suddenly appear: A voice on your left. Your herd, your team, at your back. These characters aren’t a metaphor or symbol; they’re just present. I’m crying because someone showed up.
Samantha Edmonds is the author of the prose chapbooks Pretty to Think So (Selcouth Station Press, 2019) and The Space Poet (forthcoming from Split Lip Press). Her nonfiction and cultural essays have been published in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, and VICE, among others, and her fiction appears in such journals as Ninth Letter, Michigan Quarterly Review, Mississippi Review, and Black Warrior Review. She serves as the Assistant Fiction Editor for Sundress Publications and the Fiction Editor for Doubleback Review. A PhD student of creative writing at the University of Missouri, she currently lives in Columbia.
A voice on your left. Your herd, your team, at your back. These characters aren’t a metaphor or symbol; they’re just present. I’m crying because someone showed up.
aaaaannnnddd, now I”m crying too!
This broke me. Well done, and thank you.
The end of It’s a Wonderful Life is weirdly the same principle: George believed himself alone and defeated, but in the end everyone he has saved comes to save him.
The part in the LOTR movies where I always tear up is when the Rohirrim come to the Pelennor Fields, Theoden looks down and sees ZILLIONS AND ZILLIONS OF ORCS, realizes “we’re all going to die”, then orders the charge.
I was holding it together until you mentioned that scene from Homeward Bound. How DARE you make me cry at work!
Very well written :)
This could also be a Big Damn Heroes moment: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigDamnHeroes or the Cavalry: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCavalry and possibly Hell Yes!: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HellYesMoment
Excellent essay. One disagreement: Gollum’s falling into the pit and so fulfilling the quest isn’t a random coincidence. Frodo, already almost under the Ring’s control, had told Gollum that if he touched him ever again he would be cast into the pit. And there may even still be a conflict within Gollum/Sméagol which results in the right act by the only person who can. It’s a conclusion almost inevitable from the beginning: Frodo could never have won directly, and the whole story would be a lot feebler if he could!
Agree with Al @@@@@ 3 on that moment from It’s a Wonderful Life. That moment gets me every time.
Loved reading this, Samantha. Thanks for writing. I agree with your points and I think I always think of these moments as the “I am not alone” moment. That realization that there is hope. The realization that I have not been abandoned in the woeful dark. I am not alone. Also while I always get tearful at the other Riders of Rohan moment. When Gandalf and Pippin hear the horns. That moment. I am not alone. The moment when Pippin finds Merry on the Pelennor. I am not alone.
I don’t usually comment on articles, but this piece honestly really got to me. It was VERY well written. I also definitely think the way the LOTR adaptions frame these moments is why they stand out as the best examples of this phenomenon.
I’ve always heard that the climax is the moment when tensions are at their highest – but the essay stands nonetheless
This is a beautiful piece. Thank you for writing it. And thank you for giving it a name. I have always felt the same thing; now I know what to call it.
One of my favorites comes from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. There’s Miles’ “What’s Up, Danger?” leap of faith off the skyscraper, which is awesome of course. But a few minutes later, we see the other Spider-Heroes mixing it up with Kingpin’s minions. Doc Ock has captured Peter Parker. The score is playing some generic action-adventure beat. Then Doc Ock’s claw makes a fist and socks *her* in the face. And the score goes dead quiet for an instant, as if to say, WTF? Then a hip-hop beat begins, cueing us in. Some webbing appears, the camera does a 180, and there’s Miles in all his glory, charging into the fight.
Gives me goose bumps.
The Boondock Saints when Connor, who is handcuffed to a toilet, tears the toilet out of the ground—blood pouring down his wrists—to save his brother, who is about to be executed.
I had a friend tell me about his own real life RoR moment. Was picked on in high school, bullied, etc. Ended up finding other gamers and sitting at the same table at lunch. Bully approached friend and friend stood up to face off with bully. Bully left without doing anything which was when my friend discovered that everyone else at the table had stood up with him.
@11, for Endgame, that climax moment would be the “I am inevitable” “and I am Ironman” moment.
“On your left” is the cavalry moment, or RoR moment.
This article 100% choked me up and also makes me so excited.
First of all – I’m the same way. My mom is a crier, and I, the edgy teen, always kind of rolled my eyes at it. But now…there are certain thing sthat will always make me cry and they fall on VERY similar lines (although there are a few sad/tragic things that also make me cry although in some ways they are the inverse of the same idea; people losing hope or fellowship). I don’t know much of it has to do with my own depression and general feelings if isolation, but hope is the one thing I crave most from a work of art. (Music is also a huge part of this, but that’s another post). And yes, I totally think you can classify these as eucastrophe even if not all eucatstrophe has the same element of camraderie (which I don’t even think Tolkien would have disdained, given how he wrote Frodo and Sam).
I actually got really excited about this because there is one scene, without fail, that will cause me to tear up in Lord of The Rings (well, there’s a lot, really) but it turns out we are talking about different scenes. My Riders of Rohan moment is the OTHER Rider of Rohan moment. The one on the Pellennor when everything is lost, the Witch King has broken Gandalf’s staff and is about to triumph and then…a horn blows. At this point even just that specific sound effect will get the tears running. But I still remember sitting in a theater and just sobbing when the Riders made their charge on the Pellennor. It’s the answer to the ‘Gondor calls for aid/and Rohan will answer!’ moment. (We got to visit the site when we went to New Zealand!!! The tour driver also then drove us through the field with the soundtrack blasting and honestly it was very emotional).
Also, Tolkien’s prose here is amazing: “And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”
But, the other guaranteed scene to make me cry IS the ‘I can carry you’ scene, for about the same reason. That, and the ‘I’m here with you at the end of all things’ scene which is AFTER the big climax, arguably (although in part it’s because Frodo is finally released from his torment). I do admit that I will sometimes tear up at the havens, which is both a farewell, but also a moment of hope in its way.
I’m trying to think of other scenes which make me cry. When I saw Revenge of the Sith in the theaters (which is still one of my favorite movies) I made it through the whole movie without crying but then, at the very last scene, when Obi-Wan delivers young Luke to his guardians and they stare at the binary sunset while the Force theme swells – I completely LOST IT (somebody actually took a picture of me so this moment is commemorated forever, ha). I’m sure in part some of it was that it was the last (we thought) movie, but it was such a moment for me. It’s not an ‘arrival’ exactly (and doesn’t really have the camraderie aspect) but it’s kind of a similar feeling of hope, even if it’s way off in the future. Likewise, when I saw TLJ the scene that actually did make me cry the hardest is when Luke finally shows the eff up and has a moment with his sister.
The finale of Les Mis makes me cry too – and not because Jean Valjean is dying. It’s actually specifically about Fantine and the bishop (I know in the play it’s Eponine, but this is actually a spot where, thematically, I really prefer the movie’s interpretation as it turns it into a deeply personal moment.) being the ones to lead him into death/paradise/salvation. For me it’s important that it’s those two specifically as the bishop’s mercy is what ultimately enabled Valjean to show mercy to Fantine so it all kind of comes full circle. It’s kind of both an arrival and a departure in one. But to me it’s actually a deeply joyous moment that actually resonates me for many of the same reasons Lord of the Rings and even It’s a Wonderful Life resonate with me – it’s one of those moments were seemingly small, personal actions and acts of love had a powerful impact, and even though we’re all kind of muddling along and trying to do the best we can even in the face of being overwhelmed, we can still hope.
I thought this was a great piece. I’ve always been deeply moved by those LotR scenes, and I’ve always been especially taken with Tolkien’s notion of eucatastrophe. I really appreciate and admire this development of that concept and all its exploration of those tingly goose-bumpy moments, the moments when a story affects you not just emotionally, but physically.
My one quibble–not even a quibble, but maybe a response–would be that for a Catholic like Tolkien, Christ’s resurrection would be precisely the kind of RoR moment you’re talking about: the return of Christ to his community of disciples (what are they if not a found family?), including those who abandoned him in his time of need (and who had committed a kind of anti-RoR moment, as it were).
Thanks very much for this piece and your articulation of an element of eucatastrophe I’d never been able to articulate on my own. :)
Excellent article – I’ve been reading Tor for a few months now but this is the first time I’ve been moved to comment. Both Rohirrim moments do it for me every time, but one recent example that springs to mind for me is actually in Mary Poppins Returns – when Georgie is about to lose his kite, and in a broader sense everything is going wrong for the Bankses, and then suddenly the clouds clear, and there is Mary Poppins. The story has barely got going at that point, but I started crying right there in the cinema because I just knew everything would be all right in the end and damn it we all need that these days.
I think the music/scoring in this scene has a big part to play in why it has the effect it does – the feeling of relief I felt that washed over me was matched by the way Marc Shaiman’s Main Theme reaches its climax at that moment, and I think the congruity of those two factors were what caused such a strong emotional reaction. It would be interesting perhaps to watch these scenes without the underscoring to see if it still inspires the same reaction.
Thank you! You have summarized my emotional connection to movies perfectly. I teared up reading this.
@18 – I struggle with emoting at times, and music is a huge, huge, huge factor in this. John Williams has probably made me cry more than any other single person, lol (although of course in the moments we are talking about not enough good things can be said about Shore’s score).
But for a long time I would just turn on The Immolation Scene (which is from the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack) and just…sob. I would do it on purpose (I was in grad school. It was a rough time). In part the brilliance of that scoring for me is that obviously it’s this villainous moment where Anakin’s destiny is sealed, but the score is just so mournful and betrayed, and you truly feel Obi-Wan’s loss here, and the broken relationship/dreams/squandered potential. Again, it turns it into a very personal moment.
I honestly thought I’d never find another piece I loved more, but then John Williams wrote The Jedi Steps which, for very different reasons than the ones discussed in this article, probably made me cry harder and faster (I think it was at something like the 32 second mark the first time I listened to it after seeing the movie, and this was almost a year later. I was at work and all of a sudden I was just bawling) than any other piece of music. It’s such an otherworldly, mysterious and utterly beautiful piece but to me also really seems to express the pain, lonliness and hopelessness that the Luke has endured to get to this point. Or maybe I’m projecting ;)
Just reading this article has me tearing up as I love both those Riders moments. Another one for me that’s harder to pinpoint an exact moment but the last hour of Rogue One after the fleet arrives. That one feels like a slow building of this from the hangar scene to Admiral Raddus saying Rogue One may the force be with you. I think that’s some of the same energy and one reason that movie hit me right in the feels.
@Lisamarie, I think what you said about arrival and departure is a big part of these moments. There’s a feeling of turning and the story changes sometimes from a small fight to a bigger one with that powerful reminder of no one’s alone.
I don’t usually comment on articles, but this was superb. I have long struggled to identify/name this very thing, and I felt very, very seen. Now *I’m* crying because someone showed up.
@21, for me, the precise moment was when the X-Wings dropped out of hyperspace over Scarif. None of the deaths in Rogue One made me actually tear up, but I vividly recall weeping in the theater as the squadron leaders checked in. I remember being surprised by the strength of my emotional reaction to that scene, but this article explains that reaction perfectly. That sense that our buddies had arrived, that they had our backs; our heroes weren’t alone. I also ugly-cried at “on your left.”
Thank you, Samantha, for framing this phenomenon so clearly!
I remember as a kid watching Disney’s “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” a rather loose adaptation of the novel, set in World War II-era England where a Nazi armed force comes ashore to set up a bridgehead for an invasion. Angela Lansbury, as witch-in-training Miss Price, casts a spell in the town’s museum that brings to life its collection of armor and uniforms. The scenes of those animated avatar’s of England’s heroic past—suits of medieval and Renaissance armor, uniforms of 17th century Roundheads and Cavaliers and 18th century redcoats—marching out to do battle with the invaders, got me so choked up I could hardly see the screen.
For me the key is right before the riders pour down the hill. Gandalf says, “Theoden King stands alone.” Eomer responds, “Not alone.” That’s what does it for me. The belief that you are alone and forsaken, only to find that you are not alone after all.
@25 – Kind of reminds me of “The Golden Crane” chapter of Knife of Dreams. That was one of the best chapters in all of fantasy IMO.
I’m also remembering a strip from Schlock Mercenary. Part of why I think of this as the cavalry effect.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-02-01
A great read! I too share this reaction, though it’s more chills and maybe a bit misty eyed from the excitement of, “yes, the heroes will win!” Another great example is In “Star Wars: Episode IV,” when it seems the Battle of Yavin is about to go in the favor of the Empire, Luke is down to flying solo through the trench with a trio of TIE Fighters on his tail, when out of the star field comes the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, Han Solo letting out an Old West “YEAH-HOO!” and Vader’s wingmen getting blasted. Yes, it’s moments before the climax, but it is the very much the “Star Wars” example of “On your left.”
Yes to the whole thing.
My current ROR is the No Man’s Land scene in Wonder Woman. Just thinking about Diana’s hand on the ladder brings tears to my eyes. Her love and her compassion and HER RAGE at the stupidity of the war—Jenkins built us up so skillfully to the moment. I cry every time. My 15 yo daughter finds my reaction “interesting”.
@14 – thanks for sharing your friend’s lunchroom moment. I was already teary from the article and previous comments; it was when I got to yours that I had to pull a tissue out of the box.
The first film that did this for me was Excalibur.
During the final battle things are going terribly for Arthur and his enemies are closing in. Then suddenly, foes start to fall and someone shouts “its lancelot (lancelot having left the king earlier after his dalliance with guenevire) Lancelot is with us” I’m tearing up just thinking about it. The idea that someone loves you enough to stand with you gets me every time
Great article.
I am one who cries at both. Both of the Riders of Rohan scenes (though for me, too, the Pelennor fields one works better) in tLotR, and in the Endgame, “On your left”, but especially when they start chanting “Yibambe!” bring me chills and tears, because they are just so BEAUTIFUL. And yes, I support the previously-mentioned “The Golden Crane” and “It’s a Wonderful Life”. At the same time, I am sobbing every time when the hobbits say good-bye at the Grey Havens, when it’s Thorin’s funeral, or when Tony dies (“I love you 3000”. *sniff*).
Thanks so much for writing this. I haven’t read an exploration of a fantasy trope that touches home to me quite as closely as this post does, and I completely agree that its the team showing up (I would call this “solidarity”) that triggers the emotions. I have two other examples for the list, though they are really from a book rather than a movie:
First, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, toward the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, there is that moment when the students and teachers hear some sound coming from the school boundary, and look up to see the families and friends rushing over the wall (humans), up from the kitchens (house elves), and out of the forest (centaurs) to fight with them.
Second, same source, and I’m not sure if you’d agree that this counts, but much earlier at the celebration of Harry and Ron’s 17th birthdays, Ron gets a new watch (traditional gift from parents when a wizard comes of age), and Harry gets an old watch. Molly Weasly apologetically explains that she and Arthur couldn’t afford another new watch, but know Harry needed to get one, and this watch belonged to her brother Fabian Pruitt who died fighting Voldemort. Harry immediately interrupts her and tells her that there is no reason to apologize and that he’d rather have Fabian’s watch than any new one. This is my single favorite moment in the series and I’m crying even as I type this, but it just beautifully captures the solidarity, compassion, and willingness to sacrifice that are so central to these books and the community of characters Harry builds around him.
Here’s a pair that I enjoyed so much in the theater. In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps interlock is a wonderful bit of RoR, because you would expect them to simply blast the Dark Aster. But they don’t. They trust Quill. They are rewarded moments later when the Ravagers take position near the surface of Xandar and defend the city, doing their own reward-of-trust action. This of course leads to the eucatastrophe where the guardians are able to hold the power of the Power Stone for just long enough to destroy Ronan. Lots of good stuff in that movie.
Babylon 5 had a number of RoR moments, though I’m thinking specifically of Delen’s relief of the Siege of Earth at the end of s4.
…I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, though, given how much JMS used Tolkein. :-)
Yes! I’ve always thought of this as “here comes the cavalry” moment. I think it’s the essence of what I love about crossovers, too. It’s not just that it ties two things I like together — it’s the team showing up for each other that thrills me!
@24, Russell H, Oh yes, me too! The sight of England’s dead rising to fight for England’s life brings tears everytime. But that’s one heck of a museum for a small, coastal village!
Tragoona, Macodies, and Trecorum Satis Dee!!
It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who turns into Niagara Falls at that Endgame scene.
Though now I’m thinking about my other guaranteed waterworks scene, the No Man’s Land crossing in Wonder Woman, and whether that fits into this framework. Technically that’s not someone coming against hope to save the main character; that’s Diana being the RoR for other people. But there’s something about how she throws herself into it, with absolutely no desire to prove anything to herself or to anyone watching, only the desire to help these people, that plucks the same string in me that the Endgame and LOTR scenes do.
Andrew@12:50, I agree that the music also plays a role.
I love this article, and even more, the comments, but I do have…mmmm….a bit more than a quibble. Samantha wrote:
The eucatastrophe as defined by Tolkien is the happy turn, but Gollum attacking Frodo in that moment is not a eucatastrophe, per se. It is merely the defeat that sets up the eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophe itself does not come until the reader realizes that the very event that seems to spell defeat is suddenly revealed to have wrought the victory.
This is why Tolkien points to the resurrection of Christ as the perfect eucatastrophe. Jesus, who claimed to be the Messiah, is put to death—which appears to be a defeat of the very promises he’d been proclaiming, refuting the claims he’d made about being the true God. And instead, his death enables the resurrection that proves He really is God incarnate, and that he really can fulfill all the promises.
Maybe I’m just picky about Samantha’s wording, and the intention was to point to that entire situation with Gollum as bringing about eucatastrophe. But, the way it was worded seemed to assert that Gollum attacking Frodo was the eucatastrophe, and that’s not accurate.
Oh I love this so much! What a wonderful article.
And great comments too.
I am most definitely a crier; all sorts of things make me cry, but especially moments of great hope or despair. Many of the examples above have made me cry; the two charges of the Rohirrim (and Aragorn and the Dunedain showing up at the Pelennor Fields), moments in Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Wheel of Time… The LOTR is my absolute favorite book, and its scenes will never fail to move me.
Les Miserables is a special example. I have seen the movie twice, and both times it has made me cry harder than any other film; partly for the sadness, and lost lives, but also for the sheer grace extended to Valjean. The scene where the priest forgives him for the theft and offers him the rest of the silver is one of the most moving scenes, and I can’t watch it without crying.
There can be something cathartic about moments like this, where you feel or see loss, grief, despair- and then there is a sudden hope, a restoration of joy and trust that things will be alright.
@40 “The scene where the priest forgives him for the theft and offers him the rest of the silver is one of the most moving scenes….”
That’s my moment also. Valjean is fully expecting to be hauled away in that moment, and the grace given by the bishop is a perfect RoR moment. No, Valjean, you are not alone.
Excellent article! I was just re-watching RotK this past weekend and dwelling on this exact subject. I hold up the charge on the Pelennor Fields as the greatest scene in cinema history (personal opinion), and I loved it just about as much in the books, but I would tie why I love the charge of the Pelennor Fields so much directly into Théoden’s character. He’s trying to live up to the memory of the lost kings of the Riddermark, and he’s trying to redeem his past failings for falling under Saruman’s influence. He’s also showing up to help an old ally who he’d be semi-justified to let burn, “where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?” Let’s not forget that the Witch King all but announced victory moments before the horn blow of the Rohirrim, and we’ve just witnessed the unshakeable hope of Gandalf all but snuffed out by the destruction of his staff. Adding yet another layer to how great this charge is, if you’re re-watching it, you know Théoden is literally charging to his death when he yells, “death.” It’s just so dang beautiful, and I haven’t even touched on Eowyn hiding in the legions of horselords, and getting to witness her uncle’s finest moment before she and Merry get their showdown with the baddest evil in Middle-earth, besides the rulers of the Two Towers. All of this is just to expound on everything you brought up in your article. Loved it, and I loved all your examples.
P.S.
Watching It’s A Wonderful Life is my yearly Christmas tradition, so I fully support that being brought into this discussion.
Really enjoyed the article and all of the comments. I’m a pretty big crier in movies at these exact type of scenes, I was choking up so hard in the theater during the battle scene when everyone showed up in Endgame, even on the rewatch at home. After reading all the awesome comments, a few of which gave me goosebumps with the descriptions that made me relive the memories, there were a few scenes that sprang to mind that weren’t already mentioned. Harry Potter moments popped into my head, When McGonagall in the movie gets to use the spell to activate all the suits of armor and statues I always get happy tears. When in the movie Harry steps out when Snape is headmaster causing him to flee and everyone steps forward to defend him after the Slytherins shriek there he is get him, might be mixing the movie and book for this scene. And the “Not my daughter you bitch!” with Molly Weasley as she steps into Duel Bellatrix gets me every time. Books that have these scenes also tend to make me get weepy.
@40 – yesssss :) It’s such a moving scene (and one thing I particularly love about the musical is that Javert’s sucide actually uses the same melody and a lot of similar phrases as Valjean’s soliliquy. I guess that’s more on the depressing end of things, but there’s also a lesson there about how we respond to grace). But as I said, it’s really the end that eventually gets me to cry, and that’s why I actually love that in the movie it’s the bishop that is there at the end to welcome him home.
@42 – I also fully support It’s a Wonderful Life discussion :) It’s a misrepresented movie at times. And actually speaking of both Les Miserables and It’s a Wonderful Life, I was recently listening to the soundtrack and the scene where Valjean struggles over turning himself in to save the falsely accused man always kind of reminded me of what I call a ‘George Bailey’ moment where he realllly doesn’t want to do the right thing, but ultimately does it anyway, even if a bit grudgingly, and ends up putting his life on hold (again).
Terrific stuff.
Is TVTropes an editable wiki-type thing? You just need a name…
Agree almost completely. Only difference is I don’t see why it needs to be a team or a group. One person is enough. Wot has many great examples and some that are technically very close but evoke very different feelings.
Battle of two rivers when women/children join in
Nynaeve and lan at the bottom of a river
Gateways opening at tarwins gap (or even Rand’s but first, i need to help a friend)
Rand and moiraines reunion.
We come
Rand and ituralde (twice, maradon and in the stedding)
Egwenes time in falme and her rescue
I dont really count this one, but the ashaman at dumais wells technically are very similar, but the brutality gives it a different feel.
On that same note rand and min w the collar, the true power acting as the cavalry, but the implications are so devastating it gives it a different tinge.
I have been genuinely moved by the post and the comments, so I hope it’s not too light-hearted to offer
The beyond-the-last-minute rescue rope Trope
No hope!
No hope.
It’s dark.
We’ve lost,
we fear.
What’s that?
A “rope”!
Our friends
and hope
are here.
Oh, I am SO with you on this. My wife thinks I’m nuts and doesn’t understand why I cry when I do. I started crying in Batman Begins when Officer Gordon improvises a Bat-Signal, because a/ It was a really cool way of incorporating that bit of Batman’s legend, and b/ You just know that Batman will show up. In Return of the King, it’s when Pippin lights the first Beacon and then one after another the Beacons of Gondor light up from mountain top to mountain top, because we just know that Theoden is gonna respond the right way (and the scenery porn is spectacular). And, of course, as others have mentioned, the Charge of the Rohirrim at The Battle of the Pelennor Fields. “I am no man” also usually at least gives me chills and sometimes I tear up.
Oh, look, a link to the Rohan scene.
Now i’m teared up at work……damn you and thank you all at once.
@28 “You’re all clear kid! Now let’s blow this thing and go home!” Breaks me every time.
And in Endgame, it’s not “On your left” that broke me. That started the swell, crescendo with “Yibambe!” And when we finally, FINALLY, hear “Avengers! Assemble.” The wave crashes down.
Another similar moment from the first Avengers: “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.” The Arrival of the Hulk like that smashes me in my soul.
Oh this is such a good article! I’ve always used Eucatastrophe to describe this sort of thing, and used the Riders of Rohan scene(s) to explain why the Endgame sequence affected me so much. Another that occurred to me is in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when the order arrives to help in the Department of Mysteries
I was going to suggest The Force Awakens, when they’ve been captured and then Poe and the squadron arrive across the water, but actually that’s more of a Deus Ex Machina as I don’t think it was at all set up by the plot. There was nothing to indicate that Poe had survived or would know where they were. A really good RoR moment needs to be set up within the plot, but still feel slightly surprising.
I always get a deep stirring from the scene from Harry Potter when Minerva McGonagall uses the spell that activates the stone knights embedded in the castle walls. I. Just. Loved. It. Both in the books and the movies.
(I also get the same feeling when I see Julie Walters exhausted, satisfied grin when she finally zorches Bellatrix Lestrange. )
I call it the Realization of Hope. When the despair coin does a flip to its ulterior side. Preferably unexpectedly-but-logically for maximum effect. Only undercut when it’s too predictable. George Martin thought it was flagging a bit and decided to inject it with new fuel by making it less certain, but I still have a great enough fondness for the moment to feel cheated if it doesn’t transpire, however “real” its absence might be.
Good article; definitely tearing up a bit now !
NB SPOILERS FOR THE WAY OF KINGS FOLLOW !
I thought I would point out that a good twist on this phenomenon is the scene in Brandon Sanderson’s “Way of Kings” when we actually see it not from the point of view of the rescued, but the rescuers i.e we are with Kaladin, Syl and the gang as they make the crucial decision to go back for Dalinar and his stranded army (I am tearing up again as I write this…Syl saying “I’ve remembered what kind of Spren I am…” gets the symphony going in my head every time).
Here it is not about the ‘materialization of hope’ in the hearts of the rescued (George Bailey returning to his family to find an even bigger family waiting for him), but rather the (equally wonderful) crystallization of the decision to ride to the rescue (or, in Kal & company’s case, run to the rescue with a 12 ton bridge !).
And that is, simply, Inspirational.
@55 “I will protect those who cannot protect themselves.” *ugly sobbing*
This kind of moment seems to be a Windrunner thing.
@56 – I realize now we’re getting way far afield of the original intent of this post, but man, for me it was Dalinar saying “The most important step is the next step” (slightly paraphrased) and making his oath: ““If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”
Although for me, a similar moment was actually in X-Men: Apocalypse. I know that in general the movie was considered kind of a flop (although I enjoyed it for what it was), my favorite part was when Xavier is able to overcome his mind control just enough to interfere with Apocalypse’s message to change it to “Those who have the greatest power…protect those who without.” That one scene might in fact be the basis for at lesat some of my love for that movie (well, that and Nightcrawler ;) ).
I will say that, knowing myself, that if in Rise of Skywalker we got a big ol Force ghost cavalry, especially if accompanied by some trumphant swell of Williams music, I will completely lose it. Like, I already know this without even seeing the movie. I kind of worry they’ll shy away from that simply because it is somewhat of a predictable ending,but at the same time, to me it would just be really satisfying and sometimes that’s what I want instead of a subversive twist or mystery box.
As an aside, the HISHE ‘Return of the Palps’ short actually talks about this phenomenon, lol.
@57 I don’t think it’s that far afield. The point of the Ideals is to make a choice to live up to something. That’s why the Riders show up. They choose to live up to the ideals of their culture.
Not to mention Dalinar used the words to create an inter-dimensional portal flooding the area with magic in its rawest form. Plus allowing some reinforcements to enter the fray. That’s one heck of a moment.
I didn’t cry reading the article, but the comments had me bawling.
It hit me while reading that “The Band of Brothers” speech from Henry V hit all the emotional buttons we’re talking about but I couldn’t say why till I read 54. cecrow. That speech is a “Realization of Hope,” it’s the moment when they know someone has their backs.
By the way, check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fSeGciYHs This is my favorite St. Crispin’s (“This is Sparta!”)
@58 – I agree that they are all great moments (which is why I mentioned them!) but I got the impression that the author was writing about a subset of these types of moments that also included a more personal element of friendship/camraderie. Some of these moments I think fall a bit outside of that.
I think I have a RoR moment in a non-genre movie: Kinky Boots. That moment when the Charlie has wagered all he has on his Milan fashion show, but has lashed out at Lola over his fiancee’s infidelity. Charlie is in a foreign country with no models and gamely tries to show the boots himself. Unable to navigate the catwalk on four-inch heels, our hero is flat on his back, completely alone, and without pants. At the last moment, Lola and the Angel Club girls storm onto the stage in cha-cha heels and save the day. Just like the Riders— but fabulous!
This article has created the need for a new term to describe Tor.com articles that make us cry! :-)
@55 – I can’t believe I forgot about that scene! Kaladin’s flashback to what his dad said is what gets me. About doing what is right because it is right.
Neville Longbottom pulling the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat.
And while I’m thinking of it, Newt’s “I knew you’d come” to Ripley, in <i>Aliens</i>. A few minutes later, I’m gonna be there screaming for acid-laced blood on the deck plates with everyone else, but that moment? I sat in the theatre and cried so hard I couldn’t catch my breath.
One short story with this trope that took on a whole new life as an “urban legend” is “The Bowmen” by Arthur Machen. Machen was inspired by the heroic stand of British troops holding the line at the battle of Mons in August 1914 and published a story in the London “Evening News” in late September 1914. The story is written in a pseudo-reportorial style and purports to tell of a soldier invoking St. George, which brings the manifestation of the Agincourt bowmen to decimate the attacking German troops. Because it was published in a newspaper and was in the style of “real news,” it sparked rumors of the “Angels of Mons,” with rumors of battle witnesses claiming that it “really happened.”
@27 — If we’re brining Schlock into this (Great choice, btw!) The one that almost always gets me is 1 book later, and “seeing angels” https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-10-02 — the scene is just a culmination and relief from so many threads and so much loss. And then everything is as it should be, because friends showed up.
I’d call it a heartlifting moment – that point when everything seems lost, then wow! And it’s been great to read the other examples in the comments :) .
I think the scene in Endgame hit me especially hard because the way it happened, with portals popping up everywhere, looked almost exactly like I’ve always pictured Lan’s final charge at Tarwin’s Gap in AMOL.
Well done on this article. One more example I wanted to share (I don’t see it listed among the comments). Go watch “The Bear” from 1988. The very end when the cub is cornered by the cougar and making his last stand- still gives me chills from when I saw that as a kid.
I believe that the phrase Samantha is looking for is “turn the tide”. This is an active form of “the tide turns”. It suggests that someone(s) does something to change the course of a struggle.
All you have to say is “One last lesson” from Wheel of Time Book 14 and I’m a sobbing mess. I’m a sobbing mess just writing this.
“Theoden King stands alone.”
“Not alone.”
Just the thought of those two lines has me choked up. I thought I was a bit odd for crying at this kind of “All hope is lost, then the cavalry” trope, so it’s nice to know that I’m not alone.
Actually come to think of it, the thing that defines it for me is not just all being lost, but all being lost and deciding to make the stand anyway, despite impossible odds. It’s Cap standing up with half a shield and using the strap to cinch his arm back together. Being rewarded for doing what’s right even though you’ve lost, and then getting rewarded.
Well for me, you have the right idea (Tolkien wrote it best), but the wrong quote. I prefer:
“And in that very moment, away behind in some courtyard of the city, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of war nor of wizardry, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn.
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns, in dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”
The poem, “Dunkirk” by Robert Nathan always brings tears to my eyes. The little boats were the Riders of Rohan for the trapped English soldiers.
I agree with the comments about Rohan arriving at Pelennor Fields. It doesn’t necessarily make me cry, but it does give me serious goosebumps.
Another one that comes to mind is the “Apes Together Strong” moment from War for the Planet of the Apes, when the girl sneaks into the compound to give Caesar food and water. Caesar is at his lowest point then, but she shows him that he isn’t alone. I can’t listen to the soundtrack for that scene without getting emotional.
Yes yes yes!!! I am so glad I am not the only one. I read through the comments and did not see anyone mention the end of Dead Poets Society. 100% The same emotion for me. Sam in Mordor, the Rohirrim, and O Captain my Captain are literally the only 3 moments in film that I cannot get through, no matter how many times I watch them.
And here’s me at work, quietly tearing up among my people. Great article, great comments!
Excellent article.Thank you for sharing it. Tears are such interesting things, like little leaks of our souls.
Laura: Just thinking about Dunkirk makes me cry! That never give up spirit. It’s all about faith.
The term you are looking for is: Brotherhood
That is what all those situations you are talking about reflect – the commitment that is brotherhood. Not brothers by blood, or brothers by adoption. Brothers (and sisters) by choice. Willing to commit all, to sacrifice all, for your brother.
I’m the same. But one of the elements that you havent specifically mentioned is that of sacrifice – the person/people group who are coming to the rescue, throwing their weight in to save the ‘hero’, are risking their own lives and happiness. Like Blue, like the Riders, there is no guarantee that everyone will walk away. And sometimes the sacrifice is to save something that is of no value to those who will actually die.
I am very bad at breaking into tears at certain points in a story, especially where as I think the author here pointed out, moments that show a relationship, a camaraderie. one moment that stands out for me in WOT stories is when Perrin is pursuing the Red Ajah who have taken Rand captive. the moment comes when Perrin reaches out to the wolves and at first they answer it is Man’s business and non of theirs. but when Perrin reveals that they have taken the Shadow Killer. there is a moment of silence, a heart beat, and then echoes through the dream of “We Come.” that gets me every time I think about it.
These are all great moments. They are written and planned to be that great turn of the tide in a story and I have let loose a tear or two (maybe more). There are times when your real life has those moments that you can setup or make an allowance for as well. I had a coach in high school who started something for us “boys”. it started in football but carried over into every sport we played while he was there. Football, basketball other sports broke down into quarters and in practice and especially in the game he would demand that at the start of the last quarter, the fourth quarter; we would yell and scream acknowledging that it was that quarter. Letting everyone know that it was ours and that it did not matter what had gone on before; behind or ahead that we would be kicking butt and acting like we were as fresh as daisies. Sure is was a little rah, rah but it often worked to revitalize us and bring back hope and desire to finish the game at our best. Really what else can you ask of a moment in a story, movie or real life.
So, I read your article, as well as, all of the other readers comments. I think the ROR moment you are describing for me, is the fulfillment of faith. I know for some that may have religious connotations, however, at it’s most basic definition is that knowing in the absence of proof that someone has your back. That moment is in itself the reward. Now that may be simplistic but, I personally feel is accurate. How can you not get choked up by it? You have no reason to believe anything other than a poor outcome is going to happen but deep down you know someone or something will step in at a crucial moment to lift you up. Just my thoughts on it. I do say though I love you explanation and your phrase. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
@54: Realization of Hope.
I like that phrase and yes. that’s when I get The Feels.. In cinematic music terms, you know it when the stirring music starts quietly in the background, then starts ramping a bit higher and a bit louder.
I loved this essay – thank you!
No one mentions when the elves come to stand with Theoden at Helm’s Deep.
@53.
I second the scene in the movie where Professor McGonagall calls on the guardians of Hogwarts to defend the school.
But the bit afterward, where she says, “I always wanted to try that spell”, just makes me laugh.
This may be a little off the thread, but it has me thinking about friendship and the old tv show ‘Taxi’.
In this show, Louie DePalma was the supervisor over a bunch of cabbies. Louie was a creep. The kind of guy you wouldn’t introduce to your mother. The kind of guy that would freeload, lie, cheat, and sometimes steal and look up your dress if you weren’t watching him.
Well, ever once in a while Louie would get in a bind he couldn’t get out of and would go begging for help from one of the cabbies named, Riger (?). Even though, Riger had a low opinion of Louie and had misgivings on helping him he would.
Why? Because Louie was family a part of the community.
By the way, some Christians call this agape love.
Great article, it really resonates with me that fulfillment of the hope you have as it flees away. Here are some of my examples of such.
Dalinar Kholin’s notice of Bridge 4, at the end of The Way of Kings, as they come back to rescue them. A powerful moment, “[Kaladin] led his men in a charge back towards that abandoned blue banner. … A small force was moving across the western plateau, running towards the Tower. … It was a hope. A tiny, precious hope. If his army was going to fall, it would do so while trying to seize that hope.”
I’m not going to quote this second one, ad it’s split up in the climax. But it’s the end of Oathbringer. Dalinar, walks towards certain destruction, and refuses to give in. He struggles, almost begins to fall to become merely a tool of Odium. But he stands, and, summoning a perpendicularity, brings in the Knights Radiant. And then the climatic battle begins.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Battlestar Galactica. When the Pegasus comes in to save the day when the Galactica is nearly destroyed rescuing people from New Caprica.
Those moments are just saying, “You’re not alone.” Or as Captain Kirk mentioned, “Let me help.”
Wonderful article. I have to admit that I cry both at very sad scenes (the goodbyes) and at moments of triumph – but not just any triumph, there definitely needs to be a tense emotional thing happen beforehand. For instance, I find that I cry during the Olympics when an athlete has overcome some personal issue and wins a medal. It is that moment of hope and overcoming the odds that gets me.
BTW, @cadden, I am sobbing about your bully story!
Oh yes. Definitely. I will make a distinction though. It’s not that the rally happens and the choice and companions bring the dawn at all. The dawn almost invariably comes with it and I can’t think of a time it doesn’t off the top of my head, but it’s that it happens regardless of, or more, in spite of a dawn. At the very darkest moment of despair, these friends wade in to the mire to try and pull the beleaguered hero(es) out of the pit.
For example, in Star trek: First contact, we already know the Enterprise is en route to Earth, but her arrival is definitely an RoR Rally as we see it from the bridge of Defiant. Worf and the helmsman know they’re going to die, they know their deaths are most certainly in vain, but they determine to do as much damage as possible on their way out… and then Enterprise arrives!
Yes, I cried a little… not as much as when Sam said “On your left” through a crackling, damaged comm, granted, but tears were shed. This certainly seems to affect me more these days and i wonder if its as much the world we live in now that makes Avengers and the resurgence of Star Trek so much more… more.
I can’t think of the right word.
Amid Boris Johnson, Trump, Putin, repetetive wars in the middle east, Brexit, a worldwide resurgence in racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, cataclysmic climate change… the list goes on and it feels like the world and society are being abandoned.
Enter the RoR Rally.
Maybe.
@88 For me, in the book, it was always Harry’s very simple declaration of “We’re fighting”, after they’ve spent the whole book running and hiding and trying to avoid getting everybody else involved.
Tolkien calls it “eucatastrophe”, that moment when all is lost, but then aid comes unexpected. “The Eagles are coming!” is another example of the technique, or Han’s nick-of-time arrival at the Death Star. For me in Tolkien it’s the Rohirrim arriving at Pelinor Fields, in Endgame, when raises Mjolnir and growls “Avengers… assemble” always chills me.
Toy Story 3–the CLAW.
Renaissance Man–Hector (“hey, I paid for this!”) gives the St. Crispin’s Day speech in camp, rain pouring down on him.
Kubo and the Two Strings–the villain has lost his memory. What to do with him?
Yes! I also think of it as the moment when they fix bayonets — in the movie Gettysburg, at the Battle of Little Round Top, the Union army is out of ammunition so the captain orders “fix bayonets” and they charge down the hill. When I saw this, I was so overcome by their courage that I cried.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYDhAmjmxYk
In The 1812 Overture, its the Battle of Borodino moment when we hear the trumpets start playing the Russian musical quotation again — that’s when everybody in the audience starts cheering.
Omg it has a name!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this article, which I read through my tears, because this is exactly what destroys me in films and I always vaguely assumed it has something to do with compassion. Your essay made me understand exactly what it is: the feeling of having someone standing with you, having your back. That you’re not alone.
I’ve been writing a novel for ages now and that kind of ending was what I strove for but had a hard time bringing about. Now I have a name for it (the Riders of Rohan! I’mma keep using it if you don’t mind) and a clearer understanding of what I wanted to portray. Thank you!
It’s the cheesy stuff that gets me. Almost every Modern family ending, Rachel watching the prom video and realizing Ross has been in love all this time, and every Pixar movie has at least one moment that gets me. The most memorable is in Cars where Lightning Mcqueen is despondent in the big race and then OF COURSE his friends show up to “rally” him to victory. I know it’s coming every time and still I need a tissue. Sometimes two.
Rohan had come at last.
I previously recognized that I get hit by these moments very hard, and I knew it was about the rescue and that I “don’t get along with my mother,” to put it lightly. I did not know it was about the community, but you’re absolutely right. Very insightful!
Outstanding! Superb! Excellent! I totally agree.
…but I have a question: Is Aragorn’s “For Frodo!” (in ROTK the movie, but not the book) one of these moments? I mean, it triggers the same kind of RoR reaction (i.e., instant ugly cry), but does it fit the qualifications? Or even, “My friends, you bow to no one!” What about those?
I took my wife to see Judy tonight (it was excellent, if painful). Imagine my surprise to find myself blubbing at a for-real RoR moment near the end of the film. Luckily the theater was almost empty, so only my wife got to see me choking up…
“My friends, you bow to no one!” definitely counts. Heck, the whole coronation sequence including when the bard starts singing about Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom will leave me in a bit of a mess.
The Ravager funeral in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 seems like a bit of an inversion. It’s people showing up after the last moment but still a tear-worthy moment.
Here’s my favourite RoR. (In addition to all the aforementioned Tolkien moments)
Delenn: This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw ! Or be destroyed.
EA Captain: Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.
Delenn: Why not ? Only one human captain has survived a battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
The scene in Aliens when Ripley emerges with the Power Loader to Face off against the queen, who is going after Newt. The “Oh captain, my captain!@@@@@ scene in Dead Poets Society when the students begin standing in solidarity for their teacher portrayed by Robin Williams. I live for these movie moments. Thank you for this article. Funny enough I was just thinking about this exact phenomenon in movies yesterday and wondering if there was a name for it.
Avengers: End Game when Captain Marvel has to get to Thanos and all the female avengers step forward and someone (can’t remember who) says “She’s not going alone”. I’m crying just thinking about that scene.
Confession: the Shadow moment in the original 1963 version of THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY always did me in, too.
And, yes, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE immediately came to mind as well.
Lots of MCU versions of this, but for me, the one that always comes to mind is the little tech in Winter Soldier who refuses Crossbones order to launch the helicarriers. He knows KNOWS that this decision will swiftly result in his death, but you see him choosing anyway. “Sorry, Captain’s orders
As others have commented, in the books, it’s more when the Riders show up at Minas Tirith that gets me choked up (I have a hard time getting through it when I read it aloud for people). The film version doesn’t set it up as well as it did the Helm’s Deep moment (the difference between theatrical and extended versions shows some of the issues). It helps that Tolkien’s prose is at its best in the run up to it. Maybe because it’s a combination of the eucatastrophes that you mention (the subtle deus ex machina of the weather change plus the companions showing up).
I think most of my points have been made, numerous times, in the comments, but after watching Endgame for the second time last weekend, and almost choking on tears on that “on your left” -scene. And quite frankly because this post has been on my mind quite a bit recently, I got to chime in.
For me personally, the most tear inducing moments are those when the hope is all but lost. The heroes are still battling against whatever evil they’re battling against, but you can sense that it’s moments before they’re done and the battle lost. And then it happens, the last hail mary, the sound on your ear, the rider on the ridge, the old nemesis dropping from the sky, the smuggler and a bad boy who you thought had collected his bounty and left, uncrowned king clawing his way out of a pile of bodies, the things that at the same time make you weep and woop in joy. Those are the moments that make it for me. When the night is at it’s darkest, a sudden glimmer of hope. The fight usually ain’t finished with these moments, but these moments usually turn the tide. The hero(es) don’t have to stand alone. They have help.
So, for me, the moments that make me gush, are the moments when the darkest moments of the night are ending, and the first rays of morning sun are just peeking over the ridge.
All I’ll say now is that Rise of Skywalker better have this…I really want allllll the Force Ghosts to show up :)