Top 10 Best Emotional Moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

After more than a decade of outstanding cinematic outings, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will finally reach the pinnacle of its current run this weekend with the release of Avengers: Endgame. And after the devastating finale of the previous Avengers film, Infinity War, one can only imagine the emotional gut-punches that we’ll be experiencing in this film, including the fact that this may be the final curtain call for some of our favorite heroes. Thus, as you might have guessed, today’s post will be delving into one of the most important aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has made it the juggernaut of a franchise that it currently is, its strong sense of emotional poignancy. If there’s one argument against the MCU that I’ve just simply never gotten, it’s the claim that these films are nothing more than a bunch of comedies with flashy visuals. Now, yes, it’s true that the MCU films primarily tend to be light-hearted adventures complete with tons of hilarious moments that usually stem from the main characters bantering with each other. Heck, there are so many great hilarious moments in these films that I could literally do a Top 20 or even a Top 30 list of the funniest moments in the MCU. But these films are much more than that. They’re very much character-driven stories that have taken the time to properly develop their various protagonists, and because of this, it makes moments like the finale of Infinity War even more devastating than they already are. Without all this, I doubt that these films would’ve worked as well as they do. With that in mind, today I’ll be listing 10 of the best emotional moments to come from this franchise, and to further prove my point about how effective the MCU is at this sort of thing, I’m only including one moment per film. And so, without further ado, these are my personal Top 10 best emotional moments in the MCU.

10. FRIGGA’S FUNERAL – THOR: THE DARK WORLD

To start things off, we have a moment from Thor: The Dark World which, admittedly, is usually considered to be one of the weaker installments of the MCU. And to be perfectly fair, it’s easy to see why, in some cases, as everything that happens in this film makes it feel like an incredibly minor affair when compared to other films in the franchise. To put this into perspective, the next MCU film to come out, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, featured one hell of a game-changer with its big twist that revealed that HYDRA had overtaken SHIELD, which ended up impacting several parts of the franchise for years to come. By comparison, Thor: The Dark World’s big twist, where it’s revealed that Loki had managed to assume control of Asgard, was literally left unattended for nearly half a decade until Thor: Ragnarök. In other words, a lot of people felt that Thor: The Dark World played things a bit too safe. But to the film’s credit, it does have its standout moments, which mainly stem from the scenes involving Thor and Loki after the former breaks the latter out of prison. It also has a very effective emotional moment about halfway in with the tragic death of Thor and Loki’s mother, Queen Frigga. This occurs during the sequence where the Dark Elves invade Asgard to collect the Aether, a cosmic power source that has currently infected Thor’s girlfriend Jane Foster. And despite Frigga proving to be a formidable warrior in her own right during a sword fight with Malekith, she is fatally stabbed by his second-in-command, Kurse, before Thor manages to ward the two off.

The Viking funeral that she’s given immediately after is an incredibly well-done sequence. It’s visually stunning with a lot of neat little touches, including the moment where the people of Asgard release their orb-like lights into the night sky in remembrance of their queen. And it’s also backed by one of the best tracks of Brian Tyler’s score, ‘Into Eternity’, which perfectly matches the somber tone of the scene itself while still maintaining the grand nature of the rest of the score. But perhaps the best aspect about this whole sequence is how one certain figure reacts to it, and that character happens to be none other… than Loki. Because this takes place after the events of The Avengers, Loki has now fully embraced his villainous status while also being incredibly dismissive towards his family having now learned the truth about him being Odin’s ‘adopted’ son, thus explaining why he seemed destined to never become the ruler of Asgard. And yet, after being told by a guard about Frigga’s death, what does he do? He trashes his cell in a silent bit of rage, proving that he did still have positive feelings towards his adoptive mother who, in earlier parts of the film, was shown to be the only one who genuinely expressed any bit of sympathy towards him. It’s also worth noting that Loki inadvertently played a part in Frigga’s death by giving Kurse directions towards her location, thus making it emotionally cathartic when he’s ultimately the one to kill Kurse on Svartalfheim. In short, while it may take place in one of the weakest MCU films and revolves around the death of a character who admittedly had a very minor role in the first Thor due to several of her scenes getting cut, Frigga’s funeral is still a very well-handled sequence that’s easily one of Thor: The Dark World’s better moments.

9. THE FATE OF JANET VAN DYNE – ANT-MAN

The first Ant-Man presents a serious conflict between the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, and his daughter, Hope Van Dyne. While it’s established that Hope could easily don the Ant-Man suit to accomplish their planned heist on Darren Cross’ Yellowjacket technology due to her extensive knowledge of Cross’ company and the fact that she’s already combat-trained, Hank vigilantly opposes the idea, saying that it’s ‘too dangerous’. The tension between them also stems from his handling of the loss of his wife Janet, who’s said to have died in a plane crash, which led to him sending Hope off to boarding school instead of simply being there for his daughter during this traumatic time. However, during the extensive training sessions that Scott Lang goes through to become the new Ant-Man, Hank finally reveals the truth about what happened to Janet. Back in the 80’s when Hank was Ant-Man, Janet worked alongside him as ‘the Wasp’. Their last mission together in 1987 involved them stopping a Soviet missile that was being launched at The United States. With no way of disabling it from the outside, Hank recognized that the only way to stop it was to go subatomic, even if it meant being trapped within the mysterious Quantum Realm with no clear way to return. And because his suit ends up getting damaged, Janet willingly does the job for him, disabling the missile at the cost of disappearing into the Quantum Realm. Thus, at that moment, it’s made perfectly clear as to why Hank didn’t want Hope to don the Ant-Man suit; he didn’t want to lose her the same way that he lost Janet. It isn’t until Scott goes subatomic himself and yet manages to return from the Quantum Realm that Hank begins to wonder if Janet could still be alive, thus leading to Hope finally getting a shrinking suit of her own as the new Wasp.

The scene where Hank reveals the truth to Hope manages to accomplish two things. For Hank, it’s an extremely humbling moment that allows him a chance to recognize his mistakes, and it also helps that the MCU thankfully avoids replicating some of the character’s infamous moments from the comics (e.g. that time he struck Janet). And as for Hope, it becomes a major bit of emotional catharsis as she finally understands why her father has been so distant all these years due to him trying to find a way to bring her mother back. All this, of course, carries over to the sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, where the main plot directly revolves around Hank, Hope, and Scott’s efforts to rescue Janet from the Quantum Realm. But while this does give that film its own unique bits of emotional poignancy (e.g. Hank and Hope’s respective reunions with Janet), I decided to focus more on the first film’s reveal of Janet’s fate as it’s the one that ultimately gets the ball rolling on this plotline. Now with all this said, one other thing to note about this scene is that it ends with a comedic punchline courtesy of Scott, who comments on how Hank and Hope are finally ‘breaking down walls’ and ‘healing’… before realizing that he totally ruined the moment. The only reason why I bring this up is that this ties into one of the key criticisms that those who consider these films to be nothing more than comedies often bring up when making that argument. To them, these films are so abundant with humor that they usually end up undercutting their emotional moments whenever one occurs. And yet, that has never really been the case with these films. When a serious moment does occur in an MCU film, it’s almost always given the proper attention that it deserves and is treated in a respectable manner, and this scene from Ant-Man is a prime example of that thanks in large part to the excellent emotional performances by Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly. Thus, the initial reveal of Janet Van Dyne’s fate lands at the Number 9 spot for its efforts to fix the strained relationship between a father and his daughter while also setting up even more great emotional moments down the road.

8. THOR AND LOKI’S CONVERSATION IN THE ELEVATOR – THOR: RAGNAROK

If Thor: The Dark World is generally considered to be one of the weakest MCU films, its sequel, Thor: Ragnarök, tends to be regarded as one of the best MCU films. Under the excellent direction of Taika Waititi, Ragnarök embraces its cosmic setting more than either of the previous two Thor films to produce a highly entertaining ‘sci-fi buddy comedy’ starring Thor and the Hulk. However, there were some who were rather disappointed by the film being one of the more overtly comedic entries in the MCU considering some of the gravely serious events of the Ragnarök story arc from the comics (in which Asgard is destroyed and several prominent characters are killed off) that the film is partially inspired by. As always, though, it must be stressed that this is more than just a silly space comedy, as Ragnarök does feature some incredibly effective emotional moments. One that just missed the cut is the scene where Thor and Loki share one last moment with Odin before he dies, a quiet but powerful moment that even sees Odin properly acknowledge Loki, his adopted child… as his son. But for this list, I’ll be focusing on a scene that occurs later in the film during Thor, Loki, Bruce, and Valkyrie’s plan to escape from the planet of Sakaar. At one point, Thor and Loki enter an elevator to head to the Grandmaster’s spacecraft hanger to steal one of his ships. During the ride up, Loki admits that he plans on staying on Sakaar, and to his surprise, Thor agrees with him for once.

When Loki asks if Thor truly thinks so little of him, Thor responds by telling Loki that he once thought the world of him and that he believed that they would be fighting side-by-side forever… that is until Loki revealed his true colors. And while Thor notes that there may still be some good in him, their paths diverged a long time ago. How does Loki react to this? Instead of his usual sarcastic quip, he only stares solemnly as Thor says all this before remarking that it’s probably for the best that they never see each other again in a tone that implies that he was genuinely taken aback by this comment. It goes without saying that Loki’s been through quite a lot in these films, and this is quite arguably the definitive moment of his transition from one of the franchise’s main antagonists to a tragic anti-hero. And thanks to Tom Hiddleston’s excellent performance in the role (especially during this scene), it’s easy to see why Loki continues to be one of the most popular characters in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, just like the previous entry, this scene does culminate with a humorous bit courtesy of Thor and Loki’s infamous ‘Get Help’ routine. However, just like before, the comedic punch-line does not take anything away from the emotional pathos of this serious conversation between the sons of Asgard. Simply put, this scene is one of many that serve as a prime example of why Thor: Ragnarök is easily one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s finest outings.   

7. “CAUSE I’M WITH YOU TO THE END OF THE LINE” – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers finds himself struggling to adapt to the modern landscape that he now resides in, where his old-fashioned wartime beliefs don’t exactly gel with the morally grey attitudes of the current age. Because of this, he’s dealt with quite a few shocking revelations in this film, and easily the biggest of them all is the discovery that his best friend Bucky Barnes survived his apparent death when he fell from a HYDRA train during the events of Captain America: The First Avenger. The only problem, though, is that HYDRA was responsible for him being kept alive, as they proceeded to brainwash him into becoming their deadly assassin, the Winter Soldier. Thus, when Steve first learns of the Winter Soldier’s identity during their confrontation in Washington D.C., his exclamation of “Bucky?” is greeted with the cold response of “Who the hell’s Bucky?”. As it turns out, though, this did manage to break through some of his brainwashing as, during a conversation with HYDRA leader Alexander Pierce, Bucky remarks that despite the amnesia that he sustained from his fall, he somehow knew the man he’d just recently fought. This then results in him being forcefully subjected to further brainwashing to ensure that this will not affect him during HYDRA’s world domination plan, Project Insight. Thus, Cap’s efforts to save his friend from his current fate effectively sets up the secondary conflict of the film’s finale, in which Cap and company seek to stop HYDRA from unleashing three highly-advanced S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarriers upon their enemies.

Sure enough, Cap eventually finds himself face-to-face with Bucky within a Helicarrier control center. And while their ensuing fight results in Cap getting severely wounded due to multiple gunshots, he manages to successfully alter the Helicarrier’s targeting system so that the three Helicarriers will destroy themselves. As their wrecked Helicarrier falls, Cap continues to try and break through to Bucky to the point where he refuses to fight him. And as Bucky begins to give him a savage beatdown, proclaiming that it’s his mission to kill him, Cap tells him to “finish it… cause I’m with you to the end of the line”. This is what ultimately stops Bucky in his tracks as it serves as a callback to a pivotal moment involving the two of them in 1936 when Bucky walked Steve back to his home following his mother’s funeral. Despite Bucky offering to let Steve stay at his place, Steve insists that he can take care of himself, to which Bucky responds that it won’t have to be that way because he’ll be with him “to the end of the line”. Back in the present day, this helps Bucky to finally begin to overcome his HYDRA brainwashing, and because of this, he ends up rescuing Cap from the Potomac River after the latter fell from the Helicarrier before heading off to try and remember more about his past. Thus, there’s not much else that I can say about this scene as it’s simply a highly effective and emotionally powerful moment that solidifies the unbreakable friendship of these two individuals. Plus, as we’ll find out in a later entry on this list, Steve will even risk his friendships with some of his fellow Avengers just to protect Bucky.

6. T’CHALLA AND ERIK KILLMONGER’S VISITS TO THE ANCESTRAL PLANE – BLACK PANTHER

Okay, I’m cheating a bit here with my pick from Black Panther as it involves three separate sequences instead of just one. But because all three involve a character traveling to the spiritual realm known as the Ancestral Plane to reunite with their deceased loved ones, I decided to pair them all together as they all play an equal part in this film having some of the best emotional poignancy of any installment in the MCU. In the film, T’Challa and Erik Killmonger visit the Ancestral Plane after consuming the mystical Heart Shaped Herb that grants them the powers of the Black Panther. In T’Challa’s case, his two visits to the Ancestral Plane result in him reuniting with his father, King T’Chaka, who tragically died during the events of Captain America: Civil War at the hands of Helmut Zemo. T’Challa first visits the realm after being coronated as Wakanda’s new king, and after a quick flashback of T’Chaka’s death, he awakens in the Ancestral Plane, resulting in an emotional reunion with his recently deceased father. As T’Challa admits that he feels unprepared to take his father’s place as king, T’Chaka assures his son that, although “it is hard for a good man to be king”, he will be ready to rule Wakanda because he’s prepared for this all his life. Their conversation takes on a different tone, however, during T’Challa’s second visit to the Ancestral Plane after his near-death encounter with Killmonger. Having now learned about his cousin’s tragic past due to him being abandoned by T’Chaka after he killed his brother N’Jobu, Erik’s father, T’Challa has come to realize that his father isn’t the perfect ruler he once thought he was. Thus, while T’Chaka claims that he only did it to protect Wakanda, T’Challa furiously lashes out at his father and the other ancestors, proclaiming that they were wrong to abandon Erik and the rest of the world. And before he comes back to life, he promises them that he will do away with their kingdom’s stance on remaining hidden from the rest of the world to share Wakanda’s resources and technology with their brothers and sisters.   

But when it comes to arguably the best scene set within the Ancestral Plane, it’s the one involving Killmonger and his father N’Jobu. After defeating T’Challa and becoming the new king of Wakanda, Erik consumes the Heart-Shaped Herb and finds himself transported back to the Oakland apartment that he and his father lived in back in 1992. Following a flashback of a young Erik coming across the dead body of his father, adult Erik enters the apartment and collects his father’s Wakandan Royal Ring. He’s then confronted by the spirit of his father, who proceeds to talk to Erik’s younger self about how he has finally returned to Wakanda despite N’Jobu’s fears that he won’t be accepted there due to his status as an outsider. N’Jobu then proceeds to ask why Erik isn’t shedding any tears for him, to which the young Erik responds by saying that “everyone dies”. But after N’Jobu laments on how his actions have led to both him and Erik being abandoned by Wakanda, thus making them ‘lost’, the film cuts back to adult Erik and we see that he does shed some tears before stating that Wakanda’s the one who’s truly lost. Simply put, it’s a powerful sequence bolstered by excellent performances from Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger and Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu that helps to establish the former as one of the MCU’s greatest villains. And yes, the same applies to the Ancestral Plane scenes between T’Challa and T’Chaka with equally excellent performances by Chadwick Boseman and John Kani, respectively. In short, Black Panther’s three visits to the Ancestral Plane prove to be major contributors to the film’s strong emotional depth and its Shakespearean plot where one pivotal moment between the Royal Sons of Wakanda heavily impacts the future of their kingdom.

 

5. THE DEATH OF MEREDITH QUILL– GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

The fact that my top emotional moment from Guardians of the Galaxy (AKA my third-favorite MCU film to date) is only at the Number 5 spot on this list is truly a testament to how great the MCU is when it comes to its big emotional moments. And believe me, there were quite a few options to choose from when it came to writer/director James Gunn’s vibrant sci-fi adventure. There’s the scene where Groot sacrifices himself to protect the Guardians from a crashing ship, complete with the touching moment where Groot lays a branch on Rocket’s cheek to wipe his tears and proclaims that “We are Groot”. And while it’s not necessarily a ‘tear-jerker’ scene, the scene where the Guardians unite to control the volatile energy of the Power Stone and use it to defeat Ronan is another scene that delivers on the feels thanks to Tyler Bates’ epic score (i.e. the track ‘Black Tears’) and a pivotal flashback to a tragic moment from Star-Lord’s past. Ultimately, though, I decided to go with ‘that’ scene as this film’s best emotional moment as it’s the one that ultimately gets the ball rolling on the Guardians films’ strong emotional depth. As I’ve stated plenty of times before, Guardians of the Galaxy is a highly entertaining and visually stunning intergalactic superhero tale with some of the best humor in any MCU film. However, its opening sequence is anything but hilarious as it sees the main protagonist Peter Quill endure the devastating tragedy that is the death of his mother Meredith due to cancer. It’s a moment that hits so hard that it ends up playing a pivotal part in not only this film but also its immediate sequel.

It’s bad enough that a young Peter Quill was forced to be right by his mother’s side as she dies. It also didn’t help that Peter didn’t end up having a lot of time to process this as he almost immediately ends up getting abducted by Yondu and the Ravagers. But perhaps the biggest gut-punch of them all is that, in his grief, he was unable to take his mother’s hand one last time before her passing. Thus, this sets up Peter’s main arc in this film as he’s spent the last 26 years without any chance to truly move on from his mother’s death, which includes never opening the present that she gave him right before she died. It isn’t until he meets Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot that he begins to form a new family and finally finds the strength to move on from the most traumatic moment of his childhood. And, of course, it all comes back into play during the finale while he’s withstanding the might of the Power Stone. As Gamora yells for him to take her hand, he turns to her and initially sees his mom holding out her hand once again. But this time, as the image of his mom turns back into Gamora, he’s able to take her hand so that they can share the burden of the stone’s power with Drax and Rocket not far behind. Thus, after Peter and the Guardians manage to use the Power Stone to defeat Ronan, the film ends with him finally opening his mom’s present and reading the accompanying letter that she wrote.

In the letter, Meredith assures her son that she’ll always be with him and that she’s going “to a better place”. The letter then ends with her proclaiming that he’s “the light of her life… her precious son… her little Star-Lord”. And with that, we learn exactly why Peter Quill calls himself Star-Lord… it was his way of keeping his mother’s memory alive. Peter then proceeds to open her present, which is revealed to be the second of the two ‘Awesome Mix’ mixtapes that she made for him featuring all her favorite songs. And what is the first song of Awesome Mix Vol. 2* (even though the film’s soundtrack technically has it listed in ‘Awesome Mix Vol. 1’)? “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, which plays over the final scene in another excellent example of how the Guardians films’ soundtracks are perfectly tuned to onscreen events. But as I noted earlier, this isn’t the last that we hear about Peter Quill’s mom. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Peter finally meets his long-lost father, the Celestial being known as Ego. And in a pivotal moment, Peter learns the devastating truth that Ego was directly responsible for his mother’s death. Peter’s mom also gets brought up again in Avengers: Infinity War when Gamora asks Peter to be the one who kills her so that Thanos won’t force her to reveal the location of the Soul Stone, even going as far as to make him swear on his mother first before he agrees to do it. In short, the Guardians of the Galaxy films have been some of the most emotionally-driven installments of the MCU. And if you want to talk about one of the franchise’s best opening sequences, that honor goes to the first film’s opening scene as it effectively gets the ball rolling on all the emotional drama that’s about to unfold.

4. CAP’S SACRIFICE – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Captain America arguably has the best trilogy of solo films when compared to any other character in the MCU. But while most usually tend to focus more on his second and third films, Winter Soldier and Civil War, 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger is arguably just as phenomenal as its two follow-ups. Under the solid direction of veteran filmmaker Joe Johnston, the first Captain America film is a highly entertaining World War II action flick that blends an old-school narrative with the MCU’s modern bag of tricks. It also shines thanks to its excellent handling of Steve Rogers’ transformation into the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan, Captain America, thanks in large part to Chris Evans’ excellent performance in the title role. As crazy as it may seem nowadays, Evans initially faced some skepticism when he was cast in the role due to the fact that his previous turn in the genre saw him as a more immature and comical superhero when he played the Human Torch in the 2005 Fantastic Four film and its 2007 sequel. And to put it simply, while Cap has certainly gone on to be the source of many of the MCU’s best running gags (e.g. everything from “Language!” to “Fondue?”), his overall characterization is a lot more dramatic in execution when compared to the Human Torch. But, of course, Evans ended up killing it in the role as he very much succeeded in endearing us to Steve Rogers, even before he was transformed into Captain America. When scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine asks him why he wants to partake in World War II despite his various health problems, Steve responds that it’s not because he wants to “kill Nazis” but because “he doesn’t like bullies”. This, along with further examples of his nobility, is what ultimately convinces Erskine to have Rogers be subjected to a serum that would turn him into a genetically-enhanced soldier as he recognizes that Rogers wouldn’t take his newfound strength for granted. In other words, he would continue to maintain his heroic morals, thus making him “not a perfect soldier, but a good man”.

This especially comes into play during the film’s emotionally devastating finale, where Cap fights HYDRA leader Johann Schmidt AKA the Red Skull onboard his airship, the Valkyrie. Their fight ultimately culminates in Schmidt seemingly being destroyed by the mystical power source known as the Tesseract (emphasis on ‘seemingly’, as we eventually found out in Avengers: Infinity War). Unfortunately, Steve then discovers that the ship’s landing controls have been damaged, and to make matters worse, it’s on a direct course to New York full of pilotable atomic bombs. With no feasible way of safely landing the ship, Steve decides to crash it into the Arctic to prevent the loss of millions of lives, even if it means that it’d come at the cost of his own. Thus, he ends up sharing one last conversation with his key ally and love interest Peggy Carter over the radio as he directs the Valkyrie away from New York. To call Steve’s goodbye to his ‘best girl’ gut-wrenching would be a massive understatement, especially with Steve admitting to her that he’s “gonna need a rain check” on the planned date that they had to go dancing together. As she fights back tears, Peggy gives him a time and date later that week at the Stork Club, resulting in Steve remarking that he still doesn’t know how to dance and that he’d hate to step on her feet… and it is during that last comment that his radio cuts out, signifying that the ship has crashed. After a scene where the ship is seen sinking into the ocean, the film then cuts to a montage of people around the world celebrating the end of the war. But in the context of this story, it’s ultimately a bittersweet moment as Cap’s various allies mourn his loss. Howard Stark manages to find the Tesseract (due to it falling from the Valkyrie prior to the crash) and implores his men to “just keep looking” for the Captain despite no signs of any wreckage in the area. Cap’s combat unit, the Howling Commandos, share a toast in his honor and Peggy is given Steve’s old file, complete with a photo of him prior to his transformation.

But, of course, this ultimately wasn’t the end for Captain America, as the crash only results in him being ‘frozen in time’ until he’s found by a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the present day. When Steve finally wakes up from his decades-long slumber, he finds himself in a hospital room that attempts to convince him that he’s still in the 1940s. However, he quickly realizes that something’s not right after listening to the radio in his room broadcasting an old Brooklyn Dodgers game… that he just so happened to be at. Steve then proceeds to break out of his ‘room’, located in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s New York headquarters, and eventually ends up in the middle of Times Square. There, he’s approached by Nick Fury, who informs him that he’d been asleep for nearly 70 years. Thus, as Steve begins to grasp his current predicament and the fact that most of his old allies are now dead, he proceeds to state the film’s most devastating line when he tells Fury that “he had a date”. In short, The First Avenger brilliantly handles Cap’s heroic sacrifice that results in him being transported into modern times, where he quickly becomes the leader of the Avengers. And this really is saying a lot considering that Cap’s time spent frozen in ice has always been one of his most definitive character arcs from the comics, meaning that most folks going into this probably already knew that this would end up happening to him by the end of the film. But in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the transformation from Captain America, the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan, into Captain America, the Man Out of Time, provides a genuinely heartbreaking finale to one of the most underrated installments of the franchise because it occurs to a character who we’ve become fully endeared to. 

  

3. A FRACTURED FRIENDSHIP – CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

Captain America: Civil War finds the Avengers conflicted over the Sokovia Accords, which are put into motion by the United Nations to regulate their activity in the wake of recent ‘disasters’ that they’ve been connected to. Most specifically, Captain America opposes the Accords due to how much it would hinder their efforts to save people while Iron Man supports them because of the survivor’s guilt that he’s begun to develop, especially after everything that happened when he created Ultron. And if that wasn’t enough, the group is then torn apart further by a terrorist plot masterminded by Helmut Zemo, a man who lost his family during the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron’s finale. Cap and Iron Man do manage to settle their differences long enough to go after him… but then Zemo unleashes his ace in the hole in the form of a mission report from December 16^th, 1991 that he has repeatedly asked for the entire film. Said mission report involves an incident in which the Winter Soldier intercepted a case of super-soldier serum from a crashed car. And as it turns out, that car was being driven… by Howard Stark, who the Winter Soldier promptly kills before doing the same to Howard’s wife Maria. Thus, when Tony promptly lashes out at Bucky for killing his parents, he’s held back by Cap and realizes the devastating truth that his long-time ally knew about it all along. This, of course, leads to the film’s final action sequence in which Cap and Bucky find themselves facing a vengeful Tony.

It goes without saying that this is truly one of the most devastating moments in the history of the MCU. Just when you think that it will all be okay and that Cap and Tony will overcome their conflict, one pivotal reveal changes everything and permanently impacts the friendship between the MCU’s top two leads. Now with that said, some will surely point out how these two have always been at each other’s throats in the Avengers films (e.g. the argument between them in the first Avengers that culminates in Cap suggesting that they “go a few rounds”), thus making the idea of calling them ‘friends’ rather questionable. And yet, over the course of these films, you could still sense a general respect that they have for each other despite their differences, with Civil War’s big reveal clearly putting a dent in all that, namely from Tony’s perspective. Just look at the part where Cap stands by Bucky, proclaiming that “he’s his friend”, as Tony coldly responds, “So was I…”. It also helps that the film presents its overall conflict in a far more balanced manner than the Civil War storyline from the comics that it’s partially inspired by. Whereas the comic went a bit overboard with Iron Man’s support of the Superhero Registration Act (as it’s known there) to the point where he arguably becomes a villain, the film allows for both Tony and Cap’s stances on the matter to have their own legitimate points to stand on even though the film does technically focus more on Cap. Case in point, this sequence presents a situation where, even if you’ve been on Cap’s side during this whole debate, you do sympathize with Tony because of what the reveal means to him personally while also showing that even someone as noble as Captain America can make a mistake in human judgment. Plus, it also establishes Zemo as one of the MCU’s best villains, because despite his admittedly limited role in what some have referred to as Avengers 2.5, he does manage to succeed in his plot to tear the Avengers apart. As he points out during a conversation with T’Challa, he knew that he couldn’t kill them himself because men who were more powerful than him had already tried to do so. Thus, he figured that the best way to defeat the Avengers was to have them kill each other.

The big fight between Tony, Cap, and Bucky is one of the MCU’s best finales. Instead of a more traditional finale where the Avengers fight off the bad guy and his cronies in a city, this film pulls a major bait-and-switch by seemingly setting up a final battle between the three and a group of assassins who, like Bucky, were turned into HYDRA’s ‘Winter Soldiers’. But when the trio arrives at the HYDRA base in Siberia where Zemo has escaped to, they discover that he’s killed the other Winter Soldiers, proving that they weren’t even remotely tied to his plan in the first place. As for the fight itself, both Cap and Bucky endure the full force of Tony’s anger, even though he primarily goes after the latter. It all culminates at the point where Tony has finally managed to gain the upper hand against Cap, knocking him to the ground and demanding that he ‘stay down’. But in a pivotal callback to a sequence in The First Avenger when Steve was dealing with a bully prior to his transformation into Captain America, he gets back up and boldly states, “I can do this all day”. This then leads to, ironically, another callback to that scene from First Avenger as Bucky then proceeds to ‘save’ Steve by distracting Tony long enough for Cap to regain the upper hand, and the fight ends with him lodging his shield into Tony’s arc reactor to disable his suit. As Steve proceeds to leave with Bucky, Tony yells that the shield doesn’t belong to him because his father made it, resulting in Steve promptly dropping his iconic weapon. In conclusion, while the film does end with Zemo being placed in prison, it’s made perfectly clear that his plan of tearing the Avengers apart from the inside ultimately succeeded. In other words, the one who ultimately gave the Avengers their first ‘loss’ wasn’t a power-hungry Asgardian or a sentient A.I. system hellbent on destroying humanity. Instead, it was just an average man who proved that their heroic endeavors can often result in some unfortunate consequences.

2. THE FINALE – GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

The best emotional moment in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the superior follow-up to the first Guardians film, isn’t just one singular moment. Instead, it’s basically everything that happens after one specific point during the final battle between the Guardians and Peter Quill’s deranged Celestial father, Ego. It all begins when Ego manages to gain the upper hand as he proceeds to extract Peter’s Celestial energy for his plan of assimilating the entire galaxy, which begins to take effect across various worlds as the seedlings that he planted years ago grow into giant blobs that destroy everything in their path. All seems lost until Yondu yells out to Peter that he doesn’t use his head to guide his arrow, which results in Peter remembering the good times with his friends and family in a pitch-perfect silent montage that includes everything from listening to music with his mom to flying around on jetpacks with Rocket and Groot. This allows Peter’s Celestial powers to truly develop as he starts to fight back against his father, a moment that’s perfectly tuned with ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac, which had previously been played during a part of the film where the Guardians’ bond was starting to break. Meanwhile, the other Guardians finish setting up the bomb that Rocket built to destroy Ego’s core. But before they evacuate the planet, Yondu opts to stay behind to save Peter, even though the group only has one space suit left. Proclaiming that he’s done “nothing right his whole damn life”, Yondu takes the group’s last Aero-Rig and says goodbye to Rocket and Groot, with the latter welcoming him to the fricking’ Guardians of the Galaxy (“Only he didn’t use fricking!”). Thus, when Rocket returns to their ship, he proceeds to subdue Gamora before she can head out to find Peter, stating that he can’t afford to lose more than one friend, and tells Kraglin to depart despite Drax yelling at him over the intercom, demanding to know if Peter made it back alright.

As the bomb’s timer gets closer to 0, Ego pleads with Peter to stop it and warns him that if he dies, he’ll lose his Celestial powers and become just like everyone else, to which Peter simply responds, “What’s so wrong with that?”. The bomb explodes, and Ego disintegrates in front of his son. As Peter’s Celestial powers are extinguished, he is saved by Yondu as the planet self-destructs all around them. Yondu tells Peter that Ego “may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy”, apologizing for never doing anything right but proclaiming that he’s “damn lucky you’re my boy” as he gives Peter the space suit. Thus, as they escape from the planet’s destruction, Peter can only watch in horror as Yondu succumbs to the airless vacuum of space. After he’s rescued by the other Guardians, they all proceed to give their fallen comrade a proper Ravager funeral, with Peter having now realized that Yondu was the father figure that he’d thought he never had his entire life, hence why he was so keen on connecting with Ego prior to learning about his sinister plot and the fact that he was responsible for his mother’s death. Kraglin then proceeds to give Peter a Zune player that Yondu had come across in a junk shop to replace his old Walkman that Ego had destroyed earlier in the film. In return, Quill gives Yondu’s loyal second-in-command his famous whistle-controlled arrow. Meanwhile, Nebula heads off to confront her and Gamora’s adoptive father, Thanos, as revenge for all the pain that he’s dealt her over the years. And while Gamora is unable to convince her to stay with the Guardians, she hugs Nebula goodbye and assures her that she will always be her sister. All in all, it’s a nice conclusion to their big arc in this film, where Gamora re-evaluated her relationship with Nebula when she realized that her sister just wanted someone to support her whenever Thanos tortured her instead of just simply trying to survive the Mad Titan’s wrath herself. And while Guardians 2 is primarily focused on the concept of father-son relationships, it also spends plenty of time exploring the ups and downs of a relationship between two sisters.

And then we come to the film’s big, emotional final sequence. As Peter listens to the first song that he picks from the Zune’s music library, Cat Stevens’ ‘Father and Son’, Groot climbs up onto his knee and the former shares one of his earbuds with the latter so that they can listen to the song together. Rocket then notices the arrival of several Ravager clans, whom he had called earlier and relayed to them everything surrounding Yondu’s heroic sacrifice. The Ravagers then proceed to release their ‘colors’, as per Ravager code, to complete the Ravager funeral and honor Yondu after he had previously been excommunicated from the group for the deal that he had made with Ego to deliver his offspring to him. As the Guardians witness this spectacular visual display, Rocket gets to conclude his big arc in the film that revolved around his fear of losing his loved ones due to his abrasive personality. Realizing that the Ravagers never fully gave up on Yondu, “even though he yelled at them”, Rocket recognizes that Yondu was right in saying that the two of them were alike and finally accepts responsibility for stealing batteries from the Sovereign, which was what caused this whole debacle in the first place. Really, I could go on for quite some time about why this finale was quite arguably the best thing that the MCU had ever done up to that point. From the gorgeous visuals that practically adorn every single shot to the outstanding music, whether it’s Tyler Bates’ excellent score (e.g. “Dad”, which plays during Yondu’s big sacrifice) or Cat Stevens’ emotional melody, this is the very definition of a perfect finale. And because of this, I can safely say that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does manage to outshine its equally outstanding predecessor thanks to all that it does to expand upon the first film’s fantastic sense of emotional depth to further endear us to its main characters.  

1. THE DECIMATION – AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Admit it… you knew that this one was coming. While I almost decided to have the Guardians 2 finale be my Number 1 pick because of everything that I just mentioned about it, there’s no denying the impact that Avengers: Infinity War’s devastating finale has had on the franchise’s legacy. Simply put, despite the Avengers’ best efforts to stop him, Thanos the Mad Titan successfully collects all 6 Infinity Stones and uses them to wipe out half the universe. And instead of this just resulting in the loss of nameless civilians, major heroes like Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, and even Spider-Man end up falling victim to Thanos’ big power play. In other words, this is easily the biggest loss that the Avengers have ever endured, and while it’s clear that several parts of this finale will most likely get reversed in Avengers: Endgame, that doesn’t take away from the fact that what Marvel Studios has now titled ‘The Decimation’ is a practically flawless sequence from a filmmaking perspective. While the film features one of the franchise’s best scores courtesy of Alan Silvestri, the wise decision to have no music playing during this part of the film helps to elevate the shock of what’s currently happening. And because of how emotionally attached we’ve become to these characters thanks to the previous films, these losses are truly devastating sights to behold. How about Okoye having to witness the death of her king, T’Challa, for the second time in just two films? Or how about Groot desperately seeking comfort from his father figure, Rocket, which was made even more heartbreaking thanks to James Gunn’s confirmation that his last “I Am Groot” translates out to “Dad”. And yet, Peter Parker’s disintegration is arguably the most gut-wrenching of them all, as he fearfully hugs his father figure, Tony Stark, and repeats the phrase “I don’t want to go”.  

The way I see it, this finale was, whether intentional or not, Joe and Anthony Russo’s way of responding to a criticism towards the MCU that claims that these films have always been lacking in terms of emotional stakes. And while the past nine entries of this list have hopefully proved that this claim isn’t exactly true, ‘The Decimation’ can quite frankly disprove that theory all on its own. Yes, it’s true that most of the MCU films tend to end on a positive note, with the heroes managing to overcome their current predicaments to save the day. However, as evident from the likes of Captain America: Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, some endings have been a bit more bittersweet than others. Thus, we now have Infinity War, the first MCU film that truly ends on a downer note. And as I’ve said numerous times before, this wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if Marvel Studios hadn’t taken their time when it came to them building their expansive universe and filling it with a wide array of well-layered characters that we truly care about. With all that in mind, all eyes are on Avengers: Endgame, where the Avengers find themselves in “the fight of their lives” as they try to do “whatever it takes” to reverse the effects of Thanos’ snap. And despite what I said before about how Endgame will probably culminate in the success of this mission, it’s also clear that this won’t be an easy task. Ultimately, though, I believe that we’re about to witness a grand finale for the ages that will deliver on both epic highlights and emotionally poignant drama. After all, the MCU’s quite good at that sort of thing.

And that concludes this epic list that covers my picks for the Top 10 Best Emotional Moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As always, thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments below with some of your favorite emotional moments from this legendary franchise.

And yes, the next post on this site will be my official review… of the Endgame…