32 Heart-Wrenching Fictional Deaths That Ruined Your Childhood

    Grab a Kleenex.

    Michael Blackmon
    by Michael Blackmon

    BuzzFeed Staff

    1. E.T., E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

    Amblin Entertainment

    "When I was 8 I saw E.T. for the first time and I cried so hard during the dying scene. It was the first time I learned that a movie could make you cry. I watched it again last week as a grown-ass man and bawled again." —Will Varner

    2. Littlefoot's Mother, The Land Before Time

    Sullivan Bluth Studios

    "Still crying." —Charlotte Gomez

    3. Thomas J., My Girl

    Imagine Entertainment

    "When Thomas died in My Girl. I'm still terrified of bees to this day." —Alicia Velez

    4. Chuckie's mom, Rugrats

    Nickelodeon

    "The Mother's Day special of Rugrats where you find out about Chuckie's mom. Young me was SOBBING." —Nina Mohan

    5. Bambi's mom, Bambi

    Walt Disney Pictures

    "BAMBI'S MOM." —Jessica Misener

    6. Ricky, Boyz n the Hood

    Columbia Pictures

    "RICKYYYYY." —Hannah Giorgis

    7. Jack Dawson, Titanic

    20th Century Fox

    "True story: Ten-year-old me got kicked out of the movie theater for wailing too loudly when Jack died in Titanic." —Ellen Cushing

    8. Matthew Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables

    CBC

    "He was such a sweet and loving character, discreet but always supportive of Anne from the very beginning. I just really loved him and it broke my heart when he died. To this day, my mother still talks about how much I bawled when we first watched it." —Marie Telling

    9. Artax, The Neverending Story

    Producers Sales Organization

    "I will never get over the Artax moment from The Neverending Story. He literally drowned in sadness, which is how I feel every time I think of it." —Erin Schmalfeld

    10. Sandy, Growing Pains

    ABC

    "On Growing Pains when Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy (played by Matthew Perry) drove drunk and crashed his car and was fine but then died of internal bleeding. I doubt there's an M.D. more vigilant about internal bleeding than I am." —Sally Tamarkin

    11. Natasha Yar, Star Trek: The Next Generation

    Paramount

    "She was killed by sentient, murderous goop. It destroyed me, aged 6." —Dan Dalton

    12. Claude Frollo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

    Walt Disney Pictures

    "Frollo in Hunchback of Notre Dame! I watched it last week and it's still scary." —Julia Reinstein

    13. Rosalind Shays, L.A. Law

    NBC / Via youtube.com

    "This will definitely mark me as a Very Old Person but when whatsherface fell down the elevator shaft in L.A. Law it opened up a whole new world of terror. Still check every time an elevator door opens that it's really there." —Miriam Elder

    14. Marissa Cooper, The O.C.

    Fox

    "When Marissa died in The O.C., I wept. WEPT. Haven't they been through enough? You just wanted so badly for them to have a chance. And the Imogen Heap cover of 'Hallelujah' as Ryan carried Marissa from the burning car? *chokes backs tears*" —Elamin Abdelmahmoud

    15. The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

    Carolco Pictures

    "When Arnold dies in the end of Terminator 2. He's technically a humanoid robot — T-800 or Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 — but he learns to love, or at least convert into 1s and 0s, what love is. He has one of the ultimate lines in movie history, "Now I know why it is...that you humans cry," and he also gives Edward Furlong and Linda Hamilton, who have both grown to adore and rely on him, a thumbs-up as he descends into the molten steel that will melt his CPU. Furlong begs him, screechingly beseeches him, not to self-terminate. But he has to. Because he knows he will be used for the wrong reasons." —Joe Bernstein

    16. Old Yeller, Old Yeller

    Walt Disney Pictures

    "I know this is ~serious old school~ but I will never forget when I was a kid and watched Tommy Kirk shoot Old Yeller and I absolutely do not want to talk about it anymore or I will take the rest of the day off to go home and hug my dog." —Ali Watkins

    17. Optimus Prime, The Transformers: The Movie

    Amblin Entertainment

    "Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated film from, uh, 1986. I never actually thought evil could prevail but, hell, it actually happens. What else is an 8-year-old expected to believe?" —Joel Anderson

    18. Dr. Greene, ER

    NBC

    "Harrowing. Especially as we had to live it all over again in the next episode when Carter reads the letter." —Laura Silver

    19. The rabbits, Watership Down

    Nepenthe Productions

    "The part in Watership Down when the rabbits have died and go to heaven and 'Bright Eyes' starts playing." —Aisha Gani

    20. Frank Wolff, Tintin

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isbU3pGOc2M
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isbU3pGOc2M

    "OK, this is really obscure, but something that's always haunted me is this character in a Tintin TV movie who steps out of a rocket coming back from the moon because they're running out of oxygen." —Matthew Champion

    21. Arnold's parents, Hey Arnold!

    Nickelodeon

    "The Hey Arnold episode called 'Parents Day,' where Grandpa tells Arnold the truth about his parents, had me bawling my eyes out. Not sure if it's technically a TV death, since his parents got on a plane to Africa and were never found. But everything about that episode, including the special end-credits theme song, really messed me up." —Shayan Roy

    22. The girl trapped in the painting, The Witches

    The Jim Henson Company

    "When the little girl is put into the painting and then disappears in The Witches." —Jenna Guillaume

    23. The corpse in the elevator, Case Closed

    TMS Entertainment

    "Japanese anime Case Closed's episode 'Library Murder Case' was scarring because a) the killer was like a haunting ghost during the night in a closed library — every time he suddenly showed up I felt my heart stopped beating, and b) it was just both clever and super scary that he thought of hiding a corpse above an elevator, and I couldn't stare at the screen when the plot was revealed by smart Conan." —Beimeng Fu

    24. Cartoon shoes, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

    Touchstone Pictures

    "The cartoon shoes in Who Framed Roger Rabbit ruined my life." —Loryn Brantz

    25. Neil, Dead Poet's Society

    Touchstone Pictures

    "Dead Poet's Society was the first American movie I remember fully understanding, and Neil's suicide in that movie was so hard for me to get over." —Meredith Talusan

    26. Stan, The Commish

    ABC

    "I might be the only one but Stan in The Commish. Noooo, Stan, no." —Nathan Pyle

    27. The doggy hell scene, All Dogs Go to Heaven

    Sullivan Bluth Studios

    "It's a different kind of death scene where the dog has already died but, after breaking the rules, gets kicked out of heaven forever, and as he descends down to earth you hear the voice of the Angel Dog echoing, 'You can never come backkkk...' It was really fucking dark and that's saying a lot for a movie about DEAD FUCKING DOGS." —Jesse McLaren

    28. The Joker, Batman

    Guber-Peters Company

    "THIS." —Javier Aceves

    29. Casper, Casper

    Amblin Entertainment

    "When I realised Casper is actually dead in the Christina Ricci film, I was so upset. He was just a little boy when he died — and Devon Sawa did NOT deserve to die." —Caitlin Jinks

    30. Jackie Harrison, Stepmom

    1492 Pictures

    "The mom in Stepmom. OMG, Susan, why did you hurt us so." —Julia Furlan

    31. Leslie Burke, Bridge to Terabithia

    Walt Disney Pictures

    "I don't even remember the story in Bridge to Terabithia. I just remember the incredible gut-wringing sadness." —Amanda Hickman

    32. And finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't include the death of Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King.

    Walt Disney Pictures

    BRB — going to bawl in a place where people can't see tears rolling down my face.

    CBS / Via giphy.com