Top 10 Breakup Scenes That Give Us Chills

The tumultuous and passionate romance between two young women grounds this three-hour French film. Adèle’s entire understanding of her sexuality is challenged by the relationship. Watching her navigate her new sense of self is messy, raw, and imperfect. In one of its most intense scenes, Emma finds out that Adèle has slept with a male co-worker. It starts as an interrogation and ends as an all-out shouting match, with Emma unwilling to hear her out, throwing her things out of the closet. Adéle is gripped by sheer panic as she realizes that their relationship is over.

Set against the beautiful Italian countryside in the 1980s, Elio is a professor’s son who falls desperately in love with his father’s graduate student assistant, Oliver. Their tender connection is short-lived. Oliver must go back to America soon, and their entire affair is colored by that reality. Their last moments together take place at the train station. Elio can only cling to Oliver before he boards the train and leaves his life forever. There’s too much to say about what they’ve shared. So, they don’t say much. They don’t even say the word goodbye. Elio holds his emotions in just long enough to call his mom to come pick him up.

Lovers from different worlds is a cliché as old as romance stories themselves. “The Notebook” is old-fashioned, but that’s kind of the best thing about it. Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton fall in love despite her upper-class upbringing and his low social standing as a carnival worker. When their romance is challenged by Allie’s parents, neither one handles it well. Reality creeps in, and Allie impulsively breaks up with Noah. Their storybook romance is seemingly shattered right there in the street. Anyone who knows the story knows it’s not the end, but it kind of feels like it.

If you think some movie relationships move too fast, Jerry Maguire’s whirlwind marriage with single mother Dorothy Boyd was more a matter of convenience at first. They may have jumped into it too fast. While Dorothy knows it looks great on the surface, something is missing from their relationship. Jerry’s struggle with intimacy makes her unsure about where she fits in his life. Dorothy wants to have an honest and open dialogue about whether or not he actually loves her before they put more time into a faulty marriage. It’s an unsettling and real fear. This is goodbye… until Jerry says hello.

This 90s cult classic took the same 18th-century novel that inspired “Dangerous Liaisons” and modernized it. In other words, they made it younger, sexier, and even more salacious. There’s a lot to recommend about “Cruel Intentions.” One thing is this devastating breakup scene. Cold, calculating lothario Sebastian Valmont only agreed to romance Annette Hargrove on a bet with his stepsister. But he made the fatal error of falling for her. To spare her reputation from his venomous stepsister’s wrath, he lies and says he never loved her. Actors Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon were actually in a relationship when they filmed the breakup, giving a haunting meta edge to the scene.

Set in the 1950s, this moody period romance starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara is a subtle but profound experience. Therese falls for the older, more experienced, and unhappily married Carol, but their romantic getaway is interrupted by a private investigator hired by Carol’s husband. Threatened with losing custody of her daughter, Carol disappears, ceasing all contact with her lover. She only explains herself in a letter she has a friend pass along to Therese. Blanchett speaks the contents of the letter in voiceover as Therese finally gets to mourn. They are still so deeply in love, but Carol accepts that time and circumstances are not on their side. Therese has to accept it too.

Two respectable married people meet by chance in a railway station in post-war England. They meet up several more times, drawn to each other, and eventually falling in love. However, they know that their marriages mean they can only move in secret, never even consummating their growing feelings for each other. Their last meeting before Alec leaves for South Africa is brutal enough before it’s interrupted by one of Laura’s acquaintances. Social convention means they must allow her to intrude, even though it’s probably the last time they’ll ever speak. Laura suffers her despair silently while Alec leaves, while her friend can only gab on about something unimportant.

While her husband and children are away at a state fair, a farm wife meets a well-traveled photographer for National Geographic magazine. The two become passionate lovers, changing each other’s lives forever. Like many great love stories, theirs ends too briefly. Francesca believes that she must honor her duty as a wife and mother, and cannot leave with Robert on his travels. She gets one more chance once her husband returns. Seeing Robert standing in the rain, they say a silent, torturous goodbye before he leaves town. Francesca returns to her life with her husband, and Robert drives out of her life forever.

In this groundbreaking and critically acclaimed drama, two cowboys who unexpectedly forge a romance are constantly kept apart. Whether it’s their own marriages, their fears, or the times they live in, there’s so much conspiring against them to actually be together. But they also agree that it’s too painful to be apart. On their last fishing trip together, Ennis and Jack lay bare their anguish at the situation. Ennis laughs off Jack’s suggestion that they actually live together, leading to an angry and soul-baring confrontation. They know something needs to change, but all possible avenues seem blocked.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this gut-wrenching marital drama told in a nonlinear fashion. Bouncing back and forth between the start of Cindy and Dean’s relationship and the end of their marriage, “Blue Valentine” constantly forces us to see how this love turned poisonous. When Cindy finally tells Dean their marriage is over, it’s an explosive mess. Between Dean’s pleading and Cindy’s tearful confession that she knows there’s nothing they can do, it’s as real and vulnerable as movie breakups get.

What movie breakup still stays with you? Let us know in the comments.