Movies with Great Twist Endings

[Pike]

ITT: Let's discuss movies with twist endings that really blew our minds.

I'll start:

The Others
Sixth Sense

No I didn't see either of those coming.

[Psychotic]

Can't go wrong with The Usual Suspects!

[charliepanayi]

Can't go wrong with The Usual Suspects!

This. Classic rug-pull.

I would say Fight Club though the twist there is not at the end. Like all good twists it makes you mentally unpick everything that came before (especially Marla's behaviour towards the narrator/Jack throughout the film in this case)

[Bubba]

Every single romantic comedy ever made.

Boy meets girl, boy and girl have some form of disagreement... but then (and this is the clever part) they get back together at the end!

I mean... who could see that coming???

[Nominus Experse]

dq23wef

[Shorty]

ITT: Let's discuss movies with twist endings that really blew our minds.

I'll start:

The Others
Sixth Sense

No I didn't see either of those coming.

I didn't, either. Same with The Village. Idgaf how many people hate that movie, I like it and I didn't see it coming!

Fight Club is a great one and I can't smurfing wait for Invisible Monsters to come out to see how they pull it off. The Machinist, Psycho, Planet of the Apes, Oldboy, Memento. Chinatown is my absolute favorite, though.

[Jinx]

I love The Village, Shorty! :D although it's more of a twist middle.

I second both that, and Pike saying The Others.

[Pike]

I want to say The Usual Suspects, but it was spoiled for me :(

[Night Fury]

Se7en!

[Madame Adequate]

We were all born after Planet of the Apes even came out (Well, except Old Lady Amanda) but it really was an amazing what a tweest for its time.
Also more of a Rashomon deal than having a particular what a tweest, but I've always been fond of Hero.

[Laddy]

-Memento
-A Scanner Darkly
-Reservoir Dogs
-The Sixth Sense
-The Usual Suspects
-The Crying Game (This is more like a twist middle though.)
-Oldboy
-Insidous
-Chinatown
-Life of Pi (Depends on how you interpret it.)

I have a huge boner for twist endings.

[MJN SEIFER]

Every single romantic comedy ever made.

Boy meets girl, boy and girl have some form of disagreement... but then (and this is the clever part) they get back together at the end!

I mean... who could see that coming???Dude, mark your spoilers! :mad2:

[Shiny]

All the ones mentioned yes <3

Cept Shutter Island because the trailer ruined the whole film.

Reservoir Dogs /thread

[blackmage_nuke]

Twists I didnt see coming:
Wreck it Ralph
The Big Lebowski
The Dark Knight Rises
Inception didnt really have a big twist but it was definitely unpredictable and had a ton of little twists
Memento
Die Hard 1 and 3
Sense and Sensibility
American Psycho
Unbreakable
The Machinist

Twists I was able to see coming (but probably wouldnt have if I saw it when it came out) but still enjoyed:
Fight club
The Sixth Sense
Pride and Predjudice
Witness for the Prosectution
The Dark Knight

Twists I saw coming and/or didnt impress me (though I still probably enjoyed the movie, the twist wasnt well hidden/presented)
Lucky Number Slevin
The Crying Game
The Usual Suspect

I am particularly of the firm belief that if at any time a character has a flashback either through telling a story or remembering something, the events filmed in the flashback should actually have happened unless the flashbacker is crazy and truly believes the events happened or its stated before hand that the events being told may be made up by the teller. Otherwise its just breaking the fourth wall to lie to the audience which is not tricking them at all. However I have nothing against a flashback that leaves out parts of what happened.

[NeoCracker]

Lucky Number Slevin was a fucking awesome movie. :mad2:

Not a movie, but the anime Monster has a few really good twists. One of the best being 'The Red Rose Manor' and what happened there. You may be able to guess it an episode or two before the twist comes out mind you, but it was still amazing.

Or the end of the Arc Wolfgang Grimmer is introduced. A twist that pretty much redefines his entire character.

[Shiny]

Oh crap, I forgot about American Psycho. American Psycho, Memento, and Sixth Sense I didn't suspect at all.

I completely suspected The Crying Game twist because I am good at detecting if someone isn't really a woman. It's not a skill that I really pride myself on though. :/

[blackmage_nuke]

Lucky Number Slevin was a smurfing awesome movie. :mad2:


Dont get me wrong I enjoyed Lucky Number Slevin, but the twist was highly dependant on a flashback that didnt happen, (namely the story Slevin told to Lucy Lui's character about his mugging). The charcters in the story were lied to which is fair enough but the audience were lied to through flashback. The characters in the movie do not see the flashback, it is purely for the audiences benefit, and if something is filmed purely for the audiences benfit it should ACTUALLY HAPPEN




I completely suspected The Crying Game twist because I am good at detecting if someone isn't really a woman. It's not a skill that I really pride myself on though. :/

41074

[Laddy]

I completely suspected The Crying Game twist because I am good at detecting if someone isn't really a woman. It's not a skill that I really pride myself on though. :/
I did too, actually. I included it because although it's much more obvious to a viewer 20 years after the film's release, it handles the subject matter with such dignity I had to include it.

EDIT: Buried! Oh god Buried was smurfing excellent with a great twist ending! Truly one of the best thriller films I've seen in a while and it's a shame more people didn't go see it.

[blackmage_nuke]

Rebecca had a great twist but the rest of the movie somewhat bored me.

[Laddy]

Shit I keep on getting these movies in my head. Black Swan and The Prestige have great twists.

[blackmage_nuke]

The Prestige I saw coming
Black Swan I dont really consider to be a twist

Theyre both still great movies though.

[Slothy]

All the ones mentioned yes <3

Cept Shutter Island because the trailer ruined the whole film.

Of the movies listed that I've seen I can agree with this statement.

I really didn't like Shutter Island either to be honest. Not even half way through the movie I became convinced that Dicaprio's character was crazy and probably a patient, and at no point did I ever doubt this. In fact, their trying to sell me so hard on that not being the case only convinced me more.

I've seen movies with twist endings where I may guess the twist early on, but usually it's one of a few possibilities I come up with all equally likely until the end, or times where I may jump to the right conclusion, only to actually be convinced otherwise then have the rug pulled out from under me. None of that happened in Shutter Island. I figured it out early and that was that. And the rest of the movie was pretty boring because I knew.

[Shorty]

Oh shit, I forgot about Lucky Number Slevin! That movie is fucking awesome and I love it. I also liked The Prestige - it got pretty bad reviews and everyone said they saw the ending coming but I had no idea and therefore still liked it.

I never ever ever guess about twist endings for films because I am too dense to pick up on all the clues I get too wrapped up in the experience to draw it all together. Not being able to guess about this kind of thing makes it more enjoyable for me.

[Shiny]

I didn't really see Buried as having a twist at all, or maybe I just don't remember it having one. What was the twist?

I don't think Black Swan had a twist either it was more of a mindfuck like Memento actually. But I felt it was trying to hard to confuse me and failing. I liked it though, but we all knew that bish was cray.

[Del Murder]

Seriously this many posts without mention of The Empire Strikes Back?

[Laddy]

I didn't really see Buried as having a twist at all, or maybe I just don't remember it having one. What was the twist?
The man the government agents claimed to save was in fact never saved, and the belief that he was about to be rescued was merely them being led to that guy's body.

[blackmage_nuke]

All the ones mentioned yes <3

Cept Shutter Island because the trailer ruined the whole film.

Of the movies listed that I've seen I can agree with this statement.

I really didn't like Shutter Island either to be honest. Not even half way through the movie I became convinced that Dicaprio's character was crazy and probably a patient, and at no point did I ever doubt this. In fact, their trying to sell me so hard on that not being the case only convinced me more.

I've seen movies with twist endings where I may guess the twist early on, but usually it's one of a few possibilities I come up with all equally likely until the end, or times where I may jump to the right conclusion, only to actually be convinced otherwise then have the rug pulled out from under me. None of that happened in Shutter Island. I figured it out early and that was that. And the rest of the movie was pretty boring because I knew.

I also thought the first twist was quite obvious but the second twist where he pretends to regress so that he gets lobotomised doesnt have to live with the guilt anymore caught me a bit by surprise

As for buried
sure there was a twist but I dont think it really mattered from what the audience expected in the end, I was quite sure Mark White died and I was quite sure no one was going to save the protagonist, (I thought maybe they'd dig up his 6 dead co-workers) While it was a twist it wasnt a great twist in my opinion because it doesnt really change anything.

[Pike]

Seriously this many posts without mention of The Empire Strikes Back?

That's one of those ones that has become such common knowledge that I always forget it's a twist. But it really is a great one.

[charliepanayi]

Yeah, stuff like Psycho and The Empire Strikes Back don't really feel like twists anymore as they're so embedded and well known. Can't imagine what the reaction to 'I am your father' must have been when Empire came out.

[Chris]

Titanic. Leo got killed. Did not see that one coming.

[Shorty]

I would call that more a sigh of relief than a twist.

[Psychotic]

I watched Shutter Island, The Machinist and Oldboy because of this here thread!

Shutter Island's twist was so obvious that I thought it couldn't possibly be the twist and that it was a double bluff. Nope. Still, the moment at the end was more of an Inception "Was it or wasn't it?" with his little comment about being a monster rather than a twist imho. The sets/direction were sweet though.

They were pretty sweet on The Machinist too. I sort of got the twist on that one. It was obvious that Ivan was Trent Reznor but I couldn't quite get what the hell he'd actually done. It was a little vague on that.

Oldboy was a fucking amazing film, my favourite of the three. I had the thought of "Could this woman be his daughter...?" but later abandoned it when they banged. WRONG!

[charliepanayi]

It's not a movie, but the Lost episode Through the Looking-Glass is worth a mention.

[Shorty]

I watched Shutter Island, The Machinist and Oldboy because of this here thread!

Shutter Island's twist was so obvious that I thought it couldn't possibly be the twist and that it was a double bluff. Nope. Still, the moment at the end was more of an Inception "Was it or wasn't it?" with his little comment about being a monster rather than a twist imho. The sets/direction were sweet though.

They were pretty sweet on The Machinist too. I sort of got the twist on that one. It was obvious that Ivan was Trent Reznor but I couldn't quite get what the hell he'd actually done. It was a little vague on that.

Oldboy was a smurfing amazing film, my favourite of the three. I had the thought of "Could this woman be his daughter...?" but later abandoned it when they banged. WRONG!

Oooooh, I'm so glad you watched Oldboy! Just in time for the American reboot coming out later this year (which, in all seriousness, may suck).

You ought to watch Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, the two other installments in the series. None of the films in this series are related to any other, but they do all tell their stories the same way. They aren't as good as Oldboy imo but are still worth watching.

[Depression Moon]

I didn't know many people have seen Oldboy. Well I guess it might be more common with nerds.

Unbreakable was also a good one.

[Shoeberto]

Shutter Island
I saw it coming and thought it was kinda weak. Shutter Island gets a lot of praise but I was fairly underwhelmed by it.


I want to say The Usual Suspects, but it was spoiled for me :(
Me too :( I've gotten my girlfriend pretty excited to watch it soon though so I'm hoping giving her a fresh experience will make it more fun for me the second time around.


Se7en!
Goddamn yeah.


-Reservoir Dogs
Definitely one I did not see coming, especially working through Tarantino flicks in reverse. It's so well played.


I didn't know many people have seen Oldboy. Well I guess it might be more common with nerds.
The director who did Oldboy is pretty well-known and respected in film circles. I've been meaning to watch the rest of his revenge trilogy for some time. I thought the twist in Oldboy was a little... hard to believe? But I generally have trouble with Asian films; I think there's a cultural aspect to the way a lot of Asian stories are told that conflict with my ingrained vision of how things should be done. Oldboy is one of many Asian flicks that I loved about 90% of but felt like it all just kinda fell apart at the end, but it's probably just a personal failing.

[Parker]

I actually saw the se7en twist coming but I think I had just read the ending somewhere and it was deep in my brain somewhere (the twist is almost as famous as The Sixth Sense ending).

I'm not entirely sure you can call it a "twist" per se but the ending to The Sting is masterfully done. Great movie.