I need to come up with the best 10 Twists in cinema history. Of course there will be the mainstream movies such as The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects and such that will be on such a list, but I really want to come up with some greats that the average movie goer most likely hasn't seen. There are some such as Psycho and Planet of the Apes that made their mark in cinema history for such a plot twist. I want those types too.
Would love any input you could give. Thanks!
Well, if the board is going to proceed with this subject, please please please make massive spoiler warnings. I hate having movies spoiled for me. So I'm including my obvious ones in the Subject line.
So anyway, two which are amusingly enough related.
SLEEPAWAY CAMP: Angela is a dude!
THE CRYING GAME: Dil is a dude!
There are a lot of twists in movies, but I wouldn't rank all of them as being very good. Every Shyamalan movie past THE SIXTH SENSE has had a pretty lousy twist. IDENTITY and THE OTHERS had twists that were twists, but don't deserve to be called the best of all time.
JACOB'S LADDER is a great twist, as well.
This twist endings have become sort of a plague lately. Thre's no lame modern movie without a plot twist at the end that tries to meke you believe it didn't suck, that it was a good movie instead. Ha!
Anyway, here's a couple of decent ones: The usual suspects has a great one, if the movie is not as sorpressive as it used to bewhen it was released; I showed it to a few friends not too much time ago and they all guessed it. Skeleton Key, if it is already on VHS / DVD has also a nice towist at the end.
the end of diabolique, to original one, really freaked me out. I don't want to spoil it.
Also, not a movie but the twist at the end of the first season of 24 was a trip.
Yeah, the twist of The Usual Suspects might as well have been flashing on a huge billboard from the first few minutes on. I saw it when it came out and when it was over, I was like, "Yeah? And ... ?"
There is a movie called Shattered that has a pretty good twist. I honestly was not expecting it and I won't be putting spoilers here. Plus, Bob Hoskins is in it, so it's automatically worth a watch.
(I just remembered something else re: The Usual Suspects. Mom and Dad rented it when it came out on VHS, and as soon as someone mentioned Keyser Soze, Dad pointed at Kevin Spacey and said, "There's Keyser Soze." I hadn't told him about it and he'd never seen it before, lol. Bah. It was funny if you were there. :P)
I'd definitely say Wild Things. The whole movie is just on twist after another. The one at the very end is is great, as are the 3 or 4 before that and the 10 or 12 before that. And the 2 or 3 that take place as the credits roll are good too.
Roller Blade (1985)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0089930/
Little Christopher discovers that Saticoy suffers from a downright bizarre affliction.
Stupid would be an understatement, but I guess that's what makes it so memorable.
"Tune thy instrument to the holy frequency!" - Ranger Goodman
The original Planet of the Apes
Possibly Soylent Green
Citizen Kane
The original Planet of the Apes, obviously yes.
Soylent Green? Absolutely.
Citizen Kane? That's a tough one to call. I lean towards no, despite the fact that it was an interesting resolution.
I saw the ending of Sixth Sense coming from somewhere in the middle of the movie. But Unbreakable caught me by surprise.
The Grudge. Not a typical Hollywood ending.
The Spanish Judges. A nice twist.
Many of the murder mysteries based on Agatha Christie's work.
More to follow....
Spoiler
Happy Birthday To Me (1981).
Nothing has been more entertaining than discovering a girl has an evil twin who, for all this time, has been hanging in the shadows of her sister's more popular clique life, waiting for her to black out from a former accident, so she can kill off all her friends, and then have their dead corpses arranged in a birthday setting so the good one can come into the room and face the fear!! Awwwwww yeah!
Scottie wrote:
> Spoiler
>
> Happy Birthday To Me (1981).
>
> Nothing has been more entertaining than discovering a girl has
> an evil twin who, for all this time, has been hanging in the
> shadows of her sister's more popular clique life, waiting for
> her to black out from a former accident, so she can kill off
> all her friends, and then have their dead corpses arranged in a
> birthday setting so the good one can come into the room and
> face the fear!! Awwwwww yeah!
>
Damn, now that's a great twist! Very nice!!
Anyway I really liked the twist midway through Fifteen Minutes. Very unexpected and a brave move considering the tone of the first half of the movie. Not a twist ending, but a twist middle I guess you could say!
I reccommend that movie, the last half might fail a bit [well for the most part for me anyway] but it really is a great film.
Session 9
The Others
Hide and Seek
Post Edited (10-10-05 07:35)
Screamers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/)
Maybe not a great twist but fiding out that both Becker and Jessica...and the teddy bear...were screamers was pretty cool
Post Edited (10-10-05 11:41)
I love "Screamers", and I actually like the twist ending a lot. It's quite ironic that Hendrikson, with all his good will, ends up packaging the plague to the ultimate responsibles of the situation (heads the spaceship to the San Francisco headquarters), and condemning himself for what probably is his only impulsive action in the whole movie.
Oh, and I don't know how this one hasn't been mentioned so far: John Carpenter's "In the mouth of madness". Hell of an ending.
I remember there was a movie that was a twist but possibly the worst twist ever... April Fool's Day.
Someone mentioned movies that sucked getting a twist ending to make the movie seem good, this was one of those by a long shot!
What about any M. Night Shyamalananananmannllnnnan movies? Isn't that his trade mark (well, other than making movies that blow)?
Anybody mention Saw? Didn't care much for the movie as a whole, but the ending was good.
Murder By Death had a nice twist at the end.
Drawing a blank at this point. There have to be more classic movies than we've mentioned here. Most of the list seems to be from the past few years, after twist endings became fashionable.
See the problem with saw was by the end of the movie you're so annoyed by how awful it was that you don't care anymore. Or maybe it's just me but that thing was a retarded version of se7en
.
Here are my top 5:
1. Any JAMES BOND movie . . . I'm always so surprised when he kills the villain and blows up the villain's island / laboratory / hideout / etc., at the end.
2. Any FRIDAY THE 13TH movie. I'm always on the edge of my seat wondering whether someone will "kill" Jason . . . and whether the final shot of the movie will imply that he's not really dead . . .
3. Any GODZILLA movie. It's always a shocker when Godzilla defeats the other monsters and then swims off into the sunset.
4. Any DIRTY HARRY movie. I always get the feeling that Harry will get killed, but there is always a great twist at the end where he blows away the bad guy.
5. Any NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movie. See # 2 above.
Post Edited (10-11-05 16:51)
Great job Burgo! Funny list.
Just one thing...leave Dirty Harry outta this, mister.
#2 reminds me of the best parody of that concept ever.
It was in one of my favorite movies of all time, Monster Squad.
Son: Dad Can I see Groundhog's Day 7?
Dad: No, You need to babysit your sister I can't let you go and see a movie about a guy hacking up people with an axe... didn't they kill him in the last one?
Son: Yeah... he came back from the grave
Dad: If they burn him alive, blow him up, cremated him, scattered his remains, but his head in a box and sent it to india he'd still come back from the dead
Son: You're thinking of part 5
How about Fight Club?
Don't talk about Fight Club!
loyal1 wrote:
> Don't talk about Fight Club!
>
Oh sh*t! Sorry, I forgot the first rule.
And the second.....
Just thought of this.
The twist at the end of Reindeer Games
Did anyone find the ending of May A bit twisted and pretty good?
In this movie by Italian director Michael Antonioni, a woman gets lost on a picnic trip in the Mediterranen never to be heard from again. Her friends upon noticing her absence begin to search. They search the island on which they picnicked, they search the waters around the island, and they inform the police who dredge the sea floor all to no avail. In the meantime, a guy and a girl from the picnicking group become attracted to each other and they become romantically involved. At a party later, the girl sees the guy talking to a number of women and she storms out. The guy seeing he's been caught, follows her outside and walks up behind her on a bench and puts his hand on her shoulder.
The End.
At Cannes it caused a riot. Half the audience stormed around proclaiming it as a sham, the other half stomped around and called it a masterpiece. Whatever it might be, it most certainly is the most abrupt but possibly BEST ending of all times.