Movies have a time-honored tradition of subverting audience expectations with shocking twist endings, many of which put a new spin on the movie. Although the twist ending can often prove as divisive as brilliant, some of the best movies have been known for their twists. Creators such as M. Night Shyamalan and, to a lesser extent, Christopher Nolan, have built careers out of unexpected twist endings.
The best twists completely change the viewing experience the second time, causing audiences to watch a different movie knowing the revelation. Because of the growth of twist endings, many viewers often go into films – especially thrillers – expecting a twist, guessing what it might be. Indeed, many of the most memorable and intelligent plot developments have been a film's unexpected twist.
10 Scream 3 Tied Itself In With The First Movie Brilliantly
The Scream series has certainly had its highs and lows, and one of the running themes in the story has been new and unexpected revelations. Scream 3 saw Sydney and her friends navigating the Hollywood scene after an actress involved in the Stab movie gets killed.
The film introduces several new characters to the story, including the cast of Stab and those involved in its funding. While Sydney and her friends are sure they know who is responsible, the plot takes a genuinely surprising twist when the killer is revealed to be Sydney's secret half-brother.
9 Saw's Big Reveal Elevated The Movie Beyond Simple Horror
As Saw's story plays out, fans watch as two men are chained in a room, a dead body in the middle and the key to escape on his body. It soon becomes clear to the men that they only have one way out, and have to play the bloody game set by their mysterious captor.
As the story came to a close, viewers were shocked when the supposed dead body came to life, standing up and revealing it to have been an act. The spin on the horror gore-fest sub-genre turned Saw into a mega-hit franchise within its genre, leading to multiple sequels and a spin-off.
8 The Village Puts Its Events In An Entirely New Context
M. Night Shyamalan's The Village was an interesting idea that set up an isolated woodland village, which had a truce with the monsters of the woods. The people of the village were to stick to the village; in return, the monsters that lived in the woods wouldn't infringe upon them.
For most of its runtime, The Village maintains the illusion of the era in which viewers are led to believe it takes place. However, the movie's closing moments lead to the revelation that not only are the monsters not real, but the village exists in modern times, walled off from society.
7 No Way Out's Shock Twist Adds Unexpected Layers To Its Main Character
No Way Out follows a young naval officer in the Pentagon as he becomes embroiled in a murder investigation of his lover, a prominent politician's mistress. Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) races against time to solve the murder before he can be framed and take the fall.
As audiences follow Farrell in what turns into an espionage story, the film feels like a genuine case of a good guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as the film draws to a close, it is revealed that although innocent of the murder, Farrell had been a Soviet spy the whole time.
6 Lucky Number Slevin Gives Its Characters Compelling Motives In The End
Lucky Number Slevin follows the arrival of a man named Slevin at the apartment of his friend, Nick. Almost immediately, Slevin is mistaken for being Nick repeatedly by different parties interested in him, and is pulled into a blood feud between two opposing crime families.
At the same time, the assassin for hire, Goodkat, is playing the two sides against one another for seemingly no apparent reason. The film sets itself up to feel like Slevin just gets a bad case of mistaken identity. But the story's conclusion reveals him to have been orphaned by the gangs, and the events were him setting up his revenge.
5 The Usual Suspects Becomes A Completely Different Film On Rewatch
The excellent crime thriller The Usual Suspects begins with an explosion on a ship, seemingly related to a criminal conspiracy gone awry. Following this, the criminal Verbal Kint gets picked up by the police and recounts the events leading up to the explosion to an officer with one clue – the name "Keyser Soze."
Kint's story begins with him and four other criminals coming together in a line-up, where they strike a rapport with one another. As he follows his story, his fellow crooks die one by one as they work towards their final score. But in the end, it's revealed Kint was a shadowy criminal mastermind Keyser Soze all along.
4 Split's Reveal As A Sequel To Unbreakable Was Beloved By Fans
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When M. Night Shyamalan released his 2017 film Split – starring James McAvoy – audiences expected the latest thriller with a twist. Shyamalan's signature film style is to lead audiences through an intense story and leave a trail of breadcrumbs for them to figure out a twist.
Split didn't disappoint Shyamalan's fans, though not through a narrative twist but rather fan service. The otherwise standalone psychological thriller/horror seemed to have concluded its runtime when, in its final minute, the camera panned around to Unbreakable protagonist David Dunn.
3 Se7en's Conclusion Creates One Of Cinema's Most Tragic Ends
In Se7en, a soon-to-retire jaded cop is paired up with a rookie detective to investigate a string of murders related to the Seven Deadly Sins. When the killings draw ever nearer to the eventual seventh and final one, the detectives close in on their killer.
While searching for their suspect, he shockingly arrives and surrenders himself, despite having the upper hand in the case. When he leads the detectives to the supposed final two victims, he reveals a trap of sorts. The rookie's wife is revealed to have been killed, and his revenge serves as the final sin – wrath.
2 The Sixth Sense Left Clues Along The Way To Its Big Reveal
One of the most famous twists in all cinema, The Sixth Sense, follows a psychologist, Malcolm, and a young boy, Cole, as the boy claims to be able to see the dead. Still skeptical of Cole's ability, Malcolm worked with the boy to try and understand him, and slowly came to accept it was real.
As the film concludes, Malcolm realizes the tragic truth that he was killed at the start of the film, and that only Cole can see him. The film established Shyamalan's signature story style and has been remembered as one of the greatest plot twists in film history.
1 The Unbreakable Revelation Gave The Hero A Villain
M. Night Shyamalan's brilliant superhero thriller Unbreakable set up an intriguing idea with a more grounded vision of what makes a superhero story. It followed the character David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the sole survivor of a train crash.
Dunn then met Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), who believed Dunn to have superpowers. The initial friendship between Dunn and Price was fractious, but seemed to reconcile by the movie's end. That is, however, until Dunn realized Price was a criminal – and the supervillain of his story.