So, I've heard people say that they were shocked that Bruce Willis was dead in The Sixth Sense, and of course, no one suspected Darth Vader was Luke's father, but what reveal surprised you the most in any film?
Screenwriting : *Potential Spoilers* What surprised you? by Hazel Smith
Other topics in Screenwriting:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
Hard to say. There have been some truly great twists. The top ones that come to my mind would have to be "Incendies" and "Dead Again". I figured out both the twists at the same time as the protagonists, and I reacted pretty much the same as they did (i gasped with shock while watching the former, and my eyes widened and jaw dropped when I watched the latter)
1 person likes this
I should reiterate that the only reason that movies like Se7en, Empire strikes back, Usual Suspects, and Silence of the Lambs aren't on the list is because the twists were spoiled for me before I saw those films. But I still love those twists.
2 people like this
You may want to add "Spoiler warning" in your post title. I'm sure there are people who haven't seen some of these.
2 people like this
Planet of the Apes ending- Lady Liberty's head on the beach.
Psycho- the mother is dead!
Ex Machina- the other woman in the house is also a robot!
3 people like this
Planet of the Apes' image of the Statue of Liberty, as Dan MaxXx said, certainly was quite a twist. As was another Charleston Heston film, Soylent Green - "Soylent green is people!"
There are certainly a lot of classic "twist films" - Citizen Kane, Se7en, Usual Suspects, Sixth Sense, Fight Club, Psycho, Primal Fear, Secret Window, etc. - but one of my favorite horror-thrillers is Alan Rudolph's Angel Heart. That is such a scary film, and such a stylish beauty of a film. Finding out that Harry Angel is Johnny Favorite....wow...and that Epiphany was his daughter...what genius. And what a great book (Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg). It's no surprise that Angel Heart had a great influence on Christopher Nolan's classic twist-film, Memento.
The ending of Rosemary's Baby may be considered a twist as well, as may the ending of another Roman Polanski film, The Ninth Gate. SHIVERS!!!
And speaking of baby, I must mention Million Dollar Baby. While not quite a "twist film"....wow...what an ending. What an amazing actress Hilary Swank is.
Great topic, Hazel....I don't believe I ever saw this topic before. Major kudos to Hazel!
1 person likes this
As a kid it was definitely Darth Vadar. However, the most recent mind blows were Fight Club and Neo being shot in The Matrix.
When Laura (Gene Tierney) is supposed to be dead and the detective is at her apartment, searching for clues -- and LAURA walks in very much alive.
The reveal of Vera's true identity during the climax of The Skin I Live In.
1 person likes this
Keyser Soze's identity in The Usual Suspects
1 person likes this
"Major Strassor has been shot. Round up the usual suspects."
5 people like this
That freaking Clark Kent was actually Superman! Those glasses totally threw me.
1 person likes this
Owen Mowatt Laura.
1 person likes this
The reveal in LA Confidential REALLY threw me when I first saw it. To be fair, I was pretty young.
I agree with Timothy, that one was another shocker for me too.
1 person likes this
Owen Mowatt Owen, that classic b/w suspense film "Laura." Vincent Price plays an ex-boyfriend. Unforgettable theme song.
"The Woman in Black" --- the original and the remake (with Daniel Radcliffe) each end differently ---- but in both cases the final REVEAL is a shocker.
Identity...all the characters in the film (John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, etc.) were personalities of a schizophrenic man...Love that film!
By the way, pegged the end in the first ten minutes of the film in Shutter Island. Very disappointed that I was right, right from the start.
1 person likes this
Really good question, Hazel!
1 person likes this
Barry: It was a boy, not a man, and is somewhat similar to Agatha Christie's novel, And Then There Were None. That novel - one of the best-selling books of all time - probably has at least a dozen films based off of it. What a brilliant writer Agatha Christie was.
2 people like this
Keyser Soze
Kathleen Turner's reveal at the conclusion of "Body Heat" ---- the scene where she is relaxing on a beach chair.
It would be remiss of me not to include the ending of Cinema Paradiso in this topic. That may very well be the most profound/beautiful/bittersweet endings of any film, at least in my opinion. While not quite a "shock ending", it was very surprising, and was even copped in a Simpsons episode a few years ago. What a great film Cinema Paradiso is. It will always be one of my all-time favorite films.
And one of my favorite film sites has a nice list of film twists and surprise endings. You can find it here.
http://www.filmsite.org/greattwists.html
2 people like this
Tyler Durden
(1) "Das Boot" being sunk in a ?safe? haven. (2) "Ex Machina" - only at the end we know she fooled them all. Or did they fool themselves? (3) The Vilage - what's there lurking beyond the woods; oh Hell, it is called civilization in all its evil purity. Safer to go back to La-La land.
A.S. Templeton, kind of don't agree with you on the Sixth Sense thing only because the elements of the directing (angles, meter and tempo of the film) are enough to make a person who appreciates a great film come back again and again. Everybody knows the ending of Psycho and Fight Club, but the elements of the film make it all worth watching again and again. Hitchcock and Kubrick are great examples of this, in my opinion.
Off the top of my head..."Memento" + "A Murder Of Crows".
1 person likes this
The Others (2001, Nicole Kidman), and also The Other (1972), and Orphan (2009)
Suicide by "Purfume"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFHSKaQESeI#t=93.587535
1 person likes this
In "Dumb and Dumber To" Harry really didn't need Lloyd's kidney transplant. Blew my mind.
1 person likes this
Rocky lost his first fight!