The Top 5 Movie Twists Ever

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As a film fan, I have sat there, watching a film, waiting for the Twist that will make sense of everything and bam, get hit for 6 by the twist and think 'I didn't see that coming' These are my top 5 favourite film twists.

1. The Usual Suspects - 1995. All of us were left there wondering who is Keyser Soze? Even Kobayashi was Pete Postlethwaite, and that lead to me thinking what is going on? Verbal Kint is telling the events of what was happening. The ending is dazzling. I can honestly say that no-one saw it coming.

2. The Sixth Sense - 1999. Bruce Willis was the counsellor who is helping Haley Joel Osment. Throughout the movie we see Bruce struggle with his life and a past memory. The ending showed that Bruce wasn't who he seemed.

3. The Planet of the Apes - 1968. Charlton Heston played the astronaut who with colleagues crash land on a planet ruled by intelligent apes. After a trial and a daring escape, Charlton runs to the beach to discover where he really is. "Damn You"

4. Saw - 2004. This by far was the most enjoyable twist in a film I have ever seen. All seems straight forward. We think we know all the players in the game and at the end, they were a player short.

5. Fight Club - 1999. First rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club. The film that helped Brad Pitt go from Hearthrob roles, to more serious thought provoking roles. As Brad and Ed Norton form a great friendship, the end shows that Brad and Ed were closer than they thought.

What are your favourites?

Even a predictable twist if done right can work out well.

The Illutionist was another great twist.

Haven't seen the illusionist, nice to see you in the film section though.


I liked the twist in The Deathly Hallows, never got around to reading the final book so found out about a certain character's past (most will have seen it at this tage but will leave it in spoiler just in case) through the second part of the film, thought the scene itself was done superbly, well acted and everything. It was incredibly well done, maybe not top 5 but still very good.

Spoiler:

Thomond,

I really like movies and never bothered to post in this section before.

Regarding Harry Potter it was one of those things that was handled better in the book as is often the case.

I strongly recommend the Illutionist though there is nothing worse than watching a film knowing that there is "a twist" in it as you can't enjoy it.

Other twists I enjoyed were:

- The Village
- Mystic River
- A Beautiful Mind
- The Wicker Man (original film)

Also I have no doubt that at the time Empire Strikes Back was a great twist but it was so famous I knew all about that before I saw any Star Wars films so couldn't appreciate it.

Thomond wrote:It was good alright but it was a bit predictable I felt.

Really - Its not often I dont have a suspicion of a twist but that one completely blindsided me.

The Sixth Sense I guessed within 5 minutes of the film starting, however, M Nights follow up Unbreakable - didnt see it coming at all.

The twist at the end of Saving Private Ryan..... when it became apparent that the old man visiting the war cemetary was Ryan in old age, and not Captain Miller..... closed the film perfectly. It made the point that the mission had not been in vain.... that Ryan had been saved so that he could live a long and fulfilling life.

Ryan's humility at the grave of Miller said much about the sacrifice of Miller's squad...... When truly noble deeds are done, it is the human spirit's finest hour.

Many people worked the 'twist' out earlier, but Spielberg's skill in timing it just right still made it the poignant climax of a truly inspiring film.

Adam D wrote:

Thomond wrote:It was good alright but it was a bit predictable I felt.

Really - Its not often I dont have a suspicion of a twist but that one completely blindsided me.

The Sixth Sense I guessed within 5 minutes of the film starting, however, M Nights follow up Unbreakable - didnt see it coming at all.

Seems a bit odd, soem get it and others are shocked, I was thinking probably not at the time but I was right. Can't remember said twist now though as it's so long since I saw the movie!

The Other Man starring Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas is a worthy view for a twist. Very un-expected.

I saw The Illusionist a couple of weeks ago - very clever film and twist at the end. Not a film I knew of, we just started watching on spec (while waiting for the baby to go to sleep), and both me and the wife were hooked.

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

How did no one put Psycho? Crazy twist

Just caught up with this thread.

Psycho is an excellent shout. Besides the celebrated ending, Hitchcock cleverly teases and misleads his audience as to what the film is going to be about in the opening twenty minutes or so. I'll say no more in case anyone is fortunate enough to have not seen it yet.

Others I would flag are:

* The Third Man - nothing is what it seems in post WWII Vienna

* The Wicker Man - the original with Edward Woodward as mentioned earlier in the thread

* On Her Majesty's Secret Service - wooden acting from George Lazenby as Bond but a terrific script and ending

* Dead of Night - a fantastic and unusually chilling film from Ealing Studios with a frightening twist in the tail conclusion

" The Great Escape - less of a twist admittedly but nonetheless a shocking ending.

Performance maybe? It's a mad 60s film with Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg.

Starts off as a standard Gangster film with James Fox as an enforcer on the run from his own gang, and then turns in to a mad psychadelic wonderland with Mick Jagger's recluse rock star slowly turning Fox mad and confused on a steady diet of mushrooms, sex (with Pallenberg and another woman) and gender confusion.

Dai-bosatsu tôge (marketed in the West as "The Sword of Doom") (1966) - It ends with the amoral, dead-inside master swordsman Ryunosuke in a never ending battle in a burning house.

Where's the twist? In in our understanding of the ending. Ryunosuke suffers as many fatal wounds in the fight as he inflicts yet he doesn't die and the fight never ends, and the house continues to burn. Only upon reflection do we understand that he's died on gone to Hell where the Hellish life he lived goes on. And on. And on. And on. Never ending. Death is no release from the Hell he made from his own life.

Cinematically speaking, this is a complete twist from the cliche of showing the bad guy dying at the end of the movie, where we the audience can be certain of his afterlife but are never shown it (except to show the Devil-with-Pitchfork cliches.)