H/T to Mystery Man for finding this:
There’s nothing better than a movie with a great twist, something to give you a sense of uncanny fright that leaves you shivering and tingling with an excited bemusement. And the idea of a revelatory twist goes way back, a classic example can be found by those canny Ancient Greeks; Sophocles’ Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex has one of the greatest, and most devastating, surprise endings of all time. As the climax comes to its roaring zenith, the mortifying truth dawns upon Oedipus like a million gas hobs left on in a million homes: he’s murdered his own father, King Laius, and wed his biological mother, Queen Jocasta. Crushing news, no doubt. News that, by Zeus’ divine ass crack, can only be met with the gouging out of one’s own eyes.As blighting and truly tragic this news is for poor old Oedipus, it was great news for story-telling and would forever be echoed in film (and elsewhere) – think how many gouged eyes you’ve seen, like in Hitchcock’s The Birds. But there are many techniques that can be used to fool us, cajole us, tweak us and coach us along, dangling the popcorn of revelation tentatively in front of us, leading us along a path littered with red herrings and confusion.
So let’s look at some great examples of this in film, but not wanting to ruin these great movies, I have not revealed the twist or endings, there are no spoilers here, I enjoy the thrill of a plot being unveiled too much to want to spoil it for everyone. The list is long because I couldn’t bear losing too many, even so there are still a helluva lot I had to leave behind.
It’s a good list from Kevin Holmes at Kontraband and includes the following movies:
Fight ClubDon’t Look Now
Star Wars: Episode V
The Usual Suspects
The Big Sleep
Psycho
Saw
The Seventh Continent
Memento
The Crying Game
Planet of the Apes
Barton Fink
The Player
Seven
Unbreakable
Jacob’s Ladder
Chinatown
Oldboy
Mulholland Drive
The Descent
Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources
L.A. Confidential
Les Diaboliques
Audition
Brazil
Clue
The Conversation
Bad Education
Rashomon
Election
The Third Man
Night of the Living Dead
Rosemary’s Baby
COMMENTS:
* If you haven’t seen Don’t Look Now (1973), do it. Right now. Seriously. Stop what you’re doing and go put it on your NetFlix list. Seriously creepy. And has arguably the most cinematic sex scene ever (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland).
* One of the blessings of my movie life is to have screened Jean de Florette (1986) and Manon des Sources (1986) at the 1987 Telluride Film Festival, I believe the debut of the movies in the States. I can still remember emerging from the theater after seeing Manon, tears streaming down my face as I stumbled into the brilliant mid-day sunshine. At that moment, I was completely undone. The movies are breathtakingly beautiful. And beautifully sad. That will make sense to you after you see these remarkable movies. And to prove I’m not pulling this sentiment out of my arse, I featured them in Daily Dialogue a year ago July here and here.
* Unbreakable (2000) over The Sixth Sense (1999)? Uh, I don’t think so.
What other movies come to mind with big plot twists and surprise endings?
Unbreakable is my all-time favorite twist ending. It packs such a stiff emotional punch that in the moment Jackson's character reveals why he did everything you're both horrified and heartbroken.
"It was the kids…they called me Mr. Glass."
I get chills every time I hear that line.
Some of my favorite surprise endings: The Others, Identity , Taking Lives, The Prestige, American Beauty (more of the shock maybe), Memoirs/Remember Me (the script, it hasn't came out yet, mind blowing twist ending) as well as Unbreakable, and Sixth Sense.
"Don't Look Now" is one of the greats.
I remember being surprised by the ending in "Hannah and her Sisters," though I know this is not a traditional twist. "Sixth Sense" was a genuine surprise. I read "Remember Me" and thought the writer did a terrific job of tension-building towards the twist ending, but then I also felt bamboozled and not entirely satisfied by it, as if the entire story hinged on a remarkably clever ending.
Others include:
"Citizen Kane"
"Black Widow"
"Dressed to Kill"
"Psycho"
"Death on the Nile"
"Se7en"
"Angel Heart"
"Chinatown"
"Casablanca"
"How to Marry a Millionaire"
"Some Like it Hot" ("Nobody's perfect.")