Who doesn’t love a good plot twist? Whether it’s in movies, comics, books, or … theater?, everyone loves a good plot twist … unless it’s in real life, because those kind of suck. Stupid plot twists suck, of course, but a good one can really blow your mind. So: What’s your favorite plot twist? And, you know, SPOILERS ahead, maybe. I’m going to try to not do spoilers, but if you want to spoil some things, feel free. We all know what we’re getting into here!
I guess I should define “plot twist” as I see it. I don’t mean the reveal of a murderer in a murder show, because we know a murderer is going to be revealed. I mean, yes, usually it’s a bit of a twist, as the cops/private detectives think it’s someone else but it turns out that no! the real murderer is this person over there, but I don’t count those, because it’s kind of built into the story. If there’s a true plot twist to the murderer story, sure, like in, say, Sharp Objects (the show, not the book, although I guess the book’s ending is similar to the show), where everyone thinks the murderer has really been revealed and punished, but no! the real murderer is someone else. So it’s a fine line. In my world, a plot twist is something in the story that upends the narrative and makes us reconsider everything we’ve seen or read. The reveal of a murderer doesn’t really do that. So, as cool as Watchmen is, there ain’t no plot twists in that sucker.
The biggest plot twist of the recent past, I guess, is the one in The Sixth Sense. That’s still one of my favorites — I know some people figured it out, but I didn’t, because I’m a dummy, and once you know it, you can see the clues pretty easily, which is pretty keen. That’s still a great movie, and it still works even if you know it’s coming — I get that plot twists occasionally simply make the story no good the next time you consume it, and that’s too bad, but I don’t think it applies to The Sixth Sense. Prior to that movie, we had plot twists, of course, but the success of that movie seemed to kickstart the plot twist renaissance, and we’ve seen a lot since then. So maybe your favorite plot twist is more recent than 1999, when The Sixth Sense came out. Maybe it’s not.
The plot twist in The Sixth Sense is one of my favorites, but it’s not quite my favorite. I have two favorites. In 1994, Giuseppe Tornatore directed A Pure Formality, which stars Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski (yeah, I know). It’s a terrific, tense movie (I don’t want to give even the plot away!) in which the two actors go at each other with vigor and brio, and it has a very cool twist that I just did not see coming. Again, maybe you did or will, but I didn’t, and even when I watched the movie again, it still held up even when I knew it was coming. It’s a tough movie to find, and it’s not streaming anywhere (or it wasn’t the last time I checked), but it’s worth checking out.
I think my favorite plot twist, though, is the one toward the end of Mr. Robot season 1. You know the one! It kind of came out of nowhere, but when you dig into it, it fits perfectly. Everyone knew the one twist was coming, so this one slipped it without anyone really thinking about it. It was clever of Sam Esmail to put the obvious plot twist in there and kind of lean into it while stealthily introducing the other one, and it was a very cool revelation that really changed the entire show and made it better. If you haven’t watched Mr. Robot, you really should. It’s a keen show. Esmail had a couple of other twists in later seasons that don’t work as well, mainly because they weren’t more classic “twists” as it seems like Esmail wasn’t that interested in deceiving the audience. But that doesn’t matter, because the second twist in the first season was very nifty.
So, those are mine. What are yours? You can SPOIL them if you want, or you can just mention that a certain movie, book, or comic has a plot twist without giving it away. I’m good with either!
Two come to mind:
Unbreakable and The Usual Suspects
Both of those are keen, and both from movies that I might put in my top ten if I thought about it! 🙂
Usual Suspects is the first one that came to mind for me.
And of course The Empire Strikes back.
That’s always a fun one!
From comics, the unmasking of the original Thunderbolts in #1.
For TV, Twilight Zone’s “The Invaders,” the episode with Agnes Moorehead battling tiny spacemen.
The ending of Planet of the Apes, even though I knew it before I saw the movie.
The Thunderbolts one is very cool. I knew about it long before I read it, but it’s still really well done.
Planet of the Apes is still powerful, even though everyone knows it!
Planet of the Apes and Sixth Sense are great, though I was spoiled in advance.
The Good Place is the first thing that came to mind.
The Good Place one is really excellent. It really elevated the show.
I enjoyed the one in the Sixth Sense, I remember watching the movie in vhs and not knowing the twist and it blew my mind.
Man, I think I guessed that one after the the first half hour or so.
Signs was the same, they are not really plot twists when you can see them coming from the get go.
I don’t remember the beginning of Terminator 2, but, was sold as a twist that the T800 is now the hero? I don’t know because I first saw the movie on the TV so who knows how was pitched to the movie going public at the time. Well, if it was not a twsit, at least that was a real twist for Sarah Connor.
I really like the twist Alan Moore did for Swamp Thing. I really enjoy rereading the anatomy lesson and the first time it blew my mind. He also did something similar for Nightraven, and it was really good too(probably should reread that trade)
Oh, and a comic book one: The Return of Barry Allen. Still my favorite Flash story.
I believe I was spoiled in advance about the Xorn reveal in New X-Men, but that was a good one too.
I didn’t love that, simply because it makes no sense!
The Sting. I won’t give anything away but there are two great plot twists in it.
I love the movie, but I don’t think of the plot twists as much, because it’s a movie about a con, so I trust nothing!!!!! But yes, the twists are neat.
You mentioned this just because of Redford dying, didn’t you????
Yep, that’s what put it into my head.
And then I remembered watching it with my pre-teen (at the time) niece and how much the twists stunned her.
The Sixth Sense was easy to figure out: kid sees dead people, kid talks to Bruce Willis, Bruce Willis must be dead. Same with Unbreakable. Shyamalan’s twists are pretty obvious, in my experience.
Soylent Green’s ending was a pretty good one. I agree with The Sting, but would add, along similar lines, A Big Hand For the Little Lady, with Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Joanne Woodward. Fonda and Woodward are a couple headed west, to build a new home, but he has a gambling past and gets involved in a big poker game, with some local money men, then suffers a heart attack. His wife tries to finish the game, to rescue their savings.
The caper comedy, Gambit, with Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine and Herbert Lom has a good one. The original The Wicker Man has a great twist ending.
Frederick Forsyth was noted for his twist endings; but, the only ones I found effective were in Day of the Jackal; and, to a much lesser extent, The ODESSA File. The former is great, as you can believe it, yet not negate any part of the story. The latter relies to much on coincidence to really work, but it is mostly effective. Most of his others come too far out of left field to be effective. His most ridiculous, from my point of view, in is Icon, where a British intelligence agent tries to put together a coalition of key figures, to stop a potential coup, by a Right Wing faction, in Russia, inspired by a Far Right politician, from post Soviet Russia, who was becoming a rival to Yeltsin. The twist is the solution they come up with, to stabilize Russia and move it to real democracy, is to bring back the Tsar, as a constitutional monarch, with a member of the British Royal Family, as the contender to the throne. Only a conservative British author, like Forsyth, would ever believe that Russia would ever welcome back the Tsars. They were far more hated than even Stalin.
Empire doesn’t work for me, because there are too many contradictions created by it and too many characters who are diminished because of it. It was brought about because Lucas was making it up as he went along and he painted himself into a narrative corner. It requires you to throw out most of what we learn in Star Wars and buy into too many plot contrivances. Then, he spent the next 30 years trying to work in further plot fixes to make it less jarring and just made the backstory even more muddled.
For similar reasons, Ridley Scotts twist in Blade Runner doesn’t work for me, thematically. It also wasn’t written or performed that way and required excessive tinkering in the various edits.
The Prisoner tv series had several good ones, but my favorites are in the episodes “Free For All” and “Many Happy Returns.”
Big Hand for a Little Lady is indeed a great twist.
If we’re talking stupid twists, in Pierce Brosnan’s November Man it turns out the CIA’s real agenda is to help a former Soviet spymaster become president because he committed war crimes so they can destroy his political career if he doesn’t do what they tell him. There is no way this makes sense (and it’s a crappy movie anyway).
The Good Place has already been mentioned, so I’ll shout a French movie called “A La Folie; Pas de Tout” with Audrey Tatou playing a lovesick young woman.
For TV, I’ll give it to Wolfram and Hart’s Home Office.
Also, the last panel of the latest issue of The Power Fantasy hasn’t resolved itself yet…but I trust Gillen to knock it out of the park.
Book: The Big Nowhere when one of the main characters kills himself by slitting his throat half way through the book. Wild!
Comics: when Cyborg Superman was revealed as Hank Henshaw (I grew up on late 80s, early 90s Superman)
Movies: so many good ones, my favourite recent one is Arrival. Also, not sure if its a twist but I love the scene in Silence of the Lambs when you think the FBI are visiting Buffalo Bill but its actually Clarice. So well edited!
Oh, yes, Cyborg Superman — the moment Mongul kneels and calls him Master was a shocker.
Superboy discovering he’s not a Superman clone was good. Too bad Johns turned him into Superman’s Emo Clone.
I always liked the scene in Power Company where Manhunter’s clone tells someone “Yes, I’m horrified to know I’m a clone — wait, I’ll be horrified as soon as I meet someone who got to choose the way they were born!”
in comics, I am thinking of Groo
My favourite issue of Groo (Marvel issue 6 – Eye of Kabula) had a well done plot twist
But I think the twist in issue 40 “the Glass Carafe” is better
Groo is trying to get a job but accidently breaks a glass carafe
He is offered a job if he does a good job replacing it
So he ventures out on a quest for a carafe, has many frays and breaks a few more carafes. he eventually returns with an intact carafe but is refused a job because he took so long. He wanders off, wondering what the job was.
TWIST
It was working at a factory making glass carafes
Very good film suggestions, people. How about: The Crying Game and Seven?
Since he’s come up many times, M.Night went back to that well so often; (a) people expect it in his films even when he’s not doing a twist per se (rare, I know!).
(b) they can never live up to Sixth Sense, which I suppose is partly due to the “You know this guys does twists” schtick. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. Not helped by the fact his movies have been on a general downward slide. Eg the third act of Trap was awful!
One twist/reveal that didn’t come off was Now You See Me. My memory from a dozen years ago is that it was too absurd or illogical even by “movie suspension of disbelief” standards.
Both of those are very good. Logical, but difficult to see coming!
I really like Now You See Me, but the twists are a bit silly. I don’t really count them, because it’s a movie about magic and cons, so you just expect things to not be as they seem. But you’re not wrong about them being absurd!
Agree on NYSM which is why I put it separately and last. It overlaps in that Venn diagram with murder mysteries/Agatha Christie/Columbo and so on!
It’s been a while since I’ve dropped by, so I’ve contributed to the Opening Lyrics comments. I like the idea of Question of the Week.
Hope you all had a good summer, which is a nebulous concept in Az., Greg, amiright?!
Well, we never have good summers here, but the winters are pretty nice!
I enjoy doing Questions of the Week. I got out of the habit for about a year, but I hope to continue with it, because it’s fun!