27 Shocking, Clever, And Effed Up Movie Twists That Were Sooooo Good They’ve Literally Become Iconic
“It is the only time I can remember audibly gasping in a movie theater.”
Recently, Reddit user purelyinvesting asked the folks over at r/movies, “What’s the Best Movie Twist You Never Saw Coming?” And, man, I forgot how good some of these were! Here are the top-voted responses:
Warning: MAJOR spoilers ahead (duh).
1. Saw (2004) — “You had no idea in multiple ways. Throughout the movie, you’re never anticipating a ‘twist.’ It just seems like a classic case of the cops trying to get the bad guy and being on the same page as them as to who it is. And the possibility that the body on the floor was not only alive but the mastermind behind it all had never even crossed my mind. You just assume that’s a corpse the whole time with no reason to believe otherwise. So sick.”
Lionsgate
The Twist: The Jigsaw Killer, who has been orchestrating the deadly games, is actually John Kramer, the “dead body” lying in the middle of the room the whole time.
2. The Cabin in the Woods (2011) — “Even if you suspect it, the best shot is ‘wouldn’t it be funny if they…’ and then they do every. Fucking. Time. Such an amazing film.”
Lionsgate
The Twist: The typical horror movie setup — five young people going to a remote cabin and being attacked by monsters — is actually part of a ritual orchestrated by a secret, high-tech underground facility. Basically, it’s a meta horror movie about horror movies.
3. Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) — “I just had no clue how Hannah fit into the picture, and when the penny finally dropped, I was slack-jawed. I think I was as shocked as I was during the end of The Departed.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
4. The Departed (2006) — “It is the only time I can remember audibly gasping in a movie theater.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Twist: Billy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is going to expose Colin (Matt Damon) as a mole for the Irish Mob inside the Boston Police. They ride down an elevator, and when the doors open — BAM — Billy is suddenly shot in the head and killed by another mole in the police, Trooper Barrigan (James Badge Dale), who we didn’t even know was another corrupt cop.
5. The Usual Suspects (1995) — “I saw The Usual Suspects in the theater and just sat there with my jaw in my lap until the credits finished. It’s still a great watch even when you know the twist.”
Gramercy Pictures
The Twist: Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), who appears to be a meek, low-level con man with a limp, is actually Keyser Söze, the mysterious and terrifying criminal mastermind everyone’s been chasing the whole movie.
6. Split (2016) — “The film being a secret sequel to Unbreakable was one of the biggest surprises for me. It’s really hard to recommend Split without giving it away either because you can’t just casually bring up Unbreakable and be like you gotta watch that first.”
Universal Pictures
The Twist: In the final scene, Bruce Willis appears as David Dunn, his character from Unbreakable (2000). That moment reveals that Split is actually set in the same universe as Unbreakable — making it a stealth sequel and turning the film into the second part of an unexpected superhero/villain trilogy that ends with Glass (2019).
7. Oldboy (2003) — “I still haven’t fully recovered from the stomach flip that twist gave me.”
Show East
The Twist: Dae-su discovers he has been manipulated into falling in love with and sleeping with Mi-do, who is revealed to be his daughter.
8. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) — “Nothing will ever really outdo the switcheroo in From Dusk Till Dawn.”
Miramax Films
“I envy everybody who stumbled upon it on TV, knowing nothing about it… We rented it back then, and the vampires were on the backside of the VHS cover. :)”
The Twist: What starts off as a gritty crime thriller about two fugitive brothers on the run (played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino) — unexpectedly turns into a full-blown vampire horror movie.
9. The Prestige (2006) — “Still blows my mind. It’s my favourite movie and I’ve seen it probably 30 times and it still gets me. The good part about it isn’t so much the ‘gotcha’ like so many twists are these days, but how Bale’s character was so dedicated to his craft to fake his entire life. I love how you can subtly pick up (spoilers) each brothers different personalities if you pay attention anytime either of them is on screen. There are obvious times (like the ‘today you mean it’ lines), but other times, you can see the flicker of personality shining through each twin while they both pretend to be the same person. Well written and well executed.”
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The Twist: The FIRST twist is that Alfred Borden’s (Christian Bale) incredible magic trick, The Transported Man, is possible because he has a twin brother. The SECOND twist is that Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), uses a teleportation device built by Nikola Tesla, which doesn’t transport him — it duplicates him. Each time he performs his Transported Man trick, he creates a clone of himself and kills one version (usually the original) by drowning to keep the illusion a secret.
10. Arrival (2016) — “Haven’t read the short story or knew anything about it when my wife and I went to see in theaters. Just thought it would be another decent alien sci-fi flick with this up-and-coming director I liked (I had seen Sicario a few months before). When the twist came, my wife and I looked at each other. Wow, what a look on our faces. The tears didn’t start flowing until the drive back home. She was 6 months pregnant at the time.”
Paramount Pictures
The Twist: Throughout the film, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) seems to be experiencing flashbacks of her daughter, who dies young from a rare disease. But the twist is the flashbacks are actually flashforwards/visions of the future.
11. The Mist (2007) — “I love Stephen King. And I knew that it was highly unlikely that the movie would end the same way the short story did. It was too ‘wide open’ of an ending. But, as the film went on, I got too complacent thinking, I’m amazed at how closely they’re following the story. And, then…I sat on my couch with both hands over my mouth for half an hour. I was blown away. He kills everyone except himself…that alone would’ve been a great ending. It was a great twist ending. So I figured he was just going to step out of the vehicle… And he did… And then, for the second time in minutes, it twisted again. I just sat there mortified! It was such a great way to end the movie. Even King liked the ending better than his own novella.”
MGM
The Twist: David (Thomas Jane) kills his son and fellow survivors to spare them from the deadly creatures, only to be rescued moments later by the US Army, which has come to exterminate the monsters and save survivors.
12. The Others (2001) — “I didn’t see it coming even though it’s pretty obvious.”
Dimension Films
The Twist: Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her children are dead — they’ve been ghosts the whole time.
13. Planet of the Apes (1968) — “That movie and the ending are fucking wild IMO.”
20th Century-Fox
The Twist: At the end of the film, astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) stumbles upon the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on a beach. This shocking discovery reveals that the “alien” planet he thought he crash-landed on is actually Earth in the future.
14. Shutter Island (2010) — “It really stuck with me for years. Jaw on the floor.”
Paramount Pictures
The Twist: “Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is revealed to be a patient at the mental institution on Shutter Island, not a U.S. Marshal investigating a disappearance.”
15. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) — “I was grinning from ear to ear and smacking myself in the head but they managed to sneak up with it in such an organic way, impeccable really. That movie was way better than I’d expected. Best in the trilogy.”
Sony Pictures Releasing
The Twist: Peter discovers that the villain, Vulture, is actually Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), the father of Peter’s high school crush, Liz Allan.
16. Parasite (2019) — “I never saw that other family coming. Such a good movie. I love recommending it to other people.”
CJ Entertainment
The Twist: The wealthy Park family’s house contains a hidden basement, where the former housekeeper’s husband, Geun-sae, has been secretly living for years.
17. Final Destination 5 (2011) — “One of the best. It doesn’t get enough credit. I don’t think it’s possible to see it coming at all, but when it does, it still makes sense and doesn’t feel like a cheat, but it’s genuinely surprising.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Twist: It turns out that Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) is actually the catalyst to the events of the first Final Destination film. At the end of the movie, Sam survives an attempt on his life. But when he boards a plane with his friends for a company trip, we see that this plane is the same one that crashes in the very first Final Destination movie, setting off the entire chain of events in the original film.
18. Hereditary (2018) — “That movie is glorious. The sheer portrayal and realism of horror. Those fucking end scenes with Toni Collette on the ceiling watching from above out of focus and then focusing from the background of the shot! Then the dude smiling from the threshold, and all in silence? And then she’s smashing her head on the trap door!? Damn, what a good original piece of work.”
A24
The Twist: It turns out that Ellen, the family’s grandmother, was the leader of a cult that worships a demon named Paimon. The cult had been trying to use Annie’s (Toni Collette) family for generations to create a suitable vessel for Paimon.
19. Predestination (2014) — “This is the only movie where I’ve literally just sat there for like 15 minutes afterward muttering to myself trying to figure out what the hell I just watched. I legit watched it again recently, and it keeps moving up my list of all-time favorite movies.”
Pinnacle Films
The Twist: It’s revealed that the Temporal Agent and the Unmarried Woman are the same person at different points in time.
20. The Game (1997) — “After so much misdirection, the moment Christine sees Nicholas’s gun in the roof and her attitude completely changes to fear and pleading. That gave me such a feeling of dread. And then everything goes south.”
PolyGram Films
The Twist: Everything Nicholas (Michael Douglas) experienced was all part of an elaborate, immersive role-playing experience designed by his brother and CRS to make him reevaluate his life and embrace vulnerability and connection.
21. Knives Out (2019) — “I thought I’d had the whole mystery figured out about halfway through, but as it turned out, I was dead wrong! In fact, it turned out to be just about the opposite of what I expected! I’m usually pretty good at figuring out whodunit mysteries, but not this one!”
Lionsgate
The Twist: It’s revealed that Harlan’s (Christopher Plummer) death was not actually a murder — it was a suicide that was staged to look like a murder to protect his beloved nurse, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), and to expose Ransom (Chris Evans) as the true villain.
22. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — “This film is so well known now that I think the twist at the end is taken for granted, but it really is one of the greats and the euphoria that comes from it is why it tops so many personal favourite movie lists.”
Columbia Pictures
The Twist: We discover that Andy (Tim Robbins) had been secretly planning his escape for years as well as using his financial skills to secretly funnel money out of the prison for himself, exposing the corruption of the warden.
23. Malignant (2021) — “Malignant had such a wild twist. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
“That movie came out at the perfect time. It was exactly the kinda batshit horror I needed in the pandemic. It went from something generic to pure fun so quickly.”
The Twist: The killer, Gabriel, is not a separate person but Madison’s (Annabelle Wallis) conjoined twin. Gabriel was surgically removed from her body as a child but was left with part of his brain still connected to hers.
24. Prisoners (2013) — “This movie and the twist are fantastic but I never want to see it again.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
The Twist: The true kidnapper is revealed to be Holly Jones, Alex’s (Paul Dano) aunt (Melissa Leo), not Alex himself. Holly had been abducting children for years, and Alex, who was a victim of her abuse, was helping her.
25. The Sixth Sense (1999) — “For me, The Sixth Sense was a game-changer. The way the twist recontextualized the entire movie was genius — I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. “
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
—purelyinvesting (OP)
The Twist: Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) has been dead the entire time. He was killed in the opening scene, but doesn’t realize it until the end.
26. Fight Club (1999) — “Completely shattered my perception of what I had just seen. The unreliable narrator trope had never hit me that hard before.”
20th Century Fox
—purelyinvesting (OP)
The Twist: Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the Narrator (Edward Norton) are the same person. Tyler is a figment of the Narrator’s imagination.
27. Finally, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — “NOBODY saw it coming.”
20th Century-Fox
The Twist: Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke Skywalker’s father with the iconic line: “No, I am your father.”
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
