Top 5 Plot Twists in Movies

Plot twists are one of my favorite plot devices if done right. I love that element of shocking surprise where you’re like “whooooooaaaaaaa! Did not see that one coming!”, but it makes so much sense and you’re just in awe for the remainder of the film, wondering how you missed that.

There are good plot twists that make you think that, and then there are bad plot twists. After The Sixth Sense came out and it was such a huge hit, putting plot twists in movies suddenly became the trend. Unfortunately, lots of people really did not know how to do it right. People thought “if I tell a compelling story and then suddenly throw a random curveball in here, it will throw everybody off and they’ll be so impressed that they didn’t see it coming!” But, see that’s the thing with plot twists; there have to be little hints scattered throughout the film (or book) leading up to the twist that seem insignificant, but when the twist is finally revealed, the audience goes, “I can’t believe I didn’t realize that!” If the twist is totally out of left field, it’s not as impressive, “You didn’t see that one coming, did you?” Well, yeah, because it literally wasn’t coming. Sometimes it can work on occasion. It can come out of literally nowhere, but it affects the story in such an impactful way and makes so much sense even without a lot of lead-in, that it can still work. But that is rare.

Anyways, I have compiled my top 5 plot twists in cinema history (from the movies I have seen and based on my personal preference). Needless to say a SPOILER ALERT is in order...

Fight Club

I would not consider this one all that great because there’s not a ton of lead-in to it, meaning, there’s not a lot of hints dropped. Going back and watching it again, the hints are kind of sloppy and strange. I mean, Tyler is always telling the main character to do the weirdest things like not to ever talk about him to Marla. There’s just a lot of strangeness all throughout the movie that is explained in the end with a big twist: the main character has a split personality! And Tyler was never real. That’s something you probably don’t see coming because it's so weird that he's fighting himself. It is a good twist, but the set-up could have been a little better which is why it’s at the bottom of my list. 

The Sixth Sense

This is the movie that started the plot twist craze in recent years, but this one did it right. When I first watched this movie, I already knew the ending, so I kept my eyes open for how it would be accomplished. How could he go about his “life” not knowing he’s dead and also not give it away to the audience? It is pulled of spectacularly. He is estranged from his wife, so every time he talks to her, it just seems like she is ignoring him and shutting him out, when in fact she actually can’t see him. “They see what they want to see,” as the kid says. The reveal at the end shows us (and him) what he’s been missing the whole time and it’s like “whoooooaaaaa!”

Planet of the Apes (1968)

So this one I feel like didn’t have a ton leading up to that ending, but it was so devastating and impactful to the story that it just makes you go “whooooooooaaaaa!” It makes so much sense and you’re like, “of course!” Also, this is one of the few movies out there that doesn’t fall into the trap of the “rushed explanation”: as soon as the twist is revealed, all the points that we missed are suddenly explained all at once like “see? This is why this makes sense!” In this instance, the twist is revealed and no explanation is required. It just ends because it’s sort of self-explanatory, it’s not too complicated.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Regarded as one of the greatest plot twists of all time. Literally no one saw this coming. It was such a closely guarded secret, only four people knew about it before its release: George Lucas (obviously), Mark Hamill (was told minutes before filming so he could give a proper reaction), James Earl Jones (but he read a fake line as well and he thought the real line was the fake line), also another writer. I can just imagine what it was like living back in 1980 when it first came out and being hit with that. I mean, Darth Vader was such an evil, menacing, inhuman villain, but suddenly he’s not so two dimensional, the father of the protagonist nonetheless! Craziness! Like I said, no one saw it coming, but that’s because there wasn’t really any lead in to it. There was mention of Luke’s father who had died, but no one imagined that Obi-Wan had lied about that! There was so much speculation around it because it was so insane! But once the next movie came out, it made so much sense!

Psycho

I was debating whether I should put this or Empire first, but I eventually decided on this one because it follows my guidelines of what makes a good plot twist better than Empire does. Wow, the setup for this movie is so brilliant! I knew the twist to this movie when I went into it, but it was still exciting to watch and it still thrilled me when it came. This is how you properly lay out hints and clues, but still mislead your audience so that they are still surprised when the twist comes. Alfred Hitchcock actually would not allow people to enter theaters late when this movie was screening, they would have to wait until the next showing so that they could experience the full thrill and not miss anything. The thing about this film is that it always allows you think you’ve figured out something (or you’re supposed to figure out something), but you actually haven’t. There’s several red herrings leading you away from the main point: Norman Bates is actually the psycho. He is the mother! None of this is about the money and never was, it was all a plot device to get us to the Bates Motel to meet Norman and his split personality. It’s just so genius! While watching, lots of people sometimes guess that Norman is the killer, but then scrap the theory when they see the silhouette in the window and also Norman carrying his “mother” down the stairs. I don’t mean to carry on so much, but it’s just so good! It does fall into the rushed explanation at the end, but it sort of fits and I don’t really know how else it could’ve been done. "She wouldn't even hurt a fly."