Blogocentric Formulations

Plot Twists

Prompt ▶︎

Prompt #22: What plot twist (it can be from any movie, television show, book, video game, etc.) surprised you the most?

There are a handful of plot twists that come to mind when I think of the ones that have surprised me the most. At this point, all of these movies and shows have been out for years — even decades — so this is a fair-warning spoiler alert for anyone who somehow hasn't seen them or heard them discussed at any point since their release.

The Sixth Sense (1999). This was probably the most surprising plot twist for a movie that hit me as I was sitting there in the theater. I remember audible gasps from the audience around me when Malcolm Crowe realizes that he's been dead the entire time. Multiple people in that screening walked out of the theater and immediately turned around to buy a ticket to the next screening of the movie so they could watch it all again with the twist ending in mind. M. Night Shyamalan is a divisive filmmaker and he's made some real stinkers since this film (many of them, arguably, in pursuit of forced twist endings that live up to this one), but this remains one of the best executed twists of any movie I've seen.

The Usual Suspects (1995). This is probably my favorite plot twist in any movie. The whole structure of the film being wrapped around Verbal Kint telling a U.S. Customs agent a story in the form of an extended flashback, only to realize that it was all an elaborate fiction (or, perhaps more accurately, an elaborate fictional frame) was such a smart way to tell this story, and the twist at the end — timing out Kujan's realizations and putting together the story as Verbal Kint walks out the front door and reveals himself to be the persona he was talking about the entire time — was structured perfectly.

Seven (1995). It's hard to believe that two of my all-time favorite films are from 1995. This is a really twisted, dark film with a serial killer exploring the idea of tormenting people according to the seven deadly sins, but the real genius of the film reveals itself in the final act of the movie when we all learn that part of this guy's master plan was to have the final three "sins" culminate in a way that I honestly don't think anybody saw coming if they hadn't already heard about it. The ending was genuinely shocking and somber.

Those are probably the three most memorable and surprising plot twists that I remember seeing, but I suppose I should also give honorable mention status to a handful of other films where I've been genuinely surprised by a plot twist. Fight Club, The Prestige, The Game, and Identity. Which I'm just now realizing includes a lot of David Fincher movies... For TV shows, I really enjoyed the realization in Lost that one of the "survivors" was never on the plane in the first place, and first season of The Good Place had maybe one of my favorite series twists of all time. It wasn't a complete shock, but the payoff was done really well.