twist endings (1 Viewer)

[Joel D]

it seems many movies recently have been trying to have a plot twist endings whether or not they actually make sense. so i was wondering what are some of your favorite twist ending of all time? what are some least favorite or plain stupid ones? whats a twist you saw coming a mile away?

also right off i would like to say that i dont think memento really qualifies for this becuase the whole movie is twisting and shifting your reality of the story. but if you disagree thats fine to.

 

[mike caronia]

Primal Fear. Edward Norton's acting and the end of that movie were great.
Planet of the Apes. The original of course.
Psycho. One of the great endings in all of cinema.
BASEketball. I never thought the Beers' could ever win the Denslow Cup.

 

[Ryan L B]

the sixth sense willis is a ghost
the others nicholes kids are ghosts
unbreakablewillis is a comic book, i did not get this one at all
empire strikes backdarth vader is luke skywalkers father
lastly return of the jedi princess leia is lukes mother )i think)
and last but not least star wars episode one the phantom menece qui gon jin dies and darth maul dies

 

[Joel D]

they i thought unbreakable had a terrible ending. it seemed they just tacked in on because it worked so well to have a twist on "sixth sense". i thought the whole movie was pretty terrible and didnt really know where it was going the whole time. thats just me tho.

oh yeah in Return of the Jedi

Leia is lukes sister, not mother

 

[EricW]

Brazil.

 

[Joel D]

Brazil is classic. Its amazing how stupid the head of Universal was about the whole thing. After seeing his cut tho, I think the whole situation made him kinda nutty. How did he possibly think he could make Brazil into a different movie and make it profitable.

 

[MatS]

Favorites:

Clockwork Orange - Alex goes...HOME again


Pulp Fiction - Continuity shift


Fight Club - Tyler is Tyler


Memento - many more plot twists the way the film runs than going the other way


Jacob's Ladder - Jacob is dead


Reservoir Dogs - Mr. Orange is a cop

The Game - all of it


Least Favorite/Just Plain Stupid

Sixth Sense - saw it coming from the start


Usual Suspects - no substance


Little of both:

Se7en - great movie, but I knew what was in the box immediately and it spoiled the rest of the experience for me

 

[Ryan L B]

how could you see sixth sense from the start unless somebody spoiled it or could you tell something fishy after willis was shot

 

[Joel D]

see for me i think the game had no substance and usual suspects was well executed. after i got done watching "the game" i was actually angree that it tricked me into wasting 2 hours.

 

[Sam Hatch]

I'm with you Joel. I'm a big fan of Fincher, but the ending of 'The Game' was atrocious.
You've spent your entire life under the shadow of your father and his suicide. You hit the same age as your father was when he did it. A bunch of crazy stuff happens to you, culminating in you personally murdering your only brother and committing suicide. Now tell me, are you going to be fine in no time or are you going to have A COMPLETE FUCKING NERVOUS BREAKDOWN! The fact that Douglas' character doesn't means that we've just wasted the past two hours watching him NOT grow as a person. He walked away from it all like it was a camping trip. I don't care if it was all staged. And was it me, or was his birthday already over by the time he landed at the banquet? It seems that the most important part to the screenwriter for the ending was that the 'concept' of the surprise party HAD to take priority over everything else, characters included. Even if they HAD kept the party, how much cooler would it have been to see Douglas go completely mental, sobbing with snots hanging out of his nose while surrounded by all these stuffed shirts with their expensive drinks. I do think that the experience of the game would be something he would eventually thank his brother for, but not right away. Give the guy a month or more for crying out loud. But no, an hour or so later and he's right as rain, ready to go chasing some tail! If you've seen 'The Prophecy', Amanda Plummer's character gives a clue as to what Douglas' state of mind should have been after that situation, when she's saved from death by Christopher Walken's 'Gabriel'.

God, did 'The Game' piss me off!! Can you tell?

 

[Joel D]

i think that summed it up pretty good. "the game" is a prime example of throwing logic completely out the window for the sake of the twist ending

 

[JohnRice]

MatS,

The way you did your spoilers makes no sense. The only way to find out what movie you are talking about is to look at the spoiler. Once you find out it is one you haven't seen, it is too late.

 

[Gregory E]

I just saw The Game for the first time last night and I thought it was great. The twist at the very end was a little far fetched (but so was the rest of the movie).

 

[MatS]

Ryan, if I knew absolutely nothing about the Sixth Sense going into it I might have been somewhat surprised come the end though I doubt it, IMO the clues were all there. However seeing 1 preview gave away too much and there was too much talk/buzz that there was some type of twist in the movie. Once you know that you begin to look for it. I knew what was up the minute Bruce Willis' character was shot

JohnRice - the reason the spoiler tags were used they way they are is because I don't want people who have not seen these movies going into them with a preconceived notion that there is a trick ending to them. Kinda ruins the movie going experience if you ask me. Yes I guess if they are visiting this thread they are asking for it, but I do not want to make it any easier for anyone who might just be coming here to post something they have already seen.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Sixth Sense, backing up Mat's comments.

I had the same experience as Mat...1 commercial plus Willis' occupation (which you find out right away) plus a fade to black on him being shot, fade back in with no recovery period or explananation. Gee, do you think the dead guy might visit the kid who can see dead people.

I turned to my girlfriend and said "Willis is dead" and she said "I know" as if it were obvious.

From that point on it was terribly obvious that it was being hidden from us, so many scenes were awkwardly avoiding really having conversations/interactions in them. Of course I respect the film and understood what was being hidden, I just thought it was only being hidden from Willis, not us, and that the end of the film held something more in store for us, like that maybe Bruce was there to help Haley realize his mother was dead or just some strong emotional resolution between the characters.

Nope, the payoff was just dead Bruce. Well made film but I found it just good, not great. Equal to Unbreakable to me.