" It is the only sentence I can think audibly gasping in a movie theater . "
Recently, Reddit userpurelyinvestingaskedthe folks over atr/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:
🚨 🚨 🚨 monish : MAJOR spoilers beforehand ( 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.”
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.”
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 ofThe Departed.”
4.The Departed(2006) — “It is the only time I can remember audibly gasping in a movie theater.”
5.The Usual Suspects(1995) — “I sawThe Usual Suspectsin 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.”
6.Split(2016) — “The film being a secret sequel toUnbreakablewas one of the biggest surprises for me. It’s really hard to recommendSplitwithout giving it away either because you can’t just casually bring upUnbreakableand be like you gotta watch that first.”
7.Oldboy(2003) — “I still haven’t fully recovered from the stomach flip that twist gave me.”
8.From Dusk Till Dawn(1996) — “Nothing will ever really outdo the switcheroo inFrom Dusk Till Dawn.”
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.”
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 seenSicarioa 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.”
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.”
12.The Others(2001) — “I didn’t see it coming even though it’s pretty obvious.”
13.Planet of the Apes(1968) — “That movie and the ending are fucking wild IMO.”
14.Shutter Island(2010) — “It really stuck with me for years. Jaw on the floor.”
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.”
16.Parasite(2019) — “I never saw that other family coming. Such a good movie. I love recommending it to other people.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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!”
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.”
23.Malignant(2021) — “Malignanthad such a wild twist. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”
24.Prisoners(2013) — “This movie and the twist are fantastic but I never want to see it again.”
25.The Sixth Sense(1999) — “For me,The Sixth Sensewas a game-changer. The way the twist recontextualized the entire movie was genius — I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. "
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.”
27.Finally,The Empire Strikes Back(1980) — “NOBODY saw it coming.”
Note : Some responses have been edit for length and/or lucidness .
