# Favourite plot twists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2020, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599 "2020-06-13T12:33:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/41 "2020-06-17T15:59:42Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Second, X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. Of curse, they completely ignore all that in the next movie. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/42 "2020-06-17T17:54:22Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > From Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse 1x06, Man on the Street: > > “There are three flowers in a vase…” Could you explain this? For those of us who didn’t the show or watch the series, what the heck was the twist? The explanation, “There were three flowers in a vase…” is opaque at best and not at all illuminating or expository. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/43 "2020-06-17T19:13:12Z")
Momento Teddy is “John G.” and Leonard really accidently killed his own wife. 12 Monkeys The sad woman in the airport Cole remembered from his childhood is Dr Railly in a blond wig crying over his body. The Hateful Eight Everyone except John Ruth, Maj Warren and Mannix are part of the Domergue gang. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/44 "2020-06-17T19:27:15Z")
Westworld (the Series): At the end of season 1, realizing that young Billy and the Man in Black are actually the same person years apart ranks as one of my favorite moments in all my TV-watching years. (Too bad season 2 was such a mess.) ---
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/45 "2020-06-17T22:18:06Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Could you explain this? For those of us who didn’t the show or watch the series, what the heck was the twist? The explanation, “There were three flowers in a vase…” is opaque at best and not at all illuminating or expository. Mellie, the neighbour of the detective investigating the Dollhouse, was shown to be a sleeper agent, triggered by the phrase “there are three flowers in a vase, the first one is green” ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/46 "2020-06-18T01:57:23Z")
Oh, I missed one I should have included. I love the final twist in Mr. Robot, which is: The Elliot we’ve been watching is just another one of the “real” Elliot’s personalities, one that took over. The real Elliot has been suppressed under the surface the entire show. It was a huge risk for the show to take and I think it paid off incredibly. I would never have the guts to attempt such a twist. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/47 "2020-06-18T10:16:02Z")
Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources: The greedy village elder who hounds Jean to his death discovers that Jean was the son he never knew he had. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/48 "2020-06-18T11:13:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I liked the twists (there was more than one) in No Way Out. Yeah, I agree with No Way Out. I always think if the story still works even knowing the pot twist it’s a good plot twist. So I’ll nominate The Crying Game because I went into the theater knowing Dil is a transgender woman and it worked. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/49 "2020-06-18T12:45:21Z")
Out of curiosity, is there anyone who didn’t think the “twist” is _The Sixth Sense_ was anything but totally transparent? I saw it in the theater long before the ending was common knowledge, had no prior knowledge of it, and I saw it coming from the first time the kid said “I see dead people.” In fact, I didn’t even get that it was supposed to be a twist, and I thought it was just dramatic irony-- you know, something the audience knows but a character doesn’t. I thought the point of the movie was watching the character figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/50 "2020-06-18T13:14:59Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Out of curiosity, is there anyone who didn’t think the “twist” is _The Sixth Sense_ was anything but totally transparent? I saw it in the theater long before the ending was common knowledge, had no prior knowledge of it, and I saw it coming from the first time the kid said “I see dead people.” In fact, I didn’t even get that it was supposed to be a twist, and I thought it was just dramatic irony-- you know, something the audience knows but a character doesn’t. I thought the point of the movie was watching the character figure it out. Me and my entire theater(based on my observation) had no idea. The reaction when it was revealed is in my top 5 movie theater experiences. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/51 "2020-06-18T14:34:43Z")
I’m sure it wasn’t a plot twist for most people who watched it, but the point in the plot in terminator 2 when you realize Arnold is the good guy probably caught a lot of people by surprise in theaters when it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/52 "2020-06-18T15:30:55Z")
Probably one of my favorites is in the novel and the movie _Flight of the Phoenix_. The story is about an airplane, a Fairchild C-82 Packet in the original film, which gets caught in a sandstorm in Libya and is forced down. The plane is damaged and far from any towns, nor on trade routes, and the radio doesn’t work. Fortunately, there is plenty of food, but no obvious way out. An aeronautical engineer (Stringer, a British engineer in the book, changed to Dorfmann, played by Hardy Kruger in the 1965 film) suggests they can use the intact parts of the plane to construct a new one with the time and labor available. With no other alternative, the stranded crew agrees. Of course, it succeeds, and most of them survive to get out. The twist is that [spoiler]Stringer/Dorfmann isn’t a regular aeronautical engineer – he’s a maker of working _model_ airplanes. As he patiently explains, a working model has to be designed _better_ than a full-size one, since there’s no pilot to adjust the trim. One that that’s bothered me about the film (It’s a long time since I read the novel, so I don’t recall if it’s in there) is that Dorfmann says that “Henson and Stringfellow built a rubber band powered model that flew for x meters before hitting an obsstruction.” Well, Stringfellow did build a heavier-tha-air craft in the 19th century, but he had dissociated himself from Henson by then. And his plane wasn’t powered by a rubber band – he built his own aluminum steam engine to power it (!) Ryan North, in his book _How to Invent Everything_, which I just finished, appears to suggest that Stringfellow’s plane didn’t actually fly, since its engine wasn’t up to it, and that it simply glided. I think he’s wrong, but I have to investigate further.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/53 "2020-06-18T15:52:20Z")
How is it possible that _The Matrix_ is not on here yet? The presented world is a computer simulation run by AI that is enslaving humanity as an energy source. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/54 "2020-06-18T15:54:06Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’m sure it wasn’t a plot twist for most people who watched it, but the point in the plot in terminator 2 when you realize Arnold is the good guy probably caught a lot of people by surprise in theaters when it first came out. Unfortunately, commercials and advertising in general ruined the twist. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/55 "2020-06-18T16:30:43Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > How is it possible that _The Matrix_ is not on here yet? Uh, is that really a twist? That’s basically the plot of the movie. You find out like 20 minutes it. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/56 "2020-06-18T16:31:49Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Out of curiosity, is there anyone who didn’t think the “twist” is _The Sixth Sense_ was anything but totally transparent? I saw it in the theater long before the ending was common knowledge, had no prior knowledge of it, and I saw it coming from the first time the kid said “I see dead people.” In fact, I didn’t even get that it was supposed to be a twist, and I thought it was just dramatic irony-- you know, something the audience knows but a character doesn’t. I thought the point of the movie was watching the character figure it out. There are millions of people that disagree with you. We were surprised by the “twist”. And we’re not all rubes. Now Fight Club - anybody that didn’t see that one coming from about the halfway point was a rube. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/57 "2020-06-18T16:56:18Z")
Don’t know if I double-posted but the forum seems to have eaten it: My two favorite plot twists are _The Valley of Fear_ McMurdo, the brash and daring man who has risen all the way from the bottom to the top of the Scowrers criminal society, and is highly popular within the organization, urgently warns the Scowrers of a renowned Pinkerton agent named Birdy Edwards who has infiltrated their region, and of the need to trap and eliminate Edwards…eventually reveals to them that he is none other than Edwards himself. and _The Devil’s Alternative_ Valentina, the beautiful Soviet turncoat (and main love interest of the novel), who has been feeding top-secret Politburo information to Britain and America, warning them of Soviet plans to invade NATO-Europe…eventually turns out to have been working for the Soviets all along. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/58 "2020-06-18T17:23:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Don’t know if I double-posted but the forum seems to have eaten it: > > My two favorite plot twists are _The Valley of Fear_ > > McMurdo, the brash and daring man who has risen all the way from the bottom to the top of the Scowrers criminal society, and is highly popular within the organization, urgently warns the Scowrers of a renowned Pinkerton agent named Birdy Edwards who has infiltrated their region, and of the need to trap and eliminate Edwards…eventually reveals to them that he is none other than Edwards himself. > > and _The Devil’s Alternative_ > > Valentina, the beautiful Soviet turncoat (and main love interest of the novel), who has been feeding top-secret Politburo information to Britain and America, warning them of Soviet plans to invade NATO-Europe…eventually turns out to have been working for the Soviets all along. I was going to post _the DEvil’s Alternative_ myself. I like Forsyth’s plot twists (I;‘ll list them below), but this one was cute _and revealed on the very last page_. Few other novels do that. The only others I can think of are _The Poisone Chociolates_ (which I list above) and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ _The Monster Men_. Forsyth twists: **The Day of the Jackal** At the very end it’s revealed that the man who has been found out to be The Jackal – Charles Harold Calthrop – isn’t actually The Jackal at all. It’s evidently another of the identities he purated. They don’t really know who the Jackal is. as the last line of the Fred Zinneman movie says – “If the Jackal wasn’t Calthrop, then who the hell was he?” **The Odessa File** Peter Miller, the journalist, wasn’t pursuing the escaped Nazi officer Eduard Roschmann (a real fugitive Nazi, by the way, who was still alive when the book was published, and really had the career described in the book) because he wanted to avenge the death of Solomon Tauber, whose diary he read, but because he discovered from the diaty that Roschmann killed his father. **The Dogs of War** Shannon and his crew of mercenaries end up executing the puppet leader of the African nation whose government they’ve overthrown, and put the popular idealist in place at the top. **A Careful Man** Although it appears that Timothy Hanson, who knew that he was dying of cancer and made careful preparation for his demise apparently tricked his undeserving relatives into burying the wealth (in the form of platimun ingots) with him at sea in a very deep spot, he really just had the coffin heavily weighted and re-converted the wealth into money that he gave, in an untraceable fashion, to the local orphanage. The farce of the apparent burial of wealth at sea was not only intended to disappoint his family, but to protect the gift from being found out by the Inland Revenue. Jules Verne liked twist endings, too, but he wasn’t all that great at them. His more successful ones: **Around the World in Eighty Days** [spoiler] Does this need to be spoiled any more? Phileas Fogg travels around the world in an easterly direction and , because of the machinations of Inspector Fixx, arrives back _just_ too late to win the bet. But he has been travelling eastward, and so has picked up an extra day in his local time relative to the people in England, so for them only 79 days had passed, so he’s able to get to his club in time to triumph. In modern terms, he crossed the International Date Line, but that didn’t yet exist when the novel was published, so the concept was still fresh to his readers (even though Verne cribbed the twist from Edgar Allan poe and another previous writer)[/spoiler] **Michael Strogoff** One of Verne’s lesser-known works (although it’s been filmed twice and adapted by Classics Illustrated), the titular hero is blinded by his enemy Feofar Khan, the Tartar Prince. At the end of the novel he meets Khan for a sword duel, and it is revealed that Strogoff is not, in fact, blind. His corneas, which were supposed to be singed by a red-hot sword passing before them were preserved by the Leidenfrost effect, due to his tears for his mother. **Captain Antifer** seriously neglected novel by Verne describing a treasure hunt. The story is filled with twists as the clues turn out to be far more complex and intricate than they first appear. The final twist is wildly improbable, but clever. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/59 "2020-06-18T17:40:07Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Another plot twist from the literary world: An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge: [Spoiler]A man is being hung by Union soldiers from a bridge. But the noose snaps and he falls into the river! His senses sharpened, he evades gunfire, swims to safety, and makes an arduous 30 mile journey back home. Except… > > …he actually just hallucinated the whole thing in the moment between being dropped and the noose snapping his neck. > > I remember reading that story in school and going “woahhhh”.[/Spoiler] I’m far too slow - this was going to be mine. So I’ll just add that the same twist is used in the movie… Jacob’s Ladder j ---
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599/60 "2020-06-18T17:50:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **The Last of Sheila** > > Again, a LOT of twists in this one, but the biggest twist is that the first solution presented is completely wrong, and a different person committed the crimes for a completely different reason > > **The Poisoned Chocolates Case** – not a movie, but a classic book by Anthony Berkeley > > ALL of the dozen solutions presented are wrong. The real murderer is revealed on the last page > [@](#): > > **Captain Antifer** > > seriously neglected novel by Verne describing a treasure hunt. The story is filled with twists as the clues turn out to be far more complex and intricate than they first appear. The final twist is wildly improbable, but clever. These are spoiler boxes, so please actually describe the twist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favourite-plot-twists/855599.md?page=4)