Because we haven’t had a good old fashioned movie poll for at least an hour
Before we proceed, I really must issue a serious SPOILER WARNING
If you’re planning to rent out a movie which you know has got a famous twist ending (ie, Sixth Sense) then it might not be a good idea to read beyond this point as discussion of movies & movie spoilers may result.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
What do you think are the top 10 movie twist endings of all time? After some consideration I’d have to say
Silence of the Lambs
Fight Club - I don’t care what anyone says, there is no way you could have seen that one coming!
12 Monkeys.
Psycho.
The Sixth Sense.
L.A. Confidential - Not so much a twist but the thing with Rollo Tomasse was very clever.
Vertigo - nuff said
Seven
Memento - That whole movie’s one long twist.
Swimming with Sharks - Definately one of the most underrated films I know. Not only is the twist brilliant but everything in the movie (esp. Kevin Spaceys performance IMO) leads you in the exact opposite direction than the one the plot eventually takes.
Some of my moviehound friends sit through movies and deliberately try to see where the movie’s going to lead and try to figure out whether there’s going to a twist. I prefer to just watch the movie and let the path surprise me…the movies below aren’t necessarily the most fabulous movies ever made, but I enjoyed the twist each story took.
Shattered with Tom Berenger and Greta Schacci. Malice with Nicole Kidman, Alec Baldwin and Bill Pullman
The Last of Sheila – my all-time favrite mystery movie – it plays by the rules, giving you all the clues, but I guarantee you wont get the ending. A WONDERFUL twist! Not gratuitous and beautifully set up. (The screenplay is by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony “Psycho” Perkins!)
** Sleuth** by Anthony Schaeffer. Related to the above film in a complex way I won’t go into here.
Body Heat– Hot and sultry and steamy AND with a wickedly wonderful twist.
Charade – This movie is practically a textbook on the art of revelation in storytelling. Many twists in this wonderful and fnnt film. The last line, in context, is hilarious. Screenplay by the wonderful Peter Stone.
Mirage – Sort of the flip, dark side of Charade. Same screenwriter, same director, some of the same stars. Very weird and dark film.
and, of course, Psycho and The Sting. For some reason, The Usual Suspects didn’t work for me.
SEVEN—I thought was telegraphed.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS----neat!
THE SIXTH SENSE-----same type of thing had already been done in THE OTHER. Which BTW was a very good read.
Not a twist ending, but; who didn’t jump out of their seat when ALAN ARKIN grabbed AUDREY HEPBURN’S ankle in WAIT UNTIL DARK or the hand coming out of the grave to grab AMY IRVING in CARRIE. EEEEK!!!
Notice that if you take the 11 movies mentioned in the first two posts of this thread, Kevin Spacey is in four of them. Though I don’t remember L.A. Confidential having a twist ending. I remember a twist near the end, but it was pretty obvious. I’ll have to go rewatch it now to see if there was a twist I am forgetting.
As for Fight Club: That wasn’t a clever twist ending. That was just a stupid ending. But we won’t get into that argument.
Now, what should I contribute? Along Came a Spider? Nah, that was just stupid. Hm…Arlington Road had an interesting twist, but the movie really, really sucked so I can’t nominate that one.
How about Primal Fear, Presumed Innocent, and The Spanish Prisoner (though this one is so full of twists that you stop being surprised).
I’ll second (or third, fourth, as the case may be) Sixth Sense and Primal Fear.
Fight Club, I was a human distillery when I saw it the theatre, so the surprise ending was lost on me.
Memento was good, but “Seinfeld” trumped it as far as originality goes.
The Game. Not really a surprise ending, but the movie was building up to one ending or the other. Who would have guessed that we’d get both played off so masterfully? One of those movies I’d wished I’d never seen, just so I could watch it again anew.
I thought it was pretty obvious. The scene where I realized they are the same person is the one the day after that woman stays the night, there were a number of clues. For one thing, the two guys are never in the room at the same time, they make a point of showing one going into the next room before the other comes in. Secondly, the way the woman responds to them makes it obvious that she’s only talking to one person, I seem to recall that she acts confused and starts saying he’s crazy when he acts like there are two men there. Third was the dream.
Allow me to nominate Mamet’s House of Games, Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques, Berri’s Manon of the Spring, Coppola’s The Conversation, Gilliat’s Green for Danger and Sturges’s Christmas in July, The Palm Beach Story and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
