# List all of the movies with "things are not what they seem" plot device **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923 "2003-05-17T18:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/41 "2003-05-22T01:40:50Z")
**spoke-** , interesting theory about The Hitcher. In the same light, I suggest [Staggered](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0111275). There’s something odd about this road movie comedy (Martin Clunes as a man drugged at his stag party and having to find his way home after being dumped on a remote beach). There are constant references to death, including an autopsy dream-sequence recalling the “why are you here if you’re not dead?” scene in Jacob’s Ladder, that make me wonder if Clunes’ character is dead. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/42 "2003-05-22T02:21:06Z")
My favorite obscure variant on this genre is THE EXPERTS: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0097314](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0097314) It’s a comedy about a couple of late-1980s dopes (one of whom is John Travolta) who _think_ they’re running a nightclub in a rural Nebraska town stuck in the 1950s. Little do they know they’re actually in a KGB training camp in the USSR. It seems the KGB got all of its information about US customs from watching old sitcoms… ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/43 "2003-05-22T02:25:16Z")
I’d have to say that ‘The Sixth Sense’ doesn’t really qualify. The only thing that’s uncertain about the world is that the main character is unaware of somehting importnt that has happened to him. Everything else is made perfecly clear. If we do include TSS then we need to include every other ‘amnesia’ movie such as **The Bourne Identity** and every other movie where something happened to the character without their knowledge such as **Alien:Resurrection**. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/44 "2003-05-22T03:19:07Z")
_Murder on the Orient Express_, although probably all “mystery” films count. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/45 "2003-05-22T22:04:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by raygirvan \* > \*\*\*\*spoke- **, interesting theory about The Hitcher.** It dawned on me on my second watching of the movie. Three clues, IMO. 1. The C. Thomas Howell character is always present when a killing happens. 2. Rutger Hauer has an uncanny ability to find C. Thomas Howell’s character. (How did he find him at the motel, for example?) 3. C. Thomas Howell’s character sits in on the police interrogation of Hauer. No way that happens, unless Hauer is just a figment and it’s really the main character who is being interrogated. ---
**Author:** ![Fujerica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@Fujerica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fujerica)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/46 "2003-05-23T01:01:04Z")
Brazil ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923/47 "2003-05-23T16:46:12Z")
I haven’t seen either of these, but I think “Spirited Away” and “Carnival of Souls” may qualify, based on what I’ve read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-all-of-the-movies-with-things-are-not-what-they-seem-plot-device/175923.md?page=2)