# Movies with WTF?!? moments you still can't figure out **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 15, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861 "2026-10-15T17:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/1 "2026-10-15T17:39:28Z")
This is not about movies where you didn’t understand most/all of it, but movies where you pretty much follow along and may even like, but suddenly something happens that makes your jaw drop and you say “What the hell just happened?”. Mine is the 1973 movie _Hex_, with Gary Busey, Keith Carradine, Dan Haggerty and Scott Glenn. It is set in a small Nebraska farm in 1919, right after World War One, when a motorcycle gang hides from the law on said farm run by two Native American sisters who exact revenge on the bikers by setting a hex on them. After a few deaths the young sisters make peace with a couple of the more decent bikers, and at the end of the film the sisters abandon the farm and ride down the road on the back of a couple of bikes…and as they go on down the road four modern fighter jets fly aver them. No explanation, no reveal at all that they are really not in 1919 Nebraska. They are driving cycles of that period, the police are driving vehicles of that period-no reveal at all. WTF?!? What have you got? ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/2 "2026-10-15T17:48:41Z")
'“What is that watermelon doing there?” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/3 "2026-10-15T17:50:15Z")
I don’t understand your confusion-that watermelon is very important to the plotline. Maybe you should watch it again? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/4 "2026-10-15T17:52:28Z")
The watermelon is science at its best. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/5 "2026-10-15T17:52:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > four modern fighter jets fly aver them. No explanation, no reveal at all that they are really not in 1919 Nebraska. They are driving cycles of that period, the police are driving vehicles of that period-no reveal at all. Something similar happens in _Inside Llewyn Davis_, which takes place in 1961: the title character is making a phone call at an elevated subway station in Queens and misses a key bit of information when a 21st-century 7 Train passes by in the background. I guess the Coen Brothers decided they had to include the train in the shot for the scene to make sense (and couldn’t rent out or simulate a 1961 model), but it’s an odd lapse in a movie that’s otherwise meticulous about historical detail. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/6 "2026-10-15T17:55:27Z")
But that was more of a sudden glitch they decided to include, whereas that four jet flyover in _Hex_ was deliberately put there. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/7 "2026-10-15T18:04:03Z")
There’s the scene in _Quick Change_ where the characters are trying to find their way out of Brooklyn by car and pass by a San Francisco “49 Mile Scenic Drive” road sign. (It would feel less WTF-ish if the movie were otherwise going for an _Airplane!_ or _Naked Gun_ style of random zany sight gag comedy.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/8 "2026-10-15T18:08:10Z")
I’ve never seen this movie, but IMDB describes it as “A group of friends who were World War I flyers ride their motorcycles across America in search of what they believe their generation lost during the war.” Perhaps suddenly ending up decades later is part of the curse, and as pilots they’d know immediately that they’re proverbially not in Kansas anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/9 "2026-10-15T18:14:10Z")
In _12 Monkeys_, Dr. Railly - an American character played by an American actor speaking American-accented English in a film that takes place in the United States - says “advertisement” using the British pronunciation “ad-VERT-iss-ment.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/10 "2026-10-15T18:20:53Z")
Affectation the actor or character picked up somewhere? We used to say harASSment universally, now HARassment seems to be at least equally popular. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/11 "2026-10-15T18:25:33Z")
In _My Own Private Idaho_, when everyone suddenly starts speaking in iambic pentameter for no obvious reason, and then they just as suddenly stop. Now, one’s man’s “WTF” is another man’s “stylistic choice”, so I’m not going to argue too much against this one. In _Magnolia_, which for me, is three hours of WTF, when everyone is simultaneously singing along with the same song at different places is a WTF that didn’t seem to add anything. The rain of frogs at least has some possibility of being a religious metaphor intruding in an otherwise secular film, so maybe that one can be stylistic. maybe. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/12 "2026-10-15T18:32:37Z")
The first one that comes to my mind is 2001 a Space Odyssey. The ending is so ambiguous that I was left scratching my head. It took me reading the book to understand what it was about. Up to that point you could understand what was happening and then WTF? `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/13 "2026-10-15T18:33:02Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But that was more of a sudden glitch they decided to include, whereas that four jet flyover in _Hex_ was deliberately put there. I think some sort of time cocoon was involved with the curse, so years passed while the familiars were carrying out their revenge, although it seemed like days to them. When they left the ranch, they also exited the time cocoon into the “present” day. Hey, it was the 70s, maaaaan. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/14 "2026-10-15T18:36:34Z")
_The Amityville Horror_ (the OG film, not the remake, nor one of the scores of sequels or in-universe properties). Early in the film, as the Lutz’ are plagued by increasingly weird and increasingly sinister goings-on, a sequence that has left me baffled for 45 years takes place. [\*] Neighbor (sickly-looking and pale) shows up with beer (holding the six-pack at an incredibly awkward angle; either the actor was half-assing it or there’s some deeper meaning), keen on getting to know his new neighbors. [\*] Kathy, already harried and, thus, inattentive, is momentarily distracted and looks away. [\*] When she looks back, the neighbor is gone without a trace, and he is never mentioned again. At a WAG, I’d say that there was originally more to the scene but it wound up on the cutting room floor. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/15 "2026-10-15T19:08:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I don’t understand your confusion-that watermelon is very important to the plotline. Maybe you should watch it again? No. It’s not Fan-wanking to the contrary notwithstanding ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/16 "2026-10-15T19:44:17Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > In _My Own Private Idaho_, when everyone suddenly starts speaking in iambic pentameter for no obvious reason, and then they just as suddenly stop. Now, one’s man’s “WTF” is another man’s “stylistic choice”, so I’m not going to argue too much against this one. As I recall Van Sant based the film very loosely on Shakespeare’s plays Henry plays. The dialogue in iambic pentameter may have been directly from one of those plays but I don’t recall specifically. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/17 "2026-10-15T19:58:21Z")
_ **The Chase** _ (1946) is so bizarre I wondered if I had fallen asleep after the first third of the film and missed something important: [The Chase (1946) Film Synopsis & Discussion - Obscure Hollywood](https://obscurehollywood.net/films/the-chase-1946) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/18 "2026-10-15T20:02:41Z")
Is this a bizarre moment in an otherwise somewhat normal movie, or is the whole movie bizarre? ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/19 "2026-10-15T20:24:25Z")
This is an ultra-bizarre moment at the very end of _Dead or Alive_ (1999). Nothing in the film prepares the viewer for it. The director (Takashi Miike) used bizarre endings in some of his other movies, but none I’ve seen are at this level of outlandishness. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie with a more “WTF?!?” moment. SPOILER ALERT! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fZak64C_DQE/hqdefault.jpg "Dead or Alive ending") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZak64C_DQE&t=406) _Two-Lane Blacktop_ (1971) certainly has an unexpected ending open to broad interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Humbagger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Humbagger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humbagger)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861/20 "2026-10-15T20:44:25Z")
Your description of the movie had me intrigued, so I searched it… I mean, I can understand why you feel about the jets the way you do. But honestly, after reading two different plot synopsis, I feel I would have had WTFs the whole time, with the jets barely getting a mention. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-wtf-moments-you-still-cant-figure-out/1033861.md?page=2)