The usual suspects!!! Who the F@@k is Keizer Soze???
Identity - a bit out there but good none the less.
Scream - that film rocks for 2 reasons, the first death and who did it in the end.
And from obscurity…John Carpenters THE FOG with (then) scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. It has a nice twist too.
just realised Usual Suspects was in the original list - I’ll shut up now!
I recommended Shattered on another thread with this topic and I’ll second your recommendation here! I really enjoyed that movie! 
There is a movie called lLoot based on a Joe Orton play that sort of is one kind of twist after another.
Fortunately I didn’t know the movie had a twist, so it took me until his ring rolled on the floor to get it. But yeah, when you read a spoiler before seeing the movie, the surprise is ruined.
And since 12 monkeys was (were?) already mentioned, my nomination for a movie with a twist goes to total recall.
Well, since TERRA beat me to The Crying Game, how about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Maverick?
Just to make it as absolutely clear as possible: If there is no, repeat no twist in the movie, there there is no twist to guess. Too many people are presupposing that there was a twist in T6thS and then try to make quasi-logical statements from that. If your premise is wrong, then your statements don’t make sense.
It’s not a question of intelligence, guessing, looking for it, etc. It’s merely a matter of paying attention.
I strongly urge people who think there was a twist to watch the movie again with no such notions. It is very well made, the predicament of the kid to try and help BW without causing harm is fascinating. It’s a classic “the shoe is on the other foot” tale. Film noir-style: the person trying to help is the person in need of help.
I didn’t read any reviews before I went to see this movie, and the end was a complete surprise to me. I liked it a lot so I was paying attention. And it still surprised me. The people I watched it with had the same ‘holy crap’ reaction as I did, as do most people I know who’ve seen this movie, as do most reviews about the movie, written by people who make a living out of paying attention to movies.
Of course if you watch it a second time it’s obvious, all the clues are there, plain as day. But the first time I watched it (and I’d venture to say, the first time most people watched it) the ending was not at all what I’d expected. How is this not a twist?
A word of warning for those of you who have never seen The Usual Suspects and are planning to watch it for the first time on DVD:
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use the DVD’s “Scene Selection” guide until you have seen the movie all the way to the end. The thumbnail picture that they use for the final chapter contains a MAJOR spoiler for the twist ending.
I made the mistake of doing this and it spoiled the whole damn thing.
I think you’re being needlessly harsh. A plot twist is nothing more than an unexpected departure from the pattern in a story. It does NOT mean that this departure cannot possibly have been inferred based on past hints.
Consider The Sixth Sense, to use the subject of your ire. The first 90% of the movie could have been interpreted in either of two ways, namely,
Malcolm Crowe had survived being shot
or
Malcolm Crowe was dead all along
The writers went out of their way to make the first possibility seem utterly plausible, to the point that it was simply the natural assumption to make. Most casual viewers would naturally assume the former, especially after all the heroic efforts made to obscure the latter possibility. The outcome was utterly consistent with the rest of the movie, but it was also the far less natural assumption to make. YES, one could have guessed it by considering various clues, but it was hardly the natural expectation. It most certainly was a plot twist.
The ending of Se7en is arguably a plot twist, but less convincingly so, since it doesn’t overturn any underlying assumptions about the movie. I would say that it is a surprise ending, and nothing more. Ditto for Citizen Kane, since
the movie gives absolutely no indication about who “Rosebud” was, and so there is no pattern or expectation being overturned.
Let me echo the statements already made that ftg is treating The Sixth Sense way too harshly. That’s very obviously a plot twist in the end, and saying that whoever didn’t see it coming slept through the movie is an insult to everyone but a very select few. Something happens at the end of t6thS which puts every event in the movie in a completely different light and makes the audience reassess everything they just saw and took for granted. If that isn’t a plot twist, frankly, I don’t know what is. No amount of psychic powers obviously possessed by some viewers is going to change that.
Excuse me for watching movies.
Some context:
The first time I saw “The Godfather”, I saw this weird reflection during the graveyard scene. A “what was that?” And this was on TV, my circumstances were such that I couldn’t see it when it was in the theaters.
When the DVD set came out, someone asked Roger Ebert about it in his “Answer Man” column. Ebert brushed him off. Others wrote in. He finally went frame by frame thru the scene and saw it.
And this guy calls himself a professional movie watcher? Sheesh.
Now: back to T6S:
In the hospital bed scene HJO finally tells BW his secret. He reveals three facts:
Sesame Street time. Which of these doesn’t belong if you believe in A Twist?
Ding-ding-ding. Number 3. BW doesn’t see the dead people that HJO sees because of Number 3.
That is absolutely the latest point in the movie that you can get without realizing BW is dead.
If you know the basics concept of Film Noir, you know he’s dead by the time of the first meeting with HJO in the church. Big symbolism all around.
Now, just to continue on this theme:
The Wizard of Oz doesn’t have a plot twist that I can think of near the end. Some nice little twists in the first half. Also waaay too many drug references for a “kids movie.” (And if you think I’m going to do a spoiler box for WoOz…) She gets knocked out. When she “wakens” everything is different, weird stuff, color, etc. It’s clearly a hallucination. Since the witch (and much later the wizard) are clearly characters from her “real life”, that also clues you in.
Very good movie, well done, classic songs and Judy! But no twist ending.
ftg,
I think it would help all concerned if you would provide your definition of “plot twist”.
What I’ve seen so far is that you believe The Sixth Sense did not have a plot twist because you realised the truth about the Bruce Willis character early on. Nevertheless, the reality is that the movie was clearly made with the intention that said truth would come as a surprise at the end, and also the undeniable reality is that the vast majority of viewers did not have the early realization that you did, and hence were surprised at the end, as the movie’s makers intended.
So I’m really curious as to what definition of “plot twist” you have that, despite all of that, makes The Sixth Sense not have one.
ftg, I explicitly addressed your objection. Foreshadowing does not preclude a plot twist. A plot twist is an unexpected departure from the pattern of a story and the expectations which were built up in the audience.
Now, if you want to stroke your ego by proclaiming to the SDMB, “Haha! I predicted the ending of The Sixth Sense! I was paying attention, and you dimwits weren’t!” then feel free. Don’t pretend that this means there was no plot twist, though. That’s simply an irrational conclusion to draw.
DreamCatcher
Semi twist at the end. Minor twists all throughout the movie…
The Thirteenth Floor
(As to not ruin the movie by the aforementioned spoiling): It’s just a good movie 
I agree with 12 monkeys; Very good movie
I can’t think of any more
I KNEW I forgot something!
Reservoir Dogs
Duh…
luke… I am your father
george lucus didn’t even see THAT one comeing
“They don’t see each other?” That’s your big clincher? If that was the dead give-away (excuse me) then by your logic, everyone in the film besides the boy should be… you know… spoilered. Coz they sure as hell don’t see any dead people either. And, as has been said before, foreshadowing alone does not by definition exclude a twist ending, ever. I don’t know what beef you have with the movie, but trivializing the fact that maybe 90% of all viewers were left speechless by the ending, is not the way to go.
Btw, I personally believe that was not Bruce Willis in that movie, that the boy did not see dead people, and that the boy’s mother was actually a grapefruit in disguise.
I meant to leave that last part off the quote. Sorry about that.
Actually, I quite surprisingly enjoyed this movie. I think Bill Murray’s presence was a big clue that I should not watch it seriously. If taken as a comedy, it works very well by pushing plot twists to a grotesque extreme, IMO.
I’d like to second, or triple Deathtrap. I’ll also add the French film Diabolique. There was a crappy American remake some years ago that should be avoided but the original was suspense of the highest caliber.