There are two movies commonly used as examples of “shocking” twist endings: The Crying Game and The Usual Suspects. Now, for the sake of the two people in the world who don’t know the twists in these movies, I won’t mention what they are. The thing is, I haven’t seen these movies, so I don’t know WHY the twists are supposed to be “shocking”. In The Usual Suspects, everyone wants to know who Keyser Soze is, and when they finally find out – SHOCKING! But why?
If we told you why the twists were shocking, we’d be giving the twists away!
By the way, the twist in The Crying Game comes near the middle, not at the end.
martianginhonky.com
I don’t understand the purpose of this thread. Do you want to have the movies spoiled or what??
Oh good heavens, The Usual Suspects was a by-the-numbers movie with a premise I remember seeing on Sesame Street.
One of these people is doin’ his own thing, one of these people is not the same…
I don’t think the point of the ending of “The Usual Suspects” is meant to be shocking. In fact, I think most people who see the film know instinctively “who is who,” but we like the “how and why” of the way the story is told.
I’m trying to be spoiler free. In other words, I knew that X had to be Sose (how? No great intellectual feat on my part, I “just knew”), and was not shocked that I was right. I was surprised by the little bits that were revealed as the cop dropped his coffee cup and did his flashback.
Sir Rhosis
The reason they’re shocking twists is that they redefine everything that’s happened before. Watching the movie a second time is a different experience because of what is revealed at the end.
Major spoiler of the Usual Suspects follows cause it’s a good example:
At the end of the movie it’s revealed that the cripped and unassuming narrator, Verbal Kint, is Keyzer Soze. When you watch the movie again you watch it with the knowledge that in every scene with Verbal in it the characters are all interacting with the big bad boogeyman they’re all scared of.
Memento did it one better, with every scene twisting the one before it until the end (beginning) of the movie. Truly a mind bender the first time you see it, then the second time you see it it’s better since you can understand what’s happening in light of already knowing the twist.
I agree - just having an unexpected ending is not enough. Sixth Sense is another film with a redefining ending.
As is the original Vanishing. Not shocking in terms of unpredictability, but shocking in that you are suddenly aware of the details of what has happened before.
Redefining? Maybe, but …
I figured he was dead about two seconds after he got shot, so I actually went through the movie trying to prove my point the first time I saw it, and keep whispering things to my friend next to me. At the end…yup, he’s dead. To me, anyways, it didn’t seem that shocking, or that we were even supossed to think he was alive. But for some reason a lot of peopel seemed to not see it coming.
I found the twist in A Beautiful Mind (somewhere around the middle) to be quite jarring. Something was always a little off about Charles, Marcie, and Mr. Parcher and the whole government code cracking but I can’t say I saw what happened coming, not having been familiar with John Nash’s life.
Pshaw, I saw The Usual Suspects’ ending from a mile away. Everyone had said I would find the ending shocking, so I immediately knew who Keyser Soze must be.
Incidentally, I was surprised at Scream’s ending, but my friend wasn’t. His dad reads mysteries like no one’s business, and he immediately guessed that
there were two killers. Actually, he said, “There are two killers. That guy’s one of them.” I guess murder stories follow a certain predictable pattern, based on dramatic imperative or something.
Oh, and I was also surprised by Sixth Sense and A Beautiful Mind. Anyone seen The Others? That ending I didn’t see coming.
I won’t get into detail for the sake of spoilers, but in a screenwriting class I took about mysteries, my instructor pointed out a few common ‘threads’ amongst whodunnits that have since ruined about five or six ‘suprise’ endings for me in the past 3 years. Kinda funny to notice there’s a pattern, though.
I suspected it was something like that.
I don’t understand the OP in regards to the unexpected twist in The Crying Game.The woman had a penis.
You want to know why this was shocking?
The woman had a penis.Imagine you were a heterosexual male (not implying you’re not, but I don’t know you), a man of action, a warrior for your people, irresistably drawn to a beautiful, enigmatic woman, about to consummate your longing when you discovered
The woman had a penis.Wouldn’t you be shocked? Of course, as Torgo pointed out, this isn’t a film about a shocking ending, it’s a film where two people
care about each other despite seemingly irreconcileable differences (and seemingly irreconcileable similarities).
The problem with the Usual Suspects is that the ending doesn’t just redefine everything that happened before, it invalidates it.
Almost the entire movie is told by a liar. Some of what he says cannot be true within the context of the film, but we have almost know way of knowing what other facts were created or distorte, so there’s very little point in reinterpreting them to fit the new information. The film has some worthy aspects but is hollow at its core.
Ditto bouv on The Sixth Sense. Was surprised by The Crying Game. In A Beautiful Mind I figured out who was who/what with the exception of
the roomate being a hallucination.
In The Usual Suspects, I just didn’t care by the time it dragged to the end. Highly unrealistic behavior for crooks.
Did no one else watch Nicole Kidman’s horror movie? The ending really was quite surprising, and there were quite a few scary bits.
I turned in my Junior Detective badge the week I finished reading Tryon’s The Other and Fight Club then saw The Sixth Sense. But then I figured out what was going on in The Others as soon as
the woman who turned out to be a psychic was shown. She just looked like a psychic, and I thought “séance,” and put two and two togethr
Not that I like being able to figure out the ending all the time, in fact, quite the opposite.
Cool! For the first time ever, I get to be the first to mention No Way Out in a “twist endings” thread.
I never saw that one coming.
OK, I knew what to expect in The Crying Game, 'cause everyone was talking about it. It was even spoiled by a critic or in a talk show, or something. But it was still shocking to me when it happened, because it was like “blammo!”. And it was tiny.
In the Sixth Sense I figured it out in the middle of the movie because everyone was like “ooh, it’s a shocking ending a shocking ending, you’ll never guess…oooh SHOCKING!!”. So of course I was looking for something, and that was the only thing that made sense.
I didn’t see The Others because a friend of mine opened her big mouth and spoiled it for me. Now I don’t see the point in seeing it, damn her.
And The Usual Suspects was alright. I’m not a guy, so I guess the ending was like “oh, well that’s interesting”, instead of a “GAWDAMN!! I DIDN’T SEE THAT HAPPENING!!”
I’ve seen all of these movies except for No Way Out and Vanishing, and I was surprised at all of them (except Usual Suspects, like I said). Does that make me more gullible, or do I have a greater ability to immerse myself into the movie or something?
Actually Crying Game didn’t really shock me. It was more like,
“Oh, she’s got a penis. Interesting.” Then I continued eating my popcorn. I wasn’t, “HOLY HORSESHIT SHE’S GOT A DICK!”