Sometimes, a show, movie, book, etc. has a twist that has become so well-known that people forget it was supposed to be a twist.
What are some examples?
I’m sure The Sixth Sense has to be the standard bearer for this.
Or “No, Luke. I am your father!” from Empire Strikes Back
Although I don’t think anyone’s forgotten that they were “twists”.
I wonder if Rosebud counts from Citizen Kane?
The Mother from Psycho?
Here is one that is so well known, people forget it was a twist. It was spoiled in the marketing, but if you go in cold, it is a twist that:
Arnold’s Terminator in T2 is there to protect them, not kill them.
Jesus was nailed to the cross, died and was entombed and then he came back to life and continues on to ascend to heaven and then comes back again to judge mankind in the end. Quite the plot twists.
And please no comments concerning the validity of the Bible, just commenting from a story aspect.
Is the narrative in the Bible such that it is presented as a twist?
My vaguest recollections is that it is not.
I would guess that the Romans and other non-believers back in the early days would have considered it a twist. Maybe not a twist now since most people already know the story without reading it but back in the early days when first read it must have seemed like a very intriguing plot twist.
Being referred to as the greatest story ever told strikes close to being true even if you do not take it for Gospel or beleive in Jesus.
He told them it was going to happen, so no.
“He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
Which is the twist part. They actually did not see it coming down the way it did. Could not even conceive of it. Just ask doubting Thomas.
Are we talking in general too? Like in a horror movie the killer is close to killing someone but you don’t see the death. PLOT TWIST: They don’t die and show up to help the last survivor later.
IIRC, Jekyll turning out to be Hyde was a twist; today, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” is useful shorthand.
the two main characters in fight club are the same person.
In the story The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the narrator was trying to find out what the connection was between Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. The story had a twist ending:
Jekyll and Hyde were the same person all along.
Yes, this was actually a surprise ending back in 1886.
ETA: ninja’d
Not really a twist but more of a surprise, the chest bursting scene in Alien was supposedly unexpected and shocking to viewers. At this point it seems that scene is all the movie is remembered for.
Yeah, sometimes a “twist” is not only widely known, it’s the one thing that everybody does know about a movie.
Nowadays, it seems like, if someone’s watching The Empire Strikes Back for the first time, the one thing they go into the movie knowing ahead of time is “Luke, I am your father.”
Well, that and who Yoda is. For original audiences, when we first meet Yoda, we don’t know he’s Yoda, the great Jedi master; we just think he’s some goofy swamp creature.
Which is my point about the Bible as a story, everyone now know the story of Jesus to some degree so its not considered a twist anymore. But imagine yourself in the latter part of the 1st century and hearing the story told verbally to you for the first time and having a what the heck just happened moment.
The Crying Game
The twist in “To Serve Man” (both the story and the Twilight Zone episode. Quite a few Twilight Zone twists (e.g., "Eye of the Beholder) are well known now).
The identity of Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects?
I think the “Alien race invades only to be defeated by something utterly mundane that we take for granted” trope possibly qualifies. War of the Worlds and Signs being the two best examples I can think of.
Who dunnit at the end of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.
In case anyone actually hasn’t seen or read it:
They all did it.