Twists that everyone knows

Cafe Society
41

Between the cop trying to convince Verbal he’s just a waste of skin and there’s no reason for him to protect Keyser and Verbal explaining his indirect dealings with Keyser, through Kobayashi, and how terrifying he is and that he wouldn’t give him up to the police even if he could, I think we’re absolutely led to believe that it’s someone other than The Usual Suspects.
IIRC, the cop does try to convince Verbal that it’s one of the other guys (checks wiki - Dean Keaton/Gabriel Byrne) but Verbal won’t believe it.
So, if you were to show the movie to someone that knows nothing about it and pause it when Verbal is released, I think most people would be going back and forth between whoever the cop said it was and whoever Verbal said it was and likely assume that the protagonist (Verbal, from out POV up until now) is correct, that Keyser is some faceless crime lord that they shouldn’t go messing with.

(I haven’t seen the movie in at least 10 or 15 years, so it’s also very possible (and very likely) I’ve misremembered some of the details here).

42

Psycho. The movie was made before I was born (and I watched it when I was in high school) so I’ve always assumed everyone knows the surprise ending. But I recently watched a YouTube channel where a young woman watches old movies and she had no idea what the ending was.

Which demonstrates that pop culture gets forgotten. In fifty years, people will again be surprised by the endings of movies like Fight Club or The Sixth Sense because they will have faded out of popular knowledge and people who see them will once again be going in without prior knowledge.

43

There was a graffitti in a wall in Buenos Aires in the 80’s “Meteoro, el enmascarado es tu hermano!” (“Speed Racer, the masked one is your brother!”)

44

Agent Kulian (sp?) was convinced Dean Keaton was Keyser Soze.

Periodically I sarcastically say “thanka a lot Agent Kulian” but nobody gets it.

45

I do.

46

The vast majority of replies here seem to be too obscure (relatively obscure books or movies) to be “everybody knows” twists. Only a very few, like “Luke I am your father” would truly qualify.

47

Do you understand there is nothing to spoil? The information is only a secret to cartoon characters.

48

From Here to Eternity. Even if you’ve never seen the movie or read the book, I’ll wager you can guess the twist:

Circa 1941, members of the peacetime US military stationed in Hawaii concern themselves with boxing championships and personal intrigues. As things seem to spin out of control for one young soldier who refuses to do his Captain’s bidding…

Care to guess the twist?

49

Well, but one doesn’t know that until one clicks to reveal the spoiler. If you don’t give us some idea what it is, we don’t know whether it’s “safe” to click on.

50

Darth Vader’s identity came as no surprise to some segments of viewers because “vader” means “father” in their native tongue.

51

You mean when Burt Lancaster picks up the phone with an obvious calendar behind him showing the date is June 6, 1941?

When it came out, everyone knew what that meant. I’m not sure it qualifies as a twist.

52

A prequel that will live in infamy forever?

53

Some have been used so frequently since then that someone seeing the Zone eps for the first time would see them coming a mile off and would need to be told that this is where that twist originated,

54

I saw it for the first time around 1998 or so. I had no idea and let me tell you, when Norman appeared in the dress with the knife over his head, I jumped and let out a little scream.

I think I was aware he was likely doing it, but I had no idea about him being his mother, so to speak.

55

Last Sunday’s Peanuts comic has Linus watching Citizen Kane for the first time, and Lucy ruins it for him by telling him what Rosebud means.

I had never seen CK when the comic was originally published so it ruined it (a bit) for me when I finally saw CK a few years later. I recall an article that Charles Schulz assumed everyone knew the plot twist. But even today in 2020 it will still spoil the movie for someone.

56

Does the wizard in The Wizard of Oz being exposed as a phony huckster count? Considering Dorothy and Co were in a land where magic was possible (and indeed seemed to be a pre-requisite to becoming a community leader - good or bad), the audience must have assumed the Wizard was genuine. Add to that the idea that Dorothy was always in possession of the means to get home (ie ruby slippers) that the good witch could have told her about in the first 5 minutes, and that’s a lot of twists that makes most of the previous 2 hours fairly meaningless.

57

Well then, I apologize for making life so complicated for so many people.

58

Yes, but if Glinda had done that then the Wicked Witch of the West wouldn’t have been killed. Glinda used Dorothy as her cat’s paw to rid Oz of her competition. I believe the departure of the Wizard was unplanned but serendipitous, but the original plan was to eliminate the other witch.

59

You are correct, and, as far as I know, it has never been filmed that way. If it has, I would be interested to see the movie.

Of course, the identity of Mr. Hyde is so well known now, it would be impossible to surprise anyone with that twist.

60

Actually, Ripley surviving was a huge surprise. I saw this in the theater right after it came out.

Something that people seeing it for the first time today can’t appreciate is that the characters were killed off in reverse order of the fame of the actors playing them. That was contrary to the usual Hollywood formula.

Sigourney Weaver was the only complete unknown in the film, and yes, John Hurt was the most prominent-- you have to remember that this was a US/UK coproduction, so an actor’s fame in the UK counts too.

And yes, Sigourney Weaver was completely unknown before this film. She had done a commercial, a couple of TV episodes, and an uncredited role in a Woody Allen film, and that was pretty much it. Her character didn’t even have a first name, because it was open to being cast with literally anyone (OK, maybe not totally literally-- not a child)-- man, woman, any race, any age.

Dystopian-type movies where no one was alive at the end, or everyone was at least clearly doomed, were popular at the time, and when all the famous people had been killed, no one expected Ripley to live-- albeit, the last 10 minutes were the most edge-of-your-seat I’ve ever experienced in a theater.

When she closed her pod, and it was clear she survived, the theater broke out in applause.

And the film put Weaver on the map. NOW, she is by far the best known actor in the movie.

But in 1979, her character’s survival was a HUGE twist.

OOPS: ninja’d. Don’t know why I didn’t see that.