# Works where you guessed the twist/major plot point/whatever before it happened \[SPOILERS\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2011, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023 "2011-10-18T10:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/81 "2011-10-24T14:04:51Z")
So if I’m just out of a coma and I’m kicking a mugger’s ass with Kung Fu, then I’m… …still in the coma! NOW it all makes sense… ~ ~ ~ ~ But, seriously, folks: It’s so hard to disguise a plot twist, that I really enjoy it when a screenwriter can fool me. BUT it has to make sense. The real challenge seems to be for the twist to stay true to the characters. If The Village is in present day, then that makes William Hurt’s character a manipulative jailer. Is that consistent? I’d say yes (though in this case I’d say it’s not a plot twist if every single member of the audience was just assuming that from the get-go). Both _The Sixth Sense_ and _Fight Club_ were marketed without any hint of a twist, and I saw both before anyone told me anything about them (other than a friend trying to get me to see a movie about guys beating each other up, and me refusing multiple times). Went back and watched them again – well, watched an entirely different version of both movies. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/82 "2013-11-26T11:11:48Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I guessed that Jaye Davidson was a man pretty early in The Crying Game. I,was stunned that anyone was ever surprised…but I grew up in Hollywood in the 70’s, so I have to remember that when being amazed by other people’s perfectly understandable lack of familiarity with transexuals and drag queens, especially 20,years ago.1 > [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > M Night Shyamalan’s The Village. > > Never seen the movie, just the trailer. Saw someone talking about the twist (that it’s actually set in the present, and they deliberately act like it’s the past). My reaction was ‘But…it’s in the trailer!’ Which it actually isn’t, but it seemed so bloody obvious to me, I expected it to be revealed in the first few minutes of the film. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/83 "2013-11-26T12:15:22Z")
Oh, i see i have resurrected a zombie… Silly me. How did that happen? Searching for a thread about “Oldboy”. Sorry to those who are annoyed by zombies. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/84 "2013-11-26T13:12:14Z")
Nobody expects the Zombie Twist! Actually, I’m usually surprised by twists – pleasantly surprised, often. I loved (but did not forsee) the twists in **Charade The Last of Sheila Body Heat The Flight of the Phoenix The Sixth Sense** I’ve had others ruined for me ( **Psycho, The Usual Suspects** ) In the case of M. Night Shyamalan, knowledge that he not only uses twists, but absurdly outlandish ones has made them easy to guess. I figured out **The Village** , but I figured out the one for **the Happening** in nothing flat. As I’ve remarked before, I think Shyamalan is, in most aspects, a superb filmmaker. This one detail of outrageous twists, though, has ruined viewing his films. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/85 "2013-11-26T14:09:00Z")
One of the twists in **The Prestige** was made clear to me by the field of hats. The killer in **Murder at 1600** was clear once you knew about the Law of Conservation of Characters. It also works for any Scooby Doo episode and you can sometimes spot in on \*\*CSI \*\*or \*\*Castle \*\*(though \*Castle \*does a very good job at hiding twists. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/86 "2013-11-26T14:14:02Z")
The “twist” at the end of the 1987 movie **Black Widow** was incredibly obvious to me. So obvious that I hesitate to call it a twist. But critics at the time did. Some people need to see more movies with good twists. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/87 "2013-11-27T09:08:14Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > _The Matrix_. Totally ruined the movie for me. I know she’s probably gone, but what in the world is the twist in this? I honestly don’t know. Unless you are talking about what the Matrix is–but that’s the point of the movie, not a twist. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/88 "2013-11-27T11:05:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I know she’s probably gone, but what in the world is the twist in this? I honestly don’t know. Unless you are talking about what the Matrix is–but that’s the point of the movie, not a twist. Probably that Neo wasn’t the One, except that he was, but the whole point was that he had to choose to be the One, rather than be the One just because he was told he was (Free Will and what not being a theme in that franchise). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/89 "2013-11-28T06:03:11Z")
Or did she just mean “The twist where Mr. Anderson/Neo finds out the Real World is actually a construct of the matrix”? I’ve always pictured The _Matrix_ being written in a dorm room: "Whoa, dude… wrap. your brain. around this. What if… follow me on this, mon … what… if… the world… \*isn’t really Real? \*Yeaaaah, I know, blows apart your miiiiind, man! And there’s like aliens or robots or like really smart amoebas with these belts, umm, because… they taught themselves to use tools, okay, okay, ditch that part, I knew it was lame all along. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/90 "2013-11-28T09:02:07Z")
There’s an episode of Archer about Woodhouse participating in a wartime tontine. Several lines before the exact plot of the episode is revealed, and well before anyone says the word tontine, I said out loud “It’s a tontine!” I was just so excited to figure it out, I had to tell someone, and now “It’s a tontine!” is part of the common nerd echolalia of my household. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/91 "2013-11-28T10:53:22Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Finally got around to watching The Wolfman the other day and the moment Anthony Hopkin’s character showed up, I thought “I bet he’s the werewolf”. And yup. I was right. Horrible horrible movie, fwiw. I did like the scene where he changed while held captive by the idiot shrink who was absolutely positive there was no such thing as a werewolf. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/92 "2013-11-28T11:59:50Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Or did she just mean “The twist where Mr. Anderson/Neo finds out the Real World is actually a construct of the matrix”? > > I’ve always pictured The _Matrix_ being written in a dorm room: "Whoa, dude… wrap. your brain. around this. What if… follow me on this, mon … what… if… the world… \*isn’t really Real? \*Yeaaaah, I know, blows apart your miiiiind, man! > And there’s like aliens or robots or like really smart amoebas with these belts, umm, because… they taught themselves to use tools, okay, okay, ditch that part, I knew it was lame all along. It draws pretty heavily from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Which might just mean the idea ultimately started with a bunch of Greeks sitting in the forum getting buzzed on whatever they got high off of back then. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/93 "2013-11-28T15:24:33Z")
The China Bayles mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert are narrated in the first person (by Bayles). I can’t remember which book it was, but in one case (the one with the shrubbery) I knew who had committed both murders before Bayles even realised that there had been a second one. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/94 "2013-11-28T19:58:00Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > The only one I’ve even guessed was \*\*The Sixth Sense \*\*and I made the guess when he was having dinner with his wife in the restaurant. I’m not sure how far through the movie that was. That’s also when I figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/95 "2013-11-28T20:15:18Z")
Not a movie or a book, but I once correctly guessed a Wheel of Fortune puzzle based solely on the genre and the number of words and number of letters in each word. Sadly, I can no longer remember the answer. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/96 "2013-11-28T20:18:47Z")
The book “The Deep End of the Ocean” was the worst book I ever finished, and here’s why: I figured out every single one of the plot twists, even The Biggest One, 50 or so pages before they actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/97 "2013-11-29T13:01:52Z")
Oh, Jesus, Avatar. I didn’t even bother watching it at first because I knew \*exactly \*what the storyline would be based only on the previews. I mean I fucking nailed _everything_, up to and including ‘and he’ll end up becoming one of the native people at the end of the movie’. Stupid, stupid movie. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/98 "2013-11-29T13:27:00Z")
Just about every episode of The Twilight Zone. It’s usually pretty obvious by ten minutes in at the latest. Alfred Hitchcock Presents usually throws me for a loop, though. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/99 "2013-11-29T13:42:09Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Finally got around to watching The Wolfman the other day and the moment Anthony Hopkin’s character showed up, I thought “I bet he’s the werewolf”. And yup. I was right. Horrible horrible movie, fwiw. I guessed that from the commercials. It’s supposed to be a surprise? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023/100 "2013-12-02T03:47:51Z")
So, a couple of years ago, when they released the animated series _GI Joe: Renegades_. Pilot episode, “GI Joe” as an organization doesn’t exist, yet, just Duke and some of his buddies as part of a regular Army unit. Scarlett shows up, claiming to be from Army Intelligence, and strongarms them into giving her some backup as she storms in to investigate the _totally_ innocent Cobra Industries™ (not an open supervillain group, yet) plant nearby—obviously, they turn out to be up to no good, but it also turns out this wasn’t an authorized investigation. She tricked the others into helping her with a _completely_ illegal (in two or three ways) operation that she’d been ordered to cease work on, pretty much throwing them under the bus to try and get at Cobra, especially when it all blows up in their faces (quite literally) and they’re forced to flee as fugitives in the end, with no evidence of wrongdoing on Cobra’s part. At the time I thought that was a pretty interesting take on the character—them making Scarlett not a “Dirty Harry” cowboy-doesn’t-play-by-the-rules-cop, but more like an Inspector Javert type. Rather strident, possibly career glory-motivated, not actually very _likeable_; obsessive, ruthless to the point of _needlessly_ getting people hurt, but in ways that probably _hinder her own efforts_, because she’s too short-sighted to even cold bloodedly think more than a step or two ahead—but she\* really is\* chasing after a nemesis that’s _even worse_. But then, I thought…“they killed her father.” Or her boyfriend, maybe. Because she’s A Girl™, they’re going to make this about revenge. Inspired by A Man. Because that’s what Girls do—they don’t have motivations of their own, they’re motivated _by_ someone. No “agency”\*, just emotional reactions. To the actions of Men™. And…guess what they do reveal, a few episodes later? :smack: For the record, though, it turns out he wasn’t dead, just trapped in the Phantom Zone or something. \*(That’s the current buzzword, I believe) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/works-where-you-guessed-the-twist-major-plot-point-whatever-before-it-happened-spoilers/600023.md?page=6)