Let's Do the (Plot) Twist!

With plot twists a dime a dozen now a days, what would you say are some of your favorites? Needless to say, spoilers ahoy!

I would personally say Memento. It's a very subtle twist, not a huge one in terms of revelation and perhaps even in surprise, but the confirmation of someone's identity was a very affecting twist.

I foresee Fight Club and The Sixth Sense as appearing a lot.

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Originally Posted by evergreen

With plot twists a dime a dozen now a days, what would you say are some of your favorites? Needless to say, spoilers ahoy!

I would personally say Memento. It's a very subtle twist, not a huge one in terms of revelation and perhaps even in surprise, but the confirmation of someone's identity was a very affecting twist.

I foresee Fight Club and The Sixth Sense as appearing a lot.

At least spoiler tag and mention the plot twist you're talking about.

I mean, Memento had a lot of plot twists about different characters' identities.

Spoiler:

I'm assuming you mean that the main character was essentially Sammy Jenkis (in terms of the character having a wife who was diabetic and that he then spent time in a mental hospital).

But another identity twist could be that Lenny had killed many John Gs after the original guy was taken care of.

I also found that The Machinist had an incredible twist.

The Machinist:

Just how everything in the movie leads up to the self-realization that the main character was a hit&run driver and the guilt he feels throughout the whole film was the cause of his losing weight and sleep.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yeah the Machinist had a great twist. Old Boy had an interesting twist. Though to me it sort of seemed like a meh twist considering how much shit the father went through. Though I suppose that's what you get for running your mouth eh?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I thought the movie Identity, with John Cusack and Amanda Peet, had a very good twist. When I finished I was amazed that I didn't figure it out sooner.

I agree, The Sixth Sense had a great twist. And I actually liked The Village a lot, even though not many other people did. I thought "those we do not speak of" had a great look. The only Shamalyan movie I didn't like was Signs. There...was no twist, which is what we are growing to depend on in an M. Night Shamalyan movie, and I didn't like that they showed the full alien. It would have been so much creepier if we never saw the whole figure. At least something would have been left to the imagination.

And moving away from Shamalyan, how about Secret Window?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Some of my favorite plots:

Spoiler:

Star Wars Episode V: Luke discovers his father is Darth Vader at Cloud City.

Spoiler:

Cry Wolf: The new guy plays a game where everyone is secretly involved in some plot to frighten him. Eventually, he is mislead to think that a professor is the mysterious murder killing all his game-mates. A desperate struggle for survival, he recovers the handgun dropped by the professor and accidentally kills him rather than wound. Later he discovers the professor isn't a murderer, everyone was playing around to mess with him, and he's an idiot.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Sixth Sense was not a good twist. Shymalan is a HORRIBLE twist writer. His stuff is inplausible and bloody painful. End of story. Just a terrible, terrible writer.

Anyway, what do I like? The Usual Suspects.

Spoiler:

I don't care who you are, when you watch that movie the second time, Kevin Spacey's performance is entirely different. What looked like boredom before becomes a cunning glance the second time. Also, my cat is named Keyser Soze. There's a good fucking reason for this.

Oldboy is also tremendous. I can't deny that. That was just... messed up. I loved it.

Lucky Number Slevin has a decent twist, though the movie certainly lacks in certain ways.

Spoiler:

The bit with the cop being involved in the end, totally didn't see it coming

And what about Snatch? I think everyone knows it by now, but bloody brilliant anyway.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Seven has probably the cruelest twist ever.

And it's true what they say, High Tension's twist is cheap, unnecessary and just plain sucks. No 'buts' allowed here!

And

Spoiler:

Anakin becomes Vader! Who saw that coming? NOBODY!

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Anyway, what do I like? The Usual Suspects.

Spoiler:

I don't care who you are, when you watch that movie the second time, Kevin Spacey's performance is entirely different. What looked like boredom before becomes a cunning glance the second time. Also, my cat is named Keyser Soze. There's a good fucking reason for this.

I didn't even think of Usual Suspects, too old for it to pop in my head. Yes, I must agree, it has to be my faviorate twist I've seen so far. It delighted me :P

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Oldboy had one of the biggest twists I've seen in years. The buildup was perfect, along with the brief pause to give you time to shout with unbelief (like I did).

Spoiler:

The woman he fell in love with and made love to was his estranged daughter.

Truly horrifying and unforgiving. It ranks up there with Star Wars, Sixth Sense, and so on in my book.

Are we allowed to name twists from TV shows too?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Am I the only one who called the Oldboy spoiler? The timing seemed all too perfect.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I didn't really think about it, since

Spoiler:

They established early in the movie that his daughter was sent to a foster family in sweden (I think it was sweden). This turned out to be false news, but you didn't know that. I knew they were going to reveal something with the girl, but not that.

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I must not be very good at this sort of thing cause both Secret Window and Fight Club had me fooled. Needless to say, i loved them both.

The Big Lebowski had a good twist to the end of it. Not many people take notice of it, probably because it's a hard movie to follow in the first place, what with there being so many characters who you have to connect to each other in various ways.

Spoiler:

When Jeff realizes that everything is just an elaborate hoax. Bunny (was that her name?) wasn't really kidnapped, and she was just trying to get money from her husband, and the husband setting it up so that Jeff would be stuck with the debt, and how the Big Lebowski was really cheating the whole deal, and walking away with something like 2 million dollars.

And besides all that, the movie was priceless.

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Even though you guys already covered a few good ones I can't believe some of you have actually missed some of the most obvious ones.

The Crying Game

Spoiler:

Hello............. =o
I knew she looked kinda... manly...

Primal Fear

Spoiler:

Yeah... There never was an Aaron. I knew he was too much of a pussy to be for real though. :/

The Score

Spoiler:

Jack should have known better than to fuck with a veteran. He thought he got away with the scepter in his bag when in reality he had a nice little front wheel differential. That one seriously blew me away.

and my personal favorite:

The Shawshank Redemption

Spoiler:

Three words people: "Salvation lies within"

I was speaking idiomatically.

Okay, this hardly deserves to be in the top 10 of all time best twists, and I'm sure plenty of people saw it coming. But I wasn't one of them, so I have to give it some credit.

FFVII: AC

Spoiler:

Ever since he started showing up in the teasers, I wondered how Sephiroth would come back. During the 8 month delay, I kept wondering whether he actually came back to life, or if the whole fight was just in Cloud's head. I had a bunch of different theories, but none of them involved Kadaj actually turning into Sephiroth (or rather Seph inhabiting his body).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

SOLDIER....you're not doing anything to help your fanboy image by bringing up that Advent Children event. It wasn't really a plot twist anyway... just totally random. Anyhow...

The Usual Suspects wins. Nothing can touch that.

FELIPE NO

....Bitch if you want, but it's still a movie, and it still had an unexpected moment (for me anyway) in it. I think that qualifies as a twist.

I noticed nobody mentioned Kill Bill part 1 yet.

Spoiler:

"Does she know that her daughter is still alive?"

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

There's no real plot in Kill Bill 1 to even have a twist.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Anyone seen Tod Browning's Freaks?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yes... And it is seriously one of the most giddily disturbing movies I've ever seen.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I know it's not a movie, but it still bears mentioning. Then again, it doesn't say "movies only" anywhere on the thread.

Giant Robo

This anime had some of the biggest twists I've ever seen, movie or otherwise. The biggest and most tragic took place in the final episode.

Spoiler:

Genya, after laying waste to most of the planet and killing his own sister for trying to interfere with his plans, receives a message from his late father. It was in this message that Genya finally learns his father's last wish in full; he wanted his son to SAVE the world, not destroy it as he interpreted it. He also wished for Genya, above all else, to look after his little sister, who he had just shot in the head.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

You know what? That's actually a good one. I don't know why I never thought of putting anime in here. Which reminds me....

Full Metal Alchemist

Spoiler:

I'm sorry... But when Hughes was killed by Envy (At least I think it was Envy... All those "sin" names confused me, although I knew who Lust and Gluttony were) it just completely hit me like a left uppercut to the chin. The worst part about it was that I was so in shock over him getting killed, that I completely forgot that he had a wife and child, so when the time for his funeral came around, I was just not... all there...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SOLDIER

....Bitch if you want, but it's still a movie, and it still had an unexpected moment (for me anyway) in it. I think that qualifies as a twist.

That particular moment isn't what I'd call a "twist." More of an inevitable, "coming a mile away" climax. Among other things, they spend the whole movie...

Spoiler:

...calling Kadaj and co. "Remnants" of Sephiroth, doing scenes that flash back and forth between them (see Kadaj's visit to Rufus for the most obvious example), and have the three guys who look JUST LIKE HIM perpetually searching for mommy dearest and yammering on about bringing Sephiroth back. About as subtle as a hammer to the forebrain.

I defer you to the parody subs version of the airship scene for this one.

Quote:

VINCENT: "Does that pretty lady remind you of anyone? I mean, the one with the silver hair, not the blond."

YUFFIE: "Oh! I know! I totally... um."

CID: "The astute observer might note he resembles Sephiroth."

TIFA: "Do you think Cloud has noticed?"

VINCENT: "Oh, hell no."

TIFA: "Boy ain't bright...."

As for movie twists, hm... Ginger Snaps 2 had a pretty good twist at the end.

Spoiler:

It's pretty obvious throughout the movie that Ghost has a bit of a loony psycho streak. But it's not until the very end that it all comes pouring out in full force, and you realise exactly what she's capable of: burning Grandma alive and cheerfully lying about it (and lying about just about everything else, for that matter), getting the guy killed because she sees him as a threat, killing Alice to avoid going back to the clinic, and going in a split second from a facade of friendly/sisterly affection with Brigitte to shoving her into the cellar and making her into a nice little werewolf pet for her upcoming reign of "moral terror". Man.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The aforementioned Usual Suspects. Not even going to bother explaining that since it looks like it's been done a thousand times before.

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Spoiler:

As far as I know, the female lead wasn't really a serial killer, but her psychotic tendancies (read violent behavior) was more of a fabrication of the main character's insecurity. He didn't know anything about this woman. As he did research, certain things could have made his new girlfriend out to be a demented killer. Despite ignoring the warnings from his friends and the dubious/vague information he gathered, he went on to see this woman like some naive little kid.

This was also a Miike film. And Japanese. I have a hard time getting the plots for these sometimes, since they have a habit of not hitting you over the head with clear-cut plot points.

FELIPE NO

Quote:

Spoiler:

...calling Kadaj and co. "Remnants" of Sephiroth, doing scenes that flash back and forth between them (see Kadaj's visit to Rufus for the most obvious example), and have the three guys who look JUST LIKE HIM petpetually searching for mommy dearest and yammering on about bringing Sephiroth back. About as subtle as a hammer to the forebrain.

Yes, but...

Spoiler:

Kadaj said Sephiroth would return, but he never mentioned that HE would become Sephiroth. I just figured he'd just show up somehow after Cloud was done with Kadaj.

Whatever.

Quote:

Full Metal Alchemist

Yes. Absolutely yes. This show had me hooked like nothing else during the later half. It became one twist after another, and most of it was with the Sins (Homunculus). My personal favorite though is

Spoiler:

When Fuhrer Bradley is revealed to be Pride. You always had a suspicion about him (too damn cheery, too many secrets), but once he reveals himself, along with the creepy line "I have the ultimate eye", all bets were off. Awesome scene.

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You all have to admit, the end of Matrix Reloaded was pretty damn awesome.

Spoiler:

... cliffhanger, plot twist, whatever. The human Agent Smith infected ending up on the same ship as Neo created instant hype for the third movie, and let down millions who saw it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.