21 Movies That Might Have The Absolute Best Plot Twists Of All Time
Recently, Reddit user u/These_Ad1806 asked "What movie has the best twist?" and there were a lottttt of common responses. Here are some of the agreed-upon best movie twists ever!
🚨🚨WARNING: SPOILERS (obviously) AHEAD!!!🚨🚨
1.In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader revealed himself to be Luke's father:
Lucasfilms
"I hear that when ... Vader tells Luke who he truly is that everyone just absolutely lost their minds."
"This was one of my favorite childhood memories: seeing this with my dad and him yelling 'HOT DAMN!' in the theater. I was too little to understand the plot nuance, but old enough to know this was really important."
2.In Shutter Island, when it was revealed that Teddy was actually Andrew Laeddis, a murderer and psychiatric patient:
"First time I watched Shutter Island, I was so floored."
3.In Gone Girl, when it was revealed that Amy had planned her entire disappearance to frame Nick for murder:
20th Century Fox
"The screenplay is brilliant and the editing dragged on the main portion of the movie perfectly to where you feel like the movie is over."
4.In Psycho, when Norman killed Marion early on in the film:
Paramount Pictures
"It starts out being about a woman on the run with a suitcase full of money and then turns into a completely different movie a third of the way in."
5.In Crazy Stupid Love, when it was revealed that Hannah was "Nana" — AKA, Cal and Emily's daughter.
"Crazy Stupid Love has not one but two of the best twists ever for a rom-com! I had randomly put it on one night thinking it would be a generic run of the mill comedy, but the setups are so good that those twists come out of nowhere but are still fantastic."
6.In The Uninvited, when Anna realized Alex died in the fire, and that she had killed Rachel:
"Can't say I saw that ending coming."
7.In Parasite, when it turned out the housekeeper's husband was living in the basement:
"The scene where that maid tried to get into that secret basement just turned the movie upside down. That was so unexpected!"
"That's not even just a twist, that's an entire genre shift and it's so well done."—u/ladygesserit
8.In Spider-Man Homecoming, when Vulture was revealed as Liz's dad:
"Bit out of left field, but I really enjoyed the twist of Vulture being Liz's dad in Spider-Man: Homecoming. I remember being in the cinema when Vulture opened the door to Peter and everyone going, 'fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu—.' It was refreshing as most twists in big budget movies get spoiled way too often these days."
9.In Saw, when Jigsaw revealed himself to Adam as the apparent corpse they'd seen in the beginning:
"When the 'corpse' gets up, it threw me for a loop."
"The music builds that up so well too. I think it was the first twist I saw in the cinema [that got] gasps, shrieks and some nervous laughs from people that knew they were caught hook, line, and sinker."
10.In Se7en, when it turned out David's wife's head was in the box, and David was meant to fulfill the seventh sin:
"I was high as hell and eating some drive thru Del Taco the first time I watched it. Bean burrito legit dropped out of my hand when I realized what was in the box."
11.In Memento, when it turned out Leonard had killed his wife — and also that he'd killed "John G" already.
"Such a brilliant movie. I think the fact that it’s presented backwards sometimes overshadowed how good the plot twist actually is."
12.The Mist, when David was rescued immediately after killing his son and friends:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Dimension Films / The Weinstein Company
"The ending was terrible, but in a good way — like, the twist was heartbreaking, but it was so good."
"I saw this in the theater and it took me so long to process what had just happened. I legitimately haven’t watched the movie again because it just fucked me up so bad."
13.In The Sixth Sense, when Malcolm realizes he's been dead the whole time:
"In a high school film and literature class we had to show movies [and] talk about symbolism, artistic choices, etc. I choose The Sixth Sense. No one in the class had ever watched it before. Me and the teacher (who liked my choice a lot) were on the edge of our seats the entire time. When the twist hit everyone lost their shit."
14.In The Usual Suspects, when Kujan realizes Verbal is Söze.
"No one ever talks about The Usual Suspects — such a good movie and the twist had me so fucked up."
15.In Orphan, when it was revealed that Esther was actually a 33-year-old woman:
Warner Bros. Pictures
"Orphan was pretty fucked up."
"I didn't trust kids for a solid week after watching this movie."
16.In Final Destination 5, when it ended with the events of the first film, revealing that it took place before it:
"The whole theater gasped and clapped at the end because no one saw that coming at all."
17.In 10 Cloverfield Lane, when Michelle escaped the bunker and discovered that aliens had in fact invaded:
"The whole film is phenomenal and the ending was like, omg what the fuuuuck."
"The great thing about 10 Cloverfield Lane is that eventually, you stop thinking about the initial reason why they are in the bunker, but rather focus on the story about two people stuck with a psychopath. However..."
18.In Fight Club, when it was revealed that Tyler and the Narrator were the same person:
19.In Arrival, when it was revealed Banks' memories of her daughter were actually visions of the future:
"I loved the twist in Arrival! Watching it start to all come together was awesome."
"My wife and I had just had a baby girl when we watched it, and we bawled when that twist was revealed."
20.In The Others, when Grace realizes that she and her family are dead and "the others" are the new family that have moved into her house:
"I'm mentioning this movie not because it is the best but rather because it is hard to find digitally for some reason, but the movie The Others with Nicole Kidman has a great twist for its time."
"This is one that's great to watch again after knowing the twist. So many scenes are recontextualised when you know 'the others'' perspective of what is happening in the house."
21.And finally, in The Prestige, when Angier discovers Borden is actually a set of twins:
"Such a brilliant movie. They give you clues throughout the movie that you don’t even realize until the end or on rewatch."
"What's great is that it's actually a non-twist. Cutter could tell how the trick was done right from the beginning. He didn't suspect a twin specifically, but he knew it was a double."
Now it's your turn! What movies do you think have the best-ever twists? Let us know in the comments below!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.
