Gasp! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks of the biggest big screen plot twists that made everyone’s jaws drop. Consider this your spoiler warning.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 "Well, a boy's best friend is his mother."
00:02 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for movie reveals no one saw coming.
00:08 "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"
00:12 Consider this your spoiler warning.
00:15 Number 30. When the ending takes place. Remember me.
00:19 "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Hey, hey."
00:28 While we might not remember much about the critically panned Remember Me,
00:32 there's no way we could forget its shocking ending.
00:35 Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, a young man navigating his fractured relationship with
00:39 his father and a new romance. "But I didn't call you. It wasn't me."
00:43 "You could do worse than have a father who bails you out of jail."
00:48 In the end, Tyler begins to repair things with his dad,
00:51 and it seems like the movie may finish on an optimistic note.
00:54 But then it turns out that the office where he's waiting for his dad happens to be in the
00:59 World Trade Center, and the day happens to be September 11, 2001.
01:04 The twist comes basically out of nowhere, causing some critics to even label it exploitative,
01:10 essentially borrowing from a real-life tragedy to heighten the milquetoast drama of the film.
01:14 Number 29. She wasn't a young girl. Orphan.
01:18 The Colmans think their family is going to grow for the better when they adopt young Esther.
01:23 Unfortunately, that dream quickly proves to be a terrifying nightmare.
01:27 After several mysterious and murderous incidents,
01:30 we learn that Esther is secretly a 33-year-old woman.
01:33 "She only looks like a child. According to our records,
01:37 Lena Clamor was born in 1976. She's 33 years old."
01:43 Due to a rare condition known as hypopituitarism, she was able to pose as a young girl.
01:48 The person they thought they adopted wasn't just a grown woman,
01:51 she was also a deranged serial killer.
01:54 We're not sure there are enough family counseling services in the world to fix this situation.
02:03 Number 28. Bryony's fictional ending. Atonement.
02:07 This tragic drama follows Bryony, a young girl whose testimony leads to the false imprisonment
02:12 of her older sister Cecilia's lover Robbie. In her later years, she writes a book about
02:17 what happened following Robbie's release from prison, describing a reunion with Cecilia.
02:21 "Because in fact, I was too much of a coward to go and see my sister in June 1940.
02:29 I never made that journey."
02:32 According to Bryony's account, she's able to make up for her childhood mistakes.
02:36 But in a heartbreaking twist, we learn that in real life,
02:40 Robbie and Cecilia never actually reunited. They both died during the Second World War,
02:45 and Bryony's writing is akin to wish fulfillment after a lifetime of regret.
02:50 "I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life.
02:54 I'd like to think this isn't weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness."
03:06 Number 27. Her daughter is alive. Kill Bill, Volume 1.
03:10 When a pregnant former assassin known as "The Bride" is attacked by her ex-lover Bill,
03:15 she's put into a coma. She wakes up several years later, and learns that she ended up
03:19 losing her baby, which sets her off on an ultra-violent quest for revenge.
03:24 This high-octane, action-packed movie has its share of shocking moments,
03:33 but the ending takes the cake. The Bride has fought her way through the Crazy 88,
03:38 Gogo Yubari, and Oren Ishii. Later, Bill finds a survivor of the encounter, Sophie Fetel,
03:45 and simply asks her if the Bride knows that her daughter is actually still alive.
03:49 That sure is one way to set up a sequel.
03:51 Number 26. Non-linear story. Arrival.
04:02 You may expect the unexpected when you're watching a movie where aliens land on Earth,
04:06 but Arrival takes the complicated storytelling further. Linguist Louise Banks attempts to find
04:11 a way to communicate with the extraterrestrials, and figure out what they want. The way the aliens
04:16 communicate is far more complex than anything humans can comprehend. But that's not the only
04:22 revelation. While the audience has been watching Louise discover the truth, we also see scenes we
04:30 assume are memories of time with her daughter Hannah. But it turns out these clips are not
04:35 flashbacks. If anything, they're flash-forwards. The glimpses into future events show that the
04:41 audience's presumptions were all wrong, and that Louise must communicate in a different way to
04:46 ensure peace. Number 25. The crisis was over. The Mist.
04:57 We can't think of many movies more haunting than the last few moments of The Mist.
05:10 When Earth finds itself invaded by creatures who lurk in a thick mist, people start to panic
05:15 pretty quickly. A group led by a man named David endures several traumatic monster attacks,
05:20 and begins to feel that all hope is lost. They decide to take their own lives, and David kills
05:26 his companions, which includes his son, before giving himself up to the monsters. But as
05:40 he submits, we learn that the army has essentially neutralized the threat. The gut punch of a twist
05:46 is that if the group had just waited things out, they probably all would have been fine.
05:50 Number 24. Eli was blind the entire time. The Book of Eli. In the dystopian aftermath of a
05:58 nuclear apocalypse, a man named Eli sets out on a journey to help preserve humankind's culture.
06:08 You might be able to guess that this movie has some religious undertones.
06:11 But did you pick up on the fact that Eli was actually blind the entire time?
06:16 The reveal comes when the warlord Carnegie learns that Eli's copy of the Bible is in Braille.
06:21 This new bit of information not only surprises audiences, but also adds to the movie's religious
06:26 themes. Eli's journey to deliver the Bible is almost literally one of blind faith.
06:32 The real wizard. The Wizard of Oz.
06:43 The Land of Oz is a magical world filled with all kinds of colorful characters.
06:53 Trying to return home, Dorothy is joined by the Scarecrow,
06:56 the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion in a quest to find the famed Wizard of Oz.
07:01 "We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.
07:04 We nearly is the Wizard of Wiz, if ever a Wiz there was."
07:08 With the way everyone hypes this guy up, he's bound to be a pretty powerful magical being,
07:12 right? Well, actually, no. It's later revealed that the Wizard is just a regular old man who
07:17 found his way to the Land of Oz while traveling in a hot air balloon. Despite being a fraud,
07:22 he does help the main characters realize that they already had the qualities they were seeking
07:26 all along. Number 22. Guilty all along.
07:30 Primal Fear. When Aaron Stampler is put on trial for the brutal killing of an archbishop,
07:35 he desperately pleads that he didn't do it. As Aaron's case continues, it starts to seem like
07:40 he could have dissociative identity disorder. A judge winds up declaring Aaron not guilty by
07:50 reason of insanity, having witnessed Aaron's alleged violent personality Roy in the courtroom.
07:55 It's a surprising sequence of events, but it gets much stranger later.
08:00 Afterwards, it's revealed that Aaron faked his multiple personalities. He was guilty all along,
08:05 and tricked not only his lawyer, but probably a large part of the film's audience as well.
08:19 Number 21. Oh Dae-su and Mido's real relationship. Old boy. Nothing quite disturbs us like the South
08:26 Korean action thriller Old Boy. It follows Oh Dae-su, who is freed after 15 years in captivity.
08:33 Dae-su sets out to get revenge on his captors and find his long-lost daughter.
08:37 While he manages to start a relationship with a chef named Mido, the film reveals that the
08:46 romance is ill-fated. Actually, that doesn't even really do it justice. When Dae-su finally
08:51 confronts his captor Woo-jin, he learns that Mido is actually the daughter he was trying to find.
08:56 It's definitely the kind of twist that makes us want to be hypnotized into forgetting it.
09:00 Number 20. The invisible man becomes visible. The invisible man.
09:12 "I found something that can prove what I'm experiencing. That can prove that Adrian
09:20 is stalking me." The 2020 film adaptation of The Invisible Man is based on the 1897 H.G.
09:27 Wells novel of the same name. Starring Elizabeth Moss as Cecilia, the title of the film is pretty
09:33 explanatory of the premise. A scientist concocts a way to become invisible, then terrorizes Moss'
09:38 character in violent and unpredictable ways. The catch here is that for the entire film,
09:43 the titular character is presumed to be Cecilia's abusive ex,
09:47 who apparently killed himself shortly after she left him.
09:49 But that is proven false when, after gaining the upper hand and fatally shooting the invisible man,
10:01 Moss' character realizes the invisible man was her ex's brother.
10:05 Number 19. Meeting the parents. Spider-Man Homecoming.
10:13 Meeting your date's parents is awkward enough, especially when her father is the weapons
10:26 mastermind that tried to kill you. Adrian Toomes, also known as Vulture, tried multiple times to
10:31 disrupt the status quo and squander Spider-Man's feeble attempts at retaliation. So, we guess you
10:36 could say they knew each other, kinda? After Peter arrives at his homecoming date's house,
10:42 he is left absolutely speechless when Vulture opens the door to welcome him. Clueless as to
10:46 Spidey's real identity, Toomes tries to ease the palpable tension with cheesy dad jokes that only
10:52 make things more awkward. Vulture catches on to Peter after a while, though. But when the family
11:07 relation is initially revealed, it was certainly a jaw-dropping moment no one could have predicted.
11:19 Number 18. Malcolm Rivers' Multiple Personalities. Identity.
11:23 The main plot of the 2003 film Identity revolves around dissociative identity disorder,
11:35 previously known as multiple personality disorder, which is a condition where an individual harbors
11:40 two or more different personalities that are empirically distinct from one another. Malcolm
11:45 Rivers suffers from this mental illness, having created 11 separate identities within himself to
11:50 cope with childhood trauma. However, he's unaware of the situation, and unable to recognize the
12:06 mugshot of convicted murderer Malcolm Rivers, the original man that contains all of his identities.
12:11 So it's particularly shocking when his psychiatrist shows him a mirror,
12:14 and the image of himself that's reflected back is Malcolm Rivers as played by Pruitt Taylor-Vince.
12:19 Subsequently, he has a bit of a freakout, flashing between Malcolm Rivers and Ed Dakota,
12:31 played by John Cusack. And everything is gradually explained.
12:35 Number 17. Red is Adelaide, Adelaide is Red. Us.
12:48 With his debut feature film Get Out, Jordan Peele announced himself as a potentially
13:02 game-changing filmmaker, one who knows how to keep audiences on their toes.
13:06 His follow-up, Us, is a thrilling horror movie starring Lupita Nyong'o that pushed the boundaries
13:11 within the genre to new psychological heights. The story Red tells the Wilsons about the girl
13:22 in her shadow is seriously haunting, but also the key foreshadowing for the final twist.
13:31 In the film's final moments, Adelaide again recalls the incident from her childhood at
13:35 the funhouse, this time revealing the full picture. Red attacked Adelaide and left her
13:40 trapped in the funhouse with the tethered, meaning that for the entire movie, Red was Adelaide,
13:46 and Adelaide was Red. Number 16. People Food, Soylent Green.
14:01 The best type of plot twist is one that involves cannibalism. Unfortunately,
14:05 that just so happens to be the reveal in Soylent Green. In a dystopian world ravaged by over
14:10 population and a mass shortage of essential resources like food and water, Soylent Industries
14:15 provides wafers as a food source. One in particular, the film's namesake Soylent Green,
14:20 is tasty and nutritious, allegedly made from ocean plankton.
14:24 However, oceanographic reports proved the oceans had no plankton, and upon further investigation,
14:37 it's revealed that Soylent Green is actually made out of human remains,
14:41 meaning anyone who ate the wafer was unintentionally partaking in cannibalism.
14:51 Number 15. Ghost Face Unmasked, Scream.
14:54 The biggest twist in this movie was that Drew Barrymore, who was marketed as the main lead in
15:04 the film, was only in it for like two seconds. Just kidding. Though that was quite the bait
15:09 and switch. The Scream franchise, which began in 1996, distinguished itself early by holding up
15:18 a mirror to the genre, as well as calling out and toying with common horror tropes.
15:22 Main character Sidney Prescott is stalked by the mask-wearing killer Ghost Face,
15:26 and he is seriously creepy. Well, more like they are creepy.
15:30 The huge plot twist comes near the end of the movie, when it's revealed that Ghost Face is
15:40 actually two killers, not just one. And it made for a killer reveal.
15:45 Number 14. The Real Jigsaw Killer, Saw.
15:51 The dead body is not dead. We repeat, the dead body is not dead. This hugely successful franchise
15:59 has racked up more than its fair share of twists and turns over the course of numerous sequels.
16:03 But the twist ending of the first film remains arguably the property's greatest to date.
16:15 As the main characters attempt to navigate the cruel game of life and death into which
16:19 they've been thrust against their will, it quickly becomes clear that death is far more likely than
16:24 escape. In Saw's final scene, after all the tension and bloodshed, the dead body in the
16:29 middle of the room slowly rises up. The villainous Jigsaw Killer was hiding in plain sight the whole
16:41 time. Number 13. The Bunker, Parasite. This genre-bending film is a wild ride from start to
16:54 finish. Directed by Pang Joon-ho, who won four Academy Awards for the film, Parasite can be
16:59 described as cerebral, funny, and thrilling. The title Parasite is quite telling.
17:11 Something that lives off of another is essentially the boiled-down premise of this movie. The Kim
17:15 family secretly infiltrates the wealthy Park family, but they aren't the only ones. The
17:20 Park's former housekeeper and her husband were keeping secrets too. The hidden underground bunker
17:35 definitely makes for an unexpected twist. One that added just the right amount of excitement and
17:40 tension. Though as to the question of who the real parasites are, that remains up for debate.
17:45 Number 12. Sacrifice, The Prestige.
17:53 Following the lives of two rival magicians, Angier and Borden, this psychological thriller
18:06 sees each of them creating performances where they were apparently able to transport themselves
18:10 to different spots on the stage. However, when Angier seemingly drowns in an act gone wrong,
18:16 Borden is found at the scene and sentenced to death for the magician's murder.
18:19 But Angier didn't really die. Moments after Borden's execution, the executed man shoots
18:35 Angier, revealing he was a twin. The grim final twist comes when Borden realizes just how Angier
18:41 pulled off his own act. He would clone himself, while the original would fall through a trap door
18:46 and drown under the stage. A magician never reveals their secret, but it would seem that
18:54 it was actually lies and deception from the start. Number 11. What's in the Box?
19:08 7. What's in the Box? Gwyneth Paltrow's Decapitated Head, of course. Uh, no, seriously.
19:22 This classic David Fincher crime thriller had an unforgettably chilling twist.
19:26 Detectives Somerset and Mills finally apprehend a murderer they were hunting,
19:30 who happens to be a serial killer whose heinous crimes were based on the seven deadly sins,
19:34 gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, and wrath. Known only as John Doe, he gives himself
19:40 up to the police, convincing the detectives to follow his terms of surrender in return for the
19:45 last two victims. John Doe directs them to a remote location, and this is where he reveals
19:50 he had murdered Mills' pregnant wife because of his envy of their normal life, which incites Mills
19:56 to kill John Doe in a blind rage, becoming the last of the deadly sins, wrath. Number 10. Snape's
20:08 True Intentions. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The eighth and final film
20:18 adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was the anticipated emotional ending over a decade
20:23 in the making. Those who read the books knew the twist before the film was released, but those who
20:27 didn't were in for a big shock. Throughout the series, Professor Severus Snape, played by the
20:32 late great Alan Rickman, was a clear antagonist, with a seething hatred for both Harry and his
20:38 deceased father. However, in the battle between Voldemort and Hogwarts, Voldemort orders Snape
20:43 to be killed. Before he dies, Snape is able to pass on his memories to Harry, which reveal in a
20:49 poignantly heart-wrenching portrayal that he had been protecting Harry all along. Let's just say
21:06 that now we can't hear the word "always" without sobbing. Number 9. Who is Andrew Latiss, Shudder
21:20 Island? This Scorsese thriller follows Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a
21:26 missing patient of the titular island's psychiatric facility. Suffering migraines and hallucinations,
21:34 Daniels becomes increasingly paranoid, and believes something is definitely off about the
21:39 whole thing. The plot comes to a head when the staff reveals that Daniels himself is the arsonist
21:53 he has ultimately been chasing after. They were performing an experiment to see if he would recall
21:58 the events that led him to the facility. Teddy Daniels' real name is Andrew Latiss. He killed
22:03 his wife after she drowned their children. The experiment is ultimately deemed a failure,
22:11 but Leonardo DiCaprio's statement at the end of the film implies he does in fact remember.
22:16 Knowing the truth, he'd simply rather be lobotomized. Number 8. A telling handshake,
22:30 unbreakable. A horrific train crash that killed 130 people in the blink of an eye leaves one man,
22:42 David Dunn, as the sole survivor, and shockingly without a single scratch on him. Elijah,
22:48 a comic book art dealer, tells him about his theory of real superheroes.
22:52 David realizes he's walked away from more than a few near-death experiences,
23:09 and that he can see people's crimes through physical contact with them. Unfortunately,
23:13 the twist comes at David's expense when a later handshake with Elijah reveals that he was the
23:17 mastermind behind various accidents, including David's train crash, because he was seeking
23:22 a superhero counterpart to his villain. Many years later, we get a bonus reveal in the film Split,
23:40 which is a sneaky sequel that sees Dunn making an appearance at the very end.
23:44 Number 7. Tyler Durden, also known as the narrator. Fight Club. Ever notice that Edward
24:06 Norton's character in Fight Club doesn't have a name? Known only as the narrator,
24:10 his life becomes infinitely more exciting and chaotic after meeting Tyler Durden, played by
24:16 Brad Pitt. They establish a fight club together that soon evolves into an anti-consumerism
24:24 organization that condones violence and anarchy. The massive twist comes when the narrator tracks
24:29 down Durden to a different city, where he informs him that they are one and the same.
24:33 The brilliant editing throughout the film, which included split-second spliced frames of Durden
24:42 in scenes with the narrator, paired with this iconic twist, firmly established this movie as
24:47 a cult classic. Number 6. An inappropriate,
25:00 relationship. Chinatown. A neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski, Chinatown stars Jack
25:10 Nicholson as private investigator J.J. "Jake" Giddes. After a series of events, he looks into
25:16 the murder of a Department of Water and Power chief engineer, leading him to the man's wife,
25:20 Evelyn Mulray. Some fishy business is going down, but Giddes can't figure it out. That is,
25:26 until he catches Evelyn with her dead husband's mistress. After multiple attempts to deduce their
25:41 relationship, the truth comes out. Because of what her father did, Evelyn's sister is also
25:46 her daughter. Also, it turns out that Evelyn's father had her husband murdered. This kind of
25:51 relationship definitely qualifies as a plot twist, albeit a disturbing one. Number 5. Dead
26:00 People. The Sixth Sense. Admittedly, M. Night Shyamalan has had a bit of a bumpy career,
26:05 directing more than his fair share of flops. But when The Sixth Sense hit theaters in 1999,
26:11 he was being heralded as one of the most promising young storytellers working in the medium.
26:18 The major plot twist has inspired and appeared in many movies, including The Others, which was
26:23 released just a few years after. All of the clues were spelled out plain as day. The kid literally
26:28 tells us that he interacts with the dead. Looking back, it all makes sense, but the first viewing
26:35 was a huge shock to everyone who watched. Stellar performances by both Bruce Willis and Haley Joel
26:41 Osment made this plot twist an absolute jaw-dropper. Number 4. Home Sweet Home. Planet of the Apes.
26:59 Imagine waking up on a strange planet almost 2,000 years after your space mission began.
27:04 Well, that's exactly how Planet of the Apes begins, and it only gets wilder from there.
27:09 Shortly after landing, astronauts Taylor, Dodge, and Landon are captured by primates
27:14 who rule the planet. They realize humans are imprisoned and enslaved, while the apes,
27:26 chimpanzees, and orangutans are the masters of society. A scary concept for sure, especially
27:32 when the primates threaten to lobotomize, castrate, and kill Taylor. He escapes to a forbidden area
27:38 where the plot twist and truth is finally revealed. He's been on Earth all along.
27:43 Upon seeing a half-buried and demolished Statue of Liberty, the man breaks down,
27:55 cursing those responsible for humanity's fall.
28:07 Number 3. The Greatest Trick. The Usual Suspects.
28:11 This classic crime film has one of the most thrilling and unpredictable twists to date.
28:24 Con artist Verbal Kint, a survivor of a mass murder on a ship, is interrogated for his
28:29 involvement in it, telling Agent Kuian about the
28:37 events that led to the massacre. Verbal narrates a convoluted yet compelling story about various
28:42 criminals, including Redfoot, Kobayashi, and the infamous Kaiser Soze. Eventually,
28:47 Verbal confesses that one of his fellow criminals was behind it all, but he would not testify against
28:52 him. However, this doesn't sit right with Kuian, and a few moments after Verbal leaves,
29:04 he realizes the man was bluffing, weaving together elements of information from his
29:08 surroundings in the room to tell his story. Verbal then disappears without a trace,
29:13 before Kuian can catch him. Number 2. I Am Your Father.
29:24 Not only is Star Wars among the most influential entertainment franchises in the world,
29:32 but it also gave us one of the most quoted plot twists in cinematic history.
29:36 In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader attempts to convince Luke to join him on the dark side,
29:48 while engaging the young would-be Jedi in a lightsaber duel. After cutting off Luke's hand,
29:52 Vader reveals a shocking secret to the seemingly defeated young hero,
29:56 uttering the now iconic words, "I am your father." If it weren't so devastating to Luke,
30:03 it would actually be kind of heartwarming. Either way, when the movie came out in 1980,
30:13 it was one huge plot twist.
30:16 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
30:20 about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
30:25 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
30:29 Number 1. Norman Bates Is The Psycho. Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock's legendary
30:37 psychological horror film needs no introduction.
30:40 The entire ending is one big twist, arguably the greatest and most memorable in cinematic history.
30:45 First reveal, Mrs. Bates has been dead for the whole movie. Second reveal, Norman is the killer.
30:51 Third reveal, Norman is Mrs. Bates in his mind. Setting a precedent for plot twists and identity
30:57 reveals, Psycho paved the way for hundreds of films for decades to come.
31:01 The film is a classic, but it's not the only one. The film is a classic,
31:05 but it's not the only one. The film is a classic, but it's not the only one.
31:09 In the ending monologue, Norman's inner voice, or rather the voice of his mother,
31:14 saying that Norman's innocence will become known because she wouldn't even harm a fly,
31:19 is absolutely chilling. Is there a surprising cinematic reveal we missed?
31:24 Blow our minds in the comments.
31:26 Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
31:30 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
31:35 Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
31:39 and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
31:45 [outro]