Summary
Who doesn’t appreciate a good plot twist?You’ve been totally transfixed and giving the movie your full attention for what could sometimes be up to two hours or longer, and you really want that ending to blow you away and truly leave you feeling astounded. Luckily, there have been plenty of movies throughout the years that deliver just that.
The movies with the best mysteries often come with the best twists, and this can be found anywhere from the genres of horror, sci-fi, and psychological thrillers to even movies centering around religion. Without giving anything away, count on these films to evoke shock and awe in their conclusions.
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Charlie Kaufman
Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis, Guy Boyd, Hadley Robinson, Gus Birney, Colby Minifie, Jason Ralph, and Oliver Platt
2020
82%
6.5
Netflix
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is an adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who also penned Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, so this film is yet another cerebral and head-spinning psychological drama. Parts of it are so surreal and trippy that you might start to question everything, but, if you pay close attention, there are some breadcrumbs that help put everything into perspective.
This movie is about a couple, played by Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley, who are on a long car ride to see the boyfriend’s parents. The trip feels very off, and the girlfriend feels conflicted the entire time, as she’s contemplating a breakup. Things take quite an odd psychological turn from there, and then a mysterious old janitor somehow fits into the story. The twist paints a haunting and realistic portrait of loneliness that will stay with you.
Edward Berger
Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, Lucian Msamati, Jacek Koman, Isabella Rossellini, Thomas Loibl, and BrÍan F. O’Byrne
2024
93%
7.4
Peacock
You might think you’ve seen everything there is to religious films about the Catholic Church, but Conclave is a massive triumph that tries something different by bringing engaging mystery and political drama to the genre. Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar winner, Conclave deals with the sudden death of a pope and the titular process of choosing a new successor in the coming days.
There are many shocking revelations, betrayals, and unexpected moments during the Conclave, where cardinals even turn on each other for votes, pointing to some of the corruption. However, when the new successor to take the papacy is finally decided, the film drops one more satisfying and remarkable twist that makes you see two characters in a whole new light,and also one that brilliantly ruffles conservatives' feathers.
Denis Villeneuve
Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Tzi Ma, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O’Brien, Abigail Pniowsky, Julia Scarlett Dan, Jadyn Malone, and Frank Schorpion
2016
94%
7.9
VOD
Denis Villeneuve only crafts masterpieces, no matter which project he sets out to create. While Blade Runner 2049 and the Dune films are rightfully his most stunning and popular sci-fi works, 2016’s Arrival delivers mind-bending sci-fi with one of the most original twists unlike any you’ve seen in the genre, as it’s tied to a language communicated by the unique alien species in the movie.
Based on the 1998 short story by Ted Chiang, Arrival sees Earth invaded by strange gigantic seven-limbed aliens called ‘heptapods’ that use alien symbols to communicate with humans. Amy Adams’s Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist, must help the government and the international community with deciphering them. However, things are not what they seem with this alien language, and it will all soon result in a shocking revelation for Louise.
James Mangold
John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Alfred Molina, John Hawkes, Clea DuVall, John C. McGinley, William Lee Scott, Jake Busey, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Rebecca De Mornay
2003
63%
7.3
Before going on to direct Logan and biopics like Walk the Line, Ford v Ferrari, and The Complete Unknown, James Mangold also directed thrillers, with Identity being one of the most notable for its incredible twist on a murder-mystery film. The plot follows a group of random strangers who get stranded at a motelduring a heavy rainstorm, with one of them secretly being a murderer taking them out one by one.
It’s an Agatha Christie-style plot setup that flips everything on its head by the time you reach the conclusion. It’s one of those where you’re trying to guess which stranger could be the culprit, but then the narrative goes in a whole different direction you probably won’t see coming and starts speaking to the title. The cast is also stacked with stars like John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Alfred Molina, and it’s such an underrated watch.
Michael and Peter Spierig (The Spierig Brothers)
Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor, Madeleine West, Christopher Kirby, Christopher Sommers, Kuni Hashimoto, Cate Wolfe, Alexis Fernandez, and Rob Jenkins
2014
84%
Time travel moviesoften have some compelling plot twists but also very confusing and paradoxical resolutions. The Spierig Brothers' Predestination offers the best of both worlds when it comes to meeting that criteria. Based on the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein, Predestination’s plot centers around a Temporal Agent traveling through time in pursuit of a terrorist known as the Fizzle Bomber.
This agent is played by Ethan Hawke, who has a briefcase that acts as his time travel device, and the entire mystery and plot twist of the film becomes the reveal of the Fizzle Bomber’s identity, which will both blow you away and break your brain at the shock of it all. The film also stars Succession’s Sarah Snook, a character with a deeply personal story who becomes a time travel companion to the agent.
James Wan
Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Tobin Bell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Michael Emerson, Shawnee Smith, Monica Potter, Dina Meyer, Makenzie Vega, Ned Bellamy, and Benito Martinez
2004
50%
7.6
Prime Video with MovieSphere+
Whether it’s Insidious, Saw, The Conjuring, or 2021’s Malignant, James Wan is a master at crafting very compelling and unpredictable horror narratives that offer masterful jumpscares, thrills, and twists. The original Saw movie still has one of the most infamous and unbelievable twists in cinema, something that was right in front of the audience’s faces the whole time.
Saw is about two men who wake up in an old bathroom in an undisclosed location with their feet shackled and are forced into a game where they’re tormentedby the Jigsaw Killer. The goal is to escape through gruesome methods that threaten each other’s survival. The movie flips non-linearly through their past and puts the pieces together of why they ended up there. It takes many turns, and let’s just say the finale puts a more disturbing twiston Aliens' “Game over, man.”
Jordan Peele
Get Out
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Lil Rel Howery, Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson, Caleb Landry Jones, LaKeith Stanfield, and Stephen Root
2017
98%
7.8
Us
Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Anna Diop, Madison Curry, Cali Sheldon, and Noelle Sheldon
2019
6.8
Jordan Peele went from comedian and sketch actor to a brilliant Shyamalan-esque horror writer and director, whose films not only astonish you with their twists but also call on you to reflect on racism and the deeper issues within our society. Both Get Out and his follow-up, Us, are highly representative of just that. They also both offer some of the most mind-blowing “I did not see that coming” twists.
Get Out centers on the story of Chris and Rose, an interracial couple who go to visit Rose’s white family in their community, and some strange events take place that lead to some truly disturbing moments and revelations. Us focuses on the concept of doubles and follows a family on their getaway trip to Santa Cruz, CA, where they’re met with peril when lookalike clones in red jumpsuits are out to kill everyone.
Park Chan-wook
Choi Min-sik, Kang Hye-jung, Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Byeong-ok, Ji Dae-han, Oh Dal-su, Seung-shin Lee, Yoon Jin-seo, Oh Tae-kyung, and Yoo Yeon-seok
8.3
Park Chan-wook brings a stylish, twist-filled, and elevated action thriller with Oldboy,perhaps one of the finest pieces of Korean cinema. The plot, cinematography, performances, and raw and brutal tone make it a memorable masterpiece. And the twist in store for Oldboy has to be one of the most cleverly constructed and truly depraved for a revenge thriller plot, one you can’t even bring yourself to imagine would be possible.
The story follows the kidnapping of Choi Min-sik’s Oh Dae-su, who was on his way to his daughter’s birthday one night when he was picked up for intoxication and then mysteriously disappears and later gets framed for his wife’s murder. Oh Dae-su, meanwhile, has been trapped in a hotel room for 15 years, and after being released, he falls in love with a woman who accompanies him on his quest for revenge. Little does he know, his captor has also been plotting disturbing revenge.
M. Night Shyamalan
Unbreakable
Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, Eamonn Walker, Leslie Stefanson, and Johnny Hiram Jamison
2000
70%
Hulu, Disney+
The Village
Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrian Brody, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, John Christopher Jones, Judy Greer, and Jesse Eisenberg
44%
6.6
M. Night Shyamalan is the ultimate master of twists with his thrillers. While The Sixth Sense is his most well-liked and acclaimed, Unbreakable and The Village are two of his most underrated.
Unbreakable is about a man (again played by Bruce Willis) who miraculously survives a train accident and then discovers he has superpowers of invulnerability and super strength, eventually meeting an enigmatic comic book store owner, Elijah (or Mr. Glass), played by Samuel L. Jackson, who knows more than he lets on about his condition.
The Village takes place in a 19th-century isolated Pennsylvania community where dangerous creatures lurk in the woods and cause peril to the townsfolk. The twist is, once again, not only shocking and genre-bending, but also makes you reflect on the state of affairs in today’s society, given the rocky situations happening all over the world.
Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch, and Elias Koteas
2010
69%
8.2
Paramount+, MGM+
Shutter Island has one of those iconic movie twists where. Once you see it, you’ll remember it forever. It’s disturbing, devastating, and profound. The movie is based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, who wrote other wonderful twists with Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a 1950s US Marshall investigating the disappearance of a female patientat the Ashecliffe psychiatric hospitalon the titular island.
He’s joined by his partner Chuck Aule, played by Mark Ruffalo, and very strange events take place throughout, which will have you start questioning everything you believe to be true. Shutter Island expertly achieves an eerie psychological thriller atmosphere and showcases one of the most excellent uses of an unreliable narrator in films.
