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Safwan Azeem
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Sign in to your Collider account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapWatching a movie is an experience in itself, and the moments that build up before the climax are exciting and gripping, and then the climax is where everything flips. I love a movie when I have to think, “oh okay, that was actually smart”, but then some movies make you pause and wonder why you even started watching them if it had to lead up to this moment. Why did the writers decide to do that? I've had nights where I was completely pulled into a film, fully invested in the characters, only for that one twist to ruin the entire mood.
Sometimes it's not even the movie's fault; the story and acting are strong, and you are emotionally hooked, but the ending just somehow does not live up to expectations. And here is a list of movies like that are so good, until they're not, because of their bad plot twists.
10 'Now You See Me' (2013)
Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco, clad in black suits on stage in Now You See Me.Image via Lionsgate
The story of Now You See Me works exactly the way a slick magic thriller should. It has a fast pace, clever tricks, and a cast you actually enjoy watching. The setup is tight and entertaining, and the movie keeps building toward the bigger reveal. And then comes the final twist, where everything collapses. The idea that Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), was secretly the mastermind behind the Horsemen the entire time did not sit right at all.
The film never lays the groundwork for it. There are no clues or subtle hints that led up to this decision. Instead, the twist felt like it was rewritten at the last minute. So, it was unfair to expect the audience to accept it simply because it's surprising. Instead of elevating the story, it made the earlier scenes really dishonest.
9 'Remember Me' (2010)
Image via Summit Entertainment
Remember Me plays like an intimate family drama about two damaged young people who are trying to make sense of their grief. Tyler (Robert Pattinson) and Ally (Emilie de Ravin) carry the entire film with brilliant acting. The story focuses on trauma, parental loss, and the messy ways people try to heal. At no time would you expect that there is a big or history-shaking twist that is coming. And when the ending comes, the movie abruptly places Tyler in the North Tower on the morning of 9-11.
The film did not build toward this moment and never threaded it into the story. Instead, the twist turned a national drama into a last-minute shock device. The whole scene was very manipulative and not meaningful at all. Remember Me had all the qualities to be a small, reflective drama about grief and reconnection, but the twist at the end overshadowed everything that came before it.
8 'The Village' (2004)
Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy in a yellow, hooded cloak in the woods looking to her right in The Village.Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
For most of its runtime, The Village was a small, isolated settlement surrounded by woods that supposedly hid terrifying creatures. M. Night Shyamalan builds the tension that comes from the villagers' fear, the strict rules they follow, and the romance between Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix). The film works best when it leans into the mystery of what might be lurking beyond the treeline.
But at the end, it was revealed that the creatures never even existed, and the village is actually part of a modern-day wildlife preserve created by a group of adults who wanted to escape the violence of the outside world. It is a huge shift that completely shook the core of the movie. The problem is not the idea of the twist; it's that it just replaces the suspense with an explanation that feels too childish and too neat for a world that was so haunting in its ambiguity. The Village starts as a chilling fairy-tale horror, to be honest, but its finale scene just made it smaller.
7 'Lucy' (2014)
Scarlett Johansson in LucyImage via Universal Pictures
Luc Besson's action-thriller Lucy is a visually kinetic and widely successful film based on the pseudoscientific myth that humans only use 10% of their brain capacity. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a woman who is forced to act as a drug mule, but when the synthetic drug leaks into her system, she begins to rapidly access greater percentages of her brain.
The film is exhilarating, with Lucy gaining telekinetic, telepathic, and time-manipulating powers. But the final twist is a total abandonment of the narrative it built all along. Upon reaching 100% of her brain capacity, Lucy ceases to be a human character and transforms into an omnipresent consciousness. She dissolves into the cosmos and time itself. The ultimate payoff is not a massive battle or logical resolution at all, but it turned out to be a philosophical lecture that completely overshadowed the sci-fi premise of the movie.
6 'High Tension' (2003)
Marie (Cécile de France), covered in blood, in 'High Tension'.Image via EuropaCorp
High Tension (original French title: Haute Tension) is a brutal and relentless slasher film that was a key entry in the New French Extremity genre. It follows best friends Marie (Cécile de France) and Alex (Maïwenn) as they travel to Alex’s remote farmhouse, only to be attacked by a grotesque serial killer (Philippe Nahon).
The jaw-dropping twist in the final minutes of the movie reveals that there was no male killer at all. Marie herself was driven by a psychotic delusion, and she was the killer the entire time, using the male figure as a hallucinated alter ego. The twist is often called an example of breaking the film's own rules. Marie was shown fleeing from the killer, hiding from the killer, and even watching the killer perform murders. But in the end, it was too jarring for many viewers to forgive this nonsensical mistake.
5 'Savages' (2012)
Image via Universal Pictures
Oliver Stone's Savages is based on a novel by Don Winslow. It is a crime thriller about two young cannabis growers, Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch). They share a polyamorous relationship with their girlfriend Ophelia or O (Blake Lively). When a Mexican cartel asks for a partnership, the boys refuse, which then escalates into a violent war after they kidnap O. The film is narrated by O, Blake Lively, who repeatedly tells the audience that she is not alive.
The story leads to a dramatic point where Ben and O. choose to overdose themselves so as not to get separated. Even O.'s narration confirms this tragic and romantic sacrifice. However, the film quickly turns into a second ending where O.'s narration breaks into the wait that's not what happened, and then it shows the real ending where the police raid the scene, the trio is saved, and the characters get a happy ending. This post-mortem narrative was absent from the original novel, and by showing all the drama, emotions and powerful scenes, the climax just negated it all for a conventional Hollywood happy ending, leaving the audience feeling tricked.
4 'The Book of Eli' (2010)
Denzel Washington in The Book of EliImage via Warner Bros.
The Book of Eli is a post-apocalyptic Western that follows Eli (Denzel Washington), a lone traveler who is traversing a ravaged American wasteland while protecting a book that he believes holds the key to humanity's future. The film has a signature grim, desaturated aesthetic to it. Eli is shown throughout the film to be an exceptionally skilled fighter with almost supernatural accuracy. In the film's final moments, once Eli reaches a sanctuary, it is revealed that Eli is blind and has been for decades.
The “Book of Eli” is revealed to be a copy of the Bible written in Braille, which he is tasked with reciting to save the text. The twist is very problematic because it contradicts the visual reality of the 90 minutes preceding it. Eli has been shown to kill enemies with his eyes, dodging attacks, which is nearly impossible for visually impaired people. The logical inconsistency in the action sequences made no one believe the ending.
3 'Glass' (2019)
David Dunn (Bruce Willis) in his cell at Raven Hill Memorial in 'Glass.'Image via Universal Pictures
Glass was meant to be M. Night Shyamalan's masterpiece and a culmination of his superhero trilogy. The film sees the superhuman vigilante David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the multiple-personality criminal "The Horde" (James McAvoy), and the super-villain Elijah Price, a.k.a. Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), all locked in a psychiatric facility under the care of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who specializes in patients who believe they are superheroes.
The film talks about humans and poses a question of whether they are generally powered or just delusional. After a long build-up, the final twist is revealed. Dr. Staple is a part of a secret global organization whose purpose is to suppress and eliminate any evidence of superpowered individuals in the world. For a trilogy that is based on superpower heroes being real, this introduction of something shadowy, kind of a bureaucratic conspiracy to kill them, was so off. The twist did not expand the universe, which should have happened, but it reduced the decade-long story of extraordinary men to a very defeated plot device.
2 'Passengers' (2016)
Chris Pratt in PassengersImage via Sony
Passengers is a stunning sci-fi romance that is based on a spaceship carrying thousands of passengers in hibernation. The premise begins when Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is accidentally awakened 90 years too early. Facing a lifetime of complete isolation, he struggles with loneliness until he finds Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) in her hibernation pod. He instantly becomes obsessed with her and decides to wake her up. This revelation, which was delivered early in the film, is the plot twist. That's it.
The rest of the movie just shows their relationship as a romance where Aurora forgives Jim at the end. But Jim's choice of condemning a woman to a lifetime of forced companionship and death without her choice was entirely wrong. The film actually frames this twist as a forgivable romantic gesture and tries to portray a sentimental happy ending. The entire movie could have been so much more. For instance, it could have been a thoughtful survival thriller, but it just went on to become a very uncomfortable and ethically repellent love story.
1 'Wonder Woman 1984' (2020)
Gal Gadot uses her golden whip in Wonder Woman 1984Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
One of the most loved franchises, The Wonder Woman 1984, is a sequel to the widely praised Wonder Woman (2017). It follows the story of Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), who is dealing with the reappearance of her deceased love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). All through a wish-granting Dreamstone. But the twist is that Diana's wish for Steve's return does not resurrect him. But it causes his consciousness to occupy the body of a random man. Diana, overjoyed, immediately recognized Steve. All the time they were together, she stayed with him as if she knows him. But this narrative was deeply unsettling and also a very weird twist to an otherwise good movie.
This is still called one of the worst plot decisions in superhero movie history. The main issue was that Diana, being a superhero suddenly is in a relationship with the body of a random man. The host body is never given a choice, nor does it even acknowledge an individual whose life has been hijacked. The twist corrupted her character, a hero of truth and justice, and is surely one of the most nonsensical plot twists on this list.
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Wonder Woman 1984
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Fantasy
Superhero
Release Date
December 25, 2020
Runtime
151 minutes
Director
Patty Jenkins
Writers
Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns, Dave Callaham
Cast
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Gal Gadot
Diana Prince
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Chris Pine
Steve Trevor
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