Greatest Movie Twists, Spoilers and Surprise Endings

Greatest Movie Twists,
Spoilers and
Surprise Endings

Part 20

Greatest Movie Twists, Spoilers, and Surprise Endings: Avid filmgoers often speak about seeking rare movie surprises in the movie-going experience, such as discovering films that have cunning plot twists, a shocking surprise ending, a surprise revelation about a particular character, or some other unknown or unsuspected narrative element. Compiled here in this comprehensive collection is a detailed set of films with the greatest movie twists, spoilers, and surprise endings.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films".

Greatest Movie Twists, Spoilers and Surprise Endings (alphabetical by film title) - Part 20 Intro \| Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 \| Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10 \| Part 11 \| Part 12 \| Part 13 Part 14 \| Part 15 \| Part 16 \| Part 17 \| Part 18 \| Part 19 \| Part 20 \| Part 21 \| Part 22 \| Part 23 \| Part 24 \| Part 25
Film Title	Brief Scene Description	Example
The Shining (1980)	There were many twists in this Stanley Kubrick film adaptation of Stephen King's 1977 horror novel: (1) the revelation that deranged father Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) was kissing a corpse (Billie Gibson) and not a beautiful naked woman (Lia Beldam) in the enigmatic, off-limits, orange and green Room 237, (2) wife Wendy's (Shelley Duvall) discovery that her struggling husband's manuscript/writing on the typewriter was truly insane (there were endless reams of pages all with the phrase: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"), (3) Jack freezing to death in the snow in the icy hedgemaze, and (4) the final twist at the end - the appearance of Jack in an old black-and-white photo dated July 4, 1921, proving that he had been there before in a previous lifetime
Siesta (1987)	In this over-ambitious, free-associating mystery/psychological thriller, professional daredevil stuntwoman Claire (Ellen Barkin) awakened at the edge of an airport runway near Madrid, semi-naked with her bright red dress and body covered in blood; suffering from amnesia and not knowing her past, she was pursued by local police who believed that she had murdered someone; she learned, revealed in mixed-up flashbacks, that she was planning a free-fall stunt into a giant safety net stretched over an artificial, man-made volcano; the film's gimmicky plot twist at the end was that Claire had been murdered and her experiences were only the jumbled, fantasy thoughts of her final moments, similar to the stereotypical death-dream ending plotline of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962), Carnival of Souls (1962), Jacob's Ladder (1990), and other films
Signs (2002)	In the conclusion of this alien invasion science-fiction film about unusual crop drawings from famed "twist ending" director , an alien creature was threatening the Hess farmhouse family, particularly the weak and ill son Morgan (Rory Culkin); in order to protect his son from alien abduction, single father/clergyman Graham (Mel Gibson) recalled his wife's dying words - and repeated them to his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a semi-pro baseball player: "Swing away" - Merrill grabbed his record-setting baseball bat from the wall and attacked the creature - during the struggle, a glass of water spilled down on the alien (who was revealed to be allergic to water) and killed it; meanwhile, Morgan was saved from inhaling poisonous gas (because of his own asthma attack), and Graham's faith in God was restored
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)	The real climax of this Best Picture thriller came after FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) had shot transvestite serial killer Jamie Gumb (or "Buffalo Bill") (Ted Levine) at point-blank range; she received a long distance phone call from Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) at-large, disguised and calling from a phone at an open-air cafe at a tropical airport terminal; Lecter ended their short phone call with a famous farewell line: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye" -- Lecter noticed that his arch-nemesis, the despicable Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) was deplaning; Lecter put on a Panama hat and slowly walked into the crowded, narrow street of the Caribbean village and disappeared
Sisters (1973)	In this Brian De Palma Hitchcock-like suspense horror thriller with a Bernard Herrmann score, it was revealed that the dual, once-conjoined Siamese twin characters -- aspiring French-Canadian fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) and her insanely deranged, murderous and psychotic sister Dominique Blanchion (also Margot Kidder in a dual role) were one and the same; it was revealed that Dominique died on the operating table during the separation-operation, so there was no Dominique, even though a red herring scene of Danielle arguing with her sister was inserted to be misleading! Other plot elements: a huge scar was left on the body of Danielle after the operation, and there was a surreal link-transference established between snoopy journalist/murder witness Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) and Danielle
The 6th Day (2000)	This science-fiction thriller set in the very near future was titled "The 6th Day" to refer to how DNA cloning was a violation of God's law in the Book of Genesis ("God created humankind in his image...the sixth day"); Arnold Schwarzenegger starred as married family man and helicopter pilot Adam Gibson, who began to question society's cloning practices for pets; after he survived a transport trip to a ski resort (he had switched piloting with his business partner Hank Morgan (Michael Rapaport)) in which everyone was killed by a laser gun-armed skier, he discovered at his own surprise birthday party that he had been cloned (and had a scientifically-created human imposter-doppelganger), and that that he must be murdered in turn, to cover up his own cloning; in the slightly ambiguous film (in which one continually asked: "Who was the real Adam?") and twist conclusion, it was revealed that Adam was the actual clone, and that his clone was the real Adam; after the two Adams worked together to destroy their mutual enemies - the Replacement Technologies cloning center set up by cloned, multi-billionaire genetic engineering tycoon Michael Drucker (Tony Goldwyn), the cloned Adam said goodbye to the real Adam as he left to set up another helicopter service in Patagonia, Argentina
The Sixth Sense (1999)	In this classic 'twist' ending supernatural drama from the master of unexpected plot twists director M. Night Shyamalan, it was revealed that child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) never did survive the gun-shot wound by angry suicidal ex-patient Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg) in the prologue; he eventually discovered that he was a 'ghost' - one of the "dead people" seen by troubled and disturbed 8-year old clairvoyant patient Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) - when he returned home to find his mourning wife clutching the wedding ring that used to be on his hand - after it rolled noisily in a circle across the parquet-wood floor; also earlier, the scene at the funeral reception when the ghostly young girl Kyra Collins' (Mischa Barton) videotape was played, revealing that the dead girl was slowly poisoned by her own mother
Sleepaway Camp (1983)	The surprise ending in this slasher/splatter film about a summer sleepaway camp named Camp Arawak -- was that the murderer was shy and withdrawn 14 year-old Angela Baker (Felissa Rose), revealed in a transgendered identity switch to actually be her brother Peter; Angela had died in a boating accident 8 years earlier, and her brother Peter had taken over her identity; Peter had been raised as a girl by 'his' eccentric and psychotic Aunt Martha (Desiree Gould); in the final scene's shocking image, Angela-Peter was seen naked on a beach (in a long shot) with a bloody knife and the decapitated-severed head of camper Paul (Christopher Collet) - first seen in his/her lap and then at his/her feet after standing up (with others reacting: "How can it be? My god, she's a boy!"); this cult film was made two more times in sequels: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
Some Like It Hot (1959)	Although this classic comedy lacked a typical surprise ending or ingenious plot twist, it still ended with a great closing scene that contained the greatest fade-out line in film history; the persistently-amorous attention of rich suitor Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) toward Daphne/Jerry (Jack Lemmon) finally revealed the obvious mismatched gender problem when he asked for Daphne's hand in marriage; when an exasperated Daphne ripped off his wig and declared his manhood, he still failed miserably: "But you don't understand, Osgood. Uh, I'm a man" - with Osgood's undaunted and unruffled loving reply: "Well, nobody's perfect"
A Soldier's Story (1984)	In the conclusion of this murder mystery set at Fort Neal - a Southern military base for black platoons in 1944, hated black drill instructor Master Sergeant Vernon Waters (Adolph Caesar) was found shot to death; during the investigation (told through flashbacks) by African-American attorney Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins) brought down from Washington, DC, it was at first thought that Waters was killed by white officers or the Ku Klux Klan; but later it was revealed that Waters was killed by unrepentant and militant Pvt. First Class Peterson (Denzel Washington) who explained that he killed Waters in revenge for driving illiterate, guitar-strumming "Geechee" C. J. Memphis (Larry Riley) to suicide (who Waters called a "Homey kind of nigger") - with his confession: "I didn't kill much. Some things need gettin' rid of. Man like Waters never did nobody no good, Cap'n"
Soylent Green (1973)	This early cautionary 70s science-fiction film, set in an overpopulated and polluted world of 2022, contained a surprise ending, although it has since become common knowledge that the film contained a surprise ending regarding its title "Soylent Green" due to the film's trailer asking: "What is the Secret of Soylent Green?"; in the revealing trailer, two conveyor belts were shown, one with body bags, the other with green food; the title referred to a type of artificial food substance (reportedly made from plankton) rationed out to the populace; in the film's conclusion, New York City Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) made the horrifying, predictable discovery of the true composition of the Soylent Corporation's new artificial food product Soylent Green - it was composed of the recycled bodies of the deceased inhabitants of the society's euthanasia centers; he made a desperate plea to police chief Hatcher (Brock Peters) as he was dragged away after being shot in the leg: "It's people! Soylent Green is made out of people! They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food... Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!"
Spellbound (1945)	The conclusion of Hitchcock's suspense thriller revealed that incoming handsome psychologist Dr. Anthony Edwardes - selected to replace outgoing Green Manors asylum director Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll) - was actually an amnesia-suffering imposter named Dr. John Ballantine (Gregory Peck) who was suffering from neurosis and memory loss (due to seeing images of parallel lines, that recalled a ski accident in which Dr. Edwardes fell off a steep precipice, and his vivid memory of his brother's accidental and tragic death by impalement on a spiked fence); motivated by jealousy, Murchison had used Ballantine's disabilities to frame him for the murder of Edwardes (there was a bullet in his body, delivered from Murchison's gun in full view of Ballantine); when psychiatrist Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) revealed Murchison's treachery, he memorably committed suicide in the conclusion by turning the gun on himself after she left his office - in a shocking first person point-of-view shot, with a splash of red color (in the B/W film)