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Greatest Movie Twists, Part 22 |
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Greatest Movie Twists, Part 22 |
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Note: The films that are marked
with a yellow star |
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Greatest Movie Twists, Spoilers and
Surprise Endings |
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| Film Title | Brief Scene Description | Example |
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Swimming Pool (2003)
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The events of this psychological thriller were revealed to be the inventive figment of repressed and uptight British mystery author Sarah Morton's (Charlotte Rampling) literary imagination while writing a novel called "Swimming Pool"; the entire movie WAS the story that she was in the midst of writing as she experienced writer's block; her artistic juices were rejuvenated by the sexy (imagined and fictional?) character of promiscuous Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) - her London publisher John Bosload's (Charles Dance) French-born, fearless, hedonistic daughter at a southern France villa; the events around the pool were blended with her wildly experimental imaginings during the process of creating a story - possibly reflecting writer's revenge against her disinterested publisher; an impulsive poolside murder of the local waiter and the burial of his body in the yard were twisted inspirations; the clinching surprise was revealed at film's end when Sarah was introduced in her publisher's office to the 'real' daughter Julia (Lauren Farrow) - a younger, shorter, chubbier, braces-wearing teenager |
  
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Teenage Cave Man (1958)
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Roger Corman produced and directed this low budget B-film that starred 26 year-old Robert Vaughn as the character named "The Boy"; when the rebellious Boy was threatened with exile, he left his primitive remote valley to journey to an uncharted, forbidden land by crossing a nearby river; there he didn't find a giant evil creature named the God Who Brings Death with Its Touch but a centuries-old scientist in an irradiated radiation suit - the last survivor of a previous civilization; it was revealed in the surprise ending that the setting was not prehistoric times, but a post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear holocaust event in the 20th century; Planet of the Apes (1968) and M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004) both copied the twist |
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The Tenant (1976) (aka La Locataire)
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European/Polish immigrant Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) moved into a Parisian apartment vacated by a previous tenant named Simone Choule who attempted to commit suicide by jumping out of the window and was subsequently hospitalized; as the film progressed, he slowly became demented (and possibly schizophrenic) and transformed (mentally and physically) into the previous suicidal tenant (i.e., by cross-dressing), after finding a bloody tooth in a hidden hole in the wall behind the wardrobe and discovering that the tooth was a perfect fit for a missing molar in his own mouth; he attempted to commit a more successful suicide (as himself and the previous tenant) by hurling himself from the window; some theorists speculated that Trelkovsky was only an imaginary character created in the mind of the insane Simone | 
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Tenebre/Unsane (1982, It./USA)
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Writer/director Dario Argento's terrifying slasher horror film told about an unidentified murderer (with black gloved hands) on the loose in Rome, who was obsessed with mystery best-selling American novelist Peter Neal (Tony Franciosa) while he was promoting his latest book; the killer was inspired by the book's content and composed cryptic notes addressed to the author after the gruesome murders; midway through the film, it was revealed that there was more than one murderer; the original copy-cat serial killer - the noted but sleazy book critic and talk show host Cristiano Berti (John Steiner) - became a victim too; later in the film, it was discovered that Berti was murdered by the heroic protagonist Peter Neal himself - the second real killer; he had murdered Berti with an axe to the head, to cover up his own revenge killings of female homicide Inspector Altieri (Carola Stagnaro) and many other murders (including Neal's publicist Bullmer (John Saxon) who was engaged in an affair with Neal's bitter ex-fiancée Jane (Veronica Lario), local youth Gianni (Christian Borromeo) and Detective Germani (Giuliano Gemma)); in the bloodbath conclusion, Neal was impaled by a steel spike in a metallic sculpture when he tried to kill his attractive assistant Anne (Daria Nicolodi) with an axe |
  
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They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
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In this Depression-Era drama about brutal, days-long dance contests called Monster Marathons (held on the Santa Monica pier), beleaguered, pained and anguished contestant-couples competed for the grand prize of $1,500 ("It isn't a contest, it's a show"); in the film's surprise ending, marathon contestant Gloria (Jane Fonda) was shot in the head outside the music-hall (as she imagined herself falling in a grassy field) by her dance partner Robert (Michael Sarrazin) - a humane 'mercy killing' similar to putting horses out of their painful misery |
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The Thin Man Goes Home (1944)
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This was the fifth of the six films in The Thin Man mystery series; it had the most elaborate and complex who-dun-it plot of the collection of films, which starred dapper, frequently-inbibing private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) and his wealthy wife Nora (Myrna Loy); the plot accelerated when Nora accidentally purchased a painting that was being used as a communications device in an espionage ring working for a "foreign power" - she unwittingly uncovered a plot to steal top-secret airplane propellor plans to sell on the black market; local artist and factory worker Peter Berton (Ralph Brooks) had been hired to cover over the war factory's plans with his paintings - and then was murdered on Nick's parents' home doorstep in Sycamore Springs; it was discovered in the conclusion (when Nick assembled all the suspects in one room and described the crime) that the murders were committed by mousy Dr. Bruce Clayworth (Lloyd Corrigan) with a high-powered Japanese rifle |
 
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This classic suspense/espionage film set in post-war Vienna opened with the funeral for American novelist Holly Martins' (Joseph Cotten) friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who was presumably killed in an automobile accident; as the film progressed, Harry was revealed to be a penicillin black marketeer who had killed or hospitalized hundreds of children with watered down drugs; about midway through the film came the famous scene of Harry's delayed appearance - an overhead light illuminated his enigmatic, smirking face in the dark shadow of a doorway, and a cat snuggled at his feet; the film ended with fugitive Lime attempting to escape through the passageways of underground Viennese sewers, but he was shot by his traitorous friend Holly at the end of the smoky tunnel; this scene was followed by Lime's burial in the same cemetery that opened the film, with the exquisite closing sequence of Harry Lime's lover Anna's (Alida Valli) long and deliberate walk in between a row of trees and past a waiting Holly after Lime's second funeral |
  
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The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
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This murder mystery and time-travel science fiction film had a tagline which provided its theme: "Question reality. You can go there even though it doesn't exist"; this film began with two different time frames - the present time, and a parallel dimension set in Los Angeles of 1937 which functioned entirely on its own; after virtual reality worlds creator, computer scientist and corporate magnate Hannon Fuller (Armin Mueller-Stahl) was murdered in modern-day LA by a knifing in a street, his colleague and computer empire heir Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) was considered a murder suspect (with a blood-stained shirt) - so to solve the mystery, the falsely-accused suspect had to "jack into" the simulated virtual reality world of 1937 LA to discover the truth of the killing by finding a mysterious letter that Fuller had left with unreliable bartender Ashton (Vincent D'Onofrio); the letter contained a warning - to only be read by Hall - to immediately stop the dangerous program they were running; Hall was helped by programmer Whitney (also Vincent D'Onofrio) in the modern-day world to enter the simulated world, where Whitney's counterpart was bank teller John Ferguson; Hall's femme fatale love interest, Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol), appeared on the 13th floor of Hannon's computer empire during the real-world murder investigation being conducted by black Detective Larry McBain (Dennis Haysbert); she claimed to be Hannon's unknown daughter (in the 1937 world, she was gum-chewing check-out supermarket clerk Natasha Molinaro); in the film's twist, it was revealed that there were actually 3 parallel universes ("a virtual world within a virtual world", etc.): the real world (in present-day Los Angeles) was a virtual reality world of Los Angeles in the year 2024! Hall existed in another computer program simulation when he traveled back in time to 30s LA; Hall's future 'real-world' counterpart named David was killed in present-day LA when he came looking for his wife Jane; in the final brief sequence, he was uploaded back into the future 'real' world of 2024 where he was jolted awake in his bedroom while wearing his VR game-playing simulator headset (used to venture back in simulated time); he was happily married to Jane and they lived in a sunny beach house - when they emerged on the balcony of the beach house, she told him that she had a lot to tell him as they looked out on the beach where Jane's father Mr. Hannon Fuller was walking, very much alive and well |
   
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At the conclusion of this suspenseful Hitchcock film, performer Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson) in the London Palladium revealed the meaning of the term "the 39 Steps" - it was the code name of the organization he was covertly associated with: "The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organization of spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of..."; midway through his answer, he was shot by mastermind Professor Jordan (Godfrey Tearle) to silence him, but while dying was able to proudly recite the complicated scientific mathematical formulas of the secret documents that he had painstakingly memorized - a secret formula about how to make silent aircraft engines that he was going to take out of the country - in his head! |
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(alphabetical by film title)
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
Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
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.
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 
