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Greatest Movie Twists, Part 5 |
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Greatest Movie Twists, Part 5 |
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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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In this superb detective noir film set in early 20th century Los Angeles during a water rights scandal investigated by LA private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson), the most-discussed scene involved the revelation of the identity of the alleged "mistress" of the suspected philandering water commissioner Hollis Mulwray (Darryl Zwerling), the husband of wealthy Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway); while he repeatedly slapped her, Gittes learned from the secretive Evelyn, now his troubled and newly-widowed client, that she had been incestuously raped by her ruthless tycoon father Noah Cross (John Huston) and had conceived a teenaged daughter Katherine (Belinda Palmer) from that union: "She's my sister...she's my daughter...She's my sister and my daughter! ...My father and I...understand? Or is it too tough for you?"; in the film's conclusion set in Chinatown, when Evelyn tried to escape in a convertible with Katherine, she was tragically shot and killed by a policeman, as Katherine screamed in horror and was comforted by a leering Cross |
 
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The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
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In the climactic and suspenseful showdown 5-card stud poker game between young poker player The Cincinnati Kid or Eric Stoner (Steve McQueen) and legendary champion card player Lancey Howard or "The Man" (Edward G. Robinson), the Kid's full-house (with Aces and tens) was beaten by "The Man's" straight flush (when he turned over a Jack of Diamonds) - accentuated by closeups; the "Kid" admitted: "I'm through" although Lancey complimented him on a good game: ("You're good, kid, but as long as I'm around, you're second best. You might as well learn to live with it") |   
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One of the best-known spoilers and greatest twist endings of all-time was the iconic revelation of the meaning of the mysterious Rosebud -- publisher tycoon Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) last word uttered from huge, rubbery lips as he died; Rosebud was the name of Kane's boyhood sled (painted with a decorative, blooming flower that symbolized lost innocence) that was briefly glimpsed as it burned in a pyre in the basement of Xanadu, when a worker was told by butler Raymond (Paul Stewart) to: "Throw that junk"; however, the word's meaning was still elusive and explained only one small part of the giant jigsaw puzzle that was the life of Kane |
 
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The City of Lost Children (1995, Fr.) (aka La Cité des Enfants Perdus)
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In this French film's dream fantasy, it was revealed that super-intelligent mad scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork) was an artificially created human - this explained why he kidnapped young children to extract and steal their dreams - although he mostly ended up with their fearful nightmares |
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In Stanley Kubrick's nihilistic ending of the Anthony Burgess novel (without including the last chapter in the film adaptation), it was learned that "cured" droog Alex (Malcolm McDowell) attempted suicide and was hospitalized; he made an agreement with the Minister of the Interior to publicly absolve the government for its inhumane Ludovico Technique experiments: ("We always help our friends, don't we? It is no secret that this Government has lost a lot of popularity because of you, my boy..."); it was apparent that he had learned nothing from his behavioral modification treatments by the state; he was returned to his former self - with his free will intact and with his old proclivities for sex and violence; after giving a thumbs-up signal to the press and mugging for the cameras, Alex's eyes glazed and rolled back (in a semi-Kubrick stare with facial contortions), and he found peace as he fantasized a pseudo-orgy while trapped in his hospital bed -- he saw himself copulating (making love to/raping?) with a beautiful blonde woman who wore only black silk stockings - they were frolicking naked in slow-motion on piles of white snow, while two rows of genteel-looking, Victorian Londoners (ladies and gentlemen), the men dressed in top hats and the women carrying parasols, looked on and sedately applauded toward them; Alex had reverted to his old, pre-conditioned behavior, as he triumphantly and sardonically said, in voice-over: "I was cured all right" |
 
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Close Encounters of the Third
Kind (1977)
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Totally in contrast to the evil alien-invasion films of the 50s and afterwards, Steven Spielberg's two films depicted other-worldly aliens as benevolent beings in their contact with humans - a major plot twist and reversed cliche within the science-fiction/adventure film genre; the aliens in these two pictures were playful, curious about human life, interested in observing human nature, and decidedly friendly, and their encounters were seen as magical and awe-inspiring; audiences were kept on edge, however, because the knowledge that the aliens were peaceful, non-hostile, non-malicious and harmless wasn't revealed fully or known by everyone at the start |
    
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Clue (1985)
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In this triple-ended murder-mystery spoof - a comic adaptation of the popular Parker Bros. board game, it was revealed in the third ending ("This is what really happened"), the most complex and believable of the multiple endings to the film, that butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) was actually the blackmailing host Mr. Boddy -- and that 'Mr. Boddy' (Lee Ving) that had been killed was actually Wadsworth's butler (!); in summary, everyone except surprise 'gay' FBI plant Mr. Green (Michael McKean) had murdered someone that night: (Green: "They ALL did it! But if you want to know who killed Mr. Boddy, I did. In the Hall. With the revolver") -- to recap: (1) the cool and aloof Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn) killed the maid Yvette (Colleen Camp), (2) the bumbling Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull) killed the Motorist (Jeffrey Kramer), (3) the geeky Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) killed 'Mr. Boddy', (4) the flirty femme fatale Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren) killed The Cop (Bill Henderson), (5) the nervously-dignified Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan) killed The Cook Mrs. Ho (Kellye Nakahara), and (6) the butler Wadsworth killed the Singing Telegram Girl (Jane Wiedlin) |
 
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In this brilliant crime story, the young couple (Ann (Cindy Williams) and Mark (Frederic Forrest)) that professional wire-tapper Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) spied (and listened) upon during clandestine meetings and thought were potential victims because of her marital infidelity; there was a murder committed in Room 773 of San Francisco's Jack Tar Hotel at the agreed-upon time heard in the conversation; however, the couple weren't the victims! They were actually cold-blooded murderers of "the Director" (Robert Duvall) of a secretive company; she was "the Director's" wife - a femme fatale who orchestrated the homicide (with her hard-to-decipher sentence: "He'd kill us if he got the chance") by luring her husband to the hotel room, where Mark murdered him; she later made his bloody murder look like an accidental automobile crash to inherit his fortune; the film ended with the revelation that a frightened, neurotic and paranoid Harry was also under surveillance the entire time: ("We know that you know, Mr. Caul. For your own sake, don't get involved any further. We'll be listening to you"); he frantically tore up his entire apartment to vainly attempt to find a bugging device - the final scene found Harry playing his saxophone alone in his destroyed home |
  
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The Crying Game (1992, UK)
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Neil Jordan's thriller film has become legendary and famous for its shocking twist; guilt-ridden, reformed Irish Republican Army volunteer terrorist Fergus (Stephen Rea) journeyed to London to befriend the lover of British hostage/soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) who had been accidentally killed in Northern Ireland; the dead man's lover turned out to be a beautiful cabaret lip-synch singer/hairdresser named Dil (Best Supporting Actor!-nominated Jaye Davidson); as the camera slowly panned down Dil's naked body after he dropped his red kimono robe, there was a sexually-disorienting view of Dil's penis -- his maleness was shown in this surprising full-frontal unveiling, causing Fergus to wonder about his attraction to Dil |
 
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Cutter's Way (1981)
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In the stunning concluding scene of this crime thriller, embittered, self-righteous, drunken, one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged, crazed Vietnam vet Alexander Cutter (John Heard) - believing obsessively that elite and menacing oil businessmen J. J. Cord (Stephen Elliott) was the murderer of a 17 year-old sex-crimes victim named Vickie and also responsible for the house-burning death of his wife Maureen "Mo" Cutter (Lisa Eichhorn) - rode heroically (and tragically) on a white stallion within Cord's guarded residential mansion during a large garden party - and lethally crashed into Cord's study window where his laconic, laid-back friend Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) had just learned that Cord was the female's killer - inspiring the usually-uncommitted and reluctant Bone to take up the fight and shoot Cord dead with the weapon in Cutter's dead hand; the gun blast abruptly ended the film |
 
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Dark City (1998)
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Alex Proyas' visually-stunning, labyrinthine and visionary sci-fi noir effectively twisted unreal reality in its tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) - a man with memory problems (and psychokinetic powers) who was pursued in a nightmarish, retro 40s-style futuristic world managed by malevolent, underground alien beings wearing black coats and fedoras called Strangers - a dying race of alien parasites who possessed telekinetic powers that could stop time (at midnight) and alter reality; the film revealed that the city was an experiment set up by the aliens to determine the nature of the human soul by manipulating and transplanting people's memories each night; it was revealed by Dr. Daniel Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) that everyone's "entire history is an illusion, a fabrication"; the quest for the mythic Shell Beach ended with a fake beach painted on a brick wall at the edge of the city as Schreber warned: ("There is no ocean, John. There's nothing beyond the city. The only place home exists is in your head") - and a break through the wall showed that the 'dark city' existed as a contained environment in the vast void of starry space; by film's end, Sewell defeated the Strangers' leader Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) after a psychokinetic battle of massive proportions, and 'fixed things' by tilting the city to bring sunlight to it - thus vanquishing the remaining Strangers, 'recreating' Shell Beach, and reuniting with Anna/Emma Murdoch (Jennifer Connelly) as they strolled together down a pier toward Shell Beach |
     
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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 
