The 25 Best Twist Endings in Movies We Never Saw Coming

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Gem Seddon and GamesRadar present The 25 Best Twist Endings in Movies We Never Saw Coming.  Here are three of my favorites with some commentary at the end… Beware of spoilers!

16. Shutter Island (2010)
The movie: US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is despatched along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to Ashcliffe, an isolated psychiatric facility on Shutter Island. The pair are tasked with investigating a murderer who has seemingly vanished without a trace from within its walls…

What’s the twist? Surprise! Teddy’s not an agent – he’s actually Andrew Laeddis – a convicted killer who murdered his wife after she murdered their three children. Yeah, not a happy twist, this one.

14. Primal Fear (1996)
The movie: In the dock for a grisly murder, altar boy Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton in his first-ever role) pleads diminished responsibility on account of his split personality, a condition that causes him to veer between stammering innocent and twisted killer. That’s alright though, he’s got defense attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) to help him achieve justice…

What’s the twist? Once his lawyer has got him off the hook, Stampler reveals that the innocent side of his personality was mere performance. There is no “Roy”: he’s a killer to the core.

9. Planet Of The Apes (1968)
The movie: Having crash-landed on a foreign planet, gruff astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his crew discover a strange society in which a group of apes has evolved into humanoid creatures with the power of speech.

What’s the twist? This strange planet is none other than Earth itself, turned into a post-apocalyptic nightmare by the greed and foolishness of mankind. The half-submerged Statue of Liberty in the last shot is what tips him off. Since then that iconic shot has made its way onto the DVD cover, so not much of a twist anymore…

Gem’s list is a good one.  There were several on it that didn’t make my list that I absolutely loved. Here’s why a few of them didn’t make my top three and why one did:

  • The Usual Suspects didn’t make my top three because it’s #1 on Gem’s list and I figured everyone knows about it.
  • The Sixth Sense is in the same ballpark as The Usual Suspects, but another reason I didn’t pick it is because I figured out the twist very early in the movie.  It was cool watching it all play out and to see I was right.
  • Se7en is a favorite of mine.  The ending was as shocking as some of the others but I love the brilliance of it.
  • Psycho is like the grandfather of twist endings.  Most everyone knows the twist before they see Psycho because of its fame.
  • I’m not a big Star Wars fan so I wasn’t shocked to find out who the baby’s daddy was.
  • I was 9 or 10 years old when I saw Planet of the Apes on its initial release.  I love the movie and the ending shocked this kid!