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I am a sucker for a good movie plot twist, especially because of how rare they tend to be. For every masterful movie ending (or even a scene in the middle) that almost completely changes the nature of, or enhances, the story, there are even more that pretty much ruin the story by not making much sense or just being unnecessary, unoriginal, or just plain offensive. The following are some notable plot twists (or plot reveals) that did not blow my mind but certainly numbed it.
Trevor Slattery Is Not The Real Mandarin (Iron Man 3)
One of the reasons Marvel fans have issues with Iron Man 3 is the reveal that the 2013 superhero flick’s main villain, The Mandarin, is actually an actor named Trevor Slattery (played by Ben Kingsley). The disappointment in seeing Tony Stark’s archenemy resorted to a cheap joke was acknowledged and, somewhat, corrected in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which introduced the true Mandarin, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung Chiu-wai).
The Aliens’ Weakness Is Water (Signs)
I am a firm believer that there are some great M. Night Shyalaman movie twists, in addition to 1999’s The Sixth Sense, but I do not think the ending of 2002’s Signs is one of them. Making the creatures in this alien invasion movie allergic to water is an already weak deus ex machina that is also far too similar to the ending of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, in which Martians die from the common cold.
The Final Battle Was All A Dream (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2)
I am not a big fan of dream sequence fake-outs, and I personally believe that the final installment of the Twilight movies has one of the more egregious examples. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 culminates in an epic battle between the Cullens and Volturi that, soon after, is revealed to have been Alice’s (Ashley Greene) vision, which convinces Aro (Michael Sheen) to recede before any violence can take place.
Rey Is Palpatine’s Granddaughter (Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker)
You know, 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is not as low on my personal Star Wars movie ranking as it is for many other fans, but I do agree it has one of the most nonsensical plot twists in any franchise. The reveal that Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is the grandfather of Rey (Daisy Ridley) is a very weak justification for resurrecting a character who really had no business coming back from the dead in the first place, if you ask me.
The Crystal Skull Belongs To An Alien (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull)
I would honestly love to say that I enjoyed the fourth installment of my all-time favorite movie franchise. Unfortunately, I could not get behind the reveal in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that the titular artifact comes from an extra-terrestrial carcass.
Mary Is Also A Powerful Immortal (Hancock)
Hancock starts off as an inventive take on superhero lore by focusing on a homeless amnesiac and alcoholic with superpowers (played by Will Smith) seeking redemption. Unfortunately, the 2008 non-comic-book-based superhero movie makes things unnecessarily complicated by revealing that Mary (Charlize Theron) is not only a member of the same mystical race but is Hancock’s former wife. To make matters worse, the twist was revealed in the marketing.
Agent Rhodes Is The Fifth Horseman (Now You See Me)
Now You See Me, a crime thriller about a group of talented magicians who use their skills in illusion to rob banks, tries to go for a Usual Suspects-esque twist in the 2013 thriller’s final resolution. It is revealed that Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), an FBI agent who has been obsessively chasing the Four Horsemen, is actually one of them. Yeah, great cover.
Marie Was The Killer The Whole Time (High Tension)
Writer and director Alexandre Aja’s French-language breakout feature, 2003’s High Tension, proves he is a master of high-wire suspense and inventively brutal kill scenes, but not in crafting compelling twist endings. The reveal that the murderous kidnapper (Philippe Nahon) whom Marie (Cécile de France) has been trying to catch is her own dissociative identity completely contradicts the entire story.
A General Thade Sculpture Replaces The Lincoln Memorial (Planet Of The Apes)
The original sci-fi movie classic, 1968’s Planet of the Apes, boasts one of the most ingenious twist endings of all time, while Tim Burton‘s 2001 remake boasts one of the more confusing and unintentionally comical. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) returns to what he assumes is his home planet, where he finds a sculpture of General Thade (Tim Roth) where the Lincoln Memorial should be, begging the question, “What?”
Michael Myers Is Laurie Strode’s Brother (Halloween II)
John Carpenter‘s original vision for Michael Myers – the protagonist of his 1978 horror movie classic, Halloween – as an indiscriminate force of evil is tragically undercut by a twist from the 1981 sequel that the filmmaker came up with while inebriated. I personally prefer to ignore the reveal that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the estranged sister of the masked murderer, and I am glad the 2018 requel did, too.
Plants Are Killing Humans (The Happening)
M. Night Shyamalan’s 2008 thriller, The Happening, is considered one of Hollywood’s most uproarious so-bad-its-good movies for a multitude of reasons, especially when the source of its main situation is revealed. I honestly admire Shyamalan for attempting an environmentalist statement with one of his films, but I don’t know if a story about plants vengefully releasing pheromones with deadly consequences for the human race was the way to do it.
Dill’s World Is A Video Game (Serenity)
At first, 2019’s Serenity – in which fishing boat captain Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is asked by his ex-wife (Anne Hathaway) to kill her new husband, Frank (Jason Clarke) – starts off as a pretty compelling noir until the random twist reveal brings things to a screeching halt. We discover the entire movie up to that point has taken place in a computer game created by a teenager as a way to cope with the death of his father, who inspired the character of Dill, and the abuse of his stepfather, who inspired Frank.
Aliens Save The Children (Knowing)
In 2008’s Knowing, Nicolas Cage plays an astrophysicist who discovers a list of numbers predicting an inevitable doomsday. However, his son, Caleb, and a girl named Abby are among those chosen by an alien race to avoid Earth’s destruction and are taken to another planet that resembles the Garden of Eden. If you ask me, this just feels like a jarring way for the story to indulge in its doomsday element and still have a hopeful conclusion, and, if it were me, I would have chosen one or the other.
Bond And Blofeld Are Adoptive Siblings (Spectre)
Remember in Austin Powers in Goldmember when it is revealed that the titular spy and his archenemy, Dr. Evil (both played by Mike Myers), are long-lost brothers? Years later, the 2015’s Spectre did a similar thing by making James Bond’s (Daniel Craig) nemesis, Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), his adopted brother and expected audiences to take it seriously.
Lomax’s Devilish Encounter Was A Fantasy (The Devil’s Advocate)
The otherwise fun legal drama The Devil’s Advocate spoils its own intriguing supernatural plot by revealing that Florida attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) dreamt up his toxic mentorship with Satan in human form (Al Pacino). Then, the film tries to pile on another twist by showing an eager reporter transform into Pacino right before the credits roll.
Walter Wrote The Book (The Number 23)
Widely considered to be one of Jim Carrey’s worst movies is 2007’s The Number 23, in which his character, Walter, is gifted a disturbing book by his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), that he becomes dangerously obsessed with. It turns out to be a memoir that Walter himself wrote during his stay at a mental institution before becoming struck with amnesia. Why would his wife decide to give him a book that could potentially resurface these terrible memories in the first place?
Gale Framed Himself (The Life Of David Gale)
Kevin Spacey stars in the title role of 2003’s The Life of David Gale as an anti-execution activist who is put on death row after he is accused of murder. The ending reveals that he framed himself for the crime as an elaborate protest of the death penalty. I believe there are more effective and less deadly ways to make his point, though.
Jo Is The Ghost Of Alex’s Wife (Safe Haven)
Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, 2013’s Safe Haven stars Julianne Hough as Katie – a woman on the run from an abusive relationship who finds love again with widowed father Alex (played by Josh Duhamel). Along the way, she meets a friend named Jo (played by How I Met Your Mother cast member Cobie Smulders), whom she later discovers is the spirit of Alex’s late wife. Was there really any need to suddenly make this romantic thriller a ghost story at the very end?
Teddy Was A Patient The Whole Time (Shutter Island)
To preface, I think 2010’s Shutter Island – starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a US Marshal investigating a disappearance at a mental health facility – is one of the actor’s best collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. However, the reveal that DiCaprio’s “Teddy” is an alternate personality of Andrew Laeddis, who became a patient at the island after murdering his wife, is disappointingly too familiar.
The Final Explosion Was Cris’ Vision (Next)
Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, 2007’s Next stars Nicolas Cage as a psychic named Cris Johnson, who is enlisted to help prevent a nuclear explosion. The film ends with the bomb going off before cutting to Cris in a motel bed with Jessica Biel’s Liz, revealing that the events of the entire day were all a prediction in his head. I suppose this makes for a happy ending, but a frustrating way to get to it, if you ask me.
All The Characters Exist In A Homicidal DID Patient’s Head (Identity)
James Mangold’s Identity is not your typical whodunit, as it turns out the entire plot, involving a group of strangers fighting for their lives against an unseen killer at a rundown motel, is all an elaborate fantasy inside the head of a convict with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Admittedly, this ending has actually grown on me over the years, but when I first saw it, I thought it was a cheap cop-out made worse by the final reveal that the murderer was the 10-year-old identity the whole time.
John And Jack Have Been Protecting The Bad Guy (A Good Day To Die Hard)
There are many reasons why 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard is the least liked of Bruce Willis’ adventures as John McClane, including its cheap plot twist. The veteran cop and his CIA operative son, Jack (Jai Courtney), discover that the government whistleblower they have been tasked with protecting (played by Sebastian Koch) is actually the mastermind behind an elaborate scheme involving selling uranium on the black market.
David Is His Daughter’s Imaginary Friend (Hide And Seek)
It seems like Fight Club‘s wild twist ending begat plenty of copycats for a while, such as 2005’s Hide and Seek. The thriller stars Robert De Niro as a widowed psychologist who discovers that the murderous imaginary friend whom his daughter (played by Dakota Fanning) calls “Charlie” is actually a dissociative identity living in his mind.
The Whole Story Was Ophelia’s Premonition (Savages)
Oliver Stone’s 2012 adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel, Savages, sees pot growers Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) take action when a cartel kidnaps their shared girlfriend, Ophelia (Blake Lively). It all results in the tragic death of all three… or so we think. The deadly sequence turns out to have happened in Ophelia’s head, leaving critics and audiences to wonder why the story would waste their time with a fantasy like that.
Kate’s Organ Donor Is Tom (Last Christmas)
In Paul Feig’s Last Christmas, Emilia Clarke’s Kate discovers that her love interest, Tom (Henry Golding), is actually the ghost of the man whose heart now beats in her chest a year after a life-saving transplant. I mean, it’s kind of a sweet reveal, but it also feels like a forced way to connect the 2019 rom-com to Wham’s 1984 hit of the same name (“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart…”).
Tom Is The Killer (The Girl On The Train)
Emily Blunt’s Rachel spends much of The Girl on the Train fearing she may have killed her former nanny, Megan (Haley Bennett), in a drunken stupor. However, new information helps her realize that her ex-husband, Tom (Justin Theroux), has been feeding her false information for years and discovers that he killed Megan, who was also his mistress. I was honestly pretty turned off by this 2016 psychological thriller from the get-go, but this twist ripped off from a Dateline special really put the nail in the coffin for me.
Benson Is “Ben’s Son” (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer)
The reveal in I Know What You Did Last Summer that the guilty teens were stalked by Ben, a man they were convinced they accidentally killed a year earlier, was certainly improbable but accepted by slasher fans who had seen worse. However, the reveal in the 1998 sequel that Will Benson (Matthew Settle) is not only the villain but also the original killer’s son especially stretched the limits of believability.
It Was All An Alien Experiment (The Forgotten)
In 2004’s The Forgotten, Telly Peretta (Julianne Moore) discovers that people suddenly have no memory of her deceased son because of an extra-terrestrial experiment to test if a parent’s bond with their child can be broken. The twist is interesting in concept, but absolutely laughable in execution, especially in scenes when people are literally sucked up into the sky by the invaders.
Freddy Krueger Was Guilty After All (A Nightmare On Elm Street)
Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is certainly not a movie that needed a reboot, but the 2010 remake almost justified its existence by introducing the possibility that its villain might not have deserved to be killed by a mob of angry parents. Unfortunately, the film would ultimately waste its potential by revealing that the dream-haunting Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) was, indeed, a child predator.
Ray Is A Figment Of Rachel’s Imagination (Sweet Girl)
Netflix’s 2021 action film Sweet Girl stars Jason Momoa as Ray, whose search for the truth behind the pharmaceutical company that could have saved his wife’s life puts him and his daughter, Rachel (Isabela Merced), in danger. As it turns out, Ray has been dead for two years, and young, petite teen Rachel, suffering from both PTSD and DID, managed to take out her enemies all on her own.
Rooster Is The Killer (Righteous Kill)
The best movies starring both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are the ones that keep them largely estranged, unlike 2008’s Righteous Kill. However, this crime thriller really suffers from its twist, revealing that Rooster (Pacino) is the killer that he and Turk (De Niro) have been trying to find the whole time.
Tyler Dies On 9/11 (Remember Me)
In Remember Me, Robert Pattinson and Emilia de Ravin play Tyler and Ally, whose lives begin to turn around after meeting in the summer of 2001. However, their relationship reaches an upsetting fate when Tyler (Pattinson) is revealed to have been at the World Trade Center at the time of the terrorist attacks on September 11. Critics and audiences were rightfully perturbed by the way this already sappy romantic drama turned a real-life tragedy occurring less than a decade earlier into heartstring-tugging bait.