The Best Movie Plot Twists You Didn’t See Coming

M. Night Shyamalan has been shocking audiences with his twist endings since The Sixth Sense. It's his calling card -- his movies are never really complete until that final reveal! We'd bet good money that his latest movie, The Visit, has a twist or two up its sleeve. So prepare yourself by revisiting some of the craziest plot twists in movie history!

Psycho (1960)

It’s the mother of all plot twists, a scene so famous that everyone knows about it (even if they haven’t seen the movie). Halfway through Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the main character is murdered in the shower. And then things get weird. The infamous shower scene is rightfully regarded as one of the most shocking scenes ever shot and it does what any great plot twist does: it pulls the rug out from underneath us, forcing us to find balance as the movie enters its freaky back half.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

The best twist endings force you to reconsider the movie you just watched from a completely new point of view. The iconic final moments of Planet of the Apes do that perfectly. What seemed like a movie about a barbaric science fiction world ruled by chaos is revealed to be the inevitable outcome of mankind’s penchant for destroying itself. Yes, it was Earth all along! And the fun adventure movie about the talking monkeys was a movie about the follies of nuclear war all along!

Soylent Green (1973)

Here’s another plot twist so famous that it exists outside of the movie itself. Everyone is familiar with Charlton Heston shouting "Soylent Green is people!”, but the moment is actually more powerful and shocking in context. After all, Heston’s near-future detective has spent the entire movie trying to uncover the conspiracy behind the supplier of food for the masses. When he finds out what everyone is really eating (people!), it’s about as shocking as plot twists get. It’s the only answer that makes sense, but it’s too horrible to even comprehend!

Scream (1996)

Many slasher movies keep the identity of their killer secret until a grand climactic reveal and Scream seemingly plays by very familiar rules. But just when you think the movie is going to zig, it decides to zag. The one killer you were looking for turns out to be two killers, working in tandem. And one of those killers is a guy who faked his death earlier, seemingly ruling him out as a suspect. This is the kind of horror movie that knows you’ve seen a lot of horror movies and it acts accordingly!

The Usual Suspects (1996)

In its final scene, The Usual Suspects reveals that the man who has been narrating the entire movie, the guy who has been providing all of the flashbacks that make up the main plot of the movie, is a liar. And he’s not just a liar – he’s the liar. He’s Keyser Soze, the criminal mastermind everyone is looking for in the first place. This is the kind of twist that makes repeat viewings so rewarding. Once you know what’s up, you can start to differentiate between the lies and the truths.

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The movie is seemingly over. Young Cole has come to grips with his ability to speak to the dead and his psychiatrist, Malcolm, returns to his troubled home. And it is only then that he realizes that his wife isn’t ignoring him. She’s grieving. Because he’s been dead the entire time. This isn’t a cheat, either. A careful viewing will prove that Malcolm interacts with Cole and Cole alone throughout the entire movie, the only person in the story who could even speak to him in the first place. Admit it: you didn’t see it coming the first time.

Memento (2000)

The crazy backwards structure of Memento means that the movie’s big twist ending is actually the first scene of the story. Yeah, just trying to comprehend this movie is likely to explode your brain a little bit. The fact that the big plot twist starts the story instead of ending it already makes it noteworthy, but it’s mind-blowing nonetheless. We learn that our amnesiac protagonist, who can’t retain new memories after a certain point, has been manipulated into seeking “revenge” over and over again against targets chosen by a man taking advantage of his unique condition.

The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige concludes with two twists, one mundane and one extraordinary. On stage left, you have Christian Bale’s ambitious magician, who reveals that he has pulled off all of his tricks over the years by actually being a pair of twins who have spent their lives acting as a single person. On stage right you have Hugh Jackman’s self-destructive showman, who actually helps create a science fiction cloning device that allows him to pull off his illusions. It’s two insane plot twists for the price of one, and you didn’t see either coming.

Orphan (2009)

The big reveal in Orphan is so crazy that it’s hard to believe it’s real until you see the actual movie. It starts as a “killer kid” movie, with a couple adopting a young girl who wreaks havoc on their lives and starts to rack up a body count. And then they learn the truth: their new child is not a child at all, but a full grown woman with a genetic condition posing as a little girl. Uh, yikes. At least this twist allows you to not feel too bad when Mom has to take down her adopted daughter in the final scene.

Shutter Island (2010)

What looks like a police investigation turns out to be the most ambitious therapy session ever. Leonardo DiCaprio’s detective isn’t actually solving a mystery at a creepy asylum – he’s a patient, and his doctors are feeding his delusions to help him come to terms with a troubled past. It’s the kind of twist so crazy, so far out of left field, that it takes the characters on screen longer to believe it than the audience!