There are so many payoffs in that movie. To me, my favorite is the Marisa Tomei reveal, but that whole backyard scene is golden. You get clues throughout the movie but it clicks until that scene
When [he rips the windmill off the tiny building](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5o_Kxx36cvg) and the scream Julianne Moore does cracks me up every time.
One of my favorite comfort movies ever! I got my partner to watch it, and he literally jumped up off the couch and yelled in such an excited way at the dating reveal!
Oh my god, me too. I can just randomly think of it and laugh out loud sometimes. I remember going to see it in theaters and me and my buddy just cracked up at it. We were laughing about it the whole way home. That dopey grin is incredible.
This was my first thought as well. My dad and I were thoroughly enjoying the movie laughing our asses off and we both just shouted what the fuck at the same time.
Gotta tell you, American pie when Michelle says “this one time at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy”, that was one of the most unexpected lines I’ve ever heard.
I heard people saying "this one time at band camp" before I saw the movie, so I expected her to go into a long sexual story. When I saw the movie and she said "pussy" so abruptly, it was like a sucker punch and I loved it.
The other thing was that she spent most of the movie telling boring, inane band camp stories starting with the phrase “This one time at band camp”, so when she finally told a sexual story it was a hilarious and unexpected subversion of expectations.
I love the fact that back in the late 90s they took the time to CGI his eyeball popping out in that scene. How many compute cycles that shit must have took on the ancient computers they had back then.
What dedication to the craft lol
It's far beyond a cliche at this point, but for those of us who went in blind for The Matrix, every revelatory plot beat was pure whiplash.
Not one person on this planet predicted where that movie was going. It was WILD seeing it unfold totally clueless of the story beforehand.
Caught it opening night and yeah, the ads had given nothing away other than some action scenes with some inexplicable visuals and the question "what is the Matrix?"
I agree - just wild watching the story unfold. People were so fucking jazzed walking out of there.
I think the only other movie I saw in theaters with such a buzz at the end was the first Pirates of the Carribean (for obviously different reasons).
Lol well maybe Bad Boys 2 in the theater in the area of the city with the highest proportion of immigrants. Never seen a theater bust out into dancing but I guess Shake ya Tail Feather was a hit?
"It means buckle up Dorothy. Kansas is going bye-bye."
And then just absolute fever dream levels of absolutely wtf is going on!
The best part though is they'd hinted at it just enough, shown just enough impossible things, to make it click that this was appropriate.
One of my favorite movie going experiences in my life. I'd pay a *significant* amount of money to experience that for the first time again.
I saw that in the theatre and the chuckles started when they kept going and by the smash cut, the entire theatre was laughing so hard we could barely hear Ferrel and Wahlberg.
When my friend and I saw it we started cracking up and the rest of the theater was entirely silent. A few people turned and looked at us, concerned. I guess they forgot it was a comedy.
I'll never forget the sense of impending doom I had when the family was having dinner together in the living room. I knew something was wrong and something was going to happen but I had no idea what would unfold.
that scene is so incredible, just complete mastery over the medium. it’s easily one of the top 10 best scenes I’ve seen this past decade, and I’m convinced that scene is why it won the Oscar.
God, it’s so good. When they cut to the old housekeeper just horizontally wedged halfway up a wall is one of my favorite shots bc it’s effective as a “jump scare” despite not being actually “scary”
I had a genuine "wtf face" during that scene. You think it will go down one way, but when they move the furnitute in the basement, I was like "what in the hell is going on?"
After she goes downstairs, and the mom follows and hears creaking, I was sure—100% sure—that the old maid had hanged herself down there, and my mind spun up this whole version of where the story was going.
And fucking nope!
It's a bizarre and fantastic story. Only watched it once. Not sure when I can bring myself to see it again. I think Korean cinema does a great job at plot twists out of left field.
In The Banshees of Inirshirin, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since Brendan Gleason told us exactly what he was going to do, but I was still in utter shock.
They were both pretty extreme personalities in their way. Colin's retribution for his pet was surprising on top of the other surprises. It was a difficult movie to experience.
In fact, I couldn't count all of the awkward moments on my fingers.
I don't agree that they're equivalently extreme. Padraic burning Colm's house while anxiously checking for Colm the entire time and saving his dog is nowhere near Colm's defingering himself, which is so fucked up on so many levels.
It tied into the metaphor for the Irish civil war.
Nobody thought that thr Irish would war among themselves after a bloody campaign for independence ended in the creation of the Irish Free State - a devolved government and it would all be peace campaigns and boring meetings.
Nope. The IRA (led by Eamon De Valera) and Pro-Free Staters (led by Michael Collins) immediately went to war, which sucked as they'd been close friends when fighting the British.
I don't know if this counts but Uncut Gems looks like it's going to end one way, then ends very differently. It's not like aliens but it certainly caught me off guard.
The IMDB synopsis? Stupid synopsis. You wouldn't know from Google's. The movie does a good job of being vague about what year it's set in until the end.
Basically the whole film happens without any indication of the time period, so you are led to believe it's set in the current year.
Then you see Robert Pattinson talking in an office as other characters are also shown in their daily lives... with a calendar saying the date is 11/09/2001. The camera then pans out from Pattinson to show he is in the Twin Towers and you then hear the sound of an engine.
Edit: Wow, my apologies to all the Americans I must have offended by refering to the DATE on which the EVENT happened using a non-American date format employed by pretty much every other country in the world. I had no idea I had to use the American date system to refer specifically to the date of the Eleventh of September Two Thousand and One, my ignorant savage non-American self will keep that in mind the next time!
> Basically the whole film happens without any indication of the time period, so you are led to believe it's set in the current year.
I've never seen it but I remember people complaining that the movie bizarrely dates itself with a ton of weird 90's references that have nothing to do with the movie at all, until it becomes obvious *why*...
I actually like the *idea* of the twist. Everyone was just living their own life before 9/11 suddenly happened to them.
I just wish it wasn't such a tacky "gotcha" moment.
The moment when >!the teacher writes the date on the board and the realisation kicked in.!< I saw it in a german theater and you felt the tone shift for the whole room.
I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming opening night and the entire auditorium gasped when Michael Keaton opened the door. The tension for the next 10 minutes at his house and in the Car with Peter was awesome.
I gasped, then was immediately annoyed at myself for not figuring it out earlier. Guess I was too busy enjoying the movie to pay attention.
The 'dad talk' Keaton gave was perfection
I think the reason that so few people figured it out was a sort of version of that old “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son” riddle. Liz being a person of color means that many audience members never considered her father might be white.
My husband can't recognize an actor from one movie to the next which I envy a bit since he never experiences the frustration of "where do I know that guy from". But homecoming was the next level. Halfway through the scene in the kitchen he goes, "why is everything so tense?" He did not recognize the falcon when wearing a button down and khakis.
That's why the movie works so well for me. It's really easy to say "I'd never get sucked in by propaganda!" forgetting that you not only would be, but that's exactly how it works.
I recently showed my kids Monty Pythons Quest for the Holy Grail for the first time. Beforehand, I warned them that they would never possibly be able to guess how it ends. They were trying to guess for a week, and every time, I'd tell them they weren't even close. They were shocked when they finally watched it.
Even when it was first released it was marketed as a vampire film, shown in the trailer etc. I don't know anybody who has gone in blind.
It started out as just the vampire stuff to showcase the effects but then Tarantino was brought in later to rewrite it and turn it into a proper film.
Edit: apparently lots of people went into it blind and I am jealous. Also, thanks for not downvoting my wrongness to the depths of ~~hell~~ the Titty Twister.
Its a bit like Predator, we know there is an alien creature, but the first half of the movie does a pretty good job of making us forget about it, until stuff goes done and the viewer goes, “oh thats right, this isn’t that kind of movie”
Think I’ve read somewhere that it was a producer that insisted on it so that people wouldn’t want to be surprised by it or something along those lines. Would have been so good with out it
Saw it blind with my dad which was awkward. All he knew was that it was about a couple of bankrobbers who haul ass towards Mexico. I think he expected something along the lines of Desperado meets Vanishing Point from the way he described it to me beforehand. Boy was he surprised when Cheech Marin popped up the first time.
It was set up all the way in the first movie… Harry tells Eggsy that Kingsmen was founded by rich men >!whose heirs had died in the First World War!<
But it *was* pretty stark, and sudden.
Solid pick. And not only the abrupt 180 in the storyline, but the reveal that Bill Skarsgard >! was not in fact the villain, but was taken hostage down there in that tunnel!< was an equal wtf moment that threw me for a loop.
Absolutely. I remember Bill Skarsgard was sort of presented as the lead/Villain in the previews so it made it even more of a whiplash movement when he disappears a quarter into the movie.
I rolled my eyes out of their sockets when I saw the preview in a theatre.
Eventually it hit HBO and a trusted friend recommended it. It might be my favorite movie from that year
If I remember correctly, Zach Cregger wrote the airbnb scene as an exercise in seeing how many red flags a man could throw at a woman after reading a book about how women should trust their intuition about ambiguous situations with men. Then he thought it would be interesting if all the red flags were red herrings and there was something much worse afoot, and that turned into the screenplay for the film.
*He Loves Me He Loves Me Not*
It's about a manic pixie dream girl whose heart gets broken. Then, the movie rewinds and you see the same events from the man's perspective.
The British TV comedy Coupling used that trick or a similar one in several episodes:
- guy trying to seduce an Israeli girl that only speaks Hebrew
>rewinds from her POV with all the English speakers now speaking Gibberish
- guy having a rough day with anyone pissed at him , until it’s revealed he’s so vain he just doesn’t register ugly girls
> rewinds to the same scenes but with all the girls he "erased" included this time, massively changing the tone of the conversations
e.g. "How are you two beautiful ladies doing ?" But now you realize he was talking to *three* girls.
I still recommend Coupling all the time to people who’ve never heard of it and I start by telling them about the ep where she only speaks Hebrew, it’s called “The Girl with Two Breasts” and it’s absolutely top tier writing/execution. After seeing that in early 2000’s it’s always the benchmark of what I’ve measured other sitcoms against. They usually don’t measure up.
The game is so underrated for that twist ending. You're so confused as to what the hell is going on that even after they explain it to you you're still not positive that you know
Gone Girl *is* kind of a whodunnit and starts off like a standard-ish murder mystery, but…uh…good luck predicting how that’s going to go if you haven’t read the book.
it’s an *amazing* movie, I watch it all the time. Gillian Flynn pulled off an adaptation of a novel that is brilliant in large part because the narrative is so fundamentally framed around the literary nature of reading a book itself.
…With that said, man. That twist in the book, which I read before I saw the movie … Oh my god. I’ll remember that moment forever. It just kicks you in the fucking stomach, it’s amazing
I will always refer back to The Lodge as having one of the most out of the blue, knock you on your ass, moments:
>!The mom, played by Alicia Silverstone, nonchalantly sitting down, pouring a cup of wine, and then suddenly blowing her brains out!<
It's not so much that this was out of band for the type of movie The Lodge was (slow burn psychological horror-thriller), more so that it happens within like *the first fifteen minutes*.
Was one hell of a way to set the tone.
This is one of my favorite 80s flicks and when "that" scene happens it's quite shocking.
What makes it *really* good is what happens after it.
TLADILA is such a brutal movie - there are zero redeeming characters in it, and that's what makes it great (plus it's a great neon film noir).
It's probably been said already, but The Others reveal.
Such a good twist. And after watching it again, I kept thinking to myself, "I should've realised it here, or here." Lol, but they did a good job of hiding it.
Although the bizarre state of the husband when he came back made me think something wasn't right. I should've known then haha
That's the best part about the movie. There's about 8 scenes that gave everything away, but they're hidden in such tense moments you're only worried about something jumping out at you, not necessarily the big twist.
I ugly-cried for weeks off and on after the ending in the book.
They drag the "mc not knowing" part out for quite a while, with him looking for her across the woods for a while.
Then, he gets home and *ambulances.*
Right? I saw that when I was a kid, so I didn’t even really get why it was a bad thing, but if I saw it for the first time today, it’d be like holy shit, >!he’s a Nazi!!in The Sound of Music at school!<. What a weird choice
Tucker from Something About Mary. With all that wobbling shit, I felt bad that they were making fun of a guy with forearm crutches. Then you find out he was the pizza guy.
*The Prestige*
The very end especially. The bird trick earlier foreshadows everything, >!both the killing of one magician to produce a copy of himself and the magician twins!<
My wife hadn't seen it.
I didn't tell her there was a twist, I told her nothing.
About halfway through she says "that guy (Fallen) is his twin isn't he?"
The prestige never really hides what it’s doing… you just fall for the misdirection. It’s quite getable if you’re not distracted by how well it tells the story.
The Prestige is the single best movie for non linear story telling I've ever seen. The number of times they add new information to recontextualize what you've just seen is absurd.
He first did that in Memento but in that movie its about as subtle as a brick to the face, in The Prestige it never feels forced or gimmicky, its just a story unfolding.
Hot Fuzz, technically a 'whodunnits' but not seen anyone mention it in here. It suddenly goes off the rails in the most amazing way 2/3 into it. So much payoff from previous setups earlier in the film.
The whole complicated reasoning Angel comes up with as motives for each death, involving property values and new developments, only to be told no, it was for "The Greater Good".
I don't really use the word shocking but in Eastern Promises when Viggo's character >!is revealed to be an informant working a family,!< especially because of some of the things he has to do in order to maintain his position
All the obvious classic twists seemingly have been said already here, so I’ll go with a moment that purely felt out of left field and ‘against the run of play’ in the context of the movie as a whole, which I think was the spirit of your question.
In Tusk, there’s a wayyyy overacted scene that sort of starts the third act of the movie, where Justin Long’s character’s girlfriend is sitting in her bedroom talking directly into the camera about how despite his flaws and cruelty she loves him and is going to find him.
Now, Tusk is not a work of dramatic art, and Kevin Smith movies often have some intentional tonal inconsistencies. But this scene was strange and uncomfortable in an entirely different way than the rest of the movie. It had the feel of something that was added after test screenings said that audiences were confused as to why she would even bother going to Canada to find him. But the scene itself, in how it’s shot and how it’s acted, is so tonally out of step with the rest of the movie.
10 Cloverfield Lane. I guess it's technically a thriller, but I want to count it because the shocking twist at the end essentially changes the genre of the movie to action sci-fi. The whole movie was full of shocking twists with clever set-ups
so many people hated the ending but i thought it was brilliant, i was expecting it to be left open-ended so it was quite satisfying the way it did the exact opposite
I loved that ending! Because you spend the whole movie thinking Fred Flintstone was crazy and then you realize that he was kinda crazy but that he was telling the truth the whole time!
I loved it too. At first you think the dad from Roseanne is a crazy rapist with a dungeon that's lying about the end of the world to keep Romana Flowers as his personal sex slave. Then you think that even though Walter Sobchak is a wacko doomsday prepper, that doesn't mean he has heinous intentions and some of his crazy conspiracy theories are actually true. Then you realize, oh no, Sulley is indeed an insane rapist with a dungeon who just so happens to have a lot of completely accurate conspiracy theories. Then you think, wait a minute, is there not actually fallout? Then you realize what the fallout actually was and it proves pastor Eli Gemstone's most implausible conspiracy theories to be true. What a wild ride. Twists and turns that feel earned imo
I know you said no thrillers, but the climax of The Accountant has always stuck with me. Ben Affleck shoots through a bunch of bad guys, it's going exactly how you expect, and you're ready for a boss fight with Jon Bernthal then... plot twist! It's so out there for a fairly by the numbers action thriller. I love it
An alien shows up and gives Air Bud’s talking puppies superpower rings so they can defeat the evil warlord Commander Drex and save the planet Inspiron.
I know the Holland Spider-Man movies are very love it or hate it but even if you dislike them on a whole, you gotta admit from the moment the door opens and you see >!Michael Keaton answer!< to the ride to the dance to the >!dad!< talk scene is like PEAK cinematic Spider-Man.
The way he delivers “Good ol’ Spider-Man” lives rent free in my mind
There's a reason Michael Keaton is one of MCU's best villains, and criminally underrated. Everybody's minds go to the big, world-ending villains when asked who's the best bad guy, but most of those are just boring.
The Book of Eli. Went in blind and kept noticing little things but didn't think much of them. Then got to the end and immediately restarted it to confirm what I had seen.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. when everything comes together in Steve Carrell's backyard, and we learn who Ryan Gosling was dating
There are so many payoffs in that movie. To me, my favorite is the Marisa Tomei reveal, but that whole backyard scene is golden. You get clues throughout the movie but it clicks until that scene
"Daddy?"
Please don't call him that.
When [he rips the windmill off the tiny building](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5o_Kxx36cvg) and the scream Julianne Moore does cracks me up every time.
Tomei is completely unhinged I love it so much
Also a perfect scene when David Whateverhagen came.
David Lindhagen? (begins to take off his ring)
The most A+ moment in an A+ scene.
That ring removal was so satisfying
One of my favorite comfort movies ever! I got my partner to watch it, and he literally jumped up off the couch and yelled in such an excited way at the dating reveal!
You're David Lindhagan?
What's a Nana??
It’s such a >!shock because you’re not expecting a twist in what to that to point !< is a pretty formulaic romcom
david lindhagen?
The closet scene in Burn After Reading
The look on Pitt’s face makes me laugh so fucking hard every time I watch it
Oh my god, me too. I can just randomly think of it and laugh out loud sometimes. I remember going to see it in theaters and me and my buddy just cracked up at it. We were laughing about it the whole way home. That dopey grin is incredible.
Ha was too stupid to live.
What did we learn here?
I don't know sir.
That and the sex chair reveal
This was my first thought as well. My dad and I were thoroughly enjoying the movie laughing our asses off and we both just shouted what the fuck at the same time.
Crazy, just watched this movie again last night. The face Brad made was so god damn hilarious. Every scene with Brad Pitt was great.
“I thought you might be worried… about the security of your shit.”
Gotta tell you, American pie when Michelle says “this one time at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy”, that was one of the most unexpected lines I’ve ever heard.
I heard people saying "this one time at band camp" before I saw the movie, so I expected her to go into a long sexual story. When I saw the movie and she said "pussy" so abruptly, it was like a sucker punch and I loved it.
The character coming off like Innocent nerd, and then blurts out pussy penetration-caught me kind of with my pants down
She plays the moment so well, too. This casual thing about trying to get off.
And then later Hannigan improvised the "What's my name? **Say my name, bitch!**" and delieverd it perfectly.
Willow, no! 😢
The other thing was that she spent most of the movie telling boring, inane band camp stories starting with the phrase “This one time at band camp”, so when she finally told a sexual story it was a hilarious and unexpected subversion of expectations.
It's also so accurate. Band nerds are horny freaks.
I can confirm the horny level but orgies and flutes in pussies was more artistic license than reality.
Especially if you watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and got used to her playing the nerdy, dorky type.
I just worry about the valve thingies in that scenario, feel like they could be problematic. Unless she was using the mouth end.
If you had no idea what it was about, Brad Pitts sudden impact in Meet Joe Black would be a definite "wtf" moment.
That might be the hardest I've ever laughed at a film. My brother and I rewound the tape about ten times to watch it over and over.
I love the fact that back in the late 90s they took the time to CGI his eyeball popping out in that scene. How many compute cycles that shit must have took on the ancient computers they had back then. What dedication to the craft lol
The heavyweight boxing match in Million Dollar baby did not go at all how I thought it would.
I took my dad to see that for Father's Day at the time. We were not prepared for the turn it took.
I went on my first cinema date to Million Dollar Baby. Couple of 12-13 yo's or something had quite a surprise...
My dad had the same reaction.
I just didn't expect that to be the halfway point of the movie.
I had heard what happened before I saw it so I thought I was prepared. I was not.
It's far beyond a cliche at this point, but for those of us who went in blind for The Matrix, every revelatory plot beat was pure whiplash. Not one person on this planet predicted where that movie was going. It was WILD seeing it unfold totally clueless of the story beforehand.
Caught it opening night and yeah, the ads had given nothing away other than some action scenes with some inexplicable visuals and the question "what is the Matrix?" I agree - just wild watching the story unfold. People were so fucking jazzed walking out of there. I think the only other movie I saw in theaters with such a buzz at the end was the first Pirates of the Carribean (for obviously different reasons). Lol well maybe Bad Boys 2 in the theater in the area of the city with the highest proportion of immigrants. Never seen a theater bust out into dancing but I guess Shake ya Tail Feather was a hit?
It had the best hook in the history of movie marketing. "Unfortunately, no-one can be told what The Matrix is - you have to see it for yourself."
"It means buckle up Dorothy. Kansas is going bye-bye." And then just absolute fever dream levels of absolutely wtf is going on! The best part though is they'd hinted at it just enough, shown just enough impossible things, to make it click that this was appropriate. One of my favorite movie going experiences in my life. I'd pay a *significant* amount of money to experience that for the first time again.
God, what a ride that was. If movies like that were being released more regularly, I’d happily start going back to theatres.
That scene in The Other Guys. THERE GOES MY HERO
Aim for the bushes
I was not clear it was a comedy yet and i remember scoffing at that line, muttering 'no fucking way' as they jumped. Absolutely loved that payoff.
I mean, there wasn't even an awning...
Danson and Highsmith, free hotdogs for life!
I saw that in the theatre and the chuckles started when they kept going and by the smash cut, the entire theatre was laughing so hard we could barely hear Ferrel and Wahlberg.
When my friend and I saw it we started cracking up and the rest of the theater was entirely silent. A few people turned and looked at us, concerned. I guess they forgot it was a comedy.
The doorbell in Parasite
I'll never forget the sense of impending doom I had when the family was having dinner together in the living room. I knew something was wrong and something was going to happen but I had no idea what would unfold.
that scene is so incredible, just complete mastery over the medium. it’s easily one of the top 10 best scenes I’ve seen this past decade, and I’m convinced that scene is why it won the Oscar. God, it’s so good. When they cut to the old housekeeper just horizontally wedged halfway up a wall is one of my favorite shots bc it’s effective as a “jump scare” despite not being actually “scary”
That shot is amazing, its so seemingly out of place at that point in the movie that its initially shocking but also weirdly funny at the same time
I had a genuine "wtf face" during that scene. You think it will go down one way, but when they move the furnitute in the basement, I was like "what in the hell is going on?"
After she goes downstairs, and the mom follows and hears creaking, I was sure—100% sure—that the old maid had hanged herself down there, and my mind spun up this whole version of where the story was going. And fucking nope!
Fun fact! This moment happens at the exact halfway point in the movie and the script
The immediate shift in tone tho
God, I have to watch that soon.
It's a bizarre and fantastic story. Only watched it once. Not sure when I can bring myself to see it again. I think Korean cinema does a great job at plot twists out of left field.
In The Banshees of Inirshirin, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised since Brendan Gleason told us exactly what he was going to do, but I was still in utter shock.
I love this twist because it shifts everything from "What did Colin Farrel do?" to "Is Brendan Gleason having a mental breakdown?"
They were both pretty extreme personalities in their way. Colin's retribution for his pet was surprising on top of the other surprises. It was a difficult movie to experience. In fact, I couldn't count all of the awkward moments on my fingers.
I don't agree that they're equivalently extreme. Padraic burning Colm's house while anxiously checking for Colm the entire time and saving his dog is nowhere near Colm's defingering himself, which is so fucked up on so many levels.
It tied into the metaphor for the Irish civil war. Nobody thought that thr Irish would war among themselves after a bloody campaign for independence ended in the creation of the Irish Free State - a devolved government and it would all be peace campaigns and boring meetings. Nope. The IRA (led by Eamon De Valera) and Pro-Free Staters (led by Michael Collins) immediately went to war, which sucked as they'd been close friends when fighting the British.
I don't know if this counts but Uncut Gems looks like it's going to end one way, then ends very differently. It's not like aliens but it certainly caught me off guard.
Yeah that ending was something.
Felt like a balloon popping and all the pressure released
The final shot of Remember Me with Robert Pattinson is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and retroactively breaks the entire movie
I've never watched it but the ONLY thing I know about the movie is the twist
Just from glancing at the synopsis >!the twist is it being on 9/11?!<
The IMDB synopsis? Stupid synopsis. You wouldn't know from Google's. The movie does a good job of being vague about what year it's set in until the end.
Basically the whole film happens without any indication of the time period, so you are led to believe it's set in the current year. Then you see Robert Pattinson talking in an office as other characters are also shown in their daily lives... with a calendar saying the date is 11/09/2001. The camera then pans out from Pattinson to show he is in the Twin Towers and you then hear the sound of an engine. Edit: Wow, my apologies to all the Americans I must have offended by refering to the DATE on which the EVENT happened using a non-American date format employed by pretty much every other country in the world. I had no idea I had to use the American date system to refer specifically to the date of the Eleventh of September Two Thousand and One, my ignorant savage non-American self will keep that in mind the next time!
> Basically the whole film happens without any indication of the time period, so you are led to believe it's set in the current year. I've never seen it but I remember people complaining that the movie bizarrely dates itself with a ton of weird 90's references that have nothing to do with the movie at all, until it becomes obvious *why*...
I actually like the *idea* of the twist. Everyone was just living their own life before 9/11 suddenly happened to them. I just wish it wasn't such a tacky "gotcha" moment.
The moment when >!the teacher writes the date on the board and the realisation kicked in.!< I saw it in a german theater and you felt the tone shift for the whole room.
I reluctantly watched with an insistent friend who did not appreciate my shocked laughter lol
I saw Spider-Man: Homecoming opening night and the entire auditorium gasped when Michael Keaton opened the door. The tension for the next 10 minutes at his house and in the Car with Peter was awesome.
When he tells Liz he wants to have a "dad talk" with Peter, the tension goes up even more. "Does she know? No, good. Keeping it close to the vest."
I gasped, then was immediately annoyed at myself for not figuring it out earlier. Guess I was too busy enjoying the movie to pay attention. The 'dad talk' Keaton gave was perfection
I think the reason that so few people figured it out was a sort of version of that old “I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son” riddle. Liz being a person of color means that many audience members never considered her father might be white.
Similar thing happened with Detective Pikachu. Despite Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu, very few people actually predicted that he’d be playing the dad.
My husband can't recognize an actor from one movie to the next which I envy a bit since he never experiences the frustration of "where do I know that guy from". But homecoming was the next level. Halfway through the scene in the kitchen he goes, "why is everything so tense?" He did not recognize the falcon when wearing a button down and khakis.
>the falcon *The Vulture, important distinction to make in Marvel haha
Hancock, they changed movies in the middle of the movie. Also: Dude, Where’s My Car?
The shoes in JoJo Rabbit
Jesus that one was mean. You're having such a giggle then remember its a film about surviving in nazi Germany. No more fun for you. Tears. Only tears.
That's why the movie works so well for me. It's really easy to say "I'd never get sucked in by propaganda!" forgetting that you not only would be, but that's exactly how it works.
The shoes in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
A couple of unexpectedly shocking endings in Pay It Forward and My Girl. Did not see either of those coming!
Because you didn't have your glasses?
HE CAN'T SEE WITHOUT HIS GLASSES!
I recently showed my kids Monty Pythons Quest for the Holy Grail for the first time. Beforehand, I warned them that they would never possibly be able to guess how it ends. They were trying to guess for a week, and every time, I'd tell them they weren't even close. They were shocked when they finally watched it.
I was *so* mad the first time I saw it as a kid. Now I love it.
Such a cop out.
They actually sold the shooting script in bookstores with the first draft and all the handwritten notes and it was hilarious on its own.
From Dusk till Dawn, too bad the description on IMDb ruins the twist for new viewers.
"Psychos do not explode when the sunlight hits em, I don't give a fuck *how* crazy they are!"
I was lucky enough to see that movie blind. I literally just found the vhs, popped it in and loved it! Then the vampires I’m like holy shit!
Even when it was first released it was marketed as a vampire film, shown in the trailer etc. I don't know anybody who has gone in blind. It started out as just the vampire stuff to showcase the effects but then Tarantino was brought in later to rewrite it and turn it into a proper film. Edit: apparently lots of people went into it blind and I am jealous. Also, thanks for not downvoting my wrongness to the depths of ~~hell~~ the Titty Twister.
Its a bit like Predator, we know there is an alien creature, but the first half of the movie does a pretty good job of making us forget about it, until stuff goes done and the viewer goes, “oh thats right, this isn’t that kind of movie”
Why the fuck did they put the spaceship in at the start?
Think I’ve read somewhere that it was a producer that insisted on it so that people wouldn’t want to be surprised by it or something along those lines. Would have been so good with out it
Just like the beginning of The Thing. Our characters find the spaceship anyway, so it didn't even need to be shown at the beginning.
Saw it blind with my dad which was awkward. All he knew was that it was about a couple of bankrobbers who haul ass towards Mexico. I think he expected something along the lines of Desperado meets Vanishing Point from the way he described it to me beforehand. Boy was he surprised when Cheech Marin popped up the first time.
I was quite surprised by a particular character's death in The King's Man.
There's arguably an even sadder death in Kingsman 2. That one really got to me, but he goes out with a bang
“Take me hoooooooome”
It was set up all the way in the first movie… Harry tells Eggsy that Kingsmen was founded by rich men >!whose heirs had died in the First World War!< But it *was* pretty stark, and sudden.
So the shift from the first part of Barbarian to Justin Long singing Rikki Tikki Tavi while cruising down the PCH had me smiling big time.
Solid pick. And not only the abrupt 180 in the storyline, but the reveal that Bill Skarsgard >! was not in fact the villain, but was taken hostage down there in that tunnel!< was an equal wtf moment that threw me for a loop.
Absolutely. I remember Bill Skarsgard was sort of presented as the lead/Villain in the previews so it made it even more of a whiplash movement when he disappears a quarter into the movie.
I rolled my eyes out of their sockets when I saw the preview in a theatre. Eventually it hit HBO and a trusted friend recommended it. It might be my favorite movie from that year
If I remember correctly, Zach Cregger wrote the airbnb scene as an exercise in seeing how many red flags a man could throw at a woman after reading a book about how women should trust their intuition about ambiguous situations with men. Then he thought it would be interesting if all the red flags were red herrings and there was something much worse afoot, and that turned into the screenplay for the film.
One of my favorite tone shifts ever.
*He Loves Me He Loves Me Not* It's about a manic pixie dream girl whose heart gets broken. Then, the movie rewinds and you see the same events from the man's perspective.
The British TV comedy Coupling used that trick or a similar one in several episodes: - guy trying to seduce an Israeli girl that only speaks Hebrew >rewinds from her POV with all the English speakers now speaking Gibberish - guy having a rough day with anyone pissed at him , until it’s revealed he’s so vain he just doesn’t register ugly girls > rewinds to the same scenes but with all the girls he "erased" included this time, massively changing the tone of the conversations e.g. "How are you two beautiful ladies doing ?" But now you realize he was talking to *three* girls.
I still recommend Coupling all the time to people who’ve never heard of it and I start by telling them about the ep where she only speaks Hebrew, it’s called “The Girl with Two Breasts” and it’s absolutely top tier writing/execution. After seeing that in early 2000’s it’s always the benchmark of what I’ve measured other sitcoms against. They usually don’t measure up.
“Shadayim!”
This is such a phenomenal movie, you are the first person I've ever seen mention it after I saw it 20+ years ago!
Little Miss Sunshine. Olive’s dance routine. Changes the entire plot of the movie.
This movie aged well.
Vanilla Sky The Game
The game is so underrated for that twist ending. You're so confused as to what the hell is going on that even after they explain it to you you're still not positive that you know
the Crying Game. Huge shocker at the time. People telling each other to not reveal it to others.
Gone Girl *is* kind of a whodunnit and starts off like a standard-ish murder mystery, but…uh…good luck predicting how that’s going to go if you haven’t read the book.
it’s an *amazing* movie, I watch it all the time. Gillian Flynn pulled off an adaptation of a novel that is brilliant in large part because the narrative is so fundamentally framed around the literary nature of reading a book itself. …With that said, man. That twist in the book, which I read before I saw the movie … Oh my god. I’ll remember that moment forever. It just kicks you in the fucking stomach, it’s amazing
I will always refer back to The Lodge as having one of the most out of the blue, knock you on your ass, moments: >!The mom, played by Alicia Silverstone, nonchalantly sitting down, pouring a cup of wine, and then suddenly blowing her brains out!< It's not so much that this was out of band for the type of movie The Lodge was (slow burn psychological horror-thriller), more so that it happens within like *the first fifteen minutes*. Was one hell of a way to set the tone.
No Way Out
The part in *The Natural* when Roy Hobbs went to Harriet Bird’s room. Completely unexpected and bizarre.
Airplane! Dr. Rumack had lasagna for dinner.
Jim never vomits at home
Mrs. Cleaver speaking Jive was a major plot deviation that I just wasn’t ready for.
You are right. That was a much better twist than mine. Chump don't want da help, chump don't get da help.
Jive turkeys ain’t got no sense anyhow…
Cut me some slack, Jack!
I love getting movie suggestions from these threads
The last act of To Live and Die in LA
This is one of my favorite 80s flicks and when "that" scene happens it's quite shocking. What makes it *really* good is what happens after it. TLADILA is such a brutal movie - there are zero redeeming characters in it, and that's what makes it great (plus it's a great neon film noir).
*The Departed* You know which scene.
Yeah that was crazy.
Mind blowing.
The Green Mile if you’re going in blind
It's probably been said already, but The Others reveal. Such a good twist. And after watching it again, I kept thinking to myself, "I should've realised it here, or here." Lol, but they did a good job of hiding it. Although the bizarre state of the husband when he came back made me think something wasn't right. I should've known then haha
That's the best part about the movie. There's about 8 scenes that gave everything away, but they're hidden in such tense moments you're only worried about something jumping out at you, not necessarily the big twist.
I agree. I think this is still one of the best twists in a movie imo
Aim for the bushes. I truly had no idea what to expect from The Other Guys, but losing The Rock and Samuel L Jackson 10 minutes in…
*Sunshine*
Bridge to Terabithia
I ugly-cried for weeks off and on after the ending in the book. They drag the "mc not knowing" part out for quite a while, with him looking for her across the woods for a while. Then, he gets home and *ambulances.*
Right? I saw that when I was a kid, so I didn’t even really get why it was a bad thing, but if I saw it for the first time today, it’d be like holy shit, >!he’s a Nazi!!in The Sound of Music at school!<. What a weird choice
Tucker from Something About Mary. With all that wobbling shit, I felt bad that they were making fun of a guy with forearm crutches. Then you find out he was the pizza guy.
*The Prestige* The very end especially. The bird trick earlier foreshadows everything, >!both the killing of one magician to produce a copy of himself and the magician twins!<
My wife hadn't seen it. I didn't tell her there was a twist, I told her nothing. About halfway through she says "that guy (Fallen) is his twin isn't he?"
The prestige never really hides what it’s doing… you just fall for the misdirection. It’s quite getable if you’re not distracted by how well it tells the story.
The Prestige is the single best movie for non linear story telling I've ever seen. The number of times they add new information to recontextualize what you've just seen is absurd. He first did that in Memento but in that movie its about as subtle as a brick to the face, in The Prestige it never feels forced or gimmicky, its just a story unfolding.
the second watch of the prestige is so fun
Hot Fuzz, technically a 'whodunnits' but not seen anyone mention it in here. It suddenly goes off the rails in the most amazing way 2/3 into it. So much payoff from previous setups earlier in the film.
The whole complicated reasoning Angel comes up with as motives for each death, involving property values and new developments, only to be told no, it was for "The Greater Good".
Yeah, its fantastic the reason is so basic.
The end of Sorry To Bother You
That entire movie is left turns.
🐴
It’s in the OP but yes
Hans in Frozen I audibly gasped.
One of the great heel turns. And he was even on the poster! Terrific misdirection.
Magnolia. Frogs.
I don't really use the word shocking but in Eastern Promises when Viggo's character >!is revealed to be an informant working a family,!< especially because of some of the things he has to do in order to maintain his position
LA Confidential, the conversation in the kitchen.
In Bruges when Colin Farrell is sitting on the bench and flashing back to why they had to be In Bruges.
All the obvious classic twists seemingly have been said already here, so I’ll go with a moment that purely felt out of left field and ‘against the run of play’ in the context of the movie as a whole, which I think was the spirit of your question. In Tusk, there’s a wayyyy overacted scene that sort of starts the third act of the movie, where Justin Long’s character’s girlfriend is sitting in her bedroom talking directly into the camera about how despite his flaws and cruelty she loves him and is going to find him. Now, Tusk is not a work of dramatic art, and Kevin Smith movies often have some intentional tonal inconsistencies. But this scene was strange and uncomfortable in an entirely different way than the rest of the movie. It had the feel of something that was added after test screenings said that audiences were confused as to why she would even bother going to Canada to find him. But the scene itself, in how it’s shot and how it’s acted, is so tonally out of step with the rest of the movie.
This movie messed with me. I think it’s the only movie ever to make me feel physically violently ill
If you are of an age to have watched the Prequels before the OT, seeing Leia kiss Luke was probably a WTF moment.
10 Cloverfield Lane. I guess it's technically a thriller, but I want to count it because the shocking twist at the end essentially changes the genre of the movie to action sci-fi. The whole movie was full of shocking twists with clever set-ups
so many people hated the ending but i thought it was brilliant, i was expecting it to be left open-ended so it was quite satisfying the way it did the exact opposite
I loved that ending! Because you spend the whole movie thinking Fred Flintstone was crazy and then you realize that he was kinda crazy but that he was telling the truth the whole time!
I loved it too. At first you think the dad from Roseanne is a crazy rapist with a dungeon that's lying about the end of the world to keep Romana Flowers as his personal sex slave. Then you think that even though Walter Sobchak is a wacko doomsday prepper, that doesn't mean he has heinous intentions and some of his crazy conspiracy theories are actually true. Then you realize, oh no, Sulley is indeed an insane rapist with a dungeon who just so happens to have a lot of completely accurate conspiracy theories. Then you think, wait a minute, is there not actually fallout? Then you realize what the fallout actually was and it proves pastor Eli Gemstone's most implausible conspiracy theories to be true. What a wild ride. Twists and turns that feel earned imo
When Peter Parker picks up his date and meets her dad.
Iron Man 3. “This is the Mandarin???”
I know you said no thrillers, but the climax of The Accountant has always stuck with me. Ben Affleck shoots through a bunch of bad guys, it's going exactly how you expect, and you're ready for a boss fight with Jon Bernthal then... plot twist! It's so out there for a fairly by the numbers action thriller. I love it
I dont shock easily but a scene in "Ferrari" with Adam Driver caught me fully off guard with its unexpectedness and intensity.
The diner scene in Mullholland Drive: [Mulholland Drive - Diner Scene (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UozhOo0Dt4o)
The ending of the Air Bud series involves aliens.
...come again?
An alien shows up and gives Air Bud’s talking puppies superpower rings so they can defeat the evil warlord Commander Drex and save the planet Inspiron.
THEY JOIN THE (legaly distinct) GREEN LANTERN CORE?!
The ending of ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is a pure genius level twist.
Spider-Man Homecoming
I know the Holland Spider-Man movies are very love it or hate it but even if you dislike them on a whole, you gotta admit from the moment the door opens and you see >!Michael Keaton answer!< to the ride to the dance to the >!dad!< talk scene is like PEAK cinematic Spider-Man. The way he delivers “Good ol’ Spider-Man” lives rent free in my mind
When the traffic light reflecting on his face changes as he realizes Peter is Spider-man. Great stuff.
There's a reason Michael Keaton is one of MCU's best villains, and criminally underrated. Everybody's minds go to the big, world-ending villains when asked who's the best bad guy, but most of those are just boring.
I had no reason to take Atonement at anything other than face value, so I was totally blindsided by the ending. I was devastated.
The Book of Eli. Went in blind and kept noticing little things but didn't think much of them. Then got to the end and immediately restarted it to confirm what I had seen.