Here are the five best movie twist endings. Spoilers follow, obviously. We’re going to reveal a bunch of surprising conclusions.
Number 5: Primal Fear
The Setup: Fame-seeking defense attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) represents the seemingly docile Aaron Stampler (Ed Norton), an altar boy accused of murdering an archbishop. Vail believes that his client developed a dissociative personality disorder because of years of abuse, including by the archbishop, which led him to take on the violent identity of Roy.
The Twist Ending: Aaron admits that he faked his dissociative personality disorder — and is a Roy at heart.
Why It’s Good: Because Ed Norton pulls it off with some pretty stunning acting, and it’s always fun to see an arrogant character like Vail have the rugged pulled out from under him.
By the Way
If you’re wondering why another Ed Norton movie — Fight Club — isn’t on this list, it’s because the big twist in the movie comes with about half hour remaining in the film’s running time.
It’s a fantastic twist, to be sure — but we don’t think it qualifies as a movie twist ending. There’s too much movie after the big reveal.
Number 4: The Wizard of Oz
The Setup: Dorothy (Judy Garland) crash-lands in Oz after a tornado whisks her and her little dog, Toto, from Kansas. She joins the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion on a twisting, thill-filled, sing-song journey down the Yellow Brick Road to see the Wizard, whom they all hope will make their dreams come true.
The Twist Ending: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” The Wizard (Frank Morgan) is a fraud — a normal man using stagecraft to appear great and powerful. Dorothy and her crew can only make their own dreams come true, through the strength and character they built up along their journey.
The Wizard gives the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion symbolic gifts to illustrate this. When he tries to take Dorothy back to Kansas in a balloon, Toto isn’t having it, and jumps off. Dorothy follows him, and soon learns she can tap her own way back to Kansas.
Why It’s Good: Sure, in this age of the smash success of Wicked, everyone is well aware that the Wizard of Oz was no wizard at all. But imagine being a kid in a movie theater in 1939, watching the film in all its Technicolor majesty, and realizing the whole premise of Dorothy’s journey has been a lie. But then being comforted by the realization that Dorothy, like you, can find your own way home. It’s an emotionally sophisticated twist.
Number 3: The Usual Suspects
The Setup: Customs Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) interviews Verbal Kent (Kevin Spacey), who seems to be the weak link in a criminal crew under the control of the brutal Keyser Söze. Kent is a pitiable fellow — he has a slow, shuffling walk, he’s a coward, and he seems as docile as Ed Norton’s Aaron in Primal Fear.
The Twist Ending: Verbal is Keyser Söze, and has been freestyling a fake narrative for Kujan using items in his office for inspiration.
Why It Works: It comes out of absolutely nowhere, and yet makes perfect sense. The Usual Suspects (named for a line in Casablanca) is largely about the power of storytelling and building legends, something screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie clearly thought a lot about. He won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film, launching him on a spectacular career that included many collaborations with Tom Cruise, including the twist-filled Mission: Impossible franchise.
Number 2: The Sixth Sense
The Setup: The third film by M. Night Shyamalan and the one that established him as “the twist guy,” The Sixth Sense is a supernatural thriller that pairs child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) with troubled boy Cole (Haley Joel Osmont), who claims he can see dead people.
The Twist Ending: In a reversal of The Third Man, Malcolm is dead. We saw him get shot in the opening, but just assumed he recovered. He did not.
Why It Works: We love a movie where the surprise has been hidden in plain sight, all along. Shyamalan masterfully lets us draw our own conclusions throughout the movie — including that Malcolm survived the shooting — and lets us mislead ourselves.
Number 1: The Planet of the Apes
The Setup: Three astronauts, including George Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash-land on a planet where apes rule. Humans, including the captive Nova (Linda Harrison, seen above with Heston), are treated like animals.
The Twist Ending: After the humans escape, with the help of the benevolent Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), they make a horrific discovery on the beach: The Statue of Liberty. They, and we, quickly realize what’s happened: Warring humans all but destroyed ourselves as apes evolved past us and took over.
Why It Works: This is another case of everything being hidden in plain sight, and the ending has an Occam’s Razor perfection. When you really think about it, does it make more sense that the astronauts landed on another planet that looks just like earth, except that apes have evolved past humans? Or that they’re on the earth of the future, in which humans have all but killed themselves while apes flourished?
The ending came from one of the film’s writers, Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, a master of plot twists and twist endings. In typical Serling fashion it adds layers of social criticism and poignancy to everything that happened before.
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Main image: Linda Harrison in Planet of the Apes. 20th Century Fox.