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There’s an art to the perfect movie twist. If executed correctly (often in an M. Night Shyamalan fashion), the right twist should linger on a film’s periphery, only to rear its unexpected head in the climactic final act. Good twists should be surprising enough to warrant a second rewatch, allowing viewers to piece together the breadcrumbs that had scarcely been noticed on an initial viewing.
And while most movies limit their bombshells to a singular ah-ha moment, some observant directors know that the most iconic twists come in pairs. Just as audiences think they’ve got their bearings, these ten films willingly implode their plots yet again for a double (or sometimes triple) jaw-dropper.
This article contains spoilers for each entry.
'Knives Out,' Streamable on Netflix
Rian Johnson’s 2019 take on the whodunnit tale was unique in its bending of the murder mystery formula. Not only was the supposed murder in question actually a suicide, but it occurred within the film’s first act, and showed audiences exactly who the suspected killer was (or so they thought). Johnson’s reversal of an Agatha Christie plot device was a twist in itself, stripping the film of its dramatic irony when Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) slit his own throat to spare his housekeeper Marta (Ana De Armas), who accidentally prescribed him a lethal dose of morphine.
The film then follows Marta’s attempts to cover her tracks, only for the real culprit to be revealed in the film’s final act. Seeking Thrombey’s inheritance, grandson Ransom (Chris Evans) offers a second twist with the revelation that it was him who mishandled his benefactor’s medicine, allowing the innocent Marta to assume Harlan’s wealth. All audiences can hope for in the well-underway sequel is more of these pulpy mysteries.
'Us,' Streamable on Netflix
Perhaps seeking to one-up his twist-heavy debut, Jordan Peele’s 2019 film Us offers multiple, often convoluted, revelations. The first arrives when the origins of The Tethered are identified, with the Wilson family uncovering that their doppelganger's underground existence is the result of a government project gone wrong.
Then, in a revelation that certainly requires multiple viewings, the audience learns that Adelaide (played to chilling effect by Lupita Nyong'o) had in fact taken her tethered’s place after a hall of mirrors mishap in her childhood. Dropping jaws as the film cuts to black, the knowing look on Adelaide/Red’s son’s face offers a final twist of the knife.
'Fresh,' Streamable on Hulu
While the intentions of Sebastian Stan’s Steve in 2022’s Fresh are dubious from the outset, the full extent of his bloodthirsty appetite makes for one of this year’s biggest (and most squeamish) twists. Perhaps it’s Stan’s affable charisma that makes his antagonist’s cannibal instincts so unexpected, but the revelation that Steve intends to hold Noa hostage to dismember, sell and consume her flesh immediately undercuts whatever charm Steve had accumulated in the first act.
Cannibalism is enough of a curveball to encompass any other film’s entire runtime, but in what was her debut film, director Mimi Cave goes for another bombshell when it’s discovered that Steve had been married all along. The triple-twist? Steve’s wife is one of his previous victims.
'Parasite,' Streamable on Amazon Prime
When South Korean director Bong Joon-ho premiered his allegorical thriller Parasite in 2019, he offered enough twists to give audiences a permanent case of breakneck. For much of the film’s first act, the lowly Kims were an affable — if a little conniving — family, but the extent of their Machevillian tendencies are revealed in the film’s first major twist when Choong-sook violently injures the Park family’s housekeeper.
From there, the thrilling revelations come at a successive pace, chiefly in the realization that the Park’s housekeeper had been hiding her husband in the mansion’s cellar. In a masterful tension-building exercise, the film escalates to what is the final twisty climax, when Kim Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) stabs the Park patriarch during his child’s birthday party.
'Scream,' Streamable On Amazon Prime
The hallmark slasher film, 1996's Scream offered surprises from the outset, with the early murder of Drew Barrymore’s Casey in the film’s opening scenes. If killing off one of Hollywood’s biggest stars wasn’t enough, then Wes Craven ups the ante with a tense, film-long unraveling of Ghostface’s identity, the reveal of which comprises more twists than a supersized pretzel.
Scream’s final act reveals Billy (Skeet Ulrich) as the man behind the mask, but audiences also learn that he hasn’t been working (see, murdering) alone. The dual killers of Woodsboro, Billy and Stu (Matthew Lillard) look set to make another victim out of Sidney, until the revelation that the supposedly slaughtered Gale (Courteney Cox) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) had been alive all along.
'Get Out,' Streamable On Amazon Prime
In what looks to be a trend for the green horror auteur, Jordan Peele’s 2017 film Get Out set a benchmark for the director, chiefly in terms of plot twists. The audience follows along with protagonist Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), as the antics of his in-laws and their housekeepers begin to spiral to truly bizarre depths. One midnight sprint and misplaced phone charger later, the Armitage family’s intentions are revealed, those being Chris’ abduction and hypnotic relegation to the sunken place, whereupon White folks can assume his now-soulless body.
Given Peele’s chess-like attention to detail, particularly eagle-eyed viewers might’ve seen Chris’ fate coming, but the late-act revelation that his longtime girlfriend Rose was in on the ploy all along was a bombshell for the ages. If his past two films are anything to go by, expect extra twists in what will be Peele’s third horror outing in the upcoming NOPE.
'Gone Girl,' Streamable on Netflix, Amazon Prime & Disney+
David Fincher’s 2014 thriller Gone Girl is home to one of the most conniving villains in film history — personified by Rosamund Pike’s Oscar-nominated turn as Amy Dunne, who plots a twist-heavy scheme to frame her husband Nick (Ben Affleck). A sudden disappearance is one thing, but Fincher drops the bombshell that it was Amy who spearheaded her own supposed murder, with the fallout of her revenge scheme comprising much of the film’s second half.
Revealing the whodunnit to be the victim themselves accounts for only one of Gone Girl’s jaw-droppers, as Fincher later seals the fate of Amy’s one-time lover Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris). Perhaps, given Amy’s intentions to return to her husband, Desi’s death was predictable, but the gruesome extent to which Amy carries out his murder and subsequent framing make for one of Fincher’s biggest twists. If you're afraid of blood, you’ve been warned
'Pyscho,' Streamable on Apple TV
The grandfather of slasher films, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho was renowned for its subversion of typical movie tropes and operated in a genre rife with twisty potential. In a meta-twist, Hitchcock upended audience expectations with the early death of Janet Leigh, who was at the time a huge Hollywood star.
Marion Crane’s shortened screen time was a shock in itself, but her bathtime demise at the hands of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) made for what is arguably one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history. Still reeling from Bates’ knife frenzies, audiences suffer a double shock with the revelation that he had murdered and assumed the identity of his mother.
'Black Swan,' Streamable on Apple TV
While it’s difficult to decipher which twists take place in reality given Darren Aronofsky’s hallucinogenic storytelling, Black Swan's progressive tension makes for an ultimate finale in Nina’s (Natalie Portman) psychological unraveling. The ballerina’s quest for perfection leads to the murder of her rival in Mila Kunis' Lily, an act juxtaposed by Nina’s otherwise innocent characterization.
Next, in a sequence worthy of Natalie Portman’s Best Actress win, Nina takes to the stage for her rendition of the Black Swan, but not before metamorphosing into the titular bird. In a final bombshell, Nina appears to fatally injure herself in the film's final moments, closing the curtains with a final twist.
'Ex Machina,' Streamable on Netflix
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A film that will make you never want to utter the words "Hey Siri" again, 2014's Ex Machina takes the sci-fi route in delivering sharp and timely twists. Taking the progression of artificial intelligence to its speculative extremes, director Alex Garland sets a dubious tone with the introduction of Oscar Isaac’s Nathan — a tech mogul whose intentions with his human-like androids remain sinister.
The revelation of exactly what Nathan is using AI like Eva for (think Westworld), is one shocker, but it’s not to be outdone by the moment in which the robot meets her maker (think, Psycho). Not settling there, Garland offers a final twist when Eva (Alicia Vikander) — who’d long formed a relationship with Domhnall Gleeson’s Caleb — shockingly decides to leave him in an air-locked room, essentially kick-starting the robot revolution.