There’s nothing better and nothing worse than a plot twist. When executed correctly, they can be unforgettable.
If done incorrectly, however, they can leave an indelible stain on an otherwise brilliant film.
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Below are 10+ movie plot twists that just made fans angry. They remain as fresh in our minds today as they were all those years ago. Prepare to be frustrated!
*Source Code*
This is one of those blatant examples of a film really trying to force-feed the audience a happy ending.
By allowing Colter to re-enter the simulation, the film essentially contradicts everything we’ve held to be true up until this point.
*Orphan*
The beginning of Orphan paints the picture of a promising and chilling thriller. The end result is nothing short of comical.
Have you ever seen the old Looney Tunes cartoon Baby Buggy Bunny ? That’s Orphan summed up to a T.
*Shutter Island*.
If Teddy really was an inmate all along, why would the woman he interviewed at the beginning of the film write “Run” on a piece of paper?
It would’ve been so much better if he really was a Marshall and they made him believe he was insane.
*The Firm*.
The plot twist in The Firm isn’t altogether bad, it’s just that it’s pretty underwhelming.
“Lawyers are corrupt.” Thanks for the heads up, John Grisham. Next, you’re going to be telling me that water is wet. It’s not exactly shocking.
*Jacob’s Ladder*.
In my humble opinion, there is nothing worse than being subjected to two hours of psychological drama only to then be told: “It was all a dream.”
That’s what you call a deus ex-machina and it’s the ultimate showing of laziness and unoriginality.
*The Village*.
A secret society that exists in modern times, but pretends like it’s the year 1800.
They dress up as hooded monsters and concoct an elaborate legend in order to keep future generations from wandering beyond their borders.
Yeah. OK.
*Serenity*.
This one had not only audiences fuming but the cast as well!
I’m not usually one to put too much stock in things like critical reviews and audience scores, but even I can’t ignore a 20/29% score on Rotten Tomatoes .
*I Still Know What You Did Last Summer*.
So I’ll bite that Will is actually the killer and the son of Ben Willis (from the first film).
But why would he go through all the trouble of arranging an island destination vacation in order to go on his killing spree?
*Remember Me*.
The ending of Remember Me is tasteless and it even borders on being offensive. Having Robert Pattinson’s character die in the terrorist attack of 9/11 had nothing to do with the plot whatsoever.
It was just a way to manipulate people’s emotions.
*Splice*.
There isn’t one redeeming quality to be found in Splice . This is a true trainwreck of science-fiction filmmaking that relies on its ability to shock its audience with flagrant and bizarre sex scenes.
If you can even make it that far…
*Now You See Me*.
Wow, what an absolute joke Now You See Me was. We’re supposed to believe that Mark Ruffalo, the FBI agent who’s been chasing them the entire time, is really in on it?
Furthermore, that he’s some grand puppet master, disgraced master magician? How did this ever get a sequel?
*Identity*.
Yet another example of a film taking the wrong path. This would’ve worked just fine as a psychological horror/slasher flick.
Instead, they decided to get all meta and try to convince us that what we were really seeing was the personified identities of one fractured mind.
*Brave*.
Why? Just Why? Having Merida’s mother turning into a bear was ridiculous.
There was so much hype about how Brave was going to be different and unconventional and then the first chance they got, they took the Disney Princess route.
*The Dark Knight Rises*.
You were right there Chris, you almost had it! You could have given Batman the warrior’s death that he deserved and left your mark forever on the character.
Making a point to confirm that Bruce was still alive and well ruined everything.
*Glass*.
A movie starring Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson has to be critically acclaimed, right? Wrong.
Glass was filled with wrong turns, from the audience finding out that David Dunn and Kevin Wendell Crumb’s father was on the same train that Glass put them on, to the discovery that Sarah Paulson’s character, Dr. Ellie Staple, is part of an evil organization that has spent years killing and destroying evidence of superhumans.
*Savages*.
It’s never good when a book-turned-movie upsets literary fans, but that’s exactly what happened with Savages .
The movie revolves around drug dealers Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and the woman they both love (Blake Lively). Essentially, nothing that happens in this movie matters, because it’s revealed at the end that it was all played out in Blake Lively’s character’s head.
*The Life Of David Gale*.
The Life of David Gale is a chilling indictment on the United States justice system and the idea of capital punishment as a deterrent.
Learning that David was the author of his inevitable downfall makes the audience even angrier at this most unconventional conclusion.
*Mother*.
Mother is basically the retelling of the Bible in a two hour film that you wish you’d never wasted your time on once you see the ending.
Even the all killer lineup of Jennifer Lawrence as Mother Nature, Javier Bardem as God, Ed Harris as Adam and Michelle Pfeiffer as Eve couldn’t save this pointless film.
*Terminal*.
Margot Robbie is known for making amazing movies. Sadly, the irrelevant plot twist in Terminal made the meh film even more confusing.
The twist? The Margot Robbie’s character is actually a set of twins. This additional information adds no additional plot line and changed literally nothing about the movie.
*Last Christmas*.
Viewers fall in love with the two main characters only to find out Tom Webster, played by Henry Golding, was dead the whole time! Tom died and was an organ donor to Kate, played by Emilia Clark, and gave her his heart last Christmas .
Talk about a bummer!
*Safe Haven*.
Last Christmas was far from the first movie to have a ghostly love plot twist.
Safe Haven follows the love story of Josh Duhmel’s character and his love interest, played by Julianne Hough. However, the final act in the film reveals that Cobie Smulders’ character of the kind neighbor/friend was actually the dead wife of the male lead, watching over her husband’s new relationship.
*Perfect Stranger*.
The big reveal in this film is that Halle Berry’s journalist character who has been investigating a murder has been the murderer the whole time. Whaaaaaaaat?!
It turns out, she’s just investigating her own crime to find a way to frame Bruce Willis’ executive character. The problem is, nothing about this makes sense for everything the viewers learned about Halle’s character for the entire movie.
*Detective Pikachu*.
Look, the climax of this film was amazing, but the silly plot twist took away from all that hard work! The reveal that Pikachu was actually the spirit of Tim’s (Justice Smith) father Harry the whole time, and that Harry was played by none other than Ryan Reynolds made literally no sense as he was voicing Pikachu for the whole movie!
Therefore, revealing him in live-action was accidentally hilarious and literally did not make any sense, lol.
