How did a video game ruin the ending of “Serenity?” If you’ve come for some of
the worst twists in movie history, stick around, because you’re in the right place!
"Batman Begins" got people to take the Caped Crusader seriously at the movies again,
and "The Dark Knight" was an award-winning sensation. That's why hype was understandably
huge for "The Dark Knight Rises" — the final film in Christopher Nolan's epic Batman trilogy.
Unfortunately, the third film was in many ways a step down from its predecessors.
There are several distracting plot holes,
such as Bruce Wayne's inexplicable escape to Gotham after being imprisoned on the other side
of the planet — though his excessive wealth could be enough explanation.
There's a lot to love about "The Dark Knight Rises": it's a bombastic thriller filled with
excellent visuals and great performances, especially from Tom Hardy's Bane. The twists
weren't great, though. The reveal that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character's name is Robin made
some people roll their eyes, but it ultimately didn't affect the plot. However, when Miranda
Tate stabs Batman and reveals herself to be Ra's al Ghul's daughter Talia — who has Bane on a leash
and is carrying on the legacy of the League of Shadows — it was a little harder to ignore.
Upon the film's release, some fans complained that the twist was too predictable,
while others argued that it undermined Bane's abilities as a supervillain.
Regardless of reasoning, it's generally agreed that the ending of "The Dark Knight
Rises" didn't exactly live up to the expectations set by its predecessors.
M. Night Shyamalan is a name synonymous with "twist endings." Shyamalan has had one of the
most bizarre and noteworthy careers in Hollywood history; "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," and
"Signs" were all wildly popular, establishing him as one of the hottest directors around at
the start of the millennium. A decade later, however, most of the moviegoing public's goodwill
towards him had evaporated thanks to critical duds like "The Happening,"
"The Last Airbender," and "After Earth." What happened between the unforgettable reveal of "The
Sixth Sense" and the cringe-inducing cheese of "The Last Airbender" is anyone's guess.
We do know where the first signs of trouble started popping up, though:
2004's "The Village." Released two years after "Signs," "The Village" follows a group of
19th-century Pennsylvanian townsfolk who are stalked by strange monsters that lurk in the
woods. Audiences couldn't wait to see what neck-snapping twist Shyamalan had in store.
But when it was revealed that the film actually takes place in the present day
and that the monsters were just the town elders in costumes, most people weren't impressed. Still,
Shyamalan refuses to let bad reviews stop him from writing crazy twists;
his most recent project, 2021's "Old," features a similarly baffling reveal of its own.
JK Rowling isn't the only one making things worse for the legacy of the "Harry Potter" franchise:
the other folks behind the "Fantastic Beasts" movies are helping out too.
The first movie in the spinoff series, in which British wizard Newt Scamander tries to
recapture his escaped magical creatures in New York City, definitely has its moments:
Redmayne charms in the lead role, his sidekicks are a blast,
and the various fantastic beasts certainly live up to the film's title.
However, the movie was never really about capturing Billywigs and Bowtruckles.
Scamander and his friends have to get to the bottom of an anti-muggle plot orchestrated by
Percival Graves, the Director of Magical Security. When Graves is apprehended,
his true identity is revealed: he's actually the legendary dark wizard Grindlewald in disguise.
That kind of twist might've worked in a lesser franchise, but the reveal
cheapened Grindlewald as a character moving forward. Worse still, it set up
a decidedly unmagical letdown of a sequel in "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald."
It's no surprise that a film about criminal magicians who rob the rich and give to the poor is
going to have a lot of twists. With a description like that, the only twist we wouldn't see coming
is a straightforward narrative. But of course, "Now You See Me" has plenty of twists in store.
The Four Horsemen, a group of expert illusionists, rob wealthy benefactors and
shower their audiences with money. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes leads the cryptic investigation
into their crimes, believing them to be members of a secret society of magicians known as "The
Eye." It's certainly a unique idea, and the A-list cast is an excellent selling point. Unfortunately,
the movie eventually starts to sag under the weight of all the fakeouts, improbable escapes,
and double-crosses — but none of them are nearly as ludicrous as the final reveal:
"Welcome to The Eye."
Yes, Rhodes, the FBI agent hunting down The Four Horsemen, is not only a magician himself
but the son of another legendary illusionist and the mysterious mastermind behind the
crew's latest epic heist. Far-fetched doesn't begin to describe this laughable development.
Like many other movies on this list, "Orphan" has a promising start. After their child is stillborn,
Kate and John Coleman decide to adopt a precocious nine-year-old girl named Esther [ESS-tur].
The thing is, Esther is far from a normal kid. Some problematic behavior might be expected of
any child who's waiting for a home in the foster care system, but Esther is a different kind of
troubled. She interrupts the Colemans during intimate moments and reveals an alarming level
of knowledge about sexual topics. She scares the Colemans' other children by killing animals
in front of them. Sister Abigail, who runs the orphanage Esther was adopted from, later informs
Kate and John that tragedy always seems to follow Esther around. Thanks, sister. That would've been
nice to know from the beginning. At least she let them know before Esther was able to kill her.
Kate is quickly convinced that Esther is sinister, but it takes John longer to accept the malevolence
behind their new daughter's behavior. John finally admits that something is off when Esther tries to
seduce him, but it's pretty much too late at that point. That's when we learn that Esther isn't nine
at all and that she isn't Esther, either: she's a 33-year-old Estonian woman with a hormone
disorder. The bizarre reveal certainly explains a lot, but that doesn't make it any less ridiculous.
Christmas movies don't usually wow critics and are often little more than heartwarming
distractions for everyone else. But a Christmas movie that takes its premise
from song lyrics? Now that's a recipe for narrative disaster.
Enter "Last Christmas." This story follows Kate, an aspiring singer who lives with her parents
after losing her job and getting thrown out of her lover's house by his partner.
The one bright spot in her life is Tom, a mysterious man with whom she develops an
intimate romance. After the two connect, she reveals she had a heart transplant a year earlier.
One day, Kate visits Tom's apartment and discovers it's being sold. She then learns
that the last owner died in a bicycle accident the previous Christmas. Kate then puts two and
two together and realizes — Tom is the previous owner, and when he died, she received his heart.
So he was a ghost all along. Great.
After learning this, Kate tries to focus on doing good for others, as Tom would've
wanted. She spends more time outside and sings a certain Wham! song at a homeless shelter while
reminiscing about the good times she had with her boyfriend, whom she never actually met.
What were the lyrics again? "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart." Get it? Yeah, we do too.
John Cusack leads an excellent ensemble cast in "Identity" — a slasher whodunit very loosely based
on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." The film follows ten strangers stranded in a hotel
who are mysteriously killed off one by one. As the story progresses, viewers are shown flashbacks
depicting important events that supposedly occurred shortly before the guests arrived.
The big twist? None of this actually happened. Malcolm Rivers is a condemned
serial killer due to die in less than two days. His lawyers try to stay the execution,
leading to an 11th-hour trial in which it's revealed that Rivers has Dissociative Identity
Disorder. The hotel guest killings represent Rivers killing his different personalities.
Twists that are integral to the plot like the one in "Identity" always work better than twists
slapped on at the last minute to shock audiences and elevate a lousy, boring story. This one is
certainly thought-provoking, but ultimately too absurd and far-fetched to stick the landing.
"Remember Me" is a sweet but ultimately forgettable rom-com for most of its runtime.
Tyler Hawkins works at the NYU bookstore and audits classes there while Ally is a student.
One night, Tyler and his roommate, Aiden, are arrested by an NYPD detective named
Neil after getting involved in a fight that someone else started. When Aiden discovers
Neil is Ally's father, he convinces Tyler to seduce and then dump her to get revenge.
Instead, Tyler and Ally predictably fall in love for real after bonding over their shared trauma
and daddy issues. It turns out Tyler's brother had taken his own life years earlier, leading
his father to focus on raising his sister who struggles socially and needs support. Meanwhile,
Ally reveals her mother was mugged and murdered when she was younger.
By this point, some viewers might be rolling their eyes at all the cheap emotional manipulation,
which uses extreme tragedy as a stand-in for more subtle character
development — but that's nothing compared to what's coming next.
After all of these plot threads have been resolved, Tyler looks out the window of his new
office, located in the north tower of the World Trade Center ... on the morning of September 11,
2001. It doesn't get more clumsily manipulative than that.
Not unlike the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, the sequels had a rocky time and divided fans.
"The Force Awakens" was a welcome return to form for many,
but too similar to "A New Hope" for others. "The Last Jedi" delighted critics with loads of fresh,
thought-provoking ideas, but those same risky storytelling choices left some fans with a
bad taste in their mouths. And then there's "The Rise of Skywalker," which pleased almost no one.
One of Episode 9's many narrative missteps was how it handled the
long-running question of Rey's parentage. "The Last Jedi" challenged the trope that
fantasy protagonists — especially in "Star Wars" — must have a noble lineage
after Kylo Ren tells our heroine that she's the descendant of "nobodies."
However, "The Rise of Skywalker" decided to retcon that development, revealing Rey to be
a relative of one of the most fearsome figures in the galaxy far, far away: Emperor Palpatine.
"You're his granddaughter. You… are a Palpatine."
The filmmakers behind "The Rise of Skywalker" were almost certainly trying to recreate the
iconic reveal from "The Empire Strikes Back," but they were unable to replicate its success.
Instead, the sequel trilogy serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when two
filmmakers with opposing visions are forced to share a multi-billion dollar franchise.
With the release of both "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight," 2008 was a great year for superhero
movies. Unfortunately, the ending of Peter Berg's "Hancock" meant that they couldn't all be winners.
Will Smith plays the titular Hancock, an abrasive, alcoholic superhuman who can't remember his own
secret identity. Jason Bateman plays Ray Embrey, a PR specialist who volunteers to help Hancock
revitalize his image after the hero saves his life. With that unique and seemingly fun premise,
the pieces were all there for a recommendable one-off action-comedy superhero flick.
But then the second half of the movie happens, and we find out
Ray's wife is also an immortal superhuman. And she's also Hancock's ex-wife. It turns
out that superheroes only have powers when they're apart, and his proximity to her
made him vulnerable to an attack 80 years ago, resulting in his hospitalization and amnesia.
Viewers generally agreed that "Hancock's" two halves felt disjointed — which isn't a surprise,
considering that the film was stuck in development hell for 12 years.
Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway had perfect chemistry in "Interstellar," so it was a bit of a
surprise that 2019's "Serenity" missed the mark as much as it did. The plot sounds intriguing enough,
at least on paper: boat captain Dill Baker is asked by his ex-wife Karen to save her and her
son Patrick by murdering her abusive husband, Frank. She books Frank for a ride on Dill's boat
for a week, where it should be easy to toss him overboard with no witnesses. But Dill is forced
to wrestle with his conscience over whether or not he should go through with it after all.
So what's the big twist? Does Karen have a hidden agenda? Has Frank been dead the whole time?
Is Dill secretly Grindlewald in disguise? No, no, and no. It turns out that Dill is
a playable video game character designed by Patrick. Only after Dill completes his
in-game objective does Patrick work up the courage to kill Frank in real life.
In his review of the film for The New York Times, critic Wesley Morris said of the big reveal,
"[It's] like the worst of Christopher Nolan,
M. Night Shyamalan and the condolence-card section at Walgreens."
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