Twist Endings

cheeseandachallenge said:
I can't really remember the film (I remember thinking the film wasn't that good - though I know most people like it). But in the book, the twist is less of a twist, it's suggested all the way through. If I remember, it's suggested on the first or second page. You might not pick it up on your first read, especially if you're not reading too carefully, but it becomes super obvious if you re-read it. So, at least in the book, there is no way to not have the twist - it wouldn't make sense without it. Is that the same in the film (I saw it a number of years ago and found it pretty forgettable)?
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It's one of those rare beasts, a film based on a very good book that is at least as good as the book. I think the twist is key to the message of the film, but obviously it's a lot harder to disguise and convey effectively on film. I think Fincher did a very good job disguising it in a mass of trippiness and confusion.
 
I personally love twists, but I sometimes feel that the film serves the twist instead of the twist serving the film. For instance, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island is all leading up to the final twist ending. The same can be said for most of M. Night Shyamalan's work. Or even films like Secret Window.

I feel twists are best when they serve the film. In short, my favorite twist ending, in any movie, is the one in The Empire Strikes Back. Although it opens a can of worms for Return of the Jedi, I feel that the twist in Empire is solid and absolutely mind-boggling the first time it's viewed.
 
PhantomScreenwriter said:
I had the ending of Shutter Island spoiled for me before watching the movie but when I finally decided to watch the film I was trying to see the clues throughout the film until the twist is revealed, as an exercise, and there were many things I didn't notice, one of which is a character fumbling while performing an action that someone proficient wouldn't.

I guess Maz it's similar to the "all the events were just a dream. The End." type scenario which is like a tacked on twist.

Yeah Harmonica there's films that fail if they save the twist until the end. One of these I think is The Village.

One movie I forgot to mention earlier that had a really good twist is Frailty, directed by Bill Paxton.
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I haven't seen Frailty. I agree that the village could have been a lot better, if they introduced the twist (it's a really good twist too), earlier on, like maybe halfway through? They could have made it a longer movie, cause the plot could have done a lot with it's twist, once it was discovered by the characters, and could have literally made another half of a longer movie out of it.

One of the best twist endings of all time, which I didn't think of mentioning was Planet of the Apes as well, and that one served the film.
 
harmonica44 said:
One of the best twist endings of all time, which I didn't think of mentioning was Planet of the Apes as well, and that one served the film.
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I concur that Planet of the Apes also fits the criteria I listed before. It's an excellent film from start to finish, and perhaps contains the best twist ending in a Science Fiction film (keeping The Empire Strikes Back in mind). :D
 
Some great discussion going on here!

The Sixth Sense works as a film even knowing the ending because, as I mentioned with my experience with Shutter Island, you are looking for ways to trip the film up by analysing every little detail shown, which in turn allows you to notice things you didn't before, and this is one of the things I love about movies that do this where you like to revisit and each time you see or hear things you never noticed on previous viewings.

With the film Seven there's a few twists occurring at the end. Obviously
Tracy's severed head in the box
is the main shock but there's also the fact that
Kevin Spacey's John Doe character actually turns himself in after we're expecting Mills and Sommerset to find the killer by their detective work.

The other is more of a nice touch which is the fact that
Kevin Spacey's name doesn't appear in the opening credits. This makes it so that we're not name checking the actors as they appear in the film and realising, "Hang on a minute, we haven't seen Kevin Spacey yet, and we have seen everyone else, so he must be the killer".
 
It says a lot about my memory that I've seen Seven and I can't even remember what might be in those spoilers in the last post. On the plus side, having such poor recall means I can enjoy the same movies over and over again, but it doesn't make for very good analysis... :)

I might go on a twist binge inspired by this thread. Seven, Sixth Sense, Shutter Island, The Village...
 
A good twist ending makes it possible to enjoy the film in a new way on a second viewing.
A scanner darkly is one such example
 
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