Best twist ending? (spoilers inside!)
 

I have just finished watching my shiny, new Usual Suspects DVD and you just gotta love that ending! I was thinking it has got to be one of, if not the, best twist ending ever.

I can't think of a better one, can you?

Ghost Ship... just watched it yesterday, unoriginal movie so when the (original) twist ending shows up it took me completely by surprise.
Also a great use of Mudvayne :)

NOTHING can beat the Usual Suspects!

I had no intention of ever watching this movie, but this mention of Mudvayne has intrigued me, i may just rent this movie now.

Oh and I liked Swordfish's ending.

Yeah, now that i watch it again, its obvious, but at first i was shocked. :confused:

I suppose someone has to say The Sixth Sense...

Usual Suspects was by far the best twist.

some others that I like:
Empire Strikes Back
Fight Club
Memento
The Ring

In Scobbie Doo where the villian turned out to be Scrappy. That was cool. No really a ending but in Equilibrium, but when John Preston fought Brandt, I thought it was cool how it was handle.

Wild things and seven

Frailty has a pretty good twist to it. But for it's time, Psycho probably had one of the best twist endings. I mean come on, in the 60s, who would have guessed?

The Sixth Sense
good twist

Of course, finding out Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father was good too,
back when Empire Strikes Back originally came out.;)

Usual Suspects is a tough one to beat for sure. I recently rented a pretty good movie which had and ending that I found to be pretty suprising and twisty; The Live of David Gale.

In order.. Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, Seven, Pi, American Beauty, Donnie Darko, Reservoir Dogs, ......................................., Unbreakable

Kevin Spacey is in 3 of those.. go figure

I'll go with Sixth Sense only because I can't think of anything else.

I see The Usual Suspects is mentioned a lot. The first movie that comes to mind is the movie with Kevin Spacey playing a cripple but turning out to be some super bad guy. Is that movie The Usual Suspects? I never did catch the beginning of the movie, and I saw it on TV once.

I never saw the end to American Beauty. Could you or someone fill me in on the end? I ask because I'll likely never watch the movie again.

Psycho had one of the best twist-endings, but also had the best twist-middle (a concept rarely used - I guess that president movie with the dead Segal did it)

People that went into Psycho on the opening weekend were completely in the dark about the shower murder and everything after it. You expect the girl to be the main character, and then bam - she's gone.

No mention of Adaptation yet? That ending rocked! It had me rolling.

I really liked the ending to Frailty, that was a really weird but original movie. The ending didn't ruin the movie at all, and I think it actually made it a hell of a lot better.

Dead Poets Society had us coming home in the car speechless.

Yup. That's The Usual Suspects. Way to go and ruin the ending on any sorry soul who hasn't yet seen it! :D

For sh'ts and giggles, I will now include the worst twist ending to a movie.

Minority Report.

*SPOILER*

Tom Cruise should have stayed dead/stasis'ed. :(

*SPOILER*

Primal Fear.

Basic, Usual Suspects, Pi, Frailty, Dead Poets Society

It's been so long since I've seen Primal Fear I can hardly remember how effective the ending was. I seem to recall it being pretty good though. I'm going to have to see that movie again.

Basic is one I've seen recently with a twisty ass ending.

what about the others?
or lost highway..

I loved Pi's ending, but then I loved the whole movie. What a concept... the divine might be dangerous for us mortals. Used to be a common idea, now is all but forgotten.

well, when I limit this list to movies I've seen, The only ending that actually suprised me had to have been Unbreakable. (which is amazing considering that I watched it about two years after it came out....)

I have to go with the M. Knight films - even Signs had a good solid "twist" ending.

Wild Things. I like how they filled in all the holes during the credits, too.

Worst twist was High Crimes. If you couldn't see THAT coming...

If you've never heard of the Book-a-Minute and Movie-a-Minute sites, they're pretty funny. They cram the works down to just a few sentences. Here's how they did Wild Things:
-Mikey

No way out - the old costner/young movie

Usual Suspects, Primal Fear, Wild Things, Unbreakable.... I didn't think the end of the Sixth Sense was all that much of a twist. In fact, all the way through the movie I was figuring on it, so it was a bit disappointing.

god i cant even remember the 6th sense 'twist'.. :-x but i picked up on a lot of it the first time a saw it.. all the symbolism with red, etc.

MPower, you are right on with No Way Out, I don't know how I could have forgotten it.

Bambi

Halx, you are right on the money with this one. Unbreakable has got one of the GREATEST twists ever!

nothing tops Memento as far as Im concerned.

fucking GREAT movie with even better twist.

se7en was excellent also

The Crying Game

Dressed to Kill

Happy Birthday to Me

A Blade in the Dark

Profondo Rosso

You guys are gonna kick me in the ass for this, but I thought that Vanilla Sky had a good twist. Everyone hacked on this movie, but I really liked it.

not really a twist ending but i really dug the ending to seven samurai. when the tables have turned between the farmers and the samurai i could only say "damn....that's fucked up"

Yep both of those were good.... as are all the ones mentioned including Vanilla Sky. Also, who knows if anyone has seen it but me, April Fools Day had a good twist. And I seem to recall that Just Cause had a good twist to it.

shattered

I'm suprised no one else has mentioned it, but I really enjoyed Jacob's Ladder. What did anyone else think?

The Usual Suspects did have a cool twist ending but i really loved how it all turned out in Memento.

That was a crazy ending ... or should i say beginning?

What about Fallen? It wasn't a shocking twist at the end, but it was pretty good.

The Spanish Prisoner, Memento, Basic, Swordfish, but Usual Suspects is still the best.

No, <i>Abre Los Ojos</i> (the real version of the movie) had a good twist that Vanilla Sky REALLY botched.
a very good one that i loved was this unwrapping, not quite twist ending movie called Donny Darko. Sadly, it was not exactly released to movie theaters. Was taken out right after 9/11 for a jet liner scene.

Ok, so it was a great standup comedy movie, but a Twist ending? yah, he is a transvestite, but you were told that at the beginning! was it the french that caught you off guard?

(I poke badgers with spoons.)

ghost ship was unoriginal indeed. but the ending wasn't that big of a surprise. it's given away halfway the movie imho.

sleepaway camp was a horrormovie with a "twist" ending.
brrr it scarred (and scared) me at age 14

In no particular order

IDENTITY - Great fuckin flic!!! A must buy on DVD for me. I suspected the twist early but wrote it off only to find out I was right. 3 thumbs up.

SEVEN - I would of done the same exact thing.

USUAL SUSPECTS - HAIL TO THE GIMP

WILD THINGS - Besides seeing Kevin Bacon's schlong ....good twist after twist.

FRAILTY - Very Very clever movie, didn't expect it at all.

and any episode of "The Prisoner" (especially on mushrooms)

Good call on Sleepaway Camp. That one still disturbs me.

Memento had a great ending, and was a great movie all around...

The "end twist" that I remember the most was the Sixth Sense... I didn't really like the movie a whole lot until the twist at the very end, and that completely changed my mind about the movie because it was a great twist...

I liked the ending of the first Scream movie too... the next two movies sucked, but I enjoyed the first one because it was semi-original.

A lot of us around here have seen this movie called Donnie Darko. :)

Still a big fan of the ending in Diggstown. Not exactly a "twist" per se, but it was unexpected...

I'm still a sucker for the over-acting in Planet of the Apes.

Also, Lynch's Mulholland Drive had me smiling.

Good call!! When I saw that movie and that twist at the end, I literally stood up and yelled "HELL YEAH!!!!". I got a few looks, but it was toooo badass to just sit there (it was rented, not in a theatre).

gotta go with fight club as the best.
although there's something about mary has a pretty good twist ending.

Unusual suspects, sixth sense, SNATCH!@12

while this wasn't a surprise/clever type ending like most of these, the ending of american history x was powerful and unexpected, at least to me. i really thought it was going to turn out differently, maybe i was being too optimistic for that film.

edit: here's a better answer, 12 monkeys.

the game with michael douglas was pretty good, nice twist.

I think it was the Sixth Floor. Quite an interesting movie and it was pretty nifty. Least I thought I did. And it did the whole Matrix thing BEFORE the matrix...

Usual Suspects Fight Club Snatch and T3 and many more I can't think of

Spoiler, but hey, when Ice Cube walks in at the end of "Ghosts of Mars" holding two submachineguns, and says something like "Time to kick some ass", that was a twist ending, because it turned a decent popcorn movie into complete and utter crap.

It was always balancing on the limit between "B-movie" and "Unholy Crap", but Ice Cube strolled right in and tipped it into the "Unholy Crap" category.

Yay, go rappers in movies. "Leprechaun in the Hood", seen that one?

I felt this same exact way about Event Horizon. I thought that the begining of the movie was great...the whole mystery about where the ship had been and what happened to the crew. Then outta left field they tell you "By the way, the ship has been to hell, and you all are going to die". I remember thinking "wtf??" Blah...terrible end to a movie that had great potential.

Fight Club and The Usual Suspects are the 2 that blew me away. I wish I hadn't know about The Empire Strikes Back before I watched it. oh well...

I'm going with Momento. That was sort of the beginning though, and not the end...

i personally would have to go with RESERVOIR DOGS.

I think im the only person the face of the earth that hasn't seen fight club.

But on the topic, Donnie Darko. Seriously, go rent it if you haven't seen this movie, this is one of the best movies i've ever seen, it just picked the worst possible time in the history of mankind to come out (9-11 attacks, has a small part with a sort of jet crash, you'll know what I mean when you see it). Really lame how it didnt get any publicity.

Seven, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Vanilla Sky, 12 monkeys, Jacob's Ladder, American Beauty, and The Game. Most of these have already been named but I loved everyone of them and own most. I'm sure there are a ton but these are just some of the bigger ones that came to mind.

I liked the Ending to Fallen with Denzel Washington. If you havent heard of it, you really should take some time to see it...

I'll add Matchstick Men to the list now.

empire strikes back
donnie darko
fight club
usual suspects
blair witch 2: book of shadows

yeah i have.... lol it was hilarious... btu i dont think they were going for comedy

The second-half of Adaptation is absoluetly horrible unless you get the joke, then it's hilarious. Someone explained the joke to me while I was watching it- good thing or else I would have hated it. Yep, nothing beats Usual suspects. When Vanilla Sky came out I rented Abre Los Ojos and watched that instead. Still haven't seen Sky to this day and don't plan on watching it.

The 6th Sense was def the best twist ending... i didn't see it coming and it just made the whole movie!!

I think What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford had the best twist ending, i know some ppl thought it was just a chick flick but i thought the suspense was pretty good.

Unbreakable? slow movie but great ending.

usual suspect is my personal fav- as for sixth sense- I waited for video- carefuly avoiding any info on the plot twist, paitiently waiting- then, on the day it came out on video, the dj of the local rock station says in passing, "the movie the sixth sense comes out on video today," and then completely blew the ending.... just that fast- without warning... I seriously considered hunting him down with a cheese grater...

I thought Basic had a great twist in the
end

Fallon, I'm a litttle confused on your post. How is the 6th sense doing matrix stuff before the matrix, exactly? I never even came close to relating those two movies, so I just was curious how you related them....?

I'm with Hal here, with a change in order:
Donnie Darko, Fight Club, Seven, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs, Unbreakable

Of course, I haven't seen Pi, or American Beauty for that matter, so my list will be changed at ANYTIME, so check back often. ha!

i thought the twist in Identity was cool, if not mind blowing

Matchstick men

You got that right, it was hard to follow. One of my favorites.



Yep.

6th Sense
Primal Fear
Seven
Donnie Darko
American History X

Fargo.
get the dvd, watch the movie, then watch the main "making of" featurette. youll see

arlington road - tim robbins is the schznit in that flick....the ending was a first for me, of that kind, that i remember.

Lots of good ones mentioned here, from what I read on the first page. Here are some of my favs that haven't been mentioned:

Vanilla Sky
Matchstick Men
Jacob's Ladder
12 monkeys
Ocean's Eleven (the remake)
Any M. Night film as far as I'm concerned
The Game (David F. film)

And thats all I can think of at the moment.

I really liked the ending of Vanilla Sky. Maybe I was not paying attention, but man that came out of left field.

matchstick men was a good one.

Twist ending... hmm... 12 Monkeys probably.

I wasn't at all surprised by the Sixth Sense. I think I'm the only person on the face of the planet who saw how obvious it was, but I've always had a very keen eye to detail in movies. I remember watching it and I was about to ask my girlfriend if she's noticing that he's not really interacting with people.. because I thought it was kinda strange.. but then it clicked with me and the whole kid being able to see the dead, so I held it in.

The same for "The Others', which really pissed me off. That movie is a complete knock-off of the Sixth Sense. I knew the ending to that 30 minutes into it, and I told my girlfriend, "If this ends how I think it's gonna end, this movie flat out fucking blows." ..and it did. Thus, it blows.

I believe he was talking about the Thirteenth Floor, which has more than a few things in common with The Matrix.

Matchstick Men

Doesn't anyone remember Angel Heart?
That movie was such a slow builder but the twist/payoff was so worth it... Then you go and watch it a second time and all the imagery makes sense.

What is the joke with Adaptation?

Life of David Gale, Se7en, Idenity, all unpredictable

I have two. The Life of David Gale; great movie, go rent it.

Also, The Butterfly Effect, which on the DVD has two endings. I only saw the director's cut, so don't know about the other ending. This movie is a bit freaky, but definately good. I never knew Amy Smart could look so whorish.

Yeah, I sure agree with that. I was stunned.

good call!!

I also like The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense.

I'm a big fan of the ending for both American History X and Snatch... both amazing films. Snatch I kind of expected something to happen... but it still caught me offguard. But american history X knocked me out.