Movie twist endings: Did you see that coming?
Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
Movies
Warning: We're going to discuss movie spoilers here, especially in the comments, so don't read further if a spoiler for a certain flick will ruin your day.
Some friends were talking about "My Sister's Keeper" recently, and how the movie twist ending was different than that of the book. I finally couldn't stand it anymore, and had to ask them to tell me what happens in each version. I'm no fan of tear-jerkers, and I know I'm never going to see "My Sister's Keeper," yet all the hinting without a reveal was starting to drive me crazy. A friend filled me in, and now I feel satisfied: I don't have to see the movie, yet I know the ending. (If you also want to know the endings, of both the movie and the book, go here.)
Buena Vista Pictures |
SPOILER: He sees dead people.
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It's not that I don't love a good twist. I'm a big fan of "Twilight Zone," and there were some killer twists in that show (especially the Rod Serling original series). My favorite as a kid was the episode titled "Five Characters in Search of an Exit." A ballerina, a hobo, a bagpipe player, clown and army major seem to be trapped in a round dungeon and can't scale the walls to get out. GIANT SPOILER: The twist is that they're all dolls, and they're in a barrel of donated toys being collected for orphans. Sad, shocking, and weird, all in one.
Yet that was a half-hour TV show. Had the plot gone on for two hours, I'm not sure I'd remember it so fondly.
Yes, there are movie twist endings that work, and the best of them make you want to re-watch the entire movie to pick up the dropped hints. I figured out the twist in "The Sixth Sense" about halfway through, but the movie itself kept me spellbound and I didn't mind waiting for the reveal.
Another fabulous twist ending that didn't hurt the movie one bit: "The Usual Suspects." When "Kobayashi Chinaware" shows up on the bottom of Chazz Palminteri's coffee cup, I'm shocked along with him, even now that I've seen the movie a couple of times.
But when a twist ending goes bad, you sit there in your movie seat as the credits roll and wish you could ask for your money back. I felt that way after seeing "The Village." The film was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who's famous for twist endings -- "The Sixth Sense" was one of his. But "The Village" felt like a "Twilight Zone" that went on way, way too long. The ending was just dumb. (Don't know the twist? Read it here.) Roger Ebert wrote, "(the twist is) a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It was all a dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore."
Sites like MoviePooper.com and TheMovieSpoiler.com are great resources for those flicks where you're curious about the ending, but don't want to watch the entire movie. (Once I find out, though, I never spoil the ending for those who really don't want to know. I don't want to be THAT guy.)
Have you seen any movies with twist endings lately? Is there a movie with a twist that just left you gasping? What about the opposite -- those films where you felt the twist was so lame, you wanted your money, and the past two hours, back? Here's another warning: We're going to talk about spoilers in the comments, so if that's not your thing, surf away now. The rest of you ... spoil away!
