Top 30 Best Movie Plot Twists of the 21st Century (So Far)
#30: Eli Is Blind
Top 20 Best Movie Plot Twists of the 21st Century (So Far)
“The Book of Eli” (2010) “The Book of Eli” takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where modern society has crumbled after nuclear war. With civilization deteriorating, a mysterious man named Eli becomes determined to fix things by spreading the word of the Bible. While it’s easy to guess that this movie is pretty heavy on religion, viewers might not have guessed that Eli is actually blind. It’s a twist that not only surprises everyone watching, but also reaffirms that Eli is a pretty special character. With few resources and no ability to see, Eli is guided by his pure faith and devotion to his cause.
#29: Sarah Is Still in the Cave
Twilight Breaking Dawn Premiere: Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Sarah Clarke
“The Descent” (2005) When six women plunge into a complex cave, terrifying creatures known as crawlers are quick to find them. Protagonist Sarah is eventually able to escape from the cave and get to safety. Or so we think. It’s soon revealed that she imagined this, as she wakes up back in the confined space, anticipating the terrifying creatures. “The Descent” is an intense horror film that’s filled with moments of gore, betrayal, and all kinds of dread. After enduring hell, we thought Sarah was going to make it out okay, but this movie had other ideas. Talk about a bleak finale – unless you watch the US ending, where she does get out! “The Descent Part 2” confirms her survival, but this is still a brutal twist.
#28: What Curtis Almost Did to Young Edgar
Top 10 Movie Plot Twists of the Last Decade
“Snowpiercer” (2013) Nobody’s perfect, but some truly harrowing things come to light that make us look at Curtis Everett differently. “Snowpiercer” centers around the remaining groups of humanity who, due to Earth becoming largely frozen and inhospitable, are forced to live in a traveling train. A disturbing revelation follows when Curtis reveals what survivors did when times grew desperate years prior. Curtis killed the mother of his second-in-command Edgar, and nearly resorted to cannibalism with Edgar himself to survive. He ultimately didn’t go through with it, and eventually the survivors were introduced to the protein blocks they now rely on for food. But this twist reveal is a horrifying reminder of the startling lengths Curtis went to in order to survive.
#27: Vick Is Covering Up the Crime
“Searching” (2018) What kind of lengths would you go to in order to protect your family? Detective Vick, for one, is ready to go to criminal lengths for her kid. In “Searching”, David Kim tries to find his teenage daughter Margot, who’s gone missing. While he’s aided by the police in this journey, it turns out some are keeping secrets. In fact, the person who was helping him (the aforementioned Detective Vick) was actually covering everything up since her son was the reason Margot disappeared. David would later get his daughter back, but this just goes to show that not everyone can be trusted.
#26: Tina & Vore Are Trolls
Tina Fey Biography (UPDATE)
“Border” (2018) When we first meet Tina, we’re led to believe - much like she does - that she was born with a deformity that gave her a Neanderthal-esque appearance. Then she meets Vore, a man with similar features, and the two develop a very curious friendship. We’re instantly dubious of Vore, and our suspicions are confirmed when the two get intimate, though not in any way we’ve ever seen. Turns out neither one of them is deformed, and that they’re actually not even human at all but trolls, with Tina’s real parents having been tortured by humans. The twists don’t stop there, as Vore has been orchestrating a child abduction ring for years as a means of revenge. Trust us, we couldn’t make this stuff up.
#25: Worryfree Is Breeding “Equisapiens”
“Sorry to Bother You” (2018) “Sorry to Bother You” is a pretty weird movie, but nobody could predict just how weird it’d actually get. The surreal dark comedy is about Cassius Green, a Black telemarketer who starts faking a “white voice” to get ahead at work. It’s a rollercoaster from there, but the craziest moment has to be when Cassius discovers the truth about mega corporation WorryFree. The company is making a wave of half-human/half-horse hybrids as the perfect employees. You know when they say a workplace is going hybrid, we don’t think this is what they mean! Wanting to find opportunities for advancement at your job is great, but sometimes there’s no shame in staying where you’re at.
#24: The Invisible Man Wasn’t Just One Person
Top 10 Teen Movie Plot Twists You Didn't See Coming
“The Invisible Man” (2020) When Cecilia Kass ends her relationship with her abusive engineer boyfriend Adrian Griffin, she finds herself haunted by invisible forces at play. It turns out it’s an actual invisible man who Cecillia suspects is Adrian despite him appearing to be dead. In an intense confrontation, Cecilia eventually kills the invisible man, and it’s revealed to be Adrian’s brother Tom. Audiences expected it to be just Adrian. While it’s been later confirmed that he was involved in the invisible shenanigans, this moment proved that Tom definitely had some time spent in the suit too. Not to mention it exposed his sinister intentions since he tried harming Cecilia! Not cool, Tom.
#23: Adrian Toomes Is Liz’s Dad
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017) Meeting the dad of the girl you like is never an easy thing to do. But what if the dad is actually the supervillain you've been battling against? In “Spider-Man: Homecoming” it’s up to Peter to stop Adrian Toomes, the criminal who operates as the Vulture. But when Peter goes to meet his homecoming date, Liz, he discovers that Adrian is actually her father. It’s a moment that surprises all of us, but what makes it even more intense is the subsequent car ride. Yeah that’s right, imagine being chauffeured by the person you need to defeat. It’s safe to say that Peter probably doesn’t make a very good first impression.
#22: Harlan Was Given the Right Medicine
“Knives Out” (2019) When Harlan Thrombey is found dead the morning after his 85th birthday party, premier detective Benoit Blanc has to question his family to find the one responsible for his passing. Eventually, the truth comes out. The culprit? Harlan’s grandson Hugh. He poisoned Harlan by switching the medicine his nurse Marta gave him. When Harlan and Marta realized he was seemingly given the wrong substance and would die, he decided to take his own life first, so she wouldn’t get arrested. It’s a surprise, but it’s not the main twist. The real kicker is that Marta actually administered the right drug. If Harlan had just waited things out, he’d still be alive. While it’s a grim reveal, at least justice ultimately prevailed.
#21: It's Set in Present Day
Top 10 Movie Villains of the 21st Century
“The Village” (2004) It simply isn’t an M. Night Shyamalan movie without a twist. And the twist in “The Village” might just be one of his best ever. This movie is a period piece about a secluded village in the 1800s, where the people are scared of creatures roaming the nearby woods. These creatures aren’t actually real, and that’s a cool twist on its own, but that’s not what will blow your mind. It turns out this period piece movie isn’t actually a period piece, it’s really set in the modern day! The village itself was founded by grief-stricken people who wanted to shield themselves from the dangers of present-day society. Let’s just say this was definitely one way to do that!
#20: Adelaide Is the Original Red
“Us” (2019) Appearances can be deceiving, especially when there’s scores of red jumpsuit-clad doppelgängers slaughtering their lookalikes. Fortunately for the Wilson family, they’re able to successively fend off and kill their counterparts while the rest of the world burns and holds hands. It’s only when they’re out of harm’s way does the Wilson matriarch Adelaide uncover a long-repressed memory. Turns out that her childhood encounter with her doppelgänger Red didn’t end the way she thought. Instead, it was Red that left Adelaide in the underground to assume her life, meaning the Adelaide we’ve been following this whole time is not the original. This recontextualizes everything we’ve seen, and adds another layer to an already thematically rich movie.
#19: A Cult Is Behind Everything
Top 20 Darkest Plot Twists in Movies
“Hereditary” (2018) There have been many horror movies that deal with potential insanity, but never one quite so effective as “Hereditary.” Upon noticing some strange goings on, Annie begins to suspect a malevolent supernatural element at play, only the more assured she becomes, the more unstable she seems, as mental illness runs in her family. Or does it? Nope, turns out the only thing that runs in her family is an affinity for demonic cults, as one led by her late mother orchestrated the seemingly accidental death of her daughter as a means of transferring the demon inside her into the body of her son. Yeah, this is one screwed-up clan, and one even more so now that their plan worked. Thanks for the nightmares, everyone.
#18: The Maid’s Husband Is in the Basement
Top 10 Mistakes That Were Left in 21st Century Movies
“Parasite” (2019) It’s about halfway through the movie, the Kim family has successfully infiltrated the Park household and are now reveling in their newfound sense of outward affluence while the Parks are away. Right about now is when we’re expecting the plot to take a turn and throw the Kim’s for a loop. So the twist isn’t that it does, the twist is how it does, as the former maid that the Kims conspired to get fired returns to reveal her husband hiding out from debt collectors in the Parks secret bunker, unbeknownst to everyone. This not only introduces another level - literally - in Bong Joon-ho’s biting social satire, but throws the entire second act into a state of bedlam we’re not apt to forget.
#17: Amy Faked Her Death
Top 20 Brutal Movie Deaths of The Century (So Far)
“Gone Girl” (2014) Here’s another twist that comes around the halfway mark. At this point, we’ve watched the likelihood that Nick killed his wife swell and swell with each piece of evidence found, to the point that even we’re suspicious of the protagonist. So imagine our surprise when Amy seemingly narrates from beyond the grave only to learn, nope! She’s alive and well, on the run, incognito, and ready to let her husband take the fall for a murder that never happened. Sure, Nick was an unfaithful jackass, but even we were flabbergasted at the lengths of Amy’s duplicity and spitefulness. You know that old expression, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?” Yeah, we’re pretty sure whoever wrote that was talking about Amy.
#16: The Kidnapping Was Faked
Top 20 Movie Musicals of the Century So Far
“Gone Baby Gone” (2007) Much like protagonist Patrick Kenzie, we want nothing more than the locating and safeguarding of kidnapped Amanda McCready. Upon following Patrick down a series of fake leads, we’re led to believe that Amanda was accidentally killed during an exchange between the police and the criminals who purportedly took her. Our hearts were broken, only to learn that she’s alive and well in the protection of Police Captain Jack Doyle, who orchestrated this scheme to get Amanda out of the hands of her neglectful mother. Finally it looks like we might get the semblance of a happy ending, but Patrick can’t walk away, reporting Doyle and sending Amanda back into squalor, breaking our hearts all over again.
#15: The Armitage Family Is Inhabiting Black People
Top 10 Movie Plot Twists That Came Out of Nowhere
“Get Out” (2017) You’ve heard this story a thousand times: white girl has a black boyfriend, white girl takes black boyfriend home to meet white family, and white family performs involuntary neurosurgery on black boyfriend to put their consciousnesses into his body. Wait, what? While that may be a total meme or cliché now, in 2017 it was absolutely gobsmacking. Sure, we knew something was off, what with the hypno tea, creepy groundskeeper and bingo auction, but we never could have guessed this is what was going on. Or that Chris’s girlfriend was in on it. Even when looking back there were so many signs, proving that - between this and “Us,” - Jordan Peele is truly a new master of suspense.
#14: Snape Was a Good Guy All Along
Top 10 Severus Snape Moments in Harry Potter
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” (2011) There might not be anybody in the “Harry Potter” franchise who tows the line between good and evil more than Severus Snape. To be fair, a name like that doesn’t exactly scream “sunshines and rainbows” anyways. He may have been a devious character at times, but the 8th “Harry Potter” film proved that he was a force for good in the end. While he joined up with the Death Eaters, memory sequences revealed he was infiltrating Voldemort’s ranks to take him down and ensure Harry would triumph. This was his way of avenging Lily Potter. After all, he never truly stopped loving her. The Dark Lord killed him, but in the end, Snape died with honor.
#13: The Characters Are Personalities
Top 10 Shocking Twists That Came Early in the Movie
“Identity” (2003) Over the course of the film, we’re led to believe that detained serial killer Malcolm Rivers - who has dissociative personality disorder - is going to figure into the events with the main cast at the motel somehow, either through flashbacks or alternating timelines. And he does figure into it, or, should we say, they figure into him, because not only does the motel not exist, but every inhabitant of it trying to stay alive are each of Malcolm’s personalities jockeying for positioning inside his brain. While still a whodunit with victims being taken out one-by-one, the plot suddenly takes on a whole new meaning as the stakes are somehow raised while now technically operating at a psychological and neurological level.
#12: Esther Is an Adult
“Orphan” (2009) Between “The Bad Seed” and “The Good Son,” we’ve gotten no shortage of evil children in horror movies, so we thought we knew what to expect with “Orphan.” Sure, the poster’s tagline famously says, “There’s something wrong with Esther,” and we had no doubt there was. Only, we didn’t think that thing would be that this ostensible adoptee from Hell was actually a thirty-three-year-old woman with a hormone disorder that gives her a childlike appearance. Up until the reveal, “Orphan” was just your typical psychological horror film, but then it suddenly became incredibly unnerving and disturbing in equal measure. Evil kids we can deal with. Evil adults posing as evil kids we cannot.
#11: Half of Life Is Killed
“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) While Marvel had been breaking new ground for ten years by the time it came to release this their nineteenth film in their cinematic universe, we were still comfortable with the notion that good guys win and bad guys lose. Of course, we knew another “Avengers” film would come out a year later to wrap up the story, but we still didn’t anticipate our favorite heroes to lose on such a monumental scale. Not only does Thanos triumph, but he makes good on the promise he made in the beginning of the movie by wiping out half of all life in the universe. Sure, we knew he was capable, but never in a million years did we think that Marvel would go through with it.
#10: Mr. Glass Is a Supervillain
Top 10 Comedy Movie Plot Twists No One Saw Coming
“Unbreakable” (2000) Even by the time M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” hit theaters, audiences were clued into the probability of there being a twist due to the shocking nature of “The Sixth Sense’s” revelation a year prior. Yet even with that expectation he was able to surprise us. When indestructible man David Dunn survives a train crash with nary a scratch, he’s indoctrinated into the larger superhero mythology by the brittle-bodied Elijah Price. Though it would seem an unconventional friendship is forming, Elijah takes on the moniker “Mr. Glass” when it’s revealed he caused David’s train crash to begin with, willing to kill hundreds of people just to find a superhero counterpart to his supervillain persona. If that’s not a diabolical scheme, we don’t know what is.
#9: The Happy Ending Was a Lie
Top 20 Greatest Movie Thriller Twists of All Time
“Atonement” (2007) Set around WWII, “Atonement” is aptly named due to the mistake young Briony makes in falsely accusing her sister Cecilia’s lover Robbie of assault. After Robbie is imprisoned and subsequently forced to fight, an older Briony finally gets the chance to apologize to an eventually reunited Cecilia and Robbie upon realizing her mistake. Or does she? As an elderly Briony explains, this scene in her book depicting the events was merely imaginary, as both Cecilia and Robbie were killed separately in the war, never having gotten their happy ending. To have both characters gone through so much only to have their love squandered over a simple misunderstanding is heartbreaking, and we are still not over it.
#8: Teddy Is Andrew Laeddis
“Shutter Island” (2010) There are a lot of mysteries in Shutter Island’s mental hospital for the criminally insane for duly appointed federal marshal Teddy Daniels to uncover. Where is Andrew Laeddis, the killer of Teddy’s wife? What is the law of 4? Who is patient 67? It turns out, the answer to both questions is Teddy, whose entire investigation is actually the staff’s elaborate play to get Teddy - err, Laeddis - to realize his own breakdown and repression. We were about as floored by this revelation as Teddy, who depending on your interpretation of the final line, may have repressed it all over again. Or did he? Kudos to the movie for being able to deliver a wallop of a twist and leave a little up to interpretation.
#7: Non-Linear Time
Top 10 Psychological Horror Plot Twists of All Time
“Arrival” (2016) “Arrival” begins with the daughter of linguist Louise Banks dying of disease. When alien pods land on Earth and attempt to communicate, an interspecies war is looming and time is of the essence. Or is it? Banks struggles to decipher the cyclical nature of the alien language only to realize that unlocking it is to see time from a non-linear perspective. As she does both, she’s able to communicate with her future self and figure out how to create an armistice. Along with this, we learn that Banks’s daughter exists not in the past but the future, and that Banks will have her with the knowledge that she will die young, and choose the opportunity to love anyway. Mind blown.
#6: The Family Is Already Dead
Top 20 Horror Movie Plot Twists
“The Others” (2001) Gosh, it is so hard to tell a novel haunted house story these days, but “The Others” managed to flip the script in a way that was both cathartic and unexpected. It follows Grace and her two children in the aftermath of WWII, who begin to suspect their house is haunted by ghosts when objects move on their own and a strange elderly woman appears. It turns out Grace was right: there are ghosts in the house – them. What they perceive to be ghosts are actually the living inhabitants of the home, and the elderly woman a medium looking to expunge them.
#5: The Military Arrives
Top 10 Worst Plot Twists
“The Mist” (2007) But the time we reach the end of “The Mist,” our characters have been put through the proverbial ringer by a whole slew of interdimensional creatures. After escaping the grocery store in search of rescue, our five remaining survivors are left helpless when their car runs out of gas. With monstrous sounds closing in, main protagonist David Drayton opts to spare the other passengers an agonizing death by shooting each of them. One bullet short, he exits the vehicle to meet his fate only to realize the sounds were that of the military gaining control of the situation. As he’s rescued, he realizes he killed the others - including his own son - for nothing. Jeez, what a gut punch.
#4: Duplicates
“The Prestige” (2006) In this film of dueling magicians, there are no lengths one wouldn't go to to undermine the other. Both are ingenious with a trick up their sleeve, though one is decidedly more complex than the other. When Hugh Jackman’s Angier drowns to death, Christian Bale’s Borden is framed for murder, and executed for it. However, Angier is still alive, well, one of them anyway, as he found a way to clone himself each show before drowning in a pool. Just when Angier thinks he’s won, it’s revealed that Borden is still alive too… well, one of them, as “Borden” was an identity shared by two identical twins to assist in tricks. Borden gets his revenge, and we get two twists for the price of one.
#3: The “Dead Body” Is Jigsaw
Top 10 Plot Twists in Horror Movies
“Saw” (2004) As the “Saw” movies progressed while regressing in quality, it became almost an obligatory cliché that they’d all have a twist ending. But that was only because the twist in the first movie was so good. After seemingly surviving Jigsaw’s game by killing their captor Zep, a freed but hemorrhaging Dr. Gordon crawls away to get a chained Adam help. Thinking he’s safe, Adam catches his breath when the seemingly dead body that’s been on the floor for hours suddenly starts to rise. Our jaws drop along with Adam’s when we realize Zep was just an involuntary pawn for the real Jigsaw, who was mere feet away the whole time. Adam screams in terror as Jigsaw slams the door shut, leaving him to die.
#2: Leonard Killed His Wife
“Memento” (2000) Leonard Shelby is a man with anterograde amnesia, unable to create new memories. Looking to avenge the death of his wife when the two of them were assaulted, Leonard resorts to leaving clues for himself in the form of polaroids and tattoos to aid in his investigation. From here, “Memento” is unique in that many of the scenes play reverse-chronologically, and we’re allowed to uncover what got us here to begin with. Much like “Shutter Island,” Leonard learns that his wife survived their attack and was killed later when Leonard accidentally gave her too much of her medication, having forgotten he already gave it to her. Doomed to forget again, Leonard will continue to repress his mistake forever more.
#1: Mi-do Is Oh Dae-su’s Daughter
Top 20 MORE Horror Movie Plot Twists
“Oldboy” (2003) After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-su is suddenly released without explanation. Incensed, he sets off on a revenge mission to uncover who kidnapped him to begin with, and track down his long-lost daughter. Along his journey, he is aided and tended to by the young Mi-do, with whom he falls in love and sleeps with. A whole lot of octopus eating and ass kicking later, Dae-su identifies the villain as an old classmate of his, Lee Woo-jin. The latter’s sister took her life when Dae-su publicized that the siblings were engaged in inappropriate behavior. Woo-jin reveals his elaborate revenge scheme, which included Dae-su’s relationship with Mi-do, who is actually his daughter. Horrified by the truth, Dae-su takes extreme measures.