Top 10 Hints At Plot Twists You Completely Missed

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#10: The Drug Tastes Like Cool Ranch Doritos

“21 Jump Street” (2012)

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This action comedy revolves around 2 cops who go undercover to investigate a new designer drug at a high school. At one point, they’re forced to ingest HFS in front of the main dealer, after which Jenko quips, “What is that? BBQ Cool Ranch?” This leads to Jenko and Schmidt unsuccessfully trying to throw the drug up and then bumping into Mr. Walters, who just happens to be eating Cool Ranch Doritos. The phys ed teacher then proceeds to lecture them - despite their increasingly strange behavior as the drug starts to take effect. So when they later discover Mr. Walter was the supplier all along, it all seems to make a bit more sense.

The twist to this 1995 crime classic is infamous by now. Revealing that Verbal Kint is actually the notorious criminal Keyzer Söze is considered by some to be one of the best twist endings of all time. However, eagle-eyed viewers were actually tipped off just before the twist was revealed. At the beginning of the film, we see Keyzer Söze use a gold lighter and look at a gold watch. When Verbal Kint is released from jail and collects his belongings, they include the same watch and lighter. If you remembered these items from the opening, you would’ve seen the twist coming mere moments before it happened.

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#8: Miranda’s Scar

“The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)

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Superhero movies aren’t generally known for their subtlety, but then again, Christopher Nolan isn’t your typical filmmaker. Given that so much of this film focuses on the chief antagonist, the impressive Bane, played by Tom Hardy, we never see Miranda’s treachery coming. However, if you paid close attention, you’d have been able to call it. After Bruce becomes “closer” with Miranda, he notices a scar on her back. It’s never mentioned again, but similar markings can be seen on Bane’s head, visually linking the two together. C’mon Bruce, aren’t you supposed to be the world’s greatest detective or something?

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#7: The Alien Language Is Circular, Not Linear

“Arrival” (2016)

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Starting a film at the end can be a great way to immediately draw audiences in. It can also lay the groundwork for a tremendous twist later. In the case of this sci-fi drama, the audience is unaware that what they’re seeing is the end of the story. As our protagonist Louise begins to understand the alien language, she can view time the way they do. She sees her whole life laid out in front of her, including her daughter’s death that takes place in the opening scenes. In this case, the hint is the language itself, which varies in exact shape, but always consists of circular images. It all comes back around. Literally.

Years after its release, Christopher Nolan’s neo-noir classic still leaves viewers scratching their heads. The film focuses on Leonard, a man who can’t form new memories, but who’s on the hunt for his wife’s murderer. Though she allegedly died in a home invasion, Leonard reveals the actual cause of death through the story of Sammy Jankis - another man with severe short-term memory loss who accidentally killed his wife by giving her too much insulin. We find out later that Sammy’s story is really Leonard’s. The only hint comes in a flashback where Sammy turns into Leonard briefly before the camera cuts away. In a sea of unreliable narration, this hint can be hard to spot.

This ‘90s cult classic features a plethora of hints leading to the twist that our repressed narrator and the enigmatic Tyler Durden are the same person. On-screen flashes of Tyler could clue you in, but they’re so fast that you can miss them even on repeat viewings. But no hint is as subtly powerful as the one given to us by Tyler himself. When he starts sleeping with Marla, he instructs the narrator to never talk to her about him. This keeps the wool over his eyes as well as our own. The two are never even in the same room together. It’s all so obvious... once you know the twist that is.

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#4: “She’s as harmless as one of these stuffed birds.”

“Psycho” (1960)

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Even people who haven’t seen it know this twist. Such is the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock’s slasher classic. There’s little to go off in terms of hints towards Norman Bates’s true nature, say for a single line delivered by Norman himself. The line comes during a conversation with would-be-protagonist Marion Crane about his emotionally abusive mother. Norman defends her by comparing her to the stuffed birds in the room. The audience is meant to take this as a statement about his mother not being able to hurt anyone. It’s only at the end however, when his mother’s taxidermied body is found, and Norman is revealed to be the real psycho, that it clicks into place.

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#3: The Two Birds

“The Prestige” (2006)

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Christopher Nolan sure loves a good twist. In this 2006 drama, two rival magicians try to perfect “the Transported Man”. For this illusion, the performer enters one container and comes out another. One magician completes this with the use of his secret twin brother, while the other repeatedly clones himself and kills the original. The reveal of each twist is insane, but a little boy solves it before anyone else. Birds are used the first time the trick is shown, and, fearing for the bird’s safety, a young audience member cries, “Where’s his brother?” Completing the trick means killing one bird and replacing it with another, meaning this scene hints at both twists.

Steven Spielberg’s classic action-adventure film may not feature as hefty of a twist as some other movies on this list. But it still has a clever hint that you may not have noticed during your first viewing. We’re told early on that the dinosaurs on the island are female so that they can’t reproduce and overrun the park. And as we all know, that doesn’t really stop them. During an early scene, our heroes arrive at the island via helicopter. When they all go to fasten their seatbelts, Dr. Alan Grant finds that he only has two female buckles and ties them together. It’s a small moment that tells us of the trouble to come.




Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:



The Law of Four

“Shutter Island” (2010)





Framing Tracy’s Head in a Box

“Se7en” (1995)

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#1: Malcolm Only Interacts with Cole

“The Sixth Sense” (1999)

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As the movie with one of the most famous twist endings in film history, there would have to be some hints along the way, right? It turns out, M. Night Shyamalan’s ghost story is really up front about it. The twist that Bruce Willis’s Malcolm Crowe was dead all along shocked audiences the world over. However, once you know what to look for, you can seen this twist coming a mile off. When the young Cole explains to Crowe that he can see dead people, he also says they don’t know they’re dead. And since Crowe never interacts with anyone outside of Cole, a second viewing will make you wonder how you didn’t see it before.