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worst movie plot twists of all time?

Temis the Vorta

Temis the Vorta

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What plot twists in movies make you want to throw your popcorn at the screen?

This thread will be full of spoilers for movies that you probably don't want to bother seeing anyway, but just for the record...

I can't remember any really bad twists I've seen, but the descriptions I've heard of The Life of David Gale make me glad I missed it (murder mystery that turns out to be a suicide for the purpose of making Kevin Spacey a willing anti-death penalty martyr by getting him executed for the "crime.")

And then there's The Village. That one riled a lot of people up.

I've heard that Pacino's new movie 88 Minutes has a real howler at the end, too. (Dunno what it is.)
 
The twist at the end of Matrix Reloaded. I still have no idea what the hell The Architect said.
 
Temis the Vorta said:
I can't remember any really bad twists I've seen, but the descriptions I've heard of The Life of David Gale make me glad I missed it (murder mystery that turns out to be a suicide for the purpose of making Kevin Spacey a willing anti-death penalty martyr by getting him executed for the "crime.")
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'Crime' is right. I have seen it. At first he seems to be an obvious murderer (if a sympathetic one), then someone who was framed for a murder, and finally someone who aided a suicide and then framed himself for murder where none existed. Wasn't terrible; but wasn't exceptional either. Best thing about the movie was a guy in a cowboy hat driving a pickup truck while listening to opera who was important to the whole plot somehow.

A stunning indictment of the death penalty, anyway. It just proves that if you frame yourself for a murder that didn't happen, you might get executed.
Thrall said:
The twist at the end of Matrix Reloaded. I still have no idea what the hell The Architect said.
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Those twists were fine. What ruined them was the lack of decent payoff in Revolutions.
 
^ What irritated me most about David Gale was the fact the reporter and everyone else involved seemed to be dimwits. The end was fairly well telegraphed, so the audience figured it out far before anyone on screen did.

The twist in The Village was also so darn easy to figure out that it made the rest of the plot so tedious to endure. Some of the plot twists in Signs worked better, but were just a little on the hokey side.

The plot twist in Mission To Mars, for example--that was so silly, it made the entire film just ridiculous.
 
While it certainly wasn't the worst movie twist of all time, I didn't buy the person-you-thought-was-good-is-really-a-villain revelation in Titan AE.

I was spoiled ahead of time for The Village, but I probably would have been ticked off otherwise. The thing is, I would have loved to see a movie that really was about an 1800's village surrounded by a forest full of monsters. A good twist makes you realize that the movie you have just seen is even cooler than you thought, not duller.

Thrall said:
The twist at the end of Matrix Reloaded. I still have no idea what the hell The Architect said.
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I only saw Matrix Reloaded once, but I remember thinking, "I guess I'm supposed to be shocked by what this guy is saying, but this is like trying to follow stereo instructions that are being quickly read aloud. I need Cliff Notes or something."
 
End of Days. So now Satan can bounce around from body to body and can seed his son using any male body?
 
Everyone rips on The Village, but I actually really loved that twist...I had an inkling it might be true while watching the movie and when we found out it was I thought, "wow that was a really good twist." Signs, not so much. I can't really think of any others I didn't like. I love twist endings.
 
That one with Mark Hamil where the angry over the top villain revels he is his Father.
 
Thrall said:
The twist at the end of Matrix Reloaded. I still have no idea what the hell The Architect said.
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This is how I interpreted it when I saw the movie.

Essentially what the architect said was that in his attempt to make the Matrix program work he encountered an unsolvable problem i.e. a way to simulate imperfection. The oracle who is another AI stumbled onto the solution which resulted in the creation of a program that gave every human a subconscious freewill. This solution works for the most part except for about 1% of the population who would eventually reject the Matrix i.e. waking up (the anomaly). The unintended consequence of this anomaly (or bug) is the creation of a powerful virtual entity known as Neo. In order to control this bug a safety mechanism to reset the program was created i.e. every Neo will be given a choice to either reset the program or let every human die. The reset can be construed as Neo entering the other door.
 
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Ethros said:
Tim Burton
Planet of the Apes
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Absolutely. They wanted to have a shocking ending like the original film, so that's what they throw at us? The ending of the original Planet of the Apes is so powerful because it makes sense of all the mysteries of the film and proves that Taylor's worst fears about humanity's capacity for self-destruction have been realised. It's integral to the film's message.

Burton's ending means nothing; says nothing; and doesn't even make logical sense. It's confusing for the sake of being confusing.
 
Temis the Vorta said:
I can't remember any really bad twists I've seen, but the descriptions I've heard of The Life of David Gale make me glad I missed it (murder mystery that turns out to be a suicide for the purpose of making Kevin Spacey a willing anti-death penalty martyr by getting him executed for the "crime.")
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After watching David Gale, I had the urge to take a very long shower.
 
Spot's Meow said:
Everyone rips on The Village, but I actually really loved that twist...I had an inkling it might be true while watching the movie and when we found out it was I thought, "wow that was a really good twist." Signs, not so much. I can't really think of any others I didn't like. I love twist endings.
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I wholly agree on that. I loved The Village. Also, people need to stop looking for the twists in Shyamalan's movies. Lady in the Water was a disappointment to many – just because everyone was waiting for a big plot twist at the end (which didn't come). Me, I quite enjoyed that movie – mostly thanks to Giamatti's wonderful acting and the superb score by James Newton Howard.
 
Holdfast said:
Kegek said:
Thrall said:
The twist at the end of Matrix Reloaded. I still have no idea what the hell The Architect said.
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Those twists were fine. What ruined them was the lack of decent payoff in Revolutions.
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I agree - I loved the end of Reloaded, but agree that Revolutions just fell very flat.
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I can't fathom how you could thin that. Reloaded was trash. Revolutions had one of the best final battles in film history and Neyo went out a total hero and brought the saga to an end.
 
At the time I saw it in theaters, I thought Sixth Sense had the stupidest twist ending ever, as I distinctly recalled the scene where the mom introduces Bruce Willis to the kid. But I guess it doesnt bother me as much anymore :p

I actually can't think of any twist ending that really bugs me off the top of my head now.
 
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