A-List: Twist Endings
By Josh Spiegel
April 16, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Twist endings make or break movies. Sometimes, of course, they make or break filmmakers (yes, I am talking about you, M. Night Shyamalan; don't get me started on The Village). More often than not, these types of endings infuriate audience members by completely invalidating everything that's come before it. Also, there's the bigger danger that the big surprise comes as, well, no surprise at all to even the less discerning among moviegoers. Thanks in part to previous, jaw-dropping twists, and the massive amount of surprises that can be found week in, week out on TV shows like Lost or 24, people will expect surprises as opposed to be caught off guard.
As popular as it is these days to shock audiences with an out-of-left-field finale, and as bad as some get, there are some great twist endings. The movies on the following lists are all great films, in my opinion, at least, but the twists have defined their spot in cinematic lore. I'm not counting movies with twists that come halfway through the proceedings (for example, The Crying Game isn't popping up here); also, be warned: I will be ruining the endings of these movies. If you haven't seen any of those listed here, try to remain as unspoiled as possible. Oh, and try seeing the movies on this list! How could you pass up on these movies to begin with? Now that I've given you proper warning, here's the A-List's look at twist endings.
The Third Man
If you haven't seen The Third Man, the 1949 British film that is arguably the best film noir ever, do yourself a favor and rent it right now. All you should do is put on your shoes and run to the closest Blockbuster, it's that classic a movie. Starring Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles, The Third Man is shot and set in Vienna after the end of World War II. Cotten is Holly Martins, a pulp novelist from America looking for his old friend, Harry Lime. When Holly arrives, he's told that Harry's been murdered, but becomes suspicious when he hears how Harry died, and how three men, one of whom is unaccounted for, took the body to be buried. Who is this third man? Is Harry really dead? Well...no, he's not dead, and he is the third man. Though The Third Man is rightly remembered for its distinctive zither music (yes, zither), dark and off-kilter direction from Carol Reed, and the suspenseful reveal of Welles as the charmingly awful Lime (a racketeer who fakes his death to keep on swindling Vienna of medicine), the twist ending is a doozy and simple enough: the hero doesn't get the girl. Holly ends up falling in love with Harry's longtime girlfriend (Valli), but even after she sees what kind of man Harry really is, even after Holly brings Harry to justice - or because he does so - she spurns Holly's affections and, in a memorable and lengthy closing shot, walks right past him. Holly is left in Vienna, alone and ignored by everyone he's come into contact with. Seeing our lead, a well-meaning lug, be left in the cold is still a bit of a shock after multiple viewings. Though not a movie with a typical twist ending, The Third Man is a classic and packs enough surprises throughout.
Psycho
One of the most influential films ever made, the 1960 movie Psycho was directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock and features some of the most famous surprises in any American movie. Back when it was released, Hitchcock made strict orders that audience members arrive on time, so they didn't miss any of the shocks in this cheaply made slasher film. Though it's often associated with the infamous shower scene, where our leading lady, Janet Leigh, is brutally murdered in the shower of her motel room by the owner's senile mother, Psycho doesn't stop shocking you there. Once Leigh's character, Marion Crane, is dispatched, we follow Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) as he tries to evade local police, a private detective, and Marion's suspicious sister and boyfriend. Norman ends up unsuccessful in hiding Marion's death, when Marion's sister discovers the secret of his mother: she's been dead for a very long time. In fact, the killer, the senile old lady who killed Marion...is Norman himself, in a bit of a disguise. Both in its original release and even now, Psycho is full of jaw-dropping moments (including why there's a lengthy epilogue explaining to the audience exactly why Norman is so screwy), but the last twist, the idea that the awkward but charming Norman is a mentally damaged killer who becomes so confused by his romantic feelings for a woman like Marion that he has to kill her, is what really defines Psycho as a film for the ages. A big influence on horror movies, and suspenseful stories in general, Psycho is frequently remembered for its fantastic twist ending.
Se7en
Before he was making Brad Pitt age backwards, David Fincher made Pitt into a cocky young detective who finds himself on the wrong end of a killer's hit list. Though the crime drama Se7en was not Fincher's first film as director (that would be the 1992 misfire Alien3), it was the film that put him on the map. His fluid camerawork and unique style helped make Se7e" a chilling story, though Andrew Kevin Walker's dark script wasn't exactly slouching. Set in an unknown major city, Se7en is about two newly partnered detectives, one who's about to quit and one who thinks he's God's gift to detective work, trying to figure out who would be sick enough to kill various people for committing one of the seven deadly sins. Pitt plays the upstart and Morgan Freeman, in one of his better recent roles, plays the older and wiser sleuth, someone who's beaten down by life and hoping to make his troubles go away by leaving the job. Unfortunately for both of them, the killer, a man known only as John Doe, has other plans. Doe, played by a menacing Kevin Spacey (one of two roles in 1995 that were villainous and surprising, though The Usual Suspects isn't on this list), wonders what life would be if he was Pitt: married, young, and in love. Doe can't have that, so he decides to kill Pitt's wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) and send her severed head, in a box, to the grieving husband so he'll murder the murderer. Yes, the young detective follows through, but the shock is what we never see: the inside of that box. When we first see it, we're not completely sure what's inside, but with each passing second, a feeling of dread seeps through. Se7en is a very dark film, a bitter look at the imperfections of life and how some people act out. Its twist goes further than most, pitting good characters against their own morals, but the film is entertaining and gut-wrenching.
The Sixth Sense
Yes, I've got The Sixth Sense on the list. Along with The Usual Suspects, this movie has helped the twist ending become far more popular than it ever used to be. In 1999, M. Night Shyamalan, the writer and director of The Sixth Sense, became an overnight sensation thanks to the frightening ghost story about a boy who can see dead people and the child psychologist who tries to help him overcome this fear. As I mentioned above, this is also the movie that kind of doomed Shyamalan. His next film, the underrated Unbreakable, was met with disappointment, partly because everyone expected a big twist ending and partly because the twist wasn't so shocking. Well, it wasn't as shocking as the one from The Sixth Sense. The psychologist, played by a never-better Bruce Willis, is another one of the ghosts this boy (Haley Joel Osment) can see, having died from a gunshot wound the year before. Only at the very end of the movie does the psychologist figure out why his wife hasn't been talking to him, why she's looking for another man, and only then do we realize that no one except for the boy has actually spoken to this man. Though some of you will say you saw the twist coming (and I think you folks should just admit you were as surprised as the rest of us), Shyamalan and company sell it very well, with strong performances all around, great thrills, and subtle hints laced throughout. In the past ten years, we've seen a spate of ghost stories, suspense films, and any excuse to throw in a twist ending; The Sixth Sense is, at the very least, one reason for all of those movies, and is the best of its kind.
Memento
From the best of its kind to one of a kind we go. I won't attempt to write this one backwards; it'd give me too much of a headache; that just makes me more jealous of Christopher Nolan, who made his splash in America with this 2000 thriller about a man with short-term memory loss trying to figure out who killed his wife. Played by Guy Pearce, Leonard Shelby knows his wife is dead, has solid memories of his past life as an insurance fraud investigator and a previous client with a similar memory issue, and has myriad notes and tattoos to remind him of the only thing he wants in life: to find his wife's killer, the person who knocked him on the head and screwed up his memories. Leonard is aided by two potentially suspicious characters, played by Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano (both better here than in The Matrix), who may know a lot more than they're willing to tell. The key here is the intriguing if baffling story of Sammy Jankis, Leonard's old case. Sammy said he had memory issues, as did his diabetic wife, but Leonard figured he was hiding something. By the end of the film, this black-and-white story and the backwards-chronology of Leonard's hunt converge, as we realize something: Leonard is, in essence, Sammy Jankis, who was never really married. Leonard, in his feverish state, transposed his own life onto Sammy's case. His wife, presumed dead after some burglars rob the house and sexually assault her, was killed by an insulin overdose, of which Leonard's the culprit, having already received the fateful blow to the head. His hunt for his wife's killer is not only futile, but Leonard's never going to remember it. As we see in the final scene, Leonard will keep on hunting for the murderers who don't exist and no one can stop him. Memento is one of the best films of the last ten years, a crackerjack crime drama with great performances from Pearce, Pantoliano, Moss, and Stephen Tobolowsky as Jankis. Not only that, but this indie sensation helped put Nolan on the map, leading him to direct Insomnia, The Prestige, and two small films about a rich man who dresses up as a bat to fight crime. If you haven't seen Memento yet and ignored my spoiler warnings, see it...right now.