Four Movie Plot Twists You Genuinely Won’t Expect

While we’re all sick of the old “it was all a dream” or “they were dead the whole time” kind of plot swerve, there are still some great movies out there that manage to surprise even the most savvy of viewers.

So, today, I thought I’d share four of my absolute favourite, supremely shocking movie twists of all time - all of which turn things on their head and inside out. And, don’t worry - there are no explicit spoilers, just hints of what to expect!

The Mist

2007, Director: Frank Darabont It’s tricky to talk about the 2007 adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi apocalypse thriller without telling you about how it ends. But, let’s give it a go anyway!

As you’d expect from a King adaptation, despair and confusion are top of the menu in The Mist, but the movie’s twist ending is so intense, so brutal, and so out of left field, that Stephen King himself lauded it for being nihilistic and anti-Hollywood. High praise - and even if the movie itself wobbles on the ‘ok’ side of things, it’s that twist that still ensures it gets talked about almost a decade on.

Arrival

2016, Director: Denis Villeneuve Arrival is already a mysterious spectacle in and of itself - a first contact story that’s a genuine masterclass in doing less with more. However, what you might not be expecting is a twist in the tail with the lede buried so deeply it genuinely takes you off guard when it unravels.

Like The Mist, Arrival is based on an existing tale, a novella by Ted Chiang, ‘Story of Your Life’ and while you think the movie is perhaps going to be all about the aliens the characters have made contact with and what they have to hide, the narrative unfolds something much more surprising. Stick with it.

Don’t Look Now

1973, Director: Nicolas Roeg Thirdly, we’re dealing with a twist ending that’s so shocking and bonkers that it almost derails the entire film - but in the best way possible. Again, it’s based on a written work, this time by Daphne du Maurier, about a couple who move abroad after losing their daughter, only for the father to start experiencing strange visions.

Even if you follow the movie closely, the twist scene still catches you off guard with its intense, discordant sound mixing - and in that moment, we are all Donald Sutherland, completely baffled by what we’re looking at until it’s too late.

Hereditary

2018, Director: Ari Aster Few movies tap into creeping, unnerving horror quite like Hereditary does, and if you’ve seen it, you know what scene I’m talking about - and that it arrives quite early on in the movie.

The twist in question isn’t, unlike much of the movie, rooted in the supernatural - it’s a real wham moment, a jarring, visceral piece of body horror that not only acts as a jump scare, but also turns the film on its head (especially if you’d been following the marketing).

Like Arrival, stick with it - you’ll be surprised by the directions it takes.