Warning: this article will contain plot twist spoilers.
Here at Glamour, we love a good thrill. There's nothing better than curling up with one of the best plot twist movies, trying to guess where the fast-paced, compelling storyline is going to take you next.
Whether it's a detective murder story in Se7en, Rian Johnson's Knives Out or Emerald Fennell's controversial Saltburn, we find the lure of a plot twist all too seductive. It distracts from our everyday woes, as we desperately attempt to predict might happen next – bringing out the inner detective in us all, perhaps.
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Here is Glamour's round-up of the best plot twist movies.
Scream
The iconic movies, consisting of a killer in a Ghostface mask, started here. We won't completely and utterly spoil this one, but our discovery of who the killer(s) are at the end of this movie flipped the horror movie narrative on its head, and the world of scary films was never the same afterwards.
Fight Club
Seeing as the movie centres around the Narrator (played by Ed Norton) and his elusive friend Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)'s forming of a Fight Club – that no one is allowed to talk about – it's a pretty tasty twist when we discover that Tyler is in fact the Narrator's alter ego, so all of Tyler's actions were in fact his own.
Us
Us is all about a group of “Tethered” clones terrorising their counterparts. So it's a true shocker when we discover that protagonist Adelaide is in fact a “Tethered” clone, who switched places with her clone and had been living a stolen life. Stars Lupita Nyong'o.
Shutter Island
We follow Leonardo DiCaprio's US Marshal Teddy's visit to a mental institution and his pursuit of a man called Richard Laeddis, who he believed started the fire that killed his wife. The ending is a heartbreaking one: we discover that Teddy was in fact the one that killed his wife, after she murdered their three children during a manic depressive episode.
Se7en
Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman play detectives Mills and Somerset investigating a serial killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) who matches each murder to one of the seven deadly sins. The final kill, though, is the one with the twist. John delivers the severed head of Mills' wife Tracy inside a box, with this discovery causing Mills to kill John Doe, indicating the final murder which symbolised wrath – the final of the sins Doe was replicating.
Last Night In Soho
We learn during the film's climax that landlady Ms Collins was the older version of Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), who was believed to have died back in the 1960s. Actually, she had killed the men who had abused her back then and hid their bodies in the house. Pretty dark.
Saltburn
Emerald Fennell's stylish, divisive, beautiful Saltburn contains a twist that hits the centre of so many debates around class and privilege. Protagonist Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, is revealed to not only have lied about his upbringing and background but also to be willing to go to deadly lengths to stay attached to Felix (Jacob Elordi)'s wealthy family and estate.
Interstellar
Though Matthew McConaughey's character Cooper leaves his daughter Murph to go on the space expedition that defines the movie, it turns out he was able to enter a multi-dimensional space called the Tesseract, which allows him to communicate with Murph (Jessica Chastain) and help her to solve a crucial equation that will save humanity.
Parasite
Bong Joon Ho's movie explores the intricacies and complications of wealth, privilege and inequality. By the end of it, we are forced to question who the real “parasites” are, the rich or the poor – or potentially both, and how they feed off each other.
Side Effects
Side Effects sees protagonist Rooney Mara grapple with depression, even after her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released from prison after serving a sentence for insider trading. She is prescribed drugs by various psychiatrists (Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones), which is presented as the source of the problem, but we later discover she is embroiled in a plan to kill Martin for financial gain.
The Sixth Sense
Does anyone really not know the plot twist for this one? Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is assigned to a young patient Cole who can “see dead people”. It is revealed towards the end of the movie that he was actually shot and killed by a former patient earlier on in the film, and that's why Cole can “see” and interact with him. Shocking.
Gone Girl
The movie, and novel by Gillian Flynn, is centred around a woman named Amy (Rosamund Pike) who goes missing and the campaign to find her. A lot of evidence suggests that her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) my be responsible for her disappearance. It is revealed, though, that Amy faked her own death to punish her husband after she finds out he's cheating on her.
Donnie Darko
Jake Gyllenhaal's Donnie travels back in time to prevent the events of the previous 28 days after witnessing his girlfriend Gretchen's death – ultimately sacrificing himself.
Knives Out
The entire movie is centred around who might have killed family patriarch Harlan Thrombey – it is revealed that his grandson Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans) switched his medication, which ultimately led to his death, framing nurse Marta to make it look as if she accidentally overdosed him. Scandalous.
Atonement
Ian McEwan's novel and the movie that inspired it, starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Saoirse Ronan, is devastating – as is the plot twist that comes at the end. The story revolves around Keira's Cecilia and James's Robbie, and we are first led to believe that they end up together, reunited after a tragic separation earlier on in the film. But, unfortunately, this is just discovered to be just a fabrication in Bryony (Saiorse Ronan)'s novel, and in reality both characters died during WW2 and never reunited.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
“I am your father” – enough said.
Get Out
As we see Daniel Kaluuya's Chris navigate meeting his white girlfriend Rose's family for the first time, things begin to go awry. What we didn't expect, though, is Rose's involvement in their insidious plans.
Saw
The first of the Saw movies had arguably the biggest twist in the entire franchise. The two prisoners of the Saw game are accompanied throughout the film by what they assume to be a corpse from a previous game. But we see at the end that the body is John Kramer's, the organiser of the game, and he's very much alive.
Last Christmas
The adorable London-based Christmas film takes a devastating turn when Emilia Clarke's Kate discovers that Tom (Henry Golding), her mysterious yet sweet love interest who appears on his bike sporadically for romantic moments around the city, actually died the previous Christmas, and she received his heart in a transplant. So he was a ghost, and he quite literally gave her his heart. Kind of icky, but also very sad.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
We see Ryan Gosling's Jacob teach Steve Carell's Cal the ways of the single man when he ends up separated from his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) after she had an affair. What we don't expect is that Jacob's love interest Hannah (Emma Stone) turns out to be Cal's eldest daughter. Cue the awkwardness.
Psycho
The murders that we as an audience are led to believe have been committed by Norman Bates' mother is in fact, Bates himself under a “Mother” persona. Super creepy.
The Prestige
A twist to end all twists! This one will still get you even if you know it's coming. Set in Victorian London, this film follows two rival stage magicians, played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, both competing to create the ultimate teleportation illusion.
Mulholland Drive
David Lynch's classic Mulholland Drive is a dreamy, twisty tale about a young hopeful actress (Naomi Watts) who arrives in Los Angeles with big dreams. She soon finds herself embroiled in a noir-esque plot featuring a femme fatale-type (Laura Harring). But everything is not quite as it seems, and the film soon spirals, losing its firm grip on reality — it is David Lynch after all!
Gone Girl
Rosamund Pike, Amy Dunne, is tired of being the cool girl! What begins as a tragic missing wife tale soon becomes a mind-bending revenge plot in this unpredictable psychological thriller from David Fincher.
American Psycho
It's 1980s New York and we are all living in a material world. For Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman, the pressures of life in the material world seem to be a little too much to bear and he soon finds himself on a bloody killing spree through the upper echelons of Manhattan. But, once again, all is not quite as it seems.
The Others
Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, the mother of two photosensitive children who live in a dark old family manor. Things get spooky when she becomes convinced their home is haunted. This gothic horror keeps you guessing until the very unexpected, chilling twist.
Black Swan
A psychological thriller that sees Natalie Portman as Nina, a prima ballerina spiralling into madness in pursuit of artistic perfect while starring in Swan Lake. We enter her warped mind as the film goes on, seeing the world through her not-so-sane eyes — and it's a decidedly creepy ride, filled with confusion and twists.
Palm Springs
For a little change of pace, try Palm Springs, a rom-com with a twist. Andy Samberg is Nyles, a man who quickly finds himself trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque time loop, repeating the same Palm Springs wedding over and over again. However, when another guest at the wedding joins his time loop, things take a truly whacky turn.
Gattaca
This dystopian sci-fi film stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman as people living a fictional future where people are classified based on their genetic superiority. Hawke's Vincent has managed to con the system, faking superior DNA to pursue his dream of space travel. We'll just say that the ending twist is truly heartbreaking.
The Truman Show
In case you haven't come across The Truman Show before, we won't give away the premise — we'll just saw that Jim Carey's Truman lives in a seemingly perfect, cookie-cutter town — until he realises that the world around may not be quite as real as it appears.
