The 5 Best Twist Ending Movies Ever
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Twist endings are a narrative technique in which the plot shifts dramatically and without warning in the third act. This is especially common in whodunit style murder mysteries, but a film of any genre can have a twist ending.
Here are some of the best ones ever made.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? follows former child star “Baby” Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) as she torments her wheelchair-bound sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), in their decaying mansion. Jane’s mental instability and jealousy drive her to sadistic lengths.
What’s the twist? Blanche reveals that she caused the car accident that left her paralyzed, not Jane. The guilt fueled Jane’s descent into madness, creating a toxic cycle of blame and resentment.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Who does a twist ending better than M. Night Shyamalan? In his directorial debut, a child psychologist named Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) takes on the case of a boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who is tormented by his alleged ability to see “dead people”. Initially skeptical, Cole proves to Malcolm again and again that his ability is real.
What’s the twist? Malcolm realizes that he has been dead since a home invasion shown in the first scene of The Sixth Sense.
Fight Club (1999)
In Fight Club, David Fincher takes viewers on a dark and gritty journey through identity and rebellion. The story follows an unnamed narrator (Edward Norton) who befriends the enigmatic and charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Together, they form a fight club as an outlet for frustration with modern life, but their creation spirals into a dangerous, anarchic movement.
What’s the twist? The narrator learns that Tyler Durden is not a separate person—he is a projection of his own fractured psyche, representing his suppressed anger and desire for freedom from societal constraints.
Shutter Island (2010)
A neo-noir psychological horror movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels, a US Marshal who is investigating a disappearance at an island psychiatric hospital. The facilities staff are uncooperative and even hostile towards Teddy’s investigation. He also experiences PTSD flashbacks from WWII, where he was involved in liberating the Dachau concentration camp.
What’s the twist? “Teddy” is actually a patient at the hospital named Andrew Laeddis, who was sentenced to the facility after he murdered his wife.
Goodnight Mommy (2014)
An Austrian horror film about identical twins Elias and Lukas, who live in a rural home with their mother. When she returns from getting plastic surgery, the boys begin to suspect she has been replaced by a doppelgänger. In addition to her face being bandaged, their mother’s behavior seems to have changed, she is colder and punishes them harshly. (There is also a remake in English from Amazon Studios).
What’s the twist? There was never anything wrong with the mother. She was disfigured in the car accent that killed Lukas—Elias has been fantasizing that his twin brother has been alive the whole time.