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Plot twists add excitement and intrigue to a story whether it’s in a movie, TV show, or book. Good twists often make a story memorable, encouraging others to also check it out. But a bad...
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00:00Plot twists add excitement and intrigue to a story, whether it's a movie, TV show, or book.
00:05Good twists often make a story memorable, encouraging others to also check it out.
00:10Twins. What a twist.
00:13But a bad twist can ruin an otherwise engaging story entirely.
00:18So let's look at the purpose of plot twists in the media, how some work when others don't,
00:23and why audiences love them.
00:25Since we're going to be analyzing plot twists, spoilers are unavoidable.
00:29So just a heads up that these are the films and shows we'll be unpacking.
00:32Plot twists can make or break a story, especially if the type of twist is too common and overdone.
00:38These days, the it was all a dream trope may seem like lazy writing,
00:42but back when audiences saw 1939's The Wizard of Oz for the first time,
00:46they didn't mind Dorothy waking up at the end,
00:48telling her real-life family that they were other people in her dream.
00:52But it wasn't a dream, it was a place.
00:55And you, and you, and you, and you were there.
00:59On the other hand, when the season 10 premiere of Dallas revealed that an entire season's worth of storytelling,
01:05including the death of Bobby Ewing in the season 8 finale,
01:08were all a part of Pamela's bad dream,
01:10Viewers weren't exactly thrilled, and neither was the cast.
01:18Season 9 became known as the dream season.
01:21The dead-all-along trope has varying results,
01:24but can still be mind-blowing when done right.
01:26The most well-known example of this is probably The Sixth Sense,
01:29often considered one of M. Night Shyamalan's best films.
01:32The others similarly told the story of a family haunted by ghosts,
01:36only for the family to realize that they're the actual ghosts.
01:40Or there's the alive-all-along trope,
01:43masterfully exemplified in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl,
01:46both the book and the screenplay she penned for the film.
01:49In the beginning, it seems like your typical crime drama.
01:52A cheating husband kills his wife, and their possible unborn child,
01:55in order to be with his young mistress.
01:57Nick Dunn continues to profess his innocence,
02:00but all signs point to him as the culprit.
02:02Halfway through the movie, it's revealed that Amy Dunn is actually alive.
02:07She's the mastermind behind a long-running setup,
02:10framing Nick for her supposed murder,
02:12as payback for not only his infidelity,
02:14but also for not appreciating her,
02:16and using her for her connections and her family's wealth.
02:19I am so much happier now that I'm dead.
02:22Technically missing.
02:24Soon to be presumed dead.
02:26Gone.
02:27Amy is also an unreliable narrator,
02:29a character trope that has become more common in recent years,
02:32like Rue from Euphoria,
02:33Patrick Bateman in American Psycho,
02:35and David Holler from Legion.
02:36I'm insane, you idiot.
02:40This is my delusion.
02:41It's not real.
02:43Fight Club has one of the all-time unreliable narrators in cinema history.
02:47The protagonist discovers that his frenemy Tyler Durden
02:50is an alternate personality,
02:52not a real person he's been interacting with.
02:54There's a similar scenario in season four of You.
02:57Joe Goldberg has reinvented himself in the UK,
03:00and while he was never the most reliable narrator,
03:03since he's a stalker and romanticizes everything,
03:06the eighth episode revealed that he's been dissociating.
03:09He doesn't actually know the real Rhys Montrose.
03:11He's been interacting with his version of Rhys.
03:14Joe himself is the Aether Ridge killer,
03:16and the one who kidnapped Mary Ann.
03:18When it comes to identity reveals,
03:20there are multiple ways it could go.
03:22Often, particularly in soap operas,
03:24a secret family member is revealed,
03:26either to the protagonist themselves or to others.
03:29In The Prestige,
03:30Robert obsesses over rival magician Alfred's transporting man trick,
03:34and later finds out the shocking truth about the trick,
03:37a secret twin.
03:391980s Star Wars Episode V,
03:40The Empire Strikes Back,
03:42has a plot twist so iconic
03:44that even people who haven't seen the film
03:46know it through cultural osmosis.
03:48He told me you killed him.
03:50No.
03:50I am your father.
03:53Sometimes, a perceived ally is one of,
03:56or even the, bad guy.
03:57Since the initial ending reveal in 2004 Saw,
04:00which showed that the Jigsaw killer
04:02was actually the supposed corpse in the bathroom,
04:05the franchise has continued to add a twist
04:07to nearly every installment.
04:08Each sequel reveals a new Jigsaw apprentice
04:11that's been working behind the scene.
04:13The Usual Suspects is another film
04:14mostly known for its surprising twist ending.
04:17Verbal Kent used different details
04:18scenes around the interrogation room
04:20to concoct a story that points to someone else
04:22as the mastermind, Kaiser Soze.
04:25By the time the detectives realize
04:26that they've been talking to the real Kaiser Soze all along,
04:29he's made his getaway.
04:31Location reveals showing that a character
04:32who believed they were in one setting
04:34was actually somewhere else
04:35have come to be some of the most iconic plot twists,
04:38most famously at the end of 1968's Planet of the Ape,
04:42where we realized that this world
04:43is actually very close to home.
04:46More recently, NBC's comedy The Good Place
04:48did this in its season one finale.
04:51They're never gonna call a train
04:52to take us to the bad place.
04:55They can't, because we're already here.
04:58This is the bad place.
05:00One of M. Night Shyamalan's
05:02most polarizing plot twists
05:03is in 2004's The Village,
05:05where a visually impaired character named Ivy
05:07learns that the monsters
05:09who invade their land aren't real.
05:11And the audience also sees the second twist
05:14that this is set in modern times,
05:16not the 19th century.
05:18Like with any mystery,
05:19audiences like to put pieces together
05:21and theorize on true identity,
05:23motives, and the outcome.
05:25A good twist is all about subverting expectation,
05:27but it takes a carefully planned series of misdirection.
05:30One common but still effective misdirection
05:32is a false protagonist,
05:34a character who appears to be at the center of it all,
05:36but dies in the beginning or midpoint of the narrative.
05:38Promos for Hereditary implied Charlie was the main character,
05:42so when she dies at the end of the first act,
05:44audiences were understandably shocked.
05:46At the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho,
05:49we're following Marion Crane,
05:50a secretary who steals $40,000
05:52from the real estate office where she works
05:54and leaves town.
05:56After she checks into the Bates Motel,
05:57Marion is killed in the film's pivotal shower scene,
06:01an oft-referenced part of cinema history.
06:03Story can't just suddenly change midway through.
06:06What about in Psycho?
06:06You love that movie.
06:07This is no longer her story.
06:09Instead, it shifts focus onto the awkward Norman Bates
06:12and his murdering mother,
06:14or so we think.
06:15The second twist comes at the end,
06:17revealing that Mother was dead all along
06:20and that Norman was the killer in her clothes.
06:22Wes Craven does this at the beginning of 1996's Scream,
06:25which starts with Casey Becker
06:27receiving a call from Ghostface,
06:29even though audiences might have expected her
06:31to be the final girl,
06:32especially since she was played by megastar Drew Barrymore.
06:35She turns out to be the first victim.
06:37The meta-horror movie also has a lot of misdirection
06:40with Billy Loomis,
06:41making him too obvious of a suspect.
06:43Using the characters' and audiences' knowledge
06:45of horror tropes,
06:46they dismiss Billy as a red herring,
06:48but in yet another twist,
06:50he ends up being one of the killers.
06:52The 2022 horror film Barbarian
06:54plays on our familiarity with Bill Skarsgård,
06:57an actor known for playing dark roles
06:59like Pennywise in the It remake.
07:00I thought you wouldn't want any
07:02if you didn't see me open it,
07:03so I waited.
07:06I'm good.
07:07We expect his character Keith
07:08to have nefarious intentions,
07:10and our final girl Tess is wary of him.
07:13Instead, he later becomes a victim of the real threat.
07:16Good twist enhances the narrative
07:18and adds meaning that fits the overall theme.
07:20Alfonso Cuaron's limited series disclaimer
07:22is about how people are quick to judge others
07:24and hop on a hate bandwagon
07:26without having all the fat.
07:28Part of the challenge of disclaimer,
07:30it was how not to reveal,
07:32but at the same time,
07:34how not to cheat by hiding information.
07:36Yes.
07:37Catherine Rabenkov's life is upended
07:38when a book is released
07:40detailing her alleged affair
07:41and complicity in someone's death.
07:43Right away, her husband, friends,
07:45and co-workers, and the audience,
07:47believe that she's guilty
07:48of seducing a young traveler
07:49and letting him die in an accident
07:51to hide her infidelity.
07:53She doesn't get the opportunity
07:54to explain the truth,
07:56something she's hidden all this time.
07:58In the finale,
07:59she makes Stephen Brickstock,
08:00the man who perpetuated this lie,
08:02listen to her seemingly true version of event.
08:05Catherine wasn't the predator,
08:06his son assaulted her.
08:08Why didn't you question it?
08:10No, Mr. Ravenscroft.
08:12Why didn't you?
08:13This revelation completely recontextualizes
08:16the entire series
08:17and makes us confront our own biases.
08:19It's the kind of plot twist
08:20that turns the series
08:21into a different story altogether,
08:23inspiring viewers to revisit it
08:25from the beginning.
08:26When a plot twist is really effective,
08:28it almost ensures the rewatchability
08:30of a film or TV series
08:31because the subtle clues and foreshadowing
08:34are easier to pick up on
08:35during a second viewing.
08:36The Sixth Sense's twist ending
08:38that Malcolm Crowe has been dead the whole time
08:41works because the clues were there.
08:43Him not interacting with anyone other than Cole,
08:45the locked basement,
08:47Cole's anxiousness around him,
08:48and Agatha all along.
08:50Ryo Vidal's true identity as Lady Death
08:52and teens as a reincarnated Billy Maximoff
08:55were heavily theorized,
08:56but ultimately spoiled by Funko Pop figures.
09:00But for some,
09:01knowing what's to come
09:01only increased their excitement
09:03for the highly anticipated moment.
09:05In the penultimate episode,
09:06Billy looks at the imagery in its bedroom
09:08and realizes he manifested the road,
09:11like what his mother Wanda did with Westview.
09:13And perhaps more surprisingly,
09:15the ballad was created by Agatha
09:17and her son Nicholas
09:18and evolved over the century.
09:20Upon second viewing,
09:21Agatha's initial shock
09:23and suspicious behavior on the road
09:25make more sense.
09:26Another acclaimed series
09:27based on comic books this year
09:28was HBO's The Penguin.
09:30Audiences expected a story all about Oz Cobb
09:32and instead got a two-hander
09:34with Sophia Falcone.
09:35In the comics,
09:36her character becomes a serial killer
09:38called The Hangman.
09:39Like with many page-to-screen adaptations,
09:41showrunner Lauren LaFranc changed her story.
09:43My sweet Sophia.
09:47You're clearly not yourself.
09:50You're confused.
09:52Sick.
09:52The fourth episode reveals
09:54that Sophia was innocent,
09:56framed by the real killer,
09:57her father,
09:58and confined in Arkham State Hospital
10:00for a decade.
10:01Plot twists,
10:02especially endings,
10:04are often polarizing.
10:05While some viewers will find a twist clever,
10:08others will feel that it was merely for shock value.
10:10If the information wasn't worked
10:12into the story in a genuine way,
10:14then a twist is just for the sake of a surprise
10:16and the audience usually feels cheated.
10:19A plot twist needs to have a real meaning
10:21or purpose behind it.
10:23Otherwise,
10:23it doesn't feel earned.
10:25Sometimes,
10:25these unsatisfying twists are a deus ex machina,
10:28a quick and usually improbable fix
10:30that appears without explanation
10:32to resolve an unwinnable situation.
10:34Find an ending.
10:36But don't cheat.
10:38And don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina.
10:41Your characters must change.
10:44And the change must come from them.
10:46However,
10:46people don't always agree on what counts as one.
10:49Some consider Dorit the accidentally spilling water
10:52on the Wicked Witch of the West
10:53the one thing that actually kills her
10:55to be a deus ex machina.
10:56And the fact that her ruby slippers
10:58were always able to take her home.
11:00Or the T-Rex arriving at the last minute
11:02to save everyone in Jurassic Park.
11:04In Apple TV's 2024 noir series Sugar,
11:07the titular private investigator
11:09exhibits strange ticks and traits.
11:11Episode 6 reveals him to be an alien,
11:14despite no sci-fi or supernatural aspects
11:16being even hinted at up until that point.
11:19Meanwhile,
11:19others believe that these examples
11:21make perfect sense,
11:22or at the very least succeed at surprising them,
11:24if nothing else.
11:25Plot twists are powerful
11:26when they're properly and subtly foreshadowed,
11:29giving the audience a chance to pick up on clues.
11:31They provide some shock value,
11:33but also pull us deeper into the story,
11:36retracing our steps to see what we missed,
11:38which makes us wonder
11:39what else we might be overlooking.
11:41When done well,
11:42plot twists can be a lot of fun
11:44and have a lasting impact on the audience.
11:50That's the take.
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