- 21 hours ago
Brace yourselves – these revelations will haunt you long after the credits roll! Join us as we count down the bleakest, most disturbing plot twists ever put to film! From shocking family secrets to jaw-dropping betrayals, these cinematic bombshells left audiences absolutely shattered. A massive spoiler warning is in effect for all entries, so proceed with extreme caution!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00They called me Mr. Glass.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at some of the bleakest, most disturbing revelations in cinema that caught us
00:10off guard.
00:10A content warning for most of these scenes, and a massive spoiler warning for all of them.
00:16You can die with them.
00:20Or you can die for them.
00:23Number 50. The Multiple Jeffreys.
00:26Men. All Harper wanted was a nice holiday to forget the trauma brought on by her husband's death.
00:32However, her vacation is far from relaxing, as she finds herself stalked by a naked man,
00:38one that bears a striking resemblance to her holiday homeowner, Jeffrey.
00:42In fact, all the men in the area resemble Jeffrey, even a little boy, and they all mistreat Harper in
00:49some way.
00:50Wanna play a game?
00:54Hide and seek.
00:56You hide. I'll seek.
01:00I-I-I don't think I can.
01:03You can't hide.
01:06Go on.
01:07I bet you're good at it.
01:09The reasoning for this resemblance is too horrific to comprehend,
01:13as the naked man appears and gives birth to another Jeffrey lookalike.
01:21All the doppelgangers are spawned from each other,
01:24and each one represents a part of Harper's ex-husband, as she struggles with her grief.
01:29Look at me, Harper.
01:38So I died.
01:44Director Gaspar Noé doesn't pull any punches with his films, and this was absolutely no exception.
01:50It's become infamous for the assault scene, and the unique structure of having the film's narrative in reverse.
02:06Telling the story backwards came with dreadful revelations, such as the man we thought was the perpetrator was actually just
02:12an innocent bystander.
02:14They got revenge on the wrong guy, while the real creep slipped away.
02:18But what's even worse is at the chronological beginning, where Alex is shown to be happily pregnant,
02:23and mentions having a dream about the location for the infamous scene.
02:27Meaning that she inadvertently foresaw the future, and would lose so much more that night.
02:50Number 48, The Ritual, The Cabin in the Woods.
02:53Despite what the title suggests, The Cabin in the Woods is anything but a stereotypical slasher flick.
02:58What looks like your typical horror scenario is actually being manipulated by an underground lab,
03:04looking to kill the five teenagers staying in their cabin.
03:07But why go through all this trouble?
03:09It's our task to placate the Ancient Ones.
03:13As it's yours to be offered up to them.
03:16As it turns out, this is part of a ritual to prevent the apocalypse.
03:20Not only that, but this is just one ritual part of a global conspiracy to appease the Ancient Ones.
03:27What's beneath us?
03:28The Ancient Ones.
03:30The gods that used to rule the Earth.
03:32As long as they accept our sacrifice, they remain below.
03:36But when the two lone survivors ruin the ritual, the film ends as the enraged gods emerge to bring
03:42the end of civilization upon the Earth, and completely dismantle everything we thought we knew about horror films.
03:55Number 47, Mr. Glass is the mastermind, Unbreakable.
04:00David Dunn was the sole survivor of a horrific train crash, only to find himself gifted with superhuman abilities.
04:07You're trained to rail, some kind of malfunction.
04:12You only found two people alive so far.
04:15Elijah Price, a comic store owner with brittle bones, goes out of his way to mold David into a real
04:21-life superhero.
04:22But why would Price put so much effort into helping David?
04:25I killed all those people.
04:29But I found you.
04:33So many sacrifices just to find you.
04:39Because, as it turns out, he sees David as the perfect hero to complement himself.
04:44If he can create the perfect rival, he won't feel as useless because of his brittle bones.
04:49If there is someone like me in the world, and I am at one end of the spectrum, couldn't there
04:54be someone else opposite of me at the other end?
04:58To paint an even bleaker picture, it's revealed that he purposely caused David's near-death experience, embracing the name Mr.
05:06Glass as a supervillain badge of honor.
05:09To not know your place in this world, to not know why you're here, that's just an awful feeling.
05:22Number 46, Johnny and Satan, Angel Heart.
05:26Investigator Harry Angel has been hired to locate a missing singer named Johnny Favorite.
05:31The deeper Angel looks into it, the more things take a turn for the supernatural.
05:36Eventually, Angel finds the truth he's been looking for.
05:39He and Favorite are the same being.
05:41Favorite was a cultist who sold his soul to the devil to become famous,
05:45but ended up stealing the real Harold Angel's soul and impersonating him to avoid paying up.
05:56He became amnesiac and believed he was Angel.
06:00Favorite would only come out in a Jekyll and Hyde scenario.
06:03I didn't kill no one.
06:05I'm afraid you did, Johnny.
06:07My name's not Johnny.
06:09All killed by your own hand, guided by me naturally.
06:12In one last twist, Angel's client is actually the devil coming to collect his payment,
06:18and Favorite is out of hiding places.
06:21Number 45, The Twins Family, Incendie.
06:24Following the death of their mother, Twins Jeanne and Simon are on a mission to deliver
06:29letters to their long-lost father and brother.
06:32What they uncover next is one of the most horrifying family secrets in cinema history.
06:41During a civil war in her country, their mother was separated from their brother,
06:46only to be later violated by him after he had been turned into a child soldier.
06:50This assault resulted in the twins, meaning that he is their father and their brother,
06:55even if his actions weren't fully his own.
07:08This revelation devastated the twins, and caused their mother's health to deteriorate,
07:13until she finally passed.
07:15Number 44, Michael's Paranoia, Arlington Road.
07:19Michael Faraday clearly never learned the phrase, love thy neighbor.
07:23He suspects that his neighbors might be terrorists,
07:25and becomes obsessed with putting an end to whatever threat they may be plotting.
07:29From the outside, he sounds like a complete nut job, until he's proven right.
07:34To make it worse, the neighbors frame Michael for being the true terrorist.
07:38Sir, step out of the vehicle!
07:39There's a bomb in the van, sir!
07:41And just when he has a chance to stop them,
07:43it turns out that they tricked him into unintentionally doing their dirty work for them.
07:48While it's wrong to assume the worst in your neighbors,
07:50it can be more dangerous to let your guard down if there really is danger.
07:55Preliminary reports indicate the bombing was the work of this man,
07:59Michael Faraday of Reston, Virginia.
08:01Number 43, Maul tries to wake up, Inception.
08:05What do you feel?
08:08Guilt.
08:11I feel guilt, Maul.
08:14No matter what I do, no matter how hopeless I am, no matter how confused,
08:20that guilt is always there, reminding me of the truth.
08:25What truth?
08:29That the idea that caused you to question your reality came from me.
08:34The titular method of Inception involves literally putting an idea into someone's
08:38head through dream sharing.
08:40The only reason Dom Cobb, our main protagonist, knew about the concept,
08:45was that he tested it on his wife Maul.
08:47The reason I knew Inception was possible was because I did it to her first.
08:53I did it to my own wife.
08:55After a while, the lines between the dream world and reality became too blurry for Maul,
09:01and she believed she was still in the dream even after she woke up.
09:05But there would be no waking up this time.
09:08That death was the only escape.
09:10The guilt over Maul's death haunted Dom to the point where a projection of her starts
09:15following him and sabotaging his mission as a grim reminder of what he caused.
09:20Number 42, HYDRA's Second Coming.
09:23Captain America, The Winter Soldier.
09:26One of Captain America's most heroic feats was taking down the terrorist organization
09:30HYDRA back in World War II. Unfortunately, even after his victory,
09:34the threat of HYDRA never faded away. Quite the opposite, actually.
09:38Look around you. I have never been more alive.
09:43When SHIELD, the organization responsible for assembling the Avengers, was first developed,
09:48former HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola was recruited to the program.
09:52Slowly, he began rebuilding HYDRA from within.
09:56Even after he died, his brain was preserved as a computer AI,
09:59allowing him to further his goals right under everyone's noses.
10:03The new HYDRA grew a beautiful parasite inside SHIELD.
10:10For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war.
10:18And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.
10:24Eventually, HYDRA would rise again like a parasite feeding off of SHIELD,
10:28ready to terrorize the world anew and bring humanity to its knees.
10:32HYDRA's new world order will arise.
10:36We won, Captain.
10:39Your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum.
10:45Number 41. The Coven's Grand Scheme.
10:48Hereditary.
10:49Following the death of her mother, Ellen,
10:51Annie Graham's life takes a turn for the worse.
10:54Her relationship with her son, Peter, is strained beyond belief,
10:57and her daughter, Charlie, is unexpectedly decapitated.
11:01At least she has her support group.
11:03Except that said support group is actually a cult her mother was a part of.
11:06Every one of their recent tragedies was the Coven's doing as part of their master plan,
11:11to have Peter become a vessel for their demon lord, Paymon, to possess.
11:15You're alright now.
11:21You are Paymon, one of the eight kings of hell.
11:30We have looked to the northwest and called you in.
11:36We've corrected your first female body and give you now this healthy male host.
11:44The final key to their plan is to possess Annie, force her to decapitate herself,
11:49and allow Paymon to take hold of Peter and rule over his loyalist minions.
11:53Hail, Paymon!
11:57Hail, Paymon!
11:58Number 40. The Real Harry Lime, The Third Man.
12:02Go home, Martins, like a sensible chap.
12:04You don't know what you're mixing in. Get the next plane.
12:06As soon as I get to the bottom of this, I'll get the next plane.
12:09While in Vienna, writer Holly Martins finds himself investigating
12:13the death of his old friend, Harry Lime.
12:15There's a lot of confusion about his death, and some say that Lime wasn't quite the man
12:19that Martins thought he was. Everyone seems convinced that Lime was a racketeer who stole
12:24and sold diluted medicine on the black market. In an unexpected twist, Lime is actually alive and
12:30lying low. Unfortunately, his and Martin's reunion is anything but happy, as Lime confirms all the rumors.
12:37Look down there. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?
12:43The man who was once Martin's only friend is now another ruthless, greedy crook who doesn't
12:49value the lives he ruins if it means filling his own needs.
12:53And don't be so gloomy. After all, it's not that awful.
12:57Number 39. The Sam's Factory. Moon.
13:00After being stuck in a mining facility on the moon for three years, Sam is finally ready to finish his
13:06duties and return to Earth. But his retirement plans are halted when he finds an exact duplicate of
13:11himself, and neither is sure who the real Sam is.
13:22The answer is none of them. They are both merely clones of the real Sam Bell, and they're not the
13:27only ones. It's revealed that every three years, their base creates another Sam clone to run the
13:33factory. They're cut off from communication with Earth and implanted with the original Sam's memories.
13:41At the end of their lifespan, or contract, they are killed off, and the cycle starts again.
13:47Number 38. Diane's Misery. Mulholland Drive.
13:51That girl is not in my film!
13:56It's not longer your film.
13:58A lot of us have had dreams of making it in Hollywood, but Mulholland Drive gives a bleak
14:03reality check with mental gymnastics. It starts with Betty, an aspiring actress,
14:08making friends, and falling in love with an amnesiac woman named Rita. Near the end, however,
14:14the mask comes off, and it's revealed that everything up to this point was all a fantasy.
14:19Hey, pretty girl.
14:21Time to wake up.
14:23In reality, Betty is a struggling actress named Diane, and she hired a hitman to kill a more successful
14:28actress, the muse for Rita in her dreams. Unfortunately, not even her coping mechanism can
14:34help her escape the cruelty of reality, and her only way to truly escape is to end it all.
14:40Number 37. Howard Was Right All Along. 10 Cloverfield Lane.
14:45What are you going to do to me?
14:49I'm going to keep you alive.
14:51Howard Stambler was the textbook definition of a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy nut,
14:57minus the actual tin foil hat. He became obsessed with protecting himself and those around him from
15:02the end times, to the point where he willingly kidnapped people in his makeshift fortress. And
15:07if they don't comply with his strict regimen, he has no qualms taking them out for the greater good.
15:12It's only after Howard is killed that we learn something even more terrifying. Howard was telling the truth.
15:23Come on.
15:25Aliens have invaded, and the end of the world is upon them.
15:29We've taken back the southern seaboard. They were winning.
15:34Number 36. Morales' Justice. The Secret In Their Eyes.
15:38How blurry are the lines between vengeance and justice? The Secret In Their Eyes answers this question for us,
15:44as it has Benjamin Esposito go through hell and high water to find a woman's assailant, Isidoro Gomez.
16:02His obsession costs him dearly, but someone else took the obsession even further. The victim's
16:08husband decided to deliver his own brand of justice by kidnapping the murderer and trapping
16:13him in isolation for 25 years, depriving him of any form of human contact. While Benjamin gets his happy
16:20ending, it's only after catching a glimpse of what could have been if he had allowed himself to
16:24plunge further into the bottomless abyss.
16:30Number 35. Joker's Switcheroo. The Dark Knight.
16:34He's at 250 52nd Street, and she's on Avenue X at Cicero.
16:42Which one are you going after?
16:44Rachel!
16:44Joker has kidnapped Harvey Dent and his fiancee Rachel, and locked them in two different buildings rigged to explode.
16:51After an intense interrogation, Joker gives Batman the hostages locations, sort of.
16:57While the police go to rescue Harvey, Batman goes to save Rachel, only to end up at Harvey's location.
17:03It turns out that Joker purposely mixed up their locations,
17:06and the police tragically couldn't save Rachel in time.
17:10Harvey, it's okay. It's alright, listen.
17:17Harvey survives, but has his face scarred from the explosion, completing his transformation into Two-Face.
17:23Joker wanted to show that even Gotham's White Knight could be broken,
17:27and was unfortunately proven right thanks to some twisted manipulation.
17:31Number 34. The Death Swap. Knives out.
17:35Everyone loves a whodunit with a twist, but what happens when one twist leads to another?
17:39I've made the change to my will. It's done. I'm warning you.
17:44Rich novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead one morning with his throat cut open.
17:49But here's where the tangles begin. First, it's revealed that he killed himself to protect his nurse,
17:55Marta, who allegedly accidentally poisoned him by mixing up his medications.
18:05Oh my god.
18:07However, it turns out that the real criminal swapped the medicine before Marta did,
18:11meaning that Marta gave Harlan the right treatment.
18:14The two only assumed that Marta accidentally poisoned him,
18:17and Harlan hastily took his own life to protect her from a crime she never committed.
18:22You used the syringes in the kit to switch the liquids and the two medication vials.
18:26Number 33. An Inescapable Dream. Brazil.
18:36In a dystopian future where bureaucracy means life or death, Sam Lowry is strapped to a chair,
18:42preparing to be tortured. Suddenly, the resistance arrives to break him out,
18:46and he rides off into the sunset with a happy ending that anyone could dream of.
18:51Literally, as it turns out, his grand escape was all a delusion. He's still strapped to the chair,
18:56and he's been driven mad to the point where his only means of escaping this bleak reality is all in
19:01his head. Every day, this 80s cult classic becomes more relevant. It makes you wonder how long before
19:07we all end up in Sam's shoes, if we aren't already.
19:10He's got away from us, Jack. I'm afraid you're right, Mr. Heldman. He's gone.
19:19Number 32. The Real Kidnapper. Prisoners.
19:23Do you understand that? Me! Not you! Not you! But me! Every day!
19:29Keller Dover and Detective Loki are hell-bent on finding two kidnapped girls, one of them being Dover's
19:36daughter. Dover takes matters into his own hands by torturing Alex, the man he thinks is the
19:41kidnapper. It turns out that they weren't too far off. The real kidnapper was actually Alex's alleged
19:47aunt, Holly. Grieving the loss of her own son, Holly started abducting children in her attempt to spite
19:53God and make other parents feel her pain. You don't have to drink all of it. About a third should
20:00do for
20:00a man your size. Something to make you more manageable. Forget it. Drink it, Mr. Dover.
20:09I'll kill you right here in my kitchen and bring your daughter in here and have her scrub your brains
20:13off that shit. Just to make it extra twisted, Alex was actually one of her abductees and she had him
20:19change his name and pretend that he was her nephew. It's always the ones nobody suspects.
20:25Number 31. The transporting man trick. The prestige. They always say a good magician never reveals
20:32their secret. Is it because it'd spoil the illusion or is it because the truth is more horrifying than
20:38you think? For rival magicians, Angier and Borden, it's definitely the latter, as they constantly try to
20:44one-up each other on the transported man trick. Angier thinks he's the winner by framing Borden for
20:56murder only to be shot to death by the real Borden. The man Angier framed was actually Borden's twin
21:02brother, acting as his double during the shows. The lengths they went through to keep up the illusion
21:12are equally terrifying. While the twin is sentenced to death, Borden's still won in the end by making
21:17the competition disappear permanently. Number 30. John was heading to the wolves all along. The gray.
21:25The theme of man versus nature is the focus of this movie, where a group of plane crash survivors must
21:31navigate the harsh territory they've landed in.
21:34You think there's more of them? Wolves? Maybe. Yeah, most likely. But we shouldn't be worrying
21:41about them right now. The journey isn't for the faint of heart, as many in this ragtag crew are
21:47picked off by bloodthirsty wolves. If you didn't think things could possibly get worse, just wait.
21:58John Otway, the group's leader, shockingly discovers that he wasn't guiding the survivors away from
22:05danger. He was actually leading them towards the wolves' main turf the whole time. By the time he
22:11realizes this, he's the only man left standing. Live and die on this day.
22:19It's a fatal error that means the chance of escape was always non-existent. Safe to say he screwed up
22:26big time. Number 29. Esther was a grown woman. Orphan. When the Coleman's adopt a young girl named Esther,
22:34their failed attempt to expand their family takes a drastic turn.
22:38Two girls get into a fight. There she is. Someone gets caught stealing. There she is again.
22:43It's established very quickly that something's not right with their new daughter.
22:47But nobody could have predicted the truth.
22:50Then tell him the little girl in the picture is not really a little girl. She's a grown woman.
22:55What?
22:56As it turns out, this sweet little girl is actually a psychopath named Lena, who's in her mid-30s.
23:03Diagnosed with hypopituitarism, Lena used her condition to masquerade as a child. The serial killer
23:10would then put the Coleman's through hell. The adoption process can be a nervous experience all on its own,
23:16but something as terrifying as this takes things to the next level.
23:24Please. Don't let me die, Bobby.
23:28Number 28. The visions were of his death. Don't look now.
23:33When a grieving couple experiences strange events in Venice that suggest their daughter could still be alive,
23:39their trip abroad becomes a psychological minefield.
23:43Maybe I should start taking my pills again.
23:45On the desk, right there. There.
23:47The father, John Baxter, gets odd glimpses of a girl in a red jacket, who he begins to think might
23:53be her.
23:54When he confronts her, John gets the shock of a lifetime.
23:58Wait. Wait.
24:00The girl is actually a little person responsible for multiple murders earlier in the film,
24:05who then kills John. It's certainly a bleak ending, but what makes it worse is that the visions he had
24:11were of his own death, meaning he unknowingly got a sneak peek into his demise. Don't Look Now
24:16isn't just a catchy title. It's a warning for the protagonist.
24:29Number 27. Sarah dreamt her escape. The Descent.
24:34Spelunking is already dangerous under normal circumstances.
24:37So when you add monsters called crawlers in the mix, you've got a recipe for disaster.
24:46At the end of The Descent, Sarah has escaped from this hellhole and got to safety.
24:51But this is soon revealed to be a dream. She then wakes up still in the cave,
24:55with the threat of more crawlers soon on their way.
24:58It's a grim way for the movie to wrap up, and kills any hope for a happy resolution.
25:08It's actually so dark that this ending was only released in the UK. It was then replaced by a new
25:14one where she does get out. Either way, this twist was bleak.
25:24Number 26. Gabriel was her twin brother, malignant. There's a lot to unpack with this film,
25:30but the main takeaway is that Madison May has serious family issues.
25:34The cause for the strange occurrences that happen is a man named Gabriel, who we learn is her twin.
25:41But what exactly is Gabriel? Gabriel is an extreme version of a teratoma,
25:47a tumor consisting of tissues, hair, teeth, muscles, bones, but more specifically in this case,
25:53it's a parasitic twin. He was a parasitic tumor that latched onto the back of her body.
25:58Even though a surgery was done to separate them, Gabriel still lingered in her mind.
26:03And after Madison was injured by her abusive husband, he was reawakened.
26:14He's like an R-rated mashup between Voldemort from the first Harry Potter movie,
26:19and Jonas Jr. from The Venture Bros. While the twist is admittedly convoluted,
26:24it's still ripe with horror. Seriously, a secret twin brother that shared your body and wanted to
26:29kill you? Yikes. You don't get to control me ever again. It's over, Gabriel.
26:37Number 25. Aunt Helen was abusive. The perks of being a wallflower.
26:43Growing up never looked as intense as it did in this indie coming-of-age story.
26:47Why do I and everyone I love pick people who treat us like we're nothing?
26:59We accept the love we think we deserve. Throughout the movie, it's clear that Charlie
27:03Kalmekis is dealing with depression. The troubled high schooler and self-described wallflower goes
27:09through a series of lows that spiral until he's in the hospital. While there, a psychiatrist starts a
27:15dialogue with Charlie about the buried memories he had of abuse he experienced as a child from his
27:20late Aunt Helen. Understandably, this is a heavy moment as it forces him to relive his painful past.
27:27You said some things about her in your sleep. I don't care.
27:31It also recontextualizes how he sees his aunt. This twist is uncomfortable, but fortunately,
27:37Charlie learns to not let his trauma define him. By coming to terms with it, he begins to forge his
27:43future.
27:43And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite.
27:50Number 24. Howie was the sacrifice. The wicker man.
27:54While trying to investigate a young girl's disappearance,
27:58Sergeant Howie's time in the island of Summer Isle has him confused to say the least.
28:05Now, for the last time, where is Rowan Morrison?
28:09Howie eventually finds the girl alive, but believes that the islanders want to kill her as a ritualistic
28:15sacrifice. Howie is half right. The islanders do plan to kill someone. But the thing is,
28:21the girl isn't the sacrifice. Howie is.
28:24Oh God! Oh Jesus Christ!
28:27Unfortunately, he discovers this too late, as he's cornered by the islanders and set ablaze. This was a
28:33movie with no happy ending in sight. In the 2006 remake, the twist turns into a bit of a joke,
28:39thanks to Nicolas Cage's over-performing.
28:42Oh no, not the beast!
28:44But the twist in the original remains haunting to its core.
28:47Number 23. Louise's daughter dies in the future, not the past. Arrival.
28:53When aliens land on Earth, it's up to linguist Louise Banks to find a way to talk with them and
28:59learn their intentions.
29:01I don't understand. Who is this child?
29:05However, time acts weird throughout this film. Many key scenes actually play out of order.
29:11That includes the scenes we get of Louise's daughter Hannah, which appear to the audience to be flashbacks.
29:16While we know Hannah died from an illness, we later learn that this moment actually happens in the future.
29:22So, Hannah, this is where your story begins.
29:28Hannah's scenes aren't flashbacks. They're flash-forwards.
29:32Despite knowing the journey and where it leads,
29:39I embrace it.
29:43And I welcome every moment of it.
29:47They're a grim teaser for what's to come in Louise's life.
29:50Number 22. The monsters were defeated.
29:53The Mist.
29:54Bleak doesn't even begin to describe this plot twist.
29:58Creatures who cloak themselves in mist take over the world.
30:01And as the pandemonium grows, people get desperate.
30:10Deciding that they've had enough of this hell, a group of survivors choose to end their lives.
30:16Yes, that's incredibly dark. But wait, there's more.
30:19They're de facto leader, David Drayton. Mercy kills most of the group.
30:24But there's no bullet left for David himself.
30:26Come on! Come on! Come on!
30:30He steps out of his car and surrenders to the monstrosities of The Mist,
30:35only to shockingly discover that the crisis has been averted.
30:38David murdered his allies, and his own son, for nothing.
30:42This twist shows how The Mist definitely isn't for the faint of heart.
30:55Number 21. Evelyn is Catherine's mother. Chinatown.
31:00This is a gripping story about politics, water, and as it turns out, extreme familial trauma.
31:06Private investigator Jake Gittes gets roped into Evelyn Cross's whirlwind of a life.
31:11Thank you for going along with me back there. I just didn't want to explain anything.
31:19I sent you a check.
31:21A check?
31:22To make it official that I've hired you.
31:25The two find each other at odds with Evelyn's wealthy father, Noah.
31:28But they also end up at odds with each other.
31:31She tells Jake that she has a sister named Catherine, but her story keeps changing.
31:35She's my sister.
31:43Take it easy.
31:46She's your sister.
31:47She's your sister.
31:49Why all the secrecy?
31:51This leads him to accuse her of lying and holding Catherine hostage.
31:55That's when Evelyn drops the bombshell that Catherine isn't her sister, not entirely.
31:59She's my sister and my daughter.
32:03She's her sister and her daughter, having been the byproduct of Noah's abuse of Evelyn when she was a teenager.
32:09It's a heartbreaking reveal that cements how much of a monster Noah Cross is.
32:15Number 20.
32:16Darth Vader is Luke's father.
32:18Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
32:21There are famous plot twists, and then there's learning that Darth Vader is Luke's father.
32:26He told me enough.
32:30He told me you killed him.
32:32No.
32:34I am your father.
32:36The mother of all movie twists, this one threw everything into question,
32:40and ended the second Star Wars film on a delightfully dark and ambiguous note.
32:45It's really messed up when you think about it.
32:48Luke has essentially been recruited to kill this man, only to learn that he's family,
32:52which means he'll have to fight his own blood.
32:55That's not true.
32:58That's impossible.
32:59Search your feelings.
33:01You know it to be true.
33:04No!
33:06And speaking of blood, Luke comes to the realization that,
33:10yes, his own dad just severely wounded him.
33:14Furthermore, he learns that his father wasn't some heroic martyr
33:17who died fighting the empire, but the ruthless leader of said empire.
33:22Needless to say, the realization sends him reeling.
33:26Number 19.
33:27It was an accident.
33:28Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.
33:30Another huge success for A24, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is a wickedly smart horror comedy
33:37that produces, well, a lot of bodies.
33:39A man named David is presumably murdered during a party, resulting in a Christie-esque mystery.
33:46If you do come across a body, you have to yell, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies.
33:49And then once that happens, we'll turn all the lights back on and then we'll try to figure out who
33:53did it.
33:54The body count begins to pile up as the party guests suspect and ultimately kill each other in a fever
33:59of paranoia.
34:00But it's eventually revealed that David accidentally ended his own life while filming a video for TikTok.
34:06The bruised and battered survivors realize with horror that there was never a murder mystery,
34:11and that the resulting bloodshed was all for nothing.
34:15It's a brilliant subversion, and the implication that these people killed each other over an accident is a startling one
34:21indeed.
34:21Number 18. Jacob Never Left Vietnam. Jacob's Ladder.
34:27This cult classic opens in Vietnam, with soldier Jacob Singer getting stabbed with a bayonet.
34:33He then wakes up in New York, where he experiences all sorts of nightmarish delusions.
34:38That is, until he meets a man named Michael Newman, who essentially tells Jacob that he's dead.
34:44Where do you want to go? Home?
34:47This is your home. You're dead.
34:50Dead?
34:51Oh, no. Oh, I just hurt my back. I'm not dead.
34:57What are you then?
34:57I'm alive.
34:59Michael produced a drug called the Ladder, which turned soldiers aggressive.
35:03It was tested on Jacob's unit, and he was stabbed by one of his fellow comrades.
35:08Everything in New York was just some kind of purgatory-like fantasy as he transitioned beyond.
35:27It's tragic knowing that Jacob is dead, but the knowledge that he was secretly experimented on and killed by a
35:34member of his own unit makes it all the more devastating.
35:41This legal thriller introduced the incredible talent that is Edward Norton and earned him his first Oscar nomination.
35:49He plays Aaron Stampler, a young altar boy who was accused of killing an archbishop.
35:54Aaron suffers from dissociative identity disorder, and his other personality, a man named Roy, claims responsibility for the killing.
36:10Aaron is found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a psychiatric hospital, but the proud man can't
36:18help himself.
36:18And he reveals to his lawyer that he faked the identity disorder to get a lenient sentence and avoid prison.
36:25There never was an Aaron counselor.
36:33He was actually the sociopathic Roy all along, and completely manipulated the justice system with the fake Aaron persona.
36:47This James Mangold thriller takes us inside the mind of a killer.
36:51No, seriously, most of it takes place inside someone's brain.
36:55The story begins in the vein of Agatha Christie, with 10 strangers stranded in a small Nevada motel.
37:00As long as we stay calm, everything's gonna be all right. Officer Rhodes is outside right now.
37:06He was transporting a convict.
37:07Who escaped.
37:08What are you doing?
37:09What is escaped?
37:10But the characters inside the motel are actually personalities of a killer named Malcolm Rivers.
37:15And Rivers' psychiatrist is attempting to find the homicidal personality.
37:20He's seemingly successful as the killer is removed, and the cured Malcolm is sent to a psychiatric hospital.
37:27In the matter of Rivers v. Nevada, it is the recommendation of this court that Mr. Rivers' execution be stayed.
37:35I'm transferring Mr. Rivers to state psychiatric services under the care of Dr. Malcolm.
37:41Only, that's not the case. The homicidal personality faked its death and re-emerges,
37:47causing Malcolm to kill everyone involved in his transport. Not only does the treatment fail,
37:52but it allows a killer to quite literally walk free.
37:55Number 15. A creature in the basement.
37:59Barbarian.
38:00This is one of those movies that goes in a completely different direction in its second half.
38:05The first act is a character-based thriller,
38:08as Tess and Keith are accidentally double-booked at the same Airbnb.
38:12This is unbelievable.
38:15What am I supposed to do?
38:20I don't know. I don't know.
38:23Why don't you come inside?
38:24Tess is hesitant around Keith, and much of the drama is centered around her initial mistrust.
38:30But her questions are rendered moot at the end of the first half, when Keith is killed by a
38:35creature in the basement. The rest of the film delves into the backstory of this creature and its
38:41attempts to kill both Tess and the house's owner. The film turns into a creature feature involving death,
38:47kidnapping, and a host of other twisted occurrences.
38:50You're safe. You got out.
38:53You should count yourself as lucky, you hear? You should have never went in that house to begin with.
38:58That's a bad place.
39:00So, yeah, it goes in a pretty dark direction.
39:03Number 14. The narrator was Tyler.
39:06Fight Club.
39:07This is one of those plot twists that everyone knows, even if they haven't seen the film.
39:12It's famously revealed that the destructive and anti-consumerist Tyler Durden was a concocted
39:17persona of the narrator's.
39:19Say it.
39:22Because we're the same person.
39:25That's right.
39:26And now we're realizing that the Edward Norton character has been involved in many fake
39:30personality plot twists. The narrator created Tyler to act out his subconscious desires,
39:36like rebelling against the system and destroying entire buildings with explosives.
39:41This is, this is bullshit.
39:43This is bullshit. I'm not listening to this. You are insane.
39:46No, you're insane. And we simply do not have time for this crap.
39:51The narrator is quite a likable character throughout much of the movie,
39:54but the dark twist reveals that he's actually the anarchistic leader of a terrorist organization.
40:00Like he tells Marla, this is a very strange time in his life.
40:04Number 13. The Armitage Family Secret.
40:07Get Out.
40:08Jordan Peele's masterpiece is a horror film based on race relations.
40:12Chris is in an interracial relationship with Rose, who takes him to visit her wealthy,
40:17liberal parents for the first time.
40:19So how long has this been going on, this… this thing?
40:25How long?
40:27Four months.
40:29Four months?
40:31Five months.
40:32But it turns out they have ulterior motives.
40:35Rose actually befriends Black men, only to take them to her family home to be experimented upon.
40:40These men are consciously sent to the sunken place, while their physical bodies are hijacked by
40:46Armitage family members. The transplant allows these ailing Armitages to live their lives inside
40:52of a healthy Black body.
40:54So you won't be gone. Not completely. A sliver of you will still be in there somewhere. Limited consciousness.
41:01It's a fascinating twist that blends B-movie thrills with thoughtful social commentary.
41:06Peele would follow this with another delightful turn in Us, revealing that the real Adelaide was
41:11actually her tethered.
41:14Number 12. Gunsei in the Bunker.
41:16Parasite.
41:17Barbarian shares many similarities with Parasite.
41:20Like Barbarian, Parasite begins realistically, with the poor Kim family infiltrating the wealthy
41:26parks as their personal employees.
41:37Then, the movie shifts focus in the second half, and goes in a completely different direction thanks
41:42to a person in the basement. It's revealed that a man named Gunsei has been inhabiting a secret bunker
41:49inside the park home for the last four years. It's a pretty disturbing twist, but it gets even worse.
41:55In the bloody climax of the film, Gunsei breaks free from the bunker, and causes a massacre at Dasong's birthday
42:02party.
42:06The genre switch-up is captivating, turning Parasite from a comedic social commentary to borderline horror.
42:13Number 11. Kaiser Soze Gets Away. The Usual Suspects.
42:18Directed by Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspects is a classic thriller about the mythical crime lord Kaiser Soze.
42:26Soze burned down a ship in San Pedro Bay and killed dozens of people. One of the survivors is con
42:33artist Verbal Kint,
42:34who provides information to the police about the crime boss.
42:37I'm smarter than you. And I'm gonna find out what I want to know.
42:41And I'm gonna get it from you whether you like it or not.
42:45I'm not a rat.
42:46But in the movie's famous twist ending, Verbal walks out of the police station,
42:50loses his trademark limp, and becomes Kaiser Soze. He made up the whole story,
42:56and Agent Kujan realizes with horror that he let the elusive crime lord slip right through his fingers.
43:03Soze escapes in style and fades back into anonymity, a huge grin of victory splashed across his face.
43:11After that, my guess is you'll never hear from him again.
43:19Number 10. Leonard Killed His Wife. Memento.
43:23Throughout Christopher Nolan's Memento, amnesiac Leonard Shelby leaves himself an intricate
43:29series of notes that will hopefully lead him to the man who sexually assaulted and murdered his wife.
43:35Don't believe his lies. He is the one. Kill him. I finally found him.
43:41We also learn of a fellow amnesiac named Sammy Jenkis, who accidentally killed his wife by giving
43:46her too many insulin injections. However, at the end of the movie, we witness Leonard being told that
43:51he's the real Sammy, and that he's the one who killed his wife.
43:54I took that picture.
43:57Just when you did it.
43:58According to Teddy, he repressed these memories out of guilt. His mission is fake and impossible to
44:04fulfill. Leonard is essentially an amnesiac serial killer being used by Teddy. Terrifying, right?
44:10I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there.
44:14Number 9. Jigsaw Was In The Room The Whole Time.
44:17Saw. The opening minutes of Saw certainly make an impression.
44:23Two men wake up chained to a dilapidated industrial bathroom with a bloody corpse lying
44:28between them. Fun stuff. We also learn that the Jigsaw killer likes to watch his victims,
44:33and while we know deep down that Zepp wasn't Jigsaw, we certainly weren't expecting the corpse to be.
44:38At the end of the movie, the corpse rises from the floor and reveals himself to be Jigsaw right before
44:42locking Adam in the bathroom. It's a massive shock that reinforces the true depravity and psychopathic
44:48methods of Jigsaw. While the Saw movies would decrease in quality, that final game over is legendary stuff.
44:55But not you. Not anymore.
45:02Game over.
45:08Number 8. Malcolm Was Dead The Whole Time. The Sixth Sense.
45:12At the beginning of the movie, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe is shot by a psychotic former
45:17patient. Since it appears as if he's recovered, our minds are shattered when it's revealed that
45:22he has been dead the whole time. I see dead people.
45:26It's certainly a dark realization to find that the protagonist is a ghost, but it's still an
45:30ultimately happy ending when Crowe is sent to heaven after rectifying his failures.
45:34Two years later, the others would provide another brilliant ghost-centric twist by revealing that
45:39the family are the actual ghosts haunting the house. Both movies successfully flipped the
45:43conventional ghost story on its head and provided some of the greatest twists in the horror genre.
45:48How often do you see them?
45:51All the time.
45:53Number 7. Teddy slash Andrew killed his wife. Shutter Island.
45:57Movies love to utilize the protagonist-actually-killed-their-wife twist, don't they?
46:02Throughout Shutter Island, we watch as US Marshal Teddy Daniels
46:06investigates the disappearance of a patient with mental health issues.
46:10What's in there? More patients?
46:12But when Teddy enters the lighthouse, everything changes. We learn that Teddy is actually Andrew
46:17Latis, an institutionalized man who killed his wife after she murdered their children.
46:22Your wife drowned them at the cabin by the lake. And here, the little girl, the one you dream of
46:30every night. We never had a little girl. The one who tells you over and over that you should have
46:35saved her. As if philicide and axoricide weren't dark enough, we also learn that the girl Latis
46:40dreams about is his murdered daughter, proving that his mind has been irreparably damaged and wracked
46:45with guilt. Furthermore, Latis becomes aware and conscious enough to plan for his own lobotomy.
46:50Shutter Island is a bleak experience start to finish. Which would be worse? To live as a monster?
46:59What a day is a good man.
47:01Number 6. Norman is mother slash the killer, Psycho
47:08Psycho has perhaps one of the greatest twists in cinematic history. Throughout the movie,
47:13we believe that Norman Bates is nothing but a repressed man-child who protects his domineering
47:17psychotic mother. Well, a boy's best friend is his mother. However, the famous ending reveals that his
47:23mother is long dead and that Norman is the true psychopath. After killing his mother and her boyfriend out of
47:28jealousy, he took on the persona of his mother to alleviate his loneliness and guilt, and he uses
47:33this persona to murder those he feels attracted to. The twist made Norman one of cinema's most iconic
47:38villains, and left 60's audiences with the fear that danger could be lurking anywhere and behind
47:44any facade.
47:45They'll see, they'll see, and they'll know, and they'll say, why she wouldn't even harm a fly.
47:53Number 5. Head in a box, Seven. Seven's twist may not be as iconic as Psycho's, but it's arguably more
48:00depraved.
48:01After John Doe turns himself in and takes the two detectives to the final murder location,
48:05a delivery man brings them a mysterious box. After a few incredibly tense minutes,
48:19we learn that the box contains the head of David's pregnant wife, representing the killer's envy.
48:31David then becomes wrath by shooting Doe in an act of uninhibited rage. John Doe wins,
48:36David goes insane, and Somerset can only look on in defeat. While the movie is absurdly dark,
48:43this final twist somehow ratchets the depravity to Eleven, reinforcing the idea that humanity is
48:49inherently flawed.
48:54She begged for her life, and for the life of the baby inside of her.
49:01Number 4. Amy framed her husband, Gone Girl.
49:04I thought we weren't going to be that couple.
49:06Gone Girl isn't your grandmother's murder mystery. The first half of the movie plays out like a typical
49:11crime drama, as Nick Dunn searches for his missing wife and is falsely accused of her murder.
49:15However, the movie does a complete 180 halfway through, when it reveals that a jealous Amy
49:20intricately framed her husband after learning of his affair.
49:23Nick and Amy will be gone, but then we never really existed.
49:27The twist not only works incredibly well as a dramatic story development,
49:30but it also strengthens the movie's morose themes regarding manipulation and abusive relationships.
49:36Gone Girl goes from a relatively conventional murder mystery,
49:39to a haunting first-hand account of a cunning sociopath. And you know what? That's even scarier.
49:44So, Nick, how does it feel to have your wife back?
49:49That's fantastic.
49:51Number 3. Soylent Green is People. Soylent Green.
49:54Like Norman Bates being mother, the fact that Soylent Green is made from people is not a surprise
49:59to modern audiences, but that doesn't make it any less impactful.
50:03Soylent Green is people!
50:06In this dystopian society, a green wafer called Soylent Green is created, said to be a highly nutritious
50:12food source created from plankton. However, we later learn that Soylent Green is actually made
50:17from human remains, as humans are a great source of protein for a starving society.
50:22It's a horrifying reveal, but it also fits perfectly with the movie's themes of overpopulation,
50:27resource management, and climate control.
50:30It's a much-needed slap in the face that remains relevant and disturbingly prophetic,
50:34even all these years later.
50:36How could I ever imagine?
50:42Number 2. Apes have taken over the world. Planet of the Apes.
50:46That bright eyes is remarkable. He keeps trying to form words.
50:51You know what they say. Human see, human do.
50:54While Planet of the Apes is a long-running franchise, nothing beats the original's twist.
50:59After landing on a planet ruled by sentient talking apes, Taylor escapes from their grasp,
51:04only to come upon a half-buried Statue of Liberty. He discovers that he was on Earth all along,
51:09and that modern humanity had wiped itself out in some kind of nuclear war.
51:13I'm home. All the time.
51:19We finally really did it.
51:22It's not only a devastating ending that caps the story in theatrical fashion,
51:26but also a dismaying comment on the Cold War, and the possible future of humanity.
51:31It's not as dramatically relevant as it once was,
51:33but it's still a distressing ending that captures the fears of its time.
51:37You maniacs! You blew it up!
51:42Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
51:51Before we continue, be sure to check out WatchMojo's 24-hour livestream.
51:55All of your favorite videos in one place, 24-7. Always on, always live.
52:01Are you not entertained?
52:03Number one, Odei Soo and his daughter, Oldboy.
52:07Murder and nuclear war may be scary topics, but nothing feels worse than learning that the
52:13protagonist unknowingly had relations with his own daughter.
52:22The movie opens with Dae Soo being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years.
52:26After escaping and embarking on a campaign of revenge,
52:29he befriends a young chef named Mido, and the two become intimate.
52:33However, it's later revealed that Dae Soo was hypnotized into falling for Mido,
52:37who was revealed to be his now-adult daughter. It's equal parts shocking and horrifying,
52:42eliciting a visceral bodily reaction of revulsion from most viewers.
52:52What morbid twist caught you by surprise? Let us know in the comments!
Comments