Top 10 Unnecessary Movie Plot Twists
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most audience-insulting twists that derailed movies that would have been better without them. Obviously, we’re revealing major plot twists, so here’s a spoiler alert. Can you think of a bad plot twist that ruined an otherwise good movie? Tell us in the comments.
#10: He Gave Her His Heart
Top 10 Movie Plot Twists of the Last Decade
“Last Christmas” (2019)
Plenty of movies have been based on songs. This 2019 holiday romcom starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding took things to a very literal level. Clarke plays a wandering soul looking for direction in life. She’s the recent recipient of a donor's heart. Don’t worry, it’ll become relevant later. When she meets a kindhearted man played by Henry Golding, the sparks fly. Well, who do you think gave her the heart? That’s right. In a wild but insanely straightforward take on the title song’s lyrics, Golding’s character is a ghost sent to remind Emilia Clarke to not take her life for granted. Their romance was nothing more than a distraction from an absurd third-act reveal.
#9: The Pointless Confession
Top 10 Teen Movie Plot Twists You Didn't See Coming
“The Life of David Gale” (2003)
Kevin Spacey plays an anti-death penalty advocate seemingly framed for murder. When his lawyer’s attempts to exonerate him fail, we naturally side with the movie’s thesis. The death penalty is wrong and can lead to the wrongful murder of an innocent person. Well, then the movie decides to top its own already labyrinthine plot. The epilogue reveals that Gale and the presumed murder victim plotted the whole mystery as a complex protest against the death penalty. A protest they both had to die for. It’s a twist that undermines everything that came before it. If the plan is to discredit capital punishment, why does Gale reveal the plan to a journalist and risk discrediting himself?
#8: A Secret Society
Top 30 Best Movie Plot Twists of the 21st Century (So Far)
“Glass” (2019)
Look, it’s M. Night Shyamalan. You know a twist is coming sooner or later, and you also know it’s a 50/50 chance that it lands. “Glass” was one that didn’t land. In fact, it saw the writer-director’s underrated “Unbreakable” trilogy limp to the finish line. Psychiatrist Dr. Staple, played by Sarah Paulson, reveals to the dying Mr. Glass that she does believe in the characters’ superhuman abilities. Actually, she’s part of an ancient society whose sole purpose is to suppress information about the existence of people with supernatural abilities. This disappointing revelation, coupled with the fact that the superhuman characters we’d come to know and love all died in quick and anticlimactic succession, didn’t please most viewers.
#7: Clones Now?
Top 10 Movie Clones
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (2018)
Maybe it was always going to come to this. If you keep making movies about dinosaur clones running rampant, eventually someone’s gonna get the bright idea to make human clones, too. Well, the revelation that Dr. Lockwood’s granddaughter, Maisie, was a clone of his own daughter didn’t sit too well with audiences. This was just one too many complications even for longtime fans who enjoyed the simple, visceral thrills of the original series. The human clone twist was carried over into the next movie, “Jurassic World Dominion,” which made over $1 billion, but got the worst reviews of the series.
#6: Blofeld All Along
“Spectre” (2015)
For nearly fifty years, the James Bond series avoided overcomplicated, multi-sequel story arcs. All the looniest plot twists were usually contained to a singular narrative and discarded afterward. The revelation that his classic archnemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was his long-lost foster brother, and the real mastermind behind his last few missions, was a massive letdown. Not only was it ludicrous and ill-advised, it retroactively cheapened the villains Daniel Craig’s Bond had faced up to that point. Why not find ways for Bond to exist in the 21st century without becoming some MCU copycat?
#5: The Final Battle Didn’t Even Happen
Top 10 DreamWorks Plot Twists You Didn't See Coming
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2” (2012)
The collective groan audiences let out in this scene could have probably powered a hot air balloon. Look, any “Twilight” fan knows there are some questionable if not downright unhinged moments across its five films. But this one was just an insult. In the last movie, viewers watched as two warring factions clashed in a bloody and devastating battle in the snow. Actually, wait, it was just one of Alice’s visions. It reeked of cheap shock. The makers clearly wanted the thrill of watching beloved characters die without having to commit to it. It may have followed the book, but for the uninitiated, it came off as a cynical, irritating ploy for a big battle sequence with little payoff.
#4: It’s a Computer Game
Top 10 Comedy Movie Plot Twists No One Saw Coming
“Serenity” (2019)
Despite an all-star cast, this 2019 high-concept thriller failed to win much love from viewers or critics. Matthew McConaughey plays a fisherman whose ex hires him to murder her new husband. What starts as a noirish mystery is soon turned completely on its head. McConaughey’s character soon realizes he is a character in a computer game. Through some bizarre and unconvincing twists in logic, he realizes he is just a piece of artificial intelligence in an artificial world created by his son. Or, at least, the real-world version of his son. “Serenity” is two interesting premises nested into one, and neither one works.
#3: Part-Time FBI Agent, Full-Time Magician
Dune: Part Two Movie Review
“Now You See Me” (2013)
A movie about four magicians suspected of an elaborate bank heist, you know there will be plot twists. Yes, “Now You See Me” has plenty of twists and turns, but it may have twisted itself into an impossible knot with its revelation about FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo. Rhodes is the guy leading the charge against the magicians. But, as it turns out, he’s not just FBI. He’s the son of a disgraced magician, and he’s also the mastermind behind the entire heist. Also, we just watched an entire movie about a guy trying to catch a bunch of criminals who are working for him. They really pulled this twist out of their… hat.
#2: Ape-Raham Lincoln
Top 20 Darkest Plot Twists in Movies
“Planet of the Apes” (2001)
When you’re remaking a movie that has one of the most iconic plot twists of all time, you’re already at a disadvantage. Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” doesn’t end with the twist that Mark Wahlberg’s astronaut character was on Earth the whole time. When he returns to Earth, seemingly in the present day, he finds a statue of the villainous ape Thade that has replaced the Lincoln Memorial. Whether through confusing time loops or some alternate universe oddness, the apes have already conquered Earth. It doesn’t have the same punch as the original because it raises so many more questions than it answers.
#1: Tyler’s Fate
“Remember Me” (2010)
A love story between two traumatized young people makes for a clichéd, but ultimately harmless, romantic drama. That is until the ending. Robert Pattinson’s character is visiting his father at work when the movie reveals that he is in one of the towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Even people who liked the movie found this twist hard to stomach. At best, it only worked to upstage the compelling story around it, and at worst, cheapened the very real tragedy of that day. The same message could’ve been conveyed without tying his fate to a real-life tragic event for cynical cultural relevance.
