Maybe that mild-mannered dude in the corner was really the big bad guy. Perhaps the hero was dead the whole time. Or maybe everything we’ve seen is somebody’s hallucination. Whatever the reveal, these memorable movie moments caught us off guard and left us talking for years to come. Spoilers ahead.
Arrival
Usually, movies are told in chronological order, but much like its protagonist, Dr. Louise Banks, Arrival isn’t confined to a single time. In the movie’s opening, we watch Louise lose her beloved daughter to disease. Naturally, we assume this is happening early in her life, well before the renowned linguist is asked by the military to communicate with the heptapods mysterious aliens who’ve landed on Earth. Her job is to translate their complex language so humans can talk with these otherworldly visitors.
As she delves deeper into their circular alphabet, though, the heptapod language changes her perspective of time, allowing her to experience the past, present, and future at once. Before long, we discover that Louise actually hasn’t had her child yet. Those flashbacks are actually flash-forwards, visions of what’s to come, courtesy of the alien language. Louise now exists outside of time, or more accurately, throughout every moment simultaneously. As a result, her perspective on concepts like love are radically altered by the heptapods’ gift. Sure, she now knows that heartbreak is coming, but she heads into the future anyway, because she knows there’s a lot of joy waiting there too. It might just be the most emotional twist in all of science fiction, and one that will leave you both thinking and wiping away a few tears.
A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind finds an Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe playing John Nash, a real-life Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who lived a rather unusual life. Early in the film, Nash is drafted by Department of Defense Agent William Parcher to analyze magazines and newspapers for hidden Russian codes. Keep watching the video to see the greatest movie plot twists of all time!
#MovieTwists
Arrival | 0:18
A Beautiful Mind | 1:33
Colossal | 2:43
Ex Machina | 4:22
Get Out | 5:46
Kill List | 7:13
Mother | 8:32
Scream | 9:37
The Sixth Sense | 11:04
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back | 12:22
Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 13:34
Sorry to Bother You | 14:51
Spider-Man: Homecoming | 16:14