When it comes to making a good film, you have to start with a good story. Most films follow a three-act structure that sets the story up, sends your characters on a mission, and concludes with a resolution. This structure has worked for years and is the blueprint for most of the films you watch today. With that said a good screenwriter can incorporate their techniques to make their story unique to them. The point of a film is to keep the audience engaged from beginning to end. A good way to do that is to incorporate unanswered questions throughout the story to keep the audience guessing until everything is concluded. The twist ending is a satisfying way to shock the audience by turning the tables and showing them something they never saw coming. Twists are tricky, as they can either make or break a film.

Some directors like M. Night Shyamalan and David Fincher are known for their twist endings. Shyamalan's endings have satisfied his viewers, while others, such as The Village, have enraged them. It all depends on the context of the twist and if it makes sense to the rest of the story. As a story technique, this has to be handled delicately. Many twists redefine a movie's legacy and help it endure even after the actual ending is known. No matter what, the audience must stay engaged to make the film memorable, and a twist ending could be the way to do it. Here are the greatest plot twists of all time, so naturally, there are spoilers ahead.

Updated on September 9th, 2023, by Danilo Raúl: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.

29 Moon (2009)

Sam Rockwell in Moon
Sony Picture Classics

Duncan Jones has a varied filmography, but he certainly took us for a ride with Moon. In the story, Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the sole human operator of a highly automated mine processing operation extracting a mineral named helium-3, which can only be obtained on the moon's surface. Sam is nearing his three-year contract when he suddenly begins feeling ill amidst a massive communication problem. After Sam goes out to fix a piece of machinery, he blacks out, only to find himself lying on the base table again.

As it turns out, Sam is a clone set in place to operate the facility, one of many with a single lifespan of three years. His life has been turned into a cutting-cost measure for a corporation, and it's up to him to escape the cycle by any means he can.

28 Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island
Paramount Pictures

Shutter Island is another classic Martin Scorcese/Leonardo de Caprio team-up. In the movie US Marshall Teddy Daniels takes on the case of an escapee from the Ashecliffe Hospital, a fortress-like asylum for the mentally insane located on a remote island. The high-profile murderess seems to have vanished from a locked room without clues about her escape. Teddy constantly discusses each new tip on the case with his partner Chuck Aule, but a series of supernatural events are taking a toll on Teddy's mind.

By the time the plot unfolds, we learn Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, a former US Marshall suffering from dissociative disorder after her manic-depressive wife murdered their three children by drowning them.

27 Inside Man (2006)

Inside Man 2006
Universal Pictures[

Spike Lee teams up with Denzel Washington to deliver a thrilling heist movie where nothing is as it seems. Inside Man begins with Dalton Russel breaking the fourth wall to speak with the audience and narrate how he committed the perfect bank robbery. Dalton and his team infiltrate a specific branch of a Manhattan bank and quickly make everyone present wear matching outfits. Detectives Keith Frazier and Bill Mitchell are on the case trying to figure out the kidnapper's game, but he is swept off his feet at every turn while the bank owner hires fixer Madeleine White to protect his interest.

It turns out Dalton did indeed pull the perfect hit, as his gameplay was into hiding inside of the bank after taking the targeted loot: the contents of deposit box N°392. He emerges from the bank precisely as he told Frazier he would do: by walking right out of the front door.

26 Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Sony Pictures Releasing

Anyone could be easily fooled into thinking Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a film telling the story of Rick Dalton, as the movie is more about telling the story of the end of the golden age of Hollywood and the event that brought down the illusion. In the story, we follow a washed-up Dalton who spends his days trying to find meaningful work in an industry he no longer recognizes. Along for the ride is Cliff Booth, his stunt double and longtime friend. Parallel to the story, we see the rise to fame of Sharon Tate and the shenanigans of the Manson family.

The plot twist revealed at the end of the film lets us know that Tarantino has chosen to create an alternate reality just as he did in Inglorious Basterds, where the members of the Family attack Rick's house instead of Sharon Tate's only to get their asses handed to them with extreme prejudice by Rick and Cliff.

25 Identity (2003)

The cast of Identity
Sony Pictures Releasing

James Mangold certainly proved to be a master storyteller from his very early efforts. In Identity, we get two stories seemingly unrelated at first sight. On one side, we have serial killer Malcolm Rivers under the care of psychiatrist Doctor Mallick, who is set to have a midnight hearing on a rainy night, just hours before his execution. On the other hand, a group of ten people are stranded in a motel in the middle of nowhere while a storm pours over them. The guests try to be on their way only to find themselves unable to escape until they begin to be taken out by an unseen killer.

In the film's third act, it's revealed Malcolm suffers from dissociative disorder and has ten different personalities living in his head. Dr. Mallick is exposing his patient to an experimental treatment to weed out all the other personalities so only one remains, with a second twist coming at the very end when the murdering personality is revealed to be the only child in the group who also is the last personality inside Malcolm to prevail.

Related: David Fincher — The Master of Plot Twists

24 Old (2021)

old-movie-m-night-shyamalan
Universal Pictures

Old is one of many twists by filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. The story focuses on a group of people on vacation who find themselves trapped on a beach. On this beach, they begin to age rapidly without any explanation. This, of course, sends these people into a frenzy to survive and find a way off this beach as they see what should be pivotal birthdays for their younger loved ones arrive and with the elders knocking at death's door.

At the end of the film, it is revealed that the beach is an orchestrated experiment to see how the strange minerals found on the beach would affect human subjects. This poses some ethical questions about scientific research on sentient beings and how immoral it can become if left unchecked.

23 Inception (2010)

inception
Warner Bros. Pictures

Inception features the usual twist in a narrative from director Christopher Nolan. The movie features Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading role, playing a character whose job is to breach the dreams of others and place or take away information. Throughout the film, he is stricken with grief from persistent memories of his wife, who passed away.

The twist of the film is revealed somewhere in the ending sequences, where it is shown that his mission to retrieve his deceased wife from this dream world is null because he is the one who is actually stuck in the dream world of his own construction. The plot might be confusing to some, but it is a poignant look into how grief might affect someone who has lost a loved one and the often strenuous journey of moving on from the past.

22 Chinatown (1974)

Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway in Chinatown
Paramount Pictures

Chinatown starts like any other detective story: Evelyn Milwray (Faye Dunaway), a beautiful married woman, hires detective JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) to find out if her husband, Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), is having an affair. What Gittes discovers is much more sordid and frightening, as Mulwray might be trying to get rich with the water supply of Los Angeles. In his investigations, Gittes finds a young woman who could be the key to the whole case, as she’s of interest to both Evelyn and his father, Noah Cross (John Huston).

The big twist comes when Evelyn tells Gittes her biggest secret, the one that solves the whole case: this woman is both Evelyn’s sister and daughter, as her father sexually assaulted her when she was fifteen. It’s a surprising ending for this noir movie, where nothing is what it looks like, and in the end, there’s no justice.

21 Citizen Kane (1941)

Orson Welles gives a campaign speech in front of a big image of himself in Citizen Kane
RKO Radio Pictures

Citizen Kane is a masterful movie that is still being taught in cinema classes. The film tells the story of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, starting with his death and the last words he’ll ever utter: “Rosebud,” as every reporter is wondering its significance. This incredible movie by first-timer Orson Welles shows us the rise and fall of this important man, who is a clear analog for William Randolph Hearst.

In the end, the audience discovers what his last words mean. Rosebud was a sled he had in his childhood, when he was really happy, before all the money and fame we’ve seen him get during the film. This revelation beautifully explains the thesis of Citizen Kane: the most remembered and cherished things in life don’t come from money and power.

20 Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl
20th Century Studios

Gone Girl was adapted from a book by Gillian Flynn (she also wrote the script) by the one and only David Fincher, becoming one of his best movies ever. The movie starts when Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears and looks like she might’ve been killed by her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). The spotlight is turned on him, as every minute, it looks more and more like he killed her.

The twist happens in the middle of the movie, and it’s a big one: not only is Amy not dead, but she orchestrated everything, so Nick would go to jail for killing her after she found out he was cheating on her. It’s a twist that changes everything the audience has seen before and one that helps us understand Amy's twisted mind and her motivations. From there on, the movie follows both stories until they intertwine again in a surprising and sickening ending. All these ingredients make it the perfect film for the talents of Fincher.

Related: How the Scream Franchise Has Outlived So Many Slasher Series

19 Primal Fear (1996)

Primal Fear
Paramount Pictures

Primal Fear tells the story of Martin Vail (Richard Gere), a defense attorney defending altar boy Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), who has been charged with killing an archbishop. Aaron is a shy boy with a stutter that looks innocent, and that’s what Vail is trying to prove. After a long trial, Aaron is found not guilty as he has multiple personality disorders, and it was one of his alter egos, Roy, who killed the archbishop.

The big twist comes at the end, after the trial, when Aaron confesses to Martin that he doesn’t have a multiple disorder personality; he is just the sociopathic Roy. This is one of the best performances by Edward Norton, and also the movie that put him on the map, as his dual performance is incredible.

18 Atonement (2007)

atonement
StudioCanal

Atonement is based on a book by Ian McEwan and tells the story of Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan). After finding her crush, the housekeeper’s son Robbie (James McAvoy), having sex with her sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley), Briony accuses him of assaulting her cousin, Lola. Robbie goes to jail and is later freed to enlist in World War II. In the meantime, his real love, Cecilia, becomes a nurse in the war, and they eventually rekindle their romance having a happy ever after.

Except that’s not what happens, as both died during the war. This happy version is what Briony writes in a book years later, as she still feels guilty for everything that happened. In her fiction, they ended up together and happy. It’s a surprising and bittersweet ending for a beautiful period movie with incredible performances, one that has made the movie still resonate all these years later.

17 Parasite (2019)

A scene from Parasite
CJ Entertainment

In Bong Joon Ho's social commentary on classism and Best Picture-winning film Parasite, a low-income family swindles their way into working various jobs for a wealthy family, who have no clue the workers are all related. In the film, the family sets up the wealthy family's current workers to be fired from their positions to take them over. What the infiltrators don't know is that the previous housekeeper was hiding her husband from loan sharks in a secret basement that the owners forgot about, set up as a survival bunker.

After the old housekeeper and new family figure out each other's secrets, a bloody turn of events has the new family's patriarch on the run from the law. As the months go by, it is revealed to the audience that he hasn't been on the run but staying in the secret basement bunker at the house where the crimes took place.

16 The Prestige (2006)

Jackman The Prestige 2006 Touchstone
Touchstone Pictures

Christopher Nolan's movies are often laced with clever twists, and one of his best comes at the end of The Prestige. The thrilling drama follows two magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) in a cutthroat competition for London’s recognition as being the best.

It is pure entertainment watching their ongoing duel play out as they each sabotage not just themselves but their relationships with those they truly love. Co-starring a routinely all-star cast — it is, after all, a Nolan film — that includes Michael Caine and even David Bowie, our hearts are racing up until that epic reveal as to how exactly Bale's character has been pulling off his "magic."

15 The Others (2001)

Kidman The Others 2001 StudioCanal
StudioCanal

The Others is a creepy ghost story that will have you guessing until the very end. The story follows Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two children awaiting the return of her husband towards the end of WWII. The old and drab mansion that they live in, as well as the need to keep sunlight out at all times due to a condition that the children have, all add to the perfect setting for a ghost story.

The family's lives are turned upside down due to unexplained spirits terrorizing them. In the terrifying climax, Grace and her children learn that it is actually them who are the ghosts, and they are haunting the new family who now lives in their house.

Related: 20 Movie Plot Twists That Made No Sense

14 Oldboy (2003)

Choi Min-sik in Oldboy 2003
Show East

Park Chan-Wook's crime thriller masterpiece has possibly one of the most disturbing twists in cinematic history. The film follows Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik) on a gory quest to find the person who imprisoned him for fifteen years. Along the way, Dae-Su forms a romantic relationship with a young chef named Mi-Do (Kang Hye-Jeong), who becomes involved with Dae-Su's mission.

In the end, Dae-Su discovers that Mi-Do is his daughter and he is the center of an evil revenge plot from a wealthy man whom he wronged in the past. Oldboy is a perfect showcase of the brilliance of South Korean cinema.

13 Scream (1996)

Ghostface and a Victim in Scream
AMC Theaters

In Wes Craven's meta slasher flick from 1996, a costumed killer roams through Woodsboro, CA, picking off helpless teens one by one. The audience believes throughout the film that Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), the boyfriend of the main character Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), is probably the killer.

Toward the end of the film, the audience sees Billy get murdered by the killer, only to return a couple of scenes later, revealing that the kill was a set-up, and the murders had been done not by just him but his best friend Stu (Matthew Lillard) as well. This particular shock ending of multiple people being one killer was new to the horror genre, and Scream has since spawned five sequels, with the most recent opening in 2023 and part of the appeal of the series has been trying to guess who the killers are.

12 Coco (2017)

Miguel in Coco (2017)
Walt Disney Studios
Pixar

In Coco, the most beautiful-looking film Pixar has released, aspiring musician Miguel is forbidden to play music by his grandmother, as it is well-known throughout the family that Miguel's great-great-grandfather abandoned his family to play music, never to return. Miguel takes the guitar of his great-great-grandfather and musical inspiration, Ernesto de la Cruz, and is transported to the land of the dead. There, Miguel meets up with Héctor, and the two try to find Ernesto to grant him his blessing to play music.

After finding Ernesto, the audience learns that it is Héctor who is Miguel's great-great-grandfather, and in life, not only was Héctor murdered by Ernesto, but he was the one who wrote all the songs Ernesto became famous for. Coco won two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Picture and Best Original Song for "Remember Me."

11 Planet of the Apes (1968)

The Planet of the Apes ending
20th Century Fox

Planet of the Apes is a timeless story that has launched several sequels and remakes. Franklin J. Schaffner's original classic, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle and starring Charlton Heston, could be considered the best of the series, whose ending is one of the most iconic film twists of all time.

After a crash landing on an unknown planet, astronaut George Taylor (Heston) finds himself up against a race of apes who are highly evolved and keep humans as slaves. Taylor eventually discovers a destroyed Statue of Liberty along the coast, revealing that the planet he was on was actually Earth after a nuclear apocalypse.

10 Se7en (1995)

Brad Pitt in Se7en (1995)
New Line Cinema

David Fincher's classic film Se7en follows two detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) trying to catch a serial killer who is carrying out seven murders based on the Bible's seven deadly sins. The script, written by Andrew Kevin Walker, is pitch-perfect from start to finish.

In the unforgettable climax, we learn that the killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey), has murdered Detective Mill's (Pitt) wife and delivered her head in a box in an attempt to get Mills to murder Doe, making Mills and Doe the sixth and seventh deadly sins.

Related: 20 Underrated Movies with Huge Plot Twists