If you want to talk about great plot twists from throughout the history of cinema, a good many of them are inevitably going to be ones found at the end of a movie. Think films likeThe Sixth Sense,The Usual Suspects, andFight Club, where the twist is either revealed at the very end, or at some point very close to the movie’s actual ending.
Then, there are other films that don’t wait until some point in the final act to drop a big revelation that shakes everything up narratively.These movies get extra twisty by having their twists occur around the halfway point of their stories, and the following examples – with some occurring either a little before or a little after the halfway point – demonstrate how best to pull off these sorts of twists.
There will be unavoidable spoilers discussed for the movies below.
10’The World’s End' (2013)
Director: Edgar Wright
For a good chunk ofThe World’s End, things play out like a dramedy about one man’s inability to grow up, with his life contrasted againstthat of his childhood friends. The group reconnects to do a pub crawl, with both humor and pathos mined from the entire situation, and the way one member of their group is still so stuck in his old ways. Then, an alien invasion happens.
This is a bit of a downplayed example when it comes to mid-way plot twists, given some genre fare is expected whenThe World’s Endreunites the team behindShaun of the DeadandHot Fuzz, all the while serving as a final chapter to theirCornetto Trilogy. But still, if you avoid knowing behind-the-scenes stuff, and similarly stay away from marketing,the whole sci-fi angle ofThe World’s Endwould prove to be wonderfully disarming, not to mention perhaps even energizing to the film as a whole.
The World’s End
9’Audition' (1999)
Director: Takashi Miike
Takashi Miikehas made more movies than one could ever hope to keep track of,with 1999’sAuditionbeing one of the best, and understandably held up as one of his most popular. Well, it’s popular among those who don’t mind their horror rather extreme, given this film takes an incredibly dark turn in its second half, reveling in bleak and psychologically intense terror.
For at least its first act, and some of its second,Auditionis more grounded, and has the feel of a dramedy, even having a little romance for good measure. But the main character becomes entangled with someone dangerous, andthen she gradually reveals the wide array of alarming things she’s not only capable of doing, but indeed rather keen to do, much to the shock of both the film’s protagonist and (in all likelihood) the audience.
8’Knives Out' (2019)
Director: Rian Johnson
Knives Outis a genre-blending movie,functioning as a great thriller, proving quite funny at times, having a strong crime/mystery narrative, and alsowading into the horror genre briefly too, for good measure. This makes it feel unique for sure, but the playfulness of the film and its various genres are apparent fairly early on, in contrast to something likeAuditionorThe World’s End, which change gears suddenly.
Instead, it’s the wayKnives Outapproaches its mystery storyline that proves surprising. What begins as a whodunit reveals itself to not really be that, asthe actual reveal is made early on, and there are further complications to the plot outside the solving of a murder that keep characters and viewers alike on their toes.Rian Johnsonis both appreciated and sometimescriticized for his subverting of expectations, but he does that kind of thing well here.
Knives Out
7’Full Metal Jacket' (1987)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
WhileFull Metal Jacketisa great war movie all the way throughits runtime, it’s certainly a movie of two halves, and the switch-up from one to the other is admittedly jarring the first time one watches the film. Essentially, the whole thing is about the dehumanization of war, with one half focusing on the brutality of boot camp, and the other half focusing on similar savagery happening in an active warzone.
As such, it’s hard to automatically call the rush from one half to the other a twist, butit is likely to take one off guard, especially because the end of the first half sees two prominent characters killed off in rapid succession.Stanley Kubrick, provocative as ever, gives almost no time to breathe once this happens. The movie is off to Vietnam, and another side of war – just as harrowing – is once more effectively explored and depicted.
Full Metal Jacket
6’Barbarian' (2022)
Director: Zach Cregger
The premise ofBarbarian, at least at first, feels exceptionally simple. It revolves around one woman showing up at an Airbnb, and having someone else already staying there. There is tension between the two as they both attempt to navigate the situation, and the man already there does seem suspicious… butthen a whole other side of the story is revealed, and the genuinely decent guy (as it turns out) is brutally murdered.
Then, there is a period ofBarbarianthat’s darkly funny, sort of explaining why the first part of the movie happened the way it did, and then these two parts of the film collide for the final act. The biggest shake-up narratively does happen a bit before the halfway point, but there are also revelations and unexpected turns after that point, all the way until a gonzo ending,makingBarbarianone giddily unpredictable movie.
5’The Crying Game' (1992)
Director: Neil Jordan
The Crying Gameis one ofthe greatest movies of the 1990s, and also one of the most famously surprising of that decade, too. It’s a film with a first act that’s rather isolated from the other two acts, but the big twist – revolving around the reveal of one character’s gender – is contained close to the halfway point overall, in a scene that turns the entire film around entirely.
Before that point,The Crying Gamewas already pretty effective at keeping viewers on their toes, but the big – and some might say notorious – narrative twist is something else altogether. There’s somuch more to the film than just the twist, but it’s easy to see why it’s so well-remembered for that. Also, exploring the fallout from that reveal, and what it means to the main characters here, is ultimately what gives the final act and a bit ofThe Crying Gameall the more emotional heft.
The Crying Game
Rent on Apple TV
4’Parasite' (2019)
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Even thoughParasitecame out at the tail-end of the 2010s, and is therefore still fairly recent, it already feels fair to call itone of the best movies of all time. It’s likely to endure and hold up as timeless, in many ways, with the relentless and hard-to-predict story it tells being a huge reason why it’s such a masterpiece. Upon one’s first viewing, it’s impossible to know exactly where it’s going.
At first,Parasiteis focused on dark comedy and satire, and by the end, it’s far more thrilling, dark, and even tragic. Much of it takes place inside a large house, and both the film and its story really open up in interesting ways around the halfway point, when certain things relating to the size of the house are revealed.The narrative is never the same again, and the tone noticeably changes, too.
3’From Dusk Till Dawn' (1996)
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Containing what’s undoubtedly one of the most iconic mid-point plot twists of all time,From Dusk Till Dawngoes from being a tense crime movie about a hostage situation to a chaotically violent movie about surviving numerous vampires in a flash. Even upon rewatching the movie, that shake-up in plot and genre feels so wonderfully strange, and you kind of have toadmire howRobert RodriguezandQuentin Tarantinojust went for it here.
The pair later didGrindhouse, a double feature whereTarantino’s half,Death Proof, also mixed things up in a thoroughly brazen way at the halfway point, but nothing hits quite as hard as that switch-up inFrom Dusk Till Dawn. That the movie not only works despite this twist, but is actually better for it, is something of a minor filmmaking miracle.
From Dusk Till Dawn
Director: Shinichiro Ueda
Until just before the halfway mark of its runtime,One Cut of the Deadis a low-budget zombie movie filmed in one take, all about the making of a low-budget zombie movie that’s thrown into chaos when zombies attack for real. It’s all very haphazard, cheesy, fun, and kind of impressive, on account of the whole one-take thing… but thenOne Cut of the Deadreveals itself to be something else entirely.
The second half of the movie is effectively about the making of the movie viewers saw in the first half, with the pre-production detailed on top of scenes that help explain why certain things went wrong from a technical perspective in the first part of the movie.It’s genuinely heartwarming, funny, and ultimately a movie about the joys of creativity, teamwork, and filmmaking, everything adding up toone of its decade’s best films overall.
One Cut of the Dead
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1’Psycho' (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
There had been shockingdeaths and plot twists in movies before 1960, but nothing quite on the same level as whatPsychohad to deliver. For a good chunk of the film’s duration, things are centered on a young woman on the run after stealing cash from a client of her employer, with her getaway including a stay at the infamous Bates Motel.
While there, she takes a shower, and is abruptly murdered by someone whose identity isn’t initially known. Then,Psychopivots and becomes focused on finding out who committed this murder, and why. It’s such a well-known twist that it’s hard to watchPsychonowadays without knowing about it in advance,but such is life when you have a turn in the narrative so beautifully and powerfully shocking. Pre-ending twists really don’t get any more surprising than this.
