The Decade in Lists
The 10 Best Movie Twist Endings of the Decade
Our cornucopia of decade’s end lists continues now with the Twist List: The best twist-endings and third-act mindf*cks from the last ten years. They’re the cherries on your Manoj sundae, and they’re after the jump.
10. Identity (2003)
The set-up: A group of ten strangers are stranded at a Nevada motel during a thunderstorm. Meanwhile, a psychopath awaits trial at a mental institution.
The twist: The strangers are all multiple personalities of the psychopath, each being killed off in his mind by the true homicidal personality: Timmy York, a quiet boy who had faked his own death earlier.
9. The Departed (2006)
The set-up: Irish-Catholic Boston boy Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is raised by mobster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) to become a mole in the Massachusetts State Police. Meanwhile a force graduate (Leonardo DiCaprio) is convinced to become an undercover agent infiltrating Costello’s inner circle.
The twist: Having executed a seemingly perfect crime with no witnesses, Sullivan returns home expecting to find his psychiatrist girlfriend Madolyn. Instead, Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) is waiting for him, and puts a bullet in his head.
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Posted 22 Dec 2009, 12:09 PM
Memento is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. Thanks for putting it number 1!
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 12:30 PM
Hey, spoiler warning!
Naw, I'm just fuckin with you. Awesome list.
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 12:58 PM
Christopher Nolan truly is The Man.
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 1:40 PM
What... no Fight Club?
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 3:57 PM
Came out in '99
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 2:38 PM
Where's The Proposal?
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 2:39 PM
"What's in the Box?!
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 3:59 PM
Came out in '95
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 2:40 PM
Good list with a couple of major exceptions. "The Village" was a bad movie that had to work extremely hard for a twist that was ridiculously dumb. And "Haute Tension" makes no sense at all - there are far too many things that happen before the twist that negate the twist. Otherwise, I enjoyed the list.
And the final twist was perfect. :-)
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 2:54 PM
Gah! I've been Rickrolled!
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 3:30 PM
Great list... here's another 10
The Descent (original ending - the escape is a hallucination)
Quid Pro Quo
Skeleton Key
Inside Man
Saw
Inglourious Basterds
Oldboy
Unbreakable
Arlington Road
The Mist
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 4:40 PM
Ah, "Oldboy." Sick sick sick.
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 3:45 PM
How about 'A Tale of Two Sisters'. Best film ever, and a total twisty one. Those Koreans really know how to make horror films.
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 6:53 PM
If you read classic ghost stories, The Outsiders was no twist. I never even saw it; a friend got as far as saying, "It's a great film. See, the servants have all mysteriously disappeared..." and I said, "She's dead, and doesn't know it." Boy, you never saw a fan so crushed. You can read five of these an hour at the library.
But no: The Illusionist? That was pretty frickin awesome.
Posted 22 Dec 2009, 8:10 PM
You gotta be kidding me-Identity?! Crappiest ending of all time.
Posted 23 Dec 2009, 9:01 AM
Crossroads.
Kim Cattrall didn't want to be Britney's mom. WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THAT!
Posted 23 Dec 2009, 9:04 AM
Agree about Identity. Does it count as a twist if it makes an inane but otherwise conventional movie suck?
Oldboy!
Also, I wouldn't consider the Mark Wahlberg aspect of The Departed a twist. After all, he was one of the two who planted DiCaprio's character and knew there was a mole somewhere. The twist in that flick is the reveal that there are other moles (on both sides) in play, too.
Posted 23 Dec 2009, 1:15 PM
I nominate "Adaptation" (2002) written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman. The twist isn't even in the movie. You have to do some research to know the twist...
Posted 25 Dec 2009, 4:00 PM
Your summary of The Departed is incorrect. Matt Damon's character was not expecting the girlfriend to be there as she had just blown him off at DiCaprio's character's funeral.
Posted 28 Dec 2009, 7:37 AM
and "Unusual Suspects"? and "Saw"?
Posted 28 Dec 2009, 11:56 AM
gr8 list buddy, but where is FIGHT CLUB and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION?
They suppose to be in list...
Posted 30 Dec 2009, 2:04 PM
I agree that Fight Club (1999) has the best twist ending of all time but the list is from this decade.
Posted 07 Jan 2010, 8:41 AM
Second. Doors slamming... um, perhaps I would've been scared when I was 6 but come on is this really what people find scary about this movie? Third. The girl getting dragged out of bed... perhaps the most scary scene in the movie as well as the best done scene. However it still wasn't really scary... WHY? Because just like every other nite the camera is sped up and then just before anything happens it goes back to normal speed... Completely ruining any chance for suspense or fright... not to mention how it slowly grabs her leg and gently pulls her out of bed...
Posted 07 Jan 2010, 8:42 AM
Nothing at all was scary. I repeat NOTHING at all was scary! I was bored out of my mind 80% of the film. 19% I was angered at the idiot boyfriend or the retarded GF. Seriously, Someone here said that they reacted realistically to the situations. What is wrong with you! The woman acted as if she just wanted to ignore everything and hoped it went away... yet claimed it had been happening since she was 8. They guy on the other hand pretended he had the slightest clue as to what he was doing. "I GOT A PLAN" as he sprinkles baby powder on the floor... WTH did he think that was going to do... show him something/someone was there.. Hadnt that already been established by that point of the "film"? Where was the plan? He threatens the "ghost/demon" what ever the heck it was as if hes going to fight it... Really!? The only time the acting was good is... well never mind because it wasn't ever good. OK at best during the many arguments that took place in the film.
Posted 19 Jan 2010, 6:15 AM
These movies have also some good unexpected endings :
1. The reeker
2. Dead Silence
3. Stay ( a li'l silly though)
4. The Killing room
5. The machinist