Surprise twists are half the fun of watching movies, especially if they’re well-prepared. When something unexpected happens that turns everything upside down, yet still makes sense in the story, it makes the movie forever memorable, and some movies would not be worth watching without the twist that they have become known for.
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However, movies that depend on surprise twists can often only be watched once to get the desired effect. Once the audience knows the twist, it’s no longer fun. The more powerful the twist is, the less likely it is that the movie can be again with the same level of meaning and resonance.
It’s not always true: some movies have twists that make rewatches into deeper, more discerning experiences. However, these 7 movies below are hard to replay, since mystery and surprise were the driving forces behind them.
7) The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is the movie that turned Haley Joel Osment into one of the most popular child actors in Hollywood during the early 2000s, and established M. Night Shyamalan as a cinematic auteur. Its twist is equally famous: Osment’s co-star Bruce Willis plays a character who learns that he has been dead throughout the entire movie.
This twist shocked audiences upon first viewing and has been lampooned in media over and over, inspiring a generation of movies and TV shows to try and fail to imitate it. However, The Sixth Sense is the quintessential movie that can only be watched once. It simply is not the same movie without the shock factor, and the clues that the protagonist is actually dead seem blaringly obvious upon rewatch.
6) Arrival
Arrival‘s twist is the opposite of The Sixth Sense‘s, but ruins the movie’s rewatchability for similar reasons. In this Denis Villeneuve sci-fi drama, the protagonist is determined to make contact with aliens after her daughter dies of a mysterious illness – or so it seems. Throughout the Oscar-winning sci-fi film, Amy Adams’ Louise has what appear to be flashbacks of interactions with her daughter, prior to the young girl’s death.
However, at the end, it is revealed that the alien Louise is investigating has changed her perception of time and that everything she has experienced — including her daughter’s death — will happen in the future (not the past), as the child has not yet been born.
Learning the truth completely changes the emotional impact of Arrival. On first viewing, it seems like a heartbreaking story about a scientist trying to give meaning to the tragic death of her child, and the final twist leaves the audience with mixed emotions: relief that the girl hasn’t died yet, but devastation at knowing that she won’t be able to change the child’s fate once she’s born. For Louise, life becomes a heavy weight of choice: a blessed-but-short time of motherhood, or running from the inevitably sad endings that life always brings.
However, watching the movie again while knowing the visions are of the future completely changes the emotional context. The audience can still grieve the death of the child, but knowing that none of this has happened yet dulls much of the emotional impact, and the final twist doesn’t hit nearly as hard for viewers who know that it’s coming.
5) The Village
2004’s The Village was supposed to be a horror film, as fans had come to expect from Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan. However, the twist ending ruins it upon subsequent viewings. The film is about a rural community whose residents don’t dare go into the woods surrounding the village because they are supposedly inhabited by bloodthirsty monsters. Throughout the course of the film, several characters must make the allegedly treacherous journey through the woods to obtain medication for ill or injured residents.
This plot is scary upon first viewing, but at the end of the movie, it is revealed that the monsters don’t really exist. The town’s founder had recruited modern-day people from a grief counseling group to reject society and return to the “safety” of pre-industrial times. Elder villagers pretended to be monsters to ensure no one left the community and rejoined the modern world. This reveal makes the movie fall flat on second viewing because it is not at all scary once the audience knows that the monsters aren’t real.
4) City of Angels
City of Angels is a seemingly offbeat romantic film, until the final twist turns it into a tragedy. Throughout the movie, Nicholas Cage’s character is an angel who mourns not being able to have a relationship with a mortal woman, played by Meg Ryan. Near the end, he finds a way to become human, but shortly after he does, Ryan’s character is hit by a truck while riding her bike and dies.
On first viewing, this is a heartbreaking twist, especially as Cage’s character sacrificed the very thing that would allow him to be with the woman he loves, now that she’s gone. However, once the audience knows the ending, the movie becomes tedious because the romantic angst feels like a waste of time.
3) The Usual Suspects
Mysteries and thrillers are especially susceptible to not working well on rewatch because the point of the movie is to solve the case along with the protagonist. This is especially true for The Usual Suspects, as its now-iconic twist ending is that the protagonist and narrator is secretly the killer.
This twist hits hard on first watch — the audience has invested time and trust in the protagonist, only to find out he’s been playing them all along. However, knowing the ending completely ruins the movie; there is no longer any mystery to solve on second watch, so it feels like a slow, drawn-out story that takes forever to reveal the narrator’s true identity.
2) Planet of The Apes
The 1968 version of Planet of the Apes features an iconic ending shot in which the protagonist discovers the remnants of the Statue of Liberty nearby and realizes he has been on a post-apocalyptic Earth all along. The shot is cinematographically perfect and devastating for the audience, but only on first viewing.
Once the audience knows the ending, the movie seems pointless. The war between the human protagonists and the apes no longer has the tension it would if the audience believed that the astronauts were fighting aliens. Instead, the audience becomes impatient to get to the final reveal so that the protagonist can learn what they already know.
1) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back is ruined for anyone who has not already seen it because its plot twist has become so iconic. The moment where Luke learns that Darth Vader is his father is supposed to be emotionally jarring, with Luke questioning everything he thought he knew about himself and the war he’s fighting.
Although die-hard Star Wars fans still rewatch The Empire Strikes Back because it’s part of the franchise, it loses some of its charm upon repeated viewings. The irony of Luke wanting to get revenge on Darth Vader for killing his father doesn’t hit the same if the audience knows the truth ahead of time.
What movie’s twist ending most ruins the experience for you on repeated viewings? Leave a comment and join the discussion in the ComicBook Forum.
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