Sometimes, a movie is great, and then a twist ending comes along and turns it into schlock. Other times, the movie is unbelievable throughout its entire runtime, but its twist ending makes it even more perplexing of an experience. These ten films are prime examples of movies with absurd twist endings that are mostly terrible, but help make the overall cinematic experience feel more memorable and entertaining. Naturally, spoiler will follow.
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1) Serenity
Serenity is a mystery thriller film starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway that was so hated by test audiences that the studio, Aviron Pictures, decided to abandon the idea of marketing and promoting the film. The film follows Baker Dill (McConaughey), a fisherman whose life goal is to catch a large fish. When Baker’s ex-wife comes into the picture and asks him to kill her new husband, everything he knows to be in true is questioned.
While much of the film’s runtime plays out as an erotic neo-noir thriller of sorts, the twist turns the movie into a laughable mess. Near the end of Serenity, it is revealed that Baker is not real, but is living inside of a video game. Baker is a character inspired by a solider named John Mason. Mason’s son, Patrick, created the game and added the part about his step-father to get out some steam, but ends up murdering his step-father in real life after the twist is revealed. This ending comes out of left field and feels like a completely different film compared to it’s first half.
2) The Happening
While M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography is chock-full of ridiculous twists, like in The Village and Old, The Happening’s twist takes the cake when it comes to comedy. The Happening weaves an apocalyptic tale depicting mysterious worldwide suicides that are initially believed to be caused by a terrorist attack involving biological weapons and a neurotoxin.
However, at the end of the film, it is revealed that the neurotoxin in the air causing the suicides is released by plants purposely to get back at humans for polluting the planet. While the idea is definitely interesting, the accidental camp factor is so high that the ending cannot be taken seriously.
3) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
The seventh installment in the Transformers film franchise, Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 and follows the Autobots and the Maximals as the fight against the nefarious Terrorcons, who are adamant at retrieving an interdimensional device.
At the very end of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, it is revealed that the entire movie was actually a set-up for a crossover between the Transformers and G.I. Joe cinematic universes, tying the two properties together. While some fans may have been excited by this tease, it felt like a trite cash grab and almost diminished the importance of the entire film with it’s undeniable silliness.
4) Remember Me
One of Robert Pattinson’s first film’s after the release of Twilight in 2008, Remember Me follows a romance in NYC between two troubled souls. Remember Me‘s twist ending was so upsetting for some that the film was considering extremely polarizing, but it’s complete randomness makes it baffling.
At the end of Remember Me, Pattinson’s Tyler Hawkins goes to meet his dad at his office, and it is revealed that the date is September 11, 2001, and the office is inside of, where else, the World Trade Center. This shocking ending made this typical romance movie into a feel-bad tour-de-force that people continue to talk about for the sheer madness of this cinematic choice.
5) Iron Man 3
Iron Man 3‘s bizarre twist has a lot to do with its standing in the MCU Fandom. The film largely follows the titular character as he frantically tries to save everything he loves from the villainous the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).
Near the end of Iron Man 3 however, it is revealed that the Mandarin we’ve been following isn’t real, but a red herring. “The Mandarin” is actually an actor named Trevor Slattery hired by the film’s real villain, a dangerous scientist named Alden Killian (Guy Pearce), who later calls himself the Mandarin. Many Marvel fans found this twist to be convoluted and hindered the over potential of the film; however, the ending is still good for chuckle for it’s absurdism.
6) High Tension
High Tension on the whole is actually a pretty excellent slasher film; however, it’s ending presents a twist that causes the entire narrative to fall apart. Directed by Alexandre Aja, High Tension tells the story of two college friends, Marie and Alex, who travel to Alex’s countryside family home for a nice quiet weekend. But, their peaceful retreat is interrupted by a brutal murderer, who kills Alex’s family and kidnaps the girl, but fails to find Marie.
Marie spends a lot of the film’s runtime following the madman’s truck in a yellow car, but in the end, the audience is thrown through a loop. High Tension‘s twist reveals that there was no madman, and that Marie is a disturbed killer who murdered Alex’s family and kidnapped her. It seems as though Marie has psychosis, and believed that a boogeyman was committing these acts, but it was her all along. This ending is shocking and turns the film into a mindbender, but there are too many holes, like who was driving the sportscar during those chase scenes!
7) Don’t Worry Darling
Directed by Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling is a sci-fi thriller that was hotly-anticipated at the time of it’s release, but soon, drama on set largely impacted the reception of the movie in some ways. Starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, Don’t Worry Darling followed a housewife named Alice living in a harmonious community in the 1950s. Although, Alice begins to realize there is something not quite right about the other women in her neighborhood and the town itself.
Don’t Worry Darling‘s climax reveals that the film is not actually set in the ’50s, but in the present day, and Alice has involuntarily been put into a coma-like state by her husband and entered into a simulation where she is the perfect housewife. Alice’s husband goes to work in real life and then when he comes home he enters himself into the simulation. While intriguing, this twist ending feels a bit ham-fisted and unnecessarily political, changing the film’s tone into mishmash.
8) Wild Mountain Tyme
Wild Mountain Tyme is a lesser-known romantic comedy starring Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan that plays out like a typical will-they-wont-they story, but throws everything to the wind with a bewildering twist ending. Wild Mountain Tyme follows Rosemary and Anthony, who grew up together in the Irish countryside. Rosemary has always been fond of Anthony, a quiet man who seemingly hears voices in the fields. Anthony fails to return Rosemary’s affection, but the two still manage to keep crossing paths throughout the movie.
At the climax of the movie, it is revealed that the reason Anthony never showed interest in Rosemary in the way she did is because he believes that he is actually a honeybee. This notion is perplexing and will make the viewer wonder what they just watched, and ponder about what the filmmakers were even thinking.
9) Safe Haven
Adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel, the critically-panned Safe Haven stars Julianne Hough as a woman on the run who moves to a new town and reinvents herself as Katie. When falling in love with a widowed father named Alex (Josh Duhamel), Katie’s troubled past and true identify start to catch up to her.
As it turns out, Katie is actually a woman named Erin, escaping from her abusive detective husband whom see is accused of killing. Although, the detective was never really dead in the first place and begins searching for Katie. However, the most eye-rolling twist comes after Katie and Alex have a showdown with Katie’s ex, when it is revealed that Jo (Cobie Smolders), a woman in town whom Katie befriends early on in the movie, has been dead all along and is actually the spirit of Alex’s late wife. It almost as if Jo was there to bring Katie and Alex together, which feel very strange. The ending is extremely tropey, and the idea of someone’s dead spouse picking their new partner comes off as more creepy than intended.
10) Planet of the Apes (2001)
One of the most virtually disliked films in the Planet of the Apes franchise, this 2001 remake’s twist is really only a twist because of the way it switches up the original film’s beloved twist ending. At the end of the 1968 Planet of the Apes, it is revealed that the apes who took over the world are not on their own planet, but on Earth. However, at the end of Tim Burton’s remake, it turns out that the apes are on another planet called Ashlar, but they still also took over Earth. This drastic change bothered some audiences who thought there was no reason for this inane adjustment to be made to the iconic story.
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