"Sixth Sense" will always make the list of movies with endings you never saw coming. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of "Sixth Sense," we present our list of the 25 best films with surprise endings. Be warned: Herein lie spoilers.
One good twist deserves another...and another...
Sixth Sense" is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its release, and most who have seen it over the years will admit they were a bit shocked by its ending. In honor of that, we present our list of the 25 best films with surprise endings. Be warned: Herein lie spoilers. So if you're still waiting to be shocked, you might want to stay away...or just have a peek all the same.
25. "Atonement" (2007)
Based on novelist Ian McEwan's popular novel set against the back drop of WWII, "Atonement" follows Cecilia and Robbie, a pair of young lovers (Keira Knightley, James McAvoy) whose relationship is damaged by the lies of Cecilia's younger sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan). Young Briony's jealousy threatens them all, leading to Robbie's imprisonment and separation from the woman he loves.
Twist: Cecilia and Robbie both died during the early days of WWII, with the bulk of the film being a fabrication of Briony, who wanted to atone for her behavior toward them as a younger girl.
24. "Primal Fear" (1996)
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Edward Norton and Richard Gere star in this courtroom thriller about a young man (Norton), on trial for a murder of an influential archbishop, a crime he says he did not commit. An unscrupulous and jaded defense attorney (Gere) takes up the young man's case only to learn that the boy suffers from a split personality disorder, which he uses to earn a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Twist: The young man never had a split personality. He simply invented a meek, innocent kid who would play on the sympathies of not only a jury but also his lawyer.
23. "The Gift" (2015)
In actor Joel Edgerton's directorial debut, he goes for the jugular in this creepy tale of a married couple (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall) who run into "Gordo" Mosley (Edgerton), an old classmate who seems overly friendly at first but soon begins giving off a really "stalkery" vibe. It isn't long before things get out of hand, and the couple begins to come apart at the seams.
Twist: It's revealed that husband Simon (Bateman) bullied Gordo in their childhood, creating a lie that almost saw Gordo killed by his father. Turns out adult Simon never changed his ways, and Gordo was more interested in justice than stalking, that is, until it's implied that he may have raped Simon's wife and the baby she gave birth to could be his. So maybe this is a double twist.
22. "Chinatown" (1974)
Jack Nicholson stars as L.A. detective Jake Gittes in Roman Polanski's lurid crime drama "Chinatown." Employed by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to follow her husband (John Huston), Gittes gets caught up in a web of deception, corruption and murder.
Twist: Gittes learns Evelyn has a younger sister who he begins to look into, but the truth is the sister is actually Evelyn's daughter, an incest baby she tries to flee with before the cops kill Evelyn first.
21. "The Wicker Man" (1973)
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Robin Hardy's cultish horror/mystery classic may have been desecrated via Nicolas Cage and some unruly bees. But before all that he created a small sensation with his tale of police Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), tasked with solving a missing persons case in a remote island community but finding himself in the midst of a pagan bacchanalia that reveals a shocking secret that will challenge the faith of Howie, a devout Christian.
Twist: Turns out there never was a missing girl. The isle was in need of a virgin sacrifice to burn inside the titular wicker man, and it just so happens that Sgt. Howie was exactly the virgin it needed.
20. "Prisoners" (2013)
Denis Villeneuve's American film debut is a movie that requires at least two viewings, as the twist takes the viewer into an
entirely different direction. "Prisoners" features Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, a
father in search of his abducted daughter, choosing to take matters into his own hands when he becomes frustrated at the lack of moment from police. The hunt
leads to Alex Jones (Paul Dano) a quiet, slightly weird man who fits the profile. However the truth is far darker, and it stands to permanently scar all
involved.
Twist: Alex Jones, the subject of Dover's rage, is not the kidnapper after all but rather a kidnapped child raised by his captors as their
own.
19. "Jacob's Ladder" (1990)
In this dark psychological horror film, we're introduced to Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam vet who suffers from a series of mental and physical ailments since returning home from the war four years ago. As
his symptoms get worse, Jacob begins to question reality itself, as the walls begin to close in on him and a few of his friends from the war.
Twist:
Jacob never actually made it home from the war. His unit was the victim of a military experiment using drugs designed to heighten aggression. The life Jacob
thought he had after the war was simply a dying man's hallucination as he fought a losing battle to stay alive.
18. "Oldboy" (2003)
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A bizarre and engrossing tale by director Park Chan-wook, "Oldboy" tells the story of Dae-su, (Choi Min-sik), a man captured and imprisoned for 15 years then suddenly released out of the blue by his unknown captor. Dae-su plays along with his kidnapper to discover why, meeting a young woman who he falls for along the way. Upon finding his kidnapper, he doesn't immediately exact his revenge until a shocking secret is revealed, driving Dae-su to a violent breaking point.
Twist: The kidnapper hypnotized Dae-su so he would fall in love with and have sex with his own daughter, who he hadn't seen in the 15 years since his capture. OK, then.
17. "Memento" (2000)
Director Christopher Nolan created a bona fide indie hit with the story of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), whose lack of a short-term memory serves as the backbone of a mystery to solve the murder of his wife. The audience is just as much in the dark as Shelby throughout the film, who is forced to use Polaroids and a series of informational tattoos to help him keep track of clues as he fights to find out just who is responsible for the loss of his wife.
Twist: Turns out that Leonard is exactly the man Leonard is looking for, as the most important thing he forgot was the fact that he was the one who accidentally killed his own wife.
16. "Arrival" (2016)
Denis Villeneuve's second film on our list focuses on grieving linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who, after the death of her daughter, is brought in by the military to help
communicate with a pair of aliens whose unique language, in the form of ink blot-like drawings, holds the key to an important gift. As Banks begins to crack the
code, the aliens are perceived as threats and attacked by forces unwilling to understand the importance of the language.
Twist: The aliens are trying to
teach their language that will in turn change the way humans perceive time and space. The grieving Louise shown at the beginning of the film, is actually a
version of Louise long after her encounter, as we learn that she is now able to see time all at once, something the aliens hope will be used to help them in
another 5,000 years.
15. "Planet of the Apes" (1968)
An absolute madhouse of a film based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, "Planet of the Apes" follows a trio of astronauts, led by Col. Taylor (Charlton Heston), whose deep-space mission goes awry, marooning them on a planet where the ruling class are anthropomorphic apes who have a particular distaste for humans.
Twist: As Taylor escapes with mute companion Nova (Linda Harrison), he is stunned to discover that he didn't land on a distant planet. Rather, he was back on Earth, centuries into the future.
14. "American Beauty" (1999)
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The team of Alan Ball and Sam Mendes make their debut with "American Beauty, a fable of Americana gone wrong. Narrated by suburbanite Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), the film is a slice-of-life tale of unrequited love and general malaise, with Burnham navigating through a loveless marriage and weird new neighbors. Burnham finds himself lusting after Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), an underaged friend of his daughter's, which is the start of a series of events that threatens to destroy an otherwise innocuous family.
Twist. Burnham, who's been narrating the film, has been dead this entire time, murdered by his new neighbor after rebuffing a kiss from him during the film's climax.
13. “Gone Baby Gone” (2007)
Based on Dennis Lehane's hit novel, "Gone Baby Gone" starts out as a missing persons case picked up by a private investigator (Casey Affleck). He is aided by a local police captain (Morgan Freeman), and the investigation goes even deeper, revealing a conspiracy filled with drug dealers, low-level hoods and the belief that the missing little girl may have been killed during a shootout.
Twist: The missing girl believed to be dead was neither missing nor dead. She was "adopted" by the police captain, who after losing a child of his own, decided to kidnap the girl, believing that since she was in a family of criminals and drug addicts, he could give her a better life than she would get otherwise.
12. "Shutter Island" (2010)
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are dispatched to a psychiatric hospital to investigate the disappearance of a female inmate in Martin Scorsese's ode to '50s suspense films, "Shutter Island." As Daniels investigates, he uncovers a trail of deception that leads to a shocking revelation about himself.
Twist: Teddy Daniels was actually inmate Andrew Laeddis, a man who lost his mind and murdered his manic-depressive wife after coming home to discover she drowned their children. The asylum attempted a role-playing exercise in hopes of bringing Laeddis back to his right mind before opting to lobotomize him.
11. "The Mist" (2007)
Frank Darabont's third adaptation of a Stephen King novel brings with it a shocking ending that packs a punch not found in the
original story. Thomas Jane stars as David Drayton, an artist who finds himself holed up in a grocery story with a collection of townspeople during an alien
invasion. The pressure of the unknown mixed with the paranoia that comes along with it turns what should be a safe haven from the alien hordes into a different
and potentially deadlier battleground where the true monsters are human.
Twist: After escaping the grocery store, David takes himself, his kid and a group
of survivors out into the Mist. Running out of gas, the group faces certain doom: deciding to enter a death pact before the aliens of the Mist get to them. After
killing his son, David is horrified to learn the group would've been saved had they waited just a few more minutes.
10. “Mulholland Drive” (2001)
A mind screw that could only come from director David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive" follows aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts) who befriends a mysterious woman, Rita (Laura Harring), suffering from amnesia. The two women forge a bond that turns tragic as the film shifts gears halfway through, letting the audience know that everything they thought was true was actually a deception that threatens both women.
Twist: Rita is really a woman named Camilla, and Betty is really Diane, a failed actress who once loved Camilla, an actual star in the making. The film hits audiences with the revelation that Diane was the rotting corpse found by the duo earlier in the film. Weird, but compelling.
9. "Saw" (2004)
James Wan and Leigh Whannell made their filmmaking debut with this small horror movie that would explode into a full-blown franchise. A photographer (Whannell) and doctor (Cary Elwes) wake up in a darkened basement alongside a corpse, not knowing how they got here. Soon they are introduced to the mysterious Jigsaw, who offers them freedom if they play along with his game. From there the audience is led on a phantasmagorical journey where nothing is as its seems, and the only lessons to be learned are soaked in blood.
Twist: The corpse in the basement with the pair was Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), who was alive the entire time, with most of the story being told to the audience via flashback.
8. "Sleepaway Camp" (1983)
Before revealing its wildly shocking ending that earned its place on our list, "Sleepaway Camp" is your basic, run-of-the-mill '80s slasher film set at a remote summer camp. Ricky and Angela are a pair of cousins sent to Camp Arawak for the summer in hopes of making Angela less of an introvert and target for bullying. While at Arawak, Angela is sexually assaulted by a cook but saved by her cousin. Soon after a series of murders pop up, as per usual at a summer camp, leading to a climax that is still talked about today.
Title: Not only is Angela revealed as the killer, Angela is also a boy. Double whammy.
7. "The Prestige" (2006)
Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman star as a pair of
rival magicians in Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige." Robert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale) form a lifelong rivalry after Borden's wife drowned
during a trick gone wrong. They were both "plants" in the audience, and Borden tied the knot she could not untie while in a water tank. The two, driven by their
desire to become the greatest magicians in turn-of-the-century London, go to great lengths to one-up each other via Borden's "Transported Man" trick, leading to
a revelation that might be the best trick of them all.
Twist: With the help of Nikola Tesla (David Bowie), Angier acquires a machine that creates clones,
explaining his ability to perform Borden's stolen trick, while Borden himself was a pair of twins, one of which ends up hanged for the death of one of Angier's
clones.
6. “The Others” (2001)
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Nicole Kidman shines in this classic ghost story with an almost unimaginable twist. In the wake of WWII, Grace Stewart lives a quiet life in the Canary Islands with her two children. A nightmare alerts Grace to a series of memories that are soon accompanied by disturbances in her home, leading her to believe she and her children are being haunted. The truth, however, is far darker and surprising.
Twist: Grace and her children aren't being haunted; they are actually the ghosts. In a fit of madness, Grace murdered her children and killed herself. When she woke from her "nightmare," she had transitioned into the spirit world.
5. "The Sixth Sense" (1999)
M. Night Shyamalan, known for adding a twist to his films, directed this supernatural tale of a therapist (Bruce Willis) recovering from an attempt on his life by a former patient. He is asked to help Cole (Haley Joel Osment), a child who claims to be able to see and speak to the dead. Cole then begins to reconcile his visions and even tries to listen to the dead to help them move on to the afterlife.
Twist: Turns out that the therapist never survived the attempt on his life and has been dead the entire time, explaining why the only one who ever seemed to be speaking directly to him throughout the film was Cole.
4. "Fight Club" (1999)
While not a box-office smash, "Fight Club," based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, would go on to become a subversive cult hit. It depicts the story of a nameless protagonist (Edward Norton) whose mundane life comes undone when he meets the charismatically enigmatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Durden's anarchic philosophies find a home, as a random fight turns into a movement that goes from men fighting each other in their basements to the start of an entire revolution that threatens to change everything.
Twist: In the film's climax, we learn that the film's protagonist and Durden are actually one and the same.
3. "The Usual Suspects" (1995)
Bryan Singer made a name for himself with this tale of a group of cons who band together for one more heist told via a series of flashbacks. "Suspects" introduces audiences to a supposedly unstoppable crime lord named Keyser Soze as explained by one of the last survivors of the group, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), who recounts events to authorities.
Twist: After posting bail, Kint is revealed to be the infamous Soze, proving that the greatest trick the devil pulled was making the world believe he didn't exist.
2. "Psycho" (1960)
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One of the greatest films with a surprise ending comes courtesy of Alfred Hitchcock, who thrilled audiences in 1960 with his tale of a secretary (Janet Leigh) on the run who makes the fateful choice to seek refuge at the Bates Motel. It is run by a quiet and unassuming young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who just so happens to love his mother and has more than a few secrets of his own.
Twist: While Norman claims his mother is the driving force behind the violence taking place at the motel, the reality is that Normal is the killer, having forged a split personality in the guise of his dead mother, and Norman keeps her mummified corpse close by.