10 More Subtle Signs Movie Characters Weren't Telling The Truth

10. The "Mandarin" Talks About Fortune Cookies - Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 drops its huge, divisive twist at the end of act two, that the villainous Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is actually an imposter - an actor called Trevor Slattery who has been used as a smokescreen to allow the "real" Mandarin (Guy Pearce) to carry out his terrorist acts unimpeded.

Love or hate the twist, though, Slattery actually slyly hints to his true nature much earlier in the film - in the first half-hour, even.

After the TCL Chinese Theatre is blown up, we're shown a video where the Mandarin both takes credit for the attack and offers a seemingly off-topic riff on the nature of fortune cookies of all things. He says:

"True story about fortune cookies. They look Chinese. They sound Chinese. But they're actually an American invention. Which is why they're hollow, full of lies, and leave a bad taste in the mouth."

Though the Mandarin circles back and dismisses the now-destroyed Chinese Theatre as an "American knockoff," his statement about fortune cookies is also entirely indicative of his own deception.

This "Mandarin" is a hollow, America-created imitation of the real, Chinese one, who after much hand-wringing we finally met many years later in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (as played so superbly by Tony Leung).