10 Best "Everything You Know Is A Lie" Moments In Movies
3. Rowan Isn't Missing - The Wicker Man
The Wicker Man sees Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) visiting the remote Hebridean island Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison.
Howie is instantly suspicious when the villagers deny Rowan's existence and so appear to be covering up her disappearance.
He later comes to believe that Rowan is in fact alive and will be sacrificed to ensure the island's successful crop harvest.
And while he's right about Rowan being alive, he's totally wrong as to why.
Rowan is indeed alive but merely part of the villagers' ruse to sacrifice Howie instead, who at film's end is placed inside a giant wicker man which is then set alight, killing him as a pagan Celtic sacrifice.
As a policeman, Howie had all the confidence that he was personally safe on Summerisle, when in fact his status as representing the law - or, as the pagans say, possessing "the power of a king" - made him oh-so-ripe for their nefarious purposes.