The Twist: It's alluded to throughout the movie, so shouldn't come as much of a shock, but at the end it's rather explicitly hinted that Hercules, a Greek legend famous for being the son of Zeus, isn't the son of Zeus. He's just a normal man with an incredible P.R. team - the twelve labours were completed by a whole gang of people so his name would strike so much fear into his enemies he wouldn't even have to fight. Why It's So Dumb: Hercules is inherently a dumb film, but thanks to being self-aware enough (and casting The Rock) it comes away as a properly fun B-Movie experience. Urgh, it actually hurts to praise a Brett Ratner picture like this. Unlike John Hurt being thrown down a chasm in a comedic, pseudo-dramatic manner, however, this twist is a different type of dumb. As an idea it's pretty smart, using human psychology as a potent alternative as brute force, but it's totally out of place in Hercules. The myth isn't ingrained in popular culture to the extent where re-imagining is legitimate (like with Batman or Superman) and somehow this conceit allows a film that is categorically not an origin story still serve as a character moulding adventure.
