10 Massive Movie Twists That Were Secretly Obvious
4. The Role Play Is Obvious - Shutter Island
Shutter Island's twist is one that uproots your perception of the entire film. It turns out that Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Detective Teddy Daniels, was a complete fabrication. While he and the audience believed Daniels was visiting the mental facility on Shutter Island to investigate a murder, the truth is very different. Daniels is actually a patient (real name: Andrew Laeddis), who has been allowed to play pretend in an elaborate attempt to try and cure his conspiracy-based insanity.
Once you know this, you'll see certain elements of the film in different ways second time around. If Daniels and Detective Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalos character, actually a member of hospital staff) are really state-assigned partners, why would they meet on a boat? Wouldn't they have a proper briefing? Also, if Daniels is a smoker, why does he consistently have to borrow cigarettes of Aule? It makes more sense when you know where the story is going.
Daniels suffers from migraines throughout the film as well, explained later to be a symptom for the time spent without his proper medication (caused by the investigation roleplay). There's also the fact that Aule uneasily fumbles about with his gun whenever he has it out - hes not really a detective. When you see all these things second time around, you'll wonder how you didn't spot the twist in the first place.