10 Brilliant Movie Plot Twists That Don't Actually Make Sense
9. Death On The Nile (Both Versions) - The Killer's Plan
Both adaptations of one of Agatha Christie's best books - the wonderful 1970s edition starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot, and the rock-solid 2022 version directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh - are emblematic of a common thing you just have to go with when it comes to Dame Agatha's work. The solutions to her mysteries are essentially elaborate puzzles for the detective and the reader to solve, and this means that the murder plots are often unrealistically over-complicated. Death on the Nile is no exception.
This one tells the story of an unlikable heiress named Linnet (Lois Chiles/Gal Gadot) while on a River Nile cruise. It eventually turns out that Linnet's new husband Simon (Simon MacCorkindale/Armie Hammer) is the killer, and he's working with Jacqueline (Mia Farrow/Emma Mackey), Simon's supposed ex-lover.
The pair partake in a thoroughly convoluted plan involving Jacqueline pretending to shoot Simon, who then rushes off to kill his wife before returning to where he was 'shot' and shooting himself for real. There was so much that could've gone wrong with this plan - for example, there was no guarantee Simon was going to be alone after being 'shot' - and there would've been many simpler ways to steal Linnet's fortune, but that's just something you have to go with.
Christie's brilliant murder mysteries are designed to be gripping puzzles and not supposed to be taken too literally, so the abundance of coincidences is more than forgivable here.