10 More Movies That Cleverly START With Huge Twists
8. Mission: Impossible
Given that Mission: Impossible as a franchise is so thoroughly concerned with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team, the original movie executed the series' very best twist in its first 20 minutes.
The film begins with the IMF squad heading to Prague for their next mission, and though conventional cinematic storytelling would suggest that this sequence would introduce us to Hunt's core team and establish what each of them does, that's basically the opposite of what happens.
As it turns out, the mission is a horrific bust, with most members of the team being killed off.
Jack Harmon (Emilio Estevez) gets impaled by an elevator spike, Hannah Williams (Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė) is blown up in a car, Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas) is fatally stabbed, and team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) is apparently shot to death.
Taking the team off the chess board, and especially fan favourite character Phelps, was one hell of a bold, ballsy move. But not content to pull off just one daring subversion, it's later revealed that Phelps actually faked his death and is the movie's primary villain - a revelation which certainly divided fans of the 1960s TV series.