10 Most Ridiculously Unearned Movie Twists Of All Time

A perfectly executed plot twist can elevate a movie onto a whole other level. It can turn a movie on its head (Memento, Mulholland Drive), gleefully change what you thought you knew (The Usual Suspects, Gone Baby, Gone), leave you absolutely reeling (Primal Fear, Old Boy) and, when you get an absolute doozy, turn a film into something that becomes truly iconic (The Sixth Sense, The Empire Strikes Back). These are the unforgettable moments in cinema.

On the flipside, a dire narrative maneuver can unwind a lot of good work; with a naff film, a crap twist is usually the icing on the cake. When you have a good film, though, a mistimed reveal can be an absolute heart breaker, a waste of time invested that makes you wonder why you bothered.

It's now time to expose those films that have bent our noodles for all the wrong reasons. The preceding entries on this list really are the worst of the worst, a collection of moments that had the intention to wow us, but fell wide of the mark. Because, what you need to remember is, for every Tyler Durden being unmasked, there is a monked up Ewan McGregor jumping out of a helicopter, pulling the rug out from under you and sending you ass first onto a hardwood floor. Ouch.

Alan Parker's sweaty neo-noir is one of those rare things: a near classic. The story of Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke, at his prime), a gumshoe detective trawling through New Orleans on the hunt for a missing voodoo practitioner, held plenty of intrigue, and had some wild moments (a certain sex scene with Lisa Bonet, raunchy enough to rile up the censors and Bill Cosby in equal measure). What made it fall short, however, was the finale.

Sure, we can buy into the fact that Rourke's eponymous sleuth was actually the killer, but the film's payoff feels like a cheat thanks to none other than Robert De Niro. I mean, we all thought it for a fleeting moment when he first announced himself as being 'Louis Cypher', but lordy, lordy, was it an unwelcome surprise when he drops the film's main reveal, which is that he's the devil and his name a play on the known moniker 'Lucifer'. He even does it with glowing eyes. Dire.