10 Movie Scenes That Brilliantly Subverted Expectations

The marketing for Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby portrayed it as a pretty standard underdog sports drama - a female version of Rocky, if you want to be a bit reductive about it.

But this drama about an amateur boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), climbing the ranks takes a seriously sharp left-turn at the end of the second act, when Maggie is sucker-punched by a dirty opponent after the bell, causing her to fall onto a stool left in the ring, breaking her neck.

And even after this moment, audiences might expect that Maggie would either find a way to get back in the ring or, in the very least, recover from her injuries.

But no dice - the third act focuses instead on Maggie as a quadriplegic unable to breathe without mechanical assistance. 

Her condition quickly worsens, ensuring no prospect of an inspirational comeback, before the film concludes with her trainer Frankie (Clint Eastwood) illegally euthanising her with her consent.

For anyone simply keen to watch another take on the Rocky formula, this turn might've been jarring to a fault, but it's nevertheless an ingeniously executed tonal shift by a master filmmaker.