10 Movies That Cleverly START With Huge Twists

While Predators isn't remembered as fondly as the first film in the series, it's quite underrated, a really solid sci-fi thriller with a handful of cool action sequences.

The movie kicks off with a group of strangers being parachuted into the jungle. Confused, and with no idea how they got there, they naturally start to question why they're all in the same place, and most importantly, where the hell they actually are.

After a few minutes of everyone trudging through the jungle (and some speculation that they might be in Asia, Africa, or the Amazon rainforest), the group arrives at higher ground, where de-facto leader Royce points out that the sun hasn't moved since they arrived, leading to the twist reveal that they're not on Earth: they're on an alien planet.

After the original two Predator movies saw the titular creatures hunting their prey on Earth, having another movie with that same formula would've felt like more of the same, but switching up the rules by planting the beasts on home turf was a clever way to raise the stakes significantly.

In addition, most viewers will have probably just expected the movie to take place on Earth, given that, again, that's where the first two movies (and the Alien vs. Predator spinoffs) were set. With that in mind, the twist reveal smartly played with audience expectations, surprising people who might've thought that the movie's mix of a jungle setting and a macho band of soldiers was hugely derivative of the 1987 Arnie classic.