10 Movies That Shockingly Switch Protagonist

Steven Soderbergh loves nothing more than to experiment across genres and forms, having contributed widely to most corners of the film canon throughout an illustrious career. True to form then, his thriller Side Effects ends up being a two-hander.

Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) seemingly murders her husband in her sleep while on prescribed medication to manage her depression, but when she gets off scot-free, the blame (and the narrative perspective) shifts to her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), who has been ruined in the process for prescribing her the experimental drugs.

But all is never as it seems. Transitioning from the tragic story of a woman let down by a flawed system, to the struggle of a well-meaning but equally unfortunate psychiatrist, Side Effects uses the shift in protagonist to reveal the film's dark heart - Emily did it on purpose. Jonathan thus has to spend the remainder of the film clearing his name against our lying and deeply duplicitous original protagonist turned antagonist, discovering in the process that she has been in league with one of his colleagues all along.