10 Movies Which Go From 0-100 Right At The End

How many times have we fallen asleep at the movies, when the next big thing fails to hold our attention or that indie drama we've been dying to see keeps things quiet and low-key? Probably more than we'd like to mention. But just because a film has the power to lull us into snoozeville, doesn't mean it's not worth watching.

Plenty a worthy film doesn't pack a whole lotta punch from the outset, instead using its time to chip away at us, establish some themes, lay down some plot lines, and develop the characters. But more often than you'd think, all of these elements conspire to kick things into gear in the final moments, taking a film into overdrive with suddenly rising action, unexpected events, and paradigm-shifting twists. And we're not just talking about M. Night Shyamalan here. Think of the violent conclusion to Quentin Tarantino's sleepy and nostalgic Once Upon A Time..., or Stanley Kubrick's reality-altering dimensional journey in the final moments of 2001.

Whatever the particular flavour of your film fancies, this list has you covered with ten films that go from 0-100 at the very end. Better grab an energy drink and buckle up.

Based on Percival Everett's novel Erasure (2001), Cord Jefferson's American Fiction takes a wry look at the failings of the contemporary literary scene from the perspective of author Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright). Monk has never let the colour of his skin define his career, but he finds himself suddenly playing to a false "blackness" when My Pafology (later retitled F**k), a novel he writes as a joke and which panders to working-class African-American stereotypes, suddenly blows up.

Championed by a largely white, female, and achingly "progressive" literary industry, there is nothing Monk can do to throw the establishment off what they see as the next major Black fiction, including portraying himself as an ex-gangbanger and escaped convict. This sets up a lot of comedy, paced with the changing relationships in Monk's life, including his sister dying and his mother facing the first hurdles of Alzheimer's. 

While the film carries itself along at a leisurely pace, the final ten minutes take a turn for the meta. At the New England Book Association's Literary Award ceremony, F**k is announced the winner and Monk takes the stage, admitting he needs to make a confession before the film cuts to black. He then has a back-and-forth with a film producer, on a Hollywood lot, where they change the ending several times, including to Monk fleeing the ceremony to apologise to his girlfriend, and the cops storming the auditorium and shooting him dead on stage.