10 Rules That Make Every Movie The Same

3. Twist Endings

The ending is the most important part of any film. If Robert McKee wants you to take one thing away from his Story method of screenwriting, that's the one. You can have an otherwise perfect film which doesn't stick the landing, and people will go away feeling disappointed. We humans are blessed/cursed with a short term memory; our lasting impression of a movie will be the ending, and if it sucks, our perceptions will change to think the whole thing sucked. On the other side of the coin, a brilliant ending can elevate which was otherwise a bit of a dud. Just look at The Mist! Or, wait, don't, we don't want to be responsible for doing that to you. Thing is, once again, Hollywood have totally bungled that rule. Instead of taking on board the rest of McKee's advice - which, for the most part, is rooted in the sort of classical structures that have been used in drama for time immemorial - they saw the words "strong ending", then looked at their shelves full of M Night Shyamalan films, and thought "oh, so every film's gotta end with a twist! Then people will really like it and talk about it and the film will be really popular! It doesn't even have to make sense!" We've talked about how the ending of the Sixth Sense doesn't actually make sense, right? Okay, so here's the deal: Bruce Willis is a ghost, right? Woah, didn't see that coming! Except when you go back and watch the film, it makes no sense. He just never wondered why nobody ever talked to him? How did he get assigned to be Haley Joel Osment's therapist if nobody can see him? So many plot holes. But it doesn't matter, cos the twist ending made that movie's millions. That's why, ever since, you get countless twist endings that make zero sense; not just in Shyamalan's films, but also the remake of Planet Of The Apes, Inception, every Saw movie, Batman Begins, Fight Club, Mission: Impossible, the friggin' Wizard Of Oz...