8. Bryan Singer Almost Forgot To Edit The Keaton Twist The Usual Suspects
The other entries on this list so far (and to come) have been examples of a filmmakers brilliance, but heres one that shows how an incredibly popular film almost fell apart at the seams. Ive raved already this month about the brilliance of The Usual Suspects and how it dupes the audience with one twist before flooring them with the real one. As believable as it is that former cop Dean Keaton was Keyser Soze, if the film had ended at that point, thered have been a tinge of disappointment to it; its a pretty typical development. Still, the audience have to buy it for five crucial minutes, so youd expect itd have been high on Bryan Singers priorities to make that scene as convincing as possible. But from interviews given by the director on the film, its clear he almost messed up; hes on record saying he suddenly realised late in the day hed forgotten to edit one of the key montages together, which I assume is the Keaton twist. This does cast doubt over the intentions of the film (some people put much credit to Christopher McQuarries script than Singers direction) but cant take away from what is one of the most thrilling movies of all time.