12 Greatest Red Herring Movie Endings

1. It's Not Really A Revenge Story - Memento

Christopher Nolan's mesmerisingly cerebral film is framed as a revenge thriller in which an amnesiac man, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), attempts to avenge his wife's (Jorja Fox) rape and murder.

Nolan steers the audience in the direction of believing that Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) is most likely responsible, though the film's non-linear structure eventually reveals that Leonard's wife survived the initial attack, and Leonard himself accidentally killed her with an insulin overdose due to his amnesia.

Moreover, Leonard and Teddy killed the actual attacker more than a year prior, the revelation of which prompts Leonard to frame Teddy as the killer in his own mind, giving himself a new revenge mission to partake in rather than face up to the reality of killing his own wife.

It's a superb reconfiguration of what the audience is supposed to care about. We get invested in this revenge story only to learn that it's thoroughly warped, and the true story is instead built around a man's self-deception in light of a devastating tragedy.

What are your favourite red herring movie endings? Shout them out in the comments!