12 Movies That Wasted Great Twist Ideas

There are few things in cinema as singularly satisfying as a good plot twist.

No matter how cleverly plotted and well written a movie is prior to its big reveal, nothing hits the spot quite like the thrilling shock of "oh that's who Tyler is!" or a "no wonder the kid was the only one talking to him!"

That said, not every good twist is included in a good film.

Sometimes screenwriters stumble across a surprising but thematically clever and appropriate turn for their story to take...

Then end up f***ing up the rest of the film.

That's why there are lists like this one, to document the many cases where filmmakers accidentally added an effective, clever plot twist to an otherwise awful movie. Some of these films are full blown duds whereas some are merely passable and fail to live up to their potential, but what they all have in common is a great twist which the film itself fumbles, over-explains, under-utilises, or fails to justify in the movie itself.

Released in 2018, Lost Kingdom was the follow up to 2015's surprisingly effective slice of blockbuster action Jurassic World.

However, where Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow kept things simple plot-wise in that largely successful effort, A Monster Calls helmer JA Bayona had no such plans for this follow-up.

Thus, this over-stuffed sequel gave viewers a rescue mission to a volcanic island, a new genetically engineered dinosaur bio-weapon, and a black market for cartoony arms dealers to bid on dinosaurs. But those are not the twists which made this list.

No, the wasted twist in Lost Kingdom is the mid-film reveal that the young protagonist Maisie is actually a clone, not an ordinary human child. As she's the focus of the film's opening moments and is frequently central to the action, it seems this revelation might result in her siding with the genetically engineered dinosaurs laying waste to their human captors rather than the rest of our heroes.

Scary, right?

Well it's a good thing the twist Is never mentioned again and has no bearing whatsoever on her actions, then. That was a close call.