15 Awesome Plot Twists That Totally Saved Awful Movies

12. Jet Li Is The Good Guy, Jason Statham Is Kinda Bad - War

The Twist: After John Crawford (Jason Statham) and his FBI agent partner Tom Lone (Terry Chen) leave assassin Rogue (Jet Li) for dead, Rogue gets revenge by killing Tom, his wife and daughter and burning their home down. Rogue emerges again three years later and initiates a triad war, though it turns out that he is, in fact, Tom, who lived to kill Rogue in revenge and used plastic surgery to assume his identity.

Tom/Rogue then finds out that Crawford had been paid off to leak Tom's identity to the mob, leading to the deaths of his family. The two have a showdown at the end of the movie, where Crawford reveals he was blackmailed into giving the information, and only expected Tom and his family to get roughed up rather than killed. In the end, Crawford allows himself to be killed by Tom, who maintains his Rogue identity and starts a new life.

Why It Saves The Movie: Expectations were never particularly high for an action movie with a title as generic as "War", and unsurprisingly, the majority of the movie is a totally forgettable action thriller with sub-par set-pieces, laughable dialogue and poor acting.

The twist, meanwhile, pleasantly inverts the expected formula, shifting audience allegiance completely. Entertainment Weekly's review of the movie put it perfectly: "along comes a plot twist so ingenious that it almost redeems the rest of the flick. In fact, you kinda feel bad for the twist itself, which deserved a better home."