20 Most Idiotic Film Twists Of All Time

9. Kevin Spacey Frames Himself To Prove The Death Penalty Wrong - The Life Of David Gale

The Twist: David Gale (Kevin Spacey) did not rape and kill Constance Hallaway (Laura Linney) as charged. Following Gale's execution for the crime, reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) receives a tape, which reveals that not only did Hallaway actually commit suicide following a terminal leukemia diagnosis, but Gale willingly planted his own DNA on the plastic bag and allowed himself to be executed in order to make the "ultimate" statement against the death penalty.

Why It's Stupid: Because the political statement falls apart under even the most scarce scrutiny. For starters, of course an innocent man can be executed if you devise the most perfectly convoluted frame-up job and intentionally withhold evidence.

Wouldn't a more chilling condemnation of the death penalty be if Gale presented all the evidence of his innocence and was still somehow executed? This would be much more difficult, and so the movie just cheated instead, which some might argue accidentally makes it seem pro-death penalty.

Plus, there's that rather awkward matter of how Gale could also be convicted of the rape, something that's really too gross to even consider thinking about. How so many smart actors got involved with such a woefully misguided film is anyone's guess.