8 Brilliant Movie Plot Twists (That Don't Make Sense At All)

7. Why Did Vader Wait So Long To Tell Luke He Was His Father? - Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

The Plot Twist: Essentially the greatest plot twist of all-time, simple, effective and memorable, at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, the second installment in the Star Wars saga, Jedi wannabe Luke Skywalker ends up facing off against the guy who killed his father long ago, Darth Vader. When Vader defeats Luke and manages to slice off his hand, the most unexpected revelation emerges: Darth Vader didn't kill Luke's father - he is Luke's father! Who saw that one coming, huh?

But Wait... It has become standard procedure for most people to just accept this for what it is - the greatest moment in cinema history, and - back in '80, anyway - the most unexpected twist to have ever occurred, like, ever. Despite all that, though, the fact that George Lucas himself didn't know that Vader was going to end up being Luke's daddy until the second movie means that there are a lot of flaws inherent to this otherwise awesome idea.

That's to say, when did Vader learn about Luke? We never see that moment occurring. Also: why didn't he realise that Luke was his son when they were about twenty metres away from each other in the original Star Wars aboard the Death Star? Worst still, Luke has Vader's last name and has never been afraid of using it - he knows that his dad's name was Anakin Skywalker.

Why has this all taken so long to culminate? Well, we know why, of course (because it was never planned and a bit of shoe-horning had to be done to make it possible). Still, magnificent as this twist is, a ton of suspension of disbelief is required: it's so very easy to pick apart, after all.