8 Brilliant Movie Plot Twists (That Don't Make Sense At All)
4. How Did Anybody Know That Charles Kane's Last Words Were "Rosebud"? - Citizen Kane
![Citizen Kane](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2015/02/citizen-kane-600x338.jpg)
The Plot Twist: In Citizen Kane, protagonist Charles Foster Kane dies at the beginning of the movie, revealing his last words to be "rosebud." The movie tracks a journalist as he attempts to discover what these enigmatic final words mean, and in the last moments of the flick we discover that "rosebud" does not refer to a person or place, but Kane's childhood sled, which - in itself - is a metaphor for happier times, when Kane was care-free and without worry.
But Wait... How did anybody know that Kane's final words were "rosebud"? There was nobody there in the room when he whispered his last words and dropped that snow-globe. Yes, a nurse runs into the room about four of five seconds after he utters it, but there's no way that she could have heard what he said, given how loud he actually says it and how far away she is. The sound of the globe smashing is what alerts her to Kane's room, after all, not the sound of him saying "rosebud."
The subtle twist at the end, revealing the sled, is nice, emotional and brings the movie together immeasurably well, but how did we - realistically - even get to that point in the first place?