8 Movies That Fooled Us Twice
4. Gone Girl
The 2004 thriller Gone Girl may well be the story of the most toxic relationship you’ve ever seen but from the outset it doesn’t necessarily appear that way.
At the movie’s opening, Ben Affleck’s Nick arrives home on his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife Amy missing. After signs of a struggle are found, and Amy’s diary that implicitly states that he is abusive, Nick becomes a suspect and public enemy number one.
Our first twist comes when Rosamund Pike’s Amy reveals to the audience that not only is she alive, but she planted all of the evidence as revenge on Nick for an affair he was having. It seems like the perfect plan and Nick seems sure to go be found guilty, but Amy has a change of heart when she sees him admitting his faults on live TV.
Slitting the throat of the man she has run away to, and making it look like self defence, Amy returns home. Nick is absolved of the crime but now trapped with a woman responsible for far more than he gave her credit for.
Amy is a deeply terrifying and powerful character, and the story of Gone Girl only moves when she lets it move. She instigates both of these huge twists, and gives the film its compelling and uncomfortable ending.