9 Seriously Smart Movies That Trick You By Having Two Twists

The Movie: The film that marked a resurgence of the twist as a major storytelling device in the mid-nineties, The Usual Suspects is a tight crime thriller made legendary by it's final, re-aligning five minutes, although you need the full hour and forty-five to get the full effect of Christopher McQuarrie's script.

The whole thing is told in "flashback" by Kevin Spacey's Verbal Kint to Chazz Palminteri's Agent Kujan in the hour leading up to the former's bail is posted, allowing for a double twist that future-proofs the whole thing; if you vaguely know there's a twist, the first is so seismic you accept it before having the rug pulled from under you again.

The First Twist: As the story comes to a close, Kujan springs his assessment of the situation on Verbal - Gabriel Byrne's Keaton was Keyser Söze, bringing together desperate thieves to act as patsies in an attempt to silence a former enemy. It's an air-tight assessment, fitting both the story Verbal's told and the present events outside the office where the interview's taking place. So convincing, in fact, that even Byrne believed it.

The Second Twist: And the film's over - Verbal leaves, the chief gets back his office and Kujan gets to sip his coffee. Except it keeps going, and we get a meticulously edited montage as the FBI agent realises everything he's been told was an elaborate ruse by Kint, the real Söze. It's one of the all-time greats, but works most effectively because everyone's already gone with the Keaton misdirect.

What other films have two twists? Share any we missed down in the comments.