We did NOT see that coming. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the plot twists that rocked audiences by coming entirely out of left-field.
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00:00She's ill.
00:02She sounded strong.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the plot twists that rocked audiences by coming entirely out of left field.
00:10This probably goes without saying, but a major spoiler alert for the movies on our list is in full effect.
00:15Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
00:19He told me enough!
00:22Number 10. Billy Costigan's fate. The Departed.
00:24Put the gun down, alright? I came here to talk some sense into you.
00:26Hands!
00:27Alright, just act professional. I can get you your money.
00:30The film that finally won Martin Scorsese a Best Director Oscar is unsurprisingly one of the iconic director's most entertaining projects.
00:37The Departed focuses on the backstabbing and betrayal committed by undercover cops in the Massachusetts State Police.
00:42Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, tasked with finding a mole in the organization placed there by notorious gangster Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson.
00:51If you don't find this cheese-eating rat bastard in your department, you can assume it won't be me who pays for it.
00:59Now why would you have to remind me of that?
01:01Colin Sullivan, a staff sergeant, is the mole, and is confronted by Costigan upon discovering this.
01:06For a moment, it looks like good has triumphed over evil, until Costigan is unceremoniously executed by yet another mole.
01:12The development is shocking not only because of its plot significance, but also because who would expect that to happen to one of our biggest movie stars?
01:19I am killing you.
01:219. Rosebud, Citizen Kane
01:23Is that really your idea of how to run a newspaper?
01:25I don't know how to run a newspaper, Mr. Thatcher. I just try everything I can think of.
01:29You know perfectly well there's not the slightest proof that this armada's off the Jersey Coast.
01:33Hello, Mr. Bernstein.
01:34Excuse me, Mr. Kane.
01:35Can you prove it isn't?
01:36The plot of Orson Welles' legendary drama, which some have referred to as the greatest motion picture ever made,
01:42focuses on journalist Jerry Thompson's quest to understand the significance of a media mogul's last words.
01:48Charles Foster Kane, played by director Welles and based partially on newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst,
01:54is seen uttering the word, Rosebud, immediately before leaving this mortal coil.
01:59Rosebud.
02:01Citizen Kane's final moments reveal that Rosebud refers to Kane's childhood sled,
02:05which the mogul had been playing with earlier in the film before being forcibly removed from his childhood home.
02:10Be careful, Charles.
02:12Pull your muffler around your neck, Charles.
02:14Kane, I think we shall have to tell him now.
02:16Yes.
02:17I'll sign those papers now, Mr. Thatcher.
02:20Number 8.
02:21What Leonard Did.
02:22Memento
02:23Hey, mister, I need help.
02:24There's a guy in here.
02:25He's hurt bad.
02:26We gotta get him to a doctor.
02:27All right.
02:29I don't know what happened.
02:30I've got this memory thing.
02:31Memento introduces a number of Christopher Nolan's hallmarks in Calling Cards, such as his twisty, complex plots.
02:37In this case, Guy Pearce's Leonard Shelby is on the hunt for the man who killed his wife.
02:42However, due to injuries that he sustained in the attack, he suffers from anterograde amnesia,
02:46and must therefore use unconventional methods to track the progress of his investigation.
02:51Remember Sammy Jacobs?
02:52Remember Sammy Jacobs?
02:53Great story gets better every time you tell it.
02:57So you lie to yourself to be happy.
02:59There's nothing wrong with that.
03:00We all do it.
03:01Who cares if there's a few little details you'd rather not remember?
03:04However, it's eventually revealed that Leonard himself killed his diabetic wife by giving her a fatal injection of insulin,
03:10and has been killing men named John G at the request of a corrupt police officer.
03:13They had already taken care of the attacker the previous year.
03:16Look, don't let me...
03:17Will you help me find the keys?
03:20Help me find my keys!
03:22Honey!
03:23Number 7. The Bunker. Parasite.
03:34The first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture,
03:37Bong Joon-ho's thrilling genre-defying class satire was a massive sleeper hit.
03:42Parasite follows the misadventures of the Wiley-Kim family,
03:45who gradually infiltrate the home of the wealthy Parks by posing as household help.
03:49Although it initially seems as though the Kim scheme is going off without a hitch,
03:53the entire arrangement is quickly flipped on its head.
03:57The Parks' previous housekeeper is revealed to have stashed her husband in a secret bunker underneath the house
04:01as a means of protecting him from predatory loan sharks.
04:04It's almost impossible to lump Parasite into a single genre category,
04:07but its sheer entertainment value is inarguable.
04:27Who do you have?
04:29Number 6. The Armitage Cult. Get Out.
04:31Do they know I'm... Do they know I'm black?
04:37No.
04:40Should they?
04:41From the moment we meet Chris, an Oscar-nominated Daniel Kaluuya,
04:44and his girlfriend Rose, Alison Williams, it's clear that something strange is afoot.
04:49Chris, who's black, is nervous about meeting Rose's waspy upper-class family.
04:53And if that didn't sound awkward enough, Chris is shortly hypnotized by Rose's psychiatrist mother, Missy,
04:58Catherine Keener.
04:59Now, sink into the floor.
05:03Wait, wait, wait.
05:04Sink.
05:05This plants the seeds for the reveal that Rose's family, the Armitages,
05:08are masterminds of an appalling scheme to transplant the brains of their wealthy friends
05:13into the bodies of unwilling black participants.
05:15My family and I are honored to operate as a service to members of our group.
05:21Don't waste your strength. Don't try to fight it.
05:24Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its exceedingly clever approach to addressing racial politics
05:29in the post-Obama era, Get Out won Jordan Peele, its writer-director,
05:33the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
05:36Number 5. The Truth About Jack and Tyler. Fight Club.
05:39Do you know me?
05:41Is this a test, sir?
05:42No, this is not a test.
05:45You were in here last Thursday.
05:48Thursday?
05:49Director David Fincher's reality-bending psychological thriller is a modern-day cult classic,
05:54but it wasn't always so beloved by movie fans.
05:56In fact, Fight Club was a disappointing flop upon its release,
05:59grossing just over $60 million worldwide and failing to recoup its $101 million budget.
06:05Answer me. Why do people think that I'm you?
06:08I think you know.
06:10No, I don't.
06:11Yes, you do. Why would anyone possibly confuse you with me?
06:15Over time, viewers came around to Fincher's exceedingly dark, gritty vision and chilling social commentary.
06:20More specifically, they were wowed by Fight Club's wild third-act twist,
06:24which reveals that its main characters, played by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton,
06:28are actually two entities sharing one body.
06:30Yeah, that's what we call a reasonably strange time in one's life.
06:33Say it.
06:36Because we're the same person.
06:39That's right.
06:40Number 4. The Statue of Liberty. Planet of the Apes.
06:43Now, if they can prove those scrolls don't tell the whole truth of your history,
06:46if they can find some real evidence of another culture from some remote past,
06:51will you let them off?
06:53When three astronauts' spaceship hurdles them over 2,000 years into the future,
06:57they're forced to survive and fend for themselves on a hostile alien planet.
07:01As if that wasn't bad enough, the planet is populated by humanoid apes,
07:05who don't take kindly to their fleshy visitors.
07:07Humans can't write.
07:09Dear, you're a scientist. Don't you believe your own eyes?
07:13Eventually, astronaut George Taylor discovers the existence of an earlier human society,
07:17which has been suppressed by the planet's simian rulers.
07:20In the closing moments of director Franklin J. Schaffner's film,
07:23Taylor breaks down as he comes across the ruins of the Statue of Liberty.
07:27He's actually been teleported to a future version of Earth that's been devastated by nuclear war.
07:31Oh, my God.
07:34I'm back.
07:36I'm home.
07:39All the time.
07:40Number 3. Cole can see Malcolm, The Sixth Sense.
07:43I noticed your eyeglasses. They don't have any lenses in them.
07:48They're my dad's. The lenses hurt my eyes.
07:51Oh, he sees dead people all right.
07:53M. Night Shyamalan's mainstream breakthrough, which saw him nominated for several Oscars,
07:58tells the story of troubled child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crow, played by Bruce Willis.
08:02Crow takes on the difficult case of Cole Sear, a nine-year-old boy who is haunted by the past,
08:07quite literally, in the sense that he can perceive and communicate with the spirits of the dead.
08:12I see dead people.
08:17In your dreams?
08:19The twist? Crow is one of the dead people that Cole can see,
08:22having been fatally wounded by a gunshot at the beginning of the film.
08:25The twist was lauded by critics for its expert setup and satisfying payoff,
08:29and helped to establish Shyamalan as a notable film auteur.
08:32I see people.
08:36They don't know they're dead.
08:42How often do you see them?
08:44Number 2. Luke's father. Star Wars Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back.
08:48We can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.
08:54I'll never join you!
08:56If you only knew the power of the dark side.
09:00A plot twist and line so famous that even those who haven't seen the Star Wars movies know they're coming.
09:05Darth Vader's infamous reveal laid the groundwork for the rest of the series.
09:08The climax of The Empire Strikes Back depicts one of the greatest battles between good and evil ever committed to celluloid.
09:14He told me you killed him.
09:16No. I am your father.
09:19The iconic lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke Skywalker culminates with our hero seemingly cornered,
09:25having lost a hand to the galactic tyrant.
09:27Attempting to goad Luke into ruling the galaxy with him, Vader drops the ultimate bomb.
09:31He didn't kill Luke's father. He is Luke's father.
09:34If only there was a series of films that explained how he became so evil to begin with.
09:38That's impossible!
09:40Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
09:43Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
09:46Jason Lives, Friday the 13th.
09:48Mrs. Voorhees' son, thought dead, reveals himself and sets up the rest of the franchise.
09:56Grace and her children are the ghosts, the others.
09:59A suitably haunting ending to a famously spooky film.
10:02Why you didn't vote.
10:09Then I knew.
10:14It had happened.
10:15A secret twin, the Prestige.
10:17A magician never reveals his tricks, so Christopher Nolan does it for us.
10:20My brother.
10:22A twin.
10:24A twin.
10:26You or Fallon.
10:28Non-linear time, Arrival.
10:30Denis Villeneuve's film doesn't take place in chronological order.
10:33Hannah, this is where your story begins.
10:40The day they departed.
10:42Howard's celebration is cut short, uncut gems.
10:44If something is too good to be true, etc, etc.
10:47I love you.
10:48I love you.
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11:05Number one.
11:06Norman is Norma.
11:07Sorta.
11:08Psycho.
11:09Cabin one.
11:10It's closer in case you want anything.
11:11Right next to the office.
11:12I want sleep more than anything else, except maybe food.
11:15Well, there's a big diner about ten miles up the road, just outside of Fairvale.
11:18We wish that we could have warned Janet Leigh's Marion Crane not to lay her head down at Bates Motel.
11:23The amateur criminal finds herself stranded at the legendarily creepy lodging on a prototypically dark and stormy night.
11:29There, she becomes acquainted with Norman, the friendly but eccentric young man who oversees the motel.
11:33His mother Norma owns the property.
11:35Do you go out with friends?
11:40Well, a boy's best friend is his mother.
11:42It quickly becomes apparent that there's a killer on the loose, who takes the lives of both Marion and private investigator Milton Arbogast.
11:49In the film, it's revealed that the killer is Norman himself.
11:52Having killed his mother and mummified her remains, Norman developed a murderous alternate personality that mimics her.
11:58Next time, we'd suggest therapy first.
12:00So he began to think and speak for her.
12:03Give her half his life, so to speak.
12:06At times, he could be.
12:08Both personalities carry on conversations.
12:10Which plot twist on our list shocked you the most?
12:12Are there any we missed?
12:13Be sure to let us know in the comments.
12:15Where are those keys, Rose?
12:21You know I can't give you the keys, right, babe?
12:23Did you enjoy this video?
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