The more knowledgeable and experienced moviegoers get, the more difficult it is to come up with a plot twist that could surprise them. Offering an unexpected yet logical plot twist is often the best way how to make sure everybody remembers the movie and discusses it for years to come.
Some seemingly solid plot twists come out of nowhere while others manage to trick the audience and cause them to read the signs incorrectly. The best movie plot twists helped create cinematic legends. It doesn't matter how much time has passed since the movies' release - their unforgettable plot twists have aged well and are just as strong today as they were when the movies premiered.
5 Planet Of The Apes (1968)
The ending of The Planet of the Apes has become iconic and has been parodied multiple times. The main hero, portrayed by Charlton Heston, originally believes he landed on an alien world where apes rule and humans are subjugated by them. However, when he discovers the remains of the Statue of Liberty at the end of the movie, he realizes that he's been on Earth all along and that humans have destroyed it for the most part.
It's a poignant ending that shows that even when one species steps back, another one takes the reins, so the cycle of life goes on. The intelligent story spawned multiple sequels and turned Planet of the Apes into one of the most popular sci-fi movie franchises of all time.
4 The Sixth Sense (1999)
The final plot twist of The Sixth Sense is notoriously known and has helped make the movie into an industry icon. Bruce Willis played Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist who starts helping a young boy Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who can see ghosts. Throughout the movie, the two characters encounter multiple ghosts but, despite the fear that Cole faces, Malcolm helps him find a solution to his problem in the end.
The even more surprising realization that Malcolm comes to is that he's also a ghost. The signs and hints are all there in the movie but The Sixth Sense is so cleverly written that when it first came out, many people didn't guess the truth before the ending and, afterward, re-watched the movie to see what clues they had previously missed.
3 Fight Club (1999)
The year 1999 saw the release of two movies that would go on to become legendary, and both of them offered surprising plot twists. Fight Club, based on Chuck Palahniuk's book, centers around a nameless man (Edward Norton) who throws his previous life behind and joins the titular Fight Club, which is led by the charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt).
Of course, as all fans already know, the narrator and Tyler are actually the same person, and Tyler's persona is just a part of the main character's personality. Just like with The Sixth Sense, Fight Club also offers hints that Tyler doesn't really exist, but those are well hidden, and most viewers will watch the movie multiple times to discover everything they hadn't noticed right away.
2 The Others (2001)
The topic of ghosts is popular in horror movies because it allows the creators to play games with the viewers and characters alike, to make them question what's real and what's not. The Others are mostly set in a single location, an old house occupied by Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two children who can't go out in the sun due to their health conditions. After a series of strange occurrences, Grace starts to believe that her house is haunted and tries to solve the problem.
The truth is actually very different, though, as the audience and the family will learn in the surprising ending. Grace and her children aren't dealing with a ghost problem - they're the ghosts and the supposed spirits they're seeing are the real inhabitants of the house who moved there years later. The movie can seem somewhat confusing and otherworldly at times, but the final plot twist helps to explain all the mysterious details and questions that The Others offers.
1 Atonement (2007)
This British historical drama is mostly set during World War Two and tells the story of the romance between Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Robbie and Cecilia love each other but the jealousy of Cecilia's younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan) drives them apart for years before they finally reunite and get their happy ending. It sounds like a traditional love story but the movie's ending changes everything. In a heart-wrenching confession, the now-old Briony reveals that Robbie and Cecilia never met again as they both died during the war.
So, the happy ending that viewers originally saw in the movie was just a fictional story that Briony wrote since she became a writer and wanted to atone for her past actions by giving Robbie and Cecilia the happy life together that her actions robbed them off. Atonement seems to have it all: a compelling story, excellent actors, and beautiful period costumes, but it's the sad ending that makes the movie truly memorable and bittersweet. It also shows that no matter how powerful the imagination is, it can't save everything.