Somewhat inspired by the 1939 Agatha Christie story And Then There Were None, the 2003 thriller movie Identity has a great cast and a fun twist ending. Starring Clea DuVall, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta, and John Cusack, the film is about ten strangers who stay at a motel and begin getting murdered. But while there are many murder mystery movies, like 2022's Bodies Bodies Bodies and 2007's Zodiac, Identity endures because it concludes in a way that audiences didn't see coming.
Why is the end of Identity so compelling, and why is this a thriller film that people still talk about with shock and awe today? There's a lot to unpack about this movie's ending, and no matter how many times fans watch Identity, the end is always shocking.
What Happens At The End Of Identity?
The Identity ending has one of the best movie plot twists and is often talked about when it comes to final scenes that are absolutely shocking. The ending shares the truth about Samuel Rhodes (Liotta): he's a criminal who has pretended to be a cop. Rhodes kills Larry Washington (John Hawkes), the manager of the motel, and it seems like Rhodes is the murderer who everyone has been looking for. In the first surprising twist, it turns out that isn't the case at all, and Rhodes and Ed Dakota (Cusack) kill one another.
While that seems pretty straightforward, the impressive part of the Identity ending is the reveal that Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince) has imagined all of the events of the motel in his mind. He has many different personalities and they are all the characters who audiences previously thought were strangers at the motel. Like the many great movies based on Agatha Christie novels, Identity constantly switches up what is real and what is not, and that keeps audiences engaged.
Audiences see Malcolm going to a mental hospital and having a vision of Paris Nevada (Peet), who is living in Frostproof, Florida and taking care of a grove of oranges. Then it is revealed that Timmy York (Bret Loehr), who is nine years old, is the one who killed everyone. However, Timmy is one of Malcolm's personalities, and now he is the only one left.
Timmy's age makes this one of the most unpredictable horror movie plot twists. And even though there are some hints at what is to come, it truly feels like all of the events at the motel are real, so this is a smart way to end the story.
The ending of Identity ties back to the beginning, where audiences learn that Malcolm Rivers is on death row. Dr. Malick (Alfred Molina) is his psychiatrist who thinks that he has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Halfway through the film, it comes out that Malcolm has 11 personalities, which is a sign of the twist ending to come.
How Does The Twist Ending Of Identity Change The Story?
Like Christopher Nolan's smart twist ending of The Prestige, the final scenes of Identity changes the whole movie, which makes it even more fascinating. Without it, it would be a straightforward thriller about murders taking place at a motel. It wouldn't feel unique at all, as there are countless movies about strangers getting killed in the same location, whether on vacation or trapped somewhere. There are also many horror movies that are all about eerie happenings at hotels, and John Cusack even starred in one, as he appeared in 1408, which is an underrated Stephen King adaptation.
John Cusack was interviewed by The Mirror when Identity was released and he talked about how much he liked the film. He said, "Identity is the kind of thing I'd like to see in New York at 10 o'clock at night. It's in-between a psychological thriller and a bit of a horror movie, so I thought it was one of those Agatha Christie, Hitchcock kind of things - a bit of a popcorn movie."
The actor said that when he received the script for Identity, he wasn't able to guess the twist ending. Cusack said, "And I didn't see the plot twists as I was reading. I didn't see the thing in the end coming."
Since Timmy York is so young, no one would ever suspect him of being the personality of Malcolm's who is the murderer, and that's why he was such a smart choice. Even if someone did guess that Malcolm had many personalities, it would still be tough to think that it was a child who had committed the murders that took place in Malcolm's head. It's definitely telling that although Identity was released in 2003, the movie's ending is so wild and intense that it's still considered of the greatest twist endings in a movie.