50 Greatest Mid-Film Twists
Hancock (2004)
The Mid-Film Twist: Superhero John Hancock (Will Smith) finally redeems himself (sort of) by intercepting a bank robbery, only to discover that he's not the only superhero in town - Mary (Charlize Theron) also has her own kick-ass powers.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: One massive smackdown between Hancock and Mary (cool superhero names, guys) and Hancock gets shot in the chest.
Meanwhile, Mary looks badass in shades.
X2 (2003)
The Mid-Film Twist: Storm (Halle Berry) and co loose control of the X-Jet and are about to crash into a forest when suddenly they don't - because uber-villain Magneto (Ian McKellen) has just saved them. Seems he wants to help them stop other uber-villain Stryker (Brian Cox), who poses much more of a threat.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Some great snippy banter, Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) trying to seduce Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) - naturally - and a great siege at Alkali Lake.
Plus this:
Quintet (1979)
The Mid-Film Twist: Essex's (Paul Newman) girlfriend Vivia (Brigitte Fossey) is the first woman to fall pregnant in this hellish future landscape in years.
Oh, and by the way? Nobody cares. She's dead by halfway through the film.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Less a contemplation on the wonder of creation, more a bombastic conspiracy movie as Essex goes undercover and discovers a casino where a deadly game called Quintet is playing out…
Brave (2012)
The Mid-Film Twist: Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) shirks her royal duties and escapes into the woods.
Instead of this turning into an Into The Wild-style drama in which Merida 'finds herself' in nature, she meets a witch, strikes a deal, and accidentally turns her mother into a bear…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Brave becomes a meditation on mother-daughter relationships - with added fur!
The Sound Of Music (1959)
The Mid-Film Twist: So the von Trapp family are all happily united, but now Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) is wanted by the Nazis! Uh-oh…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Things get considerably darker as the Von Trapps attempt to evade capture - first by singing at the Salzburg Music Festival, then - finally - making a getaway with the help of some nuns.
God bless them.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Mid-Film Twist: Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his droogs have been having fun creating chaos in a future London, but then Alex is unexpectedly chucked in jail, undergoes aversion therapy and emerges a changed man…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Alex is announced as 'cured' of his delinquency and attempts to fit back into normal life.
Of course, that's unlikely to happen in a Kubrick movie…
Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers (1989)
The Mid-Film Twist: Having survived one round with Michael Myers, Rachel (Ellie Cornell) finally bites the dust halfway through this fifth Halloween flick.
Myers whips out a pair of scissors and stabs her. (In the original script she comes off worse - he makes her swallow them).
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Basically, it all goes to shit.
Insanely annoying Tina (Wendy Kaplan) takes up the Final Girl mantle. Meanwhile, Jamie (Danielle Harris) has a terrifying face-off with Myers in an air-vent.
Trail Of The Pink Panther (1982)
The Mid-Film Twist: While on the case of a stolen diamond, Inspector Clouseau's (Peter Sellers) plane crashes on the way to Lugash, and the great inspector is lost at sea.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: That twist was necessitated by the death of Sellers, with his scenes all harvested from The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
The rest of the narrative focuses instead on reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) and Clousea's childhood years. It doesn't exactly work.
Private Benjamin (1980)
The Mid-Film Twist: Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is forced to choose between her career in the Army and being with French doctor Henri Tremont (Armand Assante).
In a shock twist, she chooses him, and they get married.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The entire film goes skew-whiff as Judy discovers Henri is actually a controlling moron and has been cheating on her with the maid. Meanwhile, we all wonder what happened to all the fun Army stuff…
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Mid-Film Twist: "Life found a way."
Grant (Sam Neill) and the kids discover eggs in the dinosaur park, and realise that even though the dinosaurs should be unable to breed, they've managed to do it anyway.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Not only does it affect the rest of Jurassic Park (there are even more dinosaurs than we thought!), it also spills into sequel The Lost World , where dinosaur life is thriving.
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
The Mid-Film Twist: Smiley newlyweds Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich) are on their honeymoon in Hawaii when people start showing up dead - and Cliff and Cydney turn out to be the ones responsible.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: We discover that this couple are drug-addicted sociopaths who want to achieve immortality by killing couples and stealing their identities.
Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez fight back.
The Cottage (2008)
The Mid-Film Twist: David (Andy Serkis) and Peter (Reece Shearsmith) have kidnapped Tracey (Jennifer Ellison), the daughter of a crime boss and taken her to a middle-of-nowhere cottage.
Except halfway through the film, they earn the ire of a serial killer known as the Farmer. This doesn't bode well…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Lots and lots of blood. Plus some spine-ripping stuff.
And a pickaxe.
Funny People (2009)
The Mid-Film Twist: Halfway through Judd Apatow's 'cancer comedy', George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is suddenly and unexpectedly cured.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Simmons pretends to still be ill, while his ex-fiancée (Leslie Mann) thinks about leaving her husband to be with him.
Lawless (2012)
The Mid-Film Twist: Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) has his throat savagely hacked apart by a couple of mobsters and is left for dead in the car park.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Miraculously, Forrest survives to wear another cardigan.
Later on, he gets shot. Which he also survives. Is this guy secretly Superman?
Predator (1987)
The Mid-Film Twist: Major Alan 'Dutch' Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his crew are on a mission to rescue a cabinet minister in the Central American jungle.
Except then something starts hunting them - it turns out to be an unkillable, tech-equipped alien.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Dutch's crew is picked off one by one, leading to a confrontation between the He-Man and the alien.
"You're one ugly motherfucker…"
Maniac Cop (1988)
The Mid-Film Twist: Lieutenant McCrae (Tom Atkins) has been investigating reports of a 'maniac cop' who's been butchering New Yorkers.
Sadly, McRae buys it 45 minutes in - he's thrown out of the window by the titular copper.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: With McRae gone, Officer Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) becomes the main protagonist, going up against the maniac cop himself…
The Village (2004)
The Mid-Film Twist: Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) is attacked by the mysterious beast that has been stalking the village and tricks it into falling into a hole - where we discover the beast is actually Noah (Adrien Brody) in disguise.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: That's just the first hint that things aren't what they seem in the village.
Later, we discover the village itself was actually created by a professor in the 1970s and is located in the middle of a wildlife preserve…
The Dark Crystal (1982)
The Mid-Film Twist: Jen discovers that he's not the last Gelfling - there's another one in the comely form of female Gelfling Kira. Ho mama.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Not as much romance as you might expect, though we do find out more about Gelflings - like, for instance, that females have wings.
Which comes in handy a couple of times. And makes Jen really jealous.
Serenity (2005)
The Mid-Film Twist: Just when you think the re-recruitment of the Firefly crew is almost complete, poor old Shepherd is (Ron Glass) is reintroduced and then ingloriously killed off.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The stakes are considerably raised - seems nobody's safe when Joss Whedon goes big screen.
That's confirmed roughly 35 minutes later when another lead character gets the chop.
Sunshine (2007)
The Mid-Film Twist: Captain Pinbacker (Mark Strong), horribly burned from exposure to the sun, climbs aboard the Icarus II and starts hacking his way through the crew.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Lots of running and chasing as Cassie (Rose Byrne) and Capa (Cillian Murphy) attempt to escape a bloody death-by-maniac.
A History Of Violence (2005)
The Mid-Film Twist: Restaurant owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) kills scary gangster Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) with a shotgun, revealing he just might be the gangster everybody seems to think he is.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Tom's marriage falls apart and he goes off to meet his brother, crime kingpin Richie (William Hurt).
There's also more violence.
Niagara (1953)
The Mid-Film Twist: Marilyn Monroe is the villain in this thriller noir.
Even more shocking, she dies halfway through at the hands of George (Joseph Cotten), who strangles her.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: George steals a boat and goes after Ray and Polly Cutler, only to plummet to his death on the Falls. Whoops.
Hostel (2005)
The Mid-Film Twist: Josh (Derek Richardson) wakes up handcuffed to a chair, his backpacking adventure having taken a turn for the worse.
Turns out people pay to torture other people, and Josh has just been enlisted. He ends up very, very dead.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Josh's friend Paxton takes up the narrative and manages to escape (with a woman whose eye is hanging out). Will he make it to safety?
The Birds (1963)
The Mid-Film Twist: It starts out as a screwball comedy as Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) visits Bodega Bay with a pair of lovebirds for Mitch (Rod Taylor), but things go horribly wrong when birds inexplicably attack children in a playground. What the-?
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Birds. Birds everywhere. Swooping. Pecking. Murderous.
This is suddenly pure horror story, and suddenly we don't want to watch Tweety Bird cartoons anymore.
Death Proof (2007)
The Mid-Film Twist: Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd), and Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) are all horrifically killed by Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), who uses his 'death proof' car to smash them into smithereens.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: We're introduced to a new set of women - Abernathy Ross (Rosario Dawson), Kim Mathis (Tracie Thoms) and Lee Montgomery (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) - who also go up against Stuntman Mike, with different results.
Audition (1999)
The Mid-Film Twist: We discover that Asami (Eihi Shiina) is actually a callous killing machine, not the sweet innocent thing that Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) assumed she was.
We discover this when a man crawls out of the sack in her apartment, missing his tongue, an ear and both feet. When he begs for food, Asami vomits in a bowl and feeds that to him.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Asami tortures Aoyama.
Which is when things start getting really horrible…
Lost Highway (1997)
The Mid-Film Twist: Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) is put in jail, but when his cell is checked by the guards, they discover he's gone, only to be replaced by Pete (Balthazar Getty).
Which is par for the course when it's a David Lynch film, right?
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Pete's released to go on his own unusual adventure, only to turn back into Fred at an opportune moment.
We all scratch our heads in confusion.
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
The Mid-Film Twist: Poor old Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) and his son end up in a concentration camp, where Guido attempts to turn it all into a game. Not the easiest job, all things considered…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Things get seriously bittersweet as Guido does his best to shield his son from the horrors of the camp.
Cue tragic ending and credits.
The Descent (2005)
The Mid-Film Twist: What starts out as a film about friendship and grieving takes a turn for the weird when a group of friends go caving.
At the mid-way point, they discover they're being hunted by cave-dwelling nasties called crawlers.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Lots of people get killed in lots of horrible ways, plus there's a really mean hallucination.
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
The Mid-Film Twist: Trish (Gina Philips) and her bro Darry Jenner (Justin Long) are being stalked by some guy in a clapped out van.
Strike that, they're being HUNTED, because this 'guy' is actually a centuries old demon who's woken up to feast on body parts.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Mild ridiculousness that aims for A Nightmare On Elm Street thrills but doesn't quite no where to draw the line.
The final scene is really upsettin
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
The Mid-Film Twist: Dr Rosen (Christopher Plummer) reveals to Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) that John Nash (Russell Crowe) has schizophrenia, and that he has created certain people - all of whom have played big roles in the first half of the film - in his imagination.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Nash undergoes therapy, but he ditches the medication when it makes him feel woozy. It all turns out right in the end, though.
The Skin I Live In (2011)
The Mid-Film Twist: Pedro Almodóvar detonates one of the boldest mid-film twists ever as we discover that the woman crazy surgeon Robert (Antonio Banderas) has locked in his house was actually a man, and Robert has carried out gender reassignment surgery on him in revenge…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Vera (Elena Anaya) gets revenge on Robert and returns to her mother's dress shop to reveal all.
28 Days Later (2002)
The Mid-Film Twist: Likeable cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) becomes infected with The Rage when a drop of blood falls from a corpse into his eye (nooooo!), which heralds the arrival of army guys…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The plot all but grinds to a halt as survivors Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Selena (Naomie Harris) discover post-apocalyptic soldiers aren't all that nice. Meanwhile, Jim goes all feral.
Primal Fear (1996)
The Mid-Film Twist: While on trial, altar boy Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton) breaks down and turns into a completely new person, calling himself Roy and confessing to the murder that Aaron is on trial for…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Aaron's defence attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) has to find a way to get Aaron off, even though he technically did commit murder. It's a tricky one.
And of course, it sets up a sucker-punch of a twist in the final act. "There was never an Aaron , counsellor."
Alien (1979)
The Mid-Film Twist: Hero captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) is the first Nostromo crew member (after poor old Kane) to die at the claws of the xenomorph, leaving this ship very much without a rudder.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Other crew members die, leaving Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as the unexpected hero(ine) of the story.
Miracle Mile (1988)
The Mid-Film Twist: Despite the film beginning as a would-be romantic comedy in which Harry (Anthony Edwards) and Julie (Mare Winningham) meet and fall in love, things go a little bit weird when Harry intercepts a phone call telling him that the world's going to end in 50 minutes…
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Harry sets out to find Julie.
Meanwhile, a warhead is launched, eliminating any doubt that the end is very much fucking nigh.
Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Mid-Film Twist: You know that “great Jedi warrior” Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) goes searching for?
Turns out he's a little green muppet.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: There's no massive impact other than the fact that a huge player in the Wars-verse has been revealed.
That said, there's also lots of stuff about size not mattering.
In The Bedroom (2001)
The Mid-Film Twist: College grad Frank (Nick Stahl) is killed by Richard Strout (William Mapother), the former lover of his current squeeze.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: With a little help from grieving parents Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson, this becomes a bruising meditation on grief.
Laura (1944)
The Mid-Film Twist: The titular character is the film's main murder victim, but halfway through we discover Laura (Gene Tierney) alive and well.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: NYPD Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) arrests Laura for the murder of one of her models, misidentified as Laura, but then a romance burgeons between them…
Repo Man (1984)
The Mid-Film Twist: Young punk Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez) starts working as a repo man, repossessing cars.
Then he's offered a job by Leila (Olivia Barash), who wants him to track down a car that has aliens locked in the boot. Say whaaa?
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: A wild ride (to say the least) and an open ending for a sequel that never got made.
Dressed To Kill (1980)
The Mid-Film Twist: Sexually-frustrated housewife Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) has sex with a stranger, discovers she may have contracted an STI from him, and promptly leaves.
Then she's promptly slashed to death in a lift by somebody in a blonde wig.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The focus shifts onto Dr Robert Elliot (Michael Caine), Kate's therapist, while call girl Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) is stalked by the same blonde-haired killer.
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)
The Mid-Film Twist: (HUGE MASSIVE SPOILERS) So it looks like this is going to be a film about Ryan Gosling attempting to establish a relationship with his son while seducing Eva Mendes, right? WRONG.
Around the 40 minute mark, Gosling's spectacularly gunned down by Bradley Cooper's cop and becomes a messy red blob on the pavement.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The story splits into three distinct acts; the second act is all about Cooper's guilt-ridden cop, while the third focuses on the relationship between his and Gosling's son.
You got it, this is epic fable-weaving.
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
The Mid-Film Twist : Samuel L. Jackson may be the biggest name on this silly-but-fun shark flick's cast list, but that doesn't mean he's safe from the odd man-eating fish.
Yep, he gets chomped on halfway through.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: LL Cool J becomes the luckiest chef ever in a series of near misses. Meanwhile, we all wait with bated breath for annoying 'scientist' Saffron Burrows to finally kark it.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
The Mid-Film Twist: The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is back, but far from wanting to kill future saviour of mankind John Connor (Edward Furlong), he's been reprogrammed to protect him.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Some lovely father-son bonding stuff as John teaches the T-800 how to be more human.
Also, Robert Patrick as the considerably more badass T-1000.
The Crying Game (1992)
The Mid-Film Twist: Dil (Jaye Davidson) takes Fergus (Stephen Rea) back to her apartment where they prepare to get down and dirty between the bedsheets.
But not before Dil whips out her penis - turns out she's a pre-op transsexual.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Fergus freaks out, throws up and storms out.
But the two make up a few days later (bless) before things start going wrong again as Fergus admits that he was involved in the death of Dil's boyfriend.
From Dusk Til Dawn (1996)
The Mid-Film Twist: What starts out as a sunny little road movie (oh, alright, a mean-talking kidnap movie that happens to be on the road) turns into a full-on vampire flick when Seth (George Clooney) and Richie (Quentin Tarantino) head to a strip club called The Titty Twister.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Screaming. Blood and guts.
And Tarantino with more fangs than usual.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
The Mid-Film Twist: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) is determined to take down scary, formidable terrorist the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).
Except when he finally breaks into his encampment, he discovers there IS no Mandarin - he's the creation of British actor Trevor Slattery.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: We get one humungous big laugh, but the rest of the film sort of struggles to recover with Guy Pearce as the main villain instead.
The Third Man (1949)
The Mid-Film Twist: Harry Lime (Orson Welles) isn't dead at all, as that shiver-inducing shot of him emerging from the shadows of a doorway confirms.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: The police exhume Lime's coffin, only to find the body of an orderly inside.
Meanwhile, Lime goes on the run.
Memento (2000)
The Mid-Film Twist: The opening sequence is repeated with more clarity at Memento's halfway point as it's revealed that the man shot and killed is Teddy (Joe Pantoliano).
The guy pulling the trigger? None other than our confuddled protagonist Lenny (Guy Pearce).
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: We're even more confused than we were before, and suddenly we have no idea who Lenny really is.
Psycho (1960)
The Mid-Film Twist: Easily the biggest mid-film cinematic rug-pull ever pulled off - and leave it to Hitchcock to do it brilliantly as protagonist Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is killed in the shower just as we're really getting to know her.
Effect On The Rest Of The Narrative: Utter, spiralling madness.
Nobody's safe, and this really could go anywhere - including a basement where a withered old corpse sits grinning in a rocking chair.