20 of the most celebrated plot twists and reveals in film

Palace Pictures Nothing keeps an audience on the edge of their seats more than the plot twist–and nothing throws them back like an unexpected reveal. A plot twist is a narrative tool used to subvert audience expectations of where a story is going, usually revealed in the third act of a book or film while being carefully set up from the very beginning. Writers and directors use this tool to make audiences rethink everything they presumed to understand about the fictional universe they’ve created and keep their eyes glued to the screen. Plot twists also lend themselves to rewatching the same film or rereading the same book again with the twist in mind, both to revel in the surprise once more and to parse any details that might betray themselves as tells in the story’s earlier moments. Masterclass outlines several plot twists, ranging from discovering a story’s narrator is unreliable to realizing that a supposedly important item or piece of information is a distraction from what’s happening. With this in mind, Stacker has compiled a list of 20 of the most iconic plot twists and reveals in American film history. To qualify, the film had at least a 7.0 on IMDb with at least 50,000 user votes. The oldest film on this list was made in 1939, and the newest originated in 2017, making it clear that the plot twist has been a staple of American cinema for almost as long as cinema has had sound (the first talkie being released in 1927)! Check out this list of twists and reveals to see if your favorite cinematic surprise made the cut. (And be aware: spoilers ahead!) You may also like: 100 best fantasy movies of all time The Wizard of Oz (1939) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor – IMDb user rating: 8.1 – Metascore: 92 – Runtime: 102 minutes The ending of “The Wizard of Oz” falls into the same category as many stereotypical short stories written in high school English classes (the “but it was all a dream” ending, for example). Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) is an average farm girl who gets swept away to the magical land of Oz via a tornado. There, she meets several classic characters like the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow and must defeat the Wicked Witch of the West to leave Oz. But when she clicks her heels three times and wishes for home, Dorothy awakens in her bed, revealing that the entire film was her unconscious mind playing out a fantasy–even her fantastical friends were really just farmhands in the end. Citizen Kane (1941) RKO Radio Pictures – Director: Orson Welles – IMDb user rating: 8.3 – Metascore: 100 – Runtime: 119 minutes It’s no secret “Citizen Kane” is widely considered one of the best films ever made. For such a wonderfully complex film, though, its central question is quite simple: what is “Rosebud”? “Rosebud” is literally the last word central character Charles Kane (Orson Welles) mutters before his death. The significance of “Rosebud” is where things get complicated, as journalist Jerry Thompson (William Alland) is tasked with discovering its meaning and, as such, interviews several figures from Kane’s life to no avail. At the end of the film, in a seemingly random twist, “Rosebud” is revealed as the name for Kane’s sled from childhood. Interpretations of the sled’s significance vary, but the popular reading is that childhood and memories of childhood are the only places where true happiness resides. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) Edward Small Productions – Director: Billy Wilder – IMDb user rating: 8.4 – Metascore: 76 – Runtime: 116 minutes Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries have long been a source of inspiration for great films, including Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” but this specific Christie adaptation contains a shocking twist. “Witness for the Prosecution” follows British lawyer Sir Wilfrid (Charles Laughton), who attempts to prove his client Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) is innocent of killing a widow who made Vole her sole beneficiary upon her death. Thanks to spousal privilege, Vole’s wife, Christine (Marlene Dietrich), cannot testify against him and instead serves as the titular witness. However, the story she told on the stand is proven false, thanks to evidence given by a mysterious female, which eventually acquits Vole and gets Christine tried for perjury. Yet, in a classic Christie twist, it’s revealed that Christine and the mysterious woman who provided the acquitting evidence are one and the same, and her entire involvement in the trial of Vole was a ruse to free her guilty husband. When the husband then reveals he intends to leave her for another woman, Christine puts an end to him–right there in the courtroom. Psycho (1960) Shamely Productions – Director: Alfred Hitchcock – IMDb user rating: 8.5 – Metascore: 97 – Runtime: 109 minutes Alfred Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho” could be argued to have two separate plot twists. The first comes 50 minutes into the film when Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the assumed protagonist, gets brutally murdered with over an hour left in the plot. To this day, this is a taboo move for filmmakers to make, and its echoes can be seen in films as recent as 2022’s “Barbarian.” The second plot twist in “Psycho” is the dramatic reveal that Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), the awkward innkeeper of the Bates Motel, has actually been the one violently murdering people while dressed as his deceased mother, who has become a fractured facet of his identity. Everything about this film’s narrative structure and dramatic reveal were utterly unheard of when it was released in 1960, cementing its place as one of the strangest and most memorable movies ever made. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) John Ford Productions – Director: John Ford – IMDb user rating: 8.1 – Metascore: 94 – Runtime: 123 minutes The narrative concept of the plot twist and the Western genre of film are not two things that people usually associate together, but the John Ford classic “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” is the perfect merging of both. The film centers around Sen. Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart), who details his past friendship with rancher Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) 25 years earlier, which, at the time, culminated in a now-infamous standoff between Ransom and the cowboy criminal Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). The younger Ransom, despite his inadequacy with guns, somehow managed to shoot and kill Valance–except it was really Doniphon who secretly shot and killed Valance to save Ransom’s life. You may also like: 100 greatest movie songs from 100 years of film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)