Time and time again, we see TV shows and movies with the same story. But every once in a while, one comes along that has an unforgettable plot twist that we didn’t see coming.
From unexpected character reveals to jaw-dropping developments, these fans took to Twitter to share the most surprising plot twists from their favorite TV shows and movies. Grab some popcorn and get ready to have your mind blown. SPOILER ALERT!
“Clickbait”
This Netflix miniseries had us on the edge of our seats as Nick, the main character who’d been kidnapped, and everyone connected to him began to admit that things weren’t as they seemed.
Though we spend the entirety of the series trying to determine exactly who the killer is, Dawn was never a suspect. We assumed she was an innocent, sweet lady, but she had our mouths dropped open in shock when we finally found out just what she was capable of.
“Suspiria”
This remake of the Italian original is gruesome and terrifyingly perplexing. It focuses on a dance company that is controlled by a coven of witches, willing to do anything to keep themselves from being discovered. When a new student joins, one of the head witches is planning on using her body to host her soul, as her current one is getting old.
However, this student eventually exposes herself as one of the three original witches who started the coven—and she kills all of those who disobeyed their original rules. This was quite the unexpected ending indeed.
“Se7en”
After furiously tracking John Doe, the killer murdering people based on the seven deadly sins, Detective Mills and Somerset finally tracked him down after his fifth killing.
However, we really thought the detectives had stopped him before he could finish. We never expected John Doe to be so many steps ahead of them, nor that he considered himself to represent envy, while Mills would become wrath—after, of course, discovering what the killer had done to his wife and what had been sent to Mills in a cardboard box.
“Planet of the Apes”
When George Taylor travels through time, he believes that he and his fellow crew members have somehow come across a new planet where roles are reversed, and humans are the primitive ones, while apes are much more civilized.
When he ventures far into the forbidden zone, he discovers the horrible, surprising truth—he’s actually been on Earth this whole time, and humans have seemingly destroyed themselves. With no music, this chilling discovery has stuck with us forever.
“Mean Girls”
Regina George was the definition of a high school bully. Her actions were despicable and deeply touched us in the wounds we carried from our own high school bullies.
Still, we were sure she was putting Cady in the Burn Book—nothing could’ve prepared us when the camera panned to her putting her own face in the book and playing it off as if she had no part in creating the book that made fun of every girl in school. We can still remember the way our mouths dropped when we saw the name at the bottom of the page.
“Bodies Bodies Bodies”
As an innocent party game turns into someone actually dying, chaos ensues in the house, as this group of people tries to figure out who exactly killed their friend. One by one, each one dies as they try to decide who the killer is and wait out a storm.
In the morning, when the storm has passed and they get service, it suddenly becomes clear from a TikTok that the initial death was an accident—and the girls realize the rest of the deaths happened for no reason. Nothing could’ve prepared us for this ending.
“Remember Me”
Tyler Hawkins has a strained relationship with his father, and the teen in this movie struggles to work through familial rifts among the many other battles teens sometimes face, like falling in love and obeying the rules.
But not a single one of us was prepared for the ending. Just when it seemed Tyler’s life was working out, he would get to his dad’s office to mend things—on one of the top floors in one of the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001. His dad was dropping off his sister first, and the whole city watched as the planes crashed. This ending has us entirely shocked.
“Behind Her Eyes”
This miniseries focuses on a love triangle unlike anyone we’ve seen before. Following four individuals, we see how love, affairs, friendship, and envy can make people do insane things.
However, Behind Her Eyes takes it to a whole new, supernatural level, when it’s revealed that Rob, a friend of one of the main characters finds out how to put his soul into other bodies, and then kills whichever body he was inhabiting at the time. No one suspected Rob for these deaths and the way he did absolutely stunned us.
“Black Mirror”
We watched the characters in the episode “Shut Up and Dance” follow insane instructions sent to them from an anonymous source just to save their reputations and relationships. But nothing is that easy.
No matter the lengths they were willing to go, the last four minutes of the episode saw the person leading them to do these actions expose them anyway. Though it was their own actions that ruined their lives, we were just as surprised as they were to realize their secrets were shared in the end.
“Final Destination 5”
The first Final Destination saw students getting thrown off a flight to Paris, only for them to be killed one by one after cheating death. Each of the proceeding movies followed the same formula, but the fifth one had an ending that shook us.
After surviving the collapse of the bridge and the following freak accidents that took out many of their co-workers, Sam and Molly finally decided to take a trip—and take Flight 180 to Paris. Tying this ending into the beginning of the first film blew our minds.
“Spider-Man: Homecoming”
As Peter Parker begins to realize his newfound powers, he comes across a supervillain named Vulture, an arms dealer turned villain who’s planning a whole criminal operation.
This movie reminds us just how young Peter Parker actually is, and he must deal with high school drama and crushes along with fighting crime. These two lives collide when Peter goes to pick up a date for the dance—and comes face to face with the villain he had previously encountered, who just so happened to be her father. That one really threw us for a loop.
“V for Vendetta”
V presented himself as a vigilante, a rebel for the cause of taking down a strict government, and an inspiration to the public. He is able to rile them up with a few words and a few actions, and let them come to their own conclusions.
However, no matter how much the audience grapples with their feelings about V, finding out that he was the one to keep Evey in prison, all so she could “live without fear” was the plot twist that left us terribly conflicted.
“Identity”
Though this movie has us believe that eleven strangers have found themselves in the same motel for the evening during a storm, we soon discover that all eleven individuals are actually the many personalities of Malcolm, a man convicted of mass murder.
The whole movie centers on trying to determine which of the personalities is responsible for committing the murders. Though one personality is believed to be the one controlling Malcolm and then destroyed, our jaws were on the floor when it ended up being the nine-year-old personality—the one no one suspected.
“Arrival”
Louise Banks becomes the sole individual attempting to speak with an alien race that has descended upon the earth, and the audience feels for the professor as she seems to be dealing with the passing of her daughter.
However, it’s not until the very end of the movie that we realize how learning the language of these aliens has allowed her to view time in a non-linear order—and view the eventual outcome of a daughter who hasn’t even been born yet. Needless to say, we were absolutely shocked.
“Dexter”
After four seasons of death and serial killings, it finally seems that Dexter has found that his love for his family and desire to be a family man outweighs his need to kill.
Even though Dexter disposes of the Trinity Killer as his hopefully last kill, he’s too late to stop the killer from getting to Rita. We had high hopes for Dexter—that is, he comes home to find his wife murdered, and his son sitting in her blood, mirroring what happened in his own childhood. What a sick, unexpected ending.
“Tales from the Hood”
This film brings together the horrors of nightmares and reality together, as three dealers go to purchase illegal substances from a man running a funeral home. As they go through the home, the mortuary’s owner takes them through the tales of each of the corpses lying in the caskets.
The injustices and corruption that affect the African American community are clear in this movie, but the plot twist is what ties this movie together. In the end, the three dealers end up being the killers of one of the men in the caskets, and find that they themselves have been dead the entire time. What an iconic ending.
Scream VI
Mindy is the go-to girl when it comes to anything spooky and Stab related. So when she survives an initial attack, we’re sad to see her go.
But then she sustains her injuries, goes to college and starts dating someone—all to end up in the same exact position. Once again, she’s attacked, but this time, it seems pretty fatal. We’re not sure how Mindy is able to survive such intesne injuries, but she’s back again, ready to unveil the killers, without a scratch or a limp from her stabbing.
“Predestination”
In a world in which time travel is possible, we meet Jane, John, the Barkeep, and the Fizzle bomber all in one movie. As they met one another and traveled to different times, we struggled to keep up with each of their stories.
It’s not until the end that we realize that all four of them are the same person. But if that wasn’t enough to try and wrap our heads around, we too must understand that the baby who grew up into Jane was conceived by Jane herself and John, the man who Jane became after going through gender reassignment surgery. We’ve never had our minds blown like this.
“Sleepover”
The early 2000s produced some of the best teen movies, but they also showed us the beginnings of technology—and Sleepover was the perfect example of how unrealistic these movies made technology out to be.
Listen, we all knew Staci was the worst. She was the typical popular bully in high school. But speaking out loud exactly what she was typing on the computer was one trait that makes her immediately uncool in our eyes when we watch the movie now. Oh, how movies have aged.
“Anger Management”
Dave had a rough go at it. His pushover behavior led to him discovering his true feelings of anger and learning how to embrace them in order to get over them. We continued to feel bad as more and more in his life started to go wrong.
However, when he finally admitted his feelings to his girlfriend, we were excited to see him claim his emotions—we just never expected it to all be part of the plan to get him to graduate from anger management classes.
“From Dusk Till Dawn”
Richie and Seth Gecko are some of the most brutal and wanted fugitives in Texas, wanted for their violent crimes. This movie started off like any other crime movie—until they got to Mexico.
When ladies started dancing with minimal clothes on, we fully expected this to once again go like any other typical movie about criminals. It wasn’t until those women started revealing themselves to be terrifying vampires that we realized we had no idea where this was heading.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”
By the second movie in the Guardians of the Galaxy storyline, we’ve become acquainted with Peter Quill’s story, but it isn’t until we meet Ego that we discover the true nature of his absent father.
When he does meet his father for the first time, Peter’s expectations leave him feeling much more than disappointed—especially when he finds out that Ego was the one who gave his mother the brain tumor that killed her. We really understood Quill’s reaction—after all, our jaws were on the floor as well.
“Vanilla Sky”
Though David Aames goes through a traumatic crash and must deal with the aftereffects, we see a life where he experiences love to the full extent—but things are not as they seem.
However, it’s not until the ending that we understand that everything following that night of falling asleep outside was made up, curated by the Life Extension group in order to provide a special vision of life for the now-dead David. The entire movie messes with our minds, but the ending really kept us guessing. What a special movie.
“Hereditary”
Though we weren’t quite sure what to expect just from the trailers of Hereditary, the movie was nothing like anything we’ve ever seen. Instead of focusing on Charlie, the young daughter in a messed-up family, the movie took a look at both the psychological and supernatural issues plaguing said family.
In fact, the daughter was the first of the family to die, with each of the others following soon after. This was one horror film that truly had us on the edge of our seats until the last minute.
“The Voyeurs”
What started off as innocent spying on the neighbors across the street soon turned into something more obsessive. Pippa and Thomas begin to watch their neighbors together, but Pippa becomes invested in their lives to the point of no return.
The whole movie had us with our hearts in our throats, but the most shocking part was when the couple confessed to knowing they were being watched and had in fact photographed their young, curious neighbors as well.
“Frozen”
Elsa finds she has powers that can be beautiful, as well as destructive. When she accidentally strikes her sister with these powers, an act of true love is supposed to undo the curse.
Though something was off about the initial love interest, Hans, we hoped he would be able to break the spell and save Anna. However, his affection towards Anna was all an act as he tried to steal the position of King—and left her for dead when he not only refused to kiss her, but delivered this harsh line as well. Finding out Hans was actually the bad guy is the reason we have trust issues.
“Avengers: Infinity War”
Though we’ve seen the end of an Avenger here and there, no one could’ve predicted the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. With one snap of his fingers, Thanos snapped our hearts as well.
Right before our very eyes, almost every hero in the Marvel Universe met their end and disintegrated into nothingness. So, when the movie ended, we were left feeling entirely unsettled and heartbroken, unsure what the following movie would bring.
“Coco”
Miguel’s dream to play music made sense when we all thought his great-great-grandfather was Ernesto. We never even thought about Hector as being connected to Miguel.
But when we found out Ernesto actually murdered Hector on purpose by poisoning his drink—and then made a movie where he essentially admitted to it—we couldn’t believe our ears. Hector and his family deserved so much better, and Ernesto more than deserved what was coming for him.
“Split”
Split follows a man with a split personality disorder, as he kidnaps and keeps three girls prisoner. We meet and become acquainted with Kevin’s personalities as each of them struggles for control over Kevin’s body.
But the real twist comes at the end, when the news reporting of the man with a split personality reminds some folks of a man incarcerated for 15 years—who just so happens to be Mr. Glass, the main terrorist in a previous M. Night Shyamalan film. With 15 years between the two films, we had no idea they were so connected.
“Interstellar”
This entire movie is one that questions time, science, and humanity’s future in general. We are left grasping at the confusing ideas of space travel, time slippage, black holes, and more.
When Cooper visits the five-dimensional library, he begins to realize how important his daughter is in the saving of humanity—and that the mysterious forces thought to be extraterrestrial beings who want to help humanity, are actually humanity itself. This connection between future selves and past selves, and the love between these family members blows our minds every time.
“Cloud Atlas”
A movie that dealt with reincarnation throughout time, Cloud Atlas had audiences grasping for an understanding of the supposed ways our souls meet and diverge from one another throughout our lifetime.
Having the same actors play different roles allows us to follow along with the way these souls interact with each other. But the connection between Hae-Joo and his wife Sonmi in the year 2144 filled us with peace when we realized their souls had been connected since the beginning.
“Oldboy”
Dae-Su is captured and held prisoner for 15 years. When he is released, he goes on a quest to find his captors, as well as falls in love with a girl called Mi-do. However, we finally realize that Dae-su’s captor was a boy he went to school with, whom Dae-Su had seen kissing his own sister, who would eventually kill herself to escape the rumors.
His captor’s entire life purpose was to make Dae-Su experience the same kind of shame and regret he did—and he did just that when he revealed that the girl he fell in love with, Mi-Do, was actually his daughter all grown up. This disturbing ending, pained smile and all, continues to live in our minds to this day.
“Lost”
For the most part, John Locke remained an admirable character, if not at times misguided. However, this strong, able-bodied person blew our minds when his past was explained.
It turns out Locke had a terrible relationship with his foster father, who had taken his kidney, ruined his relationship, and pushed him out of a window, paralyzing him from the waist down. It wasn’t until he arrived on the island that he found he could once again walk. This one took us for a spin, and really made us understand his awe of the island.
“Arlington Road”
Though at first, the neighbors living next door seemed normal, Michael soon became convinced something was off about Oliver, the dad of the family. There were blueprints, name changes, old charges, and more that continued to convince Michael of Oliver’s guilt or terror acts.
However, no matter how hard he tried to expose Oliver, Micahel unfortunately was the one at the scene of the crime when the FBI building blew up, and he was charged with the crime, causing everyone, including his son to believe his father’s guilt. We’ve never been able to get over the injustice of it all.
“The Sixth Sense”
Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, helps a young boy who is sure he can see dead people. Soon, it’s proven true, and Malcolm continues to help him until the child is able to function better.
However, the biggest plot twist of this movie comes when Malcolm tries to talk to his wife, who had been cold and distant for some time—only to realize he hadn’t survived a shooting that happened earlier in the film and had been dead himself the whole time.
“Exam”
When eight candidates walk into a room to get a job, they quickly realize how different this selection process is from anything they’ve experienced before. They must spend 80 minutes trying to decide just what is expected of them, and what their role is in helping each other.
One by one, each of them is disqualified until there are only a few left. One of the candidates finally answered a question, and the other candidate—the one who didn’t say a word—revealed himself to be the CEO, and gave her the job. This one really had us guessing until the last minute.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”
After seven years of treating Harry Potter with disdain and hatred, Severus Snape was not our favorite character. But a trip into his memory showed us a very hidden, softer side of Snape that proved he wasn’t as bad as he made himself out to be.
In fact, it was his unrequited schoolboy crush on Lily Potter that never left him that made Snape carry a secret fondness and protectiveness for the Golden Boy. After seven years of detesting the professor, this plot twist softened our hearts just a bit.
“Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back”
If we’re going to talk about the greatest plot twists in history, Darth Vader’s announcement to Luke Skywalker has to be included. After stalking Luke for years, and proving time and again how ruthless he was, audiences ever were captivated and horrified by the villain.
However, we all felt Luke’s utter horror when Darth Vader revealed the familial connection between the two of them. We’ll never forget the way this revelation felt to us as an audience, nor the collective response in the theater.
“Devil in Ohio”
Psychiatrist Suzanne helps Mae, a young teenager, escape from a cult that her parents take part in running in this limited series. The series follows Mae’s attempt at being free, and her growing relationship with Suzanne.
But we also see how the presence of Mae drives a wedge between Suzanne and her family. Still, it takes Detective Lopez’s exposure of Mae to finally show Suzanne that Mae has been manipulating her from the beginning, causing all of us in the audience to feel unsure of just who the real villain is.
“Sucker Punch”
Throughout Sucker Punch, the audience is left wondering just whose story this is. This tale could be the story of either Babydoll or Sweet Pea, or just a fantasy made up in one of their heads.
But when the fourth wall was broken, suddenly it became even less clear just who was narrating the story and what the audience’s role in the story was. This film left us feeling unsettled on so many levels.
“Fight Club”
The first rule of Fight Club is that you don’t talk about Fight Club—but maybe what this movie was really trying to express is that you don’t talk about feelings. The narrator of this movie is emotionally and socially repressed—until, of course, he meets Tyler.
Tyler’s nonconformist confidence is inspiring, if not a little scary to both the audience and the narrator. It’s not until the end that we find out Tyler is a projection of everything the narrator wishes he could be in an imaginary person. The narrator is Tyler, and we’re still reeling from this discovery as much as the narrator was.
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“Now You See Me”
For the entirety of this film, Officer David Rhodes leads the investigation trying to expose the workings of the four main characters, magicians who complete elaborate stints and tricks to return money to people who were stolen from.
The magicians are led by a group called “The Eye”, an organization that stays secret—that is, until the very last moments, where Officer Rhodes reveals himself as the mastermind behind it all, made all the more unsuspecting because of his position within the FBI. We definitely didn’t see that one coming.
“Game of Thrones”
Even though there were very few characters in Game of Thrones that remained innocent, Hodor was one of them. His simple-mindedness was no matter in the face of his loyalty and strength.
But we unfortunately understand why he is called “Hodor” at the same time he is killed. He holds the door closed, trying to protect Bran and Meera from the wights trying to escape the cave and run after them. Though it seemed almost surprising that his character lasted so long, his death was one that hurt our souls to this day.
“Saw”
Adam and Lawrence wake up in a room and soon realize their part in a sadistic game where they must use violence to save themselves and appease the Jigsaw killer. They pay little attention to the other body in the room.
However, it’s only during the final scene, when the two men attempt to escape that the true killer is revealed, when the corpse in the middle of the room suddenly wakes up. We truly never saw this coming.
“Up”
We all thought Up was going to be a sweet children’s movie, and it was. However, no one expected the devastating plot that hit us all in the first minutes of the film.
We meet Carl and Ellie when they’re young, and within 15 minutes, watch their entire lives flash before us, from growing up to getting married to being unable to conceive to getting too old. By the time Carl is sitting in his armchair next to an empty one beside him, we’re bawling our eyes out and there’s still an hour and a half of the movie to go. Talk about the unexpected.
“Knives Out”
Knives Out has the entirety of the Thrombey family as suspects for the murder of the patriarch of the family, Harlan. When he is found dead, a private detective is hired to discover just who was guilty.
While the original scene showing Harlan’s death made us sure that Marta was the accidental killer, it wasn’t until the toxicology report came back and all of Ransom’s confessions that we knew the truth. The fake knife was a great touch as well.
“Crazy, Stupid, Love”
When Cal goes through a divorce, he loses sight of himself. Luckily, Jacob, a local player-type guy is happy to help him find his confidence once again. Through spending time together, Cal gets to know Jacob, and Jacob’s behaviors with women, pretty well.
So, when Jacob suddenly starts to date someone, Cal’s flabbergasted—and when it turns out the girl Jacob is dating is Cal’s own daughter, well, anger doesn’t even begin to cover what Cal is feeling. All the storylines come together in one of the final scenes of the movie, in a way we never expected.
“The Mist”
In an apocalyptic world, overrun by huge monstrous creatures, David and his family must try to survive, when so many others don’t. When it seems the end of the line has come, with no more gas or way out of the creatures’ sight, David does his family a favor by killing them and sacrificing himself.
However, instead of having a monster grab him, the mist clears away and reveals the army, who had come to rescue any surviving individuals, and David realizes if he had waited just one minute, his family would’ve been alive. This ending twisted our guts and our hearts.
“Executive Decision”
When a plane is hijacked, intelligence officers and soldiers are sent up in an army fighter jet to try and take control of the plane from terrorists. The film is highly intense and violent, but none of us could’ve predicted this character’s death so early.
Before the Colonel can even make it on board, there’s a problem with the fighter jet and he decides to sacrifice himself, shutting the hatch and causing his body to be propelled out of the jet. Such a sudden death had us all shocked and made the situation seem that much more critical.
“Shutter Island”
Marshal Edward Daniels heads to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a patient, only to discover that there are real secrets throughout its walls. As he continues his investigations, he becomes less sure of what’s real and what’s not, and we watch as he descends into a sort of madness the island seems known for.
But the most insane part in an insane movie is when Edward discovers that he himself is a patient, having gone mad after his wife drowned their three children—and that his whole investigation had been made up in his mind.
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2”
In this final part of the Twilight series, vampires have come to an open field, ready to engage in a fierce battle, if need be. The governing force of the vampires has come with an army and the audience watches as violence ensues, starting with the decapitation of the beloved patriarch of the Cullen family, Carlisle.
We watch as more and more people die, terrified and devastated, until we’re brought back to the original moment before the fight breaks out—all to discover that the entire scene was a vision of the future if the governing vampires do not choose peace in this moment. This was one of the more terrifying plot twists we’ve seen.