Twist Endings

Most of us appreciate a good twist--a face slapper, both in book or movie. There are certain techniques used to employ
a good wrenching twist. Some writers lay hints and clues
like mines, others are camouflaged, and others are woven deep into the text. Sometimes the whole plot is used to distract from the true resolution. This technique of literary smoke and mirrors is always an added bonus (if done properly) in a book or movie. Kinda like a double payoff. Give us an example of a movie (screenplay) or book in where the twist ending absolutely clobbered you, no matter how clever or perceptive you thought you were.

My all time doozie was, M. Night Shyamalan's THE SIXTH SENSE. I admit, I never, never saw that coming!

Triceratops

Sixth Sense is my number one choice for surprise endings too.

My favorite movie with continuous twists was Deathtrap with Christopher Reeves and Michael Cain early '80's. That movie never bored me.

rt

But since this section is about novels, which surprise endings in novels have grabbed you?

For me, mainstream ---
"Something Happened" by Joseph Heller
"Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco

For me, genre (mystery) ---
"Day of Wrath" by Jonathan Valin *


* which also contains one of the most disturbing and scary murder sequences I've ever read, early in the book. And this jumps out at you when you don't expect it.

The king of twist endings was O'Henry -- Yet it was a by product of his over commitment than his mastery of surprise endings. O'Henry was always promising more stories than he had the time to write. In order to meet his deadlines he had to come up with endings -- and quickly.

While you may like Sixth Sense as a viewer you should know as a writer that it has met a lot of flack. People have said the viewer was mislead and deceived; the writer did not play fair with the viewer; it is a cliche.

If you feel these arguments (and others) are valid they need to be addressed when you try to write a twist ending.

If you feel these arguments are not valid, then you need to be prepared to deal with unfair attacks against your own work.

Either way trick endings are not easy and there are more cliched twist endings than any other kind.

People have said the viewer was mislead and deceived; the writer did not play fair with the viewer; it is a cliche.

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Really? Wow, I thought it was foreshadowed rather well, so that the ending was appropriate to the story as a whole.

And IMO, that's what makes a good twist ending, the foreshadowing. So when you reach that end, you're surprised, but it's not like it came out of nowhere. But I agree, a twist ending is pretty tough to do. I've done a couple in shorts, but at the time I wrote them, I didn't see them as twists. The endings just seemed to be the logical progression to the story.

If you foreshadow and drop enough hints, I think the twist ending would be very rewarding. However, if you overdo it, it will come out as manipulative.

This isn't a twist ending per se, but how about the mid-story twist in _The Matrix_? The fact that the "real" world was the illusion was a definite whopper the first time I saw that one.

The interesting thing there was that, though any number of events made it clear to the audience that Something Strange was going on (Trinity's gravity-defying leap, the mouthless dream/interrogation sequence, etc), the sheer magnitude of the Strangeness still took me completely by surprise.

In regards to written works... "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick had a pretty good twist to it as well. I can't think of any full-length works I've read, though, that I would characterize as having twist endings.

Valerie

I thought Sixth Sense was completely fair to the viewer. The clues were there, many of them, obvious ones, and once the ending surprised me, I realized I should have seen it coming all along.

It certainly didn't strike me as a cliche, or unfair. It was the best job of planting clues I've seen in a long, long time.

I agree

The Sixth Sense definitely worked. However, personally I can't say the same about Signs.

With The Sixth Sense, there's a central story about a boy and a man. The clues are sprinkled all over the place, but they're not intrusive. And the ending, while surprising, makes perfect sense and it's icing on the cake. If you take away that ending, the story still stands.

With Signs, at least in my opinion, I feel like the whole story hinges on surprising you and hammering you with the concept of "faith." If you take away the ending, there is no story (not to mention a major whopper about "water"). Thus I feel manipulated.

Re: I agree

I haven't seen The Matrix or The Sixth Sense. I saw A Beautiful Mind, and its "middle twist" worked for me as a viewer. In hindsight, I have to say the twist was foreshadowed: some events before it were close to implausible.

Re: I agree

Oh! I loved "A Beautiful Mind", and yes, since I did not know who it was about (didn't know it was based on a real person), I greatly enjoyed the "twist". Of course, about halfway through the movie, my Fiance suddenly realized who it was about, but that's another twist, entirely.

Re: I agree

Another good mid-story twist was in "Fight Club". The story was weird enough, but then we find out that Brad Pitt is just an alter ego. I don't know if you'd call the ending exactly a "twist" but I loved it anyway.

Books

For books that end with a twist, you can't beat Lightning, by Dean Koontz. I loved the ending of that book!

And yes, he did foreshadow, but like The Six Sense, you have a tendency to overlook the clues.

Books

Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island has a great twist ending -- I never saw it coming. (It's a great read, BTW.)

Re: Books

Agree on Shutter Island--I really didn't see it coming. That's a twist that really works.

The Sixth Sense didn't work for me because although the clues are there, the logic of the twist contradicts the logic of the movie. If the little boy is so overwhemingly terrified of the dead people he sees, why isn't he equally terrified of the Bruce Willis character? In the movie theater, my mouth was hanging open right with everyone else's, but after a few minutes' reflection the whole thing fell apart.

I thought Memento had a good twist at the end.

- Victoria

My favorite movie twist endings are Sixth Sense and No Way Out. I didn't feel the Sixth Sense bamboozled me. I didn't feel cheated. I was mad at myself for not putting the pieces together, but that was what made the twist so...well...twisty- that I didn't see it and all the clues were there. I came out of that movie thinking, "I wish I had written that!"

James Patterson's Along Came a Spider shocked me. I really liked the female character and was so floored by the end, I found myself flipping through the book to prove James Patterson had "cheated" me. He hadn't. He was a master.

Lisa

If the little boy is so overwhemingly terrified of the dead people he sees, why isn't he equally terrified of the Bruce Willis character?

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But the boy is initially "afraid" of Bruce Willis... he runs away from him and hides in a church, before Bruce Willis goes in and finds him. Also, Bruce's character shows no signs of grotesque wounds or half-opened skull etc. so it's not as scary as the other "dead people." Also, perhaps the boy didn't know since Bruce looks so "normal."

To me, that makes sense.

Why the kid wasn't scared.

Well, for one thing, there was nothing horrible about the way Bruce Willis's character looked.

But you're right, even that leads to the question about why he wasn't disfigured the way the other dead people were. He wasn't pale and there wasn't a whole in his chest.

That's why the ending was so surprising, there wasn't any indication of him being dead. No physical indications on him personally.

After you slapped yourself for not catching the clues, you slapped yourself again for the first slap. The clues covered up the inconsistencies in the way Willis's ghost was different than the other ones.

David

That's just my two cents.

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

But you're right, even that leads to the question about why he wasn't disfigured the way the other dead people were. He wasn't pale and there wasn't a whole in his chest.

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Actually, IIRC, the movie was mostly from Bruce Willis' POV, any scenes from the boy's perspective, did not have Willis in them. If you don't realize you're dead, then you're not going to see yourself wounded, neh? It's distinctly possible that the boy -saw- the wounds. We were just not privy to that.

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

Actually, Willis does have a wound in his lower abdomen, hidden by his clothes. That's why we couldn't see it -- most of the time he's wearing a trench coat... it's in part of the "cleverness" of the filmmaker to disguise that fact. At the same time, it makes sense. Some people would ask, why didn't Bruce Willis notice it... well... that's the point the director wanted to make (and you have to suspend your disbelief somehow) that dead people don't know they're dead (from their POV). From the boy's POV they may have a big hole in their head, but from their POV they can't see it. It's only when Willis "realizes" that he's dead when he starts to notice things, such as the wound in his abdomen.

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

So he's dead, huh? Would a person who knows the trick have other reasons to see the film?

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

Would a person who knows the trick have other reasons to see the film?

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I've seen it several times. I think it is more than a one trick pony. It has an interesting story and the characters are well done.

I don't think the same story with the same clues would have been as effective in print. Visual clues that are subtle on screen would have been jarringly obvious in print. It's a good example of the differences between books and movies.

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

Reph, yes... sorry to spoil it for you, though. But it's a good movie, even if you know the trick. I saw it the second time, after I know the trick ending, and still enjoyed it very much (of course, the second time around I tried to get all the clues).

Re: Why the kid wasn't scared.

So he's dead, huh? Would a person who knows the trick have other reasons to see the film?

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My most sincerest apologies, reph! I didn't think about the possibility that someone might not have seen it, yet. But yes, the movie is very good, even if you know the spoilers.


*looks ashamed*

Hmm, how about this one?

What about Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, in that one scene at the end when Darth Vader reveals to Luke a shocking secret (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, go watch the original Trilogy or watch that one Simpsons episode when Homer ruins it for a lot of fans hehe)? Did any of you guys see that coming or no? I can honestly say that I didn't expect it at all, and was pretty "shocked" myself when I realized it.

On a sorta related note, I've noticed that many movies try to copy that too now, although they're usually just joking about it (most obvious ones I can think of atm is Austin Powers: The Spy who shagged me, and one of those Jak 3 commercials), but as a result it's really cliched now.