5 Movie Twists That Will Piss You Off

by riomx
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September 21, 2009

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There are many movies with excellent twists that made their mark in cinematic history, and then there are those with terrible twists that just failed miserably. Instead of making the plot better, bad twists simply ruin the movie. Here are five films with twists that are weak, make no sense, or simply just piss you off.

The Game (1997)

Michael Douglas stars in this psychological thriller; as Nicholas, an extremely wealthy and successful businessman who leads an unfulfilling personal life. For his 48th birthday, his younger brother Conrad gives him an enigmatic gift: a live-action, role-playing game by a company called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) that offers little details, but promises to change his life.

He undergoes a medical exam to qualify to play the game, but is rejected. Soon he finds out that it was just a red herring and the game has begun, and is actually a very dangerous scheme in which he encounters multiple attempts by CRS operatives to destroy his life and possibly kill him.

Drugged and tricked by Christine, a CRS operative pretending to help him, he wakes up in Mexico completely destitute as his bank accounts have been completely wiped by the company. He begs and hitchhikes his way back to the US, only to find that his friends have turned their back on him.

Ultimately he finds a gun in his home and sets out to get revenge. He breaks into the CRS offices and takes Christine hostage. In a climactic scene on the roof of a skyscraper where he threatens to kill her, Christine tries to convince him that it was all just an elaborate game. Startled by a door opening, he fires without looking, only to realize that she was telling the truth and he shot his brother dead in front of guests gathered for his birthday party. With nothing to lose, he walks to the edge of the skyscraper and throws himself off.

THE CRAPTASTIC TWIST: All of it really was just a game! Nicholas doesn’t die! He lands in an airbag and gets up to find all of his crappy friends cheering him on and wishing him happy birthday! He’s actually still rich and didn’t lose anything! And guess what? His brother is still alive and gave him the gift of The Game so he would scare him into learning to enjoy life again! Yay!

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The Village (2004)

In 1897, a small American village lives in fear of monsters that lurk in the forest surrounding them. They fortify their village with a wall of oil lanterns and use watch towers to spot the monsters, who they refer to as “Those We Don’t Speak Of.” Though they supposedly have a truce whereas neither party enters the other’s territory, the bodies of dead animals are turning up randomly, which is seen as a threat by the villagers.

It’s tough to explain everything, but basically, the villagers are told that only wicked people live outside of village walls, and any time that someone tries to leave shortly, they get warnings from the “monsters.” Also, the elders keep secrets from everyone else in black boxes.

In a nutshell, Ivy, the blind daughter of the chief elder, is sent to get medical supplies outside of the village after town crazy Noah stabs her fiancee, Lucius. Before she leavers, her father reveals that the monsters are actually costumes elders wear to frighten children from leaving the village. However, he says that monsters did live in the forest at one time.

She is attacked by a beast in the forest, but she manages to trick it into falling into a death trap, only to be revealed that it was crazy Noah, who had been stealing the beast costumes, skinning animals and causing trouble. She eventually makes it out of the woods safely.

HOW IT WASTES YOUR TIME: As Ivy leaves the woods, it is revealed that the movie actually takes place in the present. The whole village lives in a wildlife preserve owned by the chief elder, who along with other elders, founded the insular community after suffering tragedies in the “real” world. They are tricking their families into living in a false world where everything is more simple and peaceful, and in the process keeping them as ignorant, fearful and dumb as possible.

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The Life of David Gale (2003)

Kevin Spacey plays David Gale;, a prominent author and head of the philosophy department at the University of Austin, who is also a member of an anti-capital-punishment group called DeathWatch. He also happens to be a complete dumbass.

Though he resisted at first, he allows himself to be seduced by one of his former students, who was expelled because he refused to trade sex for better grades. After they have sex, she falsely accuses him of rape and he loses everything, including his job, reputation, and his family.

After Constance Harraway, a close friend of David’s and a member of Deathwatch is raped and murdered, he gets slapped with the crime. His inept lawyer botches the case, he gets sentenced to death, and is placed on Death Row.

Bitsey Bloom, a journalist covering David’s story, smells something fishy about the whole situation. Through investigation and watching tapes sent to her by a mysterious stranger, she learns only a few days before David’s execution that he was framed and Constance actually committed suicide, since she was going to die from Leukemia anyway. Bitsey tries to stop the execution, but arrives too late, and David dies an innocent man. The situation leads to public outcries against capital punishment.

THE LAME-ASS TWIST: After David’s execution, Bitsy receives another tape that shows the mysterious stranger, who is revealed to be another Deathwatch member, and David Gale confirming Constance’s death after suicide. David leaves his thumbprints on the plastic bag she used to kill herself. The whole thing was an elaborate plan that everyone was in on, including his lawyer, to highlight the flaws of the corrections system and capital punishment. Whoop Dee F***ing Do.

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The Ring (2002)

The entire film is based on the premise that there is a mysterious tape with strange, random and grainy images that after watching, the viewer receives a phone call from a weird voice telling them that they’ll die in exactly 7 days . And funnily enough, they actually die! Quite horrifically!

After a girl dies after watching the movie, her journalist aunt Rachel (played by Naomi Watts) investigates her death. She watches the tape and shortly receives a call in which a child’s voice whispers the magic words: “Seven Days.” She then makes a copy for her ex-boyfriend Noah, who is a videographer, and her young son Aidan ends up watching it too.

After watching the tape, she starts to feel sick, has nightmares and begins to have supernatural experiences, such as being able to grab a fly on the television that appears on the video. She studies images of Samara, a girl that appears in the video and learns about her adoptive parents, and that her mother committed suicide. She tracks down the father, but he tells her Samara is evil and electrocutes himself to death in his tub.

Eventually, Rachel discovers that Samara was thrown down a well by her mother. She finds the well, notifies police, and the girl is given a proper burial. This should mean that she finally rests in peace, and will stop killing people, but no bad horror movie is complete without a stupid twist.

THE BIG SURPRISE! Aidan lets Rachel know that she just made a huge mistake by freeing Samara’s body, and now she can do whatever she wants. In one of the cheesiest scenes ever, she walks out of a TV as Noah watches and kills him. Rachel burns the original tape, but later realizes that there is still a copy in her apartment and the only way to save her son is for someone else to watch the tape. In a total dick move, she makes a copy and leaves it at a public library.

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Identity (2003)

Malcom Rivers is a psychotic killer awaiting execution for committing multiple grisly murders at a motel. Doctor Malick, his shrink, discovers a journal with details that may explain why he committed the murders , and he tries to convince the judge not to let the execution go through. At the same time that the hearing takes place, a group of travelers are stranded at a motel in the Nevada desert during a storm.

The strangers at the motel include Ed, (John Cusack) a limo driver; Paris, a call girl (Amanda Peet), an actress (Rebecca DeMornay); a father, mother and their 6-year-old son; newlyweds; and Rhodes (Ray Liotta), a cop transporting a convicted killer (Gary Busey). Later they realize there is a murderer that is killing them one by one, starting with Room 10 and counting down.

The group tries to investigate what is going on at the motel, but more bodies drop along the way. During one scene, the kid is accidentally run over and they attempt to take him way from the motel, but the car explodes with him and another motel guest inside. However, the bodies in the car and those of others who died earlier disappear, confusing the surviving guests.

As the night goes on, they begin to realize that they all share similarities, culminating in their discovery that they all share the same birthday. This movie features many twists, but this is a big one, as it is revealed that every one of the motel guests are split personalities in Malcom’s mind.

Malick manages to communicate with Ed in Malcom’s mind and convinces him to eliminate the murderous personality, which will in turn save Malcolm. As the movie goes on and more personalities are killed off, Ed determines that Rhodes is the killer, and sacrifices himself to leave Paris as the only surviving personality.

WHY IT’LL PISS YOU OFF: Just as you think it’s all wrapped up and Paris is shown tending to a garden after the whole ordeal, she notices a key in the soil. She looks up to find Timmy, the 6-year-old boy, standing beside her. It turns out he’s actually the one that killed everyone else!!!

He tells Paris “Whores don’t get a second chance” and kills her too. At the same time, Malcolm is being transported to a mental institution, but he breaks free and strangles Malick and the driver of the van.

What. The. F***.

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: by bethani 01/01/2010 Reply

Sweet sweet most of these movies did in fact piss me off. By the way the convicted killer at the motel in Identity was not Gary Busey but it was his son Jake.

: by riomx 09/21/2009 Reply

Kip: You can argue semantics about whose hand touched/made the tape, but I’m not sure how I “completely misinterpreted” the ending, when I explained: “Rachel burns the original tape, but later realizes that there is still a copy in her apartment and the only way to save her son is for someone else to watch the tape. In a total dick move, she makes a copy and leaves it at a public library.”

: by kip 09/21/2009 Reply

You’ve completely misinterpreted the ending of ‘The Ring’… she realized at the end that the only way to survive ‘The Tape’ is to make a copy, which is why she manipulates her son’s hand to make a copy at the editing machine, so that he won’t die. The dude who gets it at the end had seen the video but hadn’t made a copy.

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