20 Recent Movie Plot Twists NOBODY Saw Coming

Not all plot twists can be quite so great

Sometimes they have the opposite effect and call the entire movie's logic into question

which isn't a good thing. And then there are those plot twists that, good or bad, simply weren't predicted by anyone

They came swinging so wildly out of left field that everyone was caught off guard for better or for worse

You in here, this is War Culture, and here are just a few recent movie plot twists nobody saw coming

First up, Clark's parents wanted him to conquer Earth. Superman James Gunn's Superman isn't a film that many expected to have a genuinely jolting plot twist, and yet, here we are

At the start of the film, we see Superman, David Correnswet, being soothed with a message from his Kryptonian birth parents, Jor-El and Lara Lorva, played by Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafian, respectively

However, said message was damaged during transit to Earth, and later on Nicholas Holtzleg's

Luther has the missing passage of the message restored, where Clark's parents implore him

to conquer Earth and take many wives to rebuild the Kryptonian race

Now, at first, many might assume that Luther has doctored the remains of the message to

help turn public opinion against the Man of Steel. But in a particularly ballsy move, Gunn makes pains to point out that there are no Shtanigans afoot, and the message is 100% legit

Yeah, it's certainly a reveal that left many superfans upset, including me, because I think we've already done that with the Batman the other year, but whatever

It did also do a great job of bolstering one of the film's central themes, that Clark became a beacon of hope because of how he was nurtured by his Earth parents, the Kent

So to that end, it works pretty well, although I do think we've kind of maybe hit peak capacity on evil origins for parents and comic movies

I don't know, let me know your thoughts down in the comments. Next up, Jasper Briggs is Jim Phelps' son, Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning

Considering that Mission Impossible filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie vocally decried the excess of fan service in modern franchise cinema

it is a bit baffling that he committed a lamely fan-serving sin of his own in the series' most

recent and apparently final entry. Midway through Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning

we learn that Shea Whigham's Jasper Briggs, the US intelligence agent who has been pursuing

Ethan Hunt and his team the past two films, is actually really named Jim Phelps Jr. As in

he's the son of Jim Phelps from the original TV show who was then played by John Voight

the IMF leader from the original Mission Impossible movie, who was controversially revealed to be the film's surprise antagonist back when it debuted in the 90s

It was definitely a surprising reveal, though less because it made sense

more because it came so wildly, randomly out of that field. More to the point, the rest of the film does so little with it and Phelps Jr. as a character

that you really have to wonder why Macquarie bothered at all, especially in a film that's already so excessively bloated with subplots and characters

Next up, Virginia Dies in the Opening Scene. Happy Gilmore 2 Happy Gilmore 2 didn't exactly seem like a movie that needed a jolting twist to kick things off

and yet the belated comedy sequel began with the shock death of Happy's beloved wife Virginia

played by Julie Bowen of Modern Family fame. In its opening montage sequence bringing us up to speed on Happy's life over the last

near 30 years, we learn that Julie was killed in a freaked golfing accident when Happy accidentally

hit her in the head with one of his golf balls. And because that's not horrifying enough, it also happened on Mother's Day

More like Sad Gilmore, am I right? Given that Virginia was a well-liked character from the first film, who many were looking

forward to seeing again in Happy Gilmore 2, there was considerable surprise and disappointment that

she got the axe quite so blatantly. The marketing certainly didn't hint at this happening at all

so it caught just about everyone off guard. Either way, it just felt like a trite and somewhat

unimaginative way to introduce conflict for Happy. Basically treating his wife and the mother of his

children like a disposable plot device. And I know, Happy Gilmore 2 is not meant to be high art

but this still kinda just stung. Next up, Anais is Edith, The Accountant 2

The Accountant 2 is a decidedly sillier and more fun film than its predecessor

but even so, its big plot twist is so cartoonishly ridiculous that it stretches the story's internal credibility to near breaking point

In the sequel's very first scene, we meet an assassin called Anais

played by Daniela Pineda, who is tasked with helping locate a Salvadorian family pictured

in a photograph. But the big ol' rub is that this character actually is the mother shown in said

photo, called Edith, who was involved in an accident, lost her memories, and woke up with

the case of Acquired Savant Syndrome, allowing her to quickly become a ruthless, self-taught

assassin. As for why she looked so different from Edith, well, she also had facial reconstructive

surgery following the accident, inexplicably making her look completely different while having no visible scars or scars

It's deeply, deeply silly and though the film doesn't take itself particularly seriously

it's still a major ask of the audience to accept something so fundamentally just bizarre

Frank Drebin Sr Becomes an Owl – The Naked Gun Beyond the genuine plot twist of the recent reboot of The Naked Gun actually being good

had one more big surprise in store, a cameo from original protagonist Frank Drebin, who was of

course played by the legendary Leslie Nielsen. The film as a whole seems to relish making fun of

lazy, mawkish legacy sequels, and while another filmmaking team might have strained to give the

late great Nielsen some sort of garish cameo via ghoulish AI deepfake shenanigans, filmmaker Akiva

and Schaefer ultimately came up with something far better. Instead, Frank Drebin Sr. reappears in the film's climax

in the guise of an owl who helps airlift his son Frank Jr played by Liam Neeson to safety and helps him foil the villain Richard Kane And yeah apart from just being really really funny it also a fittingly absurd riposte

to legacy sequels and their obsession with raking back over past glories in regularly

tacky fashion. Because who, in their right mind, expected Frank Drebin Sr. to be reincarnated as an

Now, Eric isn't a blood relative. Final Destination Bloodlines If you thought the Final Destination franchise couldn't come up with a better twist than the previous films

it's actually a prequel surprise. Well, the team behind Final Destination Bloodlines tried their level best to get one over on audiences once again

After protagonist Stephanie's uncle Howard dies, the next family member in Death's firing line is assumed to be Howard's eldest son, Eric

However, just when it seems like Eric is going to be brutally killed off at the tattoo parlor where he works

he actually manages to survive, and it's instead his sister Julia who perishes next, courtesy of a trash compactor

As the traumatized and confused family tries to make sense of it

Eric's mother Brander, played by April Tellick, breaks the news that Eric was actually the product of an affair and not Howard's biological son

Of course, this means that Eric was never on death's list to begin with, which seemingly makes him safe

It was one hell of a clever way to flip the script, even if Eric still ended up suffering a death by MRI machine

when he tried to stop death from claiming his half-brother Bobby, played by Owen Joyner

Pete wins, but not Ray. The Long Walk The recent adaptation of Stephen King's dystopian novel The Long Walk is extremely faithful to the tone of the source material

though it takes some unexpected liberties with the plot at the very end

Readers of the book will know that protagonist Ray Garrity, here played by Cooper Hoffman

wins the titular Endurance Trial after his pal Pete McGreese, played by David Johnson here

blindly sits down and accepts his fate, and the seemingly unstoppable Billy Stebbins, played by Garrett Waring

suddenly falls over dead. But the film deviates sharply from this ending by having Stebbins give

up before Ray decides to sit down and die, leaving Pete the surprise winner instead

And while the novel ended ambiguously with Ray walking past the Major, here played by Mark Hamill

and jogging off into the night, here Pete shoots the Major dead with a rifle and walks off to parts

unknown. The ending is certainly still effective, but some nevertheless felt that the changes from

the source were unnecessary, and in the case of Pete's execution of the major, a little bit too

Hollywood by comparison. Harry had leg lengthening surgery. Materialists. Celine Song's Materialists was marketed as a relatively breezy romantic dramedy, and so few

were expecting it to be quite so weird, but weird it was. Matchmaker Lucy, played by Madame Web

herself, Dakota Johnson, spends the film pulled between the romantic interest of her working-class

ex, John, played by Chris Evans, and the slick, suave, wealthy Harry, played by Pedro Pascal

In many respects, Harry seems too good to be true. He's handsome, rich, charming as hell

He's Pedro Pascal. And it means that he could offer Lucy one hell of a sweet life

And then the mid-film twist drops that Harry isn't quite so perfect, or rather, he wasn't born that way

Lucy notices a scar on Harry's leg before he reveals that he's had leg lengthening surgery to add six inches to his height

to the eye-watering cost of 200,000 smackaroos. Harry insists that this changed his life for the better, and though it doesn't change how Lucy feels about him, and nor should it really

it does make her realize that she viewed him less as a love interest than a box-checking exercise, prompting them to then break up

It's a twist that tap dances on the fringes of absurdity, though considering the surgery is very much real and has been on the rise in the last five years, the film can just about get away with it

The Kids Rip Gladys Apart Weapons Weapons Zach Kregger's weapons is one hell of a wild ride, and even once it's revealed that the

17 banished children were enchanted by a witch called Gladys, played by a brilliant Amy Madigan

few could have possibly anticipated how it would all come to a head. In the film's bonkers finale, Gladys' nephew Alex, played by Carrie Christopher, takes

a strand of Gladys' hair from her wig and reenacts the strange spell she's used throughout

the film to enchant people to do her bidding as her own personal weapons. Doing so prompts the 17

enchanted children to start heading towards Gladys herself, hilariously chasing her through the

neighborhood like Gladys seeking missiles before they finally tackle her to the ground and things

get a bit bitey and goopy. At this point, the kids then rip Gladys apart with feral abandon

leaving behind nothing but chunks of crimson meat, her death freeing her victims from her control

even if some of the kids are still left just maybe a little smidge canatonic at the end of the film

And yeah, this was as surprising as it was outrageously satisfying. To see one of the year's most vile but entertaining villains get destroyed in such brutal and uproariously funny fashion

You love to see it. Naru is in stasis. Predator Killer of Killers

Killer of Killers was a damn fun time, and had quite the unexpected zinger in store for fans of the series' previous live action film, Prey

At the end of the film, Viking warrior Ursa, played by Lindsay Lavanchi, sacrifices herself to let Rodan Kenji, played by Luis Zawa Changchen

and American soldier John, played by Rick Gonzalez, escape from the Predator planet they're being kept on

Ursa is recaptured by the Predators and put back into stasis. where she's revealed to be stored alongside Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, the protagonist of Prey

While some fans maybe felt that this epilogue undercut the ending of Prey by revealing that Naru just got captured afterwards

it was nevertheless a fun and unexpected way to suggest she be back in a future installment And almost two months after Killer of Killers was released an extended epilogue was added to the film revealing that Ursa and Naru were in stasis alongside Dutch and Mike Arnold

Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover, the protagonists of the original two Predator movies

Though it remains to be seen what this could all be leading to, it's certainly neat to

see Dan Trappenberg bringing the series' most disparate characters closer together. The masked man is the meter guy, Drop

The recent horror thriller Drop revolves around a woman, Violet, played by Megan Fahey

who is terrorized by anonymous airdrop messages threatening her family. And the culprit is eventually revealed to be Richard, played by Reed Diamond

a man who intends to assassinate her date, Henry, played by Brandon Sklenner

But then there's the matter of the masked henchman who assists Richard by heading to Violet's house

and taking her son Toby, played by Jacob Robinson, and sister Jen, played by Violet Bean, hostage

In the finale, Violet heads home to take on the henchman, who removes his ski mask in a manner that suggests the audience is supposed to recognize his actual face

Yeah, he's the most generic looking dude imaginable, no offense, and resembles at least three of the characters we meet during the film

As it turns out though, the guy is actually the man who read Violet's electric meter at the very start of the film

But because the guy was on screen for literally 10 seconds and had a completely unremarkable, unmemorable face

the big reveal at the end falls hilariously flat, ultimately leaving many totally confused

Though spoon feeding the audience is often a bad thing, in this case it actually would have been smart to show maybe a quick flashback to the meter reading scene

just for the sake of clarity. Lena is Eve's sister, Ballerina. John Wick's spin-off Ballerina definitely isn't a film that needed a twist

Like, at all? But hey, they just slapped it on there anyway

During the movie, we're eventually introduced to Lena, played by Catalina Sandino Moreno

a high-ranking member of the assassin cult led by the villainous Chancellor, played by Gabriel Byrne

Given that Moreno is an Oscar-dominated actress, it was reasonable to assume that she'd have a major role to play

but even so, it's a reveal basically totally out of nowhere that she's actually the sister of protagonist Eve, played by Anna de Armas

The twist is fielded out in strangely half-assed fashion, as though even the filmmakers didn't really believe in it

before Lena swiftly dies a few minutes later and doesn't even get much of a meaningful interaction

with her sibling sister at all. Considering how much has been written about Ballerina's extensive reshoots

it's easy to believe that this plotline was hastily introduced in post-production

in order to maybe shoehorn some added emotional resonance to Eve's story

Doesn't quite work though in practice. Dennis lied about having a twin and got Rocky killed. TWINLESS

James Sweeney's terrific new black comedy, Twinless, was marketed as a film about two

young men. Roman and Dennis, played by Dylan O'Brien and Sweeney respectively, who become codependent

friends after meeting at a support group for Twinless twins, each of them grieving the

death of their own twin. But Sweeney's film is full of unexpected twists and turns that are doled out over the

course of its runtime. In the first act, we learn that Dennis was actually romantically involved with Roman's

twin brother Rocky, and more to the point, he was inadvertently responsible for Rocky's

death, angrily calling him into traffic where he was hit and killed by a car

Since then, Dennis has effectively been stalking Roman, and to somehow make it even worse

it's later confirmed that Dennis never had a twin, simply fabricating the story so he

could attend the support group and get close to Roman. It's deliciously twisted stuff and executed with incredible tonal mastery by Sweeney

at once delivering on the compelling promises of the trailer, but also offering so, so much more

Sarah was a honey trap. Relay David McKenzie's mostly great new crime thriller Relay revolves around Ash, played by Rees Ahmed

a fixer who serves as a go-between for whistleblowers and the companies they expose

His latest case though sees him trying to help whistleblower Sarah Grant, Lily James

safely escape the reach of a corporation whose misdeed she'd planned to expose

In the third act, Sarah is kidnapped by agents working for the corporation

and after Ash, who is now also romantically interested in Sarah, races to rescue her, she ends up tasering him

It is then revealed that Sarah is actually the leader of the operatives

that the entire whistleblower story was false. It was actually all part of a complex sting operation

cooked up by the corporation to trap Ash because of a previous whistleblower he helped escape

Effectively, Sarah was used as a honey trap to lure Ash out, force him to let his guard down

and then capture him. Though it's an interesting and unexpected twist, it's also howlingly

convoluted and so falls apart under even the slightest scrutiny which reminds me a lot of an

old Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman movie No Way Out where a similar end twist happens that kind of

just ruins the movie but hey the rest of Relay though pretty good time you should probably go

watch it if you can get past the twisty nonsense. Todd Dies Good Boy The tragic irony of the recent

indie horror hit Good Boy is that audiences got so preoccupied worrying over the fate of the

central canine, Indy, that they didn't spare much thought for the film's human protagonist

Todd, played by Shane Jensen. Now, the pre-release discourse surrounding the movie largely consisted

of folks expressing interest in the film, but not wanting to watch one where a dog dies

enough that some outlets flat out spoiled the dog's fate in their reviews, which, come on

That's not cool. But yet, obviously, Indy does not die, just for the avoidance of all doubt

In a devastating final twist, Indy's owner Todd sadly succumbs to the supernatural entity pursuing him throughout the film which can be interpreted as a metaphor for the debilitating chronic lung disease he suffers with throughout the story Seeing Indy unable to help his owner and instead

be forced to accept his death ends the film on one hell of a heart-wrenching note. Just not the one

a lot of people expected when an adorable old mutt was in the mix

MG is the killer. Honey, don't. Ethan Coen's new neo-noir Honey, don't

sees private detective Honey O'Donoghue, played by Margaret Qualley, investigating the deaths of

several women connected to a church operated by the lecherous Reverend Drew Devlin, played by Chris

Evans. But as vile as Devlin is, he actually isn't the film's killer. At the very end of the story

we learn that the person responsible is M.G. Falcone, who in addition to being a cop

is also Honey's lover. As it turns out, MG, played by Aubrey Plaza, was a victim of abuse

at the hands of her father and ultimately killed him, her trauma seemingly driving her insane

enough that she decided to murder women who took comfort in the church for their perceived

quote-unquote weakness. This revelation leads an incensed MG to try and kill Honey as well

who is in turn forced to kill her. Whether this left-field twist worked for you or not

as like the movie as a whole, it's certainly been quite divisive, few definitely saw it coming

It was Moretti's plan all along. Opus. A24's rather disappointing new horror Opus revolves around a journalist Ariel, played by

Ayo Adebiri, who is invited to the remote compound of a legendary reclusive pop star

called Alfred Moretti, played by John Malkovich, to sample his long-awaited new album. It rather

predictably transpires that Maretti is operating a cult from his home, and in the finale encourages

his followers to perform mass suicide by chugging down some poisoned champagne. Ariel is almost

force-fed the drink herself until a sympathetic follower frees her, after which we cut to a two

years later epilogue. Ariel has since written a book about her experience and pays a visit to an

imprisoned Moretti. Then Moretti drops the shock twist. The mass suicide was a hoax and everyone

who died is still alive, having blended into society at various levels, but they plan to keep

spreading his teachings. And more to the point, Moretti always intended for Ariel to survive

knowing she'd write a book about it and inadvertently spread word of Moretti's story

to the masses. Now, on one hand, the film is clearly trying to indict society and its obsession

with gawking at monsters, but the immensely contrived nature of Moretti's oh-so-perfect

plan makes it feel a bit too smug and mustache-twirling for its own good

Yvonne Dies Early, Caught Stealing It was quite understandably assumed that Zoe Kravitz would have a major role in Darren Aronofsky's

new crime thriller, Court Stealing, given that she was featured prominently in the film's

trailers and was effectively promoted as the female lead. And while Kravitz appears throughout the first act as Yvonne, the love interest of protagonist

Hank, played by Austin Butler, things take a sudden dark turn soon thereafter

Once Hank finds himself on the wrong side of the vicious Drucker brothers, played by

Vincent D'Onofrio and Liev Schreiber, he realises that Yvonne is also in danger, but

upon racing back to her apartment to check on her, he finds that she's been fatally shot in the head

As major character deaths go, it's completely unceremonious and unsentimental, kind of

Freedkin-esque. Yvonne doesn't get any dying words while bleeding out, and she's just gone

before Hank even gets there. It's a brilliantly effective turn, and one that solidifies the life

or death stakes for Hank, who at least manages to get brutal revenge on the Druckers by killing

the duo at the film's ending. Ray is the killer. I know what you did last summer

The legacy sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer was proof positive that just because a

twist is shocking does not make it effective or even basically logical. We eventually learn that

the hook wielding killer is Stevie, played by Sarah Pidgeon, who embarked on a killing spree

in revenge for the accidental death of her boyfriend Sam. But once Stevie has apparently

been killed, it's revealed that she had an accomplice, one of the original film's survivors

Ray Bronson, played by Fred Jones himself, Freddie Prinze Jr. Ray claims that he decided to help

Stevie because he was frustrated at the town of Southpaw attempting to erase the original killings

from its history in order to gentrify the town and boost tourism. A traumatized, infuriated Ray

wanted Southport to never forget what happened, and while this twist was certainly one hell of a

bold swing, it's really bad. Yeah, let's just say that there's a good reason that Scream has never

done this with one of its OG characters, because it would be thoroughly jumping the shark, just as

Ray's reveal was here. It's all about eye fluid, the home. The latest horror film from The Purge

director James DeMonaco revolves around Max, played by Pete Davidson, a former foster child

and graffiti artist who is arrested for vandalism and sentenced to community service at a retirement

home. Before long, Max begins to notice some incredibly strange goings on at the facility

and while we're very clearly being led to some sort of get out-esque scenario

the particulars of it are much more surprising. In the end, it's revealed that both the staff and residents of the retirement home

are part of a cult that worships the goddess Dea. So far, so freaky, but they also kidnap young people

and extract a liquid from behind their eye that they call Dea's Nectar

allowing them to extend their lives and remain youthful for longer. Given that The Home is a relatively dull, forgettable horror flick up to this point

the utterly bonkers swing is actually really cool, especially as it leads to Max embarking

on a bloodthirsty rampage against staff and residents alike. It's not enough to push the film into genuinely good territory, but hey, it has given me a new

fear. There is someone out there who wants to steal my eye juice. In which case, please don't