Watch: 11-Minute Video Essay Counts Down The 10 Greatest Movie Twists Of All Time

A movie twist done right is a rare pleasure: the cherry on top of the cinematic sundae, if you will. It conjures a sense of immediacy and pleasurable disequilibrium, compelling viewers to question all the information they’ve absorbed up until that point. Conversely, when a movie twist is sloppily executed or poorly thought-out, it can seem like the cheapest of gimmicks: a manipulative “gotcha!” moment that exists for no other reason than providing the viewer with an involuntary and fleeting thrill. In a film like David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” the major twist that defines the film’s final act is ultimately integral to the movie’s themes about fractured identity and mental instability. In a movie like Alan Parker’s “The Life of David Gale,” the twist that ends the movie merely exists to cap a narrative that’s already become howlingly ludicrous, adding no substance or context to the story at hand.

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