The 25 best movie plot twists since 2000

Everybody loves a good plot twist, right?

Whether they’re ambiguous and thought-provoking (looking at you, David Lynch) or downright shocking (hello, The Mist), twists have been a staple of films since pretty much the dawn of cinema.

In the list below, we’ve narrowed down some of our more recent favourites.

From cases of mistaken identity to killers in disguise, here are 25 of the best movie plot twists from the year 2000 onwards. And it goes without saying, but…major spoiler alert.

1. Memento

What’s it about?

If ever there was a film made for twists, it’s Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Not only is the movie told backwards, but main character Leonard Shelby (played brilliantly by Guy Pearce) is a textbook unreliable narrator. Leonard has a condition which means his longterm memory is functional, but he can’t remember any of the recent things that have happened to him beyond a 15-or-so-minute window. In order to keep himself focused, Leonard writes notes, takes Polaroids, and follows the tattooed clues inked all over his torso.

His mission is to find “John G,” the person allegedly responsible for his wife’s murder. But his condition also means he’s easily manipulated by those around him.

What’s the twist?

You guessed it: Leonard is being manipulated by those around him. Specifically Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), a police officer who’s essentially using Leonard to kill the people that he wants dead, by tricking him into thinking they’re the ones responsible for his wife’s murder. The way Nolan reveals this gives us just enough clues to hint that Leonard’s own backstory may also be a lie — but leaving us with enough ambiguity that, like Leonard’s memory, we’re not entirely sure what to believe. — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor

Memento is available to buy on Prime Video in the UK, and watch on Amazon in the U.S.

2. Get Out

What’s it about?

When Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) travels to meet his girlfriend’s family for the first time, he worries about how they might react to him being Black. But the more time he spends at their family home, the weirder things get. Rose’s mother attempts to hypnotise him, the neighbors come over for a strange party, and Chris has some unnerving encounters with her two Black housekeepers. Eventually, he begins to fear that his own life may be at risk.

What’s the twist?

There are actually a number of twists in Jordan Peele’s genre-defining horror comedy, the first of which is slightly easier to see coming than the others: Chris’ girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) isn’t who she says she is. Chris is actually the latest in a string of Black men she’s lured to her home under the pretext of introducing them to her family. The real reason they’re brought there? To have their bodies used as vessels for the minds of elderly white people, which are transferred via a process known as “the coagula.”

Oh, and the two Black housekeepers that Chris had the odd interactions with? They’re currently being used as vessels for Rose’s grandparents. Yep. — S.H.

Get Out is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

3. Mulholland Drive

What’s it about?

Summarising the plot of any David Lynch film is a little like trying to bottle the sun, but here goes. Basically, the bulk of the movie revolves around an aspiring actor called Betty (Naomi Watts) and a mysterious woman with amnesia called Rita (Laura Henning) who breaks into her apartment. But after the two attempt to find out what’s happened to Rita, things go completely off the deep end.

What’s the twist?

Again, with this being a Lynch film, the twist isn’t your typical one. But the implication at the film’s conclusion is that Betty isn’t who she believes herself to be — she’s actually a failed actor called Diane, who appears to have hallucinated all the events in the movie’s first two thirds. The mystery and allure of Hollywood is nothing but a figment of Diane’s damaged mind, and the reality is that she’s come to Tinseltown with aspirations of fame and fortune — and the city has completely broken her. — S.H.

Mulholland Drive is available on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

4. Hereditary

What’s it about?

Ari Aster’s Hereditary is all about the details, so make sure you pay attention. After the sudden death of their grandmother, Ellen, a grieving family struggles to get their lives back together. But after the grave is vandalised, Annie (Toni Collette) sees a vision of her late mother in her house, and it becomes clear that Ellen had a much darker hold over the family home than her daughter knew. 

Later, when another sudden family death threatens to tear them apart completely, Annie turns to a grief support group for help and meets attendee Joan, who encourages her to try a seance.

What’s the twist?

Ellen was actually part of a coven dedicated to summoning a demon called Paimon, who requires a male host to inhabit. Joan, the supposed support group member, has been a part of this coven all along — and now that Ellen is dead, she’s doing everything she can to carry out her wishes.

Oh, and the unfortunate victim the coven has lined up to host the demon? Annie’s surviving son, Peter (Alex Wolff). — S.H.

Hereditary is available on Netflix.

5. Unbreakable

What’s it about?

We couldn’t even think about having a plot twist list without one from The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan in there, and luckily this one — which came out in 2000 — just sneaks in.

The first instalment of the eponymous trilogy, Unbreakable follows comic book art dealer Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) on his quest to find a real-life superhero. After he meets former football player David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the sole survivor of a devastating train crash, he believes he’s succeeded in his mission.

What’s the twist?

David is indeed a superhero, whose powers include extreme strength and the ability to see the crimes people have permitted just by touching them. But that isn’t the twist. The twist comes right at the end of the film when David shakes Elijah’s hand — and realises he was the one behind the train crash all along.

It turns out that Elijah has been so obsessed with his mission that he’s been deliberately causing tragedies in an attempt to track down an IRL superhero. Yikes. — S.H.

Unbreakable is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK, or stream on HBO in the U.S.

6. Shutter Island

What’s it about?

In Martin Scorsese’s tense psychological thriller, two U.S. marshals visit a psychiatric facility based on an island to track down a missing patient, who is being held there for drowning her children. But Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), one of the investigators, has an ulterior motive for taking the job — he also wants to find another patient, an arsonist called Andrew Laeddis, who was responsible for killing his wife in a fire.

What’s the twist?

Teddy Daniels is actually a patient at the facility. His real name is Andrew Laeddis (an anagram of “Edward Daniels”), and he killed his own wife after she drowned their children. The entire “investigation” was nothing but an act masterminded by lead psychiatrist John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), aimed at bringing Andrew back to the real world. All the other staff at the facility have been in on it the whole time. — S.H.

Shutter Island is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

7. Atonement

What’s it about?

Four years prior to World War II, a teenage girl called Briony (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) having sex with their housekeeper’s son Robbie (James McAvoy). She mistakenly believes her sister is being assaulted. Later, when her 15-year-old cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is actually raped, she wrongly identifies Robbie as the attacker.

Robbie is eventually released from prison in order to fight in WWII — and when Briony finally comes to terms with her mistake, she meets with Cecilia and Robbie (now on leave in London) in order to make amends.

What’s the twist?

Robbie never made it back from WWII. The events that occur later in the movie, after Robbie has been evacuated, are dreamed up by a much older Briony (who is now an author) as part of an autobiographical novel she’s writing. In real life, Robbie died during WWII and Cecilia died a short while after. The two never got their happy ending. — S.H.

Atonement is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

8. Us

What’s it about?

In this hauntingly original horror from Jordan Peele, a family’s vacation takes a dark turn when they’re accosted by a group of very creepy doppelgängers. They eventually learn that their attackers are clones known as “The Tethered,” who have come to “cut” themselves free from their doubles so they no longer have to live in the shadows. You would think this revelation is the big twist, but hold onto your seats…

What’s the twist?

This one’s pretty wild. The Tethered, it turns out, are actually clones created by the government as part of a failed experiment to control humanity. When it went wrong, the clones were locked up in a set of underground passages, living out their gloomy days mimicking the actions of their doppelgängers on the surface. But now they’ve finally broken free, hellbent on claiming that sweet sunlight for themselves.

The final twist? After the family’s mother, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) kills her doppelgänger, Red, it’s revealed that she was the doppelgänger all along — back on a family holiday as a child, the real Adelaide was snatched and locked up by Red, who has been posing as Adelaide ever since. It’s a lot to unpack, which we’ve done in more detail here. — S.H.

Us is available to stream on NOW TV in the UK and Hulu in the U.S.

9. Knives Out

What’s it about?

After crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead following his 85th birthday party, private investigator Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired to look into the case. He soon learns that Harlan had disagreements with pretty much everybody in his family, and that there are a number of people who may have wished him harm.

What’s the twist?

The most fun we had at the films in 2019, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out has all the shocking twists you’d expect in a classic whodunit-style mystery. The first is that Harlan actually did kill himself, but it was only because he thought he was dying anyway — his nurse Marta (Ana de Armas) appeared to switch his medicine by mistake, giving him a lethal shot of morphine and leaving him with minutes to live. In order to stop her from getting into legal trouble, Harlan masterminded his own alibi for her before he died.

However, the horrible reality is that Marta actually didn’t make a mistake at all — Ransom (Chris Evans), Harlan’s sweater-wearing grandson, intentionally switched the labels on the medicine bottles after finding out Marta was due to inherit Harlan’s estate. But Marta — operating automatically based on the viscosity of the liquid — had actually administered the correct medication to Harlan. Still, at least Ransom gets his comeuppance in the end. — S.H.

Knives Out is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

10. Gone Girl

What’s it about?

In David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel, teacher Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. As the police fail to find her and the media attention grows around the case, Nick finds himself becoming the prime suspect in her disappearance.

Things then get significantly worse for him when police find evidence that he’s been having an affair with one of his students, that his marriage was circling the toilet, and that his wife kept a diary expressing her fears that he might actually kill her one day.

What’s the twist?

Not only is Nick not the killer, but Amy isn’t even dead! She’s been hiding out in the Ozarks the whole time, having planned to frame her husband after she found out he’d been cheating on her. It turns out Amy is a very cunning sociopath, and she’s been fabricating her diary and leaving little clues and hints to try and make Nick look as guilty as she possibly can. But taking a step back, Amy’s role as the real villain in the piece is also a complicated one. — S.H.

Gone Girl is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

11. The Mist

What’s it about?

After a strange mist envelops the world, a father and son become trapped inside a supermarket with a group of strangers. When people try to venture outside, they discover that the mist is inhabited by a range of deeply unpleasant monsters with a hankering for human flesh.

Eventually, with the fellow survivors in the supermarket growing more and more dangerous, a small group — including the father and son — decide to make a break for it outside.

What’s the twist?

This film is based on a novella by Stephen King, which actually ends on a slight note of hope. But Frank Darabont’s movie adaptation is way, way bleaker. After the surviving characters find a car and go driving through the mist looking for help, they eventually run out of gas. With no options left, they decide to take what they think is the easier way out: the father uses his last four bullets to shoot all of them, including his own kid, to avoid them being torn apart by monsters.

Moments later, as the father waits in the car for his inevitable death, the mist suddenly begins to clear around him — and the U.S. army shows up out of nowhere, blasting the monsters away. — S.H.

The Mist is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

12. Oldboy

What’s it about?

Featuring one of the most disturbing, nooooope-inducing twists in cinematic history, Park Chan-wook’s 2013 thriller Oldboy is a film you’ll never be able to prise out of your memory. The second instalment of “The Vengeance Trilogy,” Oldboy follows the plight of businessman Oh Dae-su, who spends 15 years imprisoned in a hotel room without knowing by whom. With nothing to do but watch TV and plot revenge, he finds out he’s the prime suspect in his wife’s murder through a news broadcast. Plus, he has no idea where his daughter is. But guys, that’s really not why he’s there. One day, he’s suddenly released with five days to figure out the motive, so he goes straight to a restaurant to throw a live octopus in his mouth. There, he meets chef Mi-do. The two form an odd bond on the bloody road to revenge and eventually have sex — which they really, really shouldn’t.

Why should you watch it?

Ready? You might want to sit down and consider this a strong content warning. Dae-su’s captor is revealed as an old school classmate named Lee Woo-jin, whose incestuous relationship with his sister was witnessed by a young Dae-su. Word got out about the siblings thanks to Dae-su, and Woo-jin’s sister later died by suicide. It’s then revealed that Woo-jin planned the whole thing in revenge, and Mi-do is actually Dae-su’s daughter (THERE IT IS). What does Dae-su do? Cuts out his own tongue. But it’s not enough, as Woo-jin tricks him again into playing an audio recording of Dae-su’s own incest. This is all dropped on both Dae-su and the audience with all the horror of a live octopus to the face and is without doubt one of the most terribly unforgettable things I’ve ever seen on screen. — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor

Oldboy is available to stream on Shudder.

13. American Psycho

What’s it about?

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a highly-paid VP and investment banker, a member of New York’s high society, and a serial killer.

Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial 1991 novel, the film slowly reveals the extent of the dual lives Bateman leads, from pretentious business meetings in the day to the murder of homeless people and sex workers at night. And after he kills his colleague Paul Allen (Jared Leto), Bateman’s control over his own dark urges really begins to slip.

What’s the twist?

This one isn’t quite as clear cut as some other twists, but there’s a strong indication at the end of American Psycho that Bateman may not be a killer after all. In fact, he may have hallucinated the whole thing. This surprise twist and realisation comes after he goes on a murderous rampage, fleeing the police and killing four officers before eventually confessing everything he’s done to his lawyer.

The problem? Bateman’s lawyer thinks his confessions are a joke, telling Bateman he had dinner with Paul Allen just the other evening. The man is still alive. — S.H.

American Psycho is available to stream on Netflix.

14. Saw

What’s it about?

A photographer and an oncologist wake up chained in a grimy bathroom with cassette tapes in their pockets. There’s a dead body lying between them holding a gun and a tape recorder. After playing the tapes, they realise they’ve been captured by an infamous killer known as Jigsaw. They’re in one of his “games,” and the only way for them to get out is to follow the grim rules he’s set for them.

Soon they realise that they’re not the only ones being held captive, either. The oncologist’s wife and daughter are also being watched over by a man who works as an orderly at the same hospital as him. If the oncologist doesn’t kill the photographer by a certain time, they’ll both die.

What’s the twist?

The orderly isn’t Jigsaw; he’s just another person who’s been forced to play the “game.” The real Jigsaw is John Kramer, a man with terminal cancer who was one of the oncologist’s patients. And the supposed “corpse” lying in the middle of the bathroom? It’s been Kramer all along. — S.H.

Saw is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

15. Inglorious Basterds

What’s it about?

In this tense, gruesome, and often hilarious 2009 war flick, writer and director Quentin Tarantino takes us to Nazi-occupied France in the darkest days of World War II. The titular squad of Jewish Allied commandos is dropped behind enemy lines to wage a grisly guerrilla war against the Axis. It all culminates in a suitably bombastic mission: infiltrate a Nazi film premiere in Paris and kill Adolf Hitler (along with most of his top advisers, who will be in attendance for the screening). Meanwhile, the Basterds’ mission often takes a backseat to the true emotional backbone of the story — namely, the French theater owner’s plans to do the exact same thing.

What’s the twist?

Viewers with even a passing knowledge of WWII know the Basterds can’t hope to succeed for a simple reason — Hitler didn’t die in a theater in France. As the squad’s plans start to go awry, their inevitable failure hangs over the film like a dark cloud. But then, in a moment equally jubilant and ultraviolet, the unthinkable happens — Hitler and most of his senior staff are chewed apart by machine gun fire. One unforgettable closeup in particular makes it clear that the “mass-murdering maniac” is truly toast. It’s a brilliant twist from Tarantino that emphasizes the power of cinema to provide catharsis by both relying on and subverting historical context. It’s such a good trick, in fact, that Tarantino would riff on it again in later films like Django Unchained and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. — Bob Al-Greene, Senior Illustrator

Inglorious Basterds is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

16. Ex Machina

What’s it about?

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a week’s stay at the home of his company’s eccentric CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac), where he meets Ava (Alicia Vikander) — a highly-advanced AI robot. Caleb and Ava take part in scheduled private lessons, where they form a bond more complex than man and machine. Ava eventually causes power outages through her network that give them privacy from Nathan’s security cameras, and she warns Caleb not to trust him. 

What’s the twist?

As Caleb becomes dubious of Nathan and enamored of Ava, he hatches a plan with her to disable the power and leave Nathan’s property together. She kills Nathan in the ensuing fight, but not before Nathan can warn Caleb that he’s being manipulated by a robot. In the end, Ava leaves Caleb behind and leaves the property passing as a human. — Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter

Ex Machina is available to stream on Netflix.

17. The Prestige

What’s it about?

Based on the novel by Christopher Priest, The Prestige tells the story of rival magicians in 19th-century London: Robert (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred (Christian Bale), who used to work together but parted ways after a fatal accident on stage. Robert becomes obsessed with Alfred’s trick “the transported man,” resorting to every measure he can to dig up its secrets or replicate it himself. He comes as close as he can, but never quite masters the trick as his rival did.

What’s the twist?

There are two, if you like. One is how Robert replicates “the transported man,” which involves locking himself in a water tank and then carrying out a crude cloning. The process leads to dozens of dead Roberts, with each new version taking over a life that was never his. 

But the big surprise twist is that Alfred is not one but two people; identical twins who sell “the transported man” by appearing to the audience at different times from across the stage or auditorium. Robert never stood a chance of replicating it, and he died over and over just to come close. — P.K.

The Prestige is available to stream on Amazon Prime in the UK, and rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

18. Spiderman: Homecoming

What’s it about?

You’re probably familiar with your friendly neighborhood webslinger through multiple film iterations, comics, and general pop culture ubiquity since 1962. But 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming came into our lives already swinging. We skipped the old news; no more dying uncle Ben, discovery of superpowers, or origin montage (and why bother, when Sam Raimi’s 2002 film did them so well?). Instead, we’re plunged right into Peter Parker’s world, and his days split between delightful high school awkwardness and routine masked heroics. It’s also a world steeped in the nearly decade-old Marvel Cinematic Universe at the time, but Spidey and his slice of New York fit in perfectly.

What’s the twist?

Spider-Man’s chief enemy throughout the film is Vulture (Michael Keaton), a working-class New Yorker harboring caustic bitterness toward the Avengers for destroying his city and taking away his job. But Peter (Tom Holland) tries to keep his personal and professional lives separate; he plans to go to the Homecoming dance with his classmates to take a night off from fixating on Vulture, and he even asks out his crush, Liz (Laura Harrier). 

When Peter rings Liz’s doorbell to pick her up for Homecoming, he freezes in shock — and so did my entire theater, for the door is answered none other than Vulture, Liz’s dad. The twist is magnificent. Peter’s crimefighting and crush wooing are kept so distant throughout this movie that you never even think of Vulture and Liz’s seemingly-tertiary dad anywhere near each other. On a surface level, Harrier is Black and Keaton is white, so the twist plays fantastically with audience assumptions. Best yet, the twist keeps giving. The implications of Peter dating his enemy’s daughter wash over us in wave after wave as we follow a breathless Peter into this man’s home and hope he survives the night. — P.K.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

19. The Cabin in the Woods

What’s it about?

Five college students visit a cabin in the woods for a weekend of summer fun and become victims of a violent, undead cult of zombie hillbillies. Typical horror stuff, right? Not really, but saying any more about the plot would spoil the twist…

What’s the twist?

Cabin in the Woods actually provides a metatextual framework for every teen horror movie. The students discover that they are not at the cabin of their own volition, but were lured there to participate in a ritual controlled by a group of researchers who need Cabin in the Woods–like setups to happen in order to appease a pantheon of powerful unnamed gods. If the gods are not appeased, the world will be destroyed. Things go haywire when two of the students escape the cabin and travel to the researchers’ lab, at which point all hell breaks loose and they unleash every horror movie monster and archetype on the scientists who killed their friends. It is a brief and pyrrhic victory; though the heroes survive, the ritual is left incomplete and the elder gods destroy the earth. — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter

The Cabin in the Woods is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and stream on Amazon Prime in the U.S.

20. Now You See Me

What’s it about?

Four illusionists are recruited by a mysterious organization (“The Eye”) to perform magic shows that have seemingly impossible tricks — the “Four Horsemen” drain an insurance billionaire’s bank account and distribute his money to victims of Hurricane Katrina, break into an “unbreakable” Elkhorn safe, and frame Thaddeus Bradley, an illusion debunker and their biggest detractor, for all of their crimes. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes is assigned to take the Horsemen down but remains one step behind them the entire movie, even with the help of Interpol agent Alma Dray.

What’s the twist?

In the movie’s final moments, Dylan Rhodes reveals that he was the one who recruited the Horsemen as pawns in his plan to avenge his father, a disgraced illusionist named Lionel Shrike. Shrike died trying to escape from a faulty Elkhorn safe after Thaddeus Bradley goaded him into performing a dangerous trick; the insurance billionaire’s company failed to pay out after his father’s death, leaving Rhodes’ family penniless. Though the Horsemen are surprised to hear they’ve been working with their FBI nemesis, Rhodes welcomes them to join the real “Eye” as master magicians. — A.N.

Now You See Me is available to stream on Netflix in the UK, and rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

21. Toy Story 3

What’s it about?

Now that Andy, the human child whose imagination gave life to his toys in the first Toy Story films, is ready to go to college, the gang is feeling neglected. After a mix-up with some boxes, Woody, Buzz, Jesse, and others wind up donated to Sunnyside daycare center, which they assume is a paradise because a constant stream of children means they’ll have someone to play with forever. The Sunny toys, led by strawberry-scented teddy bear Lotso, welcome Woody and his friends with open arms. 

What’s the twist?

Hold on to your cowboy hat, because Toy Story 3 takes a hard left turn. Lotso sacrifices Woody and the gang to the toddler room, where they are essentially tortured by children too young to play nicely. Sunnyside is a toy fascist empire controlled by Lotso, who is revealed to be a cuddly psychopath with a pathological hatred of human children. The gang manages to escape with a few Sunnyside defectors, but anyone expecting a lighthearted adventure from Toy Story 3 was in for a rude awakening when the berry-scented teddy bear turned out to be a totalitarian dictator. — A.N.

Toy Story 3 is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

22. The Lord of the Rings

What’s it about?

It’s hard to say that Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, a wildly popular three-volume book by J.R.R. Tolkien published in the 1950s, has a truly effective twist. But amidst the larger tale of world-saving courage and heroism against the pure evil of Sauron, the way the films handle Gandalf’s story still manages to make a huge impact nearly 50 years later. In the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, the gray wizard Gandalf holds back a massive, demonic Balrog as his companions escape the desecrated Mines of Moria. Gandalf sunders a bridge the Balrog is standing on, sending him falling into a deep abyss, but the relief after the encounter is short-lived as the Balrog’s fiery lash lurches up and wraps around Gandalf’s leg, yanking him down into the darkness.

What’s the twist?

In the second movie The Two Towers, the opening scene shows Gandalf free-falling and fighting with the Balrog, but cuts off just before they collide with the surface of a massive subterranean lake. Later in the movie, the three heroes Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are searching for two of their captured Hobbit companions in Fangorn Forest, not far from Isengard where the corrupted white wizard Saruman resides. In the dark woods, they see a bright white light emanating from a robed figure and, thinking it’s Saruman, attack. But their moves are easily parried and the light fades, revealing the resurrected Gandalf, who explains he battled the Balrog for 10 days and smote the beast before darkness took him and he was reborn as the now more-powerful Gandalf the White. — Kellen Beck, Entertainment Reporter

The Lord of the Rings is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK and the U.S.

23. The Handmaiden

What’s it about?

I highly recommend going into this movie as blind as possible — but knowing some details won’t ruin it for you. Inspired by the 2002 novel Fingersmith, The Handmaiden is a South Korean erotic thriller set in Korea under Japanese colonial rule. The story is told in three parts and centers around four main characters, two of which are queer women. With its clever dialogue, gorgeous sets, and multiple twists, The Handmaiden feels much shorter than its two-hour, 48-minute running time. 

What’s the twist?

Buckle in, because there are several. It seems that no character in The Handmaiden is who they say they are. A wealthy woman is conned by her lover and an actual conman — but it’s only later that the conman finds out that he, himself, has been conned by both women. — Anna Iovine, Sex and Relationships Reporter

The Handmaiden is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK, or stream on Amazon Prime in the U.S.

24. Parasite

What’s it about?

It’s not the unanimous winner of the Palme d’Or, four Academy Awards including Best Picture, and arguably the title of most talked-about film of 2019 for nothing. With multiple big twists played out by a formidably talented cast and hauntingly lavish cinematography, Bong Joon-ho’s comedic thriller Parasite follows the Kim family — Ki-taek, Chung-sook, Ki-jung, and Ki-woo — who are making a modest living folding pizza boxes in downtown Seoul. Together, they create an elaborate scheme to all get cushier jobs working for an affluent family, the Parks, who need assistance in their slick mansion with things like . This scheme means getting the current staff fired, including their longtime housekeeper, Moon-gwang, who, uh, left something behind in the house. And all the while that light won’t stop flickering above the stairs…

What’s the twist?

When the Parks take their kids camping, the Kims take full advantage of the empty house and get their party on. The housekeeper, Moon-gwang, suddenly shows up in the middle of it all needing to retrieve “something” from the basement — and it’s revealed that her husband Geun-sae has been secretly living in a bunker under the house for years, communicating with head-banged Morse code through the flickering light, and staring out from the dark at the Parks’ young son. There are more sinister twists down the track in the film, but this bunker discovery is probably the biggest twist. You’ll never look at a flickering light the same way again.

Parasite is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the UK, and stream on Hulu in the U.S.

25. Synecdoche, New York

What’s it about?

Synecdoche, New York (a dichotomous worldplay between Schenectady, New York, the physical setting for much of the film, and synecdoche, a figure of speech where a part is made to represent the whole оr the other way around) is a film about you. Both you, the viewer (whoever you are), and “you,” the universal human being tossed and turned inside the washing machine of life. Each character’s experience is a synecdoche for our own: our fears, hopes, dreams, and eventual deaths. “The end is built into the beginning,” is a constantly repeated line meant to reinforce the sense of powerlessness we face coming to terms with the Sisyphean task of living meaningfully.

In its most synecdochical sense, the film is a Shakespearean mise en abyme — “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” A play within a play, times 1000. Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a talented but ailing theater director, receives a MacArthur Fellowship, giving him the financial freedom to pursue his childlike dreams of artistic grandeur. He dedicates the rest of his life (and those of his troupe) to creating a play about their lives. New York is duplicated inside an enormous warehouse that serves as the stage. Actors are hired to represent his and the troupe’s lives. The grandiose gesture is gradually miniaturised as more plays within plays are introduced — a smaller warehouse within the warehouse, doppelgängers to play the actors playing the actors. The lives of everyone in the film spin out of control in direct proportion to the black hole that Caden’s play has become to the point that he himself has lost all sense of self and becomes all but a puppet in the final scene.

What’s the twist?

The end is built into the beginning. The film is Caden’s experience of life condensed in just over two hours, which makes the ending all that more baffling. While Caden is totally consumed by his ever-expanding production, he does not seem to notice that the world outside has devolved into dystopian chaos — which also happens inside the warehouse. 

As Caden gradually loses control of himself, his actors, and his play, he takes up the role of Ellen, a character introduced late in the movie as Caden’s wife’s cleaning lady. Meanwhile, the actor hired to play the role of Ellen in Caden’s play starts playing the role of Caden. The transformation of the two identities reveals its final form as Ellen-as-Caden puppeteers Caden-as-Ellen through an earpiece at the end of both the play and movie. Caden’s metamorphosis is complete as everything crumbles on cue at the end of the movie, leaving only a hint of rejuvenation through Caden-as-Ellen’s new identity. The film fades out in the same grey it fades in to. The end is built into the beginning. — Nikolay Nikolov, Series Producer

Synecdoche, New York is available to stream on Amazon Prime in the UK, and rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.