April Fooling: The 12 Best Movie Twist Endings

The Usual Suspects (1995)

"Who is Keyser Söze?” That was the big, mysterious marketing come-on during the summer of 1995. By the time that Bryan Singer's labyrinthine neo-noir arrived at the answer, jaws had to be pried off movie theater floors everywhere. A group of low-level crooks (Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Benicio del Toro, Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Spacey) stick up a ship for its cargo (or do they?) and Spacey's weaselly wiseguy makes it out alive to tell the cops what really happened. But, of course, his tale is pure hooey — a giddy, delirious fake-out that Singer snaps on the audience like a bear trap.

Watch it: The Usual Suspects, on Fandango Now, iTunes, Vudu

House of Games (1987)

David Mamet's directorial debut is all about gamblers and con men, so going in you know you're going to keep a close eye on which shell the pea is under. But good luck, even so. Lindsay Crouse stars as a best-selling psychiatrist who gets suckered by one of her patients into exploring the underworld of flimflam men. A sharpie played by Joe Mantegna is her guide. But what she doesn't suspect is that he's playing her. And what he doesn't suspect is that she's playing him playing her. It's hard to explain, but trust me, Mamet unspools it all perfectly. It's one of those Russian nesting doll plots that doesn't let up until the final scene. And by the time the end credits roll, you'll feel like you've been had … and you won't mind a bit.

Watch it: House of Games, on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu

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Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic actually has two brilliant twists. One comes less than halfway through (the infamous shower scene in which the star of the film, Janet Leigh, is killed off just as the story seems to be hitting its stride); the other comes at the end. That one involves a dank basement, a swinging light bulb, and a twitchy, nervous mama's boy named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) dressed in his dead mother's wig and clothes. Psycho wasn't the first twist ending ever, but it certainly was the most twisted twist ending. Hitchcock considered his masterpiece's surprises so sacrosanct that he warned that no one would be admitted into the theater after the film began.

Watch it: Psycho, on Amazon Prime, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Primal Fear (1996)

How great is the final surprise of this lurid legal thriller? So great that it's basically responsible for the career of Edward Norton. In the actor's big-screen debut, he plays a troubled young man who is accused of murdering Chicago's archbishop. It seems like a no-hope case. That is, until Richard Gere's hotshot Windy City attorney comes along to defend the kid who suffers from a split personality. Norton's then-anonymity helps sell the movie's suspenseful, joy-buzzer ending because he's such a blank slate to audiences. But after pulling off a ruse this good, Norton didn't just become an overnight star, he got an Oscar nomination for his performance, too.

Watch it: Primal Fear, on Amazon Prime, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

No Way Out (1987)

It's always thrilling to see an actor turn into a movie star before your eyes, and that's part of the fun of this twisty espionage thriller starring a young Kevin Costner. The rest of the fun is supplied by No Way Out's keep-you-guessing plot that saves its sucker-punch revelation for the final scene. A late Cold War–era update of 1947's The Big Clock, this hugely enjoyable film features Costner as a soldier having an affair with the mistress (Sean Young) of the secretary of defense (a deliciously sinister Gene Hackman). When she winds up murdered, the race is on for Costner to find her killer and clear his own name. But even the biggest mystery fans won't see No Way Out's whammo conclusion coming.

Watch it: No Way Out, on Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars fans had to wait three long years for the franchise's first sequel and when it arrived in theaters it came with one of the most dramatic dark-truth revelations in movie history. As our hero Luke Skywalker does swashbuckling light-saber battle with the galaxy's most evil villain, Darth Vader reveals the horrible reality that he is, in fact … dun-dun-dun … Luke's father. Next to that nasty piece of business, it was almost anticlimactic when Luke discovered that Princess Leia was his sister. George Lucas, of course, had plotted this all out years in advance, but at the time, no one saw it coming.

Watch it: The Empire Strikes Back, on Amazon Prime, Disney+, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Citizen Kane (1941)

Orson Welles’ masterpiece is so narratively brilliant and technically audacious that it almost doesn't matter what the film's inciting red herring — the titular tycoon's whispered dying word, “Rosebud” — really means. Still, this was Hollywood's original Easter egg, the answer to a riddle no one could have possibly guessed on their own, but that still packs a satisfying punch nonetheless. After 80 years, it seems safe to assume that the statute of limitations is up on spoilers. (For those who didn't make it to the end of the film — yet — Rosebud was Kane's childhood sled, a memento of his lost youth.)

Watch it: Citizen Kane, on Amazon Prime, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Chinatown (1974)

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.” Those are the last words in Roman Polanski's neo-noir masterpiece starring Jack Nicholson as a hard-boiled L.A. private eye who gets ensnared in a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of political power and SoCal high society. Faye Dunaway is the damaged femme fatale who draws him down a dark alley that leads to destruction — and uncorks the film's biggest WTF moment: “She's my sister … she's my daughter!” Incest, murder, corruption, in the end nothing matters and yet everything does. And as Nicholson walks away with the tragic, hard-won truth, we're left punch-drunk and reeling.

Watch it: Chinatown, on Amazon Prime, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.