This blog is mainly for reviews on my favourite films and TV shows so I thought I'd do something a little bit different on this blog.
One thing I love about films is plot twists.
A plot twist is an unexpected development in a film, TV series or book.
I've watched a lot of films this year and some of them had some of the best plot twists. They kept me thinking about the film for days, wondering how the film could take such an unexpected turn.
For your information, this list is in no particular order.
*SPOILER ALERT*
This list contains spoilers from Shutter Island, The Prestige, Fight Club, Now You See Me and Gone Girl.
5. Fight Club (1999)
Judging from the film title, I assumed that this film would be about Brad Pitt and Edward Norton's characters setting up a fight club and having fight competitions. Then I read some more about the plot online and discovered that it was about Edward Norton's character, known as The Narrator, who has insomnia and wants to change his life. He meets with Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, and they become friends and set up a fight club.
I honestly didn't think that this film would be that good. I'm not a fan of fighting films so I didn't think I'd enjoy this. How wrong I was!
Throughout the film, I wondered if I would ever find out what The Narrator's real name was. And I did. As it turns out, The Narrator is Tyler Durden. The way this plot twist is delivered is great.
At the beginning of the film, The Narrator meets Helena Bonham Carter's character, Marla Singer, at a support group. Marla meets Tyler and sleeps with him much to The Narrator's annoyance. It isn't until after Marla rings The Narrator and calls him Tyler that we realise what's really going on. The Narrator is so astonished and turns and sees Tyler sitting in front of him. Tyler explains that he is a figment of The Narrator's imagination. Watching this scene left me in awe.
One thing this film taught me is to never judge a film by it's title or poster. I thought it was a film about guys fighting, turns out it wasn't.
Great film with three of the best actors.
4. Gone Girl
This film is one of the best mystery films I've ever seen. It definitely deserved its Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. The film is about Ben Affleck's character, Nick Dunne, who, after returning home, notice his wife Amy, played by Rosamund Pike, is missing. This leads to a series of unexpected twists and turns causing the audience to wonder: Did Nick really kill his wife?
I did think that, at first, Nick murdered his wife and that he was hiding her dead body. Turns out I was completely wrong.
Halfway through the film, we discover that Amy is actually alive and she planned her disappearance. Why? She caught Nick kissing a younger woman outside the bar where he works. She then decides to plan her own disappearance and frame Nick so it looks like he killed her.
This scene is my favourite out of the whole film. At the beginning of the film, when we first meet Amy in a flashback, we see her as a down to earth and loving wife for Nick. This is why this plot twist is so unexpected. The audience can't imagine someone like Amy coming up with such a clever way to fake her disappearance.
After watching this film, it changed my whole perspective and made me realise that the most guilty-looking people actually are innocent and that the most innocent-looking people are the guilty ones.
Rosamund Pike is brilliant as the conniving Amy and Ben Afflect is perfect as the deeply concerned husband, Nick.
3. Now You See Me
I am a huge fan of magicians and illusionists so I was very excited about watching this film. The plot focuses on J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fischer) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) who form a group, known as The Four Horsemen, that perform tricks, illusions and bank heists all in front of a live audience. However, due to the bank heists, the FBI are determined to find out how they are managing to steal millions of dollars from the biggest banks.
One FBI agent who is obsessed with stopping them is Mark Ruffalo's character, Dylan Rhodes. Throughout the film, he comes so close to stopping The Four Horsemen and becomes increasingly frustrated when they get away. Feeling helpless, he turns to Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a former magician who earns money by revealing the secrets behind over magician's tricks.
At the beginning of the film, when we first meet the four main characters, we see a hooded character that attends their shows. This hooded character isn't revealed until near the end of the film.
As it turns out, the hooded character is actually Rhodes.
When this is revealed, I was dumbfounded and realised it was pretty obvious, to be honest. It couldn't have been Thaddeus Bradley or Michael Caine's character, Arthur Tressler.
Even the Four Horsemen, in the film, are shocked to discover who their mystery benefactor is.
One of the greatest tricks in films.
2. Shutter Island
Now, if you haven't seen Shutter Island, then why haven't you? This is, by far, director Martin Scorsese's best film (yes, even better than The Departed in my opinion). I put off watching this film as I had no idea what to expect. I read that the plot was about Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Ted Daniels, who is a US Marshal. The film begins with him arriving at Shutter Island, which is a hospital for the mentally insane, to investigate the disappearence of a woman, Rachel. Helping him is Mark Ruffalo's character, Chuck Aule. Ted is finding this investigation difficult as he is being ruled by his wife's, Dolores Chanal, death, after she was murdered by a man named Andrew Laeddis. He sees her ghost and she keeps telling him to leave as he is going to get hurt.
Soon, Ted realises that something is going on and he's determined to find out what it is. After discovering Rachel hiding in a cave, he starts to believe that the staff at the hospital are keeping Chuck inside a lighthouse and are torturing him. He rushes straight to the lighthouse to discover Dr Cawley (Ben Kingsley) sitting at a desk. This is where the truth unfolds.
Dr Cawley explains that he is, in fact, Andrew Laeddis and he murdered his wife after he discovered that she had drowned their three children. These events lead Andrew to go so insane and come up with a new identity for himself, Edward 'Ted' Daniels, which is an anagram of his real name, Andrew Laeddis.
Watching this scene left me gobsmacked and a little disturbed at the fact that someone could become so insane that they forget who they are and come up with a completely new identity for themselves.
I began to feel sympathy for Andrew as he doesn't believe what he is being told and he asks Dr Cawley where Chuck is, still thinking that they're torturing him somewhere. Chuck then appears and tells Andrew that he is one of the staff working at Shutter Island and he is actually called Dr Sheehan.
He explains that the only way they could break Andrew's insanity was to let him play out this role of 'Ted Daniels'. All the staff and patients at the hospital were in on it.
I'm so annoyed that this didn't have any Oscar nominations as the acting and directing was brilliant. You'd have to be a really outstanding actor to portray someone who is insane and that's what Leonardo DiCaprio is in this film.
To this day, this film still leaves me in disbelief every time I watch it.
1. The Prestige
When I wrote about Now You See Me, I wrote that I loved magicians and illusionists so I was very excited about watching this film. Starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as two rival magicians who are constantly trying to outdo each other by performing the best tricks.
Directed by, one of my favourite directors, Christopher Nolan, the film is full of unexpected twists and turns. I didn't know what was going to happen next.
Jackman plays Robert Angier and Christian Bale plays Alfred Borden, The two magicians are friends, at first, and even worked together to create the best illusions and tricks ever seen. Unfortunately, one of their tricks goes wrongs and leads to a falling out between Angier and Borden and this is where the rivalry begins. This film is full of tension and nail-biting scenes as their magic tricks play out, we never know if something is going to go wrong or right.
Borden begins playing out a trick he calls The Transported Man which involves two doors on opposite sides of the stage. The trick is him walking through one door but then appearing through the other door at the other side of the stage. This drives Angier mad as he thinks he's using a double. His assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johannson), tells him that Borden can't be using a double as he has two fingers missing and it is definitely him as you can see the two fingers missing.
This leads Angier to go to extreme lengths to perform a better version of this trick which makes him the more popular magician. Borden becomes increasingly jealous and sneaks backstage at one of his shows to witness one of his tricks go wrong before drowning. Borden is arrested for the murder of Angier but, as it turns out, he is, in fact, alive and it was his double that drowned. Borden is shocked and is sentenced to death. At this point, I thought Borden was going to die. However, whilst Angier is at the theatre, he is shot and is shocked to discover that Borden is still alive. Borden explains that for his The Transported Man trick, he had a twin brother walk out of the other door. Some people watching this film may have already guessed this but I didn't. I thought it was too obvious. Nolan cleverly plays this out throughout the film, by putting off the idea that Borden has a twin or double so the audience won't expect it. This is why he's one of my favourite directors as he always keeps me guessing. One of his best films and one of the best plot-twists.
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