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Before we start this article, you should be warned that there are a number of spoilers ahead. We will be discussing the twist endings of some movies, and these are rather vital parts of those movies. You have been warned. When it comes down to it, the ending is what makes or breaks a movie. A movie with a slow build up and an amazing end is remembered for that crescendo. A movie that has been good but has a disappointing ending will be remembered for the letdown. Directors use the twist ending to ensure there movie leaves the audience stunned and wanting more, unfortunately a good twist ending is hard to pull off. It has to be believable, but the audience can’t see it coming. Here are some examples of twist endings that made us do a double-take.

The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan is known for putting twist endings into his movies, even when a twist ending really isn’t necessary. It has even become a bit of a running joke with him. This started because of the popularity of the twist in The Sixth Sense. The movie started off alright, with Haley Joel Osment seeing dead people everywhere, and Bruce Willis shows up to help him with his problem. Things seemed to be getting better and BAM! Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time. That ending came in out of left field and took audiences by surprise, but Shyamalan left clues throughout the movie that make the ending seem obvious in repeat viewings. That’s how a twist ending is done, folks.

The Usual Suspects

Kevin Spacey plays a small time con man who is the last man standing in a crime gone wrong. The Usual Suspects details his account of what led up to the deaths of his fellow criminals as he is being interrogated by police. Spacey weaves an intricate tale of deceit and betrayal masterminded by a Mr. Kobayashi. Thinking that Spacey’s story has revealed the truth, the detective has no choice to let him go. He then notices that a surprising number of things in his office have the same names as people in Spacey’s story, including a coffee mug with a Kobayashi logo on it. Kevin Spacey was the mastermind criminal the entire time. The detective runs outside to catch him, but Spacey is long gone by then.

Scream

Scream started out as a typical slasher film. There was a guy in a costume going around killing douchey guys and shapely girls. It was entertaining, but most of the movie did very little to set it apart from other slasher films. Then we got to the ending and our world was turned upside down. We had just seen Shaggy from Scooby-Doo get chopped to pieces, but wait! He is actually the killer! He used corn syrup to fake his death. That’s not all though. It turns out there were two killers the entire time. You just can’t trust anybody these days.

Stephen King’s The Mist

It seems that Thomas Jane can’t be in movies without people he cares about getting killed. He was in The Punisher where his family was killed by the mob. He was in Deep Blue Sea where many of his friends and coworkers are eaten by sharks. Then came The Mist, with possibly the most depressing ending of all. The movie revolves around this other dimensional mist that has taken over a town and killed off most of the population. It seems that all is lost at the end of the movie with five survivors trapped in a truck, including Thomas Jane and his son. Jane has a gun with four bullets left and decides to kill the others so they don’t have to face the agony of the mist. After killing everyone else, Jane steps out of the truck to find the army waiting to rescue him. And that is why patience is a virtue.

The Descent

The Descent was one of the scariest movies made in quite a long time. It follows a group of female cave explorers who explore the wrong cave. The uncharted series of caverns and tunnels is the home to mutated miners who crave human flesh. The lady explorers must become animals themselves to survive as they begin to be killed one by one. Soon there is only one left, but she makes a daring escape! Oh, wait, no she didn’t. She hallucinated and is now surrounded by monsters who are going to eat her face.

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Admit it, we’ve all been there. Younger versions of ourselves would be intrigued be the female characters on our Saturday morning cartoons. We didn’t completely understand it, but we would have conversations with our friends about how if the Baroness from G.I. Joe was real we would totally…well, we didn’t know yet. We would do whatever it is prepubescent boys do with girls, which is probably throw mud at them and run away giggling so they know how much we liked them. Yes, these 7 cartoon ladies led us towards manhood when our parents felt too awkward to tell us what we should actually expect from women.

1. Teela – He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Teela was the headstrong redhead from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and her outfit was as minimal as He-Man’s. We just didn’t feel as awkward when we noticed that she was showing a lot of skin. She gave us the impression that girls could actually be fun, and since I am talking about our childhood selves I mean because of her adventuring ways, not her outfit. She was always the one leading the charge against Skeletor and his goons, and that’s the kind of fearlessness boys admire. Of course she would always get into trouble and need He-Man and his exposed nipples to save her, allowing the boys to feel superior. Also, she never could figure out that He-Man was Prince Adam wearing underwear and suspenders. We were way smarter than her.

2. April – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

April O’Neill was a news reporter by day, friend of four mutated crime stopping turtles by night. What was it that drew our younger selves towards her? I believe it was her shared taste for pizza and the fact that she had absolutely no problem hanging out with four man-sized talking turtles. If she could get through that to sit down to dinner with them then there was no way she would care about our oversized ears everybody else made fun of. She also hung out in the sewer with them, which would make our rooms seem immaculate by comparison. Tell me why I should pick up my socks now, mom! Plus we all thought we were totally radical, just like the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

3. Wonder Woman – Super Friends

Wonder Woman wore a pretty revealing outfit, always had on stripper boots and owned an invisible jet. I suppose our younger selves liked the first two things, but even then we knew that the idea of the invisible jet was pretty stupid. The motivation for our crush on Wonder Woman goes beyond all of this and can be summed up in one sentence: Wonder Woman hung out with Batman. If we could get close to Wonder Woman, she would introduce us to Batman, he’d think we were awesome and invite us to join the Super Friends and drive Wonder Woman around in his Batmobile occasionally. Of course he’d have to kick out the Wonder Twins, but that’s not much of a downside.

4. Daphne – Scooby Doo

Apparently our younger selves had something for the redheads. Daphne was essentially the cartoon version of the popular girl we always had a crush on. She was the good looking one who was not too bright and always enjoyed wearing  short dresses. We all knew the only reason she was with the gang solving mysteries was because of that douche nozzle Fred. Perhaps that is what led many young men of our generation to trade in ascots for blowouts, seeking their own Daphnes. While we knew she was out of our league, we still harbored that crush. What 10 year old wouldn’t want to hang out with  girl who had a talking dog?

5. Velma – Scooby-Doo

While Daphne was put upon the pedestal, Velma became our view of the realistically attainable girl. She had all the noticeable lady parts that Daphne had, she just did not flaunt them. She had glasses, she was smart, and she was often overlooked. We still noticed her though. We knew we were smarter than Fred, and thus we would have to be paired up with the smarter girl. Through process of elimination, that left Velma. While our crushes on her weren’t as much as for Daphne, Velma still had a talking dog. Scooby-Doo was a win/win situation for us. We also knew Shaggy was no competition whatsoever.

6. Cheetara – Thundercats

Whenever we hear “Thundercats HOOOO!” we all think of Cheetara. There was kind of a Smurfette situation going on with Cheetara, as she was the only female member of the Thundercats. Well at least the only one we noticed. I could get into stuff about how she fought with a staff that extends in her hands, but I doubt any of us really noticed that joke until we stopped telling people we were still watching Thundercats. Cheetara just grabbed our attention by being the only girl on the team, and one who really just looked like a chick who was into hair metal rather than a cat hybrid.

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