• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

How Do You Feel About Twists?

There are two types of twists, at least that I can think of. The first being one that the in-universe characters are aware of, and the audience needs to be brought up to speed. Think of Psycho and Identity. With Psycho, we do now know that Norman is killing people while dressed as his mother, but he obviously knows that. With Identity, the doctors are aware that this man killed numerous people and has multiple personality disorder. We learn that at the end.

Then you have a twist that is a surprise to even the in-universe characters, where no one was aware of anything. Was The Sixth Sense this way? Did Bruce Willis know he was dead? I can't recall.
 
I like twists but they are often spoiled by social media. The Crying Game for instance, everyone said "I'm not telling you what happens, you have to see it!" It worked. Nowadays? Never.

It even worked with The Sixth Sense. That was before the SM explosion.
 
I like twists but they are often spoiled by social media. The Crying Game for instance, everyone said "I'm not telling you what happens, you have to see it!" It worked. Nowadays? Never.

It even worked with The Sixth Sense. That was before the SM explosion.

I'm writing something where the POV is from the bad guy, but we don't know he's the bad guy until midway through the film somewhere.

I was having a discussion with someone about this and their opinion was that audience only twists were cheap. In other words the twist only exists because the writer chose to not divulge a piece of information to the audience...but someone in-universe knows it.

Let's call this guy Jack, on a small yacht off the california coast. He's alone and with engine trouble. Another small yacht nearby hails him. It's a couple of guys and a woman, they don't look like the typical yacht-owning people and are giving off strange vibes. One of the men says he can help with the engine, but Jack is hovering over him the entire time. Jack is obviously suspicious of these people and believes they have malicious motives.

Then somewhere along the line, a woman's belongings are found on board Jack's yacht by one of the strangers. They get suspicious and ask what he's doing out there, etc. Jack says he's on a maiden voyage, and has been alone the entire time. I then slowly get to the point where I reveal Jack has killed his wife and was in the process of dumping her body the other boat approached him.

Is that "cheap?" Jack's suspicions toward the other people aren't for a typical reason. He's trying to prevent them from discovering the person he just killed.
 
I wouldn't call it cheap but I'm not sure I'd call it a twist either, at least not a plot twist seems more like a scene twist.
 
I wouldn't call it cheap but I'm not sure I'd call it a twist either, at least not a plot twist seems more like a scene twist.

I haven't put pen to paper on this, but this is how I'd sum it up as it sits in my head, and how I want the audience to view it:

Jack is alone and in trouble in the middle of the ocean. He's approached by three people who are suspicious for whatever reason. The audience will side with Jack here, as no one wants to be approached in this manner, especially when outnumbered.

Jack is protective of his yacht, doesn't want anyone touching things, exploring the galley/bedroom/etc. The audience believes his behavior but isn't aware of the reason behind it, other than the obvious, surface level situation.

The reveal/twist/whatever comes when a woman's clothing/belongings are found by the woman of the other group. She brings it up to her friends and they decide to ask Jack. He's already stated he's been alone since he set sail, so it's not adding up. Eventually a body of a woman is found stuffed away in the engine room, and all his overbearing behavior makes more sense.
 
Last edited:
It depends on your execution of the narrative.

believes they have malicious motives.

There is ambiguity in your narrative. In the form of a movie how do we know Jack thinks they have malicious motives? Is he narrating the story by V.O? Cause being approached by a group of people( specially with a woman among them ) doesn't look that threatening.

aside from that, why should Jack suspect these people tend to do him harm? Are they carrying weapons? do they look intimidating? do they talk threatening? Is Jack a psychopath and therefore his reasons for getting scared are unbeknownst to us ? Or does he look scared ? if he does look scared, how do you plan to distinguish between the Jack getting scared because he thinks these people want to harm him and the Jack getting nervous because he doesn't want them to find out about the body? I'm guessing that these guys who offer him help are bunch of casual people having fun right? If that's the case, then showing them as dangerous people will look unreasonable to the audience after they've figured out the twist.

I'm asking these questions cause you need to see things from the audience's POV. On paper it looks pretty straightforward Jack kills his wife and doesn't want other people to find out about it. But when you intend to narrate this story from a POV of the bad guy and adding this twist, everything gets complicated.

These are plot issues I pointed out. But as Indietalk said it looks more like a scene twist which a lot of it depends on the way these scenes are directed.
 
Last edited:
It depends on your execution of the narrative.



There is ambiguity in your narrative. In the form of a movie how do we know Jack thinks they have malicious motives? Is he narrating the story by V.O?

aside from that, why should Jack suspect these people tend to do him harm? Are they carrying weapons? do they look intimidating? do they talk threatening? Is Jack a psychopath and therefore his reasons for getting scared are unbeknownst to us ? Or does he look scared ? if he does look scared, how do you plan to distinguish between the Jack getting scared because he thinks these people want to harm him and the Jack getting nervous because he doesn't want them to find out about the body? I'm guessing that these guys who offer him help are bunch of casual people having fun right? If that's the case, then showing them as dangerous people will look unreasonable to the audience after they've figured out the twist.

I'm asking these questions cause you need to see things from the audience's POV. On paper it looks pretty straightforward Jack kills his wife and doesn't want other people to find out about it. But when you intend to narrate this story from a POV of the bad guy and adding this twist, everything gets complicated.

These are plot issues I pointed out. But as Indietalk said it looks more like a scene twist which a lot of it depends on the way these scenes are directed.

I'm still fleshing out the ideas, and I'm not sure how this group will be threatening, or conceived as threatening by Jack. These people can still be dangerous in some way, but they just happened to stumble upon someone doing something bad.

But as I said, just ideas for now and thanks for the help.
 
Did Bruce Willis know he was dead? I can't recall.

No. Even after Cole tells Malcolm "I see dead people" Malcolm still isn't initially aware that he himself is deceased. That was the huge twist at the end of the film, Malcolms discovery that he was dead.

I never really cared for Sherlock Holmes stories; Holmes always had some esoteric knowledge and/or insights denied to the rest of us. I much preferred Ellery Queen books; the reader is given every single detail needed to solve the crime. I even "played detective" with a few of them, writing down, organizing and re-organizing the clues but never solved a "case" and had that "Holy Sh!t!!!" moment when finally reading the solution.

The reason for all the above is to say that I dislike twists that depend upon withheld information. In "The Sixth Sense" all of the clues are there, but we - the audience - just never noticed.

That's why I feel ambiguous about the Snape character in the Harry Potter series. Having re-watched the films a number of times (part of being a daddy) I never caught a hint that Snape was deep under cover, so to say. I feel the same about "no, Luke; I am your father" from "Star Wars."

However, I did like that Verbal was Kaiser in "The Usual Suspects" since everyone - the "cops" and the audience - all fell for his BS.

In "Minority Report" the twist/revelation that there actually is a minority report is part of Andertons search for answers. That worked okay for me.


I guess that what I am saying is that I like twists that are intrinsic to the plot and that could be figured out if we the audience pay close enough attention.


Just my two ducats.
 
That's why I feel ambiguous about the Snape character in the Harry Potter series. Having re-watched the films a number of times (part of being a daddy) I never caught a hint that Snape was deep under cover, so to say. I feel the same about "no, Luke; I am your father" from "Star Wars.

The fact that Dumbledore trusted him all the way through suggests that snape was a good guy against all odds. and there are quite a few scenes where snape helps harry before the big twist. and he was part of the order of the phoenix too where everybody trusted him. Having watched the series a dozen of times, I think the clues are all there.


I guess that what I am saying is that I like twists that are intrinsic to the plot and that could be figured out if we the audience pay close enough attention.

I personally love twists if they're done well . But intrinsic twists that could be figured out before the big reveal also bear the risk of spoilers to the experienced audience.
 
Back
Top