With the release of a new M. Night Shyamalan movie, it's time to ponder an important question: Are twist endings still necessary? Sure, the first hundred or so stories to ingeniously reverse audience expectations were exciting, but does the device have a future? The A.V. Club surveys the evidence (with spoilers aplenty), trusting its readers to draw their own conclusions… Or will it turn out that the conclusions have actually been drawing the readers all along?!?
Psycho (1960)
Plot: Janet Leigh robs her boss, spends the night at a virtually deserted motel, listens to its owner's son (Anthony Perkins) talk about his overbearing mother, then falls victim to her in a shower knife-attack.
The big twist: Perkins killed his mother years ago; unable to cope with his crime, he kept her personality alive as a murderous aspect of himself.
Does it work? Oh yes. Perkins' condition doesn't make psychological sense, no matter how detailed Simon Oakland's psychiatric description gets. But Hitchcock sets it up brilliantly, and Perkins' twitchy performance assures it makes perfect dramatic sense.
Could it work today? Ask Gus Van Sant.
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Plot: Three astronauts crash-land on a planet where mute humans are slaves to intelligent apes.
The big twist: The planet of the apes is actually Earth many years after a nuclear war, because they blew it up, those maniacs! Goddamn them all to hell!
Does it work? Sure does. Even without the big twist, Planet Of The Apes works as a brilliant, vague metaphor for the way the privileged of the world exploit what they can without considering the consequences. The twist is just a big, fat exclamation point.
Could it work today? Ask Tim Burton.
Soylent Green (1973)
Plot: Charlton Heston plays a future cop investigating a murder tied to Soylent Green, a foodstuff regularly released to the starving, overcrowded masses of the 21st century.
The big twist: It's people! Soylent Green is people!
Does it work? Totally, assuming you're the one person on the planet who doesn't already know the twist. The film spends more time on its grungy surroundings, slowly establishing the negligible value of human life in a world where even air has become a commodity.
Could it work today? No. Awakened to the precariousness of the environment by early-'70s activism and films like Soylent Green, the world put the brakes on overpopulation and the exhaustion of natural resources. The air has never been cleaner, the climate's never been healthier, and corporations never put profits over people.
Murder On The Orient Express (1974)
Plot: Famed detective Hercule Poirot attempts to solve a murder on a train, but it looks like everyone on the train is guilty.
The big twist: Everyone is guilty; the entire cast ganged up to stab the victim.
Does it work? Yes. Agatha Christie's scenario ratchets up the tension slowly, as the creepy Poirot (played by Albert Finney) uncovers so many motives and connections that it seems like only one solution is possible. Christie's decision to go with that solution makes the ending not so much a twist as a case of Occam's razor in action, and while the scripting and characterization is complex, the resolution works because it's so flawlessly simple.
Could it work today? It'd be a harder sell without such a terrific name cast. (Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave, Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Richard Widmark…) It's hard to imagine a comparably sophisticated collection of old screen warhorses assembling today, and the version with Luke and Owen Wilson, Ashton Kutcher, and Drew Barrymore just wouldn't be the same.
Eddie And The Cruisers (1983)
Plot: Soulful blue-collar rocker Michael Paré dies mysteriously in 1964 after recording an unreleased album (A Season In Hell) so progressive that it makes Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band look like a collection of Archies covers. But if Paré is really dead, then why is his gal seemingly receiving mysterious signals from him? And what's up with creepy manager Joe Pantoliano and his unconvincing old-man makeup?
The big twist: It turns out all the mysterious signals are coming from Pantoliano, who wants to trick Paré's gal into giving him the lucrative Season In Hell tapes. Also, Paré is still alive, and he now sports some unconvincing old-man makeup of his own to prove it.
Does it work? No, but that didn't prevent this particularly shitty twist ending from spawning an unnecessary sequel, 1989's Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!
Could it work today? This twist ending is as timeless and relevant as the soundtrack music by John Cafferty And The Beaver Brown Band. Which is to say, no.
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