Twist ending

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A twist ending or surprise ending is an unexpected conclusion or climax to a work of fiction, which may contain a surprising irony, or cause the audience to review the story from a different perspective by revealing new information about the characters or plot. A twist ending is the conclusive form of plot twists.

Contents 1 Mechanics of the twist ending 1.1 Literary devices 1.2 Narrative elements 1.3 Caveats 2 Twist ending in fiction 2.1 Genre 2.1.1 Horror 2.1.2 Mystery genre 2.1.3 Influential books 2.1.4 Authors often associated with twist endings 3 Twist ending in film 3.1 Influential films 3.2 Influential styles 3.3 Directors often associated with twist endings 4 Twist ending in television 4.1 Examples 5 Twist ending in video games 6 Twist ending in comic books 7 Twist ending in anime 8 Twist ending in music 9 See also 9.1 Literary devices and techniques 9.2 Genres 10 References 11 Notes

[edit] Mechanics of the twist ending

[edit] Literary devices

• A red herring is a false clue that leads investigators, readers, or solvers towards an incorrect solution. This device usually appears in detective novels and mystery fiction. Red herrings give the twist ending a greater impact on the reader because they are unexpected and increase the element of surprise. A misdirection is similar in meaning to the red herring: the writer uses a new event to distract the protagonist, and thus the reader, away from the correct answer.^[1]

• A cliffhanger is an abrupt ending that leaves the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation, creating a strong feeling of suspense that provokes the reader to ask, "What will happen next?" Cliffhangers often frustrate the reader, since they offer no resolution at all; however, the device does have the advantage of creating the Zeigarnik effect.

• Deus ex machina is a Latin term meaning "god out of the machine." It refers to an unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot. In Roman theater, the "deus ex machina" was literally a "god" lowered onto the stage from a machine to save the characters. In its modern, figurative sense, the "deus ex machina" creates a twist ending to a narrative because it unexpectedly resolves what appears to be an unsolvable situation. This device is often used to end a bleak story on a happy note. An example is in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies: Just as the protagonist Ralph is about to be killed by the band of "hunters" at the end of the story, a ship appears from nowhere. One of the ship's officers rescues Ralph, and he and the rest of the boys are then taken away from the island.^[2]

• Flashback is a sudden, vivid reversion to a past event. It is used to surprise the reader with previously unknown information that provides the answer to a mystery, places a character in a different light, or reveals the reason for a previously inexplicable action. See also Racconto.

• Anagnorisis (or discovery) is the discovery of one's own identity or true character of someone else's identity or true nature by the main character. Thus, a main character gains information about himself or about another's character that the reader does not foresee. The most famous example of this is when Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother in ignorance, but later learns the truth of what he has done.

• Peripeteia is the sudden reversal or unexpected change of the hero's fortunes, as when the conquering hero Agamemnon was brought down by his wife, or as when the central character is miraculously saved from a dangerous situation (see Deus ex machina). See also plot point.

• Nonlinear storylines work by revealing, in a random, nonchronological fashion, events that are occurring at other points in the story's timeline. This requires the reader to situate events correctly in order to piece together a correct timeline and thereby fully understand the story. Often, information within the narrative is withheld until the story's climax, which usually reveals new information that may place the previous events in a different perspective and give the ending an unexpected twist.^[3][4]

• Reverse chronology places the traditional order of events from last to first instead of first to last, thereby ensuring that the reader does not know what has caused the chain of events until the end of the story. The colour sequences from the film Memento are an example.

• Poetic justice is a literary device in which virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice punished in such a way that the reward or punishment has a logical connection to the deed. In modern literature, this device is often used to create an ironic twist of fate in which the villain gets caught up in his own trap. (See Stephen King's Survivor Type for an example.)

• In medias res is a literary technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story rather than at its beginning. Information such as who these characters are, where they are, and what they are trying to do is revealed through a series of flashbacks. This technique creates a twist when the reasons for the events that transpired in the beginning are not shown to the reader until the climax. See also Narrative hook and Foreshadowing.

• Chekhov's gun is premised on the notion that the physical details of a story should relate to the plot, or should not be included. The term comes from a letter Anton Chekhov wrote to a colleague: "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." In literature, Chekhov's gun refers to a situation in which a character or plot element is introduced early but not referenced again until much later within the narrative. This device is used in much of modern literature and film: A seemingly trivial event turns out at the end to be pivotal to the story's outcome. Similar to this literary device is a "plant." A "plant" is a preparatory device that repeats throughout the story. Upon arriving at the resolution, circumstances change enough to cause the "plant" to take on a new meaning. See also Foreshadowing.

• The unreliable narrator twists the ending by revealing, almost always at the end of the narrative, that the narrator has manipulated or fabricated the story the reader has just been following; the reader is thus forced to question the entire story. This motif is often used in noir fiction and films, most famously in the film The Usual Suspects which produced multiple imitators (such as The Rich Man's Wife).^[5]

• Irony creates a gap or incongruity between what a writer says and what is understood. This often works in narratives to create a twist of fate where an eventual event reverts back on a previous one.

[edit] Narrative elements

• Dissociative identity disorder (often incorrectly called schizophrenia) typically involves the protagonist's discovery, at the narrative's conclusion, that the killer he has been searching for is in fact himself; he was unaware of his guilt because of his disorder. This story element is most famously used in Robert Bloch's Psycho, which was so effective in its execution of the twist ending that it inspired a stream of imitations (such as William Castle's Homicidal in 1961) or in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club.

• Simulated reality describes a situation in which a hypothetical environment is experienced as real but is actually a highly detailed simulation of reality. Narratives that utilize this device usually present to the reader the idea that what they are experiencing is real, but at the story's conclusion reveal that it is, in fact, a simulated reality. This motif is often found within science fiction literature (most notably in Philip K. Dick's works) and in science-fiction films (such as the recent Matrix films).

• Conspiracies use rumors, lies, propaganda, and counter-propaganda to frustrate the characters and make it hard for them to determine what is true or even real. Conspiracies in fiction can be similar to simulated reality in that hidden organizations manipulate what the characters perceive to be true and factual. Conspiracies are often used in political fiction thrillers. See also Paranoia.

• In a narrative with multiple antagonists, the reader is led to believe there is one villain when in fact there are two or more. This is usually not revealed until the story's climax. Agatha Christie utilized this ploy several times in her mysteries by revealing the murderer (through her detective/narrator), and then by continuing to reveal the murderer's accomplice(s).

• A con artist (abbreviated for confidence artist; also known as a con man or confidence man) intentionally misleads another character (known as the "mark"), usually for the purpose of financial gain. The twist is that the con artist tricks the mark into believing that they will be working together to con a third party. The reality (not revealed until the climax, of course) is that the mark himself has been conned. The writer most often associated with this tactic is David Mamet, whose films such as House of Games con both the characters and the audience with a clever scam.

• Spiritual possession is used to create twist endings in horror and fantasy fiction by revealing late in the narrative that a character is being controlled and manipulated by spiritual forces, rather than acting out of free will. Less often, the fact that a character was not under paranormal coercion (such as in the film Vertigo) provides the twist.

• Gender confusion creates a twist ending by revealing at a pivotal moment that a particular character is a woman not a man, or vice versa. Made popular by The Crying Game, this is also a common motif in the Italian film genre Giallo. See also Transsexualism and Transgender.

• Sexual orientation works by leading the reader to believe that a character is heterosexual until the end, when the character is revealed to be homosexual, or the reverse. See Heterosexuality and Homosexuality.

• Betrayal, also called the double cross, can become more complex when the writer chooses to have the character who was double crossed betray the other character as well. This instance is referred to as a triple cross. In rare instances, there have been more counter-betrayals, but this is often considered overly complex.

• Cloning is an element often utilized in science fiction when the protagonist discovers at the narrative's conclusion that he is, in fact, either a clone of another character, or that he has been genetically altered in some manner. This twist has become more common in modern literature in the context of ethical issues surrounding the advances in technology that make human cloning at least theoretically possible.

• Cults are similar to conspiracies when used for a twist ending. In fiction, this element often refers to a secret, sinister organization or group that is not revealed until the story's climax. Ira Levin's novel Rosemary's Baby is one of the most famous and influential examples of the use of cults in fiction; another, more recent example is Opus Dei in "The Da Vinci Code."

• Undead is usually used to describe a character whom the fictional characters, as well as the reader, believe to be alive. At the end, it is revealed that the character is in fact among the "living dead." This device has seen a resurgence in modern narrative fiction due to the success of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense (1999). An earlier, European example is Giuseppe Tornatore's A Pure Formality (1995).

• The death of the protagonist (or main character) almost always comes as a shock to the reader because it disregards the character shield plot convention: It is usually understood that the main character, or a major recurring character in a series, is not supposed to die. A modern example of this would be the startling demise of Daniel Craig's character in Layer Cake.

• A dream sequence becomes key to a surprise ending when the reader discovers that all the previous events were in fact a dream; a combination of flashbacks, fantasies, and visions. Film director David Lynch is known for utilizing this element.

• A quibble occurs when a character discovers a crucial flaw, or technicality, that changes an expected outcome. For example, in A Merchant of Venice, Shylock's triumph appeared certain until Portia observed that his bargain called only for flesh, and so he could not shed a drop of Antonio's blood, and in Ruddigore, the baronets of a certain line are doomed to die if they do not commit a horrible crime every day—but by not committing a crime, they are effectively committing suicide, which is a horrible crime.

• The Rashomon effect, named after Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon, refers to the way that the subjectivity of perception affects recollection; i.e., multiple observers produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of the same event, because they perceive the event in different ways. This concept works in film and literature by altering key elements and details to present a single event as unfolding in different ways, according to the perceptions of different characters. Some modern examples include Basic, Courage Under Fire, A Very Long Engagement, The Outrage, and Hero.^[6]

• Amnesia is often used in film noir to create mysteries where the protagonist does not know who he is and must search for his identity. Usually his quest leads him to surprising revelations about himself and others. These type of films also have a strong sense of paranoia since the character does not know whom to trust. The film Memento used this element in a unique way, using reverse chronological order to portray a character with anterograde amnesia. See also Repressed memory, Alzheimers disease, and Lacunar amnesia.^{[7][8][9][10]}

[edit] Caveats

• Plot holes may emerge when a twist ending is utilized at the story's conclusion. Narratives may have a twist ending purely for shock value and may, as a result, become inconsistent with events that occurred earlier in the story. This also causes disruptions in continuity.

• A suspension of disbelief must exist for a twist ending to be accepted by the reader. Sometimes twist endings seem unrealistic or unlikely to occur and, without the audience's cooperation, may fall flat.

• The use of a cliffhanger may lead to no resolution at all, creating an anticlimax to the story that the reader has already invested much time in. An example is the horror film genre, in which cliffhangers are used a lot -- often by revealing at the film's conclusion that the villain is not dead (usually to ensure a sequel if the movie is a success).

• Readers may also feel cheated when the author utilizes a red herring. This is a deliberate attempt by the author to trick the reader into believing something that is not true, and thus may give the impression of being used merely for cheap shock value.

• Unexpected and surprising actions taken by characters within the narrative may in fact cause them to be out of character; that is, their actions are inconsistent with the character's personality that has been established in the past. This is usually seen as negative since it destroys the credibility of the overall story, shows a lack of focus, and damages the foundation that the story previously had established.

[edit] Twist ending in fiction

Stories are usually grouped into categories depending on what elements are within the story. These elements create conventions throughout the genre; recurring events, themes, and motifs that gives the genre an identity and thus making it recognizable. However, the constant recurring use of these elements within a genre has often made stories predictable and has made these elements into clichés. As a result, certain genres follow a pattern (or formula) in producing a twist ending (see List of cliché lists).

[edit] Genre

[edit] Horror

Many horror stories end with a twist ending to show either:

• "It's not over yet!"
• "Don't worry, the surviving characters won't live happily ever after."

This frequently involves revelations such as:

• The killer/monster isn't really dead
• Some monster eggs/offspring have survived
• One of the survivors (usually the hero's love interest) has actually been infected/possessed by the evil force or, in the case of a woman, is pregnant with its baby
• The government plans to silence all witnesses
• The last surviving character dies/is killed offscreen

In film, many horror movies (and indeed, most titles in the survival horror video game genre) seem obligated to have a twist ending.

[edit] Mystery genre

Many mystery stories seem to follow at least one of the following conventions in creating a surprise revelation (the unveiling of the killer):

• The most obvious suspect is never the real killer; in fact, it can be the most opposite, they turn out to be a great ally, either revealing themselves to be either an undercover officer, a close friend/relative of the victim (whom they only trusted), a fellow PI, or an enemy of the villain.
• The character you least suspect (either because he has an airtight alibi or is the least likely to have committed the act) will be revealed to be the real killer
  • Or, sometimes the obvious suspect is the killer, but then he turns out to have an accomplice who nobody knew about (who is usually the last character you expect), or there is an entirely different scheme afoot that neither the detective nor the killer knew about (a scheme perpetrated by the last person you'd expect). This twist is used frequently by James Patterson.
• In film, the killer is never an unknown actor but always a recognizable face or named actor.
• In film, if the camera lingers on an object for an unnecessary length of time, then that object is a vital clue and will play an important part in the story's revelation (see flashing arrow). This method is also present in literature, only that an object is described for a longer duration, but it is usually harder to notice.

There have been several authors who have proposed a series of "rules" or "guidelines" for the writer to follow in crafting a detective story. These rules often limit who the actual killer may be and what kind of motivation they can have, thus often creating general trends amongst the twist endings of the mystery genre. Such authors who composed lists of this nature include S. S. Van Dine,^[11] Father Knox,^[12] Grobius Shortling, and G. K. Chesterton. See also detective fiction.

[edit] Influential books

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of Agatha Christie's most well-known and most controversial novels. The novel's innovative twist ending has had a significant impact on the genre by creating the unreliable narrator literary device which was at that time seldom used. Unfortunately there was a strong negative reaction to this usage at the time since many readers viewed this method as deceptive and unfair. Today, however, the ending is considered a milestone in detective fiction in introducing a new literary technique.^[13]

• Murder on the Orient Express is another novel by Agatha Christie and is unique since Christie utilizes a twist ending that goes against conventional detective stories. Christie takes the general convention of finding one killer amongst several suspects and reversed it by making all the suspects a killer; they were all part in an elaborate plot to "execute" the murder victim, whom they felt deserved to be punished.^[14]

• And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians), yet another novel by Agatha Christie, featured a unique method of unfolding the mystery that was utilized in countless other literary works and films (including most recently Mindhunters and Identity). The unfolding method is that out of a group of possible suspects, one suspect would be killed off one at a time until there was only one surviving member (presumably the murderer himself). Here again Christie takes the general convention of finding one killer amongst several suspects and reverses it, but by doing the polar opposite of what she did in Murder on the Orient Express... no killer is found by the novel's climatic ending. The only surviving member is innocent of the crimes and unable to determine who in fact committed the murders; it is only revealed later in the story's denouement about what really occurred.^[15]

[edit] Authors often associated with twist endings

• O. Henry was famed for his short stories, which often featured clever twist endings. A famous example was his story "The Gift of the Magi" which featured a cleverly ironic ending. Particularly strong and unexpected twist endings are to this day sometimes called "O. Henry Endings" after their most famous and consistent practitioner.^[16]

• Saki (Hector Hugh Munro), like O. Henry, was a short story writer known for his unexpected endings, usually ironic in nature. One of his most notable tales is "The Open Window," which was essentially a tale-within-a-tale employing the technique of the unreliable narrator.

• Philip K. Dick was a writer of sci-fi and cyberpunk fiction. He has written several collections of short stories, many of which have been adapted to films. His stories often feature twist endings, relying on science fiction and futuristic technology to create unexpected occurrences that are not physically possible in our modern world. In fact, his use of the twist ending was so common that readers often expected there to be one at the end of one of his stories. Some examples include A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.^[17][18]

• Dashiell Hammett is one of the notorious writers of hard-boiled fiction (also called noir fiction). His works often include a puzzle plot with a twist ending that can be deduced from clues that were scattered throughout the story.

• Jeffrey Deaver is a best-selling mystery writer who has written several short stories (in addition to novels) featuring an unexpected revelation. He has written an entire compilation entitled Twisted that specifically focuses on the twist ending.

• Jeffrey Archer is a British author who also specializes in the short story and has released several compilation books focusing purely on the utilization of the twist ending device. Such compilations include A Twist in the Tale and Twelve Red Herrings.

• John Biguenet has written several short stories that employed the twist ending device. In his short story compilation The Torturer's Apprentice : Stories, he includes the use of many ironic and unexpected endings.

• W.W. Jacobs has written several novels, but his short stories are what really make Jacobs stand out. His classic story "The Monkey's Paw" features a very ambiguous ending, which is surprising since it lets the reader decide for themselves what really did happen. "The Toll House" is another important example.

• Agatha Christie is one of the great mystery writers who is known for incorporating the twist ending device so effortlessly into her narratives. Her novels often invented the types of twist endings we often see today in film and literature, even ones that go against total conventionalism we often see in detective fiction. See also: Plot devices in Agatha Christie's novels.

• Patricia Highsmith has written many short stories, which are often macabre, satirical, and tinged with black humor. Her stories often take places in peaceful, American towns but with evil and corruption lying secretly underneath its surface.

• Shirley Jackson's The Lottery is also a famous example that employs a twist ending.

• Chuck Palahniuk is also known for twist endings, especially his novels Fight Club and Invisible Monsters.

• James Patterson has often used a particular variant of the twist ending. In many of his Alex Cross stories, the prime suspect does turn out to be the primary villain, but after the villain is caught (or killed), it is discovered that either s/he had a secret accomplice, or that the villain was in fact being hoodwinked himself by a larger scheme. Usually this accomplice or mastermind was pretending to be helping Alex Cross solve the case.

• Dan Brown, famed author of Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons uses twist endings in his novels, whereby characters who assist the protagonists often turn out to be the villains themselves.

• J.K. Rowling, famous British author of the Harry Potter series, always reveals, at the end of each book, that the villain and evil plot is different than Harry, his friends, and the reader are led to believe, though she does reveal the subtle hints of the real evil person and plot given throughout the book.

[edit] Twist ending in film

[edit] Influential films

Often cited by critics as one of the pioneers in twist endings, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is a German Expressionist film that features the classic motif of the unreliable narrator that would be utilized countless other times within film, including notably The Usual Suspects which itself revived this literary technique and influenced other modern films.

• Psycho is one of the first films to employ the twist-ending motif of multiple personalities. The film started a series of films during the 1960s that featured this motif, such as several films directed by William Castle or produced by Hammer Film Productions. The film also became quite influential within the Italian Giallo genre, which features multiple personalities as one of its key motifs.

• Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston lands on a planet occupied by talking apes and mute Humans. In the end it is revealed that the "alien" planet is actually Earth in the far distant future.

• M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense utilized the narrative element of a ghost unaware of his own death. This revelation had been previously used in films such as 1962's Carnival of Souls and multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone. The Sixth Sense was so successful in its execution that it inspired several imitators including The Others, and several Asian horror films, such as Inner Senses, The Eye, and Omen.

[edit] Influential styles

Film noir, a genre of film from the forties and fifties often derived from hard boiled novels, usually features a detective trying to solve a mystery that often leads to a surprising revelation. These films are very psychological in nature, drawing heavily on Freudianism as its underlying psychology. Noirs also featured the themes of existentialism, alienation and paranoia. Also, the genre usually incorporated very complex narrative structure that would serve as a precursor to the non-linear psychological thrillers of today. Such popular examples include Murder, My Sweet and Black Angel.^[19]

The German film genre Krimi was a style of film very influential on the Italian giallo. This genre were films based on the works of British mystery writer Edgar Wallace and features the motif of a masked killer who, after investigations by either the police or a private investigator, is unmasked at the film's climax. This style is very similar to Italian giallos as they too usually featured the same story format.^[20]

The Italian film genre Giallo incorporates crime, mystery, suspense, and horror genres. The narratives often feature the literary device called a red herring that is meant to lead the viewer astray from the real truth by making what is not the answer appear to be so, which makes the final revelation all the more effective. The genre also usually features the motif of multiple personality, where protagonists search for the killer without knowing that they themselves are the killers for whom they are searching.^[21]

J-Horror, along with K-Horror and the entire Asian horror film genre, often incorporates classical horror elements along with complex and psychological plots. The films often feature a ghostly figure who is unable to rest because of a trauma in his or her past life. The main characters, who themselves are being tormented by these ghosts, often investigate the reason for these hauntings with the revelation not coming until the film's final reels. This revelation will place meaning to many of the images and sounds the viewer witnesses throughout the film. However, often these films feature a more complex and clever twist ending, whether it be that the characters themselves are dead, the characters are seeing fabrications of their own minds rather than ghosts, or the film is left open for interpretation.^[22]

Surrealist films attempt to manifest elements of the unconscious mind onto the screen through visual imagery. Often, film directors incorporate surrealism into a traditional narrative, making it difficult for the viewer to determine what is actually happening within the story and what are purely psychological manifestations. These films often feature inexplicable events that occur within the framework of the linear story, making the audience attempt to understand the meaning of these occurrences. Often, these films feature ambiguous endings that make the viewer question the reality of the situation on the film; whether if the entire story that they have just witnessed is in fact purely psychological and factious. Unconventional director David Lynch is often associated with these type of films, while other more "mainstream" examples would include Fight Club, The Machinist and A Beautiful Mind.

[edit] Directors often associated with twist endings

• Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan is famous for his recurring use of the "twist" device within his films. The most notable of these, The Sixth Sense, has influenced various works of film and literature with its startling revelation. It has now become expected of Shyamalan always to incorporate a twist ending into his narratives, thus creating a bias within the viewer. Before the release of his most recent movie, Lady in the Water, Shyamalan made a point of telling the media that the movie would not have a twist ending.

• Writer-director David Mamet is known for crafting expertly played con films, with House of Games being his most tricky and deceptive film. Other films featuring clever scams with twist endings include The Spanish Prisoner and Heist.

• Director Park Chan-Wook has some twist-ending films, namely Oldboy and Joint Security Area

• Writer-director David Lynch is known for surreal and mind-bending films. His films often conclude with an unexpected revelation, most famously in Mulholland Dr., relying on dream sequences, flashbacks, and nonlinear narratives to create complex and enigmatic storylines. Other films that include twist endings are Lost Highway and Eraserhead.

• Writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is similar to Lynch in that he too delves in surrealism and features ambiguous and unexpected denouements, with Cure being his best known example. The director deliberately leaves out information from his films to leave it open to audience for interpretations.

• Writer-director Shinya Tsukamoto is again a very cerebral and surreal filmmaker. His films, such as Tetsuo, feature unexpected revelations and imagery that makes the viewer question the reality of the entire film. His films may at first appear to be nonsensical and confusing, but the visuals are in fact manifestations of the character's inner psyche and all have a specific meaning. It is up to the audience to place the pieces together to reveal the startling answer.

• Director Takashi Miike, a cult favorite director, is notorious for concluding his films with what seems to be deliberately ambiguous or unsatisfying endings. However, the subsequent discussions about the meaning of these endings has added to his cult status. Often, his endings are totally different in tone to the rest of the film and seem to be random and out of place. Most famously is Miike's Dead or Alive which for the entire duration is a gritty Yakuza crime drama, but suddenly ends on a cartoonish, apocalyptic, and fantastical ending. Other examples include Gozu and Audition.

• Director Alfred Hitchcock is often associated with 'twist endings' even though very few of his films are known to feature twists and in some films, like Vertigo, are revealed much earlier than the end, though some would consider the legendary ironic end to be a twist. Other films in his canon which feature unexpected revelations are most often his psychological mysteries, such as Rebecca, Spellbound, and Marnie. However, he is most famous for the twist ending in his film Psycho.

• Director Brian DePalma's psychological thrillers are often cited as being heavily influenced by Hitchcock, with DePalma's narratives often being similar in structure and theme as Hitchcock's. However, DePalma also has made several mainstream efforts such as the complex paranoia thriller Mission: Impossible. His films often conclude upon a surprise denouncement where the protagonist often misperceives an event and draws the wrong conclusions. Films with such a twist ending include Body Double, Dressed to Kill, and Obsession, which all pay an obvious homage to Hitchcock.

• Terry Gilliam is often known for his films having twist endings, though Gilliam has noted that the twist does leave the film on a more optimisitic ending. In Brazil or example, while the main character Sam Lowry has had his life ruined, his girlfriend executed and gone insane after being tortured, he is humming a song in his torture chair, escaping into his fantasy of what he wants life to be.

• Director Dario Argento is known to be a prolific worker within the giallo genre, and often is accredited to have done the best work within that genre. His films has caused a great impact within the horror genre and many other giallo films has used Argento's films as models with which to build their films upon. His films feature many of the motfis common to the genre, including red herrings, a psychologically complex plot, and such story elements as schizophrenia and gender confusion, all which work together to create often surprising twist endings to his films. Such films to contain startling revelations include Deep Red and Tenebrae.

[edit] Twist ending in television

In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, there were many anthology series of suspense that were shown each week featuring a half hour story. Many of the episodes on these shows included a twist ending. The most notable of these series are The Twilight Zone (e.g. "To Serve Man") and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (e.g. "Lamb to the Slaughter").

There also has been a strong presence of murder-mystery shows that features a detective attempting to solve a baffling crime. Usually, the episode features a single mystery that leads to a twist ending where the culprit is revealed at the show's climax. The most notable examples of this are Murder, She Wrote and Ellery Queen.

One of the most famous instances of a twist ending occurred in the final episode of Newhart. At the end of the episode, the protagonist is struck by a golf ball and knocked unconscious. He then wakes up in bed - that is, the bed from his previous show, The Bob Newhart Show, next to his wife from that series. The entire show had apparently been a dream of his previous character.

In recent years, more and more ongoing television dramas are employing the "twist" device, sometimes using them nearly every episode. 24 would use the twist device to end each episode on a cliffhanger, causing audience members to return next week to find out what will happen next(In a different type of twist, Season One caused a twist ending by cutting from Teri Bauer in a heightened intensity situation, only to reveal at the end that she had been shot and killed). Later, in Season Five when it was revealed that President Charles Logan was behind the terrorist attacks in a twist ending, the character went from hated by most of the 24 audience to fan favorite.

Lost would have a twist revealing something about the featured character in each episode, like Hurley's imaginary friend at the asylum (Dave), Locke having actually been in a wheelchair until he landed on the island or major characters being shockingly killed off in the final moments of the show (e.g. Ana-Lucia, Libby, and Eko).

[edit] Examples

• 24
• Alias
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Battlestar Galactica
• Black Hole High
• Lost
• Night Gallery
• One Step Beyond
• Scrubs episode 3.14: My Screw Up
• Star Trek: Voyager series finale: Endgame
• Tales from the Crypt
• Tales of the Unexpected
• The Outer Limits
• The Twilight Zone
• Twin Peaks
• Veronica Mars
• X-Files
• Xena: Warrior Princess

[edit] Twist ending in video games

Main article: Twist ending in video games

With video games becoming more cinematic, they occasionally employ twist endings. An early example of this is the ending sequence of Phantasy Star 2, where the villains are shown to be Terrans. One of the very first, and most famous, is upon beating the game Metroid, the hero would take off "his" space suit/armor, and reveal that Samus Aran was, in fact, a woman. One recent game that played upon the notion of dreams but in a parapsychological context was Second Sight, where the player is led to believe that for the most part they are controlling the character John Vattic in the present and are periodically experiencing flashbacks which somehow have a contradictory effect on events in the present; it is ultimately revealed that the "present" was in fact the future as seen by Vattic and the "flashbacks" were the present. Another game with a twist ending is Mortal Kombat: Deception in which after Shujinko spends half of his life collecting Kamidogu for "Damashi" who has claimed to be an ally of the Elder Gods reveals himself to be Onaga the Dragon King in disguise. The Halo series of games are renowned for their twists: halfway through the original game, the protagonist discovers that he has been helping the enemy all along, and must spend the rest of the game setting the damage aright.

[edit] Twist ending in comic books

Main article: Twist ending in comic books

Several comic stories have used the "twist ending", to a lesser popularity. The famous EC Comics from the early 1950's were well known for featuring twist endings in their horror, sci-fi and crime comics.

[edit] Twist ending in anime

Main article: Twist ending in anime

Twist endings in anime series are usually more complex than twist endings in other genres, usually because many anime series consist of many, many twists and unexpected plot developments spread out over the course of a series, so the final twists in a series are often more complicated than twist endings in conventional mysteries (it is not terribly uncommon for the twists to be so complex that it is hard for many viewers to figure out just what was going on at times). An example of a twist in anime is in the movie Tokyo Godfathers, where the three main characters spend most of the film looking for the mother of a baby. After reuniting the mother and child, they learn the baby was kidnapped by the "mother", who became disturbed upon her child either being born stillborn or dying at birth.

[edit] Twist ending in music

Main article: Twist ending in music

[edit] See also

• List of films with a twist ending

[edit] Literary devices and techniques

• Literary technique
• Plot twist
• Climax (narrative)

[edit] Genres

• Detective fiction
• Whodunit
• Mystery fiction

[edit] References

• MacFarlane, John "Aristotle's Definition of Anagnorisis." American Journal of Philology - Volume 121, Number 3 (Whole Number 483), Fall 2000, pp. 367-383
• Nonlinear films and the anticausality of Mulholland Dr.
• Non-Linear Narratives: The Ultimate in Time Travel by Linda Cowgill
• The ubiquitous unreliable narrator
• The Rashomon Effect. Combining Positivist and Interpretivist Approaches in the Analysis of Contested Events - Harvard University
• Memory Loss at the Movies
• Memento, Movies, and Memory
• Messing with the mind: Several movies are zeroing in on the loss of memory and its effects
• Forget, Memory - The Whys of the Oubliette Film
• Twenty rules for writing detective stories
• Father Knox's Decalogue
• Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? by Pradeep Sebastian
• O. Henry Biography
• Philip K. Dick Official Website
• Philip K. Dick: The Other Side
• Fighting Fit: An Interview with Chuck Palahniuk
• Vertex Interview with Philip K. Dick
• Interview with John Floyd
• Narrative Innovations in Film Noir
• Krimi: The German Edgar Wallace Films
• Playing with genre - An introduction to the Italian giallo
• The Death of J-Horror? by Nicholas Rucka
• RadioFree.com Interviews: Leigh Whannell and James Wan
• David Koepp Interview
• INTERPRETING Scott Frank
• Analysis of The Tenant
• Twist Endings Article
• Movie Plot Twists: An Analysis
• How to Write Successful Endings

[edit] Notes

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