Thursday, April 21, 2011

I’ll Take Mine With A Twist

By Paula Matter

After reading C.L.’s post last week, I was all prepared to write about my favorite endings in books. Like, the very last line because how a story is wrapped up is just as important as the beginning and middle.
Then I realized I’d might be dishing out spoilers left and right of books y’all haven’t read yet, so nixed that idea.

While pondering what to write about, I went on the Internet to so some important research... Oh, who am I kidding? I went over to Netflix to add to my queue and came across one of my favorite Kevin Spacey movies: The Usual Suspects. Talk about a great ending! Without giving the ending away, have y’all seen that movie? Seeing as how it came out in 1995, I’m sure most of us have seen it by now, but I still don’t want to give it away.

I wandered around Netflix a little longer when bingo! I’d make a list of my favorite endings to movies for my blog post.

Since most of us are mystery or crime writers, I feel safe in assuming we also like the same kind of movies. Which makes me feel even safer about creating this list because there's a good chance y’all have seen some of these movies.

In no particular order:

The Last of Sheila
Diabolique
High Crimes
Double Jeopardy
Murder by Natural Causes
Memento
Rebecca 
The Third Man
Matchstick Men

And so many more! After watching a lot of these movies, I couldn’t help but wish I’d come up with the idea. How about you? Have you seen any of these movies? Any favorites not listed here? Any movies that you did know the ending before everyone else?

There’s one movie I couldn’t find and I’m hoping someone can help me out. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who was in it, even an inkling of its title, or when it was released. (Big help I am, huh?) I remember the final scene where the young woman is at the wheel of a boat speeding across the water. An earlier scene was someone getting her (his?) teeth yanked out. Yet another scene shows a person’s head getting bashed in with a rock.  Sounds worse than it actually was, I promise. Please, someone, anyone tell me you know anything about this movie!

13 comments:

Annette said...

Not sure about that movie you don't know the title to. Not sure I WANT to. ;-)

My favorite endings have been courtesy of M. Night Shyamalan, especially Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. He kind of lost me with The Village...as though that surprise ending was the only real point of the movie. Disappointing. But the other two had my head spinning for days.

Fun post, Paula!

Ramona said...

I really liked the adaptations of John Grisham's The Firm and Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent. I'd read both books before seeing the films. The Firm doesn't really have a twist, but some small changes were made that wrapped up the film very neatly.

The reveal at the end of Presumed Innocent blew me away. I never saw that coming.

Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island is a total mind-blank. Loved it.

I agree with Annette about M. Night. Have you seen The Happening? Most absurd mess ever.

Jenna said...

I haven't seen any of those, nor have I seen The Usual Suspects. As you can probably tell, I don't watch a lot of TV, or for that matter, movies. My husband told me the twist at the end of - I think - The Others, really threw him for a loop. Nicole Kidman, ghost movie?

Susan said...

I was disappointed in myself that I didn't figure out the ending for THE SIXTH SENSE or SIGNS. Both had all the arrows pointing, yet there was enough misdirection that I missed them.

I don't "like" endings as much as I like to guess them. LOL

susan meier

Gina said...

Paula -
I love films that have surprise endings when all the clues are hidden in plain sight all the way through, like Sixth Sense, but we don't see them because, well-trained movie viewers that we are, we suspend our disbelief. Sure, the top child psychologist in New York will spend all his time on one little boy. Right.
One of my all time favorites is Spike Lee's Clockers; I missed the obvious the whole way through.
I think the film you're trying to think of is Wild Things, with Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, and Kevin Bacon. It's a masterpiece - every time we viewers think we finally know what's going on, there's a complete reversal that makes perfect sense.
If there are any other Bollywood fans out there, a good one from the Indian film industry is Don (the more recent version starring Shah Rukh Khan). Mega twist there.

Joyce Tremel said...

I've never seen any of the movies on your list. I never go to the movies. I don't have cable or a dish either. I did see the Sixth Sense when it was on TV, but it was several years after the movie came out, so I already knew the ending.

My favorite ending is the one in The Sting.

C.L. Phillips said...

I Love This POST!!!! And no, I have no idea what movie you are talking about.

I am so intrigued by last lines. I'm thinking the single last line can't possibly give away the story, but it leaves you with a feeling. What kind of feeling, I'm not sure.

And I've still never watched Sixth Sense. Guess I better go do that now.

You all rock. I love Working STIFFS!

Working Stiffs said...

Annette, no, really it was a good movie! I've not seen Unbreakable and it doesn't look like I'd be interested in The Village.

Ramona, yes, Presumed Innocent is another good one. I just watched Shutter Island on Netflix, and when it started I thought how cool it would be if...then it turned out that's what it was. Good movie.

Working Stiffs said...

Jennie, I've never seen The Others, but I've heard it had quite an ending. I don't know the ending, so will probably watch it sometime. I'll go check Netflix!

Working Stiffs said...

Oh, Susan, I know what you mean! I'm usually very good at figuring out the endings of movies--much to my husband's dismay sometimes.

Working Stiffs said...

Gina, I looked up Wild Things and I'm still not sure. Neve Campbell sure looks like the character I'm remembering though. THANKS!!

I'll have to look for Clockers.

Working Stiffs said...

I loved the Sting, Joyce. That was a great ending.

C.L., I love your enthusiam! Yes, you must watch Sixth Sense.

April Moore said...

Yes, The Usual Suspects has a fabulous ending. Even though it's not too thriller-ish, I loved the twists and ending of The Illusionist. Other great ones: 12 Monkeys, Shutter Island, and Old Boy.