17 Thriller Movies with the Best Plot Twists

The following article contains spoilers.Thriller films are known for their surplus of suspense and anticipation. But what all thrillers have in common is their love for plot twists. To find a thriller without a twist is rare, but to find one with a truly shocking twist is even rarer. By definition, a plot twist is something truly unexpected, and unfortunately, more often than not, the audience can see it coming from a mile away.

Thrillers with a twist aren’t going out of style, as proven by several recent flicks. Nothing beats the classics, though, which should be considered essential viewing for daring fans. A truly successful thriller movie has a plot twist that is so out-of-pocket that it has the audience’s minds scrambled by the credits. From Memento to Flight Club, these best movies with a twist are a must-see.

17 ‘Primal Fear’ (1996)

Directed by Gregory Hoblit

Hot-shot attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) takes up the defense of a young man named Aaron (Edward Norton), who is accused of the horrible murder of Archbishop Rushman. Before being taken in by the Archbishop, Aaron was a homeless child living on the streets with a stutter and shyness. Vail is certain that Aaron is innocent, but he starts to have second thoughts after watching a video that suggests Aaron might have had a legitimate reason for wanting the Archbishop killed.

Throughout the film, Martin exposes more and more secrets that point to his client as the murderer, but with a determination to win does all that he can to prove his innocence. Primal Fear truly belongs to Norton, who is simultaneously innocent and disturbed. Edward Norton’s incredible performance delivers twists like gut punches, and audiences are in for a treat.

16 ‘Knives Out’ (2019)

Directed by Rian Johnson

When celebrated crime writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is discovered dead at his house just after turning 85, Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously hired to investigate. Blanc sorts through a labyrinth of red herrings and self-serving lies, from Harlan’s dysfunctional and vulturous family to his devoted staff, to discover the truth about his sudden demise.

Director Rian Johnson sparked renewed interest in the whodunit genre with the award-winning 2019 film. This comedic thriller will have viewers suspecting every member of the family as they are all thoroughly unlikeable. But nothing is as it seems, which Blanc painfully realizes. When it comes to the moment of truth, Knives Out plays the scene out in one of the most satisfying reveals ever.

15 ‘Arrival’ (2016)

Directed by Denis Villenueve

When enormous spacecraft touch down at 12 different locations worldwide, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is in charge of an elite team of investigators. Banks and her crew are racing against time to figure out how to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors as the world teeters on the brink of war. She risks her life and maybe the survival of all humanity to solve the mystery.

This movie has no murder mystery, no revenge plot, and no punchy action scenes. Instead, Arrival is a beautifully nuanced story about the realities of what communicating with aliens looks like. The entire cerebral sci-fi thriller film has a tense and serious tone so that when the twist comes, it isn’t something you see coming. And instead of being overly shocking, it mostly makes the audience think long and hard about what they just watched.

14 ‘Get Out’ (2017)

Directed by Jordan Peele

One of the most twisted thriller movies of the past few years, Get Out proved that Jordan Peele (formerly known for his comedic work) was a talent to look out for in the realm of modern horror filmmaking. It’s by far one of the best directorial debuts of the 2010s, telling the tale of a young African American man named Chris, who’s visiting his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend. There, his uneasiness about their reception of him reaches a terrifying boiling point.

With Get Out, Jordan Peele proved that psychological thriller movies with a twist are often the best kind. Get Out has plenty, none less shocking or mind-bending than the others. But it’s the unexpected reveal of what the eerie family of Chris’s girlfriend is really up to that recontextualizes the narrative and really ties the horror aspect of the movie together, proving that you don’t need monsters to make a horror thriller terrifying. —Diego Pineda Pacheco

13 ‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)

Directed by David Lynch

A naive young actress (Noami Watts) moves to Hollywood only to become involved in a sinister plot involving a woman (Laura Harring) who was nearly murdered but now has amnesia due to a car accident. Eventually, both women are pulled into a nightmare involving a dangerous blue box, a director named Adam Kesher, and the mysterious nightclub Silencio.

Many find Mulholland Drive a confusing and deeply psychological film that makes them question reality, and it is indeed one of director David Lynch‘s infamously perplexing works. While it is sometimes confusing, a patient mind will get the best from this film. With a beautiful love story and plenty of twists throughout, the ending is something no one can see coming.

12 ‘The Departed’ (2006)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

It’s not like he ever needed to win any awards in order to go down in history as one of the best filmmakers of all time; nevertheless, it was The Departed that finally earned Martin Scorsese his Best Director Oscar (as well as winning Best Picture). This double-crossing police procedural is about an undercover cop in an Irish gang and a mole in the police, both of whom keep trying to identify each other.

The Departed is one of the best thrillers with a twist, and what a twist that is. Plenty of them, in fact. Like a good police procedural, The Departed is full of unexpected turns that keep the narrative engaging. But it’s the twist in the third act of the movie, where Mark Wahlberg‘s Sean Dignam is left as one of only three main characters still alive, that really puts a golden seal on the whole narrative. — Diego Pineda Pacheco

11 ‘Memento’ (2000)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

After a man breaks into his home and his wife is murdered, Leonard (Guy Pierce) is left with brain injuries. As he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, Leonard’s head injury prevents him from remembering anything past several minutes. One storyline moves forward in time while the other tells the story backward, revealing more each time.

Memento is told solely from the perspective of someone who can’t remember anything. So how does the renowned Christopher Nolan film make sense? By being told backward, from the end to the beginning. Constantly full of surprises, Memento is one film that keeps audiences enthralled the whole time, especially as it leads to its iconic and terrifying twist that reveals the truth about the protagonist’s wife.

10 ‘Gone Girl’ (2014)

Directed by David Fincher

On his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) files a missing persons report on his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). With the police and the media breathing down his neck, Nick’s tale of a happy marriage begins to crumble. With his strange behavior and mountains of lies, people begin to wonder, did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

A thriller about a broken marriage: one is missing, and the other is distraught. Or is he? With two main characters who live within lies and deceit, Gone Girl presents the audience with a cast of thoroughly unlikeable characters. Directed David Fincher‘s trademarks work wonderfully with the thriller, which takes audiences to some unexpected places. Though some may see the twist coming, Gone Girl has done wonders at convincing people to root for the evil within the movie.

9 ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999)

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Child psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is confronted one night by his former patient, who he failed to help. After his ex-patient shoots Crowe in the stomach and kills himself, Crowe can’t stop thinking about it. A few months later, he is hired to help a troubled boy named Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who has many of the same problems Vincent had including seeing ghosts who don’t know they’re dead.

This thriller is as heartbreaking as it is shocking, although most audiences today are likely already familiar with the film’s infamous plot twist, which has been referenced and parodied countless times in pop culture. Viewed as M. Night Shyamalan‘s crowning achievement, The Sixth Sense has retained its notoriety as one of the best plot twist movie reveals in thriller history.

8 ‘The Prestige’ (2006)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

In London at the end of the nineteenth century, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), his loving wife Julia McCullough (Piper Perabo), and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are friends and the magician’s assistants. The two men become envious of one another after Robert accuses Alfred of triggering Julia’s unexpected death during a performance. Both develop into highly popular, aggressive magicians who try to outperform one another on stage.

With two strong men at the forefront of the film, the male bravado is strong in The Prestige. Constantly butting heads, the two magicians go to enormous lengths to be on top. The film escalates to absurd levels, with The Prestige featuring numerous surprises leading up to its jaw-dropping twist ending. And when the twist is revealed, it begs the question; Was it worth it?

7 ‘Chinatown’ (1974)

Directed by Roman Polanski

Chinatown, one of the best movies that turned 50 in 2024, is a storytelling masterclass and an icon among twist-filled thrillers. Praised as one of the best and darkest neo-noir films ever made, it stars Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes, a private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles. Before he realizes it, he finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

Written by the late Robert Towne, the screenplay of Chinatown is easily one of the most masterful ever written. Every character is rich and nuanced, every small detail adds something crucial to the airtight narrative — and, of course, every jaw-dropping twist changes up the whole game. It’s the deadly twist at the end of the movie, though, that’s remembered as one of the most shocking and devastating in the history of cinema. It’s Chinatown, after all. — Diego Pineda Pacheco

6 ‘Oldboy’ (2003)

Directed by Park Chan-wook

In Oldboy, Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik), a man with alcoholism kidnapped on a rainy night in 1988, awakens in an odd hotel room with no windows. Oh Dae-Su is then freed after spending a torturous fifteen years in captivity. Oh Dae-Su is now encouraged by his merciless kidnapper to find the one responsible for his bizarre abduction and imprisonment and exact his savage, long-awaited retribution on the tormentor.

With one of the most heart-wrenching and inherently gross twists in thriller history, Oldboy has anyone who watches it clutching their pearls and shielding their eyes towards the end. The less said about this film the better, as its twist really does change the meaning and purpose of the protagonist’s grueling journey.

5 ‘Parasite’ (2019)

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Parasite rightly took the world by storm when it first premiered in 2019, and it would later go on to make history at the 92nd Academy Awards. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the black comedy thriller has a deceptively simple premise – it follows a poor family’s maneuvers as they infiltrate a wealthy family’s home by posing as skilled workers.

Something wild happens midway through the film that essentially changes its flow, narrative, and even genre. The powerful shift cements Parasite as one of the best thriller movies with a twist, and overall an unforgettably brilliant commentary on class structure and inequality. For anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet and has been lucky enough to avoid spoilers, it’s one that should be experienced as soon as possible.

4 ‘The Usual Suspects’ (1995)

Directed by Bryan Singer

Praised as one of the ’90s’ best thrillers, The Usual Suspects is one of the most shocking mystery movies of a decade full of them. It’s a whodunnit thriller where the sole survivor of a shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a police lineup. It’s a movie that has no shortage of surprises up its sleeve, and none of them are less fun than the last.

The movie’s final twist is brilliantly executed, recontextualizing the entire story and making it impossible to not want to watch the whole thing again. This is probably why it’s remembered as one of the best plot twist movies ever devised, proving that a story can build its foundations on a twist as long as it’s good and smartly constructed. — Diego Pineda Pacheco

3 ‘Se7en’ (1995)

Directed by David Fincher

Director David Fincher’s Se7en is a classic crime thriller that needs no introduction. The acclaimed film follows disillusioned and experienced Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and his new partner, the much younger David Mills (Brad Pitt), as they pursue a serial killer whose elaborate crime scenes draw inspiration from the seven deadly sins.

Most people already know the infamous twist in the 1995 movie, which has become ingrained in pop culture. The familiar “what’s in the box” meme represents a chilling turning point toward the end of the film, which was an incredible gut-punch of an ending that ensured its place in the annals of cinematic history. Fans will be glad to know they can relive some of that excitement in the highly anticipated 4k remaster of Fincher’s Se7en.

2 ‘Fight Club’ (1999)

Directed by David Fincher

A nameless office worker (Edward Norton) participates in support groups to manage his emotions and control his insomnia. His life seems to get a bit easier when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), another participant in support groups. However, he becomes involved in an illegal fight club and a soap-making plan when he befriends Tyler (Brad Pitt). Together, the two men go off the rails and enter into a power struggle for love.

Among the most iconic movies with plot twists, Fight Club has been celebrated since its release as one of the best thrillers ever made, with audiences still debating over the film’s overall message. With fans often missing the point of the film, it is a necessary two-time watch. With plenty of Easter eggs and clues to the big twist, Fight Club holds its own.

1 ‘Psycho’ (1960)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is known as the master of suspense for a reason. The English filmmaker revolutionized the genre with his unique style, subversive narrative voice, and willingness to show stories, themes, and characters that were considered taboo at the time. The epitome of his career was arguably Psycho, his take on the horror-thriller genre, where a secretary on the run for embezzlement takes refuge in an eerie California motel owned by a mysterious man.

Psycho has the thriller plot twist, the granddaddy of all thriller plot twists, the plot twist that forever changed the genre and the way directors approached it. The fact that such a groundbreaking twist was placed right in the middle of the film, entirely changing the way the second half plays out, was something completely unprecedented in 1960. To this day, it still works just as effectively. — Diego Pineda Pacheco

NEXT: The Best Thrillers of All Time, Ranked