To twist or not to twist

[alexwhitmer]

When working on assignment, I am often asked to come up with a big twist at the end. 'I don't care about the story' some will say, as long as the twist at the end is smokin'!

I think there is way too much emphasis put on twists, even to the point that the story suffers, as it becomes a maze of red herrings and smokescreens to make the end totally unexpected. When it works, it's a fantastic element. When!

Even written well, the twist still needs to go through the interpretive process, the filming and performances, and the editing. Here again, if too much energy is put into that nano-second of the whole, then I think the film will lose much of its overall entertainment value.

By the way, I find this overriding twist angst mostly true in the art and science of short film. There is a fear that five, or even fifteen minutes just isn't enough time to make a story interesting. Features, some argue, have the benefit of the slow reveal, story build, and intricate subplots.

I do occasionally see a great twist in features. Halle Berry in "Perfect Stranger" comes to mind. Took only a second or two of film at the very end to engage the minds of the audience as to what will happen next. The twist did everything a twist is supposed to do. "The Others" is a great example as well.

Features also have the benefit of adding twists, or plot points, along the way to radically alter the direction of the film. "The Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks comes to mind, when we discover the son is hiding in the back seat. Talk about a game changer, and no need for any final twists. The setup for the ending was planted well into the film, and it all fit seamlessly.

Often twists are added to leave open the door for a continued story, or sequel as we affectionately call them. The kill rate on those is just to high in my book. A twist is not a requirement to make a film entertaining, and I would argue it is more often a crutch for poor material, or material poorly filmed. It may add a WTF or an OMG, but is it necessary to tell the story?

There are so many good short films without a twist. A few award winners come to mind ...

My Name is Lisa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiRHyzjb5SI
The Youth in Us - http://www.theyouthinus.com/
Utilities - http://vimeo.com/6390930
Spin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP59tQf_njc

Bottom line is, don't just 'add' a twist. Make it integral to the story.

alex

 

[Erik Bien]

... from your mouth to M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong's ears ... :troll:

 

[Austin Glass]

Speaking of shorts, "Spider" comes to mind. While I still found it entertaining, the twist was tagged on as if it were a second ending. I hate the feeling I get when I'm thinking, "oh the film is over. Oh, that was a nice mov--oh, I guess it's not over."

You know, the type of ending where it seems like someone had an extra roll of film they found under the DP's passenger seat, and they felt like using it.

 

[Joel Kaye]

'I don't care about the story' some will say, as long as the twist at the end is smokin'!

Anything that's a suspense thriller or murder mystery probably has a twist - that's what those genres are.

But do you need a twist in an action movie, drama or comedy? Not really - however most good stories are full of unpredictable things even if the big plot is predictable. Avatar springs right to mind.

A twist ending doesn't work if it's not well setup by the rest of the story. Also, no one will get to the twist ending if the story is boring... so anyone who says they don't care about the story but wants a cool ending simply doesn't understand the process of storytelling. I believe they actually DO care about the story they are just too ignorant to know it.

"Unpredictable" may really be what they are after and they just think it's a twist ending.

 

[alexwhitmer]

"Unpredictable" may really be what they are after and they just think it's a twist ending.

Agree. I think 'twist' is tossed around loosely as a required element without really understanding its purpose. It's that last second rush one gets when watching a well orchestrated twist that makes them say 'I want my film to do that'.

Unpredictable is a much better word.

'Dang, I didn't see that coming' is a great accomplishment if that was the intention, but again, I also believe a story can have a presumed outcome, and still be told beautifully - and keep an audience fully engaged.

Both work. What I have found, however, is that some stories just don't lend themselves to a 'punch in the mouth' twist at the end. Many do, just not across the board.

Completely agree that sprinkling the unexpected throughout an otherwise straightforward film can make for some good storytelling.

 

[alexwhitmer]

Speaking of shorts, "Spider" comes to mind. While I still found it entertaining, the twist was tagged on as if it were a second ending. I hate the feeling I get when I'm thinking, "oh the film is over. Oh, that was a nice mov--oh, I guess it's not over."

You know, the type of ending where it seems like someone had an extra roll of film they found under the DP's passenger seat, and they felt like using it.

I'll look for that one.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I like the twist. But it can't be like Perot episodes where they magic some crucial piece of information at the last second. I hate Perot every episode ends the same "The murderer is BOB!" "How did you know?" "I had a video of him committing the murder all along!" . And I hate M Night twists because they're either obvious or stupid or a combination there of.

The art of the twist is wasted if you're trying to trick your audience and investing time and energy into keeping them too distracted to figure out what is going on. The twist's greatest power is to force the audience to re-evaluate what they thought they knew in light of the twist. If your film was just a bunch of gimmicks then they'll probably just spend that time running back over the film trying to figure out if you cheated. Hopefully you've set up such a great story that the twist instead challenges the audience's prejudices and preconceptions and invites them to see something from a different perspective.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Ah, the twist... A highly overrated story element. It is often the bane of writers and the go-to piece of directors and producers when they just want something cool.

IMO, a twist can only be as good as the story which leads up to it. If you fail to captivate your audience with a good story, no one is going to give a rat's ass if you twist the hell out of it in the end. And a good twist does not introduce new elements as many often do. A perfect twist is fully supported by the story right up to the point it happens, it's just an ending or subsequent event that wouldn't be as expected as some other outcome. A good twist should still fit the overall tone of the story or film. In most cases, the only thing worse than a poorly executed twist is another one within the same story, or even more. Nothing worse than watching a movie that continuously twists and turns and takes the audience on a mediocre roller-coaster ride of lameness. See "Wild Things" for an example. uke:

I run across directors and producers who have that "damn the story" attitude a lot. Sometimes they have this idea for a great scene or they want to put in this big twist. From my own experiences as a writer, you can have an idea for one of the coolest scenes ever, but it can often be difficult to put it into context within a good story and without the support of a good story, a cool scene is just that, one scene. And it's coolness may not even be appreciated or noticed if the audience is disinterested in the story as a whole.

 

[alexwhitmer]

All so true. It took me some time to get over focusing on the end and stay on the story as a whole. An interesting learning curve early in the game.

I think it's one of the first 'go to' elements writers and filmmakers embrace, hoping to give their work that winning edge. I'm guilty.

Filmmaking really is the new 'everyman's art', and like any art, all elements need to be learned on equal footing. One cannot be a brilliant painter by mastering shading while ignoring composition.

That said, I sure do love a good twist when done well.

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Good thoughts. What I hate worst of all is the twist that violates the movie, makes you feel wronged as an audience. An example of NOT doing this is Sixth Sense, the twist does hold true. You can re-watch the movie repeatedly and every last thing holds. The director tricked me with cleverness. Example of doing it badly? The Illusionist and most recently, Book of Eli. I'll explain further if you've seen both of them. But in there cases, the twist was untrue, there were things the movie had done in the case of misleading me that flat out became lies. It's like, you can do the 'Crying Game' twist if you haven't shown that character giving birth, because that involves overies and a uterus, etc. The story must hold true to itself. Too many cheap twists don't.

 

[David Rasberry]

Good plot twists should be set up in advance through a host of visual or literary techniques. If they are just dropped cold on an audience out of the blue, it's just confusing.

I like the Law and Order SVU series especially for the quality of the writing in this respect. They throw in some real torquers at times, but it is always motivated and built on what came before so even though it is surprising, it never seems false.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

RE: Eli indeed.

I did exactly what I always do with a Twist. I went on rewind. I ran back through the entire movie to see how this new piece of information fit into everything I had just seen. And my conclusion was "Give me a break."

Only put a twist at the end of your movie that your movie supports. Because while I might sit through Transformers with a dumb smile on my face watching things blow up, if you put a twist at the end of your movie you can guarantee people are going to go back through your movie to see if the twist fits. If your story is full of holes it's going to a bumpy and uncomfortable ride for the audience as the reflect on every little plot hole.

But not all twists have to be reflective ala 6th sense. Maybe they aren't twists. I like to call them "punchlines". And it's often a twist but not necessarily. The punchline is where the hero accidentally opens Pandora's box in the last shot. It's like the twist that doesn't turn back on itself, it just starts a new story. It's like a half twist. Those can be fun, but obviously they're gimmicky. My favorite is in a twilight episode where they find a ghost ship where the whole crew is dead. Through the episode you realize they found an alien entity which exists in static electricity and infects people driving them mad. The last shot is they realize that upon discovering the ghost ship they sent a transmission to earth to report the ship and by doing so uploaded the static electricity virus to earth. Presumably earth will be destroyed. So that's a punchline/half-twist in my books. Now that I think about it half-twists are almost always apocalyptic.

Here's a question though. The end of The Mist... twist or just half-twist? It's not reflective so in my opinion it's not a real twist.

 

[Paul Lee]

RE: The Mist

Kind of like the old "Isn't it Ironic" debate

 

[Stephen Strangways]

David and Gavin are already touching on it, but for me, a twist is perfect when it is completely unexpected that it happens, and yet when it does, it makes perfect sense because it fits with everything that came before, and you have that moment of "I wish I'd thought of that!" that you get when someone invents something unheard of that makes so much sense it seems like it should have been obvious to everyone all along.

 

[Omar Saad]

Yeah, the twist is a tricky thing to pull off, especially since audiences have become exceptionally savvy (or cynical) as to the intentions of filmmakers over the past decade and a half. It seems to me to be kind of a useless gimmick in most cases today. I especially hate it... Im mean REALLY hate it when they inform you in the advertising that the film features a "twist ending that you won't believe" or "that you will never see coming!" Yeah, certainly now that you've told me, it's not like I'll be looking for it everywhere...lol.

I think that the best twist in a contemporary film is probably in Fight Club (or the Sixth Sense). Ironically, I don't think that the twist in Fincher's previous movie, The Game, was very well done. I like that movie but, not how the twist was executed.

On an interesting side note, I recall an interview with Paul Schrader (I think) about 7 or 8 years ago where he mentioned that we while 70's Hollywood was the age of existentialism in filmmaking, we were now living in the age of irony. While both have their merits, I personally feel that the former tends to produce better films.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Fight club had a great twist.

I can be hard too though to discriminate between a twist and just an unexpected ending. Another debate would be Inglorious Basterds' last act. While one plot thread was what you would expect I didn't see everything coming. So it was a surprising end, but was it a twist ending?

 

[Omar Saad]

Good point Gavin on the distinction between a twist and an unexpected ending. I think a twist, by its nature, changes the meaning of some or all of what we had just seen.

I think another aspect of a good twist ending, is that it should be build into the tapestry of the film. For example, as I believe Shawn was mentioning earlier in the thread, one should be able to go back on a second viewing and see the elements of the twist clearly. Using Shawn's example, The Sixth Sense holds up. I remember in film school in the late 90's one of my professors kept railing on how much she hated The Usual Suspects because she felt they cheated with the twist... i.e. it didn't hold up upon a second viewing. I haven't seen it in years... I guess I'll have to check it out again and see if her argument holds up.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

It's been a while but I remember The Usual Suspects holding up really well. And I think that was one of those that I had to break down with a stop watch and watch 4 times in a week in college.

 

[Justin McAleece]

Usual Suspects.

Usual Suspects.

I think the Usual Suspects twist is pretty great. It's all a story he is telling that we believe is the truth. There is no real way that it can be wrong because it's all just made up.

 

[Stephen Strangways]

I'm pretty confident the twist in Fight Club can be pretty universally considered a good one, based on the number of times I and my friends and family have re-watched it, enjoying it just as much knowing about the twist from the beginning.