5 Examples of Effective Story Twists

Twists can elevate or wreck your story. Twists are trying to surprise the audience, and the audience likes to feel smart. Readers like to feel a step ahead, so if you are you to try to pull one over on them, it has to be clever and fun and not feel like it came out of nowhere just to keep them on their toes. 

So, is the risk worth the payoff? It was for these stories. 

*Fairly obvious warning here, but I am going to spoil the twists of these stories. If you haven’t seen or read them, consider doing so! 

The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shymalan (1999 Film) 

The definitive twist movie. This movie’s twist was so groundbreaking that it has became a joke and reference point for over twenty years. It led to Shymalan feeling like he had to have a twist in his movies for a decade, but why did it work so well? 

In the film, a young boy can see the dead. The film’s climax then reveals that his therapist has been dead the entire time, and didn’t know it. The reason this reveal wowed audiences is because the entire movie is secretly choreographing it. It was the movie you had to see twice, just to see how it was possible that it didn’t lie or break it’s own rules. 

Upon rewatch, you’ll find that not only does no other character see the ghost throughout the film, but everything else about the character still makes sense, some aspects even moreso. A good twist holds up on a rewatch or reread. A great one makes it necessary and fun to revisit the story. 

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (2003 Novel) 

Shutter Island is, in my opinion, the perfect companion piece to the Sixth Sense. In the novel (and also in the 2010 film adaptation), a detective comes to an island of mental patients to investigate a missing persons case. In the end, it is revealed he himself is a patient, and the entire thing was an elaborate fantasy created by the island’s staff to try to find a breakthrough.

On rewatch of The Sixth Sense, it becomes clear that no character talks to the man revealed later to be a ghost. Revisiting Shutter Island reveals that the twist is hidden in the way that nearly every character does talk to the main character. All of his interactions gain a completely new lens. It’s much easier to spot that the other patients aren’t as unwell as he initially believes and the staff aren’t evil or malicious, they all just know him and know he’s dangerous. 

This twist is great because it recontextualizes every character’s personality, mood, and morals, all by changing the motives of only a few characters. There was a large problem on the island that you are watching them attempt to solve, only it wasn’t the one you were led to believe. 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012 Novel) 

This subversive crime thriller spends its first third posing as a semi typical murder-mystery story. One of the book’s two central characters finds out his wife is missing, presumed murdered, and he is a prime suspect. It seems as if it might be a story about him solving the murder himself, or getting caught. 

Then, the novel reveals that the wife character staged the entire thing herself, and has an extensive multilayered plan that is still ongoing. The book shift’s to her perspective and then becomes a dual narrative until the two are able to reunite in the climax. 

What makes this simple sounding twist work, is that it isn’t a grandiose final reveal like so many “they were the killer all along” twists try to be. Instead, this one comes right when the book has found its footing and the reader thinks they know what they are in for. It’s proof that a twist can be placed early in a story and be used to even reveal what the story is truly about after a clean build-up misleads the reader. 

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985 Novel) 

In this sci-fi novel, a young boy is in training to battle against an alien race at war with Earth. He participates in numerous, highly detailed, training exercises. The story builds to one particular training simulation where he commands numerous human vessels against the alien ships, losing a ton of lives, but wiping out the aliens. 

After the simulation, it is revealed that the entire thing was real. Real people died, but they won the battle and the war is won. This twist is effective and smart for a handful of reasons. The main character is tricked, just like the reader. We experience the twist together, connecting us even more to him and his strife.

It also invokes a classic subversion technique of making the “good” ending feel hollow or morally grey. The Earth won. That’s good, right? Well, then why does it feel so “off.” If the book simply had Ender finish his training and lead the battle, we’d feel bad about the loss, but understand their perspective. Instead, we are hit the choice like a sledgehammer, and forced to question it. If it was the right thing to do, why lie? 

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954 Novel) 

In this post-apocalyptic story, one lone human survivor keeps himself alive in a world overtaken by a disease that has turned everyone else into zombie/vampire “monsters.” Our lone hero fights these beings, hunting them during the day and avoiding them at night. 

The twist comes in the finale, when he learns that they aren’t mindless creatures. They are intelligent, communicate with one another, and even have a budding society that is directly interfering with. This new information creates a new idea of what he is. He is the actual “monster.” 

Even though we relate to him, and don’t have the context to make it possible to relate to the creatures, we are able to understand the framework of a singular, horrible threat. This twist is excellent because it doesn’t change anything about the narrative. Instead, it uses our own knowledge of stories and their baselines to change the ideology of this one. 

We understand at our core that if you have a majority attempt harmonious life, but there is one other being that looks completely different and won’t stop terrorizes the population, then that thing is a monster. He is their nightmare. He is an alien force that they don’t understand. This twist asks us to accept that even though we feel that the human should be hero in a story about zombie vampires, he is actually the villain. 

BONUS: The Saw Franchise 

Let’s do a weird one and talk for a second about the ultra-violent horror franchise that spent two decades making movies with twist endings. These movies almost always use the same set-up. Multiple people are locked in an insane deathreap they have to try to get out of, while the police try to find them, rescue, them, and catch the killer responsible. These movies are pulpy fun, but they constantly prove that having a mastermind character allows you to play with the information your other characters and therefore readers have. 

SAW: The killer was a dead body in the room the whole time. The movie is not set-up in a way that there are clues to solve this one. It is mostly shock for shock’s sake, but it’s a fun use of a “it was there the whole time” twist.

SAW II: The police try the whole movie to catch the killer before the timer runs out. It’s revealed the livestream they’re watching was pretaped and they never could have gotten there while it was happening. The killer also opens the film by telling them if they just watch and do nothing it will be okay. When the timer ends the captive boy they want to save is released, proving the killer didn’t lie 

SAW V: The group of eight captives immediately assume one person has to die to each trap, only to reach the last room and learn that they could have solved them all together, and, in fact, need eight people to solve the last puzzle safely. It’s a great example of being able to look back and see two completely different stories that could have happened, without the logic breaking. 

JIGSAW: The film follows two groups experiencing traps, cutting between the two groups. The finale reveals they weren’t actually doing this at the same time. One of the group’s did this a decade before, and you’ve been watching something that happened in the past, and something that is happening in the present. This reveal comes with a second reveal that they were all in the same location, and the group from the past made choices that will ultimately endanger the group in the present. It’s an excellent use of a twist that brings two narratives together and reveals how they intertwine.

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