The Best (& Worst) Movie & TV Plot Twists Of All Time, Explained

Plot twists add excitement and intrigue to a story whether it’s in a movie, TV show, or book. Good twists often make a story memorable, encouraging others to also check it out. But a bad twist can ruin an otherwise engaging story entirely… So let’s look at the purpose of plot twists in the media, how some work when others don’t, and why audiences love them. Since we’re going to be analyzing plot twists, spoilers are unavoidable – so just a heads up that these are the films and shows we’ll be unpacking!

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:25 Spoiler warning!
00:33 The most common plot twists
00:39 It was all a dream
01:21 Dead all along...
01:41 *Alive* all along
02:27 Unreliable narrators
03:19 Identity reveals
03:53 Secret masterminds
04:31 Surprise locations
05:18 The science of plot twists
05:31 False protagonists
07:16 Adding to the narrative
08:26 Enhancing rewatchability
10:01 When plot twists go wrong...
11:25 Why we all love plot twists!

The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough
This video was written by Cassondra Feltus & edited by Jessica Babineaux

Movies & shows mentioned/shown in this video:
Adaptation, Agatha All Along, Barbarian, Don't Worry Darling, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Fight Club, Game of Thrones, Get Out, Gone Girl, Hereditary, Jurassic Park, Legion, Planet of the Apes, Psycho, Saw, Saw III, Saw: The Final Chapter, Scream, Shutter Island, The Good Place, The Matrix: Revolutions, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, The Wizard of Oz, The Prestige, Vanilla Sky, WandaVision, You, Dallas, The Penguin, Disclaimer, It, Remember Me, Sugar, The Others, The Village, X, American Psycho, Euphoria, Buffy, Logans Run

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