5 More Movie Twists That Were Obvious From the Beginning

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A clever plot twist can save a mediocre movie, but a predictable one can ruin a good one. Plot twists are always a gamble, because the more a viewer cares about a story, the more likely a big twist will feel jarring and break their enjoyment. That’s why some of the most effective twists happen late in movies that were decent, but not spectacular, up until that point.

For much of their duration, The Usual Suspects is a solid crime mystery and The Sixth Sense is a decent supernatural horror film. What truly elevates these movies are their endings. Unlike films like Arrival, The Mist, or Fight Club, the stories of The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense aren’t particularly groundbreaking until after the major twist is revealed. Conversely, many well-crafted movies with compelling stories and characters can be let down by predictable twists, as seen in Thanksgiving, The Dark Knight Rises, and No Time To Die.

Thanksgiving

Eli Roth’s new movie, Thanksgiving, is a loving tribute to the popular teen slasher films of the 1990s, such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, and Valentine. It’s inspired by a fake trailer he created for the 2007 film Grindhouse. Though the movie has some striking kills and a fast pace, it’s ultimately weakened by a predictable twist that viewers will likely see coming from the very beginning.

Right from the start of Thanksgiving, the movie focuses heavily on one character’s reaction to a deadly Black Friday crowd crush, making it clear they’ll likely be the vengeful killer. As characters start disappearing, it becomes increasingly obvious who’s responsible, culminating in the predictable reveal of the most well-known actor – and one of the last people left alive – as the murderer.

Cobweb

Just because a movie’s twist is easy to guess doesn’t mean it’s bad. The 2023 horror film Cobweb centers on a young boy who believes his parents have secretly hidden his sister within their house. You can probably figure out the main twist just from that description! However, Cobweb delivers a wonderfully disturbing and bloody final act, and strong performances from Lizzy Caplan and Anthony Starr make it a genuinely enjoyable, darkly humorous horror movie.

The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan is known for his surprising plot twists, as seen in films like The Prestige and Memento. However, his 2012 film, The Dark Knight Rises, doesn’t build its entire story around a single, major twist like those earlier movies. Instead, it introduces a character who seems suspicious, then largely ignores them for most of the film. It’s fairly predictable, then, that this character turns out to be the villain in the final act.

No Time To Die

Despite the efforts of the filmmakers, audiences correctly guessed the major plot twist in Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film, No Time To Die. Craig’s previous Bond movies had already started breaking with tradition – they killed off a key character, M, in Skyfall, and even explored Bond’s early life in Casino Royale. Because of this, viewers anticipated the big, emotional surprise at the end of No Time To Die, even though it didn’t make the moment any less impactful.

Scream 3

The original Scream movie had a brilliantly simple killer reveal, and none of the sequels have quite matched it, though Scream 4 came pretty close with a smart reason and a surprising killer. While Scream 7 (released in 2026) wasn’t well-received, Scream 3 (from 2000) is widely considered the weakest entry in the series when it comes to the mystery. Its story depends too much on unbelievable plot devices – like a voice changer that perfectly copies anyone – and the identity of the killer is pretty clear from the beginning.

In Scream 3, one key character is consistently pushed to the side, with the film deliberately limiting their screen time. While the killer’s reason for the violence is a surprising twist, the identity of the Ghostface killer becomes clear very early on. The movie introduces them as a seemingly unimportant and harmless background character, making them the obvious suspect from the beginning.

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2026-03-27 18:17