Serenity

The element of surprise often feels like it’s being bred out of movies; the bigger and costlier they are, the less often they seem eager to challenge audience expectations. Then again, maybe that’s always been the case — there’s a reason “crowd-pleaser” is a superlative filmmakers hope to earn — but that’s also why the great, unexpected left turns taken in cinema history stay with us decades later. With that in mind (and in celebration of this weekend’s “Serenity,” which features one of the most bonkers twists ever), we’ve assembled a list of ten films with some of the most mind-blowing plot twists in movie history.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Chinatown’ (1974)

Roman Polanski’s 1974 Oscar winner about private detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) and the California water conspiracy he uncovers is built on a foundation of shifting mysteries. But the only revelation more shocking than its unrelentingly bleak ending is the discovery Gittes makes about the connections between Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), her father Noah Cross (John Huston), and her sister Katherine Cross (Belinda Palmer).[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Gone Girl’ (2014)

David Fincher is no stranger to rug-pulling storytelling — look elsewhere on this list for further examples of his work. But in his adaptation of this 2012 best seller, Fincher’s about-face regarding the culpability of philandering would-be murderer Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and the whereabouts of Amy (Rosamund Pike), his long-suffering wife, ranks as one of the most exhilarating turns — not just for the characters, but for the manipulability, and inescapable subjectivity, of the medium itself.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘The Orphanage’ (2007)

Before J. A. Bayona was ushering audiences through a new “Jurassic” era with “Fallen Kingdom,” he established himself as a top-shelf purveyor of suspense and surprise with this story about a woman who opens an orphanage and, not long later, loses her own adopted son. The terror that ensues is only a prelude to the tragic truth that emerges about what happened — and what her role is in his fate.[/nextpage][nextpage]

‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968)

Franklin J. Schaffner’s adaptation of the eponymous book by Pierre Boulle makes a shrewd and methodical series of revelations to its protagonist George Taylor (Charlton Heston), the astronaut who crash-lands on a world where man and ape have reversed roles in the biological pecking order. But the film’s final shots gobsmacked audiences back in 1968, with the discovery that the alien planet upon which Taylor landed was, in fact, Earth all along.

(Excerpt) Read More at: Moviefone.com[/nextpage]