Is 'The Sixth Sense' Really The Best Plot Twist Of The '90s?

The Plot: The Usual Suspects tells a story within a story, and it focuses on the tale of a criminal kingpin and con man who may or may not exist, and a heist that leads to the loss of many lives. During the movie, one of the two survivors of a sinister massacre speaks with a police interrogator about the events that led to the shootout and fire on a boat.

The Twist: At the film’s end, the police interrogator realizes that he let the criminal mastermind go and that the survivor was impersonating someone else. 

Why It’s Great: Throughout the film, the survivor leads police and viewers on a wild goose chase through misdirections, lies, and half-truths. This is thoroughly entertaining and shocks audiences more when the twist is revealed at the end. 

The Plot: A young boy who claims he can see spirits is counseled by a child psychologist. While trying to help the young boy overcome his fears and help the spirits, things began to unravel.

The Twist: The psychologist in the film has no inkling that he is no longer in the land of the living. It's only at the end of the film that he realizes he's one of the ghosts the boy can see.

Why It’s Great: Viewers didn’t expect the psychologist to be dead, and the reveal immediately had people wanting to watch the movie again to see if they could spot clues. Unsurprisingly, numerous clues throughout the movie hint at the fact that Bruce Willis's character is a ghost. 

The Plot: An insomniac office worker is fed up with his white-collar job, and fortuitously meets a devil-may-care soap maker who enjoys bucking the system’s rules. This pair’s unlikely acquaintance and friendship lead them to start an underground fight club that, over time, becomes an anarchist movement. 

The Twist: The big twist revealed in this film was one of the most memorable in cinematic history. Audiences were left reeling when they learned the narrator and main character Tyler are the same person. 

Why It’s Great: The twist recontextualizes literally every scene we've seen in the movie so far. Every conversation the narrator has with Tyler he's actually had with himself; every conversation Tyler has had with other characters was actually with the narrator. He's been following his second personality down a rabbit hole for months without realizing his insanity.

The Plot: Two detectives hunt for a serial killer who executes his victims according to the seven deadly sins.

The Twist: Near the film’s end, the detectives are close to catching the killer when he leads them to a remote location. At this location, he reveals the bodies of his final unfortunate victims, one of which is the wife of one of the detectives he killed out of envy. Upon seeing his wife dead, the detective kills the twisted serial killer – out of wrath – thus embodying the final sin himself. 

Why It’s Great: John Doe, the serial killer, concocts an elaborate and horrifying final test for his pursuers. Will the bereaved detective execute Doe and thus complete his mad project, and by extension prove him right about his vicious misanthropy? Or will they take him into custody to face trial? It's a heartbreaking final choice that the whole film has been leading toward.

The Plot: An alter boy is charged with killing a Catholic archbishop. To defend him, a lawyer is tasked with proving the boy suffers from multiple personality disorder, as the boy blames his alter ego, “Roy,” for killing the archbishop. 

The Twist: The boy never had this disorder and killed people in cold blood. Worse yet, he enjoyed the act of killing and was a conniving and convincing liar.

Why It’s Great: It’s unbelievable that this seemingly kind and sweet boy could be a cold-blooded killer who was cunning enough to claim he had multiple personality disorder. So many viewers believed he had it and were left dumbfounded upon the reveal, eliciting myriad emotions. 

The Plot: Keanu Reeves plays a lawyer that follows a corrupt path toward greed, success, and wealth. Reeves is recruited to a prestigious law firm run by Al Pacino, who turns out to be the Devil himself. 

The Twist: Surprisingly, the twist isn’t that Pacino is the Devil. Instead, the real twist is that Reeves is his son, and the Devil wants him to help bring about armageddon.  

Why It’s Great: Up to this point, it's clear Pacino's Devil has been grooming Reeves for something, but his plan to have Reeves procreate with his half-sister to birth the Antichrist is on a scale several magnitudes larger than simply selling his soul. This forces Reeves to ask whether his ambition is more important to him than the fate of the world.