Just out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite plot twists? Be they shocking, well written or somehow touched your inner self. Obviously, spoiler warnings.
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I saw so many bad written plot twist that I came to conclusion that maybe I just can’t stand them.
Side note: maybe that’s why I’m not making a big deal of the few plot twist that are in my WsIP
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Without going into spoiler details, the original Knights of the Old Republic has a great twist.
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I’m not a big fan of plot twists either, they tend to feel a bit cheap. My favourite recent twist is in the game Little Hope though. It wasn’t the best written in terms of consistency, but it made emotional sense to me. I’ve had similar experiences, so the metaphor of demons, witch trials and mist you can’t escape from really resonated with me, and the idea of the bus driver was quite neat. I know people don’t like the cliche of “it was all a dream”, but to me, it wasn’t a cheap use of the trope, the story was a daily reality for the bus driver rather than a consequence-free escape from it, and the characters all had real significance to him.
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That was the first one which came to my mind. Jade Empire also had a good one.
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I havent found my favorite plot twist yet, but I like the plot Twist in The Harder They Fall.
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I’ve always liked an old classic from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone what I’m talking about. But I like it because it changed the whole dynamic between Luke and Darth Vader, as well as the plot. It went from “I must defeat Darth Vader to avenge my father” to “I want to convince Darth Vader to change his ways.”
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The “Usual Suspects” kind of twist. When everything is right there in front of your from the beginning, but you only find out or realize at the end. 
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Knives Out! So many many twists! I loved it! 
And come on, stories can get really stale without twists. Characters just marching forward toward an inevitable showdown is meh. Mysteries and thrillers need twists! I’m currently writing a big plot twist in Talon City and enjoying every second of it.
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My fave in gaming would be the Dark Brotherhood quest line in Oblivion. You’re an assassin assigned targets by dead drop. Someone intercepted your dead drop location and has been using you to kill the leaders of your own organization. Fallout 4 has a pretty good one. You’re searching for your abducted son after being cryo-frozen in a nuclear fallout shelter. After much searching, you discover he left stasis before you, is significantly aged, and the leader of the bad guys. I second KOTOR 1.
They aren’t twists so much as reversals and reveals, but the Telltale Games series for The Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us, and Batman have some good ones.
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In my opinion, plot twists should not exist simply for the sake of plot twists. I feel like that’s what some authors get wrong. We all enjoy a good plot twist that makes us gasp a little, but sometimes it feels like the author is simply doing it because “ha I knew you wouldn’t see that coming so I killed your favorite character for no good reason!”.
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To be perfectly fair this feels like more of a letdown on the part of specific authors than plot twists themselves. I definitely get what you mean, I recently saw a horror movie with possibly the most boring and stupid plot twist right in the last five minutes and it just ruined the whole thing to me, but at the end of the day it was just because someone decided to write a really stupid scene and didn’t receive enough feedback. In general a good twist can really make or break a story.
Personally I have a hard time figuring out exactly what would be my favorite twist but heavy rain definitely had a great one. I almost fell off my seat when I realized exactly what was going on. Original bioshock was also pretty neat, anytime we realize our actions werent our own I kind of get shivers.
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In The Mouth Of Madness, 1994 movie.
Also debatable if it’s really a plot twist, but the Attack on Titan basement is a good one.
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This isn’t really a plot twist, but in Supermassive Game’s House of Ashes, the final act of the story went in a direction I truly did not expect in the best way. I won’t spoil it because it’s such a good setting shift. It really changed the whole course of the game, and the environment was so tense and terrifying the entire time. It was truly fantastic environmental storytelling.
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Hot Fuzz. oh man, hot fuzz’s major plot twist followed by the subsequent genre twist where it suddenly becomes a legit over-the-top action flick is just— 
god i love that movie
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I like star wars plot twist too! Even other novels made a plot twists like those. I think if an iconic plot twist works it just does even if it’s reused!
Edit: We have a secret mighty lineage. I got that from some novels but still makes me love 'em even if they’re considered cliches. As the saying goes to each their own.
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I’d say my favorite ones are in The Stormlight Archive. I love that series because it takes common fantasy tropes and starts subverting them in interesting ways. There’s at least one major twist in each book and I love how the series consistently challenges my expectations for the fantasy genre.
Major spoilers below.
The Voidbringers are humanity’s ancient enemy and harbingers of destruction. The previous wars between humans and the Voidbringers were so cataclysmic, that it set civilization back to the Stone Age. But it’s then revealed that the Voidbringers weren’t the supernatural demons you’d expect.
The legends were wrong: The Voidbringers were the humans all along. And they had won long ago and succeded in conquering the world. The cyclical wars between humans and “Voidbringers” are actually between humans and the Parshendi, the planet’s natives who are fighting against human oppression.
Another twist I loved in the series involved the main villain. Odium is the God of Hatred and the setting’s equivalent to the Devil/Dark One/Demon Lord. He’s the main villain the heroes must defeat to save the world.
Odium is killed and usurped by one of the viewpoint characters at the end of Book 4. No one has any idea this happened, and the fact the main villain is now dead isn’t the end of the story because it hasn’t solved the conflict. If anything, it’s made the situation worse.
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Well Fallout 4 had an enjoyable twist when I was 14 (not a smart 14 year old either.) As for now in a failed at bonding my dad, his ex wife and I saw dune. I never read the book, but I saw the queen grasp her stomach, and was pretty proud of myself when the pregnancy twist came about. I probably won’t read the book anytime soon. Nothing can warm my cold contrarian heart.
Well maybe one thing.
Edit, to clarify my dad was at the movie theater. He dragged his ex-wife along to the disappointment of all present. That however is a different story, not an interesting one either.
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Don’t have any favorites but I just love the twists from these books/films.
- Sharp Objects (Book, but the show carried it well too)
- Children Of Men (film version because it’s dramatically different from the book in the best way possible. That fucking car scene.)
- The Others (2001) with Nicole Kidman.
- Never Let Me Go (book. Less plot twist and more revelation, the reveal about the purpose of The Gallery had me crying hard af. There’s more surprises but it’s essentially all sad as hell
- Perfect Blue (Film)
- Psycho (Film)
Edit: i realized I didn’t actually mention the plot twists but if you know the movie/book, I think you’d know what I’m talking about lol.
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