10 Clues About Plot Twists That Redditors Wrote Off As Poor Filmmaking

Knives Out 2 will hit Netflix in December, and it’s shaping up to be just as much of a star-studded exciting murder mystery as its predecessor. They’ll undoubtedly be so much double-crossing and a ton of plot twists, and just like the original movie, it’ll likely give subtle clues to those plot twists throughout the runtime.

The original film was so subtle that viewers thought that what were clues to plot twists were actually bad filmmaking. But Knives Out wasn’t the only film to make Redditors think that. Between an extra wearing jeans in an 1800s-based movie and Lupita Nyong’o having no rhythm, fans first thought these were goofs and continuity errors.

The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Sixth Sense is one of the most accomplished directorial debuts ever, as it established director M. Night Shyamalan’s trademark of shocking twist endings. In the end, it’s revealed that Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) was dead the whole time, but certain clues hinted at the ending throughout the film.

PilsburyDohMeeple notes, “During the play, there is a parent filming the stage from directly behind Bruce Willis’ head. I remember being super annoyed at the placement because there’s no way the camera could have seen anything with his head in the way.” But given that he was a ghost all along, it makes perfect sense. However, as the movie begins with the protagonist’s death, it technically wasn’t a plot twist at all.

The Village (2004)

Though it marked the start of Shyamalan’s downfall, as audiences were starting to catch on to his schtick, The Village still has a great ending, after making viewers believe that the movie is set in the 19th century, it’s revealed that it’s actually in the present day, and was built for people who wanted to be protected from the outside world.

Some clues hint at the ending, as Skatykats explains, “Early on there’s a guy wearing jeans, and I was so proud of my sharp eye-catching an error in costume accuracy.” Members of film crews often step into movie shots by mistake, which is what it seemed like in The Village, but it was an ingenious clue.

Fight Club (1999)

There are so many clues in Fight Club that hint at the fact that the Narrator and Tyler Durden are the same person, so much so that it’s pretty surprising that almost nobody saw the twist ending coming. But one of the cleverest clues also came off like a major continuity error.

WarmMoistLeather comments, “In Fight Club, Tyler is driving and the Narrator is in the front passenger seat. After the crash, the car is upside down so it’s easy to miss it, but Tyler gets out of the passenger side.” In fairness, something like that very well could have been a mistake, and it was just lucky that it made sense in terms of the final reveal.

Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island follows two detectives who are attempting to locate a patient of a psychiatric facility who has gone missing, only the final act reveals that those detectives are really patients themselves. Busstamove14 mistook a clue about the end for bad acting, explaining, “So many giveaways right from the jump specifically for Mark Ruffalo’s character. Right when they get to the island, he’s fumbling with his gun like he’s never seen it before.”

So many other moments in Shutter Island could be mistaken for poor filmmaking, even though that’s almost an impossibility given that celebrated filmmaker Martin Scorsese is at the helm. Towards the beginning of the movie, one character drinks from an empty glass, which many would think is a mistake, but it’s all just leading up to the shocking end.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

The Usual Suspects is one of the best movies where the protagonist is the villain, but nobody knows that until the very end. After telling a detailed but completely fabricated story, it’s revealed that the seemingly incompetent Verbal Kint, who has a limp, is really the feared Keyser Soze, and he doesn’t actually have a limp at all.

Gangringo was kicking themselves after realizing what they thought was poor filmmaking was actually a dead giveaway about the twist. The Redditor comments, “In The Usual Suspects, it shows a close-up of Verbal walking with his characteristic limp, but the side of his shoe isn’t scuffed up and worn down like it would if he walked like that all the time.”

The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige is an epic showdown between two magicians in the late 1800s, but one of the magicians, Alfred Borden, could only pull off his magic tricks if there were two of him. It’s revealed at the end that Alfred has a twin brother who had been disguised his entire life and always pretended to be Alfred’s best friend. Primetime22 thought the lack of the character’s development was poor screenwriting.

The Redditor mentions, “I distinctly remember thinking it was weird that the movie seemingly wanted me to care so much about Christian Bale’s friend despite how underdeveloped he was. Ending hit me like a train and I was furious that I didn’t catch it.” The fact that the movie shies away from giving viewers any details about the character actually draws more attention to him. And that’s why some audiences accurately predicted the twist ending.

Knives Out (2019)

The murder mystery movie had grown pretty stale until Knives Out came around in 2019, as it breathed fresh life into the genre, and it was brimming with clues about the many twists and turns. The fact that Harlan wasn’t murdered and was actually an accidental death was the major plot twist in the movie, which was hinted at when the novelist didn’t have any symptoms of being poisoned.

But Shikokukun chalked that up to bad writing. The Redditor notes, “In the very beginning, I thought it was strange that Harlan never exhibited any of the symptoms of the poisoning that Marta was describing, right up to and including his death, but wrote it off as ‘I guess that wouldn’t be fun to watch.'”

Memento (2001)

Before Christopher Nolan was directing the most clever and jaw-dropping blockbuster movies, he made the low-budget murder mystery thriller Memento. The movie follows Leonard Shelby, who is trying to uncover his wife’s killer, but it’s an even bigger struggle than it otherwise would be given that he has amnesia, and it’s one of the best murder mysteries of all time.

While the budget is a lot lower and doesn’t have a blockbuster feel to it, it still has a typical Nolan-esque twist. It’s revealed that Leonard created a puzzle for himself that he can never possibly solve, which would lead him to never fully know who was his wife’s killer is or if he really did kill the right person. Ncsuandrew12 mentions, “Thought it was pretty unrealistic that anyone in his condition would come anywhere close to tracking down a murderer.”

Us (2019)

It’s a shame that the Academy doesn’t recognize great work in horror movies, as Lupita Nyong’o deserved an Oscar nomination for her role in Us. She essentially plays two different versions of the same character; one is a normal civilian, and the other is an evil doppelganger who has lived underground all her life.

But the end reveals that the two variants were switched at a young age, and that’s hinted at throughout the movie, as the doppelganger does things that feel a little off. AutomaticEducation52 noticed one of them, which they mistook for Nyong’o not having any rhythm, noting, “Us when Lupita has no rhythm snapping along in the car.” The studio was even daring enough to put the clip in the trailer.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Whosethedoginthisscen points to Spider-Man: Far from Home for what seemed like poor filmmaking. The Redditor comments, “They nerfed Nick Fury in Far from Home, personality-wise. He was still crabby and mean, but not as all-knowing and clever as in every other movie. I wrote it off as lazy writing to make room for Mysterio to fool everyone.”

Nick Fury was never acting like himself in the movie. Even during his first introduction outside of the opening scene, he shoots Ned, a teenager, in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. While Fury had always been blunt and to the point, he’d never so offhandedly assault a child. But the reason for that is that Fury was really a Skrull the whole time.