Longtime readers of this blog may recall that I already ran a post featuring a video discussing plot twists. It’s a great piece
(Sage’s video, not my post) about the philosophy of plot twists and definitely
worth your time, but there’s one aspect it doesn’t touch on: why some twists
are great and some are garbage.
For that, we turn to Jack Nugent over at Now You See It for
his short piece on “How to Do a Plot Twist.” While it doesn’t go as deep into
the philosophy or story structure of a plot twist, it does get at the essence
of what makes a twist work by comparing a great twist (1996’s great Primal Fear) to a
lousy one (2013’s lousy Now You See Me).
And if you’re thinking: “Oh, thanks for another video choc-full of movie spoilers, man,” then consider this study (also cited into today’s video) that discovered -- SPOILER ALERT -- that spoilers make you enjoy the story that much more.
Seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? I know I do not like to
have movies spoiled for me, but think of it this way: Why are some movies
famous for their plot twists – Fight Club, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense,
etc. – so very re-watchable? Beyond the great performances and such, today's video suggests (and I would agree) that we like
seeing how the groundwork for the twist was laid, to pick up on the clues we
missed. And when we can't? Pftttth!
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