Shocking twists or he was an idiot

[jackfaire]

I hate shocking twists that aren't really shocking twists so much as things that prove the main character is a moron.

I had often heard that due to changing the ending of I Am Legend the movie was nowhere as good as the book.

So I read the book. The movie is better even with them messing up the ending.

Why because the shocking twist is neither shocking nor a twist.

According to the character the infected are mindless beasts.

The shocking twist is supposed to be that they are intelligent beings who have a community.

This would be great if it weren't for the fact that both the reader and the character in the book witness the infected using language and working in groups.

The infected always show up every night at his home in a coordinated group all trying to entice him outside in similar ways.

They speak to him and taunt him with words something that requires intelligence since they aren't parroting anyone but actually talking to him.

If a dog came up to me and started talking to me I would assume intelligence.

The fact that they exhibit all that they do and he still thinks of them and refers to them as mindless beasts makes him a moron.

The problem is these "twists" aren't limited to him. It is often seen in books and movies where the only way not to see the twist coming is if the character ignores 2/3rds of what is said to him as a character.

This annoys me to no end when then I am expected to be shocked.

[Ginger Tea]

The Charlton Heston Omega Man version of I am Legend had them calling to him and iir he conversed from the balcony with the main leader, perhaps an old friend of his before the infection.
The Smith version did give them a mute almost primitive aspect to them, I watched the alternate ending where he gave the captive woman back to the group and they just left, that left him a changed man, seeing that they were normal and he and the survivors were now the abominations.
But no they had to go with the blow shit up route.

I also watched the Vincent Price version a few years ago, perhaps when the Smith version was being hyped, I don't recall too much about the Heston's version of the survivors, but the Price one has him duped into believing he's found survivors when infact they are actually the people he has been hunting during the day, some seem mindless and others just as smart as they were, just with severe sun aversions.
Almost like Daybreakers, but without the vampire aspect of the story line.

[Hyena Dandy]

I don't think its really much of a twist in the book, its supposed to be something figured out through clues.

Maybe he is just being kinda foolish in not realizing. I think that was the point.

[jackfaire]

Maybe he is just being kinda foolish in not realizing. I think that was the point.

I don't know if the creators of the book refer to it as a shocking twist however everyone's critique of the Smith movie that complains about the ending seems to complain "It ruined the shocking twist from the book"


It's not just that one either it seems anytime something is described as a shocking twist the twist is so obvious that the fact the main character doesn't figure it out in the first 2 minutes is insulting.

The one twist that was shocking (end of Saw) was never marketed as such.

[muses_nightmare]

I did prefer the book to the movie, I didn't really think the ending they went with worked at all. I never really thought the twist was shocking in the book, but it was better than how it was portrayed on screen.

(Also, pet peeve of mine, and I know no one has brought this up, but I hate that people refer to the creatures as zombies when they clearly aren't. It's irritating. )

[Nyoibo]

I prefer the version with Vincent Price where the "twist" was him realising that instead of the others being the monsters for him to fear, he was actually the monster they feared.

[Ginger Tea]

Aye he was going around killing them in their sleep after all, real hero material right there.
That would be like Vanhelsing finding himself the last human for miles and taking it upon himself to slay the Vampires around him, even though they can not feed off humans (as he is the only one they know of) and have instead found a way to survive off cattle blood or science.

Saving humanity is hard and almost pointless, when you are what's left of it.

[jackfaire]

*Nods* I would have appreciated it more if in the book they didn't make it obvious to the character. It's like when they give a fact to the character that say the real world equivalent of that person would immediately catch onto.

"Our power went out and then the service came into fix our power, then I went to lunch then around five o' clock when we were leaving for the day we noticed the safe was open"

Then while your thinking okay so obviously they should question about the power outage cuz hey that's unusual. Oh and would be one of the first things a cop would look into.

Instead it's almost the end of the show/movie/or book and the character finally finally either looks into that fact that was given to them and realizes holy shit that was a big lead. Even worse is when it gets resolved that they figure out the situation through more improbable means and the obvious thing is finally pointed out as the obvious thing but them not thinking it's weird that none of them thought to check it.

[Rageaholic]

Or when you really think about it, the twist was only shocking because it makes absolutely no sense.

I loved the show 24, but damn did it require a suspension of disbelief.

*SPOILERS*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

So Nina was bad all along? Well then why did she risk her career and cover, to help Jack stop those guys? If your a mole, wouldn't you want to remain inconspicious instead of drawing attention to yourself (and helping to bring down your bosses at the same time!). Sure it's shocking and dramatic, but when you think about it, it's only shocking because it makes no sense.

[Ginger Tea]

I remember all the "But she had an Apple, all the dodgy characters had a Dell."

If I remember rightly, it wasn't meant to be 24 hours initially, or it was but they were going to milk the main story for as long as possible, they just wrapped it up too soon and had to pad out some more episodes, perhaps her turn coat behaviour was a late revision and all the other key risking it all for Jack scenes had already been filmed and perhaps shown.

I think I stopped at the 3rd season, I moved and had no TV, the one I saw had Darlene from Rosanne all growded up, god she looked the same, but legal , can't remember if she died from the explosion or not, was miffed about that.
Think she was in High Fidelity too, so I've only ever seen her in 3 things total.

[jackfaire]

I think I stopped at the 3rd season, I moved and had no TV, the one I saw had Darlene from Rosanne all growded up, god she looked the same, but legal , can't remember if she died from the explosion or not, was miffed about that.
Think she was in High Fidelity too, so I've only ever seen her in 3 things total.

Mmmm Big Bang Theory

[Sleepwalker]

The twist wasn't that they were intelligent, it was that the good guy was the monster. I mean, the last fricking line of the book refers to it- he has become a legend by becoming the vampire, the goblin, the werewolf. The inhuman killer. The thing is, he wasn't evil, or even particularly misguided. The world changed around him. Which is why it is an interesting story.

In the movie, he becomes a 'legend' by finding the cure. Which is not nearly as much of a mindfuck, it's using legend in the lower case hero sense of the word. Nothing changes. A disease is cured, back to baseball, church and apple pie.

[SkullKing]

^^This.

The twist was not the infected's intelligence, rather it was his popsition in their folklore.

He was a creature, who hunted them, brought them to his impenetrable lair, and made unspeakable experiments.

He sees himself as someone doing the right thing. In the end he has become a monster. A mad scientist from an horror movie.