Ever since the Golden Age of Hollywood explored film Noir and mystery thrillers, a variety of directors and writers have made a point of giving the audience unexpected twist endings to make films that much better. From cerebral science fiction movies to psychological thrillers, the best twists make for an entirely new experience upon second viewing. While some twists can be uninspired or predictable, others are simply perfect.

Twists can come in all forms, from whodunit mysteries finally revealing the culprit to the reveal of hidden allegiances and betrayals. When directors manage to pull off a great twist, it often leads to some of the most iconic movies there are, sometimes defining an entire decade in a single story. When done well, these films reach the very peak of cinema, and their big reveals keep audiences talking for decades after release.

After audiences watched Severus Snape kill Albus Dumbledore at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, the character became hated by those who hadn't read the books. When Voldemort launched his attack on Hogwarts in the eighth film, Harry was forced to watch him murder Snape, leaving him to die of his wounds. Asking Harry to take his tears to watch his memories, allowing him to learn that he has always protected him, largely due to his love for Lily Potter.

The revelation that Snape was always a tragic hero did what few twists have done in recontextualizing an entire franchise. When fans watch the series for the second time, it's hard not to think about the professor's pain, something Alan Rickman does a brilliant job of conveying. In one twist, the character went from being the biggest traitor of the Harry Potter franchise to its most complex hero which, for fans who didn't see it coming, was a fantastic turnaround.

The Sixth Sense focuses on a psychiatrist, Malcolm Crowe, as he works with a young boy, Cole Sears, who claims he can see the dead. Initially reluctant to believe him, Crowe's time with the boy slowly begins to change his mind. As Cole helps several spirits find peace, everything changes when Malcolm realizes that he is himself a ghost -- and has been for a year.

The Sixth Sense's ending has since become synonymous with the idea of a good twist, with every rewatch bringing fresh details and clues to Crowe's true fate. The second time someone watches the film, everything falls into place, and the fresh context alters Cole and Malcolm's dynamic with every interaction. In fact, the ending was so iconic that it practically created its own trope, one that has since been copied by countless supernatural horrors and thrillers.

Unbreakable begins when a security guard, David Dunn, miraculously survives a train derailment, walking away the sole, unscathed survivor. He's soon contacted by a comic book art dealer, Elijah Price, who suffers from a rare form of brittle bones and who believes Dunn to be a real-life superhero. Despite being initially skeptical, David begins to believe in his abilities as he performs impossible feats of strength and uses his abilities to fight crime. However, when he finally embraces his identity, he makes the horrifying discovery that Price engineered the derailment -- and has claimed hundreds of lives in his search for a superhero.

Unbreakable is less well-known than The Sixth Sense when it comes to Shyamalan's career, but the movie and its twist are arguably better. As a deconstruction of the superhero genre, the movie is without equal, and the twist brings something truly new to the dynamic of a hero and his archnemesis. The reveal serves as both a layer of tragedy and the conclusion of Price's origin story as a supervillain, seeing Samuel L. Jackson deliver one of the best monologs in the genre. Achieving what every twist should, rewatching it makes for a completely different story.

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill focuses on The Bride, an assassin who wakes from a coma following the massacre of her wedding at the hands of her ex, Bill. Believing that her old comrades have killed her unborn baby, she sets out to track them down, one by one, and kill them, saving Bill for last. After she defeats the formidable O-Ren Ishii, leaving her friend wounded to tell her main target she's coming, the audience is left stunned by the revelation that her daughter is still alive.

Kill Bill's twist adds stakes to The Bride's quest for revenge and makes the audience even more invested in the next entry than they otherwise would have been. In knowing something the heroine doesn't, the viewers' experience shifts from a simple quest for vengeance to awaiting a reunion. When the audience returns for the second part, knowing something the hero doesn't makes her mission all the more intense, emotional and unpredictable.

1968's Planet of the Apes begins when a crew of astronauts crash-land on a planet where a civilization of talking apes rules over primitive humans. After the rest of his crew is killed, George Taylor is captured by the apes, who take an interest in him when they discover he can talk. In captivity, he tries to reason with some of the more enlightened scientists to help him break free so he can find sanctuary. However, when he does finally escape, he's horrified to find the remnants of the Statue of Liberty, showing he was on Earth the whole time.

Planet of the Apes' ending is practically the face of a good twist, and created almost an expectation moving forward that great science fiction needs a shocking conclusion to stand out. It's also a fantastic example of letting an image speak for itself, with the Statue of Liberty's remains perfectly encapsulating Taylor's horror and anxiety, as well as the tone of the film. While it may seem obvious to modern audiences that the planet was Earth, in 1968 viewers went from experiencing a Twilight Zone-style alien story to a horrific dystopia.

Rosemary's Baby follows a young couple, Rosemary and Guy, as they move into a new apartment building and meet their kindly neighbors, the Castevets. When she experiences a night of terror, she's forced to question her own sanity as she becomes convinced that her neighbors are witches and that she's the center of a conspiracy. Not until the final scene of the film are the audience's questions finally answered when it's revealed that she gave birth to the son of Satan himself.

Rosemary's Baby forces the audience to question Rosemary's account and experience, effectively casting them in her position as they descend into paranoia. From the beginning to the film's twist, the movie is one of the most influential psychological horrors ever made. When the protagonist finally discovers her Satanic offspring, she chooses to nurture him — though the ending is left perfectly ambiguous as to her true intentions. The realization that Rosemary was right all along makes her experience more disturbing, and turns a psychological thriller into a masterful Satanic horror.

Se7en takes place in a bleak, dark, nameless city where a pair of detectives, the veteran Somerset and new transfer Mills, investigate a slew of murders inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins. As they near the final two victims, the killer, John Doe, turns himself in, telling the officers to drive him out to a remote location to learn the locations of their bodies. Tragically, when a box is delivered, Doe reveals that he murdered Mills' wife, as well as her secret unborn baby.

Se7en led the pack in a decade that got back to '70s-style thrillers, showing that the darkest endings tend to be the most memorable. Despite John Doe being killed, the film is also a prime example of a villain winning, playing on the hero's tragic loss to complete his killing spree. In that ending, it became one of the most unique murder mysteries of all time, practically redefining what a good psychological thriller should be. In the years since, it's almost impossible to discuss a good twist ending without someone referencing the iconic "What's in the box?" line.

The Conversation focuses on a paranoid surveillance expert, Harry Caul, as he begins to believe that the couple he's spying on is at risk of murder by the woman's husband. Not able to let it go, he takes it upon himself to investigate, finding himself torn between giving the husband proof of his wife's affair and protecting them. When he finally decides to go to where he believes the killing will take place, he's shocked to realize he misunderstood everything — and it's the couple planning the murder.

The Conversation takes everything the audience thinks they know about its story and flips it all on a dime through emphasis on a single word. When Caul finally makes the discovery, it's one of the single most chilling scenes of the thriller genre, replete with horror-like imagery of a toilet overflowing with pools of blood. Perfecting a sense of claustrophobic paranoia, the movie brilliantly subverted a number of tropes within its genre, leaving the protagonist feeling dejected and deflated.

The Usual Suspects begins when a ship is blown up following a shootout, leaving just two survivors: a gravely wounded, elderly gangster and an unharmed criminal, Verbal Kint. When Kint is taken into custody, he tells the story of the events that led up to the explosion, beginning with the meeting of five criminals at a police line-up. Realizing they each offer their own sets of skills, they form a team but soon draw the attention of a legendary gangster, Keyser Söze.

The Usual Suspects remains one of the greatest thrillers of its decade for good reason, with the final scene not just pulling off a big reveal but causing the audience to question the entire story. The way the final scene is executed, from the slow discovery of Kint's lies to the villain changing his walk, laid the groundwork for countless thrillers made since. The movie's ending has made it one of the most debated films of all time, with generations left to question what, if anything, they can believe from the villain's story.

In 1977, George Lucas' Star Wars blew away millions around the world through the story of Luke Skywalker and his companions setting out to rescue Princess Leia from the clutches of the Galactic Empire. After surviving the destruction of the Death Star, Darth Vader returned for the second film, The Empire Strikes Back, where he ruthlessly hunted Luke across the galaxy, hoping to turn him to the Dark Side. In his last-ditch attempt to recruit him, he famously revealed that he was his father.

To say that the Darth Vader revelation is one of the most consequential moments in movie history would undersell its lasting impact on genres like fantasy and science fiction. Not only did the twist infuse the franchise with a new layer of emotion, turning it into an epic family tragedy that has been copied, homaged and referenced for decades to come. For its time, the twist was nothing short of revolutionary for cinematic storytelling, so much so that it's become a trope in its own right since.