10 Sci-Fi Movies Completely Ruined By Terrible Twists

Over the course of cinematic history, there have been some truly awful plot twists in the science fiction genre, with some so egregious that they can actually tank the entire movie. When utilized correctly, a plot twist can elevate a story in incredible ways, but when it is bad or out of place, it typically makes the film worse in a number of ways. Science fiction in particular can be tricky to nail, but some of the best sci-fi plot twists are amazing, recontextualizing everything about the story.

Films like The Terminator, Stars Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Planet of the Apes have some of the best plot twists of all time, helping solidify their place in pop culture history. Still, not every single twist can land, and despite having some incredible twists within the science fiction genre, there are just as many bad ones, with some being even worse than others.

10

I Am Legend (2007)

Directed By Francis Lawrence

For most of its runtime, I Am Legend is a strong, modern adaption of Richard Matheson’s highly influential novel. Will Smith does a lot of heavy lifting in the movie, given that he is the only human on screen for the majority of the runtime. Filled with strong atmosphere and a beautifully realized apocalyptic New York City, I Am Legend was so close to being truly great, but it is undone by its controversial ending.

After the mutants break into his home and his lab, Robert Neville sees that his attempts at curing the disease are working and tries to reason with them by showing them that it is working. He realizes that they won’t ever stop and can’t be reasoned with, and decides to blow himself up along with them and his research. This goes against everything that the novel was trying to say and there was an alternate ending included for home releases that actually changed the ending back to Neville giving the mutants their own back, and they end up leaving him alone.

9

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Directed By Tim Burton

The 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, is one of the most influential science fiction movies of all time, with the twist that they were on Earth the entire time, truly mindblowing. With Tim Burton coming in to direct a reboot of the iconic series with 2001’s Planet of the Apes, expectations were high, but the movie ended up being a dud, and the film’s final twist made everything unnecessarily convoluted.

One of the biggest differences in the reboot is that the story doesn’t actually take place on Earth, but rather on the planet Ashlar. This was actually a good idea, as it helped set apart the reboot from the original, and didn’t have to live up to the same mind-bending twist. Unfortunately, things aren’t that simple and when they return to Earth, they realize that it has also been taken over by apes, with the Lincoln Memorial hilariously replaced by something incredibly bizarre. It ended up making everything more convoluted than it needed to be.

8

Signs (2002)

Directed By M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is about a priest who grapples with his faith following the death of his wife, and is left to watch over their children on his own. The film sets up a strong central mystery as crop circles begin to appear on his farm and around the world, eventually leading to the reveal that aliens have invaded Earth. It’s a great premise that wrings out as much tension as possible throughout its runtime.

Signs was only three years after The Sixth Sense, which might indicate why Shyamalan was trying to go for another massive twist, given the success of his previous film.

Where Signs falls short, though, is the reveal that the aliens are actually weak to water, which causes a lot of questions to pop up about why they decide to invade a planet that is made up of 70% of what they are weak to. Shyamalan is a director that is known for his twists, and sometimes it seems like he allows it to get the best of himself, with Signs being one of the earlier entries in his filmography that is actually hurt by his signature twist instead of strengthened.

7

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Directed By Shane Black

Following the massive success of The Avengers, Robert Downey Jr. returned to the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man 3, the final film in his trilogy. It looked to be a home run for most of the movie, and bringing him Iron Man’s biggest villain, the Mandarin, was an inspired choice. Ben Kingsley’s take on the character was fantastic, until the big villain reveal completely undoes everything that came before.

The blow was softened a bit when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows who the actual Mandarin is, but at the time of Iron Man 3‘s release, it felt like a misguided twist.

It is revealed that the Mandarin was not actually who everyone thought he was, as Ben Kingsley’s character was actually named Trevor Slattery, an actor hired by the film’s actual villain, Aldrich Killian. Killian even calls himself the Mandarin towards the end of the movie, and that reveal ended up being one of the most divisive moments in the entire MCU. The blow was softened a bit when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings shows who the actual Mandarin is, but at the time of Iron Man 3‘s release, it felt like a misguided twist.

6

Army of the Dead (2021)

Directed By Zack Snyder

Army of the Dead was the first project that Zack Snyder worked on for Netflix, and it seemed right up his wheelhouse, considering one of the best movies of his career was the Dawn of the Dead remake. The premise for Army of the Dead sounded simple and effective: a group of people attempt to pull off a Las Vegas heist during a zombie apocalypse. For Zack Snyder, though, nothing is ever that simple, and he ends up making it way more convoluted than it needed to be.

Snyder throws a lot of stuff at the wall in Army of the Dead, including UFOs and robot zombies, but the most egregious twist is the reveal that the characters might actually be in a time loop, as they seemingly see their remains for a moment during the mission. This idea is never actually explored again in the film, which makes that twist during Army of the Dead seem pointless, raising way more questions than it ever intended to answer.

5

Moonfall (2022)

Directed By Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich is one of the premiere disaster movie directors of the past three decades, but that doesn’t mean that all of his disaster films are great. In fact, most of them aren’t good at all, and Moonfall was just the latest weak entry into his long-running, disaster filmography. The premise of Moonfall is simple: the moon is knocked out of orbit and begins to fall towards Earth, but the twist of what is actually happening makes everything so much more ridiculous.

During the events of the film, it is revealed that the moon is actually an artificial structure sent billions of years ago by humanity’s ancestors to colonize a new world. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds, but it could have worked depending on the tone of the film. Unfortunately, in Moonfall, it takes an already bad film and makes it even worse.

4

Lightyear (2022)

Directed By Angus MacLane

Before it was released, Lightyear seemed like a misguided attempt by Pixar to keep the Toy Story franchise going, with a prequel film that would tell the true story of Buzz Lightyear. After its release, it was exactly that, but there were some truly great moments throughout. The movie was much more serious than the rest of the movies in the Toy Story franchise, and a lot of Buzz’s characteristics are different from what audiences are used to. Of course, there are in-movie reasons for this, but it still felt like a let-down.

Perhaps the biggest letdown of Lightyear was the twist revealing who Zurg actually was. It was commonly thought that Zurg was Buzz’s father, given he says that himself, but Lightyear made it so that Zurg was actually an older, evil version of Buzz Lightyear from an alternate reality. Like most terrible twists, it undoes a lot of what made the story compelling and ends up making the identity of Zurg more convoluted than it ever needed to be.

3

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Directed By J.J. Abrams

Following the divisive reception of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, JJ Abrams returned to helm the final film in the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In coming back to direct the third film, Abrams undoes most of what Rian Johnson set up in the previous film, making a rather unsatisfying movie for those that like The Last Jedi, and a boring, fan-service-oriented finale for those that hated it. While the way Palpatine casually returns is incredibly underwhelming, one major twist in the film tanks it even more.

Given the reception to Rey’s reveal, it probably would have worked out better if her parents weren’t actually anyone important.

Throughout the entire of the new trilogy, there is a focus on Rey’s lineage, with the mystery of who her parents are being referenced throughout it. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it seems like Rey’s parents were nothing more than two people who sold her off, but The Rise of Skywalker had other plans for her. It is revealed that Rey is essentially Palpatine’s granddaughter, as her father was actually a clone of him. It’s a pretty uninspired move that ended up falling flat when it was revealed.

2

Terminator: Genisys (2015)

Directed By Alan Taylor

Despite being such a long-running franchise, the Terminator series only has two truly great entries. When Terminator Genisys was set to come out in 2015, there was hope that it would be able to bring the franchise back to its former glory. Instead, the film was a slog to get through and the time-travel aspect of the franchise began to feel out of control, with a lot of it not really feeling like a good fit with the other movies in the franchise.

Perhaps the biggest error that Terminator Genisys commits is the John Connor twist, where he becomes evil after being infected by nanomachines that turn him into a T-3000 Terminator. Not only did it seem out of place, and frankly silly, but it essentially ruins the hero of the entire story, as John Connor is typically the key to humanity’s future against Skynet.

1

Hancock (2008)

Directed By Peter Berg

Led by the ever-charismatic Will Smith, Hancock was actually a pretty good movie for most of its runtime, with Smith playing a superhero that doesn’t actually care about the damage and danger he is putting the city in while he tries to catch criminals. It’s an often funny look at the superhero genre as a whole, with a committed Smith performance, but it ends up taking a strange turn in the second half of the film.

Once it is revealed that Charlize Theron’s Mary Embry is also a superpowered being, and essentially Hancock’s soulmate, as the two remain immortal throughout time on one condition. When they are near each other, they begin to lose their powers. Diving into the frankly convoluted backstory of Hancock and Mary was misguided, and ends up taking away from the fantastic set-up of the first half, and the film overall ends up being just fine instead of being really great.