No surprise most viewers prefer to leave twist in the tale

No one is right or wrong about the merits of a movie, it’s a matter of opinion. But what about spoiling surprise endings?

The final scene from Thelma and Louise.

When I reviewed the American alien-horror thriller A Quiet Place last April, a reader said she was glad to have seen the movie ahead of my review as I revealed an important plot development.

At first I was a bit exasperated. The scene I mentioned happens in the first minutes, before the credits come up. But the more I thought about it the more I realised she was right. It is a mistake to spoil that scene, whether it takes place pre-credits, halfway through or at the end.

One of the pleasures of reviewing films is coming to appreciate that no one is right or wrong about the merits of a movie. If I think The Blair Witch Project sucks, which I do, and others think it’s a masterpiece, which they do, both views are valid. It’s a matter of opinion and personal taste.

I had that in mind while reading an opinion article from The Economist, published on this page on Monday, that argues surprise endings are overrated and “spoilers don’t spoil anything”.

The nub of the argument is that movies relying on surprises and twists descend into soap opera. A good movie, on the other hand, is so lifted by its storytelling that it doesn’t matter if audiences know what’s going to happen. They will enjoy it just as much.

Let’s put that to the test. Here are a dozen movies (and one TV show) with surprise endings, fitted out with their new, approved-by-The Economist promotional blurbs.

12. Twelve Angry Men, 1957. An 18-year-old is on trial for shooting dead his father. The jury has his life in their hands. Eleven think he is guilty! Do the gallows beckon? No! Henry Fonda thinks he’s not guilty and will change their minds! You will feel good about that.

11. Thelma & Louise, 1991. Thelma and Louise are lifelong friends on the road trip of a lifetime. They see a young Brad Pitt naked! They run foul of the law! What to do? Will they kiss, hold hands and drive a convertible into the Grand Canyon? Yes they will! You will never forget it!

10. Citizen Kane, 1941. “Rosebud, Rosebud, Rosebud.” The dying words of Charles Foster Kane, a media magnate who changed the world. Everyone is talking about it! With Orson Welles in full command, we see Kane’s life and times, triumphs and tragedies, and discover Rosebud is his childhood sled!

9. A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984. Slash, slash, slash! Child killer Freddy Krueger is back from the grave to terrorise teenagers with his long-bladed hand. Is he real or is he a dream? Is there any way of stopping him? Perhaps. But rest assured there are eight more movies to come!

8. Casablanca, 1944. Steamy Morocco, World War II, Germans, Vichy French, an American running a bar, a beautiful woman, memories of the high life in Paris, Sam on the piano, playing it again. Drama! Love! Loyalties! Will Ingrid Bergman dump Humphrey Bogart and all of this for Paul Henreid? Of course! He’s taller.

7. Memento, 2000. Leonard Shelby’s short-term memory is dead. So, unfortunately, is his wife. He must find out who killed her. Can he jog his memory using Polaroid photos and reminder tattoos? Yes he can! In the end he remembers the killer he is looking for is himself. He remembers he killed her! Oops!

6. Psycho, 1960. Norman Bates’s mad mother is stabbing people in the shower! But it’s not really her, it’s Norman in her clothes. The stabbings still happen!

5. The Great Escape, 1963. Allied prisoners of war, German PoW camp, digging, digging. digging, Elmer Bernstein music, tunnels. Can the soldiers escape the Nazis and rejoin World War II? Nup. Hardly any of them. Not even Steve McQueen on his motorbike. He does escape, however, a decade later, from Devil’s Island at the end of Papillon. Dustin Hoffman does not.

4. The Empire Strikes Back, 1980. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fight for the future of space! Will Luke keep fighting, though, after Darth tells him, right at the end, that he’s his dad?

3. The Sixth Sense, 1999. Haley Joel Osment is a boy who thinks he can see and hear dead people. Bruce Willis is a child psychologist who comes to his rescue. Is the boy bonkers? No! He can see dead people! Bruce Willis is dead FOR THE ENTIRE FILM!

2. Game of Thrones, 2011-19. Everybody dies! Absolutely everybody! Horribly! Even the dragons! Even Jon Snow, though he comes back to life! OK, the dwarf lives. But in the end the only one left to run the joint is the kid in the wheelchair!

1. Planet of the Apes, 1968. Is this our dark future? Is astronaut Charlton Heston marooned on a remote ape-controlled planet?! No! He’s on Earth and the Statue of Liberty has fallen over.