Murder On The Orient Express twist ending continues to shock

EIGHTY years after it was first written, the gobsmacking ending of Murder On The Orient Express still has the power to stun audiences.

IT’S a story written by the most widely published novelist of all time. And yet, 84 years after this classic tale was first told, its wicked twist ending still has the power to floor audiences.

This fact was proved last year when Kenneth Branagh stepped behind the iconic moustache of detective Hercule Poirot and exposed the guilty party in the Murder On The Orient Express, a big-screen retelling of Agatha Christie’s 1934 mystery.

With a megawatt cast of stars that included Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penélope Cruz and Judi Dench, the movie stuck reasonably faithfully to Christie’s original story.

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in the visually sumptuous Murder On The Orient Express.

But modern audiences were still shocked by the ending, which subverts the very rules of the whodunit established by Christie herself.

Finally watched Murder On The Orient Express AND I DID NOT EXPECT THAT ENDING AT ALL wow 👏🏻

— 👸🏻 (@syzrn) February 26, 2018

Just finished Murder on the Orient Express (2017). Very entertaining! The mystery kept me engrossed throughout and I would have never guessed the ending. 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/bLlB7LHbJJ

— C. W. Walker (@iOrder66) February 26, 2018

Late Af but just watched Murder on the Orient Express, all I have to say is, I am lost for words, I did not expect the ending of who had murdered Ratchett. #speechless

— CBM (@itzCarlwitha_C) February 8, 2018

Speaking to news.com.au aboard the original Orient Express train, Christie’s great-grandson James Pritchard said the reaction to the movie showed the enduring power of the queen of mystery’s storytelling.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people who go, ‘Surely there’s no one in the world who doesn’t know this story, doesn’t know this plot’ … but it’s so obviously not true,” Mr Pritchard said.

“I think the power of her writing is that she had these extraordinary stories, these extraordinary plots and they don’t lose power over time, they don’t actually lose power in translation. It’s why she works all over the world, because at the base are these extraordinary stories.”

MORE: Kenneth Branagh and his killer cast

James Prichard, the great-grandson of Agatha Christie, aboard the Orient Express. Picture: Joe Pepler/20th Century Fox via AP

Murder On The Orient Express is in many ways the quintessential Christie murder mystery.

Just after midnight as the glamorous Orient Express train is travelling from exotic Istanbul to chic Paris, its journey is halted by a snowstorm. The next morning, a shadowy passenger named Samuel Edward Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is found in his compartment, stabbed to death. As there is no way on or off the train, Poirot is certain that the guilty party is still aboard the train. With 12 passengers remaining, everyone is a suspect.

Johnny Depp, as Mr Ratchett, won’t make it out of this one alive.

But Mr Pritchard says the book and movie’s extraordinary ending, which we won’t spoil, lifts it above other whodunits.

“For a long time, [Christie] was seen as this light writer, and I think now she is beginning to get due attention. And that power, in this story, is the discussion of justice,” he said.

“One of her [themes] was that most people — all people, in fact — could be driven to murder in the right circumstances, and that’s absolutely what this story is about.

Daisy Ridley is among the suspects.

“What’s different about this story is the fact that this murder was justified.

“There are some very, very nasty people in Agatha Christie books who get killed and that is not justified, but this is the one, in the end, and this is what the torture for Poirot is about.”

The movie adaptation takes Christie’s work one step further by adding emotional heft to the motivations behind the killing, and Poirot wrestling with the moral question of whether to turn the guilty party in.

Michelle Pfeiffer adds emotional heft to a classic murder mystery in Murder On The Orient Express.

“You have that incredibly powerful ending that is emotional and a discussion of justice, and very raw. I think that Michelle Pfeiffer bit at the end is incredible,” Mr Pritchard said.

“A lot of people ask, ‘What is it about Murder On The Orient Express that makes it so special?’

“There are several things, one of which is the train, which is extraordinary and lends itself to cinema in a way that some others don’t. One of which is the characters. One of which is the extraordinary plot. But at the end of the day, it has something else, which I think is the real power, which is this discussion of justice and what does almost justify murder.

“And there aren’t many, if any, other Agatha Christie books where you get the same outcome.”

Judi Dench and Olivia Colman are among the big-name stars in Murder On The Orient Express.

Crime writer Sophie Hannah has been writing new Hercule Poirot novels. She said Murder On The Orient Express has “the best plot of all time”.

“When you realise what’s happened and the level of commitment ... needed to make that murder happen, it’s actually quite moving,” she said.

Murder on the Orient Express is out today on Blu-ray, DVD, iTunes and Google Play.

The journalist travelled to Paris courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

Originally published as Murder On The Orient Express twist ending continues to shock