18 Movie Twists That Were Meant To Be Deadly Serious, But Actually Made People Burst Out Laughing

    "The main love interest keeps dismissing the heroine's attempts at starting a relationship, due to some horrible personal secret that he won't divulge. You eventually find out the secret, which is that he thinks he's a bee."

    Amy Glover
    by Amy Glover

    BuzzFeed Staff

    In a Reddit post shared with r/movies, Reddit user u/hwc000000 asked people to share "'serious' movies with a twist so unintentionally ridiculous that you couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity for the rest of the movie." Here are some of the most-upvoted replies:

    BTW, ⚠️huge spoiler alert⚠️ for all these movies as the twist is revealed in every answer! 

    1. Sweet Girl (2021)

    Two characters in action, man in front with intense expression and woman behind looking to the side
    Netflix

    "Jason Mamoa and his tiny daughter are hunting down pharma bros because Mamoa's daughter is sick. So, after he kills a bunch of them, it's revealed that Dadmoa was dead THE WHOLE TIME and he was a figment of her imagination... meaning this little girl was rampaging like Jason Mamoa and no one could stop her. I'm still laughing." 

    u/Kamen-Reader

    2. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

    Bran Stark in fur cloak sits in a wooden wheelchair, thoughtful expression, medieval setting in background
    HBO

    "I know it's not a movie, but I laughed out loud at 'who has a better story than Bran the Broken?'

    Fuck. That." 

    u/Xralius

    "'We’re sending Jon back to the Wall!' 'Why?' 'Cuz Greyworm said so.'

    GTF out of here." 

    u/Nosferatu13

    3. Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)

    Two actors posing against a fence in a rural setting, dressed in casual jackets and jeans
    Bleecker Street / Lionsgate Films

    "Wild Mountain Thyme has one of the most ridiculous plot elements I've ever encountered.

    Short version: the main love interest keeps dismissing the heroine's attempts at starting a relationship, due to some horrible personal secret that he won't divulge. You eventually find out the secret, which is that he thinks he's a bee.

    No, it doesn't really make any more sense in context. There is some foreshadowing and there's dialogue implying an ancestor/relative had a similar thing going on, so it's not like it comes completely out of nowhere, but it's still completely absurd. I believe the movie was based on a play, and I'd be curious to know if it seemed less ridiculous in the original version." 

    u/Grace_Omega•  

    4. Meet Joe Black (1988)

    Universal Pictures

    "Meet Joe Black has a pretty significant 'twist' of Brad Pitt dying very early in the film by being rag-dolled by two oncoming taxis. It’s so hard to take seriously in what’s an otherwise poignant film on love and what it means to be alive."

    u/DeezNutsPickleRick

    5. The Happening (2008)

    Two characters from a scene, adult in green v-neck top and child in blue, with a lawn mower and barn in the background
    20th Century Studios

    "The Happening is kinda the prime example of a laughably stupid twist in a movie that takes itself way too seriously, and it’s complimented by the hilariously awful performance of Marky Mark.

    It’s like the perfect storm of dumb." 

    u/GeekAesthete

    "I'm so glad I didn't have to scroll down far to see this. I was HOWLING when the guy got run over by his own lawnmower." 

    u/RazgrizInfinity

    "Or the scene when the survivors were running away from a light breeze."

    u/grahampositive

    6. Don't Worry Darling (2022)

    Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in a scene, Styles in a beige shirt, Pugh in a purple top
    Warner Bros. Pictures

    "Don’t Worry Darling sets up this pretty beautiful weapon-testing conspiracy web only to pull the rug with some ham-fisted sci-fi psycho-boyfriend plot in the final act. Took me out of it immediately." 

    u/Gravewaker

    7. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

    Rey, Finn, and Poe with C-3PO in a desert from Star Wars, wearing character-specific outfits
    Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

    "'Somehow Palpatine returned.'" 

    u/Irate_Alligate1

    "George should come back and edit the trilogy again so when Vader throws Palpy down that shaft you just hear a dull thud and then a distant muffled 'Ow! ....asshole!'" 

    u/CursedSnowman5000

    "Everyone's going to say 'Somehow, Palpatine returned,' but the real breaking down laughing moment is 'Arise, Empress Palpatine.'" 

    u/dgj130

    8. Hancock (2008)

    Man in a superhero costume stands confidently with special effects in the background
    Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Sony Pictures Releasing

    "When what is essentially part two of the movie starts I remember just being like 'so the movie is about this now?'"

    u/buster_rhino

    "It makes it easier if you think that someone has switched movies halfway through and they just happened to have the same cast, setting, and names. Great prank though." 

    u/Yorkshirerows

    "The first half is Hancock behaving badly and Jason Bateman helping to rehab his image to the public.

    The second half is Hancock and Charlize Theron as star-crossed lover gods who can’t be near each other, or destruction reigns. It’s a love story and superhero battle." 

    u/TerryTwoOh

    9. Lucy (2014)

    Scarlett Johansson in character, wearing a sleeveless black dress, with actors portraying security personnel in the background
    EuropaCorp / Universal Pictures

    "She keeps getting all the universe's knowledge, then BAM, USB stick." 

    u/holdmyrichard

    "My friends and I burst out laughing in the theatre when the flash drive popped out of the omniscient computer." 

    u/It_dan_zsu

    10. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

    Batman and Superman facing each other under the rain, expressions tense
    Warner Bros. Pictures

    "Superman and Batman realise they both have a mommy named Martha and can stop fighting and be BFFs." 

    u/rjdaley101071

    11. Moonfall (2022)

    Three actors in a spacecraft cockpit, looking concerned. They are wearing space suits with NASA patches
    Lionsgate Films / Entertainment Film Distributors / China Film Group Corporation

    "Surprised no one has mentioned Moonfall yet. I literally burst out laughing in the cinema when the reveal [about the moon being fake] happened and couldn't stop chuckling for the rest of the movie." 

    u/MAD_DOG86

    "It's such an amazing piece of shit. It's mind-boggling. I was enraptured. It's really astonishing to see such a high budget and grand ambition used on such a dumb fucking idea.

    It's like using a $100k CNC machine to carve a dick into a piece of particle board.

    I could not recommend it more." 

    su/solitarybikegallery•

    12. Ocean's Twelve (2004)

    Three men sitting behind bars with worried expressions; they are casually dressed
    Warner Bros. Pictures

    "I still liked the movie but when the plot 'twist' happens [when Danny Ocean takes the money back from Linus Caldwell], my immediate thought was that I just helped fund a celebrity trip to Amsterdam and Lake Como." 

    u/stillmeh

    13. Army of the Dead (2021)

    Woman in black outfit with arm bracers stands by "Sin City Tacos" truck
    Netflix

    "Army of the Dead's twist where it's revealed that the mercenaries were hired to take a smart zombie back to sell to the US military, not to pull off a heist, was a fucking trip, LOL." 

    u/Upbeat_Tension_8077

    "A movie that dumb shouldn't be allowed to be that boring." 

    u/karateema

    14. Safe Haven (2013)

    Woman in a casual shirt, standing outdoors, slight smile, looking to the side
    Relativity Media

    "The kind and friendly neighbour she’s been talking to the whole time is the dead wife of the guy she’s dating. She was hanging out with a ghost I guess." 

    u/friends-waffles-work

    15. The Book of Henry (2017)

    Child in aviator cap with goggles holding a wooden spoon stands next to child in sweater
    Focus Features

    u/Pyode

    "Oh, man. Where to begin?

    Henry is a capital G Genius 11-year-old who builds quirky Rube Goldberg contraptions, plays the stock market and waxes on about how intelligence is unappreciated these days. His single mom Susan (Naomi Watts) is a waitress and he has a little brother named Peter. Henry is the REAL adult in this situation, reminding his mother that they have all this money from stocks and she doesn’t need this terrible job. 

    He balances the checks and pays the bills, and she lives a life of “well if Henry says it’s okay...” So, just some slice-of-life movie where the snotty, too-serious 11-year-old genius should learn to enjoy being a kid like his mom who plays video games and lives a carefree life? Why no, because, plot twist: the neighbour girl next door who is close to the family and not her super stern and angry stepfather (Dean Norris) is being abused by the stepdad! But what’s this? He’s the police commissioner?! And his brother is in charge of social services?! What??!!! 

    Anyway, so now it’s clear, Genius Henry has to devise a plan to stop this and the commissioner. But, SECOND PLOT TWIST, Henry has a brain tumour and dies. But not before he leaves detailed instructions down to the smallest detail for his mother to find on how to kill the commissioner and get away with it. She follows every step up until the moment before pulling the trigger and then realizes how silly this whole thing is and that Henry may have been a genius, but he was just an 11-year-old kid. Then at the same time at a school talent show, the principal of the elementary sees the stepdaughter perform a dance that convinces her that she MUST be abused. So she calls the cops. I’m not kidding.

    This movie is so fucking bizarre and awful that I think it made Lucasfilm and Disney lose faith in its director, Colin Trevorrow, so he ended up not getting to direct the Rise of Skywalker." 

    u/stallingsfilm

    16. Signs (2002)

    Three actors in a scene from a show or film, with one dressed as a sheriff looking concerned.
    Touchstone Pictures // MORE

    "Water... water is their weakness. Seriously?" 

    u/CanaryNo5224

    "How could an invading intelligent species really try to take over a planet where their major weakness literally falls from the sky? It's three-fifths of the surface area of the freakin planet. You can clearly see that from space." 

    u/antaquarium

    17. Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

    Person in military helmet and fatigues.
    Republic Pictures

    "This one has been sitting in my brain and gives me giggles every time.

    It was a John Wayne film, and at the end, they're getting out a victory cigarette and it was like, the credits are gonna roll. Then some kid is like 'how ya feelin' sarge?' and he's like, 'Why, I feel like a million bucks, son' and then a bullet hits him and he dies and then the credits roll. I started laughing so hard that my grandfather wouldn't talk to me for two weekends."

    u/Joshfumanchu

    18. Django (1996)

    Character from the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" stands with a shovel on a dry landscape
    Anchor Bay Entertainment / Euro International Film

    "Thinking of Westerns, this reminds me of cracking up at the big reveal in Django, which is that the ostentatious coffin this guy has been lugging around just fully contains a Gatling gun. So goofy in the best way." 

    u/WobblyWerker

    Shout out to r/movies and u/hwc000000 for having this discussion.

    Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.     

    Do you have any to add? Let us know in the comments below!