From Leonardo DiCaprio’s Shutter Island to Brad Pitt’s Fight Club; 10 films with terrific climax scenes

There is no better entertainment than a film that can keep you engaged as you follow the plot and understand the characters, and then blow your mind into pieces in the end by hitting you with an unimaginable twist. And Hollywood is loaded with such thrillers. From M. Night Shyamalan to Christopher Nolan, over the years, many filmmakers have treated us to some terrific movies that we just can’t get over. Here’s a list of 10 movies with jaw-dropping climax scenes, that you should binge-watch all over again. Considering we are talking about the best climax scenes here, this list is going to be loaded with spoilers so beware in advance.

Shutter Island: This movie has one of the best twist endings of all time. Let’s face it, we have all watched the film at least twice just to piece together all the intricate details of the movie’s carefully created plot. The psychological thriller introduces Leonardo DiCaprio’s character as an FBI agent who enters a mental institution to solve the case of a missing inmate. It’s amazing how we follow the character as he tries to find the truth only to figure out that Leo’s character is not actually an FBI officer, he is an inmate of the institution, who is put through a unique form of therapy to make him accept his crime.

The Da Vinci Code: The Tom Hanks starrer film garbs your attention in the very first scene and leaves you baffled in the end. You just don’t realise who is the good guy and who is the bad one till the very end. And the whole process of decoding the messages and putting all the clues together to find the holy grail is plain exciting. As Robert Langdon tries to find the holy grail, he realises that the body of Jesus's wife is actually buried below the double triangle monument by the Louvre.

Prisoners: The Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman starrer is a crime thriller-crime film directed by Denis Villeneuve. In the movie, 6-year-old girls go missing in a town, and no one knows where they are. After the official investigation fails to provide the whereabouts of the girls, Keller Dove (Hugh), who is the father of one of the girls, decided to find them himself. In the end, Keller gets caught by Ms. Jones, who puts him in her dungeon beneath the car in her backyard. And that’s the last time we see him. The creators keep the viewers hanging when Detective Loki (Jake) hears the faint whistling sound made by Keller, and they leave it there. They don’t clarify if Loki successfully rescues the Keller.

Planet of the apes: The film released in 1968 and featured Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans in the lead roles. The storyline revolved around an astronaut who crash-lands on an unknown planet and discovers a highly advanced ape civilization ruling over primitive humans. While the story initially focuses on the journey of a man trying to make sense of a world ruled by apes, it ends with him realising that he is was actually on Earth, destroyed by nuclear warfare.

The prestige: Christopher Nolan’s 2006 adaptation of The Prestige treats the views with several surprises. First, we find out that Alfred Borden (played by Christian Bale) pulls off his own trick. He is one of two identical twins. And finally, a jaw-dropping twist -- Robert Angier (played Hugh Jackman) pulls off his disappearing man stunt, by cloning himself and killing a clone each time he performs the act.

Seven: The creators had kept a very major detail about the film under tight wraps until the movie finally hit the theatres in 1995. No one knew that Kevin Spacey was portraying John Doe, the serial killer who was being chased by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The last two deaths in the films also come as a surprise for the audience. He kills Brad’s character’s wife and leaves her head in a box and then, in the end, brad ends up killing Doe.

Citizen Kane: The film, featuring Orson Welles and Ruth Warrick in the lead role, came out in 1941, and is still considered to be one of the best drama-mystery films. In the film, Charles Foster Kane (Orson) dies with his last word being “Rosebud.” The journalist who tries to decode his last words finally finds out that “Rosebud” is the name of Kane’s childhood sled, last seen being burned to a crisp. It is an open-ended climax and Orson Welles refused to answer any questions.

The sixth sense: M. Night Shyamalan can never give us a less than a perfect ending. The film came out in 1999 and we still can’t get over the mind-blowing ending. Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis, gets shot in the opening scene by a disgruntled ex-patient of his who coincidentally was plagued by the same supernatural ability Crowe’s newest patient, Cole Sear has, the ability to see dead people. M. Night Shyamalan has created various blockbusters, and this is one of his best works.

Fight club: David Fincher’s adaptation of Fight Club was sheer perfection. The film features actor Edward Norton as the narrator and Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, who builds up a cult of men committing terroristic acts around a major city, In the end, the narrator realises that he and Tyler Durden are the same person. And all this while, he was just refusing to accept his own identity.  

Psycho: Anthony Perkins starrer film, which came out in 1960, has one of the best climax twists. The views initially assume that the lead character is Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh), However, halfway through the film, the character is mysteriously killed. We finally realise that the killer isn’t Norman’s mother, but Norman himself. He just dressed up as the dead woman and is a cold-blooded killer.

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