Every screenwriting guru teaches about the importance of a good midpoint. The middle of a movie’s structure should have a significant event that raises the stakes and gives the protagonist a forceful push on their narrative journey. Some movies don’t have a discernible midpoint, and these movies tend to be the weaker ones, because it’s a sign that the structure as a whole is pretty flimsy.
All the best movies have a clear midpoint that ups the ante and shocks the audience and initiates the next stage of the protagonist’s development. So, here are 10 best midpoint twists in movie history, ranked.
The Strip Club’s Employees Are Revealed To Be Vampires (From Dusk Till Dawn)
This midpoint totally changes the genre of the movie. From Dusk Till Dawn spends its first half as a crime movie about a pair of fugitive bank robbers who hijack a family’s RV vacation and force the dad to drive them across the Mexican border. When they get to Mexico, they stop at a strip club, where they’re supposed to be meeting their contact at dawn.
At the movie’s midpoint, it suddenly turns into a gory horror movie as all the employees of the strip club are revealed to be vampires. Suddenly, the characters have to band together and fight for survival throughout the night.
Amy Is Alive (Gone Girl)
David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gone Girl tweaked a few things from Gillian Flynn’s source novel, but it didn’t change the midpoint revelation that Amy is alive and has faked her own murder.
After an hour of watching her husband Nick displaying suspicious behavior and starting to cave under the pressures of widespread media attention and a criminal investigation, it was shocking to discover that Amy had staged the whole thing, and is exactly as evil as Nick said she was.
The T. Rex Attack (Jurassic Park)
When John Hammond invites paleontologists Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm out to his dinosaur-infested theme park to get their approval, he’s disappointed to learn that they think what he’s done is reckless. Around the movie’s midpoint, the T. Rex escapes from its enclosure.
The stakes are raised, the characters are split up, and the ratio of action scenes to dialogue-driven scenes goes way up. The T. Rex attack is when Jurassic Park goes from an existential meditation on the dangers of playing God to a full-blown monster movie.
Vincent Vega Is Killed (Pulp Fiction)
It’s tough to have a midpoint when the story is told non-linearly. But the killing of Vincent Vega at the hands of Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction fits the bill. The fact that Vincent is randomly killed in cold blood by a guy he only met once briefly is a sharp left turn for his character arc thus far, which has seen him flirting with his boss’ wife.
It also adds an ominous context to his later scenes, which are set a few days before his death. Those later scenes also see his partner Jules giving up his life of crime, thus avoiding the same fate.
McMurphy Takes The Patients Out For A Trip (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)
Midway through Miloš Forman’s anti-establishment masterpiece One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the lead protagonist Randle McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, takes the patients out on a trip. It’s an inspiring moment as he gives a taste of freedom to his fellow patients, and also enjoys a taste of that freedom himself.
But it also comes with a sobering reality check. When he returns to the mental institution, McMurphy has to face the possibility that he may never get to leave again.
Alex DeLarge Goes To Prison (A Clockwork Orange)
Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange is a classic of dystopian future-set sci-fi cinema. It’s a brilliant social satire, taking the societal problems of 1971 and exaggerating them in a futuristic setting.
After Alex DeLarge spends half the movie gleefully committing crimes without a care in the world, he is pinched by the cops and thrown into a ruthless prison. In order to get a reduced sentence, he takes part in an experimental rehabilitation program to “cure” his delinquency.
Brody’s Son Is Attacked By The Shark (Jaws)
The midpoint of Jaws is when the shark attacks close to home for Chief Brody. Due to the red tape put up by Mayor Vaughn, Brody has been unable to close the beach, so he decides that the next best thing is to patrol the perimeter with Hooper and his officers.
However, when the shark gets into the estuary and Brody’s son has a near-miss with it, he decides to change tactics. He teams up with Hooper and Quint to go out into the shark’s habitat and kill it there.
The Chestburster Scene (Alien)
One of the main components that makes Alien a masterpiece of horror cinema is that Ridley Scott didn’t rush into the terror. He took the time to establish the characters and their personalities before the first big jump scare – the facehugger attacking Kane – and even then, things seem to be fine.
In fact, the crew has a party to celebrate the fact that Kane survived an encounter with an unfamiliar extraterrestrial species. Then, midway through dinner, Kane starts convulsing. The crew lies him down on the table, and a baby alien bursts through his chest. And so it begins.
Michael Kills Captain McCluskey And The Turk (The Godfather)
At the beginning of The Godfather, Michael Corleone is destined to become the first Corleone to lead a legitimate life. However, as the attempts on his father’s life continue, Michael is drawn into a life of crime.
He sets up a meeting with Virgil “the Turk” Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, a dirty cop paid by the Turk, supposedly to discuss a truce. However, he grabs a gun he planted in the bathroom and kills both of them, beginning his descent into the grisly family business.
Marion Crane Is Murdered In The Shower (Psycho)
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is set up as a crime thriller, as Marion Crane embezzles some money from her boss and skips town with it. However, at the midpoint, the movie changes its genre and protagonist, as Marion stops off at a motel and gets murdered in the shower, seemingly by Norman Bates’ mother.
This is easily cinema’s greatest midpoint twist. Hitchcock cast a major movie star, Janet Leigh, established her character as the protagonist, and then took a sharp turn by killing her off halfway through the movie.