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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Think of it this way: if Russo was managing the local Pizza Hut, you'd order a pizza and they'd deliver a newspaper. Sure, it was a surprise, but it didn't make much sense, nor did you want to order from them again. But it sure fooled you, didn't it?"''
|'''R.D. Reynolds''' on [[Vince Russo]]'s writing style, from the book ''[[Wrestlecrap]]''}}
A good [[Twist Ending]] is surprising, and seems to come out of left-field. You're shocked at first, but then you look back and realize that that's what they were building to all along. It takes a great writer to pull off believable twists on a regular basis.
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Contrast [[The Untwist]], where the plot twist is ruined by making it so obvious that the audience confuses it for a [[Red Herring]]. See also [[Gambit Roulette]], [[Cruel Twist Ending]], [[Mandatory Twist Ending]] and [[Ass Pull]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* For some viewers, ''[[Code Geass]] R2'' Turn 21, where it's revealed that {{spoiler|Marianne (who for most of the series had been painted as practically a saint) not only fully supports her husband's Instrumentality plan, but she's committed multiple [[Kick the Dog]] moments herself, including using her Geass to possess a young girl after her death, and not particularly caring about the [[Mind Rape]] her daughter went through.}} And that's only ''one'' of the plot twists thrown into this episode.
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** In the same vein, {{spoiler|the revelation that Yashamaru was lying to Gaara when he claimed that his mother hated him under orders from the Kazekage, as part of some utterly nonsensical test of Gaara's mental stability.}}
** Also, under Kakashi's mask is {{spoiler|another mask}}, though this one can be chalked up to [[Rule of Funny]].
* Il Palazzo in the last episode ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' (ignoring the non-canon 26th episode)
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' ''lives'' for this. Basically, every plot point after Acid Tokyo qualifies. ''They even sneak a couple into the epilogue''.
** Because of this series, ''[[
* ''[[School Days]]'' (manga only) {{spoiler|Kotonoha & Sekai abruptly going [[Axe Crazy]] in the last chapter with virtually no foreshadowing at all, just to shock the reader at the story having one of the game's few bad endings as opposed to the majority of happy endings. Note this occurs only in the Manga, the Anime does a much better job of building up Kotonoha & Sekai's gradually decreasing mental stability making it much more a [[Twist Ending]].}}
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
* The ending of ''[[Panty & Stocking with
* ''[[Master of Martial Hearts]]'': [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether the 5th and final episode of the OVA is this or a [[Twist Ending]]. {{spoiler|Aya finds out that every one of her friends was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who had manipulated her right from the beginning. They mentally broke all the losers of the tournament, making them into "perfect women" to be sold into sexual slavery. Aya's "friends" did this because her parents did the same thing to their parents, and they want to kill her to get back at her mother. Then Aya's mother shows up and kills them off, revealing to her that this is a Cycle of Revenge going back to their grandparents. So Kill 'Em All ensues, with Aya limping away from the blown up building. Then her so-called best friend's mother gets a visit from someone that she is very scared to see...}}. There was little [[Foreshadowing]], like Aya finding out that her boyfriend is in charge of the tournament, and her 5th clairvoyant opponent warning her that her friends are not friends and that this is all just a game. Still, no one could have expected an ending like that!
* ''[[Digimon Xros Wars]]: [[The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time]]'' has 2 in the finale. {{spoiler|Ryouma's digimon parter, who had previously barely talked at all and showed no personality turns out to be the big bad in disguise, brain washing his tamer}} and an even "better" one where {{spoiler|The previous generic evil [[Big Bad]] is now a good guy, and a human with a clock digimon (despite previously having nothing to do with time) wondering through dimensions collecting humans to beat up the new big bad he inadvertently created.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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** Wookiepedia says that the authors were explicitly told ''not'' to drop any hints, so as not to ruin the "surprise".
** Similarly in Legacy, the reveal that {{spoiler|Darth Krayt is actually A'Sharad Hett}} came out of absolutely nowhere and was sure to confuse readers who are unfamiliar with the Clone Wars comics.
* [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' finishes with the reveal that {{spoiler|the wise Eastern mentor character was actually Magneto, who then proceeds to go berserk and level Manhattan}}. This isn't this trope; it's a hell of a surprise, but when you go back and re-read Morrison's run, it becomes obvious that it was planned right from the start and makes sense, thus making that a good old fashioned plot twist. No, the Swerves came when Morrison left and Marvel went into "Oh my God, did we seriously just let him {{spoiler|kill off Magneto}}?!?!?" panic mode. {{spoiler|That wasn't Magneto, that was a guy pretending to be Magneto, and also he has a twin brother who's a good guy and has the exact same powers that Xorn never really actually had!}} No, wait, {{spoiler|neither Xorn existed, and neither did that Magneto, they were all just the Scarlet Witch fucking with reality!}} No, wait, {{spoiler|Xorn is somehow the
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (Comic Book)|Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic]]'' actually manages to have a revelation that's simultaneously a Shocking Swerve ''and'' [[The Un-Reveal]]. While many readers had guessed that {{spoiler|[[Mad Scientist]] Demagol had switched places with [[Warrior Poet]] Rohlan Dyre (using the fact that as Mandalorians, both wear full body armor, to conceal the switch)}} as much as ''three years'' before it was explicitly revealed to have happened, ''no one'' predicted that {{spoiler|Demagol's true identity was Antos Wyrick, Jarael's childhood mentor and the father of her nemesis Chantique}}.
* There were more than a few Shocking Swerves in Spider-Man's ''[[The Clone Saga|Clone Saga]]''. One issue in particular ended with the discovery of what seemed to be the corpse of the original clone, indicating that it was neither Ben nor Peter and raising the mystery of what the double's origin really was. It turned out that the writers didn't have a clue, they just thought it was a cool twist.
** A similar situation was with the "death" of Peter and MJ's baby. The issue where that happened ended with an associate of Norman Osborn- the perpetrator of the entire Clone Saga and whose resurrection was a shocking swerve in and of itself- taking a mysterious "parcel" and heading off on a boat to parts unknown. Savy readers would have suspected that this would be the Parker's child, whose death was faked. Turns out this wasn't the case. Although later revealed to be just a cat, the creators revealed that there was never intention to have the Parker's child survive and they just planned on endlessly teasing the fans with this with no plans of resolving the issue.
* The [[Grand Theft Me|body-swap]] of Terra and the Ultra-Humanite in the ''[[Power Girl]]'' ongoing series did not feature any foreshadowing or rational explanation, and actually seems to directly contradict previous established facts (In the issue before the reveal, Satanna actually comments that her sources are still looking for Humanite, and so far have not had any luck in locating him). The conflict itself was handled well and lead into one of the best issues of the series, but the actual swap came completely out of nowhere and even Terra's half-explanation after she was rescued does not clear up all the points, since she refers to lengthy torture sessions and stays in a psychiatric hospital, even though the entire affair occurred in only a single day. Good idea, good follow through, but ''horrible'' lead-in.
* The end of Wildstorm's six-issue ''[[Friday the 13th]]'' miniseries reveals Jason is powered and driven to kill by the vengeful spirits of a Native tribe massacred on the shores of Crystal Lake centuries ago. The series was still pretty good, regardless.
* Happens in pretty much every chapter of ''[[Light and Dark -
▲== [[Fanfic]] ==
▲* Happens in pretty much every chapter of ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]''. Past swerves include: Light's dad is trying to kill L! Light's dad works for L! Sayu stole Misa's death note! Takada is Naomi! L tried to kill Light's mom! The royal death note was fake! Dark has an everything note! Light has a twin sister! Part of the fun is trying to guess what ludicrous [[Ass Pull]] will happen next.
* Quoted above is the second-to-last paragraph of ''[[Doom: Repercussions of Evil]]'', spoken by Cernel Joson (presumably, as he had been speaking on the radio before) after John Stalvern insists that he has to fight the demons. This contradicts Joson sending John out to fight the demons.
* At the end of ''[[Latias' Journey]]'', {{spoiler|it turns out Mewgle had stuffed everyone, including the [[Physical God]] [[Big Bad]] and [[Big Good]], into a giant virtual-reality simulation so he could take over the multiverse. And then Leo the Squirtle comes out of nowhere and beats the crap out of him.}}
== [[Film]] ==
* In the movie ''[[Dark Shadows (film)|Dark Shadows]]'', it is revealed that {{spoiler|the daughter in the family is actually a werewolf.}} This might have been all fine and good except for the fact that there was absolutely no way to predict this happening, the movie ended 10 minutes later, and the reveal had
* The two endings that didn't make the final cut of the thriller ''[[Joy Ride (film)|Joy Ride]]'' both had Rusty Nail being [[Deader Than Dead|killed]], but the ending that made it to theaters had him get shot numerous times by police, only to make yet another threatening CB call to the heroes just as the movie ends. Oh no, he's [[Not Quite Dead]]; he just posed a victim in his truck to get shot in his place! It would have made for a nice twist except for the fact that he had a live and ''unblindfolded'' hostage in his passenger compartment who would have seen the entire ruse being set up. Not only does she not tell the police about it, she's just as surprised as the rest of them when Rusty calls again. Hell, with a shocking twist like that, who needs logic?
** The direct-to-video sequel did it again, with Rusty Nail's truck going over a cliff with no way he could have jumped to safety. Cue the "surprise" epilogue where he's back in a new truck, picking up victims again.
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* ''[[Titan A.E.]]'''s big revelation, in order to work, required the character in question to [[Character Derailment|throw out everything his character had been established as]], in every scene, right up until [[The Reveal]].
* The forgettable film ''[[Lifeforce]]'' wanted a {{spoiler|[[Tomato in the Mirror]] ending}}. It would have worked, too, if this didn't contradict the rest of the movie (and if the whole thing were more than an excuse for actress Mathilda May to walk around nude).
* ''[[Saw]] IV'' ended with the out-of-nowhere, completely unforeshadowed revelation that {{spoiler|Hoffman was a Jigsaw apprentice.}} This actually hurt ''Saw V'', as the producers apparently thought the best way to (presumably) respond to criticism about a clumsy twist ending is to have around seventy percent of the next movie dedicated to explaining it. Oh wait, it doesn't feel like a ''Saw'' movie now? Well, just throw in a "seemingly random group of people wandering through a maze of traps" plot which you've already done much better in ''Saw II''!
* ''[[Monster a Go-Go!
* ''Mark Of The Vampire'': {{spoiler|The dead man was killed by a person who deliberately faked a vampire attack. The "vampires" were actors hired to trap that murderer. All the main characters (other than the killer) were in on the trap.}}
* The independent feature ''Bloodletting'', about a woman who tracks down a serial killer so he can show her how to kill, has one of the most Shocking Swerves of Shocking Swerves: {{spoiler|It turns out the supposed killer the girl tracks down was not the serial killer she was looking for, but a pathetically lonely guy who pretended to be the one she was after to make her stay. They both wind up dead after the man has killed half a dozen people. He had never killed before he met her, mind you}}.
* The 1974 car chase movie ''[[Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry]]''. {{spoiler|They got away! Oh, they crash and die.}}
* The revelation near the end of ''[[
* ''[[The Wizard of Gore]]'' is in love with this trope. Montag's murder method seems to by mass hypnosis, but the film points out repeatedly that there are several events that contradict that. Combine that with an ending where not only do we have a scene where the two main characters lampshade how unlikely the events were before one shows themselves to be the killer in disguise, but then the other person in the conversation reveals that it was her manipulations the entire time, fooling the villain. And then the villain wakes up and realizes it was [[All Just a Dream]].
* The end of ''[[Pieces (film)|Pieces]]'' has the mix
* The killer in ''[[High Tension]]'' turns out to be [[Psycho Lesbian|Marie's]] evil split personality, manifested as [[The Pig Pen|a filthy]] trucker. Watch the film with this information in mind and realize how little sense it really makes.
* Parodied in ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]''. The oft-mentioned Elevator Killer turns out to be none other than {{spoiler|Merv Griffin. The only foreshadowing leading to this is a scene where a character watches his talk show on TV.}}
* [[M. Night Shyamalan]]'s original use of a genuine, excellent twist ending in ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' eventually spiraled into a total
** The sharp nose-dive in Shyamalan's skill as a writer is most likely because he nicked ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'''s big twist from an old episode of ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]''
** In addition, ''The Village'' is just a rip-off of "Running Out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix and yet Shyamalan managed to ruin Haddix's legitimate twist by turning it into a Shocking Swerve.
* The 2004 remake of ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'' tries for a [[Twist Ending]], but just ends up contradicting itself on what the wives actually are.
* The 2001 remake of ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' ends with the hero returning to Earth in his own time, only to find that it is ruled by apes, and the Lincoln Memorial has been replaced with a statue of the movie's [[Big Bad]] (who won't even be born until
* ''[[Murder By Death]]'' plays it for laughs.
* In ''The Nun'', it turns out there isn't a killer ghost nun, it was the main character all along. Under scrutiny, this makes even less sense than ''Haute Tension's'' similar twist.
* ''[[Dead Silence]]'': You know, it would have been nice to state that also {{spoiler|human}} dolls are to be considered. Or that they exist at all.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* The ending of John Grisham's ''The Partner'' comes right out of the blue. After the main character's conspirator goes through all the effort to find and rescue him, {{spoiler|she steals the money and disappears.}} She could have done that any time.
* ''[[Kitty Norville|Kitty Takes a Holiday]]'' drops a plot twist that makes perfect sense within in its' own storyline, but is a huge change in direction for the series as a whole. After two books of Kitty/Cormac [[Ship Tease]] {{spoiler|Kitty hooks up with her lawyer Ben instead, and Cormac goes to [[Prison]] in an unrelated incident.}} [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], though. Kitty and Cormac never really made a convincing couple, largely because Kitty isn't the type to [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|fall for a bad boy]]. She has much better chemistry with her new [[Love Interest]], {{spoiler|despite the somewhat contrived nature of the [[Relationship Upgrade]].}}
* Terry Goodkind's ''[[Sword of Truth|Wizard's First Rule]]'' is a fairly classic fantasy tale about a boy with a legendary sword and a woman with mystical powers and an old
* There is at least one in every installment of the ''Never Again'' series. In the first book: {{spoiler|the main character's student is part of an [[Ancient Conspiracy]]!}} In the second: {{spoiler|did the [[Moe]] [[Friend to All Living Things]] [[Kill the Cutie|just get killed?!]] (And later in that book, the main characters die too!)}} In the third: {{spoiler|there's a [[Time Police]]?! When did that happen?!}} There are most likely more examples in the other books, which this editor will add when he has gotten around to reading them.
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* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'': {{spoiler|Kutner's suicide}}. The fact that it is so unexpected makes it, in some ways, more [[Truth in Television|true to life]] but no less of an [[Ass Pull]]. The reason they did that on such short notice was because [[Real Life Writes the Plot|the actor left the show for a government job]].
** In a later episode the team's patient is a homeless man who, despite lying to the team repeatedly about his name, shows no signs of being anything more than a homeless ex-junkie. Until the ending, where its revealed that {{spoiler|he is a serial killer that eats his victims.}}
* ''[[Satisfaction]]'': {{spoiler|Tippi}} being shot by {{spoiler|loansharks going after her former client at his house}}. This also left quite a few plot points, such as {{spoiler|her one-night-stand with Chloe's boyfriend}}, unresolved.
* The "Who killed Colin McIver?" storyline on ''[[One Life to Live]]''. There was only one person in town who couldn't possibly be the murderer: Nora, because she was drugged by Colin. Naturally, she did it.
* The last 30 seconds of season 4 of ''[[Farscape]]'' give this impression. Whether it was planned may have been clearer had the series continued to its planned fifth season.
* In ''[[Dollhouse]]'', the reveal that {{spoiler|Boyd Langton}} was the head of the Rossum Corporation, which turns the character into a lunatic with a [[Gambit Roulette|stupidly impractical master plan]] and, in retrospect, makes a lot of their earlier actions in the series unnecessary at best and nonsensical at worst.
* The revelation in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' that
** There was, however, some unintentional foreshadowing for this reveal. Bashir not getting a perfect grade on an exam because he mixed up two wildly separate body parts and his Secret Agent program (in which he plays ''himself'' as a secret agent, and not a fictional James Bond character) being two large ones.
** This was the second time that happened to the character, as the two-parter
* In the ''[[Skins]]'' series four finale, {{spoiler|Effy's therapist, who had been introduced in the same episode, beat Freddie to death with a baseball bat.}}
* Depending on the viewer, many twists, including several Cylon identity revelations in the later episodes of [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the re-imagined
{{quote|From ''[[Robot Chicken]]'':
'''Seth Green:''' "Wow! Ron Moore! Creator of ''Battlestar Galactica''. How about letting us come aboard and help you with your whip-smart plots?"
Ron Moore: "Help? Why would I need help writing plots? I just throw a dart at the cast list and *boom*: they're a Cylon. Rinse, repeat, cash the frakking check. Watch... (Moore throws several darts at a board with cast member photos taped to it) ... (mocking) oh, please help me, this is so hard!" }}
** The identities of the Final Five Cylons, in particular, were pulled out of left field. One of the clearest indicators of this was {{spoiler|that Chief Tyrol's baby had to be clumsily retconned into an adulterous offspring, since there was only supposed to be one fertile Cylon in the series.}}
* Not nearly as shocking as most of these swerves, but [[Law and Order|Serena Southerlyn's]] [[Suddenly Sexuality]] was pretty damn surprising.
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* The first season of ''[[Roswell]]'' introduced a character played by [[Julie Benz]] as their new teacher. Liz becomes suspicious of her and suspects she's secretly a government agent looking for the aliens. Instead she reveals that she's actually the school's new guidance counselor. Needless to say, this does nothing to explain why she was impersonating a teacher in the first place. She later gets involved in the plot for reasons resulting from her actual job.
* ''iOMG'' for ''[[iCarly]]'' has Sam suddenly revealed to be 'in love' with Freddie, despite no concrete foreshadowing. Freddie himself is shocked at Sam's change during the episode itself, not to mention when she kisses him right at the end.
* The entirety of ''[[St. Elsewhere]]'' turning out to be the daydream of an autistic child staring at a snow globe.
* In the season finale of the first season of ''[[The Killing]]'', not one, but TWO of them were clumsily attempted (specifically, the prime suspect {{spoiler|is randomly shot out of nowhere}} and the until-then-incredibly likable [[Lancer]] {{spoiler|is revealed to have been in all probability in on the titular murder}})... during the last fifteen seconds. Fans and critics rage ensued.
* In the ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2/E09 Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design|Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design]]" a [[Gambit Pileup]] causes about five in the space of two minutes.
* ''[[24]]'' is known for its [[Holy Shit Quotient|HSQ]] inducing twists and [[Trapped by Mountain Lions|occasionally out-of-field subplots]], but during season six, when it revealed that season five villain dubbed [[Fan Nickname|Bluetooth]] was suddenly {{spoiler|Jack's brother, Graem Bauer}}, it threw off the fanbase to such baffling proportions that was never seen again. Even with the show's crazy logistics and fast paced events, this was a twist too far. And this is coming one season after {{spoiler|an ex-President got gunned down by a sniper and another President was involved in the terrorist plot}}...
** There's season seven's out-of-nowhere revelation that Tony Almeida {{spoiler|betrayed everyone he knew on both sides to avenge the death of his unborn child}}. Although it could make sense for his actions in the current season, this completely contradicted the way he acted through what little he appeared in during the fifth season.
== Music ==
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oCkBBaEfFg "scissorsloid"], when Miku {{spoiler|goes to Luka's charge room and starts to cut the cable to let her "sleep forever",}} Luka wakes up and tells Miku how much she loves her and how cute she is. While Miku is distracted, Luka {{spoiler|says "Just kidding", pulls out a knife, and stabs Miku with it.}}
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] is former [[WCW]], [[
* Probably the most infamous Shocking Swerve in the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] was the "Higher Power" twist. To make a ''very'' long story short: it was 1999, and [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] [[Vince McMahon]] had made a [[Heel Face Turn]]. His [[Evil Prince|son Shane]] had seized control of Vince's stable - "[[The Corporation]]" - and merged it with [[The Undertaker]]'s pseudo-satanic stable "The [[Ministry of Darkness]]" to form the super-stable "The Corporate Ministry", which was slowly taking over Vince's company. This forced Vince to [[Enemy Mine|make peace with all the people he had pissed off over the last year]], most notably his arch-nemesis [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]]. A couple of months into the feud, [[The Undertaker]] began to hint at a "[[The Man Behind the Man|Higher Power]]" which he secretly served. Rumors and [[Wild Mass Guessing]] flew all over the place. Eventually, [[The Undertaker]] brought the [[Black Cloak|black-cloaked]] Higher Power to the ring, who revealed himself to be... [[Hijacked by Ganon|Vince McMahon]]! His stated reason for going through with this impossibly-contrived [[Gambit Roulette]]? To ''[[For the Evulz|piss off Stone Cold Steve Austin]]''. In fairness to the bookers: this was actually [[Time for Plan B|Plan B]]. The Higher Power was supposed to be [[Mick Foley]], which would have made total sense and given us a good feud, but Foley didn't want to make a [[Face Heel Turn|heel turn]] without any buildup to it, and also felt that he was too physically broken down at this point to do a feud with Austin justice.
* According to ''[[The Death of WCW]]'', the "ultimate swerve" was received by WCW itself: just when things were looking bright again, with former executive Eric Bischoff in line to buy the company and ratings starting to creep back upward, suddenly all its programming was canceled (by order of Jamie Kellner, an AOL Time Warner exec who had never been involved in the wrestling business in any way shape or form) and it was forced out of business. [[Robot Chicken|What a twist!]]
* Most TNA [[Face Heel Turn]]s have absolutely no foreshadowing, and while they're shocking, they don't make any sense, and just piss people off most of the time.
** The [[Jeff Hardy]] heel turn is already the most notorious of these swerves.
** The [[Samoa Joe]] heel turn was godawful, he layed down in the 2009 King of the Mountain match at the last second for no reason. Despite the fact that he had been going after the Main Event Mafia for months, had fought like crazy up to that point, and was probably seconds away from becoming '''World Heavyweight Champion''', it was all supposed to be a ruse. [[Sarcasm Mode|That sure makes sense.]]
** The [[
*** [[Fan Discontinuity|Which Sting heel turn?]]
** The Tomko heel turn about killed his career. All the momentum he'd built through [[Christian]]'s Coalition and then the brief "Tomko's for Tomko" phase was completely destroyed just to job him out under [[Kurt Angle]]'s thumb. It should probably also be noted that Tomko, instead of going on to do things in TNA, [http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/11/former-wwe-wrestler-arrested-for-robbing-a-pharmacy-tyson-tomko-bloody-needle-marks-travis-cvs-oxycodon-chilis/#.T0nzQ4cge8A did this.]
== [[Theatre]] ==
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** Another kind of twist that wasn't a kind of reveal was the ending to the serial ''Brothers in Arms''. It has been a quite straightforward tale of two [[Badass Normal]] mortal enemies with a shared past clashing again and again during their ventures, and was set up to end in a spectacular final confrontation between the two. Then, ''literally'' right when they were about to hit each other, a random dimension-portal opened up between them, teleporting them to a [[Bizarro World]], and thus ending the serial with no final fight. Instead, the villain gets trapped in that other universe, while the hero brings home an ultra-powerful warrior (the benevolent [[Expy]] of the original [[Big Bad]], no less) in exchange to "cap up" the story. [[Flat What|What?]]
** To make it more clear (and perhaps more insulting for the fans), there was no action scene involved in this resolution. The characters simply stood in a room and talked.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** And there's more than that, those are just the main ones.
* It's a staple for the ''Mega Man'' series to have a [[Big Bad]] that would have to be behind ''everything'' in the game they appeared in. So, ''[[Mega Man X]]'' delivered a Shocking Swerve the fans ''weren't'' expecting: {{spoiler|Sigma is ''not'' the [[Big Bad]] of ''X8'', and instead he's just an [[Unwitting Pawn]].}}
* ''[[Bubble Bobble]]'': According to [[The Law of Conservation of Detail|what little information we are told]], two bubble dragons have to rescue their human girlfriends. Turns out that those two bubble dragons are humans themselves and yet, {{spoiler|in the True Ending, out of the [[Final Boss]] come the two protagonists' parents.}}
* {{spoiler|Akane's}} ending in ''[[Suika]]'' is just ''disturbing'' and comes out of nowhere. {{spoiler|She apparently stabs Yoshikazu to death and hypnotizes his girlfriend into thinking that she (Akane) is him.}}
* Parodied with the ending to ''[[Earthworm Jim (video game)|Earthworm Jim]] 2'', when at the very end Jim unzips his body and reveals that he was a cow all along. And so was Psycrowe. [[Overly Long Gag|And Princess Whats-Her-Name.]]
* Taken to horrifying levels in ''[[Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories]]'' with the non-canon worst ending in which real Overlord Zenon possesses Adell and makes him brutally kill and devour his adopted siblings. So infamous that it gets compared to [[Silent Hill]] or [[School Days|NICE BOAT]].
* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' [[Played for Laughs|plays this for laughs]] {{spoiler|in the final cut-scene of the real ending, when Henry reveals he's both Travis' long lost twin and Sylvia's husband.}}
{{quote|'''Travis:''' What the hell? That's the craziest shit I've ever heard! Why would you bring up something like that {{spoiler|at the very last minute of the game}}?
'''Henry:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|I would have thought you and the player would have at least expected a twist of fate of some kind.]] }}
* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' has an example that quickly became infamous: {{spoiler|The Citadel houses an incomprehensibly ancient AI that created the Reapers to save organic civilization from the synthetic war they would 'inevitably' bring upon themselves. Shepard either controls, destroys, or pacifies the Reapers with the Crucible, which results in the destruction of the mass relays and a ''lot'' of [[Inferred Holocaust]]s.}}.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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** And in a later arc, a mage uses a {{spoiler|[[A Wizard Did It|magical truth spell that]] [[Hypno Fool|people can't help but reply to]] to try and ruin their relationship}}, wherein {{spoiler|Maytag admits to infidelity and Bernadette admits to being relieved to hear it}}.
* In ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'', the "Me" character announced he was going to permanently kill off a popular major character. {{spoiler|The death was him. [[Prophecy Twist|It may also have possibly been Gwen Stacey from Spider Man]].}}
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140218141836/http://mortifer.smackjeeves.com/ Mortifer]
* [[Platypus Comix]]'s ''[[Keiki]]'' comic "Beefer Madness" started out with Beefer getting placed in an
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Mega 64]]'' has what may be one of the biggest example. The episode "What the Hell Happened to Mega64?" starts with one of Dr. Poque's college friends coming to see him. In the first five minutes they're taken hostage by a mafia and the friend is killed, complete with blood splattering. The rest of the episode has Rocko, Derek and Shawn trying to rescue him. The episode ends with {{spoiler|them learning the friend was the head of the Mafia. It's never really explained why he wants to kill Dr. Poque, why the Mafia were selling plush parrots, or how the friend is even alive. It gets even weirder when the friend is shot in the back by a guy wearing a sombrero, who then warps out.}} The creators said that it was a twist for the sake of a twist, and even the characters question it.
** Not to mention the ''[[Super Mario Brothers]]'' episode in which {{spoiler|'''Shigeru Miyamoto himself'''}} shows up in the video out of nowhere.
*** That's not a Shocking Swerve if you remember that the episode premiered during the 2007 Game Developers' Conference {{spoiler|where Miyamoto was the keynote speaker.}}
** They pulled off a similar, but bigger one in their ''[[The Beatles Rock Band]]'' episode, where they run into {{spoiler|Gabe Newell. Who admits he has nothing to do with The Beatles}}.
* ''[[How to Write Badly Well]]'': [http://writebadlywell.blogspot.com/2010/01/end-with-twist-no-reader-could.html End with a twist no reader could have reasonably foreseen]
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch parodies this by having several Shocking Swerves in a row. Each time, M. Night Shyamalan lampshades it by turning to the camera and exclaiming "What a twist!"
* Revealing what actually happened in
* ''[[Winx Club]]'', season 2: {{spoiler|One of the teachers turns out to be an evil clone. It's a legitimate twist in the original... but [[Dub
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'': The ending of ''Tree Trunks'' {{spoiler|consists of lovable old Tree Trunks, for those who haven't seen the show is an old elephant who makes apple pies, suddenly explodes right out of nowhere at the end of the episode after taking a bite from the Crystal Gem Apple.}}
** {{spoiler|It turns out she was sent to a crystalline dimension where she's queen. But Jake and Finn were able to take her back home.}}
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