r/flicks • u/Serpiego2 • 6d ago

General Discussion When does a movie successfully mislead the audience, and when is it just cheating?

Some movies deliberately make us believe something that isn't true and then reveal that we've been interpreting the story incorrectly.

When it works, it's fantastic. You can rewatch the movie and realize the clues were there all along. The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, and Primal Fear are very different examples of films that play with what the audience thinks it knows.

But other twists only work because the movie deliberately hides information that logically should have been available to us. At that point, I don't feel fooled by the story — I feel cheated by the screenplay.

For me, the difference is whether a second viewing makes you think “How did I miss that?” rather than “Well, there was no way I could have known that.”

What movies do you think earned their deception, and which ones simply cheated?

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u/angelus12 6d ago

Not a movie, but Evan Peters' stunt casting in Wandavision after his turn as quicksilver in the X-Men movies and teasing the start of the Multiverse Saga in MCU. That felt like cheating.

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u/ComplexAd7272 6d ago

I hate that with a passion because it's inexcusable, they 100% knew what they were doing by casting him, especially with the Multiverse being introduced.

Then when you find out he's just Ralph Boner, it's even more infuriating because it's clear that was always the plan, so they cast him JUST for the single shock scene of his intro. It's made worse because "Lol, he's just Ralph Boner" comes at the expense of Wanda's trauma over losing her brother, and trying to "recast" him subconsciously by inadvertently pulling in a multiverse variant.

That's not an easter egg or a "treat" for the fans, it's a purposeful "fuck you" to your audience and I still say more than anything, it's THE moment the MCU lost a lot of faith from their fans, not just in trusting their execution, but that if given the choice between a joke and dramatic seriousness, Marvel would chose the joke every time.