The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the story contain a surprise that is not obvious from the beginning?

This is often called the twist, but it’s a word so abused that writers are tempted to shun it. We all know who’s to blame: M. Night Shyamalan, master of the “everything you know is wrong” twist. But when it comes to twists, smaller is usually better. Don’t shock your audience; astonish them. Instead of you, the writer, surprising the audience, let your characters surprise the audience. 

Much worse is the story with no surprises at all. Young Adult is a very funny movie. Charlize Theron gives a great performance as a failed children’s author slinking back home to pick up where she left off. Writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman both know how to deliver incisive satire, skewering shallow city dwellers and banal exurbanites with equal relish.

There’s just one big problem with this movie: If you were to stop the projector halfway in and poll the audience about what’s going to happen next, all of them would guess correctly. Once the major characters are introduced, this whole movie rolls downhill. It’s painfully obvious what’s going to happen every step of the way.

Compare this to The Color of Money. This is hardly a twist-driven story, but nevertheless, it takes an astonishing turn in the third quarter. If you turned off the projector halfway through, most of the audience would guess that naïve young pool player Tom Cruise was going to eventually reject the corrupting ways of veteran hustler Paul Newman, and find a way to succeed in the world of professional pool playing without compromising his integrity. Instead it’s Newman who discovers his conscience and confronts an increasingly sociopathic Cruise. When this plot turn happens, we’re astonished but not baffled. In retrospect, the signs were there, but we didn’t notice them before. That’s a great twist.

The ending of Young Adult certainly seemed inevitable but not at all surprising. It felt as if the writer was determined to condemn her own main character, and so she didn’t allow the character to surprise her or us. If you set out to “nail” your main character, you’ll need to use a hammer, and after you use that hammer, she's going to end up flattened. Let your characters surprise you, and they’ll surprise the audience, too.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES. He falls for a grandmother.
Alien	YES. Ash is a robot.
An Education	YES. We know it’s coming, but we haven’t guessed how bad it’ll be.
The Babadook	YES. The Babadook is essentially the father’s “join me in death” ghost.
Blazing Saddles	YES. Many.  Especially the bizarre ending.
Blue Velvet	YES. Jeffrey hitting her, her showing up at his house, Frank being the well-dressed man, Gordon being a cop, etc…
The Bourne Identity	YES. we discover he didn’t just have his break from being shot, it was because he balked at his assignment.
Bridesmaids	NO.
Casablanca	YES. see above.
Chinatown	YES. That’s not Mrs. Mulwray, the incest.
Donnie Brasco	NO. Not really.
Do the Right Thing	YES. Just the climax.
The Farewell	YES. Well, the big surprise is that the dam never breaks.
The Fighter	YES. Very much so: Micky needs Dicky after all.
Frozen	YES. Hans is evil.
The Fugitive	YES. His friend is the real villain, the marshal is his real ally.
Get Out	YES. To put it mildly.  We know some shit will go down, but don’t guess what.
Groundhog Day	Sort of: it turns out that it’s not really about getting the girl.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. The dragons have an evil overlord forcing them to attack the village.
In a Lonely Place	Sort of: by that point we’re half convinced that he did it, but he didn’t.
Iron Man	YES. Stane hired the terrorists.
Lady Bird	Not really.  A bit with Danny turning out to be gay.
Raising Arizona	YES. The escapees taking the baby, etc.
Rushmore	YES. Blume and Cross get together, Max ends up helping them.
Selma	Not really.  Sort of, when King turns back from the second march.   The movie really captures how baffling and disappointing that was, and even when it works out, leaves us wondering if King was playing chess when everybody else was playing checkers, or if he just wussed out and let everyone down.
The Shining	Not really.  We see where it’s going early on.
Sideways	NO. Not really. It’s pretty obvious that the truth is going to come out.
The Silence of the Lambs	YES. The escape
Star Wars	Somewhat: Obi Wan is killed.
Sunset Boulevard	YES. the fact that he agrees to be a gigolo, which was totally shocking at the time.