15 Movies Where The Final Shot Changes Everything

Released in 1968, Planet of the Apes follows a group of astronauts, led by George Taylor (Charlton Heston), who awaken from hibernation, only to soon have their spacecraft crash on a mysterious planet. Upon disembarking, they discover that this planet is ruled by apes. Humans, meanwhile, are enslaved. It's a complete turnaround from what they're used to. Even more shockingly, it's clear that the apes have established a complex society.

In the end, Taylor is able to get out of his enslavement by the apes. On horseback, he and Nova, a mute female captive, ride off on a horse. Reaching the shore, they are stunned to discover the Statue of Liberty sticking out of the sand. It can only mean one thing - that this is Earth, and apes have evolved enough to take over the planet, changing its nature irreparably. Taylor and crew didn't crash into an alien planet, they crashed into their own. He falls to his knees in front of the famous landmark, realizing the world as he knew it is no more.

The 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers stars Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell, a scientist with the San Francisco Health Department. He and colleague Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) make the startling discovery that tiny alien spores adorned with pink flowers have made their way to Earth. Those spores destroy their human hosts and create duplicates of them. The resulting “pod people” lack affect but have aggressive tendencies.

Together, the scientists are able to track down the source of the pods just as they're about to be put on a ship and sent to other places around the world. Matthew is able to burn down the warehouse where they're located. Some duplicate people are still around, however, meaning the Earth isn't fully free of the threat. The shocking final scene finds Matthew walking towards City Hall. He spots Nancy Bellicec (Veronica Cartwright), a friend whose husband turned into one of the pod people. Instead of greeting her warmly, his face contorts into a hideous scream and the camera zooms in on his mouth. He, too, is clearly one of the pod people. This leaves audiences with haunting unanswered questions, such as when he fell victim to the spores and whether mankind is actually safe from them. 

Vincent Price stars in the 1961 version of The Pit and the Pendulum, playing Nicholas Medina, a man whose wife Elizabeth has mysteriously disappeared. His brother-in-law Francis shows up demanding answers, of which Nicholas claims to have none. Growing suspicious, Francis sticks around to investigate. Nicholas eventually offers up a story in which Elizabeth, having become weirdly obsessed with the torture chamber underneath their castle, locked herself inside an iron maiden and died. Francis doesn't buy this, but after some inexplicable occurrences, he does come to believe her spirit haunts the place. 

It turns out there's a small bit of truth in what Nicholas claimed. During the film's finale, Nicholas tries to kill Francis with the titular pendulum, but he himself dies after being pushed into the pit. Nicholas's younger sister Catherine declares that the dungeon will be locked shut forever so no one will ever enter it again. As she slams the door, the camera pans over to an iron maiden, which the very much alive - and totally gagged - Elizabeth looks out from, terror in her eyes. She's been here all along.

The Shining is Stanley Kubrick's screen adaptation of the best-selling Stephen King novel. Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, a frustrated writer who takes a job as the winter caretaker at a Colorado hotel. He brings with him his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd). Over the cold winter months, his grasp on sanity slowly slips away, to the point where he comes after his family with an ax. 

The tense situation builds. During the conclusion, Jack chases Danny through a snowy hedge maze outside, determined to kill him. The boy is able to escape his father, who freezes to death in the cold. Danny and Wendy flee the hotel. The last thing the audience sees is a picture hanging on the wall inside. It's a decades-old photo of a July 4 party in the ballroom, from 1921. Jack is clearly visible at the bottom, right in the middle of the revelers. Various theories have been floated about the meaning of this inexplicable event. Kubrick has said it's meant to imply that Jack was the reincarnated version of a previous hotel official. The revelation gives an added level of freakiness to an already freaky tale. 

In Basic Instinct, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) is a best-selling crime novelist who is a prime suspect in the murder of a former rock star. The guy was repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick, in a manner suspiciously similar to something that happens in one of her books. Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is brought in to solve the crime. He allows the beautiful, sexy Catherine to seduce him, leading to a torrid affair between the two. He convinces himself she's innocent, yet also realizes that if he's wrong, he could end up with an ice pick through his neck. That's an unexpected turn-on.

Basic Instinct makes it seem like Catherine is guilty for a while. Then Nick uncovers evidence that points directly toward Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), the police psychologist who was supposed to treat him after an on-the-job shooting but also began an affair with him. During the dramatic conclusion, Nick shoots her, believing she has just murdered his partner. The movie ends with Nick and Catherine making love in bed. In a move intentionally reminiscent of the opening scene, she appears to reach for something under the covers, then flings herself forward. She isn't stabbing Nick, though, she's just in the throes of passion. As they resume their intimacy, the camera pans down, revealing that there is an ice pick underneath her bed after all. The presence of that object lets us know Catherine was indeed the killer, and that she framed Beth to get away with it.

The 1983 horror movie Sleepaway Camp begins with a little girl named Angela looking on in horror as her father and brother Peter are killed in a boating accident. Eight years later, she's living with her mean aunt Martha, who sends her and her cousin Ricky to summer camp. There, she is picked on by many of the other campers (and even a few staff members), most of whom end up dying gruesome deaths soon afterward. The question becomes whether Angela is killing them, or perhaps Ricky is doing so as a way of defending her. 

The truth is far more complicated. In the final scene, flashbacks reveal that it wasn't Peter who died in the accident, it was Angela. Martha became Peter's guardian but, preferring not to have two boys, decided to raise him as a girl, giving him his sister's name. Sleepaway Camp's famous final shot sees the camera pulling back from “Angela," who is holding a knife, her face frozen in a kind of demented scream. A severed head is on the ground next to her. The audience can see that the character is nude - and has male genitalia. The implication is that Peter has become deranged from being forced to live as a girl, finally snapping after taking all that abuse at camp.