MovieChat Forums > Identity (2003) Discussion > The second twist ruined it for me

The second twist ruined it for me

posted 6 years ago by KD637 (488)
7 replies | jump to latest

*Obvious spoiler alert*

Ok, so we find out that all of it is just a clash of different personalities inside Malcom's head, right? So he destroys the killer personality, Paris gets to live, and this is where it should have ended. It made sense for Rhodes to be the killer. And i'm not a sucker for happy endings, but this would just be a sensible way to end the story and in itself would make a brilliant (8/10) movie in my book.

But no, they just had to insert that ridiculous scene where they show how it was really the boy who killed everybody in a half-assed manner that looked like it came from a parody of the actual movie. Honestly, my friend and I burst out laughing at it, even though we were completely invested through the rest of the movie.

Still a good movie, but could have been better without the unnecessarily convulted twist just for the sake of it.

[–] Kalyber (56) 6 years ago

Yeah, it was lame. I wasn't too impressed with the actual "twist" either.

[–] johnmiller (3318) 4 years ago

Pretty stupid. With all the craziness leading up to even that, I was losing interest. This turn just made it brainless. Then, we go back to the motel, which we know now doesn't exist in the first place. What's the point?

[–] Drooch (5333) 3 years ago

No way, the lazy Hollywood ending you want would have been meh. The final twist was yet another excellent surprise, and made sense - this guy is a criminally insane multiple murderer, having his compassionate psychiatrist turn out to be a fool who gets himself killed was a nasty surprise.

I can’t fault it, other than the slightly silly montage of the kid slaughtering everyone, that could have been handled better.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 2 years ago

I thought the final twist was forced, but as I recall, the writer actually intended that on purpose. Evil masquerading as innocence, or something. It was intentional, but frankly I didn't think it was executed very well.

I think they needed to build up these characters more to have a payoff like that be worth it. Either have clues that could have led us there, are some thematic arc to make the twist "necessary". Because the way they pulled it off, it just comes off as one of those generic b-movie endings, where the villain is still alive just to give a precredits scare.

I don't mind not having a happy ending (two of my favorite films are Midsommar and Oculus). But here, it felt a bit lazy in my opinion.

[–] Pete314 (2451) 6 months ago

EVERY personality in this guy was dangerous. There was no innocent, cute boy hidden inside the killer. Made perfect sense.

[–] Windsaar (320) 8 hours ago

The boy's father didn't seem very dangerous, tbh.

[–] Pete314 (2451) 7 hours ago

He wasn't violent, true. But he also wasn't that smart. Surround yourself with dumb people and you will see how dangerous they become.