MovieChat Forums > Surveillance (2008) Discussion > Most obvious "twist" ever? *Spoilers obv...

Most obvious "twist" ever? *Spoilers obviously*


Is it just me or did this film have the most obvious twist in the history of cinema? I knew the FBI agents were the killers the second they showed up at the police station. Maybe this could have been a great film if the leads were played by more subtle actors and a better director was hired but Bill Pullman essentially winking at the camera every time he's onscreen really ruined any suspense the movie might have built.

As for Jennifer Lynch, I really think she has grown as a filmmaker but she really needs to show more restraint. I really liked Chained even if it tried to be a little too clever for it's own good by the end. This film was only slightly better than Boxing Helena in my opinion. Too much slow motion, not shot very well (I could barely tell what was going on when the characters were getting in the van), and the pacing is horrendous. The whole first hour is pretty much the witnesses saying they were driving around. It could have easily been 10 or 15 minutes shorter. It showed some promise at the end but that wasn't enough to save the film in my opinion.

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I agree. She was more subtle. Unfortunately, once you know Bill Pullman is the killer, you deduce she has to be his partner and it ruins any surprise the film might have had. Not to knock his performance completely though because he does play crazy very well (maybe a little too well in this case).

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I completely agree with you.

The ironic way he called his partner "agent" with a smirk was a dead giveaway.

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I thought the film was a piece of crap, had a lot of potential and granted, it did keep my interest the whole time until the awful twist of course. The twist was there for pure shock value, this is proven because of this twist, the film creates one of the biggest plot holes ever in a film. When they killed the family and the one guy and French Stewart, why would they let the little girl and the junkie live in the first place? Someone could say that they were going to get them at the police station, however, they did not kill the FBI agents yet, didn't even run into them, this is shown because they could have posed as agents and messed with the people at the crash site. At the end when Ormond's character asked why Pullman let the little girl live, he said it would be fun to be chased, this shows that they never let anyone else go and why would they not bother to kill the cop, the little girl, and the junkie in the first place. This leaves witnesses and is just plain stupid but then again, so was the film.

Jennifer Lynch sucks as a director, she seems to be a big fan of Rob Zombie's works especially The Devil's Rejects which Surveillance shares a lot of similarities with. I hate Zombie's work as well so maybe I just hate films with awful, unrealistic dialogue and unlike able characters.

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