Most Complicated Films
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- DirectorZack SnyderStarsEmily BrowningVanessa HudgensAbbie CornishA young girl institutionalized by her abusive stepfather retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.It has an Imagine Spot which has one or three different Imagine Spots within. During the imagine spot inside of the brothel, the characters participate in frenetic, over-the-top and awesome action sequences full of hidden symbolism. We're also not sure how much of what happened is the truth, and just who the protagonist is. And it subverts All Just a Dream so many times that you're not sure just whose dream it is. Logically, whoever's dream it was would be the protagonist, but good luck figuring that out.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.The book, on the other hand, is considerably more comprehensible.
A popular urban legend goes that, after the premiere, Rock Hudson stormed out of the theater yelling, "Can someone tell me what the hell I just watched?"
The movie was such a mind screw that the film adaptation of 2010: The Year We Make Contact was largely devoted to trying to explain what had happened in the last movie. You may not have heard of this sequel. There's an excellent reason for that.
The prologue and ending of the original book of 2001 are significantly longer than their movie equivalents for the same reason. There was a lot of 'splaining to do. - DirectorJulie TaymorStarsEvan Rachel WoodJim SturgessJoe AndersonThe music of The Beatles and the Vietnam War form the backdrop for the romance between an upper-class American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist.Unless you're a Beatles fan and have some basic knowledge of the 60's counterculture movement, Across The Universe can be anywhere from "slightly confusing" to "incomprehensible acid trip on film".
- DirectorTodd HaynesStarsChristian BaleCate BlanchettHeath LedgerRuminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' attempt to quantify the existence of Bob Dylan by presenting him as SEVEN SEPARATE CHARACTERS, including a woman, a small black child, and Billy the Kid. If you have an extensive knowledge of the man, then the metaphorical touchstones are fairly easy to follow. But if you're only a casual fan, entire chunks of the movies will leave you stonefaced or confused, especially about how they relate to Bob Dylan.
- DirectorEmir KusturicaStarsJohnny DeppJerry LewisFaye DunawayA young New Yorker goes to Arizona where he finds freedom to both love and dream.Arizona Dream by Emir Kusturica. Insanely weird characters? Check. Odd dreams? Check. Flying fish?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJohn TurturroJohn GoodmanJudy DavisA renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.Barton Fink. Granted, nothing The Coen Brothers have done is completely straightforward, but when John Goodman is on a shotgun rampage through a burning hotel screaming "look upon me," and no, it does not make sense in context, you start to wonder what you've gotten yourself into.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJohn CusackCameron DiazCatherine KeenerA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.The film revolves around the discovery of an inconspicuous, boarded up doorway in an office building which turns out to be a portal which allows any individual who enters it to see through the eyes of actor John Malkovich for a short space of time, raising all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of the human mind and existentialism in the process. It only get weirder from here on in.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsNatalie PortmanMila KunisVincent CasselNina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking nightmare.What's real, what's a hallucination, and what's a visual metaphor? In this movie, it's hard to tell, and increasingly it's hard to tell if there's even a difference. Did the movie even happen at all, or will Nina wake up screaming 5 minutes after the credits?
Mind screws are a recurring theme in all of Darren Aronofsky's films. - DirectorKazuaki KiriyaStarsYûsuke IseyaKumiko AsôAkira TeraoLive-action sci-fi movie based on a 1973 Japanese animé of the same name (Shinzo Ningen Casshân). Theme song by Utada Hikaru.The 2004 film Casshern had no explanation for the ending or for the various Deus ex Machina moments that appeared throughout the film. For example, giant metal bolts of lightning that: Started the plot, transported the hero right to the point he needed to be with no question from anyone, and conveniently provided the final chamber with a giant hole in the wall.
- DirectorMichele SoaviStarsRupert EverettFrançois Hadji-LazaroAnna FalchiA cemetery man must kill the dead a second time when they become zombies.In Cemetery Man, Francesco Dellamorte Can't Get Away With Nuthin', and all of his murders are pinned on someone else. This is because Francesco isn't real, but is an imaginary construct of Franco. Fantasy bleeds into reality, and Franco begins to murder people in his insanity. Or maybe the dead are actually rising, the film isn't very specific on details. The entire movie takes place in a snow globe.
- DirectorVincenzo NataliStarsNicole de BoerMaurice Dean WintDavid HewlettA group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.Cube intentionally offers no real explanations to what the titular Cube is and why the characters were placed in it.
The sequels, however, make things worse with their attempts to actually explain things somewhat, as none of the three films are made by the same people and can't seem to agree on essential points - Hypercube being the worst offender in this area.
The first film actually gives a very mind-boggling explanation to why they are in the Cube - the exact quote being: "Because it's here. You either use it, or admit it's pointless." - DirectorJim JarmuschStarsJohnny DeppGary FarmerCrispin GloverOn the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.Dead Man with Johnny Depp is a very otherworldly film, during which few things happen and most of the dialogues are just plain weird. It's even pointed out in frustration by the protagonist at one point.
- DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.Donnie Darko, to the extent that members of the cast can't agree on whether there is a legitimate Time Travel story, or just a handful of psychedelic delusions.
In the DVD commentary, the director owns up to the fact that even he doesn't really know what's going on and that the plot probably can't be explained without resorting to divine intervention.
Director Richard Kelly's second film, Southland Tales, somehow manages to be even more violently insane than his first. It was supposed to be part of a massive multimedia experience, but it would take a damn lot of graphic novels to explain what on God's green Earth was happening at any point during that movie. - DirectorRichard ElfmanStarsGene CunninghamMarie-Pascale ElfmanVirginia RoseThe bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.Forbidden Zone is one of the most crazy films you would ever watch.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsMichael DouglasDeborah Kara UngerSean PennAfter a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.The point of the CRS company.
- DirectorPeter WebbStarsPaul McCartneyJohn BurgessBryan BrownPaul McCartney's recording of his new album is complicated by the fact that the master tapes of his recordings are missing.Give My Regards to Broad Street has some Mind Screwing - partly from symbolism, partly because of Dream Sequences started and ended with very little warning.
- DirectorJohn Cameron MitchellStarsJohn Cameron MitchellMiriam ShorStephen TraskA gender-queer punk-rock singer from East Berlin tours the U.S. with her band as she tells her life story and follows the former lover/band-mate who stole her songs.After a certain point in the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the opening shot is redone, starting off a long medley featuring the three central characters merging into one and walking naked down an alleyway.
- DirectorEliseo SubielaStarsLorenzo QuinterosHugo SotoInés VernengoA patient in a mental hospital claims to be an extraterrestial. Could he be right?Watch the Argentinian film Hombre Mirando al Sudeste (Man Looking Southeast) and try to decide which of the explanations is true. You'll be lying in bed thinking about it, seriously, as it's just that freakin' bizarre, and ends unanswered.
- DirectorAdam GoldbergStarsMarisa CoughlanJudy GreerShalom HarlowThe film follows fictional movie star Gray Evans through the disintegration of his marriage, his gradual mental breakdown, and his increasing obsession with a young film student who reminds Gray of his own life before becoming famous. A dark psychological drama, this movie explores the pressures of fame and the difference between getting what you want and wanting what you get.I Love Your Work isn't as extreme as others on this list, as a simple "I guess it was all in his head" makes sense of it as a whole, as the ending makes that seem like the most likely explanation. But some scenes are still pretty odd.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.Inception is not as complicated as one would expect. But the whole plot is about putting an industrial heir through one massive mind screw to mess with his free will. First he is put into an artificial dream where he gets kidnapped by people wanting the codes to his fathers secret safe, which he handles quite well. But then he gets put into a dream within the dream where he is approached by a stranger who claims to be part of his subconscious and they are both in a dream and under attack by kidnappers who wants to steal his company secrets. Then the laws of physics start to no longer apply correctly and he no longer takes things that well.
Also the main character who is putting the man through the mind screw is having some lingering doubt that he himself is dreaming and his mind being screwed with.
Inception uses In Medias Res openings. Not just at the start of the movie, but repeatedly, at multiple scenes, to intentionally evoke dreamlike logic. And the main plot is a heist in reverse, so it's necessarily a complicated story. And the ending is ambiguous between the best happy ending possible and one of the worst. Aside from all that, though, it's not mind-screwy at all!
When you have a character who asks 'Hang on, whose subconscious are we in again?' it's safe to say you're dealing with a mind screw. - DirectorAdrian LyneStarsTim RobbinsElizabeth PeñaDanny AielloMourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.Jacob's Ladder is confusing from start to finish.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsDelphine SeyrigGiorgio AlbertazziSacha PitoëffIn a strange and isolated chateau, a man becomes acquainted with a woman and insists that they have met before.Last Year at Marienbad, considered one of the most famous mind screws in French cinema. The film has no discernible plot other than apparently two people who may or may not have had a affair a year ago in Marienbad meet each other again at some sort of elite social gathering. Other than that, it plays out like some sort dream over loosely connected scenes. People still have no idea what exactly it was about, but the cinematography was beautiful.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen JosephHenry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsBill PullmanPatricia ArquetteJohn RoseliusAnonymous videotapes presage a musician's murder conviction, and a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray.Lost Highway where on the one hand characters transform into each other. On the other hand is the first scene repeated later from a different view: Fred, who answered the entryphone in the first version, rings the bell in the second one himself. So instead of an expected Once More With Clarity it turns out to further support the Mind Screw.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsKarolina GruszkaKrzysztof MajchrzakGrace ZabriskieAs an actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.Inland Empire makes Mulholland Dr. seem sensical.
As Laura Dern's character describes the events of the film: "I'm trying to tell you so you understand how it went. Thing is, I don't know what was before or after. I don't know what's happened first...and it's kinda layin' a *beep* on me."
And oh good Christ in heaven, how many false endings did that movie have? I'm fairly sure that they took up the last forty minutes. - DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsPeter WellerJudy DavisIan HolmAfter developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch is a lot less disgusting than the book it's named after, but only slightly less confusing.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJude LawJennifer Jason LeighIan HolmA game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.Speaking of Cronenberg films, eXistenZ is Philip K Dick-like in the mind screw department. It features a VR game within a VR game within a VR game within a VR game, the characters openly question whether they're still in the game at every level, switch sides multiple times, and reference things that happened at other levels.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsSean GulletteMark MargolisBen ShenkmanA paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.The movie π has a paranoid mathematical genius, Hebrew numerology, conspiracies, neurological headaches, the secret name of God, and the protagonist taking A Drill to his head to escape all this crap. To top it off, it's in black and white. And is scored to techno music.
- DirectorShane CarruthStarsShane CarruthDavid SullivanCasey GoodenFour friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.Primer, thanks to Time Travel, Second Hand Storytelling, and a case of The Ending Changes Everything. There is an explanation for almost everything that happens, but you have to watch the movie at least twice to put all the clues together.
- DirectorMario BavaStarsClaudine AugerLuigi PistilliClaudio CamasoThe murder of a wealthy countess triggers a chain reaction of brutal killings in the surrounding bay area, as several unscrupulous characters try to seize her large estate.The very end of Reazione a Catena, with the main killers being shot to death with a shotgun by their 8-year-old son, and his sister commenting, Gee, they're good at playing dead, aren't they?.
- DirectorAlex CoxStarsHarry Dean StantonEmilio EstevezTracey WalterA young punk, recruited by a car repo agency, finds himself in pursuit of a Chevrolet Malibu with a huge, $20,000 bounty--and something otherworldly stashed in its trunk.For sure, but played for laughs.
- DirectorGuy RitchieStarsJason StathamRay LiottaAndré 3000Gambler Jake Green enters into a game with potentially deadly consequences.It involves a formula that supposedly allows the main character to win any game, a blood disease that disappears for no apparent reason, a crime lord apparently being the same person as the voices in everybody's heads... Yeah.
- DirectorTarsem SinghStarsJennifer LopezVince VaughnVincent D'OnofrioAn F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.The opening scene of The Cell has J-Lo riding across the Namibian desert in a wedding dress, dismounting and then looking back on her horse which has turned into a chess piece; and then approaching a boat that is half-buried in the sand and a boy who turns into a werewolf. Later on the film involves a schizophrenic serial killer who drowns his victims, augments their bodies so they look like dolls and then masturbates whilst hanging himself above them by chains attached to metal rings in his back; an albino German shepherd; a horse getting sliced up sushi-style; a collection of doll-like, corpse-like women inside display cases behind glass panels attached to crude machinery that jerks them about in grotesque, sadomasochistic sexual poses; a female bodybuilder; a demon-like man with purple curtains attached to his back; Vince Vaughn getting his intestines pulled out and spiraled around a rotisserie; vultures; peacocks and J-Lo dressed as the Virgin Mary. Justified on account of the fact that the majority of this takes place within people's minds.
- DirectorWilliam ArntzBetsy ChasseMark VicenteStarsMarlee MatlinElaine HendrixJohn Ross BowieA fictional photographer's quest to spiritually rediscover herself is interspersed with documentary footage of scientists and theologians discussing the philosophical aspects of quantum physics.What the #$*! Do We Know!? is a major, major offender of this one. If you can make some sense out of the cryptic, convoluted Technobabble about Quantum Mechanics, Religion, Life, the Universe and Everything, you'll see how this movie easily beats Serial Experiments Lain in terms of head-trippiness, even though even The Other Wiki agrees it's all just quantum mysticism mixed with the ideas of some new age school. According to Intuitor, it also completely messed up Quantum Physics, horrible research, biases and scientific inaccuracies destroyed any hope of correct science.
Here's the key: there is a middle-aged woman doing her best attempt at a deep male voice partway through the film. The name given on screen is "Ramtha". Her cult funded the entire movie.
The woman is JZ Knight, who claims to be channeling a 40,000 year old Indian spirit. Who speaks suspiciously good English. And doesn't understand squat about quantum mechanics.
Additionally, David Albert, the Camberidge Physics/Philosophy professor who appears in the film, has gone on record stating that the filmmakers have selectively edited his interview to make it appear that he endorses the film's thesis that quantum mechanics are linked with consciousness when really he is "profoundly unsympathetic to attempts at linking quantum mechanics with consciousness."
What the Bleep's Mind Screw ability depends on your gullibility. - DirectorJohn BoormanStarsSean ConneryCharlotte RamplingSara KestelmanIn the late 23rd century, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity's achievements.Zardoz, quite possibly the only film to begin with a giant stone head coming out of the sky, declaring the penis to be evil, and throwing a bunch of guns out of its mouth. The movie just gets weirder from there.
Including a bunch of women attempting to give an erection to Sean Connery, who is wearing a bright red nappy.
The scene with Sean Connery in a wedding dress, or several scenes which have random images projected onto various characters' skins, or the ending, which has Sean Connery and his love interest having a baby and then watching as all three, get old, and die, or the beginning, which has a floating head of a man with a beard painted onto his chin and a towel on his head attempting to explain the plot of the movie about to be watched, which just ends up confusing everyone else more.
The commentary on the DVD has the director admit he was on drugs throughout filming.
The depressing thing is that you could have made a quite good science fiction movie from the themes in Zardoz. That movie would have had interesting things to say about the abuse of technology, colonial oppression, stagnation in advanced societies, and a bunch of other things. - DirectorCharlie KaufmanStarsPhilip Seymour HoffmanSamantha MortonMichelle WilliamsA theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.Synecdoche, New York is an absolute Mind Screw from start to finish. From the ridiculous jumps in time to plays within plays within plays to a woman living in a perpetually burning house before dying after 30 years from "smoke inhalation".