5 Best Sci-Fi Movie Twists Of All Time

There's so much fun to be had in science fiction, including telling a story that pulls the rug out from under its audience. After laying out the groundwork for a world we'll spend an hour or more in, the final act shakes us to our core and leaves us questioning everything we thought we knew. It's these twists that make these tales from other worlds or timelines, not too dissimilar from our own, absolute classics we always want to return to. Keeping that in mind, we've put together a list of five of the best sci-fi movie twists of all time. These are the kind of 'gotcha' moments that leave us gathering ourselves or, by the time the credits roll, staring into the blackness of the movie theater until the lights come on.

Some are absolute classics that have us going back to the story they're part of, like a jigsaw puzzle we've already solved, and figuring out what piece went where and when. Admittedly, others have become so integral to popular culture that the jig has been up for so long; they don't quite pack the punch they once did. Nevertheless, they're still a wonderful part of beloved science fiction stories that have made their mark in movie history. Naturally, though, when it comes to big twists in sci-fi, we've got to begin with the familial reveal from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Oh yeah, and if you hadn't guessed already, there are spoilers ahead.

Let's get the daddy of twists out of the way first, shall we? Still considered the best "Star Wars" movie to date, "Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back" remains a galactic kick in the nether regions for our merry band of rebels and was only made worse when the villain revealed that he was the hero's father. It might've lost its sting like a few others on this list, but the reveal that Darth Vader (James Earl Jones/David Prowse) was Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) Dad from the Dark Side did far more than leave audiences gasping in the aisles.

In a film that showed even the bad guys could win the occasional battle, it also proved they could have familial ties to the good ones, too. This was the turning point of the franchise, with "I am your father" raising questions that would take decades to answer and a few more years to explore. From there, the Skywalker Saga was truly born, whether we liked it or not. It also set a benchmark for other stories to imitate but never replicate, centering familial relationships in battles between good and evil. No matter what, though, they all had to give a hand to Luke, losing one thanks to his dear old dad with a breathing issue. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

We finally really did it. After sending the audience on this otherworldly nightmare where Charlton Heston was the one smart human on "Planet of the Apes," we find out his stranded astronaut wasn't stranded after all, and had made a successful journey home, give or take a few hundred years. Even now, George Taylor punching sand and cursing the heavens as the Statue of Liberty sticks her slanted arm out of the sea is as chilling a sight as it was almost 60 years ago. Admittedly, the horror may have waned thanks to the eight movies that followed (and one Tim Burton entry that's a horror of its own). Courtesy of not only Andy Serkis' contribution to the franchise via his impeccable trilogy, as well as the most recent installment, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," that stars "The Witcher's" Freya Allen, gaps in the who, what, and why of it all have been answered.

Nevertheless, as a standalone story, director Franklin J. Schaffner's groundbreaking gotcha still deserves praise. It's a good while before "The Planet of the Apes" starts to show its cards by way of a broken doll and mysteries lying beyond the Forbidden Zone. From there, this legendary sci-fi cements itself in history and leaves Heston damning us all to hell. To quote Troy McClure from "The Simpsons," they sure made a monkey out of him and us, which is why it remains one of the greatest twists in cinema history.

James Cameron had the chance to send audiences into a tailspin when he sent a new time-traveling robot back to assassinate the resistance's future. Unfortunately, the secret was already out before the movie, thanks to the trailers leading up to "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" hitting theaters. That being said, it doesn't stop Cameron's well-executed reveal from playing out perfectly. After spending a film terrified by Arnold Schwarzenegger's unstoppable hitman, the dread returned with him in the sequel and closed in on John Connor (Edward Furlong) as quickly as a new time-traveling policeman.

It's here that Cameron, with the help of Guns N' Roses, along with a gun in some roses, blew away the conventions of the previous film and actually came to the aid of John Connor, instead of aiming a shotgun at him. What followed was a buddy movie to save the future, and Arnie's most iconic character became even more beloved. The choice to let the cybernetic cat out of the bag was one Cameron himself signed off on, as revealed in an interview with Empire. "I believed our potential audience would be more attracted to seeing how the most badass killing machine could become a hero than they would be to just another kill-fest in the same vein as the first film," Cameron explained. While that might've been the case, this is one rare twist that many might've been prepared for, yet still stands as one of the coolest face-turns in sci-fi movie history.

There have been plenty of magic movies over the years, but none might have fooled us as hard as Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige." One of the great revenge movies with some exceptional sleight of hand, the highlight is the standoff spanning years between Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. It's one that becomes all the more rewarding on subsequent viewings, especially given that the film is armed with more than one twist to blow your mind. All the tricks are there, hiding in plain sight from the get-go, tucked away in a tale of revenge devoted to an illusion that only in the final act we learn the truth of.

The gobsmacking reveal is that, in Angier's (Jackman) mission to obtain real magic, he's been fooled by the trick that Borden (Bale) and his ingénieur, Fallon, are brothers, bound to one identity and a lifelong ruse they were willing to take to their graves. Of course, the magic doesn't stop there, as after Borden reveals the lengths of his devotion, so too has Angier given his soul to ruining his rival, duplicating and killing himself night after night to ensure success. It's the execution in this big reveal that still makes "The Prestige" Nolan's most underappreciated work and proof that, if you watch closely, might actually be his greatest.

The closing act of "Predestination" sticks a pin in what is easily one of Ethan Hawke's most overlooked movies and one of the best time travel movies ever. Joined by Sarah Snook ("Succession"), the film follows an author from the 1970s who is enlisted by a mysterious time-traveling agent from the future to stop someone known as the Fizzle Bomber from committing a horrific attack. Adapted from Robert A. Heinlein's short story "All Of You Zombies," "Predestination" might be one of the few films on this list where the cat is out of the bag much sooner than intended. As John/Jane tells the Barkeep their life story, the breadcrumbs are so wildly thrown out that the impossible gradually becomes all the more probable by the time we reach the third act.

It's there that everything is revealed in what is a masterful bit of storytelling from the Spierig Brothers. By the film's end, we learn that Hawke is both his own mother and father, and that the whole story involving multiple pieces moving through time has really been a one-person show spanning decades. We have followed the hero and villain of their own story, forever stuck in a time loop and proving without a shadow of a doubt that whether your time machine is a hot tub or a car with wild wing doors, keeping in the present really is probably the safest place to be.