10 Movies With Super-Confusing Plot Twists Nobody Asked For

Major spoilers ahead!

1. Donnie Darko (2001)

The beloved cult classic that launched Jake Gyllenhaal's career. It starts simple: Donnie, a troubled teen, narrowly escapes death when a jet engine crashes into his room. Then, things get weird. A monstrous rabbit named Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days. Donnie starts sleepwalking, committing vandalism, and oh yeah, there's time travel. He eventually learns that he's in a parallel universe and must die to restore the timeline. At the end, the jet engine falls, killing Donnie and... resetting things? Confused? Same.

2. Mulholland Drive (2001)

David Lynch, the king of WTF, did it again. Originally intended to be a TV show, this film follows Betty, an aspiring actress, and Rita, an amnesiac. They try to figure out Rita's identity while navigating Hollywood's weirdness. But two-thirds through, the plot shifts. Betty vanishes, characters swap identities, and we see that Betty is actually Diane, a failed actress filled with jealousy and regret. She orders a hit on Rita (who's actually Camilla) and then kills herself. How do you even untangle this?

3. Inception (2010)

Dom Cobb is a "dream thief" who enters people's subconscious to steal or plant ideas. He's hired to implant an idea into a businessman's mind. So, Cobb assembles a team and they go three dream layers deep. Every layer has its own set of physics and time dilation. Finally, in "limbo", Cobb finds his wife Mal, who committed suicide because she thought reality was still a dream.

He returns to the real world (or does he?), spinning a top that never falls – making us question what's real. This mind-bender earned over $829 million at the box office globally, proving confusion can pay off. That open ending, though? Frustrating as hell.

4. Cloud Atlas (2012)

Six interconnected stories spanning centuries, from 1849 to a post-apocalyptic future. Each actor plays multiple roles in various timelines. In one, Tom Hanks is a murderous doctor; in another, he's a humble goatherd. We've got a composer writing letters to his lover in 1936, Halle Berry investigating a nuclear power conspiracy in 1973, and a group of rebels fighting an evil corporation in 2144. The big reveal? Every story is connected. Good luck trying to keep up without a roadmap, though.

5. Primer (2004)

This one's an indie film made for a measly $7,000, but it left audiences scratching their heads big time. It's about two engineers, Aaron and Abe, who accidentally invent a time machine. They initially use it for small-scale gains, like stock market manipulation. But then they get greedy and reckless, creating multiple timelines and even encountering their doppelgangers. By the end, there are so many time loops that you quite possibly want to just give up.

6. Enemy (2013)

Another Jake Gyllenhaal starrer, Enemy is a head-spinning psychological thriller that follows a history professor who discovers an actor who looks exactly like him. He becomes obsessed, stalking the guy, meeting him, and eventually swapping lives with him for a night. The movie ends with a gigantic spider in the room, for reasons never fully explained. Is it all a dream? An allegory? You're left to figure that out on your own without any definitive answers. Thanks, but no thanks.

7. The Fountain (2006)

This Darren Aronofsky movie spans 1,000 years and tells three parallel stories. Hugh Jackman plays a conquistador seeking the Tree of Life for his queen in 1500, a scientist trying to find a cure for his wife's brain tumor in 2005, and a space traveler moving toward a dying star with a tree in 2500. The stories weave together, but don't quite mesh into a straightforward storyline. More often than not you end up asking: "What year is it again?"

8. Memento (2000)

This is a film that put Christopher Nolan on the map. Leonard suffers from short-term memory loss and uses Polaroid photos and tattoos to keep track of his life. He's trying to solve his wife's murder, but get this – the story is told backward. We start at the end and work our way to the beginning, which turns out to be the middle... or something.

9. Adaptation (2002)

Written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. Nicholas Cage plays both Charlie Kaufman, a neurotic screenwriter, and his fictional twin Donald. Charlie is struggling to adapt a nonfiction book into a screenplay, but eventually decides to write himself into the script. Then there's a whole subplot involving orchid poaching, a car crash, and, um, an alligator?

10. Predestination (2014)

Ethan Hawke is a temporal agent chasing a terrorist. He recruits a recruit (yes, this is 100% intentional), who turns out to be a transgender man born as Jane, who later becomes John. The kicker? Jane/John is both the mother, father, and – wait for it – the terrorist they've been hunting.