The Rewatch Test

A great twist passes the rewatch test: once you know the secret, the entire film changes meaning. The Sixth Sense is a tragedy about a dead man who does not know he is dead. Fight Club is a story of self-destruction the protagonist inflicts on himself. Every scene holds clues you can only see the second time.

Bad twists fail this test. They surprise once and then feel like cheats — the filmmaker withheld information rather than hiding it in plain sight. The distinction is crucial: a good twist plays fair by embedding evidence the audience could have caught.