The 15 Most Confusing Movie Plotlines, According to the Number of Internet Searches - Collider

Have you finished watching a movie lone to think, “What conscionable happened?” You're successful bully company, arsenic determination are galore baffling movies retired determination that necessitate an explanation. Whereas immoderate films are deliberately designed to perplex viewers, others bash truthful accidentally due to the fact that of their analyzable narratives and unreliable characters.

A giveaway that a movie is confusing is when, aft watching it, you instantly hunt the net for an explainer. According to the amusement website The Wrap, these are the 15 movies astir searched for successful 2022 utilizing the film’s rubric and “explained,” ranked from the lowest to the highest fig of searches per month.

'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968)

Despite being much than 50 years old, Stanley Kubrick’s epic sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey inactive ranks arsenic 1 of the astir confusing movies, garnering 4,200 net searches per month. It seems audiences are inactive reacting arsenic histrion Rock Hudson did astatine the film’s premiere erstwhile helium shouted, “What is this bull***t?” earlier storming retired of the cinema.

2001: A Space Odyssey—especially the movie’s unfastened ending—has been dissected, analyzed, and interpreted successful galore ways since its release. But leaving a movie unfastened to subjective mentation is bound to rise disorder levels. Putting its aesthetic quality aside, the film’s dilatory pacing, 3 seemingly unrelated segments, and deficiency of quality improvement further region the enactment from its audience.

'Inception' (2010)

The archetypal of Christopher Nolan’s films to look connected this list, the sci-fi enactment movie Inception takes spot wrong a character’s mind, making it hard to differentiate betwixt existent beingness and dreams. In different words, it’s confusing by design.

Nolan’s dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream narrative, with characters sharing an interconnected imagination space, proved confusing for galore viewers. An mentation of the movie was searched for 4,500 times per period passim 2022.

'Memento' (2000)

Christopher Nolan, instrumentality two! The neo-noir enigma thriller Memento centers astir Leonard (Guy Pearce), who has anterograde amnesia, meaning helium suffers from short-term representation nonaccomplishment and an inability to signifier caller memories.

The film’s disorienting, nonlinear communicative is what messes with viewers’ heads. The communicative is presented successful some chronological and reverse order. Thankfully, the chronological sequences are changeable successful black-and-white to acceptable them apart, but that didn’t forestall 4,600 searches per period seeking answers astir what the movie is about.

'The Matrix' (1999)

Generating 5,200 searches per month, The Matrix whitethorn person changed filmmaking forever, but it besides near galore radical scratching their heads.

The present more-than-20-year-old cyberpunk enactment movie revolves astir the struggle betwixt humans and machines. Grounded successful the conception that world is an illusion and has serious philosophical underpinnings, the movie led to galore discussions astir its allegory. When, successful 2020, co-director Lilly Wachowski confirmed The Matrix was a transgender metaphor, the movie made much sense, but, astatine the time, its analyzable themes, influences, and characters raised galore unanswered questions.

'Predestination' (2014)

Predestination is simply a movie astir clip travel. More specifically, the theoretical predestination paradox. A predestination paradox occurs erstwhile a idiosyncratic traveling backmost successful clip becomes portion of past events and whitethorn adjacent person caused the lawsuit that led to them traveling backmost successful clip successful the archetypal place. According to the theory, past is “predestined,” and those who question backmost successful clip person nary mode of changing events—confused yet?

Movies astir clip question are ever liable to confuse viewers due to the fact that past, present, and aboriginal events don’t hap successful chronological order. Throw successful a 2nd theoretical paradox—the bootstrap paradox, which has to bash with the enactment of self-creation; it’s reasonably wide wherefore determination were 5,900 monthly searches by radical trying to comprehend this movie.

'Fight Club' (1999)

Watching David Fincher’s Fight Club aggregate times illuminates antecedently unseen themes, overtones, and foreshadows. But for viewers who’ve lone watched it once, it resulted successful 5,900 online searches a period asking, “What the—?”

Fundamentally, Fight Club is simply a critique of the antheral effect to society’s rampant commodification, but immoderate aspects origin confusion. Here’s 1 example. Soap is utilized arsenic a metaphor for the sacrifices made for the advancement of quality civilization and, simultaneously, arsenic a means of cleansing humanity of its consumerism. It’s not until the film’s twisty ending that the viewer’s disorder is somewhat alleviated…somewhat.

'Arrival' (2016)

Arrival explores the thought of clip and however it's perceived, stitching unneurotic contiguous and aboriginal events into a azygous timeline. The movie’s reliance connected placing time—already a confusing concept—in the discourse of the Sapir-Whorf proposal of linguistic relativity is astir apt the crushed wherefore it has 6,000 online searches per month.

The Sapir-Whorf proposal proposes that a connection spoken by a idiosyncratic influences their conception of world and, successful turn, affects culture. Note: this is simply a very oversimplified mentation of a analyzable theory. Although Arrival only adopts parts of the convoluted hypothesis, its inclusion is capable to bewilder viewers.

'The Shining' (1980)

Another older Stanley Kubrick movie that continues to confound, The Shining, brought successful monthly online searches of 6,300 successful 2022.

It’s well-known that fearfulness writer Stephen Kinghated Kubrick’s re-interpretation of his story. Where King’s root worldly relied connected the accepted favoritism betwixt bully and evil – with evil represented by ghosts and demons – Kubrick took a much nuanced attack to the fearfulness genre. The manager placed small value connected the supernatural aspects emphasized by King successful his novel, and, arsenic a result, the movie became much of a intelligence experience. Viewers were fixed unreliable characters and an elusive open-endedness that accrued confusion.

'Nocturnal Animals' (2016)

Racking up 6,600 searches per period by radical asking “please explain,” it’s evident that Tom Ford’s 2nd feature, Nocturnal Animals is simply a head-scratcher. The disorder arises due to the fact that of the operation of the neo-noir intelligence thriller. The movie is astir Susan (Amy Adams), who’s sent a manuscript called “Nocturnal Animals” written by her ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). As she reads astir Tony (also played by Gyllenhaal), the movie depicts the communicative arsenic it’s told successful the book-to-be.

The manuscript and the movie woody with infidelity and trauma, but revenge is the cardinal taxable here. Underpinning it each is the conception that our past ever comes backmost to haunt us. The unanswered question—and, presumably, the 1 driving the net searches seeking clarity—is: who is the existent unfortunate successful this scenario?

'Interstellar' (2014)

Interstellar is simultaneously the astir and slightest confusing of Christopher Nolan’s movies. True to form, Nolan adopts his convoluted narration, but successful presumption of narrative, Interstellar is overmuch much straightforward than Inception. The high-level astrophysics overlaying the movie's communicative perplexed audiences and led to 7,100 searches per month.

Featuring coordinates to a top-secret NASA basal written successful dust, aliens that beryllium successful the semi-theoretical 5th dimension, wormholes, achromatic holes, gravity, closed-circle clip loops, and a seemingly supernatural bookshelf, Interstellar has it all.

'Mulholland Drive' (2001)

David Lynch is the reigning cinematic king of ambiguity and interpretation. With Mulholland Drive, Lynch’s emblematic surrealist attack is centered astir an amnesiac pistillate trying to portion her beingness unneurotic aft a car clang connected the titular Southern Californian roadway.

The movie is fundamentally a movie astir dissociation. It takes spot connected 3 interlaced, overlapping levels – reality, dreams, and the subconscious – that are ne'er explained; it’s up to the spectator to determine what is what. It's nary wonderment wherefore Mulholland Drive generated 9,700 searches per month.

'Donnie Darko' (2001)

Understanding the cult deed Donnie Darko requires viewers to untangle the movie’s analyzable timeline. A analyzable Tangent Universe—an alternate world that exists abstracted from the Primary Universe we’re acquainted with—is the instauration of the movie, which includes clip travel, surreal symbolism, and a creepy six-foot rabbit named Frank.

Donnie Darko ne'er explains wherefore the Tangent Universe exists. A helpful website based connected the fictional publication “The Philosophy of Time Travel” by Roberta Sparrow goes immoderate mode successful explaining the movie. But for viewers watching the movie without the payment of this information, it is simply a confusing ride, arsenic testified to by the 18,000 searches undertaken per period during 2022.

'Shutter Island' (2010)

Martin Scorsese’s films are usually historical tales and rides done divers genres, but Shutter Island is different. A motion to the movie noir and fearfulness genres, the movie is astir U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is sent to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane connected Shutter Island to analyse the disappearance of a pistillate who drowned her 3 children. Sounds straightforward enough, right?

But Daniels is truly Andrew Laeddis (an anagram of Edward Daniels), a delusional Ashecliffe inpatient who went insane aft murdering his wife—the missing woman—and is convinced he’s determination to analyse experiments conducted connected patients. Laeddis’ treating doc decides to behaviour a role-playing workout to drawback him retired of his fantasy, but it exaggerates his conspiracies. From this little outline, it’s understandable however the movie was liable for 31,000 online searches per period by viewers unsure astir what was happening.

'I’m Thinking of Ending Things' (2020)

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by acclaimed writer-director Charlie Kaufman features Kaufman’s trademark concepts: dual identities, dream-like realities, and frustrated characters.

Iain Reid’s novel, based connected the movie, provides a literal mentation of what’s happening. Kaufman doesn’t. He takes large liberties with the root worldly and densely layers the full movie with ambiguous signifiers that confound viewers, resulting successful 50,000 net searches per month.

'Tenet' (2020)

The fig 1 spot for the most-searched-for confusing movie—with a staggering 70,000 searches per month—goes to Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Once again, Nolan forces flummoxed viewers to comprehend tricky concepts successful this labyrinthine sci-fi enactment thriller spy movie. Simply put, the movie is astir a erstwhile CIA cause (John David Washington) who’s learned however to manipulate time, a accomplishment indispensable to forestall a aboriginal satellite attack.

This movie is not astir clip travel; it’s astir clip manipulation (called “inversion”). Inversion happens erstwhile radical oregon objects walk done a temporal turnstile. It gets confusing erstwhile analyzable enactment scenes see inversion. And past determination are scenes from the movie's archetypal fractional involving characters who’d manipulated clip to “rewind” from the 2nd half. Wait—what?

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