We all like a bit of intrigue in a movie, right? But sometimes, in an attempt to keep audiences guessing and engaged, writers and directors can take things a step too far, leaving their audiences lost and confused.
Here are 18 movies that critics feel simply lost the plot.
Vanilla Sky
Vanilla Sky is one of the most confusing movies ever. The general plot is about a magazine publisher who begins to question his reality after being disfigured in a car crash. Starring Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz, the main character goes on a whirl-wind rollercoaster ride of romance, sex, deception, and lies as he searches for his soul.
Sounds straightforward, right? Well, critics didn’t seem to think so, and this movie was poorly rated simply because audiences found it confusing.
Life of Pi
If you want to travel down a mind-bending rabbit hole, question the meaning of life, and experience an existential crisis, Life of Pi is the perfect movie. The film appears to follow the journey of a boy stranded at sea with a Bengal Tiger. But that is only what the movie appears to be about when, in fact, it’s actually about something much deeper.
Based on a book by Yann Martel, the film explores existential themes that leave most audiences confused and scratching their head.
The Arrival
This movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won an Oscar for Best Sound Editing, so there are many great things about this film. However, one major criticism was that audiences claimed they found the plot confusing. Starring Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams and Forest Whitaker, who play individuals selected by the military to try and communicate with some aliens who have landed on Earth.
There’s a massive plot twist (* Spoiler Alert *), which allows audiences to realize that the movie is happening through the leading lady’s dream premonitions. This is both shocking and confusing for audiences to understand, and it does make you feel like you need to press rewind and watch the movie back a couple of times.
2001: A Space Odyssey
This movie could have also been called “Lost in Space,” as that’s how it sometimes feels. The plot sees two men traveling through space to Jupiter to discover an ancient artifact’s origins. Most of the film is slow, featuring only the two men and a computer on board the spaceship.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
As confusing as it is, this is still a great film but beware—you will absolutely want to press rewind at least once. Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as ex-lovers who had a medical procedure to erase their memories of each other and their entire relationship, only to find each other again by chance and start dating.
It’s not until the full plot is revealed that all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Being John Malkovich
This movie has one of the quirkiest plots ever and involves a puppeteer who discovers a portal (stay with me) into the mind of the famous actor John Malkovich. Even with this odd storyline, John Malkovich has a strong cult following, and it is quite a funny film. However, one common criticism of this movie is that it’s confusing, which we can understand when the film is constantly jumping in and out of another person’s head.
Nevertheless, audiences seemed to enjoy this film, and it’s still rated 7.7 stars on IMDB, so it’s not all bad.
A Scanner Darkly
This film has an all-star cast, including Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey Jr., but audiences found it quite confusing. Set in a dystopian future where police have invasive powers as the world grapples with a drug epidemic, the plot is already a bit out there.
Keanu Reeves plays an undercover cop who experiments with a new drug that causes him to start losing his identity. This, coupled with the fact that the movie is created with a cartoon effect overlay, adds to its trippy, confusing vibe.
The Sixth Sense
An epic plot twist overturns the entire premise of this film, which some viewers find a little confusing. Telling the story of a young boy who can see dead people, this brilliant movie kept audiences hooked and then shocked them with a plot twist that most did not see coming. For the first half of this movie, audiences are watching from the perspective of one character, and then, for the second half, they realize that they’ve actually been watching from the perspective of another character all along.
While some audiences were thrown by its clever plot twist and felt a little confused, others loved it and enjoyed the surprise element of this film, which has an 8.4-star rating on IMDB.
Total Recall
This movie is a cult classic with legendary status, especially among Arnold Schwarzenegger fans. A wacky and weird film set between Earth and Mars in 2084, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) plays a construction worker who gets the memories of a virtual vacation implanted in his brain.
Also starring Sharon Stone, the movie becomes confusing as audiences struggle to determine what parts are real and what parts are Quaid’s implanted virtual memories.
Clockwork Orange
Clockwork Orange is an iconic film from the 1970s. It is famous for its wacky plot, which follows a gang of misfits from the future who spend their nights taking drugs and embarking on violent escapades.
The movie has a lot of violent scenes, including rape and murder, which make for some disturbing viewing. Plus, the futuristic plot, which sees one gang member subjected to a criminal behavior modification program, is made more confusing by its trippy, psychedelic vibe.
What Dreams May Come
A unique, emotional, and captivating film, starring the legendary Robin Williams. You may need some tissues ready before you watch this film, as it has a very sad, emotional storyline. The film follows Robin Williams, whose character (Chris Nielsen) is killed in an accident. He battles through heaven and hell to rescue his wife who ended her life, after struggling with the grief of his death.
Cuban Gooding Jr. also gives a stellar performance in this film, but nothing is quite what it appears to be in this movie as the writers, and directors cleverly intertwine a sense of what the afterlife might look like, with elements of reality.
Mulholland Drive
Featuring a woman who calls herself “Rita” (Laura Elena Harring), she develops amnesia after being in a car crash on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. The film follows Rita as she searches for clues about her true identity.
As the movie flips between reality and flashbacks from Rita’s fleeting memories, audiences are sometimes left confused as to what is really going on.
But this film can’t be all bad, as it’s still rated 7.9 stars on IMDB.
12 Monkeys
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the world is ravaged by disease, this movie follows a convict from 2030 who is recruited for a mission that requires him to travel back in time and gather information about an infectious disease that killed off most of humanity.
Starring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis, this film has some good casting, and both Pitt and Willis received positive reviews; however, many fans say that this film is hard to follow, and as the movie features a double plot, fans were left confused by what was really going on in the storyline.
American Psycho
This film has been called one of cinematic history’s most “ambiguous and confusing” movies. Adapted from the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name, Christian Bale plays ruthless New York investment banker Patrick Bateman. We follow Bateman as he attempts to hide his psychotic tendencies and alter ego from his social circle.
According to audiences, the most confusing part about this film is the ending. At the same time, viewers were led to believe that Bateman had committed a series of murders, but the movie finishes by intentionally making us question whether he did kill anyone or it was all a figment of his imagination.
Fight Club
Love it or hate it, Fight Club has been dividing fans since it burst onto our screens in 1999. Some praised this movie for its great performances, dark humor, and subversive messages, but many criticized its glorification of violence, nihilism, and sadistic ending.
Apart from all that, many viewers struggled to understand this movie as it deals with many serious themes, such as consumerism, capitalism, toxic masculinity, and much more. Many film fans have admitted to having to rewatch it several times to decipher what certain parts of the movie mean, and honestly, we still aren’t 100% sure ourselves.
Memento
Starring a man called Leonard (Guy Pearce), who has anterograde amnesia, a rare form of memory loss, as he attempts to track down his wife’s killer. The only problem is that Leonard can only remember up to fifteen minutes ago at a time, so he is trapped in a continual loop of trying to remind himself of what he is doing with a complex set of notes, pictures, and maps every fifteen minutes.
As you can imagine, audiences found this film hard to follow. Scenes feel like they have to start over again every few minutes as Leonard repeatedly relearns his reality throughout the film. Talk about having the memory of a goldfish.
The Prestige
From the same Director as the film Memento, Christopher Nolan brings us a movie with a similarly mystical vibe. The film is about two stage magicians in 1980s London who compete against each other to create the ultimate illusion.
Hailed as a masterpiece by some and a confusing riddle by others, fans of this film say that rewatching it several times is the key to fully understanding the plot.
Videodrome
This horror, sci-fi, and thriller was a controversial film in the 1980s as it dealt with several deep themes, such as the boundaries between reality and consciousness, the effect of technology on the human senses, and a fascination with sex and violence. It confused audiences with its trippy, psychedelic scenes, and we can fully understand why. IMDB even has an entire page dedicated to explaining this movie.
