In a recent survey from money.co.uk the top 10 most confusing movies have been revealed!
You leave the cinema scratching your brain wondering what on earth you have just witnessed.
You second guess your own intelligence and in the case of Christopher Nolan movies, you debate if watching them in reverse would make more sense.
The experts at money.co.uk analysed 132 films and came up with the most confusing plots of all time.
You can see the full research HERE.
After the Google search volume for each of the 132 titles was studied along with the terms “ending”, “explained” and “ending explained” included the guys have concluded the following 10 movies to be some of the most confusing movies of all time.
1. Inception
Year: 2010
Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDb rating: 8.8
This one does not surprise me in the slightest.
Firstly, it’s a Christopher Nolan so no more needs to be said but when you start deep diving through various dreamsttates things get a little complicated.
Not to mention an ending that instantly made 90% of those who viewed it to hop onto Google and find explanation for that ‘wtf’ ending.
2. Tenet
Year: 2020
Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDb rating: 7.5
To this day I have no clue what the whole purpose behind TENET was.
It was just an opportunity to alienate its audience and embrace content that only Nolan and his friends could understand and enjoy.
I tried watching it backwards, it still made no sense.
I tried watching it forwards, then backwards, nothing.
The film follows a secret agent who is attempting to prevent World War II by travelling through time.
3. Shutter Island
Year: 2010
Director: Martin Scorsese
IMDb rating: 8.2
A Leonardo DiCaprio and Scorsese combo is always a recipe for success but this one certainly required some concentration.
The film sees two US marshals dispatched to an asylum on a mysterious island to investigate a missing patient, with more than a few twists along the way.
When it comes to DiCaprio and Scorsese combos, I think I’ll just stick to Wolf of Wall Street as Shutter Island made me feel as though I was on a ludes trip the entire time!
4. The Shining
Year: 1980
Director: Stanley Kubrick
IMDb rating: 8.4
I’m a little confused as to how The Shining is featured in a most confusing list to tell you the truth.
The ending explains most of the entire film and it’s not too difficult to follow if albeit a few things here and there are a little vague.
5. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Year: 2020
Director: Charlie Kaufman
IMDb rating: 6.6
The only film within this entire list that I haven’t seem myself so I couldn’t possibly comment.
Knowing that film is confusing though however doesn’t really motivate me to want to check it out though!
The plot revolves around a young woman who travels with her new boyfriend to his parents’ secluded farm.
6. Donnie Darko
Year: 2001
Director: Richard Kelly
IMDb rating: 8.0
You know when you look at lists and there’s one title you just look at and go, yes, that absolutely deserves to be here.
Well Donnie Darko is certainly THAT title.
During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days.
When Donnie returns home, he finds that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. Is Donnie living in a parallel universe, is he suffering from mental illness – or will the world really end?
7. Interstellar
Year: 2014
Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDb rating: 8.6
To be honest, out of all of Christopher Nolan’s films in this list I’d say Interstellar was the easiest to understand.
In Earth’s future, a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl are slowly rendering the planet uninhabitable.
Professor Brand (Michael Caine), a brilliant NASA physicist, is working on plans to save mankind by transporting Earth’s population to a new home via a wormhole.
But first, Brand must send former NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and a team of researchers through the wormhole and across the galaxy to find out which of three planets could be mankind’s new home.
8. Nocturnal Animals
Year: 2016
Director: Tom Ford
IMDb rating: 7.5
I really enjoyed Nocturnal Animals but there’s rarely a film starring Jake Gyllenhaal that I don’t like.
The guy is a chameleon!
Nocturnal Animals is a blend of artistic indulgence and trip visuals.
A successful Los Angeles art-gallery owner’s idyllic life is marred by the constant traveling of her handsome second husband.
While he is away, she is shaken by the arrival of a manuscript written by her first husband, who she has not seen in years.
The manuscript tells the story of a teacher who finds a trip with his family turning into a nightmare.
As Susan reads the book, it forces her to examine her past and confront some dark truths.
9. No Country for Old Men
Year: 2007
Director: Joel and Ethan Cohen
IMDb rating: 8.1
Certainly a confusing film but it’s one hell of a good time regardless of not knowing what on earth is going on 99% of the time!
While out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the grisly aftermath of a drug deal.
Though he knows better, he cannot resist the cash left behind and takes it with him.
The hunter becomes the hunted when a merciless killer named Chigurh (Javier Bardem) picks up his trail. Also looking for Moss is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), an aging lawman who reflects on a changing world and a dark secret of his own, as he tries to find and protect Moss.
10. Arrival
Year: 2016
Director: Denis Villeneuve
IMDb rating: 7.9
Last but not least in our most confusing movies list is Arrival.
Arrival starts off quite straightforward enough but as the acts progress the whole plot seems to unravel into a mind-bending sci-fi headache inducing experience.
Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world.
As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors.
Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.
