History MindScrew / Film

* Two words that have yet to be said despite being the name of one of the most famous incarnate of Mind Screw to come out during the 1960s: WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine.
** The interior of TheBeatles' house was just as insane as could get. A door opens, and King Kong is about to make off with Fay Wray. George demurely asks "Do you think we're interrupting something? John: "I think so."

* WesternAnimation/WakingLife

* The interior of TheBeatles' house in ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine.'' A door opens, and King Kong is about to make off with Fay Wray. George demurely asks "Do you think we're interrupting something? John: "I think so."

** The "Animatrix", a collection of short anime films based off the trilogy, easily qualify as Mind Screw material.

* The Oscar-nominated French/Canadian/Belgian animated movie ''WesternAnimation/TheTripletsOfBelleville''.

* ''WesternAnimation/WakingLife''

* Two words that have yet to be said despite being the name of one of the most famous incarnate of MindScrew to come out during the 1960s: ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''
** And Magical Mystery Tour is even more insane!

* My God, ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatTheMovie''. Just... just watch it. Reptilian creatures, a magic bag, a half-robot evil overlord, a sentient tear, a dimensional transporter, mice-lizard hybrids, WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine-like sea creatures, a CircusOfFear, a forest made of giant hair follicles with head-hunting creatures that are always losing their own heads, evil cubes and cylinders, and a book of ultimate power that defeats the bad guy by being thrown at him. And to top it all off, there's also a German version.
* This is largely due to a conflict between the two major producers of the movie. One wanted old school Felix and the other one wanted wild and crazy Ren and Stimpy-type animation.

** In fact, the entire movie is basically one big mind screw.

%% * The point of the CRS company in the Creator/DavidFincher flick ''Film/TheGame''.

* Anything by Richard Kelly. But while ''Film/DonnieDarko'' earned a fandom for being peculiar and ''Film/TheBox'' tries to be more understandable, ''Film/SouthlandTales'' has been described as a movie that [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Southland_Tales_2006.aspx "does not know what it's doing, so it does everything."]]

** While essentially a straight forward story, ''Film/BigTroubleinLittleChina'' could be considered a minor version of this trope as well. The film gives only a bare minimum of exposition for what is going, which even then only comes midway into the film after numerous unexplained supernatural events have taken place. The BigBad Lo Pan has three different appearances throughout the film [[spoiler: one as a decrypted old man, another as a normal middle aged man on the street, and yet another a 9 foot tall wizard]] never explaining how or why he changes between each one. The film also seems to assume the audience will be able to figure out how Chinese Ghosts work on their own, while at the same time totally making up it's own mythology.

%%* ''TheFountain''.

* ''What Is It?'' CrispinGlover's...creation. There's a reason [[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh Oancitizen]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went crazy]] after seeing it.

* ''Music/TheMonkees'' movie ''Film/{{Head}}''. A {{Deconstruction}} of the TV Show, plus an anti-establishment acid trip. Literally written while high o pot.

**** What do you mean? The ending of ''Film/TimeBandits'' couldn't be simpler: {{God}} finally catches up with the bandits right as the [[{{Satan}} Evil Genius]] is about to kill them and escape from his prison within the age of legends. God destroys the Evil Genius, rehires the bandits, telling them it's time to get back to work repairing all the holes in time, and sends the boy back to his home. A charred fragment of the Evil Genius' corpse comes through the time-hole with him, however, and his parents are killed when they touch the fragment, which also causes their house to catch on fire. One of the firemen who comes to put out the fire is the physically identical reincarnation of Agamemnon. [[SarcasmMode What part of any of this is the least bit mysterious?]]

** The scene with Sean Connery in a wedding dress, or several scenes which have random images projected onto various characters' skins, or the ending, which has Sean Connery and his love interest having a baby and then watching as all three, get old, and die, or the beginning, which has a floating head of a man with a beard painted onto his chin and a towel on his head attempting to explain the plot of the movie about to be watched, which just ends up confusing everyone else more.

* ''{{Northfork}}''
* The Swedish film ''Persona'' features an actress who goes mute, except maybe she really isn't but wants to get away from her life. Her nurse wants to become the actress because she hates herself, and maybe she did. Or didn't. The actress also has a son that is involved...somehow. The opening scenes feature dead bodies, a sheep being stabbed with a knife, and [[WriterRevolt an erect penis]]. What does all this have to do with the rest of the film? [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment No idea]], as it's even more out of place than the rest of the movie. Anyone who says they get what's going on [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible is lying]].

%% ''Film/JacobsLadder'' is a Mind Screw from start to finish.

** ''Film/LostHighway'' where on the one hand characters transform into each other. On the other hand is the first scene repeated later from a different view: Fred, who answered the entryphone in the first version, rings the bell in the second one himself. So instead of an expected OnceMoreWithClarity it turns out to further support the Mind Screw.

* ''Film/MirrorMask'' My God, Mirror Mask... If the visual conception isn't enough, then would some other troper explain what the whole point was? Or how it was the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''?

** ''Film/InlandEmpire'' makes Mulholland Dr. seem sensical. As Laura Dern's character describes the events of the film: "I'm trying to tell you so you understand how it went. Thing is, I don't know what was before or after. I don't know what's happened first...and it's kinda layin' a mindfuck on me." And oh good Christ in heaven, ''how many'' false endings did that movie ''have''? I'm fairly sure that they took up the last forty minutes.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' is not as mind screwing as one would expect. But the whole plot is about putting an industrial heir through one massive mind screw to mess with his free will. First he is put into an artificial dream where he gets kidnapped by people wanting the codes to his fathers secret safe, which he handles quite well. But then he gets put into a dream within the dream where he is approached by a stranger who claims to be part of his subconscious and they are both in a dream and under attack by kidnappers who wants to steal his company secrets. Then the laws of physics start to no longer apply correctly and he no longer takes things that well. Also, the main character who is putting the man through the mind screw is having some lingering doubt that he himself is dreaming and his mind being screwed with.
** ''Inception'' uses InMediasRes openings. Not just at the start of the movie, but repeatedly, at multiple scenes, to intentionally evoke dreamlike logic. And the main plot is [[TheHeist a heist]] ''in reverse'', so it's necessarily a complicated story. [[spoiler: And the ending is [[AmbiguousSituation ambiguous]] between the best happy ending possible and one of the worst.]] Aside from all that, though, it's not mind-screwy at all!

* ''Film/DeadMan'' with Creator/JohnnyDepp is a very otherworldly film, during which few things happen and most of the dialogues are just plain weird. [[LampshadeHanging It's even pointed out in frustration by the protagonist at one point.]]

* Director of ''Film/{{Cube}}'', Creator/VincenzoNatali, also made ''Nothing'', a [[TheStoner Stoner Comedy]] about non-existence. It's fairly straightforward in its own way, but still...

%% Watch the Argentinian film ''Film/HombreMirandoAlSudeste'' (''Man Looking Southeast'') and try to decide which of the %% explanations is true. You'll be lying in bed thinking about it, seriously, as it's just that freakin' bizarre, and ends
%% unanswered.

*** Completely...Its a ok although odd movie until the final battle and everything after. Then we were all WTF just happened?

''Film/BlackSwan''. What's real, what's a hallucination, and what's a visual metaphor? In this movie, it's hard to tell, and increasingly it's hard to tell if there's even a difference. Did the movie even happen at all, or will Nina wake up screaming 5 minutes after the credits?

* Director Creator/RichardKelly's second film, ''Film/SouthlandTales'', somehow manages to be even more violently insane than his first. It was supposed to be part of a massive multimedia experience (that never really panned out), but it would take a ''damn'' lot of graphic novels to explain what on God's green Earth was happening at any point during that movie.

* ''TheGuards'', a 1965 Norwegian film by director Arne Skouen, telling the story of a soldier who neglects his duties because of a moral responsibility for a psych ward full of children with psychological problems. The story revolves around a court martial held afterwards, but to be fair, it is not certain whether the whole trial is in the soldier's head, or if he and the other adults working in the ward are actually as far out as the children they tend to. And then there is the oldest charge, a fourteen year old girl, CreepyChild and psychic to boot. The movie ends with a spectacular GainaxEnding. It tends to be the biggest MindScrew ever made in Norway.

%% ''Film/BlackSwan''. What's real, what's a hallucination, and what's a visual metaphor? In this movie, it's hard to tell, and increasingly it's hard to tell if there's even a difference. Did the movie even happen at all, or will Nina wake up screaming 5 minutes after the credits?
%% ** Mind screws are a recurring theme in all of Creator/DarrenAronofsky's films.

* Director of ''Film/{{Cube}}'', Creator/VincenzoNatali, also made ''Film/{{Nothing}}'', a [[TheStoner Stoner Comedy]] about non-existence. It's fairly straightforward in its own way, but still...
%% * ''Film/DeadMan'' with Creator/JohnnyDepp is a very otherworldly film, during which few things happen and most of the dialogues are just plain weird. It's even pointed out in frustration by the protagonist at one point.
%% * ''Film/DonnieDarko'', to the extent that members of the cast can't agree on whether there is a legitimate TimeTravel story, or just a handful of psychedelic delusions.
%% ** In the DVD commentary, the [[WordOfGod director]] owns up to the fact that even he doesn't really know what's going on and that the plot probably can't be explained without resorting to [[AWizardDidIt divine intervention]].
%% * Director Creator/RichardKelly's second film, ''Film/SouthlandTales'', somehow manages to be even more violently insane than his first. It was supposed to be part of a massive multimedia experience (that never really panned out), but it would take a ''damn'' lot of graphic novels to explain what on God's green Earth was happening at any point during that movie.
%% *** Read all about it [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Southland_Tales_2006.aspx here]].

* ''Film/TheGuards'', a 1965 Norwegian film by director Creator/ArneSkouen, telling the story of a soldier who neglects his duties because of a moral responsibility for a psych ward full of children with psychological problems. The story revolves around a court martial held afterwards, but to be fair, it is not certain whether the whole trial is in the soldier's head, or if he and the other adults working in the ward are actually as far out as the children they tend to. And then there is the oldest charge, a fourteen year old girl, CreepyChild and psychic to boot. The movie ends with a spectacular GainaxEnding. It tends to be the biggest MindScrew ever made in Norway.
* ''Film/ILoveYourWork'' isn't as extreme as others on this list, as a simple [[spoiler: "I guess it was all in his head"]] makes sense of it as a whole, as the ending makes that seem like the most likely explanation. But some scenes are still pretty odd.

* ''Film/ArizonaDream'' by Emir Kusturica. [[CloudCuckoolander Insanely weird characters]]? Check. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Odd dreams]]? Check. [[MindScrew Flying fish]]?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[GainaxEnding ...Huh?]]]]

** The movie was such a mind screw that the film adaptation of ''TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'' was largely devoted to ''[[MindScrewdriver trying to explain what had happened in the last movie]].'' You may not have heard of this sequel. There's an excellent reason for that.

* MichaelJackson's ''Film/{{Moonwalker}}'' can be seen as a mild case of this. We have one segment, where Michael is chased by clay-mation characters, so he turns himself into a clay-mation rabbit and drives away from them on a motorcycle. And then, it turns out that the rabbit (Spike) is real, and Michael and he has a dance contest! Then we have the music video for "Leave me alone", which is heavy enough with symbolism to come across as hopelessly surreal. And then starts the last segment, where Michael suddenly has the ability to turn into a car and a giant robot!

** And Look, they also made it a crossover with the ''VideoGame/{{Angry Birds}}'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcbRgr4dt6I to coincide with the release of Angry Birds Rio]]! With a few words changed of course, and it's also trippy too.

* ''Film/{{Suspiria}}'': the plot is nothing else than a "witches doing evil wizardry after being discovered" kind of thing. The camera angles, scary soundtrack, eerie camera angles, buckets of blood, and macabre scenery, though....
** There's no plot twist in ''Suspiria''. [[spoiler: It's a coven of witches. They don't even try to hide that fact.]]