History MindScrew / Film

* Two words that have yet to be said despite being the name of the most famous incarnates of MindScrew to come out in the 1960s: [[spoiler:''' '' YellowSubmarine'' ''']]

* ''LooneyTunesBackInAction'': while the movie in general makes sense (or at least as much sense as one can expect from the Looney Tunes), the part where Shaggy complains about his voicing is a very subtle mind screw. Think about it. How can a real person be voice-acted.

* ''MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife''. Figuring out the meaning of life is ''easy'' compared with figuring out the meaning of this movie.

**** 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?]]

* Paranoia 1.0 (often known only as ''One Point O'') is as mind-screwy as it gets. A man (Jeremy Sisto, no less) receives empty packages while constantly dozing off in front of his computer: he's trying to write a program to meet a deadline, but he's constantly falling asleep and receiving empty packages... and developing an increasingly unhealthy craving for "Nature Fresh Milk". The apartment complex is full of people who have cravings for equally irrelevant things and there is a landlord that watches everything. Everything in the movie (e.g. what the empty packages are, why the landlord has an equivalent craving for packed meat, etc.) is explained in a logical and sensical manner - that is, until the movie decides to crank up the mind-screw-gears [[BeyondTheImpossible up]] [[UpToEleven to]] [[BeyondTheImpossible twelve hundred]] and then flat out breaks the gauge and lets the whole thing explode. Thus, you just face an ending that leaves you wondering what the hell you just watched.

* ''[=~2001: A Space Odyssey~=]''. The book, on the other hand, is considerably more comprehensible.

* ''[=~I'm Not There~=]'', Todd Haynes' attempt to quantify the existence of BobDylan by presenting him as SEVEN SEPARATE CHARACTERS, including a woman, a small black child, and Billy the Kid. If you have an extensive knowledge of the man, then the metaphorical touchstones are fairly easy to follow. But if you're only a casual fan, entire chunks of the movies will leave you stonefaced or confused, especially about how they relate to Bob Dylan.

* ''Men Who Stare At Goats'' is full of this, but is played for laughs. The final scene in particular stands out.

--> "Bizarre alien horror movie about an abductee who returns three years later in alien form in order to abduct his son. He goes through several transformations, one of them by impregnating a woman through her mouth and gorily emerging a short while later as a full grown male. He transforms his son by sucking on his shoulder, who then joins him in bizarre activities like melting phones, creating a killer midget clown and stuffing the babysitter into a cocoon so that she can lay eggs. No, this movie does not make any sense."

* ''Jacob's Ladder'' is a Mind Screw from start to finish.

* DavidLynch's ''Mulholland Dr.'' Or, to an even greater degree, ''{{Eraserhead}}''.

* ''TheScienceOfSleep'': Due to the main character's constant and confusing dreaming it's hard to keep up with what is a dream and what isn't. And did that time machine actually work?

* ''TheButterflyEffect'' is a sort-of mind screw. Is he traveling through time? Moving across alternate universes and adapting to the memories of the version of himself in the new universe? Is he just totally nuts and then one day finally gets the help he needs? Is the end really just another delusion? These last two possibilities are subverted in the DVD release alternate ending in which he [[spoiler:goes back to when he was in his mother's womb and commits suicide with his own umbilical chord before even being born. Which is impossible, by the way.]]

* ''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 five minutes after the credits?

* Dalton Trumbo's film adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun was done largely by making the film one big mindscrew, caused by the character's explosion-induced loss of his ability to see/hear/speak (as well as his limbs) inducing nightmarish visions inside of his head to pad out the film.

* ''UnChienAndalou''. Just try to read the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Chien_Andalou#Synopsis Other Wiki's synopsis]]. WordOfGod says that was entirely deliberate. Quoting Luis Bunuel on the rules he and Dali set for them selves in writing the script:"no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." and "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."

* ''TheMonkees'' movie ''{{Head}}''. A {{Deconstruction}} of the TV Show, plus an anti-establishment acid trip.

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

* ''TheBeliever'''s ending.

* ''[[{{Ptitlew2qho6or}} Cry_Wolf]]'', best summed up with this exchange.

* Unless you're a {{Beatles}} fan and have some basic knowledge of the 60's counterculture movement, ''{{Across the Universe}}'' can be anywhere from "slightly confusing" to "incomprehensible acid trip on film".

* ''BlackSwan'' is like MindScrew TheMovie. 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 five minutes after the credits?

* ''PsychoBeachParty'': What happened? How much of it was fake and who faked what?

* The ending of ''{{Time Bandits}}'' as well as just about every other TerryGilliam film ever made.