Match the Movie to the Spoiler Quiz

Answer: The Crying Game

In the run-up to the premier of the 1992 "The Crying Game", journalists were careful not to disclose the sex of one of the film's stars, Jaye Davidson. That's because the big reveal of the movie happened when IRA member Fergus, played by Stephen Rea, learned that the lovely Dil was not a she but a he. Fergus had assumed Dil was female because that's how she presented herself. He and the audience were quite shocked to learn otherwise. In the end, Stephen's love for Dil was more important than gender.

"The Crying Game" was nominated for a plethora of awards and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

For the soundtrack, singer Boy George sang a cover version of the song "The Crying Game". It was his biggest hit in the U.S. up to that point.

Answer: The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan's breakout hit was the 1999 "The Sixth Sense", the first movie he made that wasn't even partially financed by his parents. In this movie, Bruce Willis played Malcolm Crowe, a psychiatrist in Philadelphia, who befriended a nine-year-old boy named Cole. The movie is carefully crafted to avoid giving away the secret, that Cole sees dead people, and Malcolm is one of those dead people.

The movie was a critical and box office success and is considered one of the most prominent examples of a twist ending on film.

Answer: Citizen Kane

In "Citizen Kane", Orson Welles played the rich and powerful Charles Foster Kane. As he lay dying, he whispered the name "Rosebud". An intrepid reporter is sent to find out who Rosebud was. Kane had lived a full life, with multiple wives, mistresses, scandals, great achievements and greatly dubious decisions, but his dying word revealed that what meant most to him in the end was the simple pleasures of a childhood sled.

"Citizen Kane" broke new ground in movie making, from the extensive make-up used to age the actors to the complex cinematography and new optical effects. Many lists and critics put this movie at the top of the list of best movies ever made. Revered film critic Roger Ebert indicated that "Citizen Kane" was both his favorite movie ever made and the best movie ever made.

Answer: The Usual Suspects

The storyline of "The Usual Suspects" was a mystery wrapped in an enigma, rolled in doubt. The frame story was Verbal Kint's retelling of a series of events that led up to a major ship explosion in a Los Angeles harbor. The movie portrayed both the frame story, as Verbal relayed it to police, and the flashbacks about Verbal's criminal accomplices and their heists. Hovering over both stories is the presence of a highly mysterious, powerful, and violent gangster, Keyser Soze. And in the end, it looks like Keyser is none other than Verbal himself. Maybe.

"The Usual Suspects" is one of those movies where each character seems absolutely perfectly cast. Gabriel Byrne played Dean Keaton, an intelligent criminal who tried to go straight; Kevin Spacey played the multi-sided Verbal Kint; Kevin Pollak took the role of the prickly Todd Hockney; and Stephen Baldwin played the profane, fearless Michael McManus. Benicio del Toro brought a peculiarly effective element to his portrayal of Fred Fenster; Fenster was more of a placeholder than a well-rounded character, and what he said didn't really matter to the plot. So del Toro gave him a mishmash of barely-understandable accents to make him stand out.

"The Usual Suspects" won two Academy Awards in 1996: Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Kevin Spacey.

Answer: Planet of the Apes

In "Planet of the Apes" (1968), four astronauts had been hibernating in space for about 2,000 years when they crash-landed on a planet where they found themselves in the minority. The apes were the alpha race on this planet, and humans were mute and relegated to subordinate roles. In the end, the protagonist human, played by Charlton Heston, realized that he had landed on Earth and primates had taken it over after humans ruined their own society.

The scenes set in Ape City were filmed in and around the Grand Canyon for its desolate and strange ambience.

Answer: Chinatown

"Chinatown" is a fine example of film noir set in Los Angeles, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout. Jack Nicholson played private investigator Jake Gittes, who was hired by a woman to follow her straying husband. Only the woman was an imposter, and the husband was killed, and Gittes had an affair with the real wife, Evelyn, played by Faye Dunaway, who had a sister named Katherine. Except Katherine was also Evelyn's daughter, the product of incestuous rape by Evelyn's despicable father, Noah. Jake also uncovered the corruption related to two of the most precious resources in southern California, water and water rights.

The film won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute rated it #19 on its 1998 list of 100 Greatest American Films. By 2007, AFI moved it to #21, probably because it added "Raging Bull" (1980) and "Schindler's List" (1993) to the top 20 on the list, and both of them came out after "Chinatown".

Answer: No Way Out

"No Way Out" was a remake of "The Big Clock" from 1948 but stands on its own with strong performances from Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, and Sean Young.

The movie has more twists than can be described here. In short, naval officer Tom Farrell is ordered by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to find someone to blame a murder on, and that someone is himself. The movie had a complex cat-and-mouse plot, and it was eventually revealed that Farrell wasn't who he pretended to be but was instead a Russian spy named Yuri all along.

The 1987 movie was a critical and commercial success.

Answer: Primal Fear

In "Primal Fear", a powerful Chicago Archbishop was brutally murdered, and all signs pointed to soft-spoken altar boy, Aaron Stampler. Only his lawyer and his psychiatrist figured out that Aaron suffered from multiple personality disorder, and it was a violent personality that killed the Archbishop, thereby making Aaron, in a way, not guilty. Or was he? In the end, we learn that Aaron faked the secondary personalities in order to beat a guilty verdict. His lawyer, played by Richard Gere, was as shocked as the audience; Aaron did what no other client had done: got the better of him.

Edward Norton was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997 for his portrayal of the deviously complex Aaron Stampler.

Answer: Fight Club

The fourth rule of Fight Club seems simple enough: only two guys to a fight. But this becomes complex when one guy has multiple personalities. This is what happened to the narrator of "Fight Club", which was released in 1999 and starred Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, with Norton as the main character and Pitt revealed to be not a friend but another personality.

"Fight Club" was produced by Colorado native David Fincher, who went on to create other mind-bending movies, including "Seven" (1995), "The Game" (1997), "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2011), and "Gone Girl" (2014).

Answer: The Empire Strikes Back

Luke Skywalker was certain his long-gone father was a hero. So when he learned that the meanest guy in the Empire, Darth Vader, was actually his father, he was devastated. Adding injury to insult, Darth sliced off his son's right hand during an epic light-saber battle. In the end, when Vader died, there was a rapprochement of sorts, but nonetheless, learning his father was Darth was a big shock to the young Luke.

"The Empire Strikes Back" won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing and the Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.