Movie aficionados appreciate filmmakers who take risks with unconventional storytelling. However, if the film is too convoluted, a director's audacious vision can wind up isolating audiences instead of luring them into the story.
Such films can be seen as inaccessible to most audiences, even pretentious.
And then there are films that are geared for general audiences but still fail to connect with some of them.
Curious to hear about confusing movie experiences, Redditor FinalDemise asked:
"What's the worst case of someone misunderstanding the plot of a movie you've ever seen?"
Were these people sleeping during the movie?
Who's The Villain?
"I watched Les Miserables in the theater with my parents. At the very end of the movie my dad whispered, 'wait, Hugh Jackman was the prisoner at the beginning?!' "
"He had no idea...the whole movie why Javert had beef with this apparent random character."
– agentbauer
Wrong Genre
"My step-dad paid so little attention to Fight Club that he thought it was a murder mystery about who’d killed Robert Paulson."
– speckleshell
Intoxicated Viewing
"Me and some friends were watching James Bond Spectre while extremely drunk and got really confused by the repeated and overlapping sections."
"We were talking about how great the Memento style use of non-linear time was a great addition to the Bond films only to realise I had been sitting on the remote and rewinding it all night. I think we were watching it for about 4 hours."
– cowboysted
Unfinished Business
"When I was young I watched the first 15 minutes of Zoolander from the hallway when I was supposed to be in bed. For many years after, I thought people regularly died in freak gasoline accidents."
– TheDadThatGrills
Some plot points go over audiences' heads.
Verification Request
"It’s not the entire plot, but when we watched the last Harry Potter movie a friend thought Snape wanted to see Harry’s green eyes again as he died because they were the color of Slytherin house."
– Scondiac
Twist On A Trope
"My mom thought Rogue One had a happy ending because 'they were hugging in front of a sunset' at the end of the movie."
– reality72
Tricked
"My mom loved The Prestige. I expressed surprise because it didn't seem like her kind of movie (she considers Jumanji a horror movie)."
"She was surprised at my surprise and asked why I thought she wouldn't like it. I said it was pretty dark with all the jealousy, revenge, betrayal and murder. She was even more surprised and said she didn't pick up on any of that stuff. She just liked the magicians doing their fun tricks. 🤦♀️"
– KatieCashew
How About A Little Less Conversation
"I watched Elvis in the theater and when the paper showed his death, an older woman behind me gasped and sadly whispered 'oh no, he died'. Earlier, when he took a pill from his doctor, the same lady gasped, 'No, Elvis, don't take that!' One would think someone so devoted to Elvis would know the end of this movie."
– LadyCordeliaStuart
Missing The Memo
"My friend's grandad saw that Beethoven was playing in theaters whilst reading the newspaper. He thought it was a film about the composer. Well, he bought tickets to see it, and if you don't know, it's a movie about a dog. He was like the only adult there without a kid."
– mackedeli
Character Confusion
"My ex girlfriend only realised halfway through Schindler's List that Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes were different people which I found so hilarious as the film must have seemed totally different in her mind."
"So yeah, the hero of a film about the Holocaust being an enthusiastic Nazi casually murdering people and being generally evil."
– Nothing_Is_Revealed
"I have a different story about a realization after watching a half of Schindler's List-only the second half. Rented it from Blockbuster on DVD when I was in high school to watch for the first time- got to the end and realized we had only watched disc 2 (or maybe 2nd side of the only disc? It was 20 years ago). While watching I just thought I was just too dumb to understand this classic, revered movie, hahah"
– StillTurningOuut
Marvel Mistake
"I knew someone that thought thanos snapping his fingers just sent a bunch of people back to their home planet."
– xqlfg
Dead Wrong
"In my high school history class we were talking about The Notebook one day. Someone mentioned the couple dying at the end, and a girl started SOBBING. 'They died?? I thought they fell asleep!' ”
– girlwithdadjokes
Animal Behavior
"I remember someone once saying that 'Scar from the Lion King isn't evil because he is a lion. Wild animals can't be evil, they're just acting on their nature.' Bro kind of forgot the whole 'anthropomorphic talking animals with human like thoughts and morals' part I guess."
– Heroic-Forger
That Sinking Feeling
"When i was a kid and i saw Hunt for Red October and i didn't know the definition of 'defect' ... i had no idea what was going on the entire time."
– JimmDunn
Audiences need to select their entertainment wisely.
Reality Check
"Watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with an uncle. Asked him what he thought afterwards."
“Seems kind of far fetched.”
– truejs
"I watched the The Two Towers with my not-yet-wife, and she was like 'This movie makes no sense, it starts with a bunch of people running and then ... what's happening?' I didn't realize she never saw the first movie."
– ClownfishSoup
"My favourite part about watching the first movie in the theatre was at the end when a guy yelled out 'That's it?!' I guess he didn't realize it was the first of a trilogy and was a little upset at the lack of closure."
– Critical-Border-6845
"Watching Titanic in a cinema in the West End of Glasgow. Ship hits the iceberg, girl behind me says 'Aw, it's gonny sink.'"
"To which her date replied with absolute confidence 'Na, it willnae'."
– ShakeUpWeeple1800
Wrong Genre
"Somehow, my dad completely missed that The Princess Bride is a comedy."
– Flashy_Watercress398
"Inconceivable."
– DamnitDarin
"It was me. I am not a fan of superhero movies but I liked the Xmen when I was younger. So I thought I would check one out. I downloaded one that featured one of my favorites."
"I started watching it, they messed his whole back story up, there weren't any other mutants, basically no action. After about 30 minutes in I realized it wasn't a superhero movie."
"So anyways, Jake Gyllenhaal was really good in Nightcrawler."
– SayNoToStim
"I once, as a kid, watched nearly all of The Wedding Planner, having gotten it confused with The Wedding Singer. Spent the whole time waiting for the rapping granny to show up, thinking it was a lot less funny than the trailer had made it seem..."
– SatNav
Getting Punk'd
"My adult siblings were watching a movie at my mom's house. My mom falls asleep, always. In the move they were going extract a person from someplace. My young niece asks what extract means, my mom wakes up briefly at that time and says 'they are going to pull all his teeth out.' So from that point on, everyone was waiting for that to occur."
– Illustrous_potentate
Dramatic Miss
"I once watched Austin Powers with my much younger brother, and at the end, he said, 'This would be such a cool movie if they would just take things seriously.' He had never seen James Bond and thought the movie was real, but everyone was just bad at acting."
– Such-Ad-5643
Taking Killer Liberties
"My wife is a big history buff, especially US history. She also doesn’t like campy vampire/zombie/monster movies. I made her watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. 10 minutes into the movie she turned to me and said, 'I don’t think this actually happened.'"
– platypus_farmer42
"I saw that in theaters with friends. When we got tickets we asked for 'The Lincoln documentary' and just ran with that idea while watching it. Made the movie a bit funner."
– PhairPharmer
Lost In The Puzzle
"Someone once told me they thought *The Matrix* was about a guy learning to code and getting really good at VR."
– GreerKathi
"I saw the second Matrix movie with a guy who was way outside the pop culture loop, and hadn't really heard anything about either movie. He thought the characters entering/leaving the matrix were being disintegrated, and was at a total loss, thinking the movie was displaying a non-sequential timeline."
– ermghoti
The Narrator
"My mom with every movie ever. It would drive me and my siblings nuts. 10 minutes into the movie she would say, 'I know what they're gonna do. This, this and this. I can read movies like a book.' She would be wrong 95% of the time and being wrong never stuck with her. Did it our entire lives."
"She was also the type that would ask us 20 questions about the movie we're all watching for the first time. Mom has been gone for a year now and these little annoyances become things you miss about them."
– VineStGuy
Despite the confusing plot points and nonsensical character choices in some films, the great thing about movies is that they're subjective.
Moviegoers can derive their respective takeaways, and if an audience member connects with a theme or character relevant to their life experiences, it's a win-win.
@thesinkingcanoe/Instagram
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social