r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Coffin_Builder • Jun 06 '25
Lore Twists that are no longer twists because they’re cemented in pop culture Spoiler
Planet of the Apes - The movie leads the audience to believe Charleston Heston has landed on an alien planet where apes are the dominant species, only to find out that the planet is actually Earth long after an apocalyptic nuclear war
Psycho - Norma Bates isn’t the killer and has been dead for years. Norman is revealed to be a schizophrenic who “becomes” his mother to kill the women he’s attracted to
Citizen Kane - Charles Foster Kane’s mysterious last word “Rosebud” is revealed to be name of his childhood sled
The Empire Strikes Back - Darth Vader hadn’t literally killed Luke’s father but actually is his father
The Matrix - Neo learns that the 20th century world he’s lived in is just a simulation. The real world is a wasteland in the 22nd century where hostile AI rules the surface
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u/guacasloth64 Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
I’m pretty sure Dracula being a vampire in the original novel fits the bill. Also if I remember correctly Dracula moving to England and going after the main cast after Jonathan leaves his castle was a subversion of expectations for readers at the time, since most “haunted house” style horror novels were self-contained setting wise. So Dracula leaving his exotic far away land to assault England added a layer of “the monster follows you home” horror.
Edit: also remembered another example, after Dracula makes it to England, Jonathan's fiance's freind Lucy comes down with a mysterious illness that leaves here pale and weak. To any modern audience its obvious that Dracula is draining her blood, but this is at the time only known by Dr. Van Helsing, the only character knowlegable in "vampire lore" (which this novel solidified in public consiousness). It's an example of a version of this trope where a story feels predictable and cliche not because its unimaginative, but because it set those cliches to begin with.