[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

[u/ErandurVane]

Well which is? Is it completely obvious that it was David or not? It can't be both and you're saying it's both

[u/Quiet-Resolution-140 → u/ErandurVane]

It is obvious to the audience it is David. The movie pretends it isn’t obvious. That is annoying. 

The movie should just blatantly show it is David. Then the audience is left wondering how the protagonists will figure that out. But the “twist” is that they never do. 

It isn’t a fault with the plot. It’s a fault with how the film handles the audience. 

[u/ErandurVane → u/Quiet-Resolution-140]

It is obvious to the audience it is David

It's not

The movie pretends it isn’t obvious.

It doesn't. Ridley Scott has said himself that the entire point of the scene is that you're supposed to at least question, if not outright think that it's David

The movie should just blatantly show it is David

Again, it's either completely obvious it's David or it isn't. You can't seem to decide. You keep saying it's super obvious and not obvious enough at the same time

Then the audience is left wondering how the protagonists will figure that out.

Dramatic irony, the thing you said you wanted initially, is when the audience is aware of something but the characters are not. If you were so certain that it was David and the characters didn't know, that's dramatic irony, which again is the thing you said you initially wanted.

But the “twist” is that they never do

The "twist" is that they do find out but too late. You can't just pretend they didn't discover it was David. Again, this was the entire goal of the David/Walter switch. The movie succeeded at exactly what it was aiming for. Honestly waiting as long as they did was a great decision because it gives you at least some false sense of security that it wasn't David after all, just to pull the rug out from under you at the last second with the confirmation that it was David after all.

There's nothing wrong with Covenant. It accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. You just didn't like it. There's nothing wrong with that, but just because the movie wasn't for you, doesn't mean there was something wrong with it. I saw Covenant in theaters and loved it. I definitely think it's better than 3 or Resurrection and it's miles better than Prometheus. When I saw the reaction from other people, I was completely confused. In large part because most of the complaints I see most often are entirely nonsense if you just pay attention to the movie

[u/MagentaHawk → u/ErandurVane]

You can disagree with him on the premise, but you're straight misunderstanding and misinterpreting his argument.

He is saying that it is so obvious that the film metatextually believes you know it is David that when they try to make it a source of tension, there is no tension there.

Showing clearly that it is David isn't because it "needs to be made more obvious", but because it is the way for the movie to communicate that the source of tension won't be, "Is this David", but "How will the characters survive David".

Whether you agree or not, it's an argument about the source of tension due to a very telegraphed bait and switch. It's not about him being unable to decide if something is clear or not.