Robert Rodriguez and cast of Hypnotic reveal their favorite movie twists

Daisy Phillipson
Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense

In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Hypnotic director Robert Rodriguez and cast members Alice Braga and William Fichtner opened up about their favorite movie twists. 

Hypnotic is Robert Rodriguez’s latest flick, centering on ​​Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck), a detective who is on a quest to find his missing daughter. But as he pursues a man he believes is connected to the case, he’s sent on a mind-bending journey uncovering a secret organization made up of powerful psychics who can control people’s minds. 

The movie is a departure from the auteur’s usual style – don’t be expecting any B-movie madness à la Machete. Although he did once again wear many hats while making Hypnotic, having directed, produced, and edited the film, while his son Rebel assisted with composing duties. 

As we said in our review, Hypnotic is filled with “more twists than you can shake a stick at,” so Dexerto took the opportunity to ask Rodriguez, as well as stars Alice Braga and William Fichtner what their favorite movie twists are.

Robert Rodriguez and Hypnotic cast share their favorite movie twists

For Braga, who stars in Hypnotic as the gifted psychic Diana Cruz who helps Rourke on his quest, there’s a clear twist that comes to mind: The Sixth Sense. 

As most movie lovers know at this point, M. Night Shyamalan’s iconic horror-thriller ends with the revelation that Bruce Willis’ Dr. Malcolm Crowe has been dead this whole time, and only Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) has been able to communicate with him as he “sees dead people.”

Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense

“The biggest one was Sixth Sense, yeah, that’s a great one,” Braga told us. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting that.” Although The Suicide Squad star did say “the kid was dead” when referring to the twist, she meant to say Crowe (it’s easy to get those two mixed up when there’s so much death talk in the film). 

As for Rodriguez, he highlighted the classic curveball at the end of the original Psycho. “I was just watching Psycho with somebody who had never seen Psycho, and they didn’t know the twist,” he said. 

“It was so fun to watch people who haven’t seen movies that have twists, because I thought they’re going to see the twist coming, of course, by now it’s been imitated so much. No, they didn’t know. So that’s a great one.”

The filmmaker added: “I like showing the movie’s twist and then they don’t know the twist at all. That’s a real joy.”

Janet Leigh in Psycho

Last but definitely not least, Fichtner, who plays the lethal specter Dellrayne in Hypnotic, turned his attention to the movie at hand.

“I have to tell you, you know, not just because we’re on here talking about Hypnotic, but I would say there’s a twist in Hypnotic that once you understand what the world really is, because what you think might be real, very well might be real. But then again, it might not be,” the Armageddon star explained. 

“There’s a beautiful twist that happens with Ben Affleck’s character in Hypnotic that, all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Oh wow, I can’t believe that this is where we really are.’ 

“Like you said, it’s kind of hard to hop into it. But I would say that’s, for films that I personally have worked on, I thought the twist in Hypnotic.”

Hypnotic is in cinemas now. You can check out our other TV and Movie hubs below:

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About The Author

Daisy is a Senior TV and Movies Writer at Dexerto. She's a lover of all things macabre, whether that be horror, crime, psychological thrillers or all of the above. After graduating with a Masters in Magazine Journalism, she's gone on to write for Digital Spy, LADbible and Little White Lies. You can contact her on daisy.phillipson@dexerto.com