10 Movies You Have To Pay Attention To The Whole Way Through

Summary

• Certain movies demand audience attention for full comprehension due to non-linear narratives and speculative premises.
• Christopher Nolan movies like
  Tenet
  and
  Inception
  challenge viewers with complex plots and ambiguous endings.
• Understanding confusing movies like
  Black Swan
  and
  The Game
  requires close attention to unravel plot twists and narrative structures.

Certain movies demand the audience’s attention from beginning to end because they won’t understand what is going on otherwise. Confusing movies with complicated endings can be very satisfying to watch if the viewer accomplishes the impossible and comprehends everything that happens on screen. Oftentimes, this is due to non-linear narratives and speculative scientific premises, showcasing characters who are supposed to be experts in a specific field while the audience is not.

It is no secret that some of Christopher Nolan’s best (and worst) movies are major offenders in this regard, as the Oscar-winning director has always favored twisting narratives and complex sci-fi. Some mysteries and psychological thrillers also require brainpower from the audience when it is implied that what is seen on screen cannot be trusted. Within all of these subgenres, movies might not make sense until the very end, as that is when all questions will be answered — or even more will come up.

10 Tenet (2020)

Nolan’s Unconventional Time Travel Adventure Has Multiple Layers

Tenet revolves around a deeply fascinating approach to time travel where characters move backward through time, with all their actions happening in reverse. The movie soon spins out of control when it is revealed that there are layers upon layers of different people who have been traveling backward for years, possibly changing direction at some point. Some of Tenet‘s reveals of a previously anonymous character being one of the main cast from the future are satisfying, while audiences are still working out others.

Tenet’s ending explained is not simple, and the movie feels like it has some plot holes, but the whole thing is too complicated to identify them.

Tenet‘s ending explained is not simple, and the movie feels like it has some plot holes, but the whole thing is too complicated to identify them. Additionally, Tenet tends to introduce new characters and missions rapidly, possibly losing some people who want a clearer explanation of what everyone is doing. They are all highly trained agents who can keep up with fast-paced scientific diatribes, but that doesn’t mean the audience can unless they are listening aptly at every moment.

9 Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind (2004)

Eternal Sunshine’s Seemingly Simple Premise Is Entwined With A Complicated Narrative

The basic premise of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is easy enough to understand: In this setting, medicine is advanced enough to erase a couple’s memories of each other through surgery. However, this is soon complicated through flashbacks, mental projections, and subplot twists. Joel and Clementine’s relationship is primarily revealed through flashbacks as Joel is undergoing the procedure, which itself becomes harder to understand when the technicians need to restart it.

Meanwhile, the Lacuna employees are involved in their own drama which leads to one of them sending Joel and Clementine the tapes of their memories, just after they have gotten back together. Despite what the tapes reveal, they decide to try again. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind isn’t a movie of specifics; the audience is meant to suspend its disbelief in the science and logic of it all in service of a story about love being messy.

8 Lost Highway (1997)

Parallel Storylines Overlap In Lost Highway

David Lynch’s underrated movie Lost Highway is a complete mess of unresolved mysteries and possible double identities, a strange transition midway through that *maybe* implies different characters are the same, and a ghostly voyeur stalking and commenting upon events throughout the movie. Like some other possible dream-sequence movies, Lost Highway is up for interpretation. The mysteries of who Pete and Alice are to Fred and Renee are unsolved, before segueing into the movie’s open ending.

Essentially, the second half of the movie and the connections drawn between different characters must have some kind of symbolic meaning. Most likely, Lost Highway is showcasing a perversion of Fred’s insecurity in his relationship with his wife and the kind of dynamic he wants to have. However, viewers are welcome to scrutinize every scene and come to their own conclusions.

7 Black Swan (2010)

The Main Character’s Perspective Cannot Be Trusted In Black Swan

Black Swan hinges on everything the audience sees is what Nina sees, although this may not be what is happening in the movie’s reality. Nina believes that her understudy for the lead role in Swan Lake means to harm her in order to dance on opening night. Nina supposedly dies on opening night after finishing the performance, believing that she has escaped a brutal fight with Lily when she actually stabbed herself.

The Black Swan cast is symbolically associated with the main characters of Swan Lake; namely Odette, the innocent Swan Queen, and Odile, the seductive and manipulative Black Swan. It is possible to explain everything unrealistic, or that another character says didn’t happen, by concluding that it was Nina hallucinating. However, Black Swan still leaves many questions in its wake about the meaning of everything — while one can interpret everything in a literal sense, they still have to think about what everything that happens is figuratively conveying.

6 Arrival (2016)

Arrival’s Story Moves Forwards & Backwards Through Linguistic Concepts

Arrival begins at the end, something the viewer does not realize until late in the story. Arrival has an incredibly weighty tone that already demands attention, as every translation and deliberation has potentially catastrophic consequences. In its defense, the narrative of the main character figuring out how to communicate with the aliens who have arrived on planet Earth is engaging and curates an appreciation for the field of linguistics.

However, Arrival‘s plot twist depends upon an understanding of language that inherently cannot be understood. Real languages do not work the way the alien one does in Arrival, granting the learner future insights just by being able to understand it. Every scene in the movie needs to be watched carefully to determine when it is happening in the characters’ timeline, but it may still be difficult to wrap one’s head around this core concept.

5 Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Everything Everywhere All At Once Is A Tapestry Of Different Universes & Timelines

Everything Everywhere All at Once thrives on chaos and confusion, blurring together Evelyn’s many different realities. The story is easy enough to follow, but in the end, it is not clear which Wang family the audience is now viewing. Meanwhile, the movies cuts between different universes at a rapid pace, and it’s sometimes not clear how Evelyn and Joy got to where they are in a specific setting.

However, Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s meaning is dependent upon this confusion, making it a uniquely satisfying mess. Jobu Tupaki’s character exposits complete nihilism stemming from there being too many realities for individual lives and experiences to mean anything. The movie arrives at the conclusion that all the characters can do is enjoy the life they have because it at least means something to them. The cacophony of alternatives the audience sees before then elevates the message, even if the they don’t completely understand it.

4 Memento (2001)

Memento’s Inverted Narrative Is Full Of Surprises

At Memento‘s ending, the action scene at the beginning doesn’t quite connect, possibly necessitating a second viewing. Memento depicts events happening in reverse order, where the protagonist doesn’t remember what happened moments before due to short-term memory loss. After adjusting to this format, the viewer might feel like the mystery is easily understood as it unravels. However, they still need to pay close attention as some less pertinent details are going to come back around later.

The conclusion is that the protagonist has constructed a dangerous reality for himself to have a sense of purpose following a tragedy in his life. When watching the movie for the first time, unaware of how the narrative works, it can be difficult to pick up on the sequence of events. Like several of Nolan’s movies, Memento is an intellectual and philosophical challenge.

3 The Game (1997)

David Fincher’s Thriller About A Banker Wading Through The Game Of Truth & Lies

The Game‘s ending, like several other similar movies, leaves many questions unanswered concerning what was real after all. The mysterious CRS orchestrates everything that happens throughout The Game, creating shock value when it is revealed that it is all a part of the plan. The events that play out in the movie are apparently set in motion by the main character’s brother to end his cynical lifestyle and existential crisis.

Yet maybe these events were not based on good intentions, but are just a cruel capitalist venture. However, The Game‘s ending implies that Nicholas is now in a better place when he agrees to go out with Christine. One theory is that The Game is loosely based on A Christmas Carol, which encapsulates a version of its moral. In a basic sense, The Game is also about a grumpy miser put through a series of semi-realistic dangers that force him to make changes in his life.

2 Mulholland Drive (2001)

Mulholland Drive Has Famously Puzzled Audiences For Decades

Like Nolan, David Lynch apparently loves creating baffling narratives. Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire form an unofficial trilogy of movies all set in Hollywood and pondering questions of desire and identity. Like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive implies the possibility of everything being a dream that represents something one of the main characters wants. In this case, the movie delves into what Diane Selwyn wants through her alleged dream sequence.

There are many different interpretations of Mulholland Drive and what it has to say about Hollywood, relationships, and identity.

There are many different interpretations of Mulholland Drive and what it has to say about Hollywood, relationships, and identity. However, if the first half of the movie is a dream — which many people agree that it is — both what Betty and Rita do in the “dream” and what Diane and Camilla do in “real life” must have been chosen deliberately. Mulholland Drive challenges viewers to watch carefully to discover all its nuances and perhaps come to a more definitive conclusion.

1 Inception (2010)

It Is Never Clear What Is Real In Nolan’s Career-Defining Inception

Inception‘s ending famously has no answer, and fans will never know for sure if Cobb made it back to his children or if he is still dreaming. The mechanics of Inception are complicated enough, with Cobb’s team moving swiftly through one dream layer to the next. However, the movie certainly enjoys revealing that a character is dreaming multiple times within the first few minutes, instantly establishing a muddled definition of reality.

In other words, it is necessary to pay attention to every scene to keep up with what Cobb, Arthur, Ariadne, and the rest are doing. Like some other confusing sci-fi movies, Inception is built on a speculative premise and features a narrative that treats it as real, with complex explanations. How certain characters get in and out of dreams is still unclear, forcing people to watch Inception again and again.