10 Movies That Abandoned Their Main Plot And Got Even Better

These Movies Changed Tracks and Genres

Movies usually stick to a single genre to deliver a clear vision and maintain the essence of their story. Rarely does a film decide to shift its plot or tone midway and when they do, it often ends in disaster, leaving audiences disappointed. But there are exceptions. Here, we present a list of movies that not only embraced a sudden change in plot and genre but managed to pull it off brilliantly.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

A case of mistaken identity leads to a simple-minded slacker, "The Dude," being hired to deliver the ransom for a millionaire's kidnapped wife. The movie could not care less about the kidnapping. The "plot" is just an excuse for The Dude to wander through 1990s Los Angeles. The film happily abandons its main story for long stretches to focus on bowling tournaments, surreal musical dream sequences, nihilist porn-stars, and a stolen rug that "really tied the room together."

Adaptation (2002)

A self-loathing, neurotic screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman tries to adapt a quiet, non-narrative book about an orchid thief. The film literally strays from its plot about the plot. Frustrated, Charlie watches as his hacky (and fictional) twin brother, Donald, writes a generic, on-the-nose action-thriller. That trashy thriller plot—involving drugs, guns, a car chase, and an alligator in a swamp—then hijacks the "real" movie, becoming the film's own ridiculous, high-octane climax.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

A pair of hitmen (John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson) must retrieve a mysterious briefcase for their boss, Marsellus Wallace. The film completely abandons its protagonists to follow a boxer (Bruce Willis) who's supposed to throw a fight. The hitmen themselves are sidetracked by a date, a long-winded story about a gold watch, and a "clean-up" job that takes up a huge chunk of the runtime. Nevertheless, Pulp Fiction is a cult classic.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

A group of prima-donna actors sets out to film a gritty, Oscar-baiting Vietnam War movie. The director, fed up, drops the actors in a real jungle to "find" the movie. They immediately stumble into the middle of a real-life drug-trafficking war. The "plot" of making a film is instantly abandoned for a new plot: a desperate, real-life rescue mission where the actors have to become the heroes they were pretending to be.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock famously pulls the rug out from under the audience 47 minutes in. He kills the female lead in the shower. The plot, the stolen money, and the entire movie we thought we were watching are brutally murdered, and the film pivots to a completely different protagonist (Norman Bates) and a new, terrifying psychological horror-mystery. Of course, Psycho remains a must-watch classic!

Sunshine (2007)

In the near future, the sun is dying, and a team of astronauts is on a mission to reignite it with a massive nuclear bomb. What starts off as a beautiful film inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey style psychological thriller. In the final act, it abruptly and completely changes genres, becoming a gory, fast-paced slasher movie as the deformed, monstrous survivor from a previous mission boards their ship and hunts them one by one.

The World's End (2013)

A sad-sack alcoholic (Simon Pegg) manipulates his four successful childhood friends into returning to their hometown to complete a legendary 12-stop pub crawl. About a third of the way through, this melancholy comedy about addiction and middle-aged regret takes a sharp left turn. The friends discover that their entire town has been slowly and methodically replaced by blue-blooded alien robots, and their pub crawl becomes a desperate fight for the survival of the human race.

Hancock (2008)

A cynical, alcoholic superhero (Will Smith) with a terrible public image agrees to a PR makeover from a man he saved (Jason Bateman). This is one of the most famous narrative "hard turns" in blockbuster history. The entire first half is a superhero-redemption comedy. The second half abruptly reveals that the PR guy's wife (Charlize Theron) is also a superhero, and they are, in fact, immortal, god-like beings who are each other's destined soulmates and lose their powers when they are near.

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

A sharp, surreal, dark comedy about a telemarketer named Cassius (LaKeith Stanfield) who finds success by using his "white voice," forcing him to choose between his activist friends and corporate greed. In its final act, this already-weird satire strays into one of the most bizarre plot twists in modern cinema. Cassius discovers the company's ultimate secret: a body-horror conspiracy to create literal horse-people (Equisapiens) for a new, stronger, more obedient workforce.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

The movie initially starts off as a hostage drama. The brothers and their hostages arrive at their rendezvous point, the Twister bar. For a full 45 minutes, it's a tense hostage drama. This is the most famous plot shift in film history. Suddenly, everybody in the movie turns into a full-blown vampire. The movie instantly and violently becomes a completely different film: a gory, over-the-top, siege-horror-action-comedy.