History MindScrew / LiveActionFilms

** Tarkovsky himself admitted that he didn't understand the full meaning of some of the scenes in ''Film/TheMirror'', which jumps back and forth randomly between different points in the protagonist's childhood and adulthood, ostensibly because the protagonist, Alexei, is having a deathbed stream-of-consciousness dream/reminiscence of his life. The idea that anything is possible in a dream seems the only explanation for such scenes as the one where a strange woman asks Alexei's son Ignat to read a poem by Creator/AlexanderPushkin, only for him to be interrupted by a woman knocking at the door who apologises for getting the wrong address, and when Ignat returns, the strange woman has vanished, but the condensation under her teacup is still on the table.

* ''Film/Persona1966'' features an actress who goes mute, except maybe she really isn't but wants to get away from her life. Her nurse wants to become the actress because she hates herself, and maybe she did. Or didn't. The actress also has a son that is involved... somehow. The opening scenes feature dead bodies, a sheep being stabbed with a knife, and [[WriterRevolt an erect penis]]. What does all this have to do with the rest of the film? [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment No idea]], as it's even more out of place than the rest of the movie. Anyone who says they get what's going on [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible is lying]].

* ''Film/ArizonaDream'' by Creator/EmirKusturica. [[CloudCuckoolander Insanely weird characters]]? Check. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Odd dreams]]? Check. [[MindScrew Flying fish]]?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.

* The Swedish film ''Film/{{Persona 1966}}'' features an actress who goes mute, except maybe she really isn't but wants to get away from her life. Her nurse wants to become the actress because she hates herself, and maybe she did. Or didn't. The actress also has a son that is involved... somehow. The opening scenes feature dead bodies, a sheep being stabbed with a knife, and [[WriterRevolt an erect penis]]. What does all this have to do with the rest of the film? [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment No idea]], as it's even more out of place than the rest of the movie. Anyone who says they get what's going on [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible is lying]].

* The movie ''[=Pi=]'' (''Film/{{Pi}}'') has a paranoid mathematical genius, Hebrew numerology, conspiracies, neurological headaches, the secret name of God, and [[spoiler:the protagonist taking [[ThisIsADrill A Drill]] to his head to escape all this crap]]. To top it off, it's in black and white. And is scored to techno music.

* If you don't know the twist in ''TheSixthSense'' you will experience the most thorough fucking of your mind ever. [[spoiler: The protagonist died five minutes in. The other protagonist knew the whole time and kept it a secret. The wife has been grieving this entire time.]] It's not so much that the twist in question happened, but that the audience realizes immediately how much sense it makes.

** ''Film/{{Stalker}}'' gives us trains that cause the title character's tiny apartment to rattle, only for the sound to briefly change into the strains of "La Marseillaise" or Wagner's ''Tannhauser'' overture or Ravel's ''Bolero'' or Beethoven's Symphony No.9, and then there's the ending, in which the stalker's daughter, "Monkey", telekinetically pushes three glasses across a table... a scene whose meaning remains hotly debated.

* ''Film/ArizonaDream'' by Emir Kusturica. [[CloudCuckoolander Insanely weird characters]]? Check. [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Odd dreams]]? Check. [[MindScrew Flying fish]]?! You bet! So, what exactly happened in the movie? Well, it sort of varies.

* ''Film/EaglesGathered'' is set in the underworld, which doesn't function according to normal human logic. Bob the (maybe) angel randomly switches bodies without warning, plot threads appear and disappear without warning or explanation, and the main characters' plans only work when they're completely incoherent. And that's the least of it.

* ''Film/WhatTheBleepDoWeKnow'' is a ''major, major'' offender of this one. If you can make some sense out of the cryptic, convoluted {{Technobabble}} about Quantum Mechanics, Religion, Life, the Universe and Everything, you'll see how this movie easily beats ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' in terms of head-trippiness, even though even Wiki/TheOtherWiki agrees it's all just quantum mysticism mixed with the ideas of some new age school. [[http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/bleep.html According to Intuitor]], it also completely messed up Quantum Physics, horrible research, biases and scientific inaccuracies destroyed any hope of correct science.

* The indie film ''Archie's Final Project'' aka ''My Suicide'' is a bit of a mind screw. The whole movie is meant to be a school project made by the main character, who is a teenage boy with a movie obsession and probably several mental illnesses. The first hour or so has a lot of slightly obscure movie references and a lot of random animation, images, and voice overs that don't really make sense, especially not the first time you watch it.

* ''Clean, Shaven'' is largely about providing a more objective look at schizophrenia and it's effects. Although the plot is straight forward, it's a mind screw because uses a lot of unusual/disturbing images and sounds to give us an insight into the protagonists condition.

* The Netflix-exclusive short film ''Example Show'', re-released under names such as ''Example Short 23.976 Clear Show'', ''Example Short 23.976 Burned In Timecode Remote Content'' and other strange titles. It involves [[LeaveTheCameraRunning lingering shots]] of the Netflix building gardens and a model train carrying toy penguins as the actor/director runs around doing random stuff and eventually quoting ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. WordOfGod says that it was short made by a freelancer meant as a way for people streaming from Netflix to test their video players. The short has been subject to much MemeticMutation, usually along the same lines as "Three Wolf Moon."

* ''The Guards'', a 1965 Norwegian film by director Arne Skouen, telling the story of a soldier who neglects his duties because of a moral responsibility for a psych ward full of children with psychological problems. The story revolves around a court martial held afterwards, but to be fair, it is not certain whether the whole trial is in the soldier's head, or if he and the other adults working in the ward are actually as far out as the children they tend to. And then there is the oldest charge, a fourteen year old girl, CreepyChild and psychic to boot. The movie ends with a spectacular GainaxEnding. It tends to be the biggest MindScrew ever made in Norway.

* ''I Love Your Work'' isn't as extreme as others on this list, as a simple [[spoiler: "I guess it was all in his head"]] makes sense of it as a whole, as the ending makes that seem like the most likely explanation. But some scenes are still pretty odd.

* ''Paranoia 1.0'' (often known only as ''One Point O'') is as mind-screwy as it gets. A man (Jeremy Sisto, no less) receives empty packages while constantly dozing off in front of his computer: he's trying to write a program to meet a deadline, but he's constantly falling asleep and receiving empty packages... and developing an increasingly unhealthy craving for "Nature Fresh Milk". The apartment complex is full of people who have cravings for equally irrelevant things and there is a landlord that watches everything. Everything in the movie (e.g. what the empty packages are, why the landlord has an equivalent craving for packed meat, etc.) is explained in a logical and sensible manner -- that is, until the movie decides to crank up the mind-screw-gears [[UpToEleven to twelve hundred]] and then flat out breaks the gauge and lets the whole thing explode. Thus, you just face an ending that leaves you wondering what you just watched.