20 movies whose narrators can't quite be trusted

One of Christopher Nolan’s earliest hits is Memento , starring Guy Pearce. The story follows insurance investigator Leonard Shelby, who suffers from anterograde amnesia. Due to his memory loss, he uses notes and tattoos to hunt for his wife’s killer, which is the last thing he remembers. As Leonard tries to put the puzzle pieces together, it becomes clear that he knows as little as the audience does and tries to craft a timeline with no proof of existence. 

At its simplest, Fight Club follows a man unsatisfied with his white-collar career and begins a "fight club" with impulsive soap salesman Tyler Durden. As viewers watch the movie, they believe that the man, simply known as The Narrator, is spending time with Tyler. However, it is revealed that Tyler isn’t real but rather an imaginary figure in The Narrator’s mind who he aspires to be like and represents his wants. If Tyler was never real, who knows if anything else was either?

Director David Fincher seems to gravitate towards unreliable narrators in his films, following up Fight Club with Gone Girl. The film follows Nick, who becomes the focus of the media after his wife Amy disappears on their anniversary. Gone Girl doesn’t just have one unreliable narrator but two. Amy’s diary entries show that Nick is lying about their seemingly perfect marriage, while midway through, it is revealed that she carefully framed Nick for her murder and is very much still alive.

Black Swan is a psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman, who won an Academy Award for her performance. Portman plays Nina, a talented but troubled ballerina who is pushed to the edge after competing for the role of the White Swan in Swan Lake. She wants nothing more than to be the best and starts to lose her mind over it. Her reality becomes a series of surreal and disturbing visions and nightmares, and it is her paranoia that ultimately leads her to her end.

I, Tonya tells the true story of competitive figure skater Tonya Harding, including her rise and downfall. But how true is it? Harding’s ex-husband infamously orchestrated an attack on Harding’s skating rival, Nancy Kerrigan. Viewers soon discover they are not in for a straightforward story, as Harding breaks the fourth wall as she is interviewed, giving her version of events. She claims that everyone has their own truth, and the film tells her own truth, which is likely not the actual truth. 

DC delivers a gritty, violent, and realistic portrayal of a classic Batman villain in Joker. The story follows aspiring comedian Arthur Fleck, who is shunned and rejected by society. This puts him on a path to becoming the famous Clown Prince. In the film, Arthur has serious and unresolved mental health issues, giving way to chaos and delusion. It is revealed he fabricated a romantic relationship with his neighbor, so who is to say that anything else he’s done or said isn’t just in his head?

Shutter Island follows US marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, who are sent to an asylum on a remote island to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Their surroundings leave them highly unsettled, and it is revealed that Teddy is actually a patient at the asylum, which viewers aren’t aware of until the film's end. He murdered his wife, who went insane and killed their children, and Chuck has been role-playing with Teddy up until this point in the hope of curing his insanity.  

Donnie Darko is a cult classic that continues to puzzle audiences to this day, with many interpreting the film's events in different ways. The main plot follows Donnie, a troubled teenage boy with visions of a man in a bunny costume who warns him of the world’s end. In the film, Donnie sees a psychiatrist, and it is alluded to that he may have some form of paranoia or schizophrenia. Because of this, we don’t know if Donnie’s visions are real or if the world really is going to end. 

In American Psycho , Christian Bale plays Patrick Bateman, a slick and wealthy investment banker. In truth, he is a psychopathic serial killer who hides his identity from his friends. As the film progresses, Patrick delves deeper into his hedonistic fantasies. Patrick revels in his narcissism and pride, telling elaborate lies and putting on a charming face for everybody. Certain details hint that Patrick may have fantasized about his killing spree rather than it actually happening. 

While a lot of unreliable narrators deliberately lie, there are those who aren’t even aware that they are doing anything of the sort. This occurs in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, which follows a child psychologist, Malcolm, who treats a young boy who claims he can see dead people. In a classic Shyamalan twist, Malcolm visits his estranged wife and discovers he is actually dead, locating a gunshot wound from the start of the film that viewers thought he had survived. 

One of Tim Burton’s most acclaimed films is the fantastical Big Fish, starring Ewan McGregor. McGregor plays Will Bloom, who returns home to care for his dying father. He has a problem with the fanciful and extravagant tales his father tells of his life and, on his passing, tries to discover if they are true. The film has two unreliable narrators, the main one being Will’s father as he tells his tales, and Will himself, as he tries to uncover the mystery with information that isn’t verified. 

In the visually stunning Life of Pi, a man is visited by a writer. He recounts his story of surviving a shipwreck and being stuck at sea on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra, and orangutan. His story is almost fantastical, and near the end of the film, he tells another version of it, this time more realistic and horrifying. The writer is forced to decide which story he believes and will write about, as Pi never confirms which one is true. Here’s hoping it was the former. 

Forrest Gump is one of the most beloved movies of all time, but sometimes, it's difficult to believe Forrest and his tales. Forrest’s life takes grand turns, including meeting presidents like Kennedy and Nixon, going to war, competing in ping-pong against China, and having a TV interview alongside John Lennon. Forrest’s IQ level is at 75, so the credibility of his storytelling is questionable. However, his story is so endearing and joyful that you can’t help but go along with it.

Denzel Washington and John Goodman star in the underrated supernatural crime-thriller Fallen. The pair play detectives who investigate a series of gruesome murders and are eventually led to believe that an evil spirit is carrying them out. The film has two narrators, one being Washington’s Hobbes and the other the murderous demon Azazel, the latter revealed at the film’s end. Both are contradictory, and Hobbes is grasping at straws while trying to uncover the truth.

One of Akira Kurosawa’s greatest and most influential films is Rashomon, which follows a mystery centered around the death of a samurai. The events are told from the perspective of four different characters, each contradictory. Only one version can be correct, making the audience question the motives and nature of each character. The film helped coin the term "Rashomon Effect," referring to an event that is interpreted by different people in different ways. 

A textbook example of an unreliable narrator is Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. The film tells the story of Belfort’s rise and fall as a stockbroker and his corrupt life. His unreliability is illustrated throughout the movie as he breaks the fourth wall and even corrects his memory, changing the details of one scene. Belfort is also high on alcohol, drugs, and power throughout the entire film, so the validity of everything he says and describes must be questioned. 

Leonardo DiCaprio plays another unreliable narrator in Catch Me If You Can. In the film, he portrays Frank Abagnale Jr., a con man who poses as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, making millions before his twenty-first birthday. He is chased by the FBI but is always one step ahead. The movie is based on Abagnale Jr.’s autobiography, but if he famously lied and conned to make a living and was able to fool people so easily, can any of his claims be believed? 

The Usual Suspects is a film that plays with its audience and pulls the rug with its memorable ending. Conman Verbal Kint is the sole survivor of a robbery gone wrong, and he is being questioned at a police station. When asked about the incident, he explains his involvement with four other criminals who worked for criminal mastermind Keyser Soze. The cops and audience shouldn’t believe a word out of Kint’s mouth, as he tells a story that is revealed to be completely fabricated. 

Briony Tallis from Atonement is certainly one of the most universally disliked unreliable narrators, with her lies changing the entire course of people’s lives. As a child, she catches her older cousin Cecilia in a passionate embrace with her lover Robbie. Jealous and confused, Briony accuses Robbie of raping Cecilia, and the lie has catastrophic consequences. The audience sees that the pair are being consensually intimate, leaving no question as to whether Briony is telling the truth. 

Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas follows Henry Hill, who grows up idolizing the mafia and eventually joins them. Rising in the ranks alongside friends Tommy and Jimmy, Henry eventually distances himself and betrays the pair. There is no question as to whether or not the events in the film happened, but rather how they are portrayed. Henry heavily glamorizes his time in the mob, describing it as exciting and enticing the audience before the darker realities reveal themselves.