12 Years Ago, Ben Affleck's Masterclass Thriller on Netflix Gave Us the Greatest Twist

Published Sep 13, 2026, 7:44 AM EDT

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Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.

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Ben Affleck has made waves in front of and behind the camera, but one role was his masterpiece. The Argo director fit seamlessly into David Fincher’s near-perfect psychological thriller, Gone Girl. Adapted by Gillian Flynn from her own best-selling novel, the film more than touches on the toxic dynamics of marriage and whether one can truly know their partner.

Affleck stars as Nick Dunne, whose life is destroyed one day when his wife disappears from their Missouri home. Gone Girl is dark and tantalizing, drawing viewers into a world constructed by an unreliable narrator. As good as Affleck is in the role of a confused husband along for the ride, it is only a facet of what the thriller has to offer. The crime story will continue to challenge relationships everywhere after revealing a plot twist to end all plot twists.

‘Gone Girl’ Delivers a Gut-Punch With the Iconic Amy Elliott Dunne

No one can quite describe the feeling of encountering the twist at the halfway point of Gone Girl for the first time. David Fincher’s top-tier thriller seems to be one story when it turns out Nick’s wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has been telling a better one. For the first half of the movie, Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) follows what seem to be concrete clues surrounding Amy’s disappearance. The more she looks at Nick, the more it seems that he was not only behind it, but could very well be the murderer.

That is what makes it so shocking when Amy takes control of the narrative that always belonged to her. It turns out that most of her journal entries were fabricated, and she is the epitome of an unreliable narrator. She did this all to frame Nick for her murder after she catches him cheating with one of his young students.

Amy proudly details the painstaking effort it took to convincingly frame her hapless husband and get away with it. Gone Girl is not just a commentary on marriage but on the role dead women take in crime stories. Amy could have been another female victim in a murder mystery that is lamented and used to carry the plot forward. She refuses to be anyone’s plot device and instead shows that she is the story's true architect.

Couples will fight forever over whom the real victim is, but one thing is for certain. There is no one quite like Amy Elliott Dunne. Her sharp intelligence and vicious conviction get her out of scenarios that no one else would survive. This all culminates in the ending of Gone Girl, which throws viewers for yet another loop. In the decade since the Fincher movie first premiered, Gone Girl still has one of the best plot twists. Amy proves that Nick isn’t really a victim, but her true equal as she fights to get back to him.

Now viewers can experience this twist again and again via Gone Girl’s new streaming home on Netflix. Accompanied by a killer score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, along with Fincher’s moody editing style, this masterful psychological thriller has no equal.