Nollywood is renowned globally for its dramatic storytelling. Still, nothing elevates a film quite like a brilliant, jaw-dropping plot twist that leads viewers confidently down one path before suddenly ripping the rug out from under their feet.
From family secrets and boardroom betrayals to supernatural reversals and hidden identities, these movies have major spoilers and plots designed to make you gasp, rewind, and question everything that shows on your screen.
To avoid ruining it for you in case you still want to be surprised, we’ve tagged the plot twist so you can avoid it.
10. Men In Love (2010)
Running time: 1h 15m
Director: Moses Ebere
Genre: Drama
The marriage of Charles (John Dumelo) and Whitney (Tonto Dikeh) is under strain due to Charles’ persistent serial cheating. They attempt a vacation to save their relationship, but Charles’ distraction by other women continues. Complicating matters further, Charles’ old friend, Alex (Muna Obiekwe), arrives and begins making aggressive romantic advances toward him, unexpectedly inserting a subplot involving Alex’s homosexuality.
Plot Twist: Here, the plot of an already bad movie veers into the absurd and ignorant territory of early 2000s filmmaking in Nollywood. After building up the drama around Alex’s same-sex attraction, the shocking twist follows: Alex is not, in fact, gay. Instead, Nollywood explains away his attraction as a “demonic curse” — a literal spell cast by a village witch — ridiculously establishing queerness as an infectious problem rather than a genuine identity.
9. Captured (2025)
Running time: 1h 50m
Director: Jide ‘Blaze’ Oyegbile
Genre: Thriller, Drama
This is a drama about a missing child and the emotional turmoil of a broken family trying to find her. The search for the kidnapped child intensifies, focusing on who could possibly be holding her captive and why. The tension builds around a desperate, unknown threat trying to extort the family.
Plot Twist: The whole mystery is turned upside down when it’s revealed that the kidnapping was staged by the child herself. She orchestrated the entire disappearance and ransom demand to get back at her dad for treating her mom badly and to secure enough money to get her and them out of the country.
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8. Devil Is A Liar (2025)
Running time: 1h 39m
Director: Moses Inwang
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Adaora Phillips (Nse Ikpe-Etim) is a successful, career-driven woman who’s being harassed by society for being unmarried. She finally meets Jaiye, a younger man who seems too perfect to be true. They marry, but the perfection shatters when Jaiye begins to psychologically torment her, slowly isolating her and stripping her of her career and self-worth.
Plot Twist: The entire narrative of Adaora as a victim who must claw her way back from ruin after Jaiye bankrupts her serves as a setup. The shocking reveal is that Adaora engineered the entire relationship, the marriage, and the subsequent “financial ruin” as a long game for revenge against Jaiye for something he did to her years ago. She faked her own breakdown and calculated every single step to bring him down.
Watch Devil Is A Liar on Netflix.
7. The Set Up (2019)
Running time: 1h 44m
Director: Niyi Akinmolayan
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Chike (Adesua Etomi-Wellington), a former drug trafficker, is rescued from the law and hired by Madam Enitan (Tina Mba) to work with Edem (Jim Iyke) to execute an elaborate, high-stakes con. They are going to defraud a seemingly naive heiress, Motunrayo (Dakore Egbuson-Akande) of her massive fortune.
Plot Twist: Chike thinks she’s the one running the game, expertly navigating fake identities, double-crosses, and dangerous associates. We soon realize that Chike is merely a pawn in Madam Enitan’s game, a tool she plans to hand over to law enforcement for her past involvement in the drug world. When Chike discovers her betrayal, she turns the tables on her madam.
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6. Red Circle (2025)
Running time: 1h 59m
Director: Akay Ilozobhie
Genre: Crime Thriller
Fikayo Holloway (Folu Storm), a journalist from an elite Lagos family, goes rogue to investigate a highly dangerous, organised crime ring known as the “Red Circle.” Driven by her journalistic integrity and a desire to expose the darkness hidden beneath Lagos’s wealth, she closes in on the syndicate’s shadowy operations, facing threats that hit uncomfortably close to her wealthy home.
Plot Twist: The betrayal is exposed in the final act as the matriarch of the Holloway family is revealed to be the leader of the Red Circle crime syndicate she is investigating.
Red Circle isn’t currently streaming anywhere.
5. The Black Book (2023)
Running time: 2h 7m
Director: Editi Effiong
Genre: Crime, Action Thriller
Paul Edima (Richard Mofe-Damijo), a devout church deacon, is forced to return to his dark past as an assassin when corrupt police officers, working for the nefarious General Issa (Alex Usifo), unjustly murder his innocent son. Edima embarks on a brutal, John Wick-style quest for revenge, assisted by Victoria Kalu (Ade Laoye), a journalist.
Plot Twist: Shockingly, Edima was General Issa’s former top assassin, and one of the last jobs he carried out before leaving his dark life was killing the mother of Victoria Kalu, the investigative journalist helping him expose Issa. Edima’s path to justice for his son is inextricably linked to seeking atonement for the sin of murdering Victoria’s mother years ago. His revenge mission is a twisted form of penance.
Watch The Black Book on Netflix.
4. The Figurine (2009)
Running time: 2h 2m
Director: Kunle Afolayan
Genre: Thriller
Two friends, Sola (Kunle Afolayan) and Femi (Ramsey Nouah), find a mystical wooden figurine of the goddess Araromire in an abandoned shrine during their NYSC camp. According to the legend, the figurine grants seven years of unbelievable good luck, followed immediately by seven years of devastating bad luck.
Sola takes the figurine, and both friends achieve wild success. Seven years later, the bad luck starts, and Femi begins to struggle, convinced the goddess is exacting her price.
Plot Twist: However, the crushing twist is that Femi had been orchestrating the bad luck all along. Driven mad by his unrequited love for Mona (Omoni Oboli), Sola’s wife, Femi meticulously orchestrated all the “bad luck” events and even murdered people to make Sola appear cursed and unworthy of Mona.
Watch The Figurine on YouTube.
3. A Weekend to Forget (2023)
Running time: 1h 38m
Director: Damola Ademola
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
A group of seven friends gather for a fancy weekend getaway. One of them ends up dead in the swimming pool, and their motives start coming to the fore: from old grudges, to unfaithful spouses, to just being rich and miserable. The detective on the case begins the gruelling process of exposing who among them is the murderer.
Plot Twist: After countless hours of finger-pointing and dredging up old secrets, the intense whodunit finally delivers a shocking climax. The victim, Ndali (Erica Nlewedim), was not killed by any of the main suspects. Instead, the killer is revealed to be Bem (Neo Akpofure), the quiet, harmless-seeming boyfriend of one of the friends, who was barely an active part of the core group.
Watch A Weekend to Forget on Prime Video.
2. October 1 (2014)
Running time: 2h 29m
Director: Kunle Afolayan
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
It’s 1960, and Nigeria is about to gain Independence. A serial killer is murdering young, virgin women in the sleepy town of Akote. Inspector Danladi Waziri (Sadiq Baba) is tasked with solving the case quietly and identifying the culprit before October 1st arrives. When the inspector gets to the root of the mysterious killings, he realises that the killer is the town’s beloved crown prince Aderopo, who just returned from the U.K.
Aderopo’s murders are revealed to be an act of revenge stemming from years of sexual abuse he suffered alongside his friend, Agbekoya (Kunle Afolayan), at the hands of the seemingly benevolent and the white colonial priest Reverend Dowling.
Plot Twist: The colonial government orders Waziri to cover up the truth to avoid scandalising Independence Day.
1. A Green Fever (2023)
Running time: 1h 51m
Director: Taiwo Egunjobi
Genre: Neo-Noir, Thriller
Kunmi Braithwaite (Temilolu Fosudo), an architect, is travelling with his daughter when she suddenly falls ill with a rare, life-threatening green fever. In desperation, he seeks shelter at a secluded mansion owned by the secretive Colonel Bashiru (William Benson) and his girlfriend, Mathilda (Ruby Precious Okezie).
Plot Twist: As we get deeper into the story, the plot twist slowly unravels. The story of the sick daughter is a lie. The green fever is also a lie. Kunmi is just an architect hired to steal classified documents from the Colonel.
Watch A Green Fever on Prime Video.
