Movies often like to give the audience a few hints before the big twist comes out.
It can often feel like a movie relies on a big twist or development to really sell its story to the audience. Naturally, foreshadowing allows the story to give the audience a clue as to what's really going on. Occasionally, the foreshadowing is subtle enough, like a reference to an obscure work, that many viewers would miss it on their first watch. Sometimes, a viewer has to watch a movie more than once to pick up on all the clues to the story's big twist.
There are times when the foreshadowing is meant to be obvious, especially when adapting a well-known work, but is still done in such a well-done manner that it leaves an impression on viewers.
In Psycho, Norman Bates compares Marion Crane to a bird, causing her to comment on his stuffed birds. Bates mentions that he likes birds because they are passive creatures. Feeling that he's lonely and dominated by his mother, Marion implies Norman should place his mother in an institution. Bates assures her that his mother is as harmless as one of his stuffed birds, before admitting the thought has crossed his mind.
If Norman's comparison wasn't enough, Marion's surname, "Crane," also evokes a bird. This hints at her fate, to end up destroyed like Norman's lifeless stuffed birds. In fact, Marion doesn't even survive the first half of the film. Similarly, Norman wasn't being generous when he said his mother is harmless, at least in her current state. When finally confronted, she turns out to be nothing more than a long-dead corpse.
In the eponymous park of Jurassic Park, where cloned dinosaurs roam, only female dinosaurs are engineered to prevent them from breeding, keeping the population easy to maintain. On the way to the island, Dr. Grant's seatbelt has two "female" buckles, but he manages to tie them together to make them work as a belt. Notably, Ellie didn't have an issue, suggesting that he didn't just grab two "female" buckles by mistake.
This foreshadows that the dinosaurs would find some way of reproducing. It eventually comes to light that the dinosaurs were made using DNA from a species of frog, that is capable of changing its sex depending on the environment. This allowed some of the clones to become male, allowing the dinosaurs to breed. On a less symbolic note, the helicopter having improper seat belts hints that the safety of the park already isn't as guaranteed. For his part, actor Sam Neill instead thought the scene highlighted Grant's ingenuity.
Loosely based on real events, Tag revolves around a group of friends who've been playing a game of tag since the early 1980s each May. One of the friends, Jerry, is the only one who hasn't been tagged. One character, Hoagie, brings the friends together to finally tag Jerry, claiming he's planning on retiring from the game. During the game, after being tagged, one character, Bob, comments that Hoagie, appears to have lost some weight. This could initially be seen as a casual conversation, but this has deeper implications made clear later on.
It eventually comes to light that Hoagie is suffering from liver cancer, and it's implied that his weight loss was a result of chemotherapy. Likewise, Hoagie's claim that Jerry was retiring from the game was a lie. The real reason he was so invested in the current game is because he's terminally ill and doesn't expect to live to see the next round.
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Belle of Beauty and the Beast is an avid book reader, and during her titular song number, "Belle," she briefly reads a story from her book to a bunch of uninterested sheep. Earlier, she had described the story as having sword fights, magic, distant places, and even a prince incognito. While singing to the sheep, Belle notably sings, "Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him till Chapter Three."
Over the years, viewers have debated just exactly what story Belle is supposed to be reading, with many suggesting Sleeping Beauty, but the book actually seems to be foreshadowing Belle's future story with the Beast. In fact, Belle's earlier line is given a parallel, "True, that he's no Prince Charming, but there's something in him that I simply didn't see," in the song, "Something There."
The Prestige focuses on the rivalry between two stage magicians of the 19th century: Alfred Borden and Robert Angier. Angier blames his wife's death on Borden after a trick gone wrong and has become obsessed with sabotaging Borden's acts and figuring out his tricks, going so far as to have his assistant Olivia spy on his rival. However, Olivia soon falls in love with the man.
One trick featured in the film involves a bird that appears to be crushed, only for the magician to make it reappear. In truth, the bird is indeed killed and replaced it with a lookalike. Notably, one little boy even sees through the trick and cries for the doomed bird. This hints at Borden's ultimate trick: he's a pair of identical twins who shared an identity. Much like the bird, one of the twins ends up being put to death. This mundane twist also hints at the film's supernatural twist: there are multiple clones of Angier and many died during performances gone wrong. In fact, it's somewhat ambiguous if the last Angier seen is the original.
In Shrek 2, the titular ogre meets his in-laws. Princess Fiona's father, King Harold, is especially upset with the marriage, but his exact reasons prove complicated. Harold had previously made a deal with the Fairy Godmother in exchange for Fiona marrying her son. When Harold goes to hire an assassin to get rid of Shrek, none other than Puss in Boots, a random female frog seems to recognize him.
Towards the end of the movie, this reveals Harold's deal: he is the Frog Prince and made a deal to become human after falling in love with Fiona's mother, a human princess. Unlike the original fairy tale, where the frog was a prince under a spell, Harold seems to be a genuine frog who uses magic to obtain a human form. Presumably, the female frog was an old acquaintance. In addition to this, Harold's room, as seen in the film, is green, complete with a lily pad tapestry. Even his wife's name, Queen Lillian, evokes "lily pad."
The unnamed narrator of Fight Club, who has grown dissatisfied with life, meets the charismatic Tyler Durden and they form the titular support group. To help fund the Fight Club, the narrator, blackmails his boss into keeping him on the payroll after leaving his job by beating himself up in his office, while making the boss look like his attacker. The narrator muses that the scene reminded him of his first fight with Tyler.
This hints at the twist that Tyler is the narrator's alternate personality, effectively serving as his ideal self. After all, a fight with Tyler effectively is a fight with himself. Besides this, there are a few other hints to this throughout the film. The narrator claims to know places and stories because Tyler told him. The narrator is unable to call Tyler, but Tyler is able to call him, even from a payphone.
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The Wizard of Oz starts with Dorothy Gale trying to protect her dog Toto from a cantankerous neighbor and landowner, Miss Almira Gulch. The cruel woman wants to have Toto euthanized, claiming he bit her leg, and has the local sheriff in her corner. When she comes to the Gales' farm to collect Toto on the sheriff's orders, Dorothy finally has enough and calls the woman a "wicked old witch."
When Dorothy gets caught in the cyclone, she sees various people and animals just fly by right out her window. The comic sequence is cut short when an eerily stoic Miss Gulch appears riding her bike. Soon, the woman transforms into a literal witch on her broomstick, who bursts into a loud cackle. Of course, over the years, viewers have often questioned which witch does Miss Gulch turn into: the Wicked Witch of the East or the Wicked Witch of the West.
The Dark Knight opens up with a bank heist, where masked criminals rob a Gotham City bank. Early on, they casually mention that they have to leave a cut for the one who planned out the heist: the Joker. Eventually, the robbers kill each other, as per their orders, until only two are left. One robber, "Grumpy," asks the other, "Bozo," if the Joker ordered him to kill him. Bozo dryly responds that he used up his ammo by killing the bus driver, which is proven untrue when the bus drives into the bank, hitting and killing Grumpy. When the driver asks what happened to the other guys, Bozo shoots him and proceeds to attack the bank manager. Told that the Joker will betray him too, Bozo unmasks himself as the Joker, in full make-up.
The Joker arranging a more theatrical and comedic death for "Grumpy," when he easily could have shot him, hints at his dark sense of humor. This also hints at the Joker's penchant for disguises and hiding in plain sight. This later comes into play at Commissioner Loeb's funeral, where the Joker and his minions are dressed like honor guard members. This puts him mere feet from his intended target, when the characters assumed he'd use a rooftop shooter.
The Shawshank Redemption revolves around a banker, Andy, who is unjustly arrested after being accused of murder. Andy soon becomes friends with another inmate, Red, who knows how to get things in the prison and serves as the story's narrator. Even after years go by, Andy keeps hopeful that he'll overcome his situation, and a few details hint at his eventual fate.
Red not only describes Andy's dreams of escaping as a "pipe dream," but a "sh****" one at that. Even the expletive turns out to be foreshadowing, as it foretells the way Andy manages to break free: escaping through a sewage pipe. Another hint is the film comes from the characters earlier discussing The Count of Monte Cristo, which is noted to have a prison break. As with Edmond Dantes, Andy has been framed for a crime and escapes through a tunnel. Andy also listens to The Marriage of Figaro at one point, which also involves a character outwitting his master.

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