Promoters for movies must walk a fine line between getting people into theatres and giving away narrative details that the director and producers wanted to be a surprise. The next day, tweets about movie shocks are the topic of discussion, and they serve as the catalyst for building anticipation for a movie online. The introduction of YouTube has also increased the exposure of movie trailers and the spoilers they include. These movie trailers revealed entirely too much information. There are several spoilers on this list. You might skip an entry if you come across a movie you haven't seen but want to.
10. Speed (1994)
Many viewers were able to ignore the weak acting and plot problems in this 1990s thriller because it was so entertaining. Additionally, there were no surprises in the plot for the viewers with Speed. However, almost every significant scene from the film was shown in the trailer, including the high-rise elevator that was set up to dump its human payload and Officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) attaching a cable to stop it.
Then there is the focal point: the bus that is programmed to detonate at speeds below 50 mph. In addition to revealing this, the trailer also showed the bus making the seemingly impossible jump across a chasm in a highway overpass. Additionally, if you were concerned about the bus passengers, the video even depicts the bus exploding while the passengers watch from a safe distance on an airport tram. Also revealed are crucial elements of the subterranean finale, notably its climactic burst through a wall. Even if that scene is interesting, it is discouraging to witness it before we have eaten our popcorn.
9. The Island (2005)
Sometimes a movie's flaws are exposed in the trailer. There are several possible explanations for why Michael Bay's 2005 project, which was predicted to be a summer blockbuster, ended up being a colossal failure. Was it because Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson were relatively unknown to the under-25 males this picture was aimed for, as the producers claimed? Maybe if the filmmakers had intended that their performers weren't action stars, but Johansson, at just 20, had acted in movies aimed at her age group, such Eight Legged Freaks (2002) and the cult classic Ghost World, while McGregor had just two months prior made an appearance in his third Star Wars picture (2001).
Others argue that The Island's failure was caused by the fact that it was an original screenplay rather than a remake, sequel, TV, comic book, or video game adaptation, which differed from the typical big-budget summer release. Yet in the ten years before to The Island, at least a dozen original screenplays that were not remakes, adaptations, or sequels were turned into films that went on to gross $450 million or more globally. Finding Nemo (2003), Independence Day (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999), The Incredibles (2004), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Gladiator (2000), The Matrix (1999), and The Titanic are among the movies that fall under this category (1997).
Some others think The Island was just too action-packed and not substantive enough. One may counter that's exactly what under-25 males flock to the movies to see, but it's instructive to look at Bay's earlier movies, which were typically explosion-heavy and substance-light. The Rock (1996) earned $700 million, Armageddon (1998) $550 million, and Bad Boys (1995) $300 million globally. $163 million was made by The Island.
Its exposure might be a stronger reason for its failure. The National Research Group surveyed the intended audience close to the film's release date in the summer of 2005 and discovered that few had even heard of it. Dreamworks thus spent $35 million on advertising. Those trailers, too? Explosions: verified. Check for car chases. Cool sci-fi technology and vehicles are present. Check: McGregor and Johansson rolling around in bed while Johansson flashes her cleavage. What? A plot point about the morality of cloning? What was said regarding the "island" not existing? When the island in the movie, The Island, doesn't actually exist? The movie's alleged flaw is revealed in the trailer. The Island is a double-feature that is trying to pass as a single film, as noted film critic Roger Ebert concisely described it.
The first half of The Island takes place in a tranquil, remote colony where computers monitor your urine for sodium levels and make you eat well. The Matrix-style cloning for the purpose of using the clone's body classic dystopian cliche is fed to the viewer. The Island actually has so many similarities to the 1979 sci-fi horror movie Parts: The Clonus Horror that Dreamworks was accused of copyright infringement and eventually reached a settlement outside of court. All the action occurs in the second half, which is satisfying. According to Ebert, the pace gives the movie a "breathless urgency." "Both halves work," he continues. A good question is if they collaborate. One is liked more while the other is disliked.
8. Cast Away (2000)
Another movie trailer that chronologically reveals every plot detail in the film is this one. It demonstrates how the main character, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), is a physically and emotionally estranged spouse from his wife. The teaser shows Hanks boarding a plane on Christmas, the plane crashing into the water, Hanks washing up on an island, his attempts to light a fire, eat for himself, and get along with a Wilson volleyball, as well as his attempts to find shelter in a cave. It then took a further step.
Since Cast Away is a survival drama, it would seem obvious that a trailer shouldn't tell if the main character will survive. The advertisement not only shows that Hanks lives, but also how he escapes the island. Worse, Hanks returning to find his wife remarried ruins the emotional effect of a significant twist. Even his last scene in the film, which takes place at a desolate Texas crossroads, is shown to the audience.
In this instance, the director, Robert Zemeckis, backed the decision to intentionally turn the trailer into a brief summary of the film. He stated, "We know from researching the marketing of movies that people really want to know absolutely every single thing that they are going to see before they go to the movie. As "a movie enthusiast, film student, film historian, and director," he acknowledges that he dislikes having the story revealed. However, he feels excluded: "What I compare it to is McDonald's. There are no surprises, which is why McDonald's is such a huge success. You are well aware of the flavour. The menu is well known to all.
7. Rope (1948)
When the movie's trailer lessens the suspense in his film, you would think that Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the so-called "Master of Suspense," would have his bloody knickers in a bunch. However, Hitchcock created and produced the trailer for Rope himself. He cited the fact that "I'm a little tired of having parts from next week's picture flashed on the screen, and being warned in the greatest words available not to miss the thrilling impending attraction" as the reasons for his decision. The first shot in Hitch's trailer shows two lovers playingfully joking around in a picturesque park. This sequence is a contrast to the horrific undertones of the movie but does not actually appear in it. She won't see him again, Jimmy Stewart's voiceover announces as the man departs the woman on the bench. Then Stewart gives a brief straight-to-the-camera explanation of the main characters, the murder, and the two killers who are allegedly modelled after notorious real-life murders Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. This too doesn't appear in the movie.
Hitchcock's most experimental picture, Rope, was shot entirely in ten 10-minute long shots to simulate a stage play. If the massive Technicolor camera had more storage space, Hitch could have been tempted to shoot the entire movie in one long shot. The entire film is shot on a single set and shown in real time without editing to heighten the suspense. Walls, props, and furniture are silently shifted as the camera is rolling. It was abhorrent to both Hitch and the players, and the director labelled it "an experiment that didn't work out."
Rope is a will-they-be-caught story rather than a whodunit because the killers are revealed right away. So it's unexpected that Hitch revealed this in his trailer. We ponder whether someone will find the body in the trunk under everyone's nose during the entire film (and under their dinner plates). But when Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) opens the trunk in the trailer, it sparks a climactic gunfight between Stewart and one of the murderers, Brandon Shaw (John Dall), which ends with a gunshot. According to one reviewer, this is a "great example of the clever trailer, which just reveals so much of the plot that the audience's concern is actually raised, instead of being decreased," and the audience doesn't know if anyone was shot. But a close inspection of the trailer reveals that when the trigger is pushed, the pistol is pointed downward. It's easy to assume that no one was shot and that the suspense has truly "diminished" barring a character lying on that specific area on the carpet.
6. The Terminator Franchise (1984 to present)
Over the years, the franchise rights to Terminator have been sold multiple times, and each new owner obviously desired to repay their investment with a fresh film. However, the new authors, producers, and filmmakers were more focused on coming up with something fresh and marketable than they were on expanding on the timeframe and narrative James Cameron had in mind. Six films, a two-season TV series, three theme park attractions, and two webcasts have been produced as a result, each with a unique plot. The timeline of the series is as confusing as the British royal family tree.
Since Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, the trailers have a lengthy history of giving away major narrative twists in the Terminator movies. In 1991, writer, producer, and director James Cameron went to considerable measures to conceal the twist that turned Arnold Schwarzenegger from the villain in the first film to the hero in the second. Today, practically everyone is aware of this bait and switch. We aren't aware for the first 30 minutes that there are two Terminators, one set on killing John Connor (Edward Furlong) and the other on guard duty. We are also unsure of which is which. This is undoubtedly a crucial plot point for Cameron. However, the trailer contains it.
The twist in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) was the conclusion, which, unlike the previous films, did not lead to the postponement of judgement day. This was obviously a new turn for the franchise. In the movie, Skynet really did seize control of the world's nuclear weapons and start the dreaded apocalypse. There were a variety of trailers for this film, and one of them unmistakably depicts the nuclear weapon exchange that occurs towards the conclusion. However, as T2 also featured a nuclear apocalypse sequence that ended up being a dream, this is not necessarily a spoiler.
The 2009 film Terminator: Salvation, which depicts the post-apocalyptic fight with the machines, was intended to be a sequel to Rise of the Machines. Director McG made an effort to conceal the fact that Marcus Wright, a mysterious central figure, was actually a Terminator, despite the fact that anyone familiar with the series surely might have guessed it. The trailer made it clear that they didn't have to.
When the franchise's original owners filed for bankruptcy, a sequel to Terminator: Salvation was cancelled, and the new owners opted to take the brand in yet another path by revisiting the events of the previous two movies. The outcome, Terminator: Genisys (2015), went on to rank second in the franchise behind T2. Schwarzenegger's comeback (he wasn't in Salvation) was one of the factors. The marketing team couldn't wait to disclose in the movie's trailer that Arnold Schwarzenegger will face off against his younger CGI counterpart. However, their other bombshell was much worse: Jason Clarke's typical hero John Connor would not only be a bad guy but also a Terminator. Alan Taylor, the director, was not happy. The marketing team, Taylor explained, "were worried that people were mistaking this as a kind of remake, and none of us wanted to reboot two excellent movies by James Cameron," adding that they thought the best way to demonstrate this was by giving away the twist.
Despite Genysis' modest box office success, it was obvious that the franchise was stale and receiving only muted reviews from both critics and viewers. The franchise ran the risk of facing its own final day. Cameron made the decision to make the sixth movie in an effort to revive interest in his work. He went all out to do that, reuniting with Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton to play their parts in T2 for the first time in a decade. The marketing for Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) made it clear that it was a sequel to T2, attempting to recapture some of the enchantment of the first movie's appeal. On August 29, 2019, the 22nd anniversary of T2's purported judgement day, they even unveiled the first trailer.
The glaring contrasts between it and T2 were instead made clear through the trailers. The first movie had inventive special effects and an intriguing plot. The characters in Dark Fate were mediocre, the CGI effects appeared rushed and unfinished in the trailer, and the plot seemed overly complicated—possibly to hide the fact that it was the same as the plots of the previous 5 movies—to kill a human who was crucial to the future. Post-production was, after all, still ongoing. In addition, the trailer's omission of John Connor, one of the series' more intriguing characters, revealed even another plot twist. The trailer warned viewers that the only thing fresh to see is the death of a cherished character. They returned the favour. To even break even, the movie needed to gross at least $450 million. Its $250 million global box office haul makes it the second-worst-selling Terminator film. Yes, all three of T2's sequels outperformed Dark Fate in terms of sales. Even though Dark Fate was published just a few months before the COVID outbreak forced theatre closures, its failure at the box office was obvious even before then.
5. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
The Cabin the Woods is "a very passionate hate letter" to the horror film genre, according to producer and co-screenwriter Joss Whedon. Whedon claimed that after becoming discouraged with the direction that horror films were taking, he and director Drew Goddard felt the need to compose the script. "The parts that I don't like" were listed by Whedon as "kids acting like fools, the horror movie devolving into torture porn and into a protracted succession of cruel comeuppances." The pendulum had "swung a little too far in that direction," Drew and I agreed. As a result, common horror clichés were turned on their heads.
There are numerous references to vintage horror in the film. The abandoned cabin has a scary dungeon and is similar to the cabin in Evil Dead. There are numerous similarities to Evil Dead, including the presence of five young adults who fit standard horror tropes, the use of an incantation to place the curse on the victims' heads, and the ravine's ability to hinder their attempts to flee. Then there's a lake that calls to mind Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th movies for viewers. But the novelty of the movie is its strength. There are the lab nerds who use technology to modify everything, even spraying pheromones to induce the typical sex act. There are certain old, malevolent gods that want the blood of children and send creatures to make it flow.
The Cabin in the Woods makes extensive use of surprises, as you might expect. Even its jokes fall flat if they are known in advance. And yet, the trailer does just that. The teaser has references to monsters, lab nerds, and other horror films. Because of this, Whedon cautioned the audience not to give away any plot secrets when he presented the film at the South by Southwest festival one month before it was released in theatres. No one should view the trailer, stated one of the event's reporters.
4. Groundhog Day (1993)
The risk with promoting comedies is that it can be tempting to pack every funny remark and visual gag from the film into the trailers. Promoters for Groundhog Day caved in under pressure. The teaser, which lasts barely 150 seconds, has almost all of the funny jokes that Phil Connors (Bill Murray) cracks. Additionally, the video concentrates more on the sight gags, like Murray walking into a puddle, standing in front of a bus, and assisting a groundhog in controlling a vehicle. This provides the idea that the film is a slapstick comedy, which it most certainly isn't.
The voice-over spoilers are another issue. Since the voice-over explains pointlessly that Murray must repeatedly relive February 2 and tells us this provides him the chance to "do it right," it is clear that the promoters had little faith in the audience's intelligence. Murray can go about his day anyway he pleases, including eating what he pleases, doing whatever he pleases, and sleeping with whomever he pleases, according to the voice-over. It even gives away the outcome of the love interest in the film by revealing that Murray would escape this situation by making things "right" with Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell), apparently by tricking MacDowell into falling in love with him.
3. Arlington Road (1999)
The majority of the movies on this list had at least moderate box office success, supporting the idea that audiences indeed - to some extent - want spoilers in their trailers. The thriller Arlington Road is an exception. Arlington Road deserved a better trailer, so it's unfortunate.
Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges), a college professor who teaches a course on domestic terrorists in America, resides on Arlington Road. In a standoff reminiscent of Ruby Ridge, his late wife, an FBI agent, was slain while attempting to seize an extremist family. Bridges even takes his class on a field trip to the location of his wife's death, which would have put him in trouble in the real world. Bridges is still visibly inconsolable by the loss of his wife, seemingly to the point of obsession.
Bridges starts to worry that Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl (Joan Cusack) Lang might be a terrorist family planning to blow up a government building after they move into a nearby Arlington Road home. Nobody believes him, not even his wife's colleagues FBI agents, who are aware of his preoccupation with these organisations. The tension in the first half of the film centres on the question of whether the Langs are terrorists or not. The second half of the film, in which there is no longer any ambiguity and Bridges fights against time to preserve his family and avert disaster, is where the trailer focuses entirely too much. There isn't much use in even viewing the first act of the movie as the trailer basically tells us whether the Langs are terrorists. Thankfully, a climactic revelation is kept a secret.
2. Catfish (2010)
Every movie trailer we've spoken about so far has either successfully or unsuccessfully attempted to entice viewers. But occasionally, trailers are altered to deceive viewers into thinking a movie belongs to one genre when it fact belongs to another. The 2003 gangster comedy Kangaroo Jack included a talking and rhyming kangaroo in its teaser, giving the impression that it was a family-friendly movie. Not at all. If the trailer had been more truthful, Kangaroo Jack would have rapped and spoken just briefly during a hallucination, and the movie probably wouldn't have done well. The Pans Labyrinth (2006) teaser led one to believe that the film was a fantasy-style fable rather than the psychological nightmare that it actually was. Oh, and the trailer covers the fact that it was in Spanish by showing non-dialogue moments. Or that Gremlins (1984), rather of being the occasionally horrific, violent horror comedy it was, was just another Steven Spielberg family-friendly movie like E.T. : The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). The Gremlins advertising' director, Joe Dante, even acknowledged that they deliberately mimicked the colours and design of E.T. to make the film seem kid-friendly. But Catfish from 2010 is the most heinous instance of the bait-and-switch trailer.
The trailer opens with what appears to be found film of two New York brothers, one of whom has started an online relationship with Megan from Gladstone, Michigan, capitalising on the success of Paranormal Activity, which had its global debut the previous year. After spending 90 seconds getting to know the brothers and Megan, the boys then drive to Gladstone. While the brothers are making the nighttime drive up to Megan's family home, the soundtrack turns darker and more frightening, and one brother says he is "scared." Then a critic's statement appears as a brother approaches a darkened garage and glances through an opaque window: "the film's closing forty minutes will take you on an emotional roller-coaster journey that you won't be able to shake for days." More statements from critics, including "a shattering conclusion" and "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed," are then presented. The sense Megan is not who she seems to be is left, and what happens next is a suspenseful horror film. Wrong.
In reality, Catfish is a documentary about Nev, who had an online romance with a woman who used a false name and photos of a famous model to catfish him. Her true name is Angela, and she is an elderly woman who must stay at home and take care of her crippled stepsons while living vicariously through online relationships. I'm done now. That is the "shattering conclusion," the major revelation that we won't "be able to shake for days." There are no Hitchcockian turns, blood baths, stalkers, or killers. Nev and Angela are reportedly still Facebook friends.
1. Avengers: Endgame/Spider-man: Far From Home (2019)
The most anticipated movie since the release of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens four years ago may be Avengers:Endgame. Additionally, compared to other movies—possibly even all movies—it may have placed a greater emphasis on shocking the viewer. This is due to the fact that it resolves the cliffhanger from Avengers: Infinity War (2018), in which the antagonist Thanos (Josh Brolin) figuratively wipes out half the universe's population, including Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Anthony and Joe Russo, the film's co-directors, went to considerable efforts to keep the surprises in Endgame a secret. For starters, there was only one draught of the entire script, which was maintained on an iPad that could be locked and erased with the touch of a button. Only a select group of people had access to the iPad, which was housed in a secure room. In addition, the actors were only allowed to know the details of the sequences they were filming. Holland had a CGI fight sequence, but the opponent was kept a secret.
Even the promos for the film were modified by the Russo brothers to conceal plot points. They did this in the Infinity War trailer, which showed the Hulk and the Avengers sprinting through the forests of Wakanda toward the movie's decisive confrontation. The Hulk didn't participate in this charge and was absent for the majority of the movie. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are stranded in space near the beginning of Endgame with no food or fuel for the ship Benatar. In order to replicate the notion that Downey has been fasting for 22 days, his body has been digitally altered to appear leaner and with less muscle mass. His body is unaltered inside the trailer. In other trailers, the five-year time jump in the story is concealed by altering the hair colour and style of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), digitally covering Captain Marvel's (Brie Larson) new hairstyle, and digitally modifying Thor (Chris Hemsworth) from his heavier, slovenly appearance. In other trailers, Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) grip on the Infinity Gauntlet and Thor's misplaced Mjölnir hammer have been digitally deleted.
Despite this, a few elements were revealed in the Endgame trailers. The limbs and torsos of Thanos' hideous-looking Outriders were edited out of the blast in the 2-D trailer during a moment where Renner is running away from an explosion. However, they neglected to remove them from the 3-D trailer, which informed viewers that the Avengers would in fact face Thanos once more.
But not all Endgame trailer revelations were revealed. Since 1999, Sony has held the film rights to Spider-Man, releasing three iterations of the superhero with Tobe Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. Holland's first appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016) served as a clue that Sony and Disney/Marvel had reached an agreement for Spider-Man to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Because of this, Holland's Spider-Man made an appearance in Infinity War and passed away. However, the Russo brothers were aware that releasing Spider-man: Far From Home in July 2019, just months after Endgame, would ruin the surprise that Spider-man would be saved from oblivion. Three months before Endgame debuted in theatres, the first teaser for Far From Home, which was released in mid-January, not only showed that Nick Fury had returned but also that Spider-Man had. It was obvious that the heroes who "snapped" away would come back. For those who hadn't watched Endgame yet, the second trailer, which was released a week and a half after its debut, further indicated that Spider-Man was lamenting the passing of Ironman.
These spoilers, if they did not exacerbate the already existing conflict between Sony and Disney/Marvel, at least served as a sign of it. Money was the cause of the friction. Sony refused to contribute or at least share more of the Spider-man revenues, while Disney sought more. The cross-over was erased when the two parties split in late August. But after a month, Sony and Disney/Marvel inked a contract to keep Spidey in the MCU because the fan base had made such a strong response. right now.
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