5 Movies With Promotions That Spoiled Their Plot Twists
Promoting a movie is tricky. On the one hand, you want people talking about it ahead of its release, but on the other, you don't want to give away the whole plot. Of course, we're ignoring the fact that most movie trailers these days run for about 20 minutes and proudly feature all of the best scenes from the film, but we're trying to give Hollywood the benefit of the doubt here. Besides, promotional materials have much better ways to spoil their own movies. Like how ...
Movies Are Frequently Spoiled By Their Own Tie-In Toys
You'd think there would be someone in charge of making sure the merchandising doesn't ruin the actual movie, kind of like an inverse Transformers scenario. But it happens surprisingly often. Toy Story 3's Lego set, which hit stores a full month before the movie came out, showed not only the true villain of the movie, but also the pivotal climactic scene wherein he tries to murder the main characters -- and even exactly how they are rescued from it.
DC debuted an action figure at a toy fair over a month before the theatrical release of Batman v. Superman which showed Lex Luthor in his eventual prison pajamas.
The Captain America: Civil War trailers tried so hard not to spoil the scene in which Ant-Man shifts into Giant-Man. But they really shouldn't have bothered, because this giant-headed screw-up came out months prior:
From the earliest advertisements for Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Marvel went to great lengths to hide the first appearance of Vision, relegating him only to obscure slivers in the trailers and backgrounds of the posters. If you squint, you can just about see him in the upper-left corner here:
And here he is in another poster, obscured by the sun:
Clearly, the filmmakers wanted Vision to remain a surprise. But it was all for naught, seeing as how details for the action figure (including an extensive biography!) leaked online almost six months before the release of the movie.
The Trailer Guy Gave Away The Big Twist In Terminator 2
Terminator 2 is so iconic that even the Amish know the plot by heart. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a "good" Terminator sent back in time to protect fun-sized John Connor from the evil T-1000 Terminator. But the audience wasn't supposed to know that stuff ahead of the movie hitting theaters. So it's too bad the trailer voiceover guy couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Seriously, James Cameron painstakingly crafted the first half hour of the film to avoid revealing which of the two terminators was trying to kill John, and which one was protecting him. But audiences never got to appreciate this elaborate "will they / won't they" murder bot switcheroo, because the trailers immediately spoiled it all.
In the first Terminator 2 trailer, the voiceover straight up explains "Once he was programmed to destroy the future ... now, his mission is to protect it," complete with shots of Arnold shooting the T-1000, protecting John, and graciously offering his hand in friendship.
Sorry, James Cameron! It's cool you poured tons of effort into deftly crafting a tense reveal, but Trailer Guy showed up drunk and decided it was time to "get honest" with everybody. Maybe next time!
David Hasselhoff Spoiled Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 On The Soundtrack
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2's soundtrack, Awesome Mix Vol. 2, was released ahead of the movie. Amid all the big hits from '70s, there was one original song, called "Guardians' Inferno." It was used in the end credits and featured David Hasselhoff, patron saint of chest hair.
That's a spoiler on its own for super attentive listeners. But don't worry if you weren't paying attention, there are more obvious spoilers on the way for you. Halfway through the song, Hasselhoff sings, "My daddy was a planet," revealing the true nature of Peter Quill's father so hard. Maybe they got careless with the soundtrack because nobody ever pays attention to the music in Guardians Of The Galaxy, right?
The Walking Dead Ruined Its Big Season 7 Surprise In Several Ways
At the end of Season 6 of The Walking Dead, the big bad new villain Negan rounds up all the main characters, picks one at random, and beats them to death. But using a shot that cinephiles call a "dick move," the camera never shows us which character actually dies. "Better tune in for the premiere of Season 7!" The Walking Dead said, presumably while wiping away its lusty slather with a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
But you don't leave a large group of nerds to stew in frustrated curiosity for months on end and expect nothing to happen. The moment the first sneak peek for Season 7 was released, the internet descended on it like a pack of ravenous dogs, and before the end of the day, some of them had figured out exactly who died.
In the preview, there's a brief shot of villain Negan staring down sorta-hero Rick. Not a lot to see there but two tough, probably smelly apocalypse hobos, but since Rick now suddenly has blood smeared all over the right side of his face, it didn't take McGruff the Crime Dog to figure out that whoever died must've been sitting to Rick's right. Then it was a simple matter of comparing the seating order to-
Oh wait, the real surprise was that two main characters were going to get the bat? That would have been shocking! ... if both an executive producer and the actor who plays Negan hadn't let the secret slip in pre-season interviews.
Dear Hollywood: You Can't Cast A Big-Name Actor And Expect Their Reveal To Be A Surprise Twist
In Watchmen, the only superhero whose secret identity we don't know is Rorschach, the guy whose mask always seems to look like our father's penis for some reason. When Rorschach finally does get unmasked, the keen-eyed reader slowly puts it together: He was the crazy guy walking the streets with a "The End Is Nigh" sign in the background all along!
Of course, in the 2009 movie adaptation, that reveal was impossible to pull off. Everybody already knew what Rorschach looked like, because he looked like Jackie Earle Haley, the actor playing the guy. So instead of wondering who the mysterious doomsayer moseying around New York was, audiences instead wondered, "What's acclaimed actor Jackie Early Haley doing in the background holding that sign? I thought he played Rorschach in this movie. That's what IMDb lists him as, anyway ..."
The 2010 western True Grit revolves around protagonist Mattie Ross' quest to track down her father's killer, a man whose face she doesn't know. Then, near the end of the movie, she meets a guy played by Josh Brolin, who's on all the movie posters and in the trailers. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this feller's probably more important than the movie wants us to think.
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For more, check out 10 Studios That Spoiled Their Own Movies and The 5 Most Ridiculous Ways Studios Spoiled Their Own Movies.
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