Foiler Footage

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Multiple resolutions of a Cliff Hanger or other point of suspense are filmed. Only one is the "true" resolution, intending to be shown. The others are designed to foil spies and spoilers.

Specific type of Foiler, which is any false information, such as decoy scripts, designed to throw spoilers off the track.

Compare to Multiple Endings, in which more than one resolution is intended to be shown.

Examples of Foiler Footage include:

• Dallas shot several resolutions to the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger. (Including one where J.R. shot himself.)
  • The film crew for the "Bobby in the Shower" reveal thought that Patrick Duffy was making a soap commercial.
• The Simpsons did the exact same thing for "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", even though only a few of them could have been guilty - there was a gunshot, and Principal Skinner's gun had a silencer; Moe had a shotgun, which would've killed Burns, and Apu is shown using an automatic weapon that still leaves just one wound. They also shot a full alternate summation where Smithers goes through his whole Motive Rant, and it's explained how all the clues could have added up to Smithers being the culprit. It was Maggie, by the way.
  • "Of course for that ending to work you would have to ignore all the Simpson DNA evidence, and that would be downright nutty!"
• The fourth season of Lost shot multiple reveals of who was in the coffin at the end of the final episode. Sawyer and Desmond were the other two filmed to be in the coffin, but obviously weren't in it when the episode aired. In the DVD Bonus Material for that season the writers said that they sweated a bit when that episode aired for fear the editor had spliced the wrong Foiler Footage onto the end of the episode because it would have been a bear to write their way out of.
• In addition to the one that ended up in the film two alternate endings of Hannibal were filmed for the purpose of obfuscation, both of which involved the titular character dying.
• The first season of Survivor shot multiple combinations of contestants at Tribal Council, creating a phony boot order.
• Every single one of the contestants in The Apprentice is filmed doing a "walk of shame" out to the cab in case they're fired. This includes the eventual winner, of course. In at least one case, this created a continuity error when the contestant magically managed to change clothes going down the elevator.
• For the ending of X-Men: The Last Stand, they filmed the "Bobby discovers Rogue" scene both ways. That is, one where she took the "mutant cure" and one where she didn't. I think the commentary said that a poll was taken on set about whether she should take the cure or not.
• During the production of The X-Files: I Want To Believe, several fake screenshots of the movie were released (including a picture of a werewolf) to throw people off. When the actual movie was released... well, let's just say there were more than a few people wishing Chris Carter had made the fake movie instead.
  • Heck, for the first movie, there were multiple scripts written to prevent the real version from being leaked.
• David Prowse (the actor in the Vader suit) did not say, "I am your father," while The Empire Strikes Back was being filmed. He actually said, "Obi-Wan killed your father." James Earl Jones said the real line for dubbing, and Mark Hamill was told the real line just before filming as a form of Enforced Method Acting.
  • Supposedly another reason for this was that Prowse had a habit of letting spoilers slip, so Lucas decided to avoid it by not telling him what the real line was since it would be dubbed over later anyways.
  • What's interesting is that both lines make a certain degree of sense as it was Obi-Wan who 'killed' Anakin by defeating him in battle and letting him burn to death in the lava fields. It also works in terms of the emotional aspect, Obi-Wan not doing enough to curb Anakin's fall to the Dark Side. But neither of these aspects would have made sense at the time of filming as the third film wasn't made yet...
  • Prowse himself was quite upset after the film's premiere, telling Lucas his body language would have been completely different if he'd known the real line.
• In Doctor Who, the first new-series finale "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways" was filmed with an alternate ending where Rose died, which was to be sent to critics instead of the real ending, but Russell T. Davies thought it was too inferior to the real ending to use.
• Four endings were shot for the final episode of Sex and the City.
• DC Comics released preview artwork for the cover of the original 'Countdown' that showed the death of a major DC character in silhouette, detailed to the point where the silhouette's profile was easily recognizable as Nightwing. The actual death in question (and the actual cover of the comic when released) was Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle.
  • It was reported that in the rough draft that Nightwing was the original victim before someone realized that he was a massively popular character and the fan revolt would've been too great, so they reworked it.
  • Similarly, DC's press pack for the yearlong miniseries Countdown featured artwork heavily implying that The Joker was going to kill Jimmy Olsen, complete with an art piece showing Superman mourning a dead, grinning Jimmy, which ended up on the cover of Wizard Magazine. Buttons which hinted at storylines for the series were distributed at conventions, including one reading "JIMMY OLSEN MUST DIE!" And to top it off, the second issue of the series features a grinning Joker on the cover holding Jimmy's press pass. In that issue, Jimmy meets The Joker...and nothing of consequence happens. They do not meet again and Jimmy survives the entire series safe and sound.
    • In fairness, Countdown the year-long series was a bit of a mess...
• The end of the first season of 24 had two final scenes, one with Teri escaping torment, and one with a Really Dead Montage.
• Subverted by the makers of Life On Mars, who claimed to have filmed an alternative ending but were lying.
• The producers of The Amazing Race have been known to ask already-eliminated teams to perform "decoy runs", which may be "leaked" in case a spoiler is leaked, so as to confuse the fake and real spoilers. This is most often done with late-game portions that take place within the U.S. in case people see the teams running around during filming and later recognize them on TV.
• Psycho IV the Beginning reportedly had 4 endings to fool... someone. Seems due to an otherwise absent image on the Psycho sequels 3-pack one involved Norman burning up.
• Almost none of the footage in trailers for Paranormal Activity 3 was featured in the movie itself.
• Both outcomes of the infamous vote for Robin's life in Death in the Family were allegedly at least pencilled - the panel with Batman doing his best Pietà Plagiarism in the other version has him tearfully announcing "Thank God...he's alive!"
• For the sitcom Cheers, a fake ending was shot for Diane's last episode, which faked out the live audience attending the filming and they got to see Sam and Diane actually get married. The real ending was shot without the audience present.