Never Trust a Trailer/Film: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* One of the most notorious cases of this trope was an early, early teaser trailer for ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien³]]''. It showed an Alien egg floating towards Earth with the line, "In 1979, we discovered in space, no one can hear you scream. In 1992, we would discover on Earth, ''everyone'' can hear you scream..." This was all based upon a very early spec script. [[Troubled Production|By the time the movie was actually made,]] the final film was... a little different. (Sure, the Aliens would eventually get to Earth, just [[Alien vs. Predator|not exactly the way most fans would have liked]].)

* Fans of the book will know ''[[Bridge to Terabithia]]'' is not a fantasy adventure story, as depicted in the trailers for the movie, but more of a tale about bonding between two friends. The screenwriters have stated that they are not pleased with the way the film was marketed, and the actual movie is much more faithful to the book.

** Also spawned a serious case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] in amateur film critics, many of whom blasted the film as "another kid movie about talking animals." Anyone who saw the movie can tell you it is neither kid-friendly nor about talking animals.

** Ironically, there was a direct-to-video animated spinoff where the kangaroo ''did'' talk, by means of a magic spell.

*** Some of the dialog was redubbed to be more kid-friendly, too. There's a running gag where everyone keeps calling the main character "chickenshit." In the final film, this was changed to "chicken blood."

*** The film was also originally called ''Down Under'', that got changed to the somewhat misleading title we all know.

* The trailer for the 1986 Troma film ''Combat Shock'' toted it as being a Rambo-style bloodbath, though the film itself was more of a psychological horror.

** Troma likes to do this on all of their movies. Mostly because they want to the biggest audience possible but also because [[Lloyd Kaufman]] likes to play jokes on the viewers.

** Obviously meant for someone not familiar with [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s original novel.

* The trailer for ''Cry Wolf'' is almost entirely comprised of footage that isn't in the film itself, in an apparent attempt to market it as a PG-13 slasher film. The mild rating is actually justified in the film itself, as it's more murder mystery than slasher and one of the biggest questions is whether or not anyone has been killed at all.

** This particular variant was parodied by Samsung in a fake trailer promoting smartphone. "No Guns", "No Romance", "No Plot", "Just Phone". "The Greatest Product Placement Movie of All Time".

*** So he's the jerk to blame for giving the ad execs the "bright" idea of those smarmy, annoying commercials we got flooded with at the theaters over the last couple years!

** As to not alienate anyone who isn't a fan of football, most of the TV ads in the US solely focused on portraying it as a wacky period rom-com. Unfortunately, that meant football fans were not enticed by the romantic angle, the ladies were not enticed by the early-1900s football setting, and the film flopped.

* Similarly to ''Leatherheads'' (above), UK trailers for ''[[The Blind Side]]'' contain nary a hint of a sporting connection. Now that takes some doing.

* The trailers for ''[[The Last House on the Left]]'' remake make it sound like the parents get their revenge on [[Rape as Drama|their daughter's attackers]] as in the original; they're not (except for Krug at the very end). A case where even the ''tagline'' lied!

* The trailers for ''In Bruges'' make it sound like a harmless little comedy about fugitives. [[Tear Jerker|It really, really isn't.]] Some trailers for the film refer to it as an action-comedy. What does that say?

*** Might be interpreted as a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] in the case of Rorschach: For people who haven't read the original graphic novel, it attempts (intentionally or not) to derail the whole [[Misaimed Fandom]] thing from the start.

** The trailers were very action oriented. It seems like every action shot in the movie made it into the trailer, making the movie seem more action packed than it was, which pissed off a fair few filmgoers.

* A TV spot for ''[[Fight Club]]'' portrayed it as a romantic comedy.

** Most ads for ''Fight Club'' made it look like an action movie all about fighting (and the name certainly seems to back it up). Many theatergoers likely skipped it because of this, and were probably miffed when they realized it was something they might have liked.

* Parodied in ''[[Smokin Aces]]''. The trailer begins by suggesting it would be some sort of sappy romance, then abruptly switches to a frenetic action montage more fitting for a movie about competing assassins. The film itself was much slower paced and dramatic than the trailers suggested.

** However, Smokin' Aces had the single most honest trailer [[Temporary Life|I]] have ever seen in my life:

* The dark comedy ''The Matador'' was billed as an action movie, which it is not. As a result, the film did very poorly in theaters even though critics generally liked it.

* ''Water Horse'' trailers suggested it would be a kiddy film about a boy and his cute little water dragon, in the tone of ''[[Babe]]''. One trailer even showed the bulldog saying it was the titular horse's "best friend". Sure, the movie starts out this way, but for the most part it's a lot more gritty than that, especially when the water horse grows up. It nearly kills the boy, and devours all the lake's wildlife. Towards the end, [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] mistakes the water horse for an enemy sub {{spoiler|and nearly kills him and the boy.}} Oh, and remember that bulldog who is supposedly the horse's best friend? {{spoiler|Towards the end, when the water horse goes berserk, he swallows the dog whole and then tries to kill the owner. Make one wonder if the marketing people even watched the movie, there wasn't any hint of friendship between the dog and the water horse. The dog spends the earlier part of the film trying to catch the water horse when it's a baby, and then spend the end of the film in the water horse's belly.}} Combine all that with a boy who is counting down the days when his father will come home from the war, {{spoiler|only to slowly realize his father is never coming back since he's dead}} and it's far from the happy go lucky mood of the trailer. That said, that doesn't make it a depressing film and there are some heartwarming moments.

* The trailer for ''[[Max Payne (film)|Max Payne]]'' emphasizes the winged beasts and walls of fire Max sees and has lines like "The Devil is building his army. Max Payne is looking for something that God wants to stay hidden." It's like they're trying to make it look like a supernatural movie. People who've actually played the games will know that these are merely hallucinations the protagonist suffers and the plot is actually more of a typical crime drama. It's possible that, due to the [[Film Noir]] qualities of the movie, they were afraid of it looking too much like a rip-off of ''[[Sin City]]'' and tried to take it in a different direction. In fact, when ''Sin City'' hit theatres, some fans of the ''Max Payne'' games thought the opposite. Apparently, modern audiences are unaware of the noir genre.

** Movies based on games having the reputation they do, people who know the game might just think the movie [[Adaptation Decay|completely missed the point]]

** The initial trailers for ''The Half-Blood Prince'' seemed to indicate the entire movie would be only about teenagers falling in love in a wacky romantic comedy, while playing modern techno dance music in the background. Eventually they decided they should mention the fact that I dunno...there's magical battles and investigating the history of Voldemort as they prepare to destroy him?

** David Thewlis, who plays Lupin in the HP movies, put together a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXzdDRnWFqs fake trailer] for Harry Potter as a teen comedy romance.

* An international example: Michaelangelo Antonioni's ''[[L'Avventura]]'' is a very slow, high-concept, epic-length Italian film about a girl disappears and her friends being so empty inside that they have no remorse and merely get with each other to fill the void that the missing girl left (friend, lover). This is a film so difficult that it was BOOED AT CANNES. If you had only the trailer to go on, you'd boo it too, as the promotional clip makes it appear to be some sort of sexy, breeze romantic comedy, instead of the extensive, meandering ennui you get.

* The trailer for ''[[The Prestige]]'' gives the viewer the impression that [[Christian Bale]]'s character has ''actual magic powers'' which he uses for his stage magician act. The closest thing to actual wizardry in the movie is {{spoiler|Nikola Tesla's machine, used by [[Hugh Jackman]]}}, but given the movie's theme of stage magic and its heavy reliance on misdirecting the audience, the use of this trope is rather appropriate.

* The trailers for the movie ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'' made it out to be another wacky [[Will Ferrell]] comedy, when nearly all the humorous scenes were shown in the trailer. The tone of the movie was actually fairly serious.

** Which isn't to say that it's not funny. It's hilarious, but relies more on smart humor then on the slap-stick Ferrell is known for. But the trailer uses music that isn't used in the movie, misrepresents ''many'' scenes that are more serious, and if you didn't know beforehand you'd swear that the trailer was hinting at a romance between Eiffel and Krick.

* You would be absolutely forgiven if you assumed, from the ads, that ''[[Burn After Reading]]'' was a wacky comedy starring [[Brad Pitt]] and [[George Clooney]].

* George Miller's ''[[Happy Feet]]'' was advertised early on as a very Pixar-Dreamworksesque animation, with a very light tone. In fact, the film itself was anything but, instead opting for an approach not at all dissimilar to ''[[Watership Down]]'' or [[Don Bluth]]'s early eighties work, and most of the scenes used in the trailer were either from the first half hour or never appeared in the film, to begin with.

** One of the trailers also has Bo Peep hitting on Woody, followed directly by Buzz saying "Don't even think about it cowboy!" Making it seem as though they fight over Bo.

** The trailer also made a small change in the dialogue:

'''Movie Woody:''' My name is Woody, and this is Andy's room. }}

* The trailers for ''[[The Wrestler]]'' made it out to be a bit of a modern ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'', and one of those "sad person gets his or her life back together, heartwarming ensues," movies. It's actually quite the subversion - wrestling is his highly self-destructive form of escapism from his crappy life, which he tries {{spoiler|and fails to get back together, then kills himself fighting in the ring.}}

* The trailer for ''[[Slumdog Millionaire]]'' makes it look like a happy love-and-success story, using ''only'' the shot of the kid with his girl to the tune of "The Sun Always Shines On TV". It completely fails to touch on how hellish his life is to that point. A poster also advertises the movie as "Two hours of unbelievable happiness!".

* A television commercial for ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'' attempted to appeal to female audiences by playing [[Nickelback]]'s "Someday" over shots of Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes looking at each other longingly. Not only did the TV spot spoil one of the climactic scenes of the movie (revealing that {{spoiler|Wayne Manor had burnt down}}), but it played up the expectation that the entire film was a love story with a bit of action on the side. Also, while not terribly misleading, a trailer for ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'' made it look as though the Joker had caused a truck to flip just by firing a machine gun. The two moments are not connected.

** ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' films had trailers like this. One that was during daytime TV that featured only the Aragorn/Arwen romance scenes shown with soft melodies.

*** This was parodied in one of the [[TBS]] promos for the trilogy, which intentionally takes scenes out of context to make it look like the film is [[Ho Yay|a love story between Frodo and Sam]].

* The trailers for the movie version of ''[[Hitman]]'' heavily implied a religious angle that is completely absent from the film itself. The trailer narrator even blatantly lied with a claim that the protagonist was "raised by an exiled brotherhood of the Church" while showing what turns out to be a perfectly normal funeral service in a Russian Orthodox Church.

* ''[[Stuart Little]]'' is a criminal offender. Several commercials show Stuart flying a plane or fighting the cat and other cool things, but none of that happens in the film. But it does happen in the ending credits as a montage for what happens ''after'' the story is over.

* ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'''s trailer focuses on the word "ooh" so much that it appears to be something like ''Witches of Eastwick'' focusing on middle aged female spellcasters who like to get naked, and the rest of the trailer at least lets you know this is somewhere in the fantasy action genre. It might have driven away its intended audience.

** It also features a scene where all three of the witches are young when only one of them was in the movie.

* Trailers for ''[[Donnie Darko]]'' made it seem like the film was about an insane, homicidal teenager. Though the film teases the possibility that Donnie is crazy, it's a minor undercurrent.

* The trailers make ''[[Drag Me to Hell]]'' look like a straight horror film when it is really a horror-comedy in the vein of the ''[[Evil Dead]]'' movies. The fact that it's directed by [[Sam Raimi]], however, might be a tip-off....

* Many of the trailers for ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'' made it appear as a typical "ill-fated excursion" movie, except [[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]. Although the film did have elements of that, the trailers didn't advertise a movie that provided a character study of a group of people tasked with sacrificing their lives for the good of mankind.

* A TV spot on the Sci-Fi Channel for ''[[Brazil (film)|Brazil]]'' consisted entirely of scenes from [[Imagine Spot|Sam's dream sequences]], without any hint of the Orwellian future the movie actually takes place in.

** The trailers for the second film showed Starscream looming over Sam in an abandoned factory, then cutting to a shot of him being pinned down by a mechanical hand. Some assumed the hand belonged to Starscream. It didn't. It was Megatron's.

*** Though this was probably because this is back when they were still trying to cover up that Megatron was coming back (which later trailers didn't bother with).

*** The appearance of Grindor in that shot in the trailer also misled many fans to believe that Blackout (who had a very similar physical appearance and had died during the first film) had also returned. Unfortunately, the actual film made no effort to specify that they are separate characters.

** The trailers for both of the first two films also featured shots of Decepticons causing gratuitous property damage (Bonecrusher ripping a bus in half, Sideways crashing through a building, Demolisher running through a bridge) in a way that made it seem like these guys would be major participants in the films. In the films, all three of them were relatively minor characters who showed up and [[Curb Stomp Battle|were almost immediately killed by the nearest Autobot]] without doing anything notable beyond their one shot from the trailer.

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' starring [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] was bafflingly mismarketed. The trailers, taking nearly every line and scene utterly out of context, paint Holmes as a depraved, ineffectual letch, juxtaposed with a squeaky-clean Watson against a backdrop of explosions and scantily clad women. In actuality the film is a ''far'' more faithful depiction of the mood, setting, and characters than has been seen in some time.

** On a smaller scale, there's a scene in the trailer of him kissing Irene Adler and later being naked and handcuffed to a bed, insinuating that there will be a romance between them. While there's some small romantic tension, {{spoiler|she's actually kissing him as he passes out from the drugs she put in the wine. After he's unconscious she strips and handcuffs him, presumably to keep him from chasing her immediately when he wakes up. None of it is consensual on Holmes' side.}}

* The trailers for the 2009 adaptation of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' made it look like a goofy, kiddy version of the story. The actual movie however, was surprisingly [[Adaptation Distillation|faithful]] and kept most of the original's story intact, including the [[Nightmare Fuel]].

** Some reviews actually complained that it was oddly dark for a Christmas movie. You have to wonder if they were familiar with the story at all.

* The trailers for ''[[Shutter Island]]'' latched on to two moments of the movie to make it look like Martin Scorsese had decided to make a supernatural mystery, completely ignoring most everything that happens in the last 85% of the film.

* While it does accurately convey the basic plot and tone of the movie, the trailer for ''[[The Specials]]'' has a couple of misleading elements: Melissa Joan Hart is prominently featured and listed among the main cast: she has a one-scene cameo with about five lines of dialogue. Also, it shows a sequence where each of the main characters comes out of the base poised for action, including some special effect shots. While this ''does'' happen in the movie, it's not until the very end, and we never actually see any of the superheroes fight any crime in the film itself.

* The trailer to ''Vulgar'' somehow managed to make the films seem ''lighthearted''.

* The trailer to ''Lymelife'' greatly overemphasized the comedic elements. The film is barely a comedy at all. Furthermore it also made Jill Hennessy's character look like an overprotective bitch. While far from perfect, Hennessy is probably [[Adults Are Useless|the most sympathetic adult in the entire movie]].

* The trailer for ''Green Zone'' implies a Bourne-style thriller, with the government trying to take Matt Damon's character out as part of a cover-up. This is done through changing the context of lines: "I know what you did" is actually {{spoiler|a line at the end of the movie}} and the line "Take that son of a bitch out!" is actually referring to someone else.

* Pretty much ''every'' trailer for ''[[Alpha and Omega]]'' lied about something.

* A trailer for ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' shown on TCM spun it as an uplifting romance. The fact that they were hiding from the Nazis was given only a token nod at the beginning.

* The marketing for ''[[Bunny and the Bull]]'' made it look like a zany [[Road Movie]] comedy, and a pretty weak spin-off of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' to boot (''every single'' trailer and advertisement reminded us not-so-subtly that it was by the director of the Boosh, and featured the shows' lead actors, [[Noel Fielding]] and Julian Barratt). This probably made BATB more successful in the UK than it would otherwise have been, as the Mighty Boosh has a dedicated enough following to give pretty much anything associated with it a sizeable popularity boost. But it was still ''hugely'' misrepresented by its advertising, and was far more [[Darker and Edgier|dark, gritty and sombre]] in tone and content than the Boosh had ever been. There were humorous moments, but to call it a comedy would be wildly inaccurate. Also, Barratt and Fielding were not major characters (as the adverts seemed to suggest) and had only relatively small cameos. It was actually still a very good film on its own account, but some of those who went into it expecting "Mighty Boosh: The Movie" were sorely disappointed.

** The alternate opening with that scene appears on the DVD... with unfinished effects, showing they quickly dismissed that scene.

* The trailer for ''The Losers'' made the film look like the titular group spends the movie fighting back against the CIA, especially with the line "We're declaring war on the Central Intelligence Agency." However, aside from one or two references early in the movie, the main villain has absolutely nothing to do with the government agency.

* The trailer for ''[[Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium]]'' was downright baffling. All that was shown was a whole lot of beautifully-rendered CGI magic, plus Dustin Hoffman in the middle of it. No indication of the actual ''plot'' was ever advertised, which must have created a bit of [[Mood Whiplash]] for a few viewers when they learned that the movie is really about {{spoiler|Mr. Magorium's magically extended lifetime coming to an end}}.

* The controversial drama ''[[Mysterious Skin]]'' needed to omit the references to sexual abuse, homosexuality, and [[Cluster F-Bomb|extremely heavy]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|cursing]] to make their trailers suitable for general TV. This naturally put too much emphasis on the "alien abduction" aspect, so it looks like a family-friendly sci-fi movie with dramatic moments here and there. ''[[Tear Jerker|It]] [[Awful Truth|is]] '''[[Break the Cutie|not]]''' [[Harmful to Minors|family]]-[[Bittersweet Ending|friendly.]]'' {{spoiler|Brian only thinks he got abducted by aliens because he repressed the ''real'' memories of getting molested by his Little League baseball coach.}} While the movie is regarded positively by those who were prepared for its content, people who saw only the trailers may have been surprised after the first twenty minutes.

** On top of this, one trailer implied that the toys were being involuntarily donated by Andy, and that Woody was trying to calm them down when actually the toys chose to be donated against Andy's wishes and Woody was trying to convince them it was a bad idea. Another trailer implied that the reason they had to reset Buzz was because he crashed on his dangerous attempt to escape from the caterpillar room when actually that attempt was successful, and there was a... [[Brainwashed and Crazy|more sinister reason.]]

** Some trailers also used the Fisher-Price phone's line "You and your friends ain't ever getting out of here now" in a completely different context, to make it seem as though he was a villain or at least trying to discourage Woody. In the actual film, the phone is a heroic character and helps the toys escape from Sunnyside.

* The ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]] Resurrection'' trailer made it seem like Laurie was in the house with the teenagers and would turn out to be a main protagonist in the plot. In the actual film {{spoiler|she dies in the first ten minutes or so, due to an out-of-character amount of [[Idiot Ball]]. The moment in the trailer when she greets Michael is taken from this sequence, which occurs at a mental asylum and not in the Myers house, and deceptively juxtaposed by the trailer with scenes involving the teenagers.}}

** Surprisingly subverted with ''[[Halloween III: Season of the Witch|Season of the Witch]]'', [[Canon Discontinuity|the one Halloween film that doesn't feature Michael Myers]]. Plot synopses don't even try to make you think Michael Myers is there, and while a mask is featured in the teaser trailer and the poster/video cover, it's not the iconic mask worn by Michael.

* As [[William Goldman]] tells it, this happened to him with ''Invitation to Happiness''. Trailer: A tough boxing match - fifteen to twenty seconds. Something every action fan would love. Movie: Lots and lots of smooching. Twenty-three kisses, he counted 'em. Yes, the boxing bit also was in it - but no more than in the trailer.

* The trailer for ''Cyrus'' makes it seem like much more of a laugh out loud comedy than it really is. The actual movie, while not devoid of humour, is more of a low key, downbeat drama about lonely damaged people.

* The trailer for the 1998 Todd Solondz film ''Happiness'' makes it look like a quirky romantic comedy. The film is anything BUT.

** Given how inappropriate the trailer is, it's likely this was intentional.

* Trailers for the [[Coen Brothers]] remake of ''[[True Grit]]'' make it looks like a, well, [[Darker and Edgier|Gritty Reboot]] of the Western genre ''a la [[No Country for Old Men]]''. According to people who've seen it, it's actually more of a comedy (which makes its absence in that category for the Golden Globes and its replacement by ''[[The Tourist]]'', which was also marketed as an action movie, all the more galling).

** {{spoiler|The trailers also greatly exaggerated Josh Brolin's role, even billing him above the title and making it seem he and Mattie have a dramatic confrontation. In reality, he only shows up in the last fifteen or twenty minutes, and spends most of that time whining before Mattie shoots him.}}

** Like the ''Sweeney Todd'' example above, ads and trailers made no indication to the film being a [[Musical]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOyBVXDJ9Q&feature=related One trailer] showed Rapunzel with [[Prehensile Hair]] that could grab and attack a character on its own. Other trailers showed her using the hair to close doors and windows. In the film, the hair has none of these properties, and actually has to be carried by characters throughout, as it is liable to getting caught on objects as it drags across the ground.

** One [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESMMMIViQdMpA web-exclusive trailer] parodies the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI "Double Rainbow" viral video], and though it is cut together mostly from scenes in the film, the voiceover is only in the trailer.

* Due to the overwhelming success of ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'', a lot of trailers for ''[[Road House]]'', which also starred Patrick Swayze, targeted women audiences. One wonders how stunned they were when they saw Swayze {{spoiler|rip out a guy's throat with his bare hands}}.

** Additionally, the trailers makes Picard's line "The line must be drawn '''HERE!!!'''" look like a [[Badass Boast]], when, actually, it's part of Picard's [[Sanity Slippage]]. And they played up the prospect of an all-out Federation invasion by the Borg, when, in fact, there's only one ship targeting Earth.

* The trailer for the ''[[The Green Hornet (film)|The Green Hornet]]'' makes it seem (by splicing unrelated scenes together) that Kato builds the [[Cool Car|Black Beauty]] for Britt's father. Britt then supposedly decides to put on a mask and become the Green Hornet to avenge his father's death. In fact, Kato only builds the car ''after'' Britt suggests becoming superheroes, and it is made clear that the father dies of {{spoiler|a bee sting, until the end when it is revealed he was actually murdered}}.

* In the [[Nicolas Cage]] movie ''[[Knowing]]'', trailers presented viewers with a question: if you knew when and where a disaster was going to happen, could you stop it? It promised a film about a hero deciding what he was willing to sacrifice in order to save strangers from events only he knew were coming. Instead, it becomes a head against wall moment when the list of dates and locations (and body counts) turned out to be [[Aborted Arc|entirely pointless]] and the movie ends with [[Higher-Tech Species|benevolent]] [[Ass Pull|aliens]] loading up [[Last of His Kind|humans and animals]] into [[Fling a Light Into the Future|space arks]] to save them from an unavoidable [[Apocalypse How|Class 6 apocalypse]].

* The trailer for ''Party Monster: The Shockumentary'' featured a prominent clip of one of the club kids talking about the rumors that initially surrounded the disappearance of Angel Melendez, including that his "head was cut off and was in someone's freezer in Brooklyn." Its placement in the trailer makes it seem like this was fact.

* The trailer for ''Youth in Revolt'' made it look like Nick's family is living in a trailer home, when really, they were only staying in the trailer during the summer.

* The trailer for ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]'' shows a long clip of a sex scene with Orlando Bloom, no doubt luring some female fans into the cinemas expecting a longer version of the scene. In actual fact, the couple of seconds we see in the trailer are probably even longer than what actually appears in the movie.

* A lot of people didn't want to see ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', even ranting about how it wasn't as scary as the book, after seeing the theatrical trailer, which made it seem more kid-friendly. This resulted in several people missing out on a great film, and [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|many parents escorting terrified and crying children out of the theaters]]. Coincidentally, [[Neil Gaiman]] cited the happy, childish trailer as his favourite.

* The trailer for ''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'' make it looks like a happy, sappy movie about a dog taking care of an orphan. If you ever saw the movie [[Nightmare Fuel|you would know it's anything but that.]]

** The comedy was all still there, not made up, but spaced out and used as comic relief to lighten the tension. Which means people coming to the film solely for Jack Black comedy were probably disappointed, and those who might have enjoyed the action never got a chance to see it because they were driven away by the trailers.

*** The trailers for the sequel appear to be giving it the same treatment, probably to keep from spoiling how awesome it will really be. Still, fans should be more [[Genre Savvy|savvy]] this time to look past them.

* Early trailers for ''[[Megamind]]'' do this as well, obscuring the fact that Mega-Mind defeats Metro Man in the first act, with the rest of the movie pretty much having him question [[And Then What?|what he'll do next.]] All of them make out the most part of the movie is about Mega-Mind vs Metro Man, but it's more a romantic action-comedy with Mega-Mind vs himself. It also kind of makes Metro Man look like more of a glory-hound jerk than he really is.

* Parodied in the trailer for ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]] Colon Movie Film for Theaters'', which gives a long list of things that '''do not''' appear in the movie. Except the flaming chicken.

* ''[[Sucker Punch]]''. It is not a lighthearted film at all.

* The trailer for ''[[Secret Window]]'' painted the movie as a horror film with the main character haunted by a ghost by emphasizing scenes that were hallucinations. The film is actually a psychological thriller.

* There were TV spots for ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' (they can be seen on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases) that focused on the action scenes and the slapstick battle between the Enchanted Objects and the mob as opposed to the love story that dominates the film. The slapstick, in particular, was emphasized to ride the coattails of the previous year's hit ''[[Home Alone]]''. By contrast, the theatrical trailer was an accurate rundown of the story.

* The trailer for ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' shows a bunch of short clips of battle scenes with a man providing an update on the war, and a few other random scenes of soldiers walking around implying that this is simply another Vietnam War film (and not even a terribly good one at that). If you'd never heard of Stanley Kubrick before seeing his name in the trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a crappy b-movie trying to cash in on the success of [[Apocalypse Now]] or [[Platoon]] instead of an in-depth character study of how war causes people to gradually lose their humanity

** The trailers also show nothing but men on the field. The whole first half of the movie involving R. Lee Ermey as a drill instructor turning a group of recruits into marines is completely absent. It's even more ironic when you consider the fact that the half of the film which the trailer ignores ended up being ''more'' famous than the later battlefield sequences.

* The trailer for ''[[Killer Elite]]'' depicts the film as a violent action film where [[Jason Statham]] and [[Clive Owen]] are trying to kill each other to get to [[Robert De Niro]]'s character (with the tagline "May the best man win"). Though the actual film is still rather violent, it is actually an espionage thriller about a retired hitman having to kill three SAS agents as part of a revenge plot planned by a sheik. Owen's character is a government agent whose job is to watch him and his associates every move.

* The latest Sherwood Pictures release ''Courageous'' features a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9VT_NBIVfs brief montage of scenes at the end of the trailer] following a speech by Adam Mitchell (part of Albany's Sheriff's Department) calling on the men to be strong fathers (the crux of the movie). One of the clips involves another officer, Shane Fuller, hanging with his son. In the actual movie, by the time the speech is made, Shane is [[Dirty Cop|in prison for stealing drugs from the evidence room to be sold in exchange for cash]].

** That claim would be plausible except for the fact that Paramount also owns the pay cable rights (which is set for Epix instead of Starz, who airs all Disney titles).

** This now extends to the film itself, as the [[Walt Disney Pictures]] logo is nowhere to be seen during the opening credits.

* Many of the scenes in the ''[[Paranormal Activity]] 3'' trailer [[Missing Trailer Scene|were not in the movie]], and are likely being saved for the director's cut DVD.

** The trailers built up the Station Inspector as a [[Complete Monster]]. In actuality, while he is the closest thing in the movie to an antagonist and and does cause quite a bit of trouble for Hugo, the film does at least make it clear that he's just doing his job. He even gets a romantic sub-plot and {{spoiler|[[Earn Your Happy Ending|earns his happy ending]]}}.

* The TV spots for [[Steven Soderbergh]]'s ''[[Haywire]]'' depicted it as being like the director's ''[[Ocean's Eleven]]''. It is much darker and more action/drama-oriented than that film. This may have been the reason for the film's big [[Critical Dissonance]].

* The film ''[[Something Borrowed]]'' has a great deal of comic elements in the previews, making it seem like a comedy. In fact, these seem to be the ''only'' upbeat parts of the film.

* ''The Ice Harvest'', directed by [[Stripes|Harold]] [[Ghostbusters|Ramis]], was marketed as a comedy, playing up Billy Bob Thornton's ''[[Bad Santa (film)|Bad Santa]]'' fame. The movie itself is more of a drama/thriller.

* The trailer for ''[[Racing Stripes]]'' added a lot of new dialogue to make it seem like comedy all over, when it wasn't entirely that.

* The original trailer of ''[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella III: A Twist in Time]]'' includes a scene of clips from the original ''Cinderella'' playing backwards while Lady Tremaine recites a time-travel incantation. Since some of these clips include the Fairy Godmother making Cinderella's carriage and ballgown, some viewers (including the author of one of IMDB's summaries) thought Lady Tremaine would stop Cinderella from meeting Prince Charming. In the actual movie, she only goes back far enough to make the glass slipper fit one of Cinderella's stepsisters, instead of her.<ref>The narrator asks, "What if the slipper didn't fit?" in one part of the trailer.</ref>

* Despite winning widespread critical acclaim including a perfect "4" from reviewer Roger Ebert and still having a 70+ [[Rotten Tomatoes]] score, Scorcese's ''[[Bringing Out The Dead]]'' is one of history's biggest ever movie bombs, with a net loss of over $32 million. It was felt that its marketing portrayed it too much as a [[The Sixth Sense|Sixth Sense-]]style supernatural I-see-dead-people plot, which it very much wasn't (the marketing clearly missed the point). It's probably one of the most critically acclaimed movies ever to reach the other wiki's "List of biggest box office bombs".

* The trailer for the 1981 film ''Game of Death II'' is another really egregious example. It makes it look like Bruce Lee is the protagonist of the entire movie. In reality Bruce Lee appears only in the beginning of the film in the form of stock footage (he had died well before this movie even started production), and his character dies quickly. The rest of the film has no Bruce Lee whatsoever.

* ''[[The Way of the Gun]]'''s misleading trailer made it look as though it was going to be a farcical comedy, when in fact the movie itself is a fairly sullen action flick.

* A TV spot for ''[[Megamind]]'' added a fart joke to Minion, but there wasn't a single toilet joke in the film.

* The third trailer for ''[[John Carter (film)|John Carter]]'' made the embarrassing choice of using dubstep and added in a line from Deja Thoris that hinted at a plot element about the risk of both Mars and Earth being destroyed. The film didn't do so well at the box office, so methinks Disney were forcing the failure a little too hard.

* ''[[The Iron Lady|The Iron Lady's]]'' trailer suggests that the film is about the political career of [[Margaret Thatcher]]. The actual film is 1/3 about the political career of Margaret Thatcher and 2/3 about an old lady with crippling mental illness, haunted by the memory of her late husband. Whoever cut together the trailer correctly identified which part audiences ended up enjoying more.

** The old lady is Thatcher and those scenes depict her life after her run as Prime Minister ended.

* The trailers for ''[[Piranha]] 3-DD'' depict it as being your standard horror-comedy, similar to the first film. The final result is actually a parody in the vein of The Wayans Brothers' ''[[Scary Movie]]''.