Trailers Always Spoil: Difference between revisions

[[File:TrailersAlwaysSpoil_4779TrailersAlwaysSpoil 4779.png|frame|Here's hoping you've seen the film already...]]

{{quote|''Watch The Mysterious Murderer. If you already saw it, don't spoil the ending. If you haven't seen it you will never guess until the last moment that the mysterious murderer is Jack the Stranger''|The trailer of The Mysterious Murderer routine by [[Les Luthiers]]}}

Movie [[Trailers]] are [[Never Trust a Trailer|known to mislead]], but sometimes they go in the opposite direction, giving away key plot points and twists (and sometimes what would have been a [[Twist Ending]]). The odds of this happening increase for the commercials aired after a movie's opening weekend.

A related phenomenon often occurs with DVD menu intro screens. DVDs will often introduce their menu screens with montages from the movie/episodes, or clips of scenes that are particularly flashy or dramatic. Often these will give away major plot points before the viewer has a chance to even start the film. These can be even more effective at spoiling the film's plot than trailers, since a viewer might plausibly be expected to go days between seeing a trailer and finally seeing the related movie, which might give them a chance to forget things from the trailer. With menu intro screens, on the other hand, the viewer is being shown clips from something that they are moments away from watching.

Also related are the trailers which run immediately previous to the show you have already sat down to watch. Some shows give a "Next, on X:" segment, spoiling you on things you would just know in the next 30-6030–60 minutes ''on a show you have already decided to watch''. These are intended to pull in the new viewer, but can seem unfair to those already into a show as you are most likely to be already watching at the beginning of the episode.

Can lead to [[Trailer Joke Decay]]. See also [[Spoiler Opening]] and [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]. Compare [[The Namesake]], when the title itself may be a spoiler. Or just see [[Spoiler Title]].

* The entire ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' metaseries (all dubs) plays with this trope, particularly at key moments. It's done as a ratings ploy: if you want people to watch, tell them exactly what they'll see. Why would I want to miss {{spoiler|Trunks kill Freeza}}? Also the manga necessarily spoiled the anime. Common to any anime closely following a manga.

* The trailers for ''[[Battle Angel Alita]]'' (aka ''Gunnm'') OVA summarize the entire episode, up to and including the defeat of the major villain.

** The preview for the fourth uncut DVD collection reveals nearly all of the matchups in the preliminaries and, most [[Egregious|egregiouslyegregious]]ly, features a shot of the winners gathered together.

* The trailer for the English release of ''[[ShuffleSHUFFLE!]]!'' does a good job of keeping the secret of who the [[Unlucky Everydude]] ends up with, until you realize that {{spoiler|it's playing Asa's [[Leitmotif|theme music]].}} This is a bigger hint than it would usually be, since {{spoiler|Asa is usually pushed aside until the viewer is hit in the head with her surprise victory, even left out of most plot summaries!}} Someone is going to put two and two together.

** Before the end of the series, plenty of previews of ''[[Digimon Xros Wars: theThe Young Hunters Leaping Through Time]]'' were released, confirming that {{spoiler|Damemon will be revived and become Yuu's partner for good (hasn't happened yet), that Shoutmon being killed off in episode 53 wasn't going to be permanent, and that in ''Young Hunters'' all characters were [[Put on a Bus|take the bus]] except for Taiki and Yuu}}.

* The trailer for ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]: The Second Raid'' at the end of "Episode 00" spoils that {{spoiler|Gauron survived the explosion at the end of the first season}}.

* One [https://web.archive.org/web/20091219121450/http://naruto.viz.com/news/index.php?id=37 news post] about ''[[Naruto]]'' chapters 430-434 (mislabeled as 425-429) mentioned that "when one of Naruto's comrades intervenes, more tragedy may be in store." While they did warn about spoilers, the event in question ({{spoiler|Hinata's confessing her love to Naruto and trying to defend him against Pain}}) doesn't happen until Chapter 437.

* [http://i34.mangareader.net/shiki/9/shiki-758007.jpg This]{{Dead link}} cover for ''[[Shiki]]''. {{spoiler|Look at his eyes.}}

* Trailers for various iterations of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' contain ruthless spoilerage. An [[ADV Films|ADV]] trailer briefly showed {{spoiler|Misato and Ritsuko's death scenes from Episode 25}}, and a "next episode" trailer spoils {{spoiler|Rei II's death}}; virtually every frame of the [[Manga Entertainment]] trailer for ''The End of Evangelion'' showcases massive spoilers, among them {{spoiler|the invasion of NERV HQ, the Misato-Shinji kiss scene, Asuka's death scene, and the appearance of GNR}}; even an early Japanese trailer for Death & Rebirth/EoE features a voiceover spoiling {{spoiler|Rei's betrayal of Gendo}}. Admittedly, EoE is such a spoilerific movie that it would be extremely difficult to have a trailer that spoils nothing whatsoever, but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAMQybBc-Jk&feature=channel_page a series of Japanese TV spots] seems to have figured it out (and encapsulated the general spirit of the movie into 15 seconds, to boot:)

** The final volume of ''[[Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally|Code Geass Nightmare of Nunnally]]'' shows {{spoiler|Nunnally standing up alongside Alice; granted, her eyes are still closed, but so are Alice's}}, and also makes a reference to {{spoiler|Euphemia becoming Empress}}.

** This trope, together with [[Trailer Joke Decay]], was [[Discussed Trope]] in ''The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (the ninth novel), when Haruhi decides to make a sequel to "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina". She talks about how much this annoys her and decides to avert this by producing the trailer before even starting the filming of the actual movie.

* The main Japanese Trailer of ''[[Film/HowlsHowl's Moving Castle (anime)|HowlsHowl's Moving Castle]]'' reveals the true form of the Witch of the Waste, but does not say that it is her.

* The Next Episode previews for ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds]]'' has on one or two occasions spoiled certain things. Episode 10's preview ends with Yusei holding up the Rubble King card (the last card he uses against Takasu) and episode 12's preview spoils the end of the Yusei/Ushio duel by showing Goyo Guardian being destroyed by Turbo Warrior.

** The original manga did a [http://www.boingboing.net/images/tezukabook.jpg similar thing.]

* In ''[[MaiMy-HiME]]'', Episode 15's trailer, after a cliffhanger involving {{spoiler|Mai's apparent death}}, contains a brief shot with {{spoiler|Mai in the background while Yukino is ordering food and drinks at the Hime Sentai's karaoke party}}.

* The intro of the first season of [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] Black and White had the Pokémon not covered in black,<ref>Unlike Best Wishes.</ref>, thus revealing {{spoiler|'''EVERY SINGLE [[PO Ké MON]]POKéMON IN THE FLIPPI'N INTRO!'''}}

** Early June saw the death of Bucky Barnes, the second Captain America, in [[Crisis Crossover|Fear Itself]] #3 to the surprise of almost nobody as Marvel had already announced that original [[Captain America (comics)]] Steve Rogers would return to the uniform a month later. The only reason it didn't make any sort of media splash was because [[DC Comics]] one upped them the day before by announcing that they were relaunching their entire line of comics this September.

* For those who have read the comic enough, the cover of ''[[The Walking Dead|The Walking Dead]]''{{'}}s]] [[Doorstopper|Compendium One]] has quite a few spoilers in the illustrations the cover.

== Fan Fiction Works ==

** The best summary of a story I've ever seen, for a ''[[Death Note]]'' fanfiction: ''{{spoiler|''What if Rem never finished writing L's name in the Death Note? How will L cope with the loss of the only father figure he's ever had in his life?}} May contain spoilers.'' Just in case there was any doubt at all, the story is '''''called''''' {{spoiler|''Watari''}}.

* The summary of ''[[Thirty Hs]]'' is basically a summary of the events of the first few chapters.

* Most comedy films today seem to put all the best jokes in the trailer. Some wags claim that the marketing department does this to disguise the fact that all the jokes ''not'' in the trailer just aren't funny. [[Trailer Joke Decay]] inevitably ensues.

* ''[[Sky High]]'''s trailer makes it seem like the main conflict of the movie is the main character's lack of super powers. Then, approximately 10 seconds later, it shows him with super strength and flight -- atflight—at which point the viewer realizes there's probably more to this movie that they're not telling him, and there goes the element of surprise.

* In certain circles (that is, the obsessive ones), the trailer for ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Two Towers]]'' is rather notorious for giving away what is clearly set up in the film (and even more so in the book) as a point of mystery and contention -- thecontention—the identity of the mysterious White Wizard who is following Aragorn's Terrific Trio around.

** In the book, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas were totally surprised to find out that Gandalf had returned from the dead, and when they heard about a "White Wizard", and even at first when they finally came across him, they thought it was Saruman, not Gandalf. In the movie, to maintain this, Peter Jackson actually went so far as to have Gandalf the White speak with the voices of ''both Lee and McKellen'' imitating each other's voice, with their voices overlaid on top of each other. You can hear the transitions quite well, and for a moment Gandalf sounds like he's talking with the [[Voice of the Legion]] because of this.

* The trailer for ''[[GoldeneyeGoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'' revealed the plot twist that Bond's old partner 006 (Trevelyan) was the film's main villain.

* In ''[[Shrek]] 2'', the nature of Puss N Boots (a cute little kitty who just happens to be a mercenary) is clearly meant to be a comedic twist, but the trailers practically made it the main selling point. Not to mention the merchandise, which spoiled {{spoiler|Shrek turning into a handsome human temporarily}}, while ''Shrek 3'' 's merchandise spoiled {{spoiler|the birth of the Shreklings (Shrek and Fiona's children), as well as the [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]] [[Everything's Better with Princesses|princesses]] going [[Action Girl]]}}.

** [[The Phantom Menace|Episode 1]]'s soundtrack had a couple of track names that gave away the fact that a major character died. In the [httphttps://replay.web.archive.org/web/20080926060847/http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/2062/index.html "Humorous Version"] script parody, the soon-to-be-dead character refers to this spoiler, and the ensuing altercation is joined by George Lucas and John Williams:

{{quote| '''JW''': What was I supposed to do? Label Track 15 as "Some Nifty Jazzy-Type Music Followed by Heartwrenching Violin Music" and Track 16 as "The High Council Meeting and A Bunch of Basses That Sound Like They're Singing a Catholic Monk Death Chant"?<br />

'''GL''': (thinking) You know, that could've worked.<br />

** And the poster/DVD cover for ''At World's End'' spoils the twist ending from the second movie ({{spoiler|Barbossa is [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]}}).

* The trailers for ''[[Fantastic Four (film)|Fantastic Four]]: Rise of the Silver Surfer]]'' {{spoiler|reveal the plot point that the team exchanges powers, and shows the climax where they combine all their powers into Human Torch}}.

* A TV spot for ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|Batman Begins]]'' revealed, in order, that [[Late Arrival Spoiler|Bruce's parents died]], Wayne Manor burns down (something that happen 3/4's of the way through the film), and that Bruce has a reconciliatory conversation with Rachel that happens right beside the ashes of said burned-down manor.

* ''[[Collateral]]'' treats Tom Cruise/Vincent's occupation as a secret, but you already knew it if you saw any promotion at all. Even critics were unsure how to treat this bit of information, most saying something to the effect of "I guess this is a spoiler, but it's already spoiled." In a hilarious bit of probably accidental hypocrisy, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101021230743/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/REVIEWS/408060302/1023%2F20040806%2FREVIEWS%2F408060302%2F1023 Roger Ebert's review] kindly tells you not to finish reading it if you don't already know, but the picture and caption at the top of the webpage give it away anyway.

** Granted, the source material for the film, a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is so short that you could pick up a compendium of Fitzgerald's short stories which include "Benjamin Button", flip to where the story is, and within 10 -– 15 minutes know how the entire story goes.

* Late trailers for ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'' go out of their way to reveal {{spoiler|[[Back Fromfrom the Dead|Megatron's return]]}}.

* The trailer for ''[[Multiplicity]]'' gave away that the movie has four [[Michael Keaton|Michael Keatons]]s, a development that does not happen until about 80 minutes into the 120 minute movie.

* The TV commercials for ''[[9|Nine]]'' try their best to hide things by cutting rapidly from scene to scene, but they still manage to spoil {{spoiler|2's funeral, the destruction of the Fabrication Machine, the Cat Beast's death, and several of the dolls having their souls sucked out by the talisman}}. Geeze!

** Something of a [[Foregone Conclusion]] since the Battle of Thermopylae actually occurred, and all the Spartans died.

** Most trailers for ''Up'' were actually a remarkable aversion to this trope. Other than the prescience of a talking dog and a floating balloon house, nothing else was really shown.

* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' had trailers that spoiled that {{spoiler|the new toys were the villains}}. And while they never explicitly stated who the [[Big Bad]] was, many viewers were able to tell just from what was shown (and if not that, then from the other marketing).

* The advertisingsadvertising for [[The Film of the Book]] of ''[[Prisoners of Power|Inhabited Island]]'' by the [[Strugatsky Brothers]] spoils ''every'' major plot point. One trailer even reveals that {{spoiler|[[The Hero]] and the [[Big Bad]] turns out to be on the same side}}, what was supposed to be a [[Twist Ending]].

* The trailer for the [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1|seventh Harry Potter movie]]. {{spoiler|Harry and Voldemort fight! Ollivander isn't dead! Hogwarts erupts into battle! Ron uses the sword! There's a dragon! Griphook comes back! Harry hands himself over to Voldemort!}} The worst part about all of it is that most of this stuff is from what has to be the ''second part''. So not only are they spoiling a good section of the book, they're spoiling a good section of the ''second movie''.

*** [[But Wait! There's More!]]! The trailers for Part 2 also show a scene where Harry speaks to dead friends and loved ones, like his parents -- asparents—as well as a certain character ({{spoiler|Prof. Remus Lupin}}) who was still alive last time we checked. And said character is quite prominent, meaning it's hard to miss. Whoops.

* ''[[Unknown (2011 film)|Unknown]]'''s trailer shows the people telling him that the person he thinks he is does not exist - the HUGE twist (although it only gives the line, not much context of it), and it shows the explosion, and one even showed them faking the picture.

* ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'' trailer was basically a mini version of the movie, leading some people to blame it for the movie's poor box office -- peopleoffice—people felt they had already seen it.

* The original ''[[The Children's Hour]]'' trailer effectively spoils the entire twist of the story, and {{spoiler|Martha's suicide}}.

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-sUv5uGq5k&NR=1 trailer] to the 1994 movie [[Trading Mom]] gives away the entire plot from start to finish and shows the ending too.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b726feAhdU The utlimate example] would be ''[[The Shining]]'', the trailer for which is literally just a single scene, specifically a long shot of a room. There's some credits, then a river of blood, and that's it.

* The trailer for ''[[It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World|Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World]]'' gives away that {{spoiler|the money is lost to the crowd watching them fight over it.}}

** This, however, was [[Subverted Trope]] by the cover text for ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel)|Harry Potter]]''. It says, though not in so many words, "Hey, this is the seventh book in the Harry Potter series. Either you're reading this while waiting in the checkout line to buy it, or you aren't interested in Harry Potter and thus aren't ever going to read this. So there's no point in having an advertisement here."

** A cheap supermarket paperback thriller called ''[[Rabid]]'', about the rabies virus getting into the animal population in Great Britain, one of the few completely rabies-free places in the world (and thus a place where pets are not rabies-vaccinated). In a twist at the very end -- literallyend—literally on the last page of the book -- thebook—the virus mutates into an airborne strain. The back-cover copy ended with, "And when the virus mutated, became airborne, the whole world would learn what it was to become ... RABID!"

** Through the webmaster of his official website--hewebsite—he claimed to not have an Internet connection himself--[[Terry Goodkind]], author of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' novels, actually warned his fans that the cover blurb of book six was disgustingly spoilerish and not to read it before they read the book.

** The Polish publishing house Amber seems to have a thing for horribly spoilerish blurbs. In an edition of Strugatsky's ''[[The Powerless of This World]]'', the back cover blurb is ''only'' the surprise ending, and nothing else. A Polish edition of [[Robert Sheckley]]'s ''[[Dimension Of Miracles]]'' likewise spoils the humorous ending, that {{spoiler|the hero gets back to his world but finds it insufferable}}. And the one for ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat|A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born]]'' spoils the {{spoiler|death of The Bishop}}, and even gets it [[CowboyMedia BebopResearch at His ComputerFailure|completely wrong]] ({{spoiler|claiming that he's killed by the police in an ambush, while in reality he's killed in a military attack on a distant quasi-medieval planet}}).

* ''[[The Kid Who Ran For President]]''. Somewhere in the beginning, it mentions something about looking at the last page to find out the ending. When you do exactly that, it says something along the lines of 'Hey! Read this in order, you loser!'

* ''[[Mogworld]]''. The first thing anyone learned about it was {{spoiler|the world is an MMO}}. It doesn't come up until the second-to-last chapter or so, although there are hints that are pretty obvious ''when you already know it.''

** Related are all these teachers who, when assigning their students novels for mandatory reading, casually spoil everything about the plot , because Lord forbid the students actually derive ''pleasure'' from reading.

* Averted, apparently by accident, on the back covers of some of the Harper Torch-published ''[[Discworld]]'' paperbacks, where it's obvious that [[CowboyMedia BebopResearch at His ComputerFailure|whoever wrote the blurb had never read the books.]]

** Except for ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'' which gives away the fact that {{spoiler|the dragon is crowned king}}, which doesn't happen until about halfway through the book and is apparently intended to be a surprise twist.

* One recent printing of ''[[Podkayne Ofof Mars]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]] features a contest on the back cover where readers wrote in on whether the main character, Podkayne, should {{spoiler|live or die}}. Apparently, Heinlein wrote the latter but his editor forced him to change it to a happier ending, completely undermining the entire point of the book. This edition featured both endings, as well as choice letters.

* The ''[[Club Of Queer Trades]]'' is a series of off-beat detective stories by [[G. K. Chesterton]]. The blurb at the beginning gives away the solution to every single story.

** Even worse, one episode ends with Chuck about to meet his father (who ran off years ago) in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. The episode ends with the door opening, and Chuck's father hidden. Immediately afterwards the next-episode trailer proclaimed "Next week on ''Chuck'', {{spoiler|Scott Bakula returns to NBC!}}"

** Creator/producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have ordered ABC not to show any footage of season 6 in trailers for the next--andnext—and final--seasonfinal—season. This is both because they want a large amount of suspense going into the show's conclusion, and because showing any footage at all would explain the results of season 5's massive cliffhanger.

{{quote| '''Vala''': Wow. Nobody's gonna see ''that'' coming.<br />

'''Daniel''': No. There'll be spoilers.<br />

* A well-known TV example would be the trailers for the ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'' ''pilot'' (if you can call it that, considering it was the last episode aired). The major act break at the half-way point of the two-hour episode was supposed to have been revealing what was in the box Simon was so anxious to keep secret. This was ruined by the fact that the FOX promos spoiled it from the get go, as well as showing the moment the box was opened in the opening credits.

* Happens pretty often in trailers for [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the 2000s ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']]. The promo for ''Resurrection Ship, Part 2'', apparently attempted to be discreet in its final frame, which showed a hand holding a gun, aimed at Admiral Cain's head. However, the shot of the hand was detailed enough that many astute viewers were able to determine that it was {{spoiler|"Gina", the Number Six Cylon imprisoned on the Pegasus}}, well before the resolution aired.

** Local previews for the Australian broadcasting of House were often deliberately misleading, taking quotes out of context and hinting that the focus of the story was something totally different.

** Also, they often tease a "special guest" showing up in the next episode and vainly attempt to edit around the actual person to keep it a surprise. This often fails (IE, Matt Hughes being clearly seen sitting on a bench in the background in one teaser).

* FOX has a tendency to completely ruin the element of surprise on their gameshows, including ''[[Moment Of Truth]]'' and ''[[Are You Smarter Than a Fifth5th Grader?]]'', by having openings and "coming up after this commercial" previews which show how far along the contestant is going to get, which completely defeats the point of going to commercial after the contestant answers the question but before it is revealed if they are correct or not.

** In the Season Four finale of ''[[So You Think You Can Dance]]'', the show cut to commercial before announcing whether the winner was Joshua Allen or Stephen "Twitch" Bass. During the commercial break, a promo for FOX News at 9 advertised a story about "So You Think You Can Dance champion Joshua Allen." No prizes for guessing who was crowned the Season Four winner when the show resumed...

* One immensely frustrating one occurred to ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]''. At the very end (literally in the last five seconds) of the otherwise unrelated episode "Blood Fever," the crew discover {{spoiler|a Borg corpse, setting up the [[Wham! Episode|next episode, "Unity,"]] and the primary threat of the remainder of the series. It was pretty effective -- it came completely out of left field and chillingly evoked one of the most terrifying enemies in the Trek mythos (regardless of how unforgivably [[Villain Decay|Villain Decayed]]ed they would subsequently become)}}. So what do the producers do? Why, they put that scene right in the trailer, of course.

*** And this relates to ''The Tudors'' how?

* The original trailers of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' could be pretty awful about this too. Perhaps the most [[Egregious]] was the trailer for the episode, "The Most Toys" which showed Data being captured by aliens, a woman alien offering to help Data escape, and a man {{spoiler|incinearting the woman with a phaser}}. When the episode aired, the man was the villain of the episode while the woman was his loyal assistant...and was a major character throughout the entire episode, not doing her [[Heel Face Turn]] and getting {{spoiler|zapped [[Redemption Equals Death|by her boss]]}} until within the last 5 minutes of the episode.

* Mere minutes after the last episode of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' had finished on BBC One, fellow BBC channel BBC Three's ''60 Seconds'' (presumably attempting to encourage viewers to watch the episode) announced that the final episode had been shown and, in under ten seconds, spoiled that {{spoiler|Sam had been revived in the present and jumped to an apparent death to return to the '70s}}. It was followed by an (unscripted, one imagines) apology for those that had recorded the episode to watch later.

* Commercials for the ''[[ICarlyiCarly]]'' hour-long special "iPsycho", in which a crazy girl locks the trio in her basement, featured about no clips from the first half-hour of the episode. Instead, every commercial emphasized {{spoiler|their friend Gibby coming to save them,}} which literally happens within the last 5 minutes.

* ''[[ICarlyiCarly]]'''s sister show ''[[Victorious]]'' is very guilty of this too. The promo for "Cat's New Boyfriend" gave away that Cat was dating Tori's ex, Daniel, that Tori sprayed cheese on Cat and Daniel, that Tori kissed Daniel, and that Cat punched Tori in the face.

* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' averts this, {{spoiler|not showing Artie in ads for season 2, since he is supposedly dead}}.

* While not as bad a letout, the first promo for the ''[[Victorious]]'' episode "Robarazzi" shows Robbie being worried about his blog, then humiliating Tori after the video of her playing with her pimple is let out. Then, in another ad promoting the block it was going to be aired in (with ''[[ICarlyiCarly]]'' and ''[[Big Time Rush]]''), it shows {{spoiler|Tori and Jade filming Robbie in his gym towel against his plea, implying that they set up a revenge plot, which happens about three minutes from the end of the episode.}}

* Some years ago, a promo for the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] nightly news promised an interview with the first-ever million dollar winner on ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]''. Said promo aired ''before'' ''WWTBAM'' started.

* ''[[Glee]]'' did this in a season 2 episode, showing {{spoiler|Kurt, who has been at a rival school for ten episodes,}} standing at the top of a staircase yelling {{spoiler|"Kurt Hummel's back at [[Mc Kinley]]McKinley!"}}

* In the Season 2 episode of ''[[Leverage]]'' that introduced Tara Cole, {{spoiler|she was posing as their client's uptight lawyer to "audition" as a stand-in grifter for Sophie - a fact she didn't reveal to the team (or the audience) until the end.}} Unfortunately, that was given away in one of the promos that aired just prior to the actual reveal in the last segment.

** On a similar note, the US previews <ref> This US-based troper is unsure whether the UK preview was the same</ref> for season 4 opened with {{spoiler|"The king is dead"}}, successfully spoiling the third episode before even making headway on the season premier. Not to be deterred, it went on to display Merlin and the {{spoiler|Dorocha that (successfully) attacked him}} and the aforementioned carrying scene. And also {{spoiler|Uther's body}} [[Digging Yourself Deeper|for good measure]]. [[Deader Than Dead|Just to let us know they were serious]].

* [[USA Network]]'s promos for the season 3 finale of ''[[White Collar]]'' spoiled the sudden [["What Now?" Ending]] about {{spoiler|Neal cutting his anklet.}}

* PBS' trailer for the newest adaptation of ''[[Great Expectations]]'' gives away {{spoiler|how Miss Havisham dies}}, even though the official website goes out of its way to stick "Spoiler Warning" on the production designer's discussion of that event.

* The trailer for the ''[[.hack|.hack//G.U.]]'' games revealed exactly who the eight Epitaph Users are and which Avatars they have.

* ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' deserves a special mention; if you can't do a puzzle in an early level, go to the main menu, wait for the game to go into [[Attract Mode]] and watch a character do it for you. It is a very easy puzzle, admittedly, but still.

** Coupled with the fact that the advertisement's narration is terribly cheesy and the teaser itself is [[Never Trust a Trailer|quite misleading]], this is a particularly ''egregious'' example.

** In actuality, the whole bonus segment in ''Original Generations'' were like an interactive trailer for ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation Gaiden'', thus the main story of the bonus sections got carried over to the Gaiden. {{spoiler|Including the death of [[Player Punch|Lamia Loveless]]. Her [[Brainwashed and Crazy|rebirth in different circumstances]] was still well hidden in the commercial videos. As well as the inclusion of the Cry Wolves of the MX series and [[Back Fromfrom the Dead|the return]] [[Heel Face Turn|and redemption]] of both Axel Almer and Alfimi.}}

* Although it's so disjointed that it may not be recognizable until you actually play it, the in-game trailer to ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: The 2nd Runner'' pretty much shows the entire game, every stage, every boss fight (with the exception of the [[Final Boss]]). It also shows pretty much the entire story, including clips from the Ending.

* The trailer for ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'''s [[Expansion Pack]], which features several clips of a military funeral interspliced between the imagery of awesome carnage. The fact that the coffin had the banner of the United Earth Directorate on it meant that a major UED character was going to die, though it didn't become clear until the {{spoiler|second-to-the-last}} Terran mission.

** Then again, the instruction manual originally packaged with the North American SNES version included a walkthrough that spoiled the plot for about half of the game; just flipping through it randomly could spoil at least three [[Plotline Death|Plotline Deaths]]s for you.

* The blurb on the back of the case for ''[[Rondo of Swords]]'' spoils that you're actually playing the prince's body double, not the prince himself. This isn't as huge a spoiler as it sounds -- itsounds—it's revealed after the very first stage -- butstage—but the game was very obviously written with the intention of keeping it a secret until this (early) reveal.

* When ''The Twin Snakes'', the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' remake for the [[Nintendo GamecubeGameCube]], was wrapping up production, several trailers were released spoiling the gene storyline (ingame, no mention of it is made until near the end) and dropping an extremely obvious hint as to who the Ninja was by playing a later clip over his introductory scene.

{{quote| '''Ninja''': Do you remember me now?<br />

{{quote| '''Terminal''': {{spoiler|PAL code number three confirmed. PAL code entry complete. Detonation code activated.}}<br />

** Considering the [[Play StationPlayStation]] version came out four years earlier, this was more of a [[Late Arrival Spoiler]].

*** And the Ninja example wasn't much of a spoiler to non-Japanese audiences, since ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' [[No Export for You|didn't get an international release]] until ''MGS3: Subsistence''.

** Similar to the above ''Phantom Menace'' and ''Gundam SEED'' examples above, ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' features a track labeled {{spoiler|"Natasha's Death." (That's Gustava for those of you playing the version included in Subsistence.)}}

** Sonic Generations was also bad about this. For a game all about reliving Sonic's history, they revealed literally every stage, boss, and rival in the game except for the final boss (the only one not to be from a previous game) in the trailers leading up to release.

** The third anime special, <ref>not actually a trailer, but still a preview</ref> released around the same time as ''Explorers of Sky'', reveals that {{spoiler|the hero, Grovyle, and Dusknoir are from the future, and that the hero will erase himself from the timeline to stop Primal Dialga.}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' included {{spoiler|a map of The World of Ruin, which is what the game world turns into halfway through}}, with the game. It also gives away the magic system (which has some storyline significance). Not to mention listing all the characters with mini-bios (giving away a few [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]]s) and their abilities. The latter gives away the twist that {{spoiler|Terra is a half-esper}}.

* A trailer for ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' showed some icons that accidentally revealed that Ness, Jigglypuff, and Lucario were playable; all three were hidden characters in ''Brawl''.

{{quote| '''Narrator''': Will Professor Chaos succeed? Which boy will replace Kenny? Which adult cast member will [[Tonight Someone Dies|die]]? These questions will be answered... {{spoiler|right now. No, Tweek, and Ms. Choksondik.}}}}

* Nickelodeon showed various commercials of scenes leading up to the release of [[The Movie]] of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''. One of these completely spoiled that Helga finally confesses her love for Arnold. (They didn't show how he reacted to it, though.)

*** Then the very next question they Narrator asks is: {{spoiler|"Then, who will lead the Autobots?" There's not much need for a new leader unless the old one dies, ya know...}}

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' (after Cleveland had left for ''[[The Cleveland Show]]''): "Cleveland! Who would have thought we would run into you? Except everyone because [[FoxFOX]] [[Lampshade Hanging|spoiled it in all the promos.]]"

** That's more a parody of old adventure serials. They routinely ended with something terrible happening (e.g., the hero's car skids off a cliff) and an admonishment to see the next installment to find out how the hero would avoid his terrible fate. Invariably, the next installment would be a [[Cliffhanger Copout|total cheat]] (e.g., the hero jumps out of the car before it reaches the edge - even though he was ''clearly'' in the driver's seat as the car went over in the previous installment).

*** Then there's "Minor Monogram" where the comercails litteraly only showed the ending where {{spoiler|Vannesa falls for Monty}}.

* Not a trailer, but the original lobby card for the classic [[Daffy Duck]] short, ''[[Duck Amuck]]'' flat out reveals who the mysterious animator is. It shows {{spoiler|Bugs Bunny}}'s hand with a paint brush tormenting Daffy.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'' has restrained themselves fairly well when it comes to foreshadowing Anakin's eventual transformation into Darth Vader, so naturally, Cartoon Network was eager to promote an episode where Anakin has a vision of what he will become. They show us some pretty sweet clips in the promos, but when the actual episode was aired, you realized they showed you the whole scene!

* The identity of the new character in ''[[Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]'' was revealed [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Phantasm-actionfigure.jpg by the action figure that came out at the same time with removable mask].