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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{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.
Of course some of this depends on your definition of "[[Spoiler]]". Given that a trailer consists mostly of clips from the movie itself, a fair bit of spoilerage, in this case footage from a later part in the movie, is often inevitable. There is also the matter of ''context''. An action movie, for example, may show a fight scene between two characters, then you actually see the movie itself and realize that the other dude the hero was fighting happens to be his best friend in the beginning, thus the trailer has clued you in to a betrayal of some sort occurring before you even knew it. So if you read the examples below from a movie you haven't seen (either you have no intention of seeing it, or maybe you should reconsider continuing past this part), and find yourself thinking "I didn't even know that ''was'' a spoiler", don't worry about it.
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
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]].
{{examples}}
* For ''[[Attack on Titan]]'' there is a trailer that shows the drill sergeant telling Armin {{spoiler|that he would be 'a great light snack' for a Titan}}, for the second half of that trailer, we see {{spoiler| Armin being consumed by a Titan. This is probably a subversion, because in that episode, Armin is the only one in his squad that ''doesn't'' end up in a Titan's stomach.}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The entire ''[[
* The trailers for ''[[Battle Angel Alita]]'' (aka ''Gunnm'') OVA summarize the entire episode, up to and including the defeat of the major villain.
* ''[[
** It's something of a moot point, since it's suggested that {{spoiler|Sakura could have made it back to the Sand Village to make another antidote (the thing paralyzes instantly but takes ''3 days'' to actually kill someone)}} if not for {{spoiler|Chiyos's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}, which the preview for the corresponding anime episode spoils.
** Viz Media is incredibly bad with this. They spoiled the outcome for one fight, and if I recall correctly, they spoiled a character's death. In their translation of ''[[One Piece]]'', they also showed ''the exact page'' where {{spoiler|Luffy defeats Captain Kuro}}.
** ''Naruto'''s Volume 42 preview shows Sasuke saying that the Mangekyo Sharingan 1){{spoiler|enables the user to control tailed beasts}}, 2){{spoiler|causes blindness}}.
** The preview for the fourth uncut DVD collection reveals nearly all of the matchups in the preliminaries and, most [[
* In a strange case, the [["On the Next..."|Post Episode Trailers]] on the first three episodes of ''[[Yes!
** On the other hand, although the ''[[
* The infamous "Malay dubs" of ''[[
** "Will Scorponok return? Of course he will."
* The trailer for the English release of ''[[
* Like the ''Phantom Menace'' example below, ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' spoiled the death of a certain character by having one of the tracks on the official soundtrack being titled "(Character)'s Death".
* The tendency for trailers to spoil is parodied in ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* ''[[D
* ''[[
** Before the ''Seven Kingdoms'' story arc began halfway through the series, it was revealed that {{spoiler|Taiki, Kiriha and Nene were to get new clothes, join forces and their Digimon will gain golden-armored forms}}.
** Before the end of the series, plenty of previews of ''[[Digimon Xros Wars:
** The next episode previews at the end of each episode of ''[[
* From ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** The second season trailers ([[Captain Obvious|the trailers that came out before the second season]]) spoiled a lot of the stuff in the beginning of the season. Then again, none of it would be news to anyone who'd read the original [[Visual Novel|sound novels]].
** The next-episode trailers in the first season are usually [[Contemplate Our Navels|too vague]] to give much away, but one of the Atonement-arc trailers includes the phrase "What I opened was a {{spoiler|scrapbook of deception}}", which spoils an upcoming plot point.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
** The trailer they made for the Season 1 boxset of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (
** Although ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* The manga preview for Volume 27 of ''[[
** The summary of Volume 15 of the ''Bleach'' DVDs spoils {{spoiler|Aizen}} being the [[Big Bad]], by referring to him as {{spoiler|a captain who was thought to be dead}}, screenshots showing him {{spoiler|clearly alive}} and the cover being of him after [[The Reveal]].
** The trailer for Episode 224 of ''Bleach'' clearly shows {{spoiler|Momo}} helping Rangiku.
** The preview for Volume 24, while questioning what the outcome of the battle against the Arrancars will be, shows Renji, Hitsugaya and Rangiku winning their fights.
* ''[[
** In the December 2007 issue, the Bleach preview mentioned "reinforcements from the Soul Society" coming to help Ichigo against the Arrancar, and it was still ''several chapters'' before Hitsugaya's team arrived.
** The June 2009 issue suggests that the next issue's Naruto chapters would feature "the confession you never thought you'd hear", and it isn't hard to figure out that they're referring to {{spoiler|Hinata}}.
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* Every "Next Episode" trailer in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' does this. Watch the trailers and you need never be surprised by a plot twist again.
* The trailer for [[Wham! Episode|Episode 405]] of ''[[One Piece]]'' spoils almost the entire episode by showing {{spoiler|shots of Kuma lunging after each of Luffy's crewmates, and his saying that he can't save a single friend}}. And there's the [[Spoiler Title|title]]: "{{spoiler|Disappearing Crewmates! The Final Day of the Straw Hat Crew!}}"
* One of the next episode trailers for ''[[Samurai
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
* The Next episode trailer for episode 8 of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' has Kamina monologuing. Nothing to out of the ordinary for the show thus far except they gave the title of the episode, which was {{spoiler|"Farewell Comrades" ("Later, Buddy" in the dub) which were Kamina's last words!}} [[Spoiler Title|They put the title card at the end of the episode for a reason!]]
* The English Trailer for [[Ghost in
* 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}}.
* Completely averted by the back cover of the final volume of ''[[
** Mostly the same with the preview for it in Volume 11, although if you think about it, showing {{spoiler|Light's watch}} could be considered a minor spoiler.
* 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.
* ''[[
* You can always tell in ''[[
* The first Japanese volume of the ''[[Fist of the North Star
** The preview trailers and posters for the 2007 ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' movie ''Legend of Raoh: Chapter of Fierce Fighting'' spoils the fact that {{spoiler|Raoh dies.}} Considering the movie is an adaptation of a key story arc in a 24-year-old manga, this is a combination of [[Late Arrival Spoiler]] and [[It Was His Sled]].
* [http://i34.mangareader.net/shiki/9/shiki-758007.jpg This]{{Dead link}} cover for ''[[
* Trailers for various iterations of ''[[
** As [[Nightmare Fuel|awesomely disturbing]] as the DVD menu for [[Eo E]] is, it too is guilty of plenty of spoilerage as well {{spoiler|most notably Asuka's death.}}
* The preview for episode 23 of ''[[
* The DVD menus for the newest US release (Remix, I believe) of ''[[
* The English trailer for ''[[
** Similarly, Disney's trailer for ''[[Ponyo
* The back of the third DVD volume for ''[[
** The fourth volume shows pictures of {{spoiler|Nunnally}}, who was assumed to be dead, including one with {{spoiler|her eyes open}}, and also includes a [[Spoiler Title]] for Episode 22: {{spoiler|Emperor Lelouch}}.
** The final volume of ''[[Code Geass
* Lantis' 5-minute promo for ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya
** 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 ''[[
* The Next Episode previews for ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
** The Next Episode preview for episode 53 spoils the outcome of the Crow/Bommer duel. The very last scene of the preview shows the exact scene in which {{spoiler|Earthbound God Chacu Challhua}} is destroyed.
* The previews for the film adaptation of ''[[Metropolis (
** And not only have the trailers given off the climax, but the DVD covers as well!
** The original manga did a [http://www.boingboing.net/images/tezukabook.jpg similar thing.]
* The cover of the third volume of ''[[
** The preview for Volume 6 notes that "all (Mashiro and Takagi's) dreams may go up in smoke when one member of the team can't take the pressure," and it shows {{spoiler|Mashiro}} collapsed in his office (Granted, this is foreshadowed).
* In ''[[
* The intro of the first season of [[Pokémon (
* One of the ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]'' featured a prominent spoiler on one of the covers, the volume after it was revealed. It clearly showed {{spoiler|Mitsumi}} as a Team Galactic member so to anyone who saw that cover early.. You're spoilered.
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* In 2011 [[Marvel Comics]] has been especially bad about this saying that now they'll probably kill off a major character every quarter to raise sales:
** February saw the death of {{spoiler|The Human Torch}} in the conclusion of the "Three" arc in ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', the title of which heavily implied one of the titular four dying. While the story's title managed to avert the typical [[Oh, and X Dies]] nature of alot of "The Death of X" stories Marvel ruined any potential surprise by spoiling it to the press the day before the release.
** 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.
** The same month featured the release of ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' #160, the last issue of the "Death of Spider-Man" storyline. Cue the media exploding with articles about it and pundits saying things like "Prediction: fans will buy up copies of ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' #160 until it is no longer collectible." Ignoring that ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' takes place in an [[Alternate Continuity]] and the real Peter Parker is not only alive and well but starring in "Spider Island" his own little mini crossover event.
*** To make matters worse when it was announced to media a day before [[The Reveal]] that an all new half Black half Hispanic character [[Alliterative Name|Miles Morales]] would replace Peter Parker as Spider-Man the media went into uproar while still ignoring the [[Alternate Continuity]] thing.
* The ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' story "F.O.W.L. Disposition" has Steelbeak doing an [[Enemy Mine]] with Darkwing after F.O.W.L. goes too far. Whether this is believable or not in the first place is debatable, but {{spoiler|every single cover shows him as an evil figure, including the back of the trade.}}
* For those who have read the comic enough, the cover of ''[[The Walking Dead
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* It's a pain trying to find a surprise twist in [[Fan Fiction]] because so many writers think "summary" means "tell me everything that happens in the story".
** This is especially the case when the surprise twist involves a [[Shipping]]. We get such hilarity as "Which girl will [[Harry Potter (
*** Granted, not including the pairings in the summary is practically asking the rabid shippers to flame you.
** The best summary of a story I've ever seen, for a ''[[
* The summary of ''[[Thirty Hs]]'' is basically a summary of the events of the first few chapters.
== Film ==
* The ''[[Final Destination]]'' series is really bad about this. The trailers or pre-release clips spoil {{spoiler|[[Eye Scream|Evan's death]], Tim's Death, [[Your Head Asplode|Nadia's Death]], [[Eye Scream|Samantha's death]], Andy's Death, [[Asshole Victim|Hunt]] dying in a pool, George's Death, [[Stuff Blowing Up|The Theater Explosion]], Lori's "death" by Escalator, [[Your Head Asplode|Isaac's Death]] (Hard to catch, but it IS in one of the TV Spots), [[Disney Villain Death|Olivia's Death]], Dennis's Death, and [[Twist Ending|the ending twist of Final Destination 5]]. Throw in pre-release pictures and you can count Candice's and [[Impaled
* Old example: ''[[Rope]]'' drew all its drama from the fact that they {{spoiler|hid the corpse in the trunk and whenever someone would open it.}} Too bad that the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFP6vDkSUE trailer] included the climactic shot of {{spoiler|the trunk flying open and the ensuing fight.}}
* ''[[Children of Men]]'': Sitting through the first act is tedious when you already saw [[The Reveal]] in the trailer.
* Watch the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QcAFbGJv6k trailer] for ''Gray Matter''. Congratulations, you have just seen the entire movie. Sure, there was a lot of [[Gayngst]] in the middle, but that was the whole movie right there.
* Watch ANY of the commercials for ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' movie and you've watched the whole thing (and this could've been why the movie didn't do so well).
* ''[[Home Alone]]'' was really bad about this. The trailer showed every booby trap and pratfall. And let's face it, anyone who watched that movie watched it for the "''[[Straw Dogs]]'' for kids"-style pratfalls, not the chance to see Macaulay Culkin act out every young boy's fantasies of living without parental supervision while bonding with the creepy neighbor who turns out to be a [[Jerk
* The trailer for ''[[Free Willy]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6bSTWtAo0U does exactly this], outlining every major plot point in just under two minutes.
* This is common with [[Robert Zemeckis]]' films; for instance, the trailer for ''[[Cast Away]]'' reveals that [[Tom Hanks]] makes it off the island in the end, and ''[[What Lies Beneath]]'''s trailer revealed that the dead girl is the girl that the main character's husband had an affair with, not only ruining the first three quarters of the movie, but making the dead end that she chases for first half (she thought it was her neighbor's dead wife, who wasn't dead at all) laughably obvious. Zemeckis argues that the audience most of his films are targeted toward ''want'' to know about the plot twists ahead of time rather than having an [[Genre Shift]] sprung on them.
* 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.
** Look at the number of jokes per trailer. If a film has three trailers, and they all use the same jokes, they were the only funny ones in the movie. If they use different jokes (or emphasize different parts of the movie), the odds are better.
** When [[Roger Ebert]] reviewed ''[[
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxf73ebZfeY trailer] for the ridiculous and sub-par [[Slasher Movie]] ''Detention'' (2010) (best known as one of [[Kung Fu
* ''[[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
* The ''[[Spider-Man (
** The trailer for ''Spider-Man 2'' shows the strain Peter is under as Spider-Man, him quitting the superhero biz, Doc Ock's origin, his deal with Harry Osborn, him kidnapping Mary Jane, Peter becoming Spider-Man again only to be delivered to Harry by Ock and unmasked; essentially, the first four-fifths of the movie.
** The ''Spider-Man 3'' trailer shows Spider-Man's new popularity, Peter's decision to marry Mary Jane, Harry attacking Peter as the New Goblin, Harry being hospitalised, Sandman's origin, Peter discovering that Sandman killed his uncle, being taken over by the symbiote and turning evil, fighting Sandman, Sandman being dissolved in water, Peter fighting Eddie Brock, throwing a bomb at Harry, hurting Mary Jane, realising he's gone too far and tearing the black suit off.
** By this standard, the original ''Spider-Man'' trailer seems restrained in only revealing about two thirds of the plot; Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin, and the two end up fighting one another.
* In certain circles (that is, the obsessive ones), the trailer for ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** 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.
** Well, it might have been somewhat hard to keep the revelation that Gandalf's alive out of the trailer, since he shows up at the end of the first fourth of the movie. Then again, he leaves shortly after not to return until the end, so it might have been feasible...
* The trailer for ''[[
** The box art for ''[[
* Trailers for ''[[
** David Letterman parodied the trope using an expanded version of this particular trailer. His version included an announcer who summed up the entire movie plotline beginning to end ("Oh, and this guy dies too.")
* The trailer for ''[[
* In the [[John Woo]] film ''[[Heroes Shed No Tears]]'', the film's trailer spoils Every. Single. Named Protagonist death with the exception of two, both of which would be too gruesome for the trailer.
* The trailer for ''[[Star Trek III:
** Not learning their lesson, ''Enterprise''-D's crashing saucer was shown in the ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' trailer.
* The trailer of ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' spoiled a major revelation, which made a large chunk of the film rather lame since everyone knew what was going on. Luckily, that's not all there is to it.
* 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 [[
* In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode 2: [[Attack of the Clones]]'', Count Dooku's effectiveness as a mysterious villain (as parodied in a [http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Site/ThumbnailEpisodeII02 Thumbnail Theatre]) would undoubtedly have been more effective if his action figure packaging hadn't given away the fact that he was a Sith Lord months before the movie was released.
** Even if you never saw anything that gave away his Sith Lord status, the movie still did a horrible job of hiding it.
** To make matters worse, much, including Dooku's role (but not the [[No Pronunciation Guide|pronunciation of his name]]) was given away by ''[[Jedi Starfighter]]'', which was released three months before ''"Clones"''.
** [[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 [
{{quote|
'''GL''': (thinking) You know, that could've worked.
'''JW''': Really? I thought about it, but then I decided that it would be a lot cheaper to go with the labels already on there. }}
*** The soundtrack of ''[[X
** Also, the trailer of ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' itself spoils the death. {{spoiler|Obi Wan screams [[Big No|NOOOOOOO]]!!!! in the trailer, and there's a shot of Qui Gon during the [[Big No]].}}
* The ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'' trailer clearly shows {{spoiler|Will Turner on the helm of the Flying Dutchman as he becomes Captain. You can even see the scar on his chest}}.
** Every single trailer showed {{spoiler|Jack Sparrow, clearly back from the dead.}} Sure, it was pretty obvious that would be happening in the last movie, but it still might have been more tense had they avoided showing him at all in the trailers.
** And the poster/DVD cover for ''At World's End'' spoils the twist ending from the second movie ({{spoiler|Barbossa is [[Back
** Even the first trailer spoils to a lesser extent: when a viewer remembers that, in the trailer, he saw Jack standing in front of the gallows, he won't be concerned that {{spoiler|Jack is really dead when Barbossa impales him, since that scene hasn't happened yet.}}
** One piece of merchandise for the third movie (which came out before the film) was called "Will Turner, {{spoiler|Captain of the Flying Dutchman}}"
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* The Icelandic national TV station ([[R Ú V]]) makes a habit of giving a brief description of each film they show before the airing. These descriptions are usually summaries of about 2/3rds of the movie's plot.
* ''[[Meet the Parents]]'' would have been lot funnier if the trailer hadn't given away that the girl's father isn't really a retired florist but actually an ex-interrogator for the CIA.
* A cross between this and [[Never Trust a Trailer]]; everything from the trailers to the box art of ''[[
** The trailers for the original ''[[Friday the 13th (
* A trailer for ''[[The Incredible Hulk (
** And you can tell too, the last shot of Norton doing the green eye thing is clearly meant to be the the last thing you see before the credits roll. Then they roll [[The Stinger]] and it breaks the whole mood.
*** They pushed the Tony Stark appearance for fan-boy appeal. They knew they had hit something big with {{spoiler|[[Samuel L. Jackson]]}} showing up in ''Iron Man'', and also knew the last attempt at Hulk was dismal. Showing a connection to a proven blockbuster powerhouse was [[Executive Meddling|pushing]] from above to try and harness the salivating geekdom.
** Besides that, the theatrical trailer shows you everything else in the movie: that the Hulk is being pursued around the world by an elite military force, that one member has a pretty bad grudge against him, that they capture the Hulk and derive a Hulk-making serum from him, which they use on said soldier, which turns him into another Hulk, and the two have a big showdown fight.
** On the other hand, the post-credits scene from ''[[Iron Man (
*** For ''[[Iron Man (
** Speaking of ''[[Iron Man]]'' and ''Hulk'', several websites involving both movies and comics include a article which spoiled the ending to ''[[Captain America:
* ''[[The General's Daughter (
* The trailer for ''[[First Daughter]]'' spoils the true identity of {{spoiler|the boyfriend}}, a surprise twist revealed very late in the movie.
* The trailers for ''[[Fantastic Four
* The original theatrical trailer for ''[[
* 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.
** ''[[The Dark Knight Saga]]'''s trailers featured {{spoiler|a few scenes involving Gordon (the Joker interrogation, smashing the Batsignal) that took place after his apparent death, tipping viewers off that he wasn't really dead}}.
* ''[[Death Race]]'''s trailer appears to cover the entire plot. If anyone was watching for that rather than Jason Statham based violence, they'd be disappointed.
* ''[[
* You know the part of the trailer for ''[[Quarantine]]'' where the lady gets dragged screaming into the darkness? ''That was the ending to the movie.'' This is also featured on the DVD cover, TV spots, ''and every piece of marketing for the film.''
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksnwIUyspps This trailer] for the 1999 ''[[Animal Farm]]'' film may be more respectful to the film than [[Never Trust a Trailer|the rest of the promotion]], but it also spoiled {{spoiler|the corruption of the pigs by the end of the movie}}.
* The trailer (not to mention the VHS cover art) for ''[[
* ''[[Balls of Fury]]'' tries really hard to make Feng's identity a secret, despite that [[Christopher Walken]] is 99% of the star power (the other 1% being, of course, James Hong).
* ''[[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=
* ''[[Double Jeopardy]]'' was infamous for its trailer revealing that: Ashley Judd goes to jail for the murder of her husband, she finds out her husband is alive, a fellow inmate informs her that she cannot be convicted for the same crime twice, and that she menacingly points a gun on her husband while Tommy Lee Jones (who was investigating Judd) sits back and watches.
* The trailers for ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'' pretty much detail every event in the entire movie, showing just about everything important that happens in Benjamin's life.
** 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
* The trailer (or at least one of them) for ''[[Twilight (
* The case of the VHS of George Romero's original ''[[Dawn of the Dead (
* In the trailer for ''[[Critters]] IV'' they give away every turning point, everyone who dies, and how all of the critters are killed.
* ''[[National Treasure]] 2'' was pretty bad about trailer spoilers. Ben {{spoiler|kidnaps the president,}} Ben {{spoiler|was just kidding when it looks like he loses his hand to the eagle,}} the treasure is {{spoiler|hidden under Mt. Rushmore.}} It's pretty bad when a movie's trailers subject it to [[Late Arrival Spoiler|You Should Have Forgotten This By Now]] spoiler tagging.
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** Not a trailer, but "The 101" (a Direct TV exclusive channel) advertised it as "A teenage psychic wreaks havoc at her high school prom". Way to not only skewer the plot, but also portray Carrie White as the villain!
* The trailer for ''[[Snake Eyes]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|Gary Sinise is the villain}} even though this is supposed to be a twist revelation over half an hour into the film.
* ''[[The Fall (
* The trailers for ''[[What Lies Beneath]]'', they reveal the identity of the ghost, which makes watching the wife {{spoiler|sneak around suspecting the neighbor of killing his wife}} painful and awkward to watch.
** However, the trailer doesn't give away that {{spoiler|Harrison Ford is the bad guy.}}
* ''[[Coraline (
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSqcSVGknU This trailer] for ''[[Dead or Alive]]'' is notable for including the ''very last scene in the movie''. Now, it's a short gag scene, but it does reveal that {{spoiler|Kasumi and Ayane end up on the same side despite Ayane spending most of the movie trying to kill Kasumi}}.
* The trailer for ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' focuses almost entirely on the two main characters fighting against the entire population of a surprisingly well armed rural community, despite the fact that not only does this not happen until two thirds through the movie, but {{spoiler|it reveals that Danny does a [[Heel Face Turn]], before he is ever revealed to be on the same side as the townsfolk.}}
* The little known horror movie ''[[Darkness Falls]]'' has a glaring plot hole involving a character getting killed despite not having met the requirements for the token supernatural serial killer to choose to kill her...that is, unless you saw the deleted scene [[Never Trust a Trailer|in the trailer]].
* The trailer for ''[[
* In ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'', the trailer reveals that {{spoiler|the bomb goes off}}.
** This plotline was the reason that Harrison Ford refused to reprise his role as Jack Ryan.
* Late trailers for ''[[Transformers (
** To be fair, anyone who thought {{spoiler|Megatron wouldn't back for the sequel}} really [[Late Arrival Spoiler|should've known]] [[Joker Immunity|otherwise]].
** Also, {{spoiler|Devastator}} would have been a kickass awesome surprise. He just ended up being kickass awesome.
** There were also several TV spots released, and made available on the director's website, that showed the entire Sideways chase-sequence, {{spoiler|including his death at the bladed hands of Sideswipe.}}
** The theatrical trailer for ''Dark of the Moon'' clearly revealed {{spoiler|Starscream's death, while later TV spots even showed glimpses of how it happens}}. Likewise, the TV spots spoiled {{spoiler|the death of Shockwave, showing how Optimus punches a hole in him}}.
* In ''[[A Nightmare
* The trailer for [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[Whatever Works]]'' shows {{spoiler|Boris's second suicide attempt}}, which occurs near the end of the movie.
* ''[[Commando (
** Not the only Arnie movie to be spoilt either. ''[[Total Recall]]'''s main trailer is pretty much the majority of the movie, especially the best parts {{spoiler|("Consider that a divorce!")}}. The trailers for ''Eraser'' give away {{spoiler|that James Caan is the villain.}}
* It was bad enough that ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' had trailers that showed off the impressive special effects in the film, spoiling key moments in the film. There were also special programs that gave away the rest of the special effects, so by the time you made it to the theater, the only part you hadn't seen was the character development.
** However, the original marketing deliberately did not show ANY of the dinosaurs. You actually had to buy a ticket to see them in action for the first time. Audiences in 1993 audibly gasped at the first reveal (which is actually quite a ways into the film). After the first week or so, the trailers became much more revealing.
* The trailer for ''[[Multiplicity]]'' gave away that the movie has four [[Michael Keaton
* The people editing the trailer for ''[[The Machinist]]'' thought it would be a brilliant idea to hint at the plot twist at the end too heavily, {{spoiler|including the answer to hangman game, "KILLER"}}.
* At least one trailer for ''[[From Dusk
* A home video trailer for ''[[Titan
* The longer trailers for ''[[Titanic]]'' condense the storyline, bar the ending, into 4-minute form. To rephrase that, they left the only part that shouldn't have surprised ANYONE secret.
* They did it again for ''[[Avatar (
** {{spoiler|You also see the tree falling over in the trailer. You have to wait 2 hours for that to happen in the film.}}
* Older trailers are far more notorious. For instance, do NOT, under any circumstances, watch the trailer for ''[[Chinatown]]'' before the movie. Nearly every major plot twist is shown and even the final scene and line {{spoiler|("Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown")}}. All in order.
* The trailer for the movie ''[[The Million Dollar Hotel]]'' shows a scene of Jeremy Davies' character TomTom {{spoiler|confessing that he "went ahead and pushed him off".}}
* Since the Eiffel Tower's collapse is the [[Money Making Shot]] of ''[[G.I. Joe:
* In the first few seconds of the ''[[
** The film's opening shows Tom and Summer holding hands, so showing her hand with a ring on it doesn't show any more than the first couple of minutes, and the audience doesn't know that {{spoiler|Tom's not her fiance.}}
* The TV commercials for ''[[9
* Before ''[[
* Most of the footage for the theatrical trailer of ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'' comes from the last half hour of the movie.
* The trailer for ''[[Bratz (
* Somehow, not a single person noticed the poster for ''[[
** Something of a [[Foregone Conclusion]] since the Battle of Thermopylae actually occurred, and all the Spartans died.
** Not to mention the [[Graphic Novel]] the movie was based on
* Several trailers for ''[[The Boat That Rocked]]'' (''Pirate Radio'' in the US) showed {{spoiler|1=the DJs choosing to ignore the new laws passed to ban pirate radio, and the boat flooding}}.
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* If you watched the trailer for ''[[Law Abiding Citizen]]'', you see every single murder that is committed in the movie. Plus a clip of the last scene, just for good measure.
* The DVD trailer for ''[[The Hangover]]'' spoils almost every significant plot event, including {{spoiler|that Ed Helms marries a hooker, that the group is attacked by an Asian gang, the poker scene, and the fact that there are two Dougs in the film.}}
* The trailer for ''[[Up (
** 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.
* ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'' had a trailer that showed {{spoiler|the future Lewis in a group with the Robinson family, with his arm around Franny}} from one of the final scenes in the movie, making the big reveal completely predictable.
* The trailer for ''[[Affliction]]'' is a very serious example: it shows the ending of the movie, {{spoiler|where Nick Nolte's character kills his father and then burns the body.}}
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* Both the trailer and the description on the back of ''[[Happy Accidents]]'' give away that {{spoiler|Sam may or may not be from the future and he is trying to save Ruby from dying.}} The movie is great either way, but it's more effective if you don't know this information beforehand.
* New trailers for ''[[Paranormal Activity]]'' show a shot of {{spoiler|Micah's body flying toward the camera}} from the final scene.
* Admittedly, the Disney version of ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' has been around for fifty years, and the story is far older than that... but did the ads for the DVD ''really'' have to show both of the climactic moments ({{spoiler|Maleficient's spectacular defeat and the "awakening" itself}}) front and center?
** The ''original'' trailer for ''[[Lady and
* The menu screen on the first edition DVD release of ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'' uses the pivotal scene of Andy Dufresne {{spoiler|escaping from Shawshank by crawling through a sewage pipe}} as its background. This is particularly [[Egregious]] as the movie was something of a sleeper hit, so many viewers would not have already seen it in theaters.
** The trailer itself contains a major spoiler. The scenes leading up to {{spoiler|Andy's escape}} are obviously intended to create a credible suspicion that he has committed suicide. The trailer entirely gives away the conclusion to this suspenseful scene.
** To be fair, only a few bits and pieces of this scene are shown and out of context. To someone unfamiliar with the film, the sequence leading to the big reveal ( {{spoiler|the scene where the guard angrily walks over to Andy's cell after he fails to show up}}) could have been referring to anything. Also, assuming the viewer didn't log onto IMDB and memorize the last names of all the characters {{spoiler|they had no real way of knowing that the guard was referring to Andy}}. Another argument you could make is that while they show that {{spoiler|Andy escapes}} they don't show in too much detail {{spoiler|''how'' he escapes}} so the sudden twist where it turns out {{spoiler|Andy had been tunnelling his way out of prison for 20 years, and many of his seemingly trivial actions were in fact vital parts of his plan}} still can come as a suprise.
* Watch the trailer for the hip, black version of ''[[Death
* The "shocking" revelation that {{spoiler|they're all not on Earth, but another planet}} on ''Predators'' might have been more surprising if it hadn't been seen in EVERY theatrical trailer and TV spot.
* Go watch the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2V4mt4XWQ trailer] to ''[[Letters to Juliet]]'', and you already could probably write a synopsis of the entire film.
* One DVD release of ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]'' had the very final scene of the movie as the background for the language menu. Anyone who wanted to see the movie in any format other than English dubs had to spoil the ending for themselves.
* While not spoiling any plot points, and anyone who's read up on the movie should see this coming, but the trailer for ''[[The Expendables]]'' shows {{spoiler|clips from the meeting between Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis.}} A good way to get people to see the movie, but it's similar to the above Transformers example.
* ''[[
** Burger King also had a series of toys that could connect to make {{spoiler|the plane}}.
** While the theatrical trailer manages to cover up the {{spoiler|chickens' plane}}, it completely spoils the big reveal of the {{spoiler|pie machine}}. And then there's a DVD trailer that's pretty much the ''ending of the movie and nothing else.''
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* Try watching the trailer for ''[[Never Been Kissed]]'', and then once you see the movie it will be as though you just watched it twice.
* Likewise, if you watch the trailer for ''[[College Road Trip]]'', you probably won't have to see the movie at all, as it seems to summarize the entire plot of the movie quite nicely.
* ''[[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 Lego sets not only spoil where the film's climax takes place, but also has {{spoiler|Lotso}} with an evil grimace on his figure.
** There was one trailer that came out ''before'' the movie which showed Andy holding Woody and describing him to Bonnie, though Bonnie wasn't shown, just the description was heard, still resulting in the spoiler that Andy still cares about the toys. Though, part of this takes place during a clip of the scene in ''the Incinerator.''
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* The trailer for ''[[Sideways]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|Miles accidentally lets slip that Jack is getting married, and Stephanie beating Jack up when she finds out}}.
* The trailer for ''[[The Great Escape]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|a bunch of men do, in fact, escape, which happens very late in the film}}.
** Given that {{spoiler|"Escape", something that happens in the movie, is ''[[Exactly What It Says
* The poster for ''[[Airheads]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|Chazz, Rex, and Pip are ultimately arrested and sent to prison}}.
* The
* The trailer for the [[
** You thought ''that'' was bad? Just wait until you see the theatrical trailer for Part 2! It shows two of the most important parts of the battle of Hogwarts. {{spoiler|The first, though only a flash, is Ron visibly cradling Fred's dead body. The second Lupin and Tonks hold hands before what is most likely their death, and the third is Molly and Bellatrix fighting.}} Might as well spoil the fact that {{spoiler|Snape loved Lily}}.
*** [[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
*** Not to mention a lot of the scenes from said trailer show Harry {{spoiler|after his death and resurrection, removing the dramatic tension leading up to his death}}.
* The trailer for ''[[The Kite Runner]]'' bizarrely chooses to focus on the last third of the movie and reveals that {{spoiler|Hassan dies}} and makes it seem like the whole movie is about {{spoiler|Amir trying to save Hassan's son}}, even though most of the movie is about their childhood friendship.
* The trailer for ''[[Piranha 3D]]'' finishes up with the last scene of the film! Which happens to be a stinger showing the death of one of the main characters.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze6M7EbB0R4 This trailer] for ''Charlie St. Cloud'' gives away basically every plot point from the film.
* ''[[Repo!
* Serials by [[Columbia Pictures]] were particularly bad about this. As a serial, each chapter or episode ended with the hero in a cliffhanger facing certain death... meant to entice the audience back to the theater the next week to see if and how the hero will survive certain death. Columbia, however, always showed clips from the next chapter after the cliffhanger - which, inevitably, showed the very hero involved in the cliffhanger alive and in action.
* The second trailer for ''[[Megamind]]'' shows Metro Man dying, which itself isn't a spoiler, since the whole movie revolves around that development. The third trailer, however, {{spoiler|reveals that Metro Man somehow survived and is living as a civilian.}}
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** If you read the synopsis on the back cover of the DVD or Blu-Ray before watching the movie, {{spoiler|Jonah Hill's character becoming a villain}} will feel less surprising.
* The theatrical trailers for ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' do a good job of avoiding spoilers from the last third of the movie, but TV spots accidentally reveal that {{spoiler|Ginormica is [[Brought Down to Normal]] and Insectosaurus turns into a butterfly.}} Granted, both are only glimpsed in brief shots, but they're enough for the audience to fill in the blanks.
* According to [[William Goldman]], producer Joseph E. Levine started this with the 1960 ''[[Hercules (
* The [[
* Much of what made ''[[Men in Black (
* Trailers of ''The Kindred'' and ''Centipede'' spoil the demise of the monsters.
* The trailers for ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' give away the fact that {{spoiler|one of Ramona's exes is not an ex-''boy''friend}} which was supposed to be a minor twist.
* Not exactly a trailer
* The trailer for ''[[The Town]]'' has a fairly mild example, in that {{spoiler|The last line in the trailer is actually the last line in the film.}} Granted it's tough to tell outside of context.
* ''[[Arlington Road]]'''s main plotline involves whether or not the Tim Robbin's character is actually a domestic terrorist or just a regular guy. If you've seen the trailer, however, you know the answer. In fact, Jeff Bridges spends much of DVD commentary complaining about the film's tell-all marketing.
* The trailer for ''[[
* The trailer for the Martin Lawrence film ''[[National Security]]'' gives away the film's ending where {{spoiler|Steve Zahn's character gets his job back and Lawrence fulfills his dream about being a cop}}...at the very beginning of the trailer. A few seconds later, you see the tail end of the film.
* Bizarrely subverted in that the DVD cover of ''[[He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not]]'' looks [[Romantic Comedy|good enough at first glance]], but on closer inspection {{spoiler|all the review quotes seem to be describing a [[Psychological Thriller]]}}, mirroring the plot of the film.
* Averted and lampshaded in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j063r4O33OE the trailer] for the 1947 film ''The Bishop' s Wife'', in which actors [[David Niven]], Loretta Young, and [[Cary Grant]] all appear as themselves on the MGM backlot, deciding not to film a trailer because they don't want a trailer to give away the film's surprises.
** A similar aversion is employed with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDC5H2MdtEw the trailer] for another Christmas-themed 1947 film, ''[[
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (
* ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'' had part of its resolution narrated in the trailer: the reason for the spilled chess pieces.
* Given the young target audience, it's not surprising that the trailer for ''[[Matilda (
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQLZlIoNI8c One trailer] for ''[[Cocoon]]'' explicitly revealed that Walter, Kitty, et al {{spoiler|are aliens}}.
* ''[[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 trailer for ''[[Hanna]]'' gives away the minor plot twist when Marissa sends a double into the holding cell where Hanna is(from the back the person looks and sounds exactly like Marissa), and Hanna starts crying and then snaps the woman's neck.
* The original ''[[Halloween (
* ''[[The Rocketeer (
* The theatrical trailer for ''[[The Princess Bride (
* Subverted in the case of ''[[Larry Crowne]]''. While people might think that the trailer gives away the entire film, it mostly only shows what happens in the first hour. Most of the film's third act was not shown in the trailer.
* The original ''[[The
* ''[[The Lion King]]'''s trailer spoils most of the plot. Movie posters and the DVD cover show Mufasa's ghost as well.
* One of the cinematic trailers for ''[[Cowboys and Aliens (
** Trailers also showed {{spoiler|her stepping naked out of the fire}}, so when you watch the movie, you know that {{spoiler|she can't really be dead because that scene hasn't happened yet.}}
* A commercial for ''[[Captain America:
* [[Nickelodeon]] began releasing trailers for ''[[A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!]]'' over a month before the movie aired. One of the earliest trailers showed a clip of {{spoiler|Tootie talking to Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof after Timmy introduces them to her}}.
* 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.
* The DVD cover for ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (
* The trailers for the sequel for ''Hoodwinked!'' stress the fact that Red and co. are trying to save two innocent kids from a wicked witch. {{spoiler|Save for the one which shows said "innocent" children with [[Slasher Smile|creepy]] [[Nightmare Fuel|grins]] saying: "[[Enfant Terrible|You've]] [[Creepy Child|been]] [[Complete Monster|hoodwinked!]] [[Title Drop|Too!]]"}}
* A more subtle example occurs in the trailer for ''[[Million Dollar Baby]]'', which clearly shows {{spoiler|Maggie lying on the ground with a doctor kneeling over her}}. This one is somewhat excusable because they didn't actually show {{spoiler|her getting punched or landing on the stool before hand, and the viewer might not easily guess that she ends up paralyzed after this scene}}. Also to be fair, they also had the decency ''not'' to spoil {{spoiler|the incredibly dark turn taken by the last quarter of the film, where Maggie is paralyzed from the neck down and the story becomes about Frankie's efforts to cope with what's happened}}.
* In the trailer for ''[[Muppets
* At least one of the trailers for [[Star Wars]] Episode III clearly begined by showing Darth Vader as seen in the original trilogy (who doesn't appear as such until the last five minutes of the movie). Granted, this was something of a [[Foregone Conclusion]], but they didn't need to also show every piece of Anakin's fall, including some of the climatic duel between him and Obi-Wan.
* The trailers for some of the best horror films have occasionally tried to counter this trop by inverting it, showing as little about the plot as possible. To name a few examples:
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjLamj-b0I8&feature=related the original trailer] for ''[[Alien (
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZkkIsLiNg The trailer] for John Carpenter's ''[[The Thing (
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTC9Lt3hiWo the trailer] for ''[[Angel Heart]]'' shows a whole bunch of bits and pieces of the film, playing segments of dialogue throughout, but again, all is shown out of context, and only makes sense when one actually sees the film. It's actually quite haunting, and if this trailer freaks you out (which it will), [[Nightmare Fuel|just wait until you see the actual movie and you find out just what all that scattered dialogue means...]].
** [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 ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded'' revealed that Agent Smith was not only still alive, but has gone rogue and could replicate himself by jamming his hand into other people/programs. Though all of this was shown ''fairly'' early on in the film, many scenes were clearly meant to be reveals that would surprise and confuse the viewers, such as the scene where Smith speaks to another Agent only for the camera to pan over and reveal the other Agent is also Smith.
** A more minor example would be the Twins and their ghosting ability. Within the progression of the story itself, their ability to phase into intangible ghost-like forms came as a surprise to the main characters, but scenes with them using said ability were featured pretty heavily in the film's marketing. As such, as soon as the Twins first showed up on screen, probably just about everybody in the theater started eagerly anticipating when they'd get to see their powers in action, which actually didn't happen until a good chunk of time after their first appearance.
* Both the poster and the DVD/VHS cover art for ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]'' spoil one of the funniest jokes in the movie.
* All trailers for ''[[
* The trailer for ''[[It's A Mad, Mad, Mad,
* ''[[Christian Mingle]]''. E. Reid Ross of ''[[Cracked.com]]'' wrote in [http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-reasons-new-christian-mingle-movie-will-be-hilarious/ 4 Reasons the New Christian Mingle Movie Will Be Hilarious] that the whole plot of the film can be guessed from its trailer. (Unless there's something [[Never Trust a Trailer|subversive going on]] that Ross doesn't know about yet...)
== [[Literature]] ==
* By far the worst (and oldest) variety of this is the back cover of a novel. While the actual cover of most books has little or nothing to do with the story, the back is generally taken nearly verbatim from the author's pitch by some uncaring copy editor and often consists of nothing but concentrated spoilers for all the book's most important plot points, this is especially dangerous for novels due to the fact that a book that takes a week or more to read casually can be completely spoiled by a stray glance at the back of its dust jacket.
** Do NOT read the back of [[George
** Do not read the back of ''[[The Girl Who Played With Fire]]''. It treats a major shock and story shift that occurs halfway through the book as the sole plot point, and casually mentions it as if it happens in the first couple chapters.
** The blurbs on the omnibus editions of [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s [[Miles Vorkosigan]] books are particularly bad, although the task is made harder by the blurb needing to be for at least two books at once.
** Many editions of ''[[Twilight (
** This, however, was [[Subverted Trope]] by the cover text for ''[[
*** The text on the inside front of the hardback edition's dust jacket is somewhat longer, but still amounts to that.
*** This troper wasn't so lucky. The inside cover of his cover mentioned that Harry was on a quest to find {{spoiler|Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes}}, spoiling a plot point ''the entire 6th book was leading up towards.''
** 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
** For some editions of ''[[
** [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series books are even worse, at least the European versions. The back cover blurb for each book describes, in a fair amount of detail, events that only happen near or at the very end of that book, which leaves the reader very confused for a while ("This isn't about what the back cover said it would be about!") and then very annoyed as soon as it becomes obvious that the climax of the story has been spoiled.
** Some versions of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' books are odd about this, as they give away plot points that only become relevant for the ''next'' book.
** Through the webmaster of his official
** I have yet to see a cover for ''[[Tuck Everlasting]]'' that doesn't ruin the surprise.
** The Polish publishing house Amber seems to have a thing for horribly spoilerish blurbs. In an edition of Strugatsky's ''[[
** The Harper Collins paperback 2000 version of the [[Aubrey-Maturin]] series every book has a summary of between 2 and 4 of the next in the series (each book after the first 4 of so is pretty much a continuous series) in the back. As the books also have anecdotes and essays after the true end of the book (which is disguised to surprise the reader), you can read an essay on the book you just read, then accidentally spoil yourself for the next book.
** ''[[Messenger]]'' has a back cover where everything is revealed, right down to {{spoiler|Matty's heroic sacrifice}}, which only comes up on the last page of the book. And of course, when discussed in class, the teacher will mention not to look at the back panel. [[Forbidden Fruit|So of course, everyone does.]]
** [[David Eddings]]' book, ''Regina's Song'' features not one, but TWO double-paragraph plot summaries on its back blurb. Both of them, in trying to be mysterious, blatantly state who the killer is and to some extent, what happens after we discover that fact. The book is pretty enjoyable, but still.
*** That would work a lot better if the stores didn't put the book's sequel with a spoiler as its title (although it is kind of obvious)
* ''[[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!'
** In ''[[How To Become A Perfect Person In Just Three Days]]'', a boy finds a book that tells him how to become perfect in one week. The first page of the book stated that the secret to perfection was at the end. So he flipped to the last page... which called him a dope for falling for it and told him to do it properly.
* ''[[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.''
* [[
** Nearly all Italian editions of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' have an Introduction by [[El Ã]]©mire Zolla (Italian literary critic, essayist and philosopher). Initially it looks just like it is, i.e., a preface, comparing Tolkien's masterpiece to other famous works of the past... but at a certain point it starts talking about the plot, and before you can realize, in about 10 (TEN!) pages it has summarized the whole book, revealing the main plot twists (e.g. Gandalf's {{spoiler|death and rebirth}}) and the twisted ending - you know, the one that's not in [[Peter Jackson]]'s film (Saruman {{spoiler|attacking the Shire}})).
* One particular edition of ''[[Gone
* Books of "literary merit" often have a preface that discusses the meaning of [[The
** 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 ''[[
** Except for ''[[
*** One copy has a friggin' {{spoiler|Dragon with a Crown on the cover}} - both sides of the books will spoil (so will the spine of the book since they have mini versions of the cover art.)
* ''[[
* Another [[Henry James]] example: in at least one edition of ''[[Daisy Miller]],'' the blurb reveals that {{spoiler|Daisy dies at the end.}}
* The back of ''[[Bridge to Terabithia]]'' spoils that {{spoiler|Leslie dies}}.
** So does the {{spoiler|[[Death
** So does the summary in the copyright page. Is it just me, or is this overkill?
*** On the newer additions of the book, the back cover is more vague about what happens. It's obviously something tragic, but they don't tell you what. The copyright page spoiler is still there, though.
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** Add in that the first few book spoiled name changes and deaths as well, in the first few pages! Erin learned her mistake and either tdid not after a certain point in the book, or [[Bait and Switch Credits|baited us in]].
* Jeffery Deaver's novel ''[[The Blue Nowhere]]'': the book cover for at least one Italian edition reveals facts which happen halfway through the book, e.g. chief Anderson {{spoiler|is easily murdered by the serial killer}} and Wyatt {{spoiler|was an old friend of the serial killer}}.
* Ed McBain's novel ''[[Mischief]]'' (''[[
* [[Roald Dahl]]'s ''[[Charlie and
* As per usual for [[Tamora Pierce]]'s books, ''[[Circle of Magic|The Will of the Empress]]'' has a nice map at the front showing the geography of the fictional country where the action takes place. One location is clearly labeled as the place where {{spoiler|Shan ambushes and kidnaps Sandry}}. This is both a twist and the catalyst for the climactic conflict of the book. Many fans were displeased.
* ''[[Here There Be Dragons]]'' states on the back cover that the three main characters are, in fact, {{spoiler|J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carrol, and Charles Williams}}, when this is not revealed until the very end of the book.
* The dust jacket of ''[[Warbreaker]]'' ruins a major plot twist if you think hard enough, by telling you flat out that {{spoiler|Vasher is the titular Warbreaker, which is a major hint that Vasher is also the similarly named Peacegiver.}}
* One recent printing of ''[[Podkayne
* The ''[[Club Of Queer Trades]]'' is a series of off-beat detective stories by [[
** Chesterton himself commented on this trope in a poem, entitled "[http://chesterton.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/commercial-candour/ Commercial Candour]".
* The cover of the [[Harper Collins]] printing of John Dickson Carr's novel ''[[The Case Of The Constant Suicides]]'' features a dog carrier with strange fumes rising out of it. {{spoiler|This essentially gives away the murder method used in the book - a block of dry ice hidden in a dog carrier that releases carbon dioxide gas as it sublimates.}}
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* Craig Brown (British columnist) wrote an article deploring this practice, citing several egregious examples - one which sticks in the mind is a blurb along the following lines: "in this gripping narrative, the reader slowly realises that the narrator is insane" - thus preventing the reader from slowly realising anything of the sort...
* All of the later [[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries|Sookie Stackhouse]] books seem to have a compulsive need to spoil major plot points for earlier books on the back cover. Add in that all of the books look similar, so it's easy to pick the wrong one, and you've got a recipe for frustration. Extremely annoying if going from an early book to a far later one. {{spoiler|Fairies? We don't even have werewolves yet! Vampire War? What? Oh- thanks for telling me that Eric wins it. Dammit book.}}
* The godly parentage of the titular character in the ''[[Percy Jackson
** This troper had it worse when she saw the advertisement in a Scholastic book order form which blatantly says in one sentence that Percy is the son of {{spoiler|the sea god.}}
* "Oh, look, ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''! I've always wanted to check that out! Let me see what the book is about." ''*reads the back cover*'' "Sold!" ''*about halfway through reading the book*'' "So...why did the back cover spoil {{spoiler|Gatsby and Daisy's relationship}}?"
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* The novels of Edward Rutherfurd (''Sarum'', ''London'', etc) always include a family tree for the characters, which tracks them through the generations and centuries. Nice and handy ... except that it ''always'' spoils who survives to reproduce, who marries whom, and which families will attain noble titles. Could easily be averted if they put this at the ''back'' of the book, instead of next to the maps which you're always having to flip back and reference.
* Daniel Handler (also known as Lemony Snicket) wrote "The Basic Eight", which is really enjoyable and has a great twist. Unfortunately, at least one newer edition spoils this twist by stating that Flannery is not a murderer, {{spoiler|but a murderess}}. For the record, {{spoiler|Natasha}} did the murder but reading the back kind of gives avay that {{spoiler|Natasha doesn't exist}}.
* One edition of ''[[The Witches of Karres]]'' by [[James H. Schmitz]] has a back-cover blurb rather accurately saying that the "adorable little girls made Pausert the mortal enemy of his fiancée, his planet, the Empire, the Sirians, the Uldunians, the dread pirate chieftain {{spoiler|Laes Yango}}..." The spoilered name there was an alias the pirate chieftain '''the Agandar''' used when trying to capture Pausert's ship by trickery rather than brute force.
* The producers of ''[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* The producers of ''[[Frasier (TV)|Frasier]]'' had to pull a fast one on [[NBC]] in order to avert this. In the "Adventures in Paradise" two-part episode, Frasier finds himself at a Hawaiian resort in a room next to his ex-wife, Lilith. The second part ended with a dream sequence where Frasier was back at the resort, this time next to {{spoiler|[[Cheers (TV)|Shelly Long as Diane Chambers]]}}. The producers were worried that NBC would heavily promote the surprise cameo, so they shot the scene in secret and turned in a copy of the episode without the scene, only giving the real episode to the executives at the very last minute.
* During ''[[Chuck]]'''s third season, one episode ended with the implied death of {{spoiler|Devon Woodcomb, aka, Captain Awesome. However, almost immediately afterwards, we see him in the next time trailer, still alive.}}
** 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!}}"
** Done again in the fifth season, with "Chuck Versus the Curse" ending with {{spoiler|a jail cell about to open, and the scene abruptly cutting after that.}} Lo and behold NBC's next-episode trailer revealing that {{spoiler|Daniel Shaw}} is the person who's about to exit the jail cell.
* Happened in the Season 3 finale of ''[[
** In the penultimate episode of the 5th season, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet are seen leaving the island. However, the commercials for the finale show them back on the island. So much for that.
** Creator/producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have ordered ABC not to show any footage of season 6 in trailers for the
*** ABC, however, did not listen to them and began showing new footage just a couple of days before the season's premiere. Due to how season 5 ended, almost any footage would have spoiled the basic premise of the season. They also spoiled specific things like the fate of {{spoiler|Claire}}.
** The previews for the last few episodes have done exactly this, and show absolutely nothing from the upcoming episode. It's nice.
** "Everybody Loves Hugo"'s final scenes include {{spoiler|Desmond}} being tossed down to a well, possibly to his death. Cue the next time trailer for "The Last Recruit", which shows {{spoiler|Desmond}} alive and well.
*** To be fair, no one who watches ''[[
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade hung]] along with pretty much everything else on the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Daniel''': No. There'll be spoilers.
'''Carter''': Are you kidding? It's gonna be in the ''commercial''. }}
** And more recently, a commercial for ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' promised you "won't believe what happens in the last five minutes..." before showing you ''exactly what happens''. Of course, may also be a subversion as the commercial's description for the rest of the episode's plot is completely off.
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*** Another possibly attempted subversion was the commercials for the episode where Teyla poses as a Wraith queen, with scenes taken out of context to imply she would end up turning against the team. The possibility isn't even ''mentioned'' in the episode itself.
** EVERY SINGLE promo for ''Stargate: Continuum'' shows {{spoiler|Ba'al being betrayed and killed by Vala/Qatesh}}, which is really supposed to be a surprise.
* 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.
** Considering it was the last episode aired, an astute viewer probably would've had it figured out.
*** But if you're showing the series to someone new you can get a great reaction by not letting them see the opening credits so they don't know which people are regular cast members until the end of the first episode.
* Happens pretty often in trailers for [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the 2000s ''
** Worse still, the opening [[Title Sequence]] (sometimes) contains cuts from the upcoming episode, frequently turning the opening into an automatic, hard-to-avoid spoiler.
** In the trailer for ''Revelations'', {{spoiler|every scene but one has already occurred by the episode's apparent ending, and that one scene can literally be missed if the viewer blinked. Even when you see it, it's ambiguous.}}
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** ''[[The Hub]]'' had an interesting case. The trailers showed the newly-ressurrected {{spoiler|D'Anna}} telling {{spoiler|Roslin}} that she is a Cylon. Many viewers wondered if it was real or creative editing. As it was revealed, {{spoiler|D'Anna}} ''did'' say that to {{spoiler|Roslin}}. However, she said to to mess with {{spoiler|Roslin's}} head. In the commentaries of the episode, [[Word of God|Ronald D. Moore]] expressed great anger that they ruined the joke by putting it in the trailer.
*** Not to mention showing {{spoiler|D'Anna}} was a spoiler in itself.
* ''[[Law
* The new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has a strange relationship with this; for the tenth and eleventh Doctors, even though sneak peeks are run at the end of most episodes, they make sure that any trailers for the second part of a two-parter are given as much warning as possible, moving them to the end of the credits and giving plenty of room for a continuity announcer to explain. [[Russell T. Davies]] is a very vocal critic of spoiling trailers, and often directed editors to screw around with press copies.
** Played straight with the first [[Cliff Hanger]] of the revived series; "Aliens Of London" ends with {{spoiler|the Doctor being electrocuted to death by the Slitheen}}, which then immediately cuts to a [["On the Next..."]] trailer not only showing the Doctor {{spoiler|very much alive}} but also telling {{spoiler|the army}} about the Slitheen's plans!
** The trailer for "Bad Wolf" gives away the twist that the {{spoiler|Daleks}} are behind the deadly game shows the Doctor and Co find themselves in.
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** Oh, and the End of Time DVD menu is basically a montage of the first episode's cliffhanger, giving all the plot twists away. {{spoiler|It's almost entirely made up of clips of the Master zapping around or taking control of the Immortality Gate or turning everyone into himself}}. Nice one, BBC.
** The cliffhanger at the end of the opening two parter of Series 6 centers around {{spoiler|Amy shooting a little girl in a space suit.}} The trailer for Part Two not only {{spoiler|shows the girl alive and well, but also where the bullet harmlessly penetrated the space suit.}}
* Other [[David Tennant]] dramas can't escape this either. The Next Time trailers for ''[[
* Subverted by ''[[Eastenders]]'' in the late 90s, when ''fake'' spoilers were inserted into trailers. One gave the impression that club owner Steve was going to be killed by his girlfriend, whereas the actual episode had it happen the other way around. Steve then framed his colleague, who subsequently escaped from prison and returned for revenge. The trailers for that episode implied that he had booby trapped several lightbulbs with explosives as revenge, but the episode had no exploding lightbulbs in it at all.
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' subverts this trope with its 'Next time on 'Arrested Development...' sections at the end of each episode, which depict events which are then never shown to occur in the next episode.
** Making it even more surprising the one time it did happen: {{spoiler|Tobias sneaking into the blind attorney's home.}}
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' previews occasionally seem to subvert this, by taking one of House's sarcastic lines from the next episode and implying that it is literal.
** 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.
** This subversion itself may have been lampshaded by a Season 4 episode where a documentary crew, failing to get House to utter anything serious, edits their documentary to make comments like "I became a doctor because of Patch Adams" look serious.
** The preview for the finale of Season 6 on British TV spoils the surprise ending: {{spoiler|Cuddy leaving Lucas and telling House that she loves him}}.
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** In the Boukenger episode called "The Golden Sword," the [[Monster of the Week]] is [[Nigh Invulnerable]] and utterly tearing the Rangers a new one. The trailer reveals that in the following episode, a new character could turn out to be friend or foe and might even fall under the bad guy's control. {{spoiler|Then it goes onto show the Rangers handily beating up the monster that was killing them in the current episode, then said new character joining in and later posing with the Rangers' [[Humongous Mecha]].}} Not much is saved for the actual episode at all.
* The last few seasons of the reality show ''[[The Ultimate Fighter]]'' has had several fight ending finishes shown during the commercial ''about the show'' just before it happens.
** 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).
* During the last season of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', the teaser at the end of each episode showed ''the very last scene of the following episode''. Technically, this may have been more misdirection than spoiler, though, as the final scene of each episode was usually unrelated to the main action of the story, and was ''itself a lead-in for the following episode''. Which is to say, that after the final scene foreshadowed the next episode, the [["On the Next..."]] teaser that followed showed you what amounted to ''a teaser for the episode two weeks down the line''.
* FOX has a tendency to completely ruin the element of surprise on their gameshows, including ''[[Moment Of Truth]]'' and ''[[Are You Smarter Than a
** Likewise the "later tonight" promos in their Sunday night cartoon block tend to show the best [[Orphaned Punchline|punch lines]] from the forthcoming shows, which would've been funnier if you had seen them [[It Makes Sense in Context|in context for]] the first time.
** 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...
** NBC did one worse: they hyped the first millionaire of ''[[Deal or No Deal]]'' about ''one week'' before the episode aired, and considering how desperate NBC was to get a millionaire, even a casual channel surfer would get it. (It doesn't help when you use phrases like "It's the one you've all been waiting for!")
** NBC does a masterful job of subverting this trope, though, nearly every week on ''[[The Biggest Loser]]''. During the part of the show when the contestants are participating in their weekly weigh-in, they love cutting to commercial a split second before revealing a contestant's amount of weight loss with the final shot being a close-up shot on the face of one of the trainers or another contestant as they react to the number revealed. When the show returns from commercial and reveals the number, the reactions are usually the complete opposite of what was implied by the reaction shot before the commercial.
* Crossing over with [[New Media]]: watching [[NBC]]'s online streaming of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' episodes, instead of the broadcast, is only for spoilerphiles and people who click 'Play' faster than they read. Their single-sentence summary for "Angels and Monsters" manages to completely give away the ending of Claire's plotline: {{spoiler|the guy kills himself}}.
** Season 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is bad with this. Not only is the arc titled "Villains", but the trailer reveals that there are 12 new "Sylars" and that the original will get his powers back. Didn't stop them from making the break out in the second episode look like a [[Big Reveal]]...
*** Erm. Sylar got his powers back at the end of season 2. And complaining that the title gives away the general direction is like complaining that the title "Spider-Man" spoils that there's a guy getting the powers of a spider.
* German TV stations are particularly notorious for this. A trailer for ''[[Evolution (
* One immensely frustrating one occurred to ''[[Star Trek
** ''Voyager'''s "The Chute" is a classic example. Paris and Kim are thrown in an alien prison, and about halfway through comes the revelation that {{spoiler|they can't break out because the prison is in space}}. It's a very dramatic shot that would no doubt have been more effective if it hadn't ''been in the commercial''.
* Reality shows on [[Bravo]] typically show the judges' harsher comments and contestant reaction shots/defenses. Although this is sometimes subverted, like one time where a comment was said in the trailer and the contestant shot showed him tilting his head back and going down, as if in frustration/agony. In the episode, he was in the top 3.
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* Even [[Showtime]] manages to do this. A trailer for season three of ''[[The Tudors]]'' aired before the season began showed Henry {{spoiler|being introduced to his fourth wife, with a voice-over of how marriage to her would add military might to England}}, thus spoiling the mid-season plot point of {{spoiler|Queen Jane dying}}.
** But that actually happened in real life. It's history. So whether it's a spoiler at all is subjective.
*** And this relates to ''The Tudors'' how?
**** Since it's history, anyone with historical knowledge of the period in question would expect said spoiler to occur at some point. Still a spoiler for the series itself, though.
* ''[[24
** At the end of an episode in season 7, the ambassador from Sangala had locked himself and his wife in a panic room. The bad guys are outside, wondering how they can get to him. Cue the preview for next week, which shows the room being flooded with gas. Naturally, it's no surprise next week when Jack Bauer (working undercover) suggests that he can create a gas out of household items and pump it through the ventilation system.
** Season 3 had a very notorious example. At this point in the season, there was a powdered form of a virus being transported in a plastic bag by a mule (just a kid who agreed to carry something over the Mexican border). CTU spent the entire episode trying to track down the package and the kid. Then, after the episode was over the preview literally had {{spoiler|Jack Bauer yelling "THE VIRUS IS OUT!" in absolute panic}}. Granted, it turned out to be {{spoiler|a false alarm}} but 24 fandom was so pissed off at potentially being spoiled that complaints were flown at FOX's direction and addressed. This resulted in the previews being treated as spoilers in 24 fandom discussion.
* The [["On the Next..."]] trailers of the original ''[[Star Trek:
* The original trailers of ''[[Star Trek:
* When TV Guide Channel re-aired episodes of ''[[Hollywood Showdown]]'' (which was 30 minutes), they would pad out the show with commercials to make it an hour long. Towards the end of the hour, they would run the first five minutes or so of the next episode.
* The [[Maury]] talk show does this religiously. In every commercial break before DNA test results, they try to build suspense by showing quick clips of the guests before and after the results. 99% of the time, they show the guests' reactions to the results, defeating the purpose of sticking around for the results. Sometimes, if the DNA test is for a more serious tone, like an adult daughter finding her long lost father, the clips fade into a commercial break without showing the reaction.
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** Then there were the trailers for the season five finale which showed the cliffhanger-end in the preview.
* Ads have started running for a [[TBS]] stand-up comedy show which says "If these are the punchlines, imagine what the set-ups are like!" and proceed to show just the punchlines of jokes. Which [[Captain Obvious|tends to ruin the joke]], but apparently nobody at TBS knows that, or how jokes work.
* The promo for the ''[[
* The trailers in the later seasons of ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]]'' often showed footage from non-preliminary battles.
* 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 ''[[
** Seriously, just about every episode does this now. Recently examples include spoiling the funniest (in an episode which wasn't especially funny to begin with), and 'climactic' scene in "iSpace Out".
** "iGot A Hot Room" spoiled in the trailers that it was Carly's birthday, that Spencer burns down the room trying to do something nice for her, that Carly is upset at it, that Carly has a job as part of the episode, that Spencer rushes to re-do the room as a surprise with Freddie and Sam, the fact that Carly loves the new room, and what the new room itself looked like.
** "iCan't Take It" aired ''nine'' minutes of sneak peeks for a 22 minute show, including spoiling the big secret about Sam's misdeed to Freddie, and the ending where Freddie saves their relationship and Freddie kisses Sam again.
** Worst of all, they revealed Sam's mother, resident [[Memetic Badass|Chuck Norris of bad parenting,]] who they spent ''seasons'' hyping up, '''[[Anticlimax|IN THE ADVERTISEMENT.]]'''
* ''[[
* A similar scenario arised in a ''[[True Jackson, VP
* [[Nickelodeon]] is just plain terrible at making trailers. The hour-long special ''[[Big Time Rush
** {{spoiler|Yeah... [[House of Anubis|about that...]]}}
** Another notable example of this is the Christmas special. The first promo showed the weather forecast stating that the airports at Minnesota have been shut down due to a snowstorm, {{spoiler|which happens less than four minutes from the end of the episode,}} then shows the boys and Kendall's family greeting Mr. Bitters on Christmas morning, which happens in the next scene after that.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' averts this, {{spoiler|not showing Artie in ads for season 2, since he is supposedly dead}}.
* The promo for the "Wizards vs. Werewolves" special of ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' showed Alex's new boyfriend, Mason, (who was introduced in the previous episode) {{spoiler|screaming in front of a full moon as if he was about to undergo some kind of a transformation into a werewolf}}. Guess what?
** The promo for the episode "Moving On" showed that Justin would miss Juliet, Alex would come up with some plan, and even had "Juliet" saying "I'm not Juliet." What happened here?
** Also the episode "Everything's Rosie For Justin" (at least I think that's the name). Not only was it advertised as the first episode in the {{spoiler|"Wizards vs. Angels" trilogy, but the promos featured her with angel wings and Justin saying "She's an angel". Them finding out about Rosie being an angel actually happens near the very end of the episode, and is probably supposed to be a surprising twist.}}
* The promo for the season three episode "My Oh Maya" of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|The Suite Life on Deck]]'' completely gave away the main plot that Zack [[Ladykiller in Love|would develop real feelings for a girl]], and would resolve to change his [[Kidanova|womanizing]] ways.
* 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 ''[[
* ''[[
** In "Top Chef Season 7", on the second-to-last episode, Bravo stretched the episode. Instead of going from 10-11 pm, they had it run from 10-11:30 pm to increase the suspense of the final elimination. The viewer watches until 11 pm, and that is about where Judge's Table starts. Here's the slip-up: Bravo still has the ads going like the episode was 10-11. So on the commercial break where they are choosing between three contestants to be eliminated, there are the two winning contestants walking through a door on the preview for the finale. Guess who gets eliminated now.
** "Top Chef Masters Season 2" was to select eight people to compete in the final round. This was the last selection round, and before the elimination they play a quick clip of the eight people in the final round. No point watching the ending anymore.
** In almost all the seasons, Season 1 has ended with a "This season on Top Chef!" preview, where you might see Bob saying "I'm cooking at a baseball park!" So until that clip pops up, Bob is completely safe. And if Alice is saying "We have to cook at NASA." Then again, Alice has immunity til the NASA challenge, and the shock of this new challenge will be softened because you knew what it was anyway.
* Another [[Disney Channel]] mistake, before the credits for a new episode of ''[[
** The trailers for the ''[[
* Subverted for a few ''[[Top Shot]]'' trailers, a reality show where competing marksmen are progressively eliminated. More than a few times the previews for the next episode, usually aired the commercial break before finding out who goes home, showed competitors that were eliminated.
* The promos for the ''[[
* [[Lifetime]] managed to kill the suspense surrounding the identities of ''[[Project Runway]]'''s eighth season finalists by airing a promo for the next week's episode during the commercial break directly ''preceding'' that episode's elimination.
** Oxygen Network is bad with this as well, in particular with their reality show ''Hair Battle''. Gee, thanks for giving me a comprehensive list of everyone who is not going to be eliminated halfway through the episode, guys.
* The DVD booklet for the first season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' contains a quote that spoils the outcome of the season finale.
** You know that guy who dies at the end of Buffy's seventh season? Well he shows up in the fifth season of ''[[Angel]]'', in a shocking surprise at the end of the first episode. Oh, he's also featured prominently in the [[Face Palm|opening credits]].
** The ''[[
** [[Teen Nick]] is about to start running ''[[
* [[Network Ten]] purposely ruined the shocking twist in the finale of the third season of ''[[The OC]]'' for Australian viewers. Instead of letting us think she was getting [[Put
* [[VH
* 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
* ''[[
* In the Season 2 episode of ''[[
* One episode of ''[[Sliders]]'' had the title group land in a version of [[San Francisco]] where those in charge force everyone to use some kind of buddy system. If one guy does something illegal, the other one is killed. The area is also more prone to earthquakes than the normal San Francisco and everyone knows that a big one is imminent. Quinn asks one authority figure why nobody tries to leave because of this. The man tells him something the audience learned from the promos: {{spoiler|this version of San Francisco is a maximum security prison.}}
* An episode of ''[[
* A DVD sleeve example - the UK boxset of the final series of ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' not only shows a wedding photo of {{spoiler|Nate and Brenda}}, but the entire cast at a funeral with {{spoiler|Nate}} mysteriously missing...
* For the episode "Grace" in the first season of ''[[Falling Skies]]'', the promo immediately before it showed the boy putting the harness back on his back. The boy doesn't actually put it on until ''45 minutes'' through the hour-long episode.
* The promos for the season finale of ''[[My
* The Season 2 Comic-Con trailer for ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'' shows a quick clip of {{spoiler|Guillermo, the leader (and caretaker) of the retirement home in the first-season episode "Vatos"}} lying dead on the ground, while Rick and the others fend off a contingent of walkers massing around the area near his body.
* The preview for an episode in Season 2 of ''[[Parenthood (TV series)|Parenthood]]'' showed one of the main characters being involved in a potentially fatal car accident and implied that the episode's entire plot would be centered around the buildup to the accident scene. The episode itself had the character shown in the accident scene being involved in a completely unrelated storyline with the buildup to the accident only happening within the final 5 minutes and the accident itself being the very last shot before the credits rolled.
* ''[[Law and Order Los Angeles]]'' began running previews nearly a month in advance of its return from its winter hiatus stating that "Law & Order loses one of its own" followed by a montage of all the main characters, indicating that their first episode back would be a [[Tonight Someone Dies]] story with one of the main characters being the one killed while leaving viewers speculating about which character it would be. However, subsequent previews shown closer to the episode's airdate blatantly spoiled which character would be killed, even showing nearly the entire death scene.
* In the promo for the Season 4 finale of ''[[
** Done on a more minor level with most, if not all, promos for this show. Due to [[Wolverine Publicity]], CBS seems to have gotten it into their heads that every single one of their promos should mainly consist of Barney doing something sleazy or eccentric, regardless of how prominently Barney actually figures into the episode's plot. Therefore, most of Barney's crazy stunts get spoiled in promos before the episode ever airs. On one hand, this makes Barney seem incredibly annoying in the promos and sucks the humor out of his scenes. On the other, it means the other characters' (usually more substantial) plotlines are ignored by the promos and therefore remain complete mysteries until the episode airs, sparing them from this trope.
* ''[[Grimm (TV)|Grimm]]'', is a horror TV Series from NBC, but the first trailer that was released (in May) managed to spoil the ''ENTIRE first episode''. In just 3.55 minutes.
* Ads for The Event's return following its Christmas break made a huge deal out of revealing the origin of the aliens on the show. The show itself does not reveal this until the very last 5 minutes of the last episode, about six episodes after the ads started mentioning it.
* Series 4 of the BBC's ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' had a trailer for the first episode which showed Arthur carrying a lifeless Merlin. This is the cliffhanger at the end of the episode.
** Interestingly, the series is also infamous for the [[Never Trust a Trailer|unreliability of its trailers]], particularly where interactions between Arthur and Merlin are concerned. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground.
** On a similar note, the US previews <ref>
* In recent years, ''[[
** On October 13, 2010, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLXGIf7lTE8 one preview] that aired near the end of the show was devoted entirely to a woman picking up the Million Dollar Wedge, complete with suspenseful music and an announcer hinting viewers that she would win the grand prize. When the episode in particular aired, [[Never Trust a Trailer|she lost the wedge to a Bankrupt]].
* [[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 trailers for ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' are infamous for this. For example, the season 3's big cliffhanger ending of {{spoiler|Dean being sent to hell}} was kind of ruined since the original episode promo showed {{spoiler|Sam crying over Dean's dead body.}} More recently, the episode promo for season 7's "Repo Man" completely ruined the episode's big twist of {{spoiler|the apparent victim actually being a villain and trying to let a demon that once possessed him once again inhabit his body}} by actually making it the ''focus of the trailer.''
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Many RPG adventures' cover art, seeking to entice buyers with action scenes, inadvertently spoil the nature of the scenario's [[Final Battle]] or a major mid-story menace.
== Video Games ==
* 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.
* One of the commercials for ''[[
** The voice-over for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2qEqR7kgg&feature=related at least one of these commercials] also said "A love that can never be." HINT HINT!
** 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.
* The intro sequence for ''[[Boktai
* The trailer for ''[[
** Some would argue that being a spoiler, considering the existence of the Excellence Eternal, the [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] that only she uses, in ''Super Robot Wars R''.
** 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
* The trailers for ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' gave away things like the true intentions of the Order of the Sword, the failure of an attempted [[Shoot the Dog]], and the continued importance of the demonic katana Yamato. They didn't succeed in spoiling everything, but there was something of an [[Internet Backdraft]] regarding the final trailer.
* Several previews also spoiled the big twist in ''[[STALKER|S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' on who the player character is.
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** For the third game, the true nature of Dr Nefarious' plan and the {{spoiler|[[Unwilling Roboticisation|literal mechanisation]] of the entire Tyrrhanoid race}} were similarly spoilt. These things are explained around halfway and two thirds of the way into the game, respectively.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]] Radiant Dawn'' is notable for having a press release that basically outlined the entire game's plot. This included the revealing of the true identity of the Black Knight, which was never revealed in the previous game Path of Radiance, but also only revealed near the end of Radiant Dawn.
* 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 ''[[
* The manual for ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]: Mask of the Betrayer'' advises you to read certain pages only after you've seen the twist at the end of act one. This would have been useful advice if the {{spoiler|Spirit Eater curse}} hadn't featured so prominently in the game's prerelease hype.
* The DS remake of ''[[
** 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
*** The manual spoiled even further by giving item lists that mentioned every character class in the game that could equip them. So anyone who read it over and noted that they haven't seen anyone with the class {{spoiler|Lunarian}} yet could easily figure out that anything before {{spoiler|The Giant Of Babel, the major dungeon following the recruitment of said Lunarian}} [[Disc One Final Dungeon|would not be the final dungeon]].
* In ''[[Time Hollow]]'' for the DS, you get a fleeting 'flashback' of someone falling past the top of a window, and from your perspective all you can tell is that the person's probably female and a student at the high school. Unless you watched the opening trailer, in which case you know who it is right off the bat, making it painful whenever Ethan recalls it and thinks "GEE I WONDER WHO THAT WAS."
* 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
* A word of mouth example. If you're never played ''[[Nicktoons Racing]]'' before and want to check it out on [[YouTube]], [[Sincerity Mode|DON'T YOU DARE READ THE COMMENTS! Seriously,]] everybody who comments on any video of that game reveal {{spoiler|Plankton}} is the mystery villain. If you don't believe us, [[You Have Been Warned|don't say we didn't warn you.]]
* The trailer for ''[[Grim Fandango]]'' spoiled the [[Deader Than Dead|sproutings]] of {{spoiler|Don Copal and Lola.}}
* The trailer for ''[[Crash Bandicoot|Crash of the Titans]]'' reveals that {{spoiler|Doctor Neo Cortex is replaced by his niece}}.
** The manual for ''Crash Twinsanity'' spoils almost everything significant to the plot in the first three quarters of the game.
* Referenced in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]] - Trials and Tribulations'', Godot mentions he doesn't like spoiling himself with trailers, and "we'll just wait and see how the movie turns out tomorrow, won't we?" when he refuses to reveal something until the trial starts.
** Investigations 2 would later play this straight. The trailers make a big deal of {{spoiler|Edgeworth being offered to become a defence attorney.}} But the actual offer itself, coming at the end of case 2, is a ''major'' [[Wham! Line]] if you don't see it coming. It's even spoiled at the end of the ''demo'' too. (In fact, though the demo comprises of basically the first half of Case 1, the exchange at the end doesn't take place until ''the end of Case 3'')
* Done in the instruction manual for ''[[Totally Rad]]'', revealing master magician Zebediah's secret at least three times until they actually lampshade this trope.
* One of the few plot twists in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' that couldn't be seen coming three miles away, namely ''Jak II/Renegade'' being {{spoiler|set in the future}}, well...the trope name should give you something of a clue.
* When ''The Twin Snakes'', the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Snake''': It can't be... you were killed in Zanzibar Land... }}
** Not to mention {{spoiler|Snake being tricked into activating Metal Gear by accident.}}
{{quote|
'''Snake''':{{spoiler|It's moving... But how do I stop it!?}} }}
** Considering the [[
*** 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.)}}
** [[Konami]] went to great lengths to keep Raiden a secret until the release of ''MGS2''. Unfortunately even that wasn't enough to get around different release dates and almost every British gaming magazine which ran a story on the game featured that. In an amusing inversion, however, many magazines were able to avoid spoiling the plot by {{spoiler|making out that Snake had ''died'' on the Tanker, something the supporting characters treat as correct until halfway through}}.
** In ''MGS4'', the Metal Gears themselves don't play much of a role until Act 4. Screenshots showed {{spoiler|Snake in the cockpit of a reactivated, railgun-less REX and RAY in a snow-covered harbour}}. There's not much of their relevance to the plot that isn't spoilt by those facts.
* One of the trailers for ''[[Sonic Storybook Series|Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' reveals {{spoiler|Excalibur Sonic}}.
** Think that's bad? Before ''[[
** Anyone who, at this point, is surprised by Sonic turning glowy and yellow at the end of the game [[Late Arrival Spoiler|clearly hasn't been paying attention to any Sonic game after the first]].
** But it's a different form than Super Sonic.
** 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 recent trailer for ''[[Metroid Prime]] [[Updated Rerelease|Trilogy]]'' shows the final bosses of all three ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games. This could also be an example of [[Late Arrival Spoiler]].
** Years before, one of the ads for ''[[
* Done in the opening sequence of ''[[
** Similar case with ''[[Deadly Premonition]]'' - {{spoiler|the first profiling sequence is a lightning-speed montage of every major twist and plot reveal.}}
* ''[[Maximo]]'' plays with it. It goes out of its way to spoil the plot twist that {{spoiler|Sophia's Achille's [[Decoy Damsel]]}} for [[Genre Savvy]] players, even mentioning it in {{spoiler|her}} manual bio... {{spoiler|and naturally she's none of the above}}.
* The final encounter with the Hive Mind in ''[[Dead Space (
* The Japanese trailer for ''[[
** The third anime special,
* Practically everything gets spoiled in the trailers for ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' series, such as this trailer from ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* Early promotion material for ''[[Half-Life 2
** To be fair, {{spoiler|the scene where Alyx is stabbed}} happens about ten to fifteen minutes into the game.
* ''[[Quake
* A trailer for ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball '09]]'' spoiled, among others, the last character to be unlocked.
* ''[[
** A Also, he get's his summon right before that seemingly happens wihtout giving you a chance to use it. It was shown in use in the trailers.
* ''[[
* ''[[Call of Duty]] - [[Modern Warfare]] 2'' had several trailers. The last one, released several months before the game came out, showed {{spoiler|Washington D.C. on fire.}}
* ''[[Shenmue]]'''s trailer spoils that Lan Di is seeking the mirrors' power, as well as an incident late in the game in which Nozomi gets kidnapped by Terry's gang.
* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' had a trailer that ends with a montage {{spoiler|showing Lord Emon looking around the shrine of worship, Mono sitting up from her resting place, and Wander lying on the ground with HORNS!}} Of course the last part goes by [[Freeze
* The ''[[Alter AILA]]'' Genesis. some fans have stated that they avoided watching the trailer for fear of spoilers. Which is funny, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXk1mSaQ1Lw since it doesn't really contain any.]
* In a possible attempt to subvert this trope, the E3 reveal trailer for ''[[
** Played more straight with some European versions of the "Story" trailer (narrated by Cesare Borgia), which concludes with a showdown between him and Ezio Auditore atop a castle wall. The US version does not name it, but the European versions identify the setting as 1507 Spain, {{spoiler|the year and country in which Cesare Borgia died in [[Real Life]]}}, ''de facto'' confirmed when the developers started name-dropping the site as Viana no less. Moreover, this showdown was much more accurate to the actual in-game event than the (completely inaccurate) E3 reveal trailer had been.
* Divisive though it is among gameplay critics, there's little doubt that the developers of ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'' wanted {{spoiler|the Apprentice Force-pulling a Star Destroyer out of orbit}} to be a significant point in the story. Not only was it depicted on the back of the box, it was also used for giant promotional posters designed specifically to be positioned at the entrance to game shops.
* [[Zig
* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'''s previews, especially its "Fight For The Lost" campaign, gave away several plot points that the game's writers appear to have intended to be surprising reveals. Jack's sex and Archangel's identity are kept secret in the game until Shepard actually meets them, and the recruitment dossier sets Shepard up to recruit Okeer instead of Grunt; unfortunately, all three characters were featured heavily in the game's marketing, with Jack and Grunt even having their own interview-style promotional videos. And of course the only way to somehow avoid knowing that {{spoiler|Shepard is dead and the Normandy blown away}} at the beginning of the game would have been to avoid every piece of media [[
* A trailer for ''[[Super Smash Bros
* ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'' had fans upset about {{spoiler|Jill being killed}} prior to the story. One of the trailers had Wesker removing the hood off one of his goons claiming it to be "One big family reunion", making it obvious who it was.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbjavQHDwDw This trailer] for ''[[Halo: Reach]]''. Which is somewhat justified in that it is a prequel game and fans of the series should know that [[Doomed
* In trailers for ''[[
* Trailers for ''[[
* Partially played straight but also subverted by ''[[Kid Icarus: Uprising]]''. The information and trailers released prior to the game show off pretty much every stage, boss, character, and plot point up to Pit's final battle against Medusa. {{spoiler|So people were reasonably surprised when Hades tore up the credits screen, revealing that the game wasn't even two-fifths done, and most of the more important and/or memorable characters and subplots had yet to be introduced.}}
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* Parodied in ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]'', which opens with a mock trailer that does the exact opposite: it doesn't reveal ''anything'' about the movie it's advertising because it's heavily censored, and parts of it have been replaced with stuff like [Dialogue Missing] and [Title Missing].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied with the second trailer for ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]] 2: [[In Name Only]]'', which intentionally reveals many, many plot twists.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
* The trailer for [[That Guy With
▲== Web Original ==
▲* The trailer for [[That Guy With the Glasses]]' two-year anniversary special ''[[Kickassia]]'' had [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]] shouting "{{spoiler|Oh my gosh! It's 3D Lee!}}"
* More like "the preview always spoils", unless the YouTube user has found a way to muck with the video thumbnail of a movie, YouTube will default it to the middle of the movie. If it's say, for a race and the course is known, you can tell at least midway who's winning.
** A variation: if you're going to watch a comedy video, you'd do well to avoid looking at the top comments. They almost always contain the funniest jokes.
* ''[[Cracked.com]]'' remarks on this practice of summarizing the whole plot of a film, calling it #3 [http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-annoying-ways-trailers-trick-you-into-seeing-movies/ Annoying Way Trailers Trick You Into Seeing Movies].
* ''[[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]'':
{{quote|2419. I am required to tell the DM if the secret villain of the adventure is revealed on the back synopsis of the module screen. }}
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* Parodied in the ''[[
▲== Western Animation ==
{{quote|
▲* Parodied in the ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' episode Professor Chaos. Quoting from memory:
▲{{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.}}}}
** Though that may have been intended as a parody for the (in)famous "Who is Eric Cartman's real father?" 2-parter, since a ''lot'' of fans were ticked off when they got the Terrance & Phillip special after waiting for a month, instead of the continuing story.
* The ads for [[The Movie]] and [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' (before it was [[Uncanceled]]), "So the Drama," show the [[High School Dance]] moments leading up to the [[Relationship Upgrade|the final kiss between Kim and Ron]], something shippers have been hoping for since Season 1. They didn't even attempt to [[Ship Tease]] the fans with the [[Romantic False Lead]], Eric. [[Viewers are Morons|Obviously they believed fans needed MORE incentive to watch the show.]]
** As if that wasn't enough, one of said ads actually showed a clip of Kim being shocked by Eric while he had an evil look on his face, which would pretty much give away that {{spoiler|he's really working for Drakken}}.
* 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.)
* From an episode preview on the ''[[Transformers]] G1'', "But is this really the end of Optimus Prime? Tune in for tomorrow's exciting episode: "The Return of Optimus Prime".
** However, the ''first'' time that aired, it didn't have the narration. Thankfully, newer DVD releases go without it (though of course the DVD's episode list does let you know that an episode called "The Return of Optimus Prime" is coming up.)
** Not to mention all the trailers for ''[[The Movie]]'' showing clips of {{spoiler|Optimus Prime getting blown to bits while the Narrator asks "Does Prime die?!"}} WELL GEE KIDS, I DUNNO!
*** 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 ''[[
* The theatrical trailer for ''[[Rugrats in Paris]]'' had [[Don
* Parodied in ''[[The Simpsons (
** 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).
** The promos for the episode "How Munched is That Birdie in the Window" spoiled the whole plot of Bart adopting a wounded pigeon and Santa's Little Helper eating it.
** The trailers for the simpsons movie show the exchange between Homer, Bart, and the EPA agent near the end of the movie with the "treasure of I'm a weiner" joke. This sppoiled the joke of "To be continued" followed by "right now" as the latter takes place before the former in the movie, showing there is more.
* Okay, [[Disney Channel]] may be the all-time king of this trope. In a recent ''[[Fish Hooks]]'' episode "Fail Fish", Milo has to pass a test in order to prevent himself from being held back a grade. This would have been taken as a surprise, if only they hadn't shown him {{spoiler|holding the test in his hand while he shouts for joy, implying that he has passed it!}} You might not be able to catch it if you're not paying attention, but it's still there.
* Another one, the ''[[
** To be fair, if you couldn't guess that was going to happen based on [[Spoiler Title|the title]], well...
*** 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.
* The original trailer for ''[[Total Drama Island
* ''[[Star Wars:
* 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].
* Black Phantom's defeat from the ''[[Hero Factory]]'' TV special was spoiled, shot for shot, on an on-line promo vid advertising the cartoon and characters (and their toys) on the [[LEGO]] website.
* The toy commercials for the ''[[Bionicle]]'' Glatorian Legends line of figures showed glimpses of the then-upcoming movie, ''The Legend Reborn''. Among them, the very shot of the four heroes unleashing the final blast at the Skrall and Bone Hunter army, from the end of the climax! Website promos also spoiled {{spoiler|Metus' transformation into a snake, thereby essentially revealing that he's the traitor.}}
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/kerrytoonz/2679457672/ This] print advertisement for ''[[The Flintstones]]'' special "Hollyrock-A-Bye-Baby" shows that Pebbles will have {{spoiler|twins}}.
* [[Cartoon Network]] is terrible at this.
** The ''[[
** More ''[[
** Plus, the trailer for "Goliad" revealed Goliad was a girl.
** Here's where [[It Got Worse]]. The first ever trailer for the ''[[Regular Show]]'' episode "Go Viral" revealed that{{spoiler|, along with many other people, Mordecai and Rigby won Muscle Man's bet.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Spoilered Rotten]]
[[Category:Coming Attractions]]
[[Category:Paratext]]
[[Category:Trailers]]
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