Trailers Always Spoil: Difference between revisions
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{{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]]}}
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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]].
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** 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! Pretty Cure 5]]'' (as well as the promo trailers, which focused a lot on the first episode) each showed part of the [[Transformation Sequence]] of the girl who would transform for the first time in that episode. So in the trailer previewing episode 5, the conspicuous ''absence'' of a scene spoiling Karen's transformation was a spoiler in itself. (Or at least, in hindsight, it ''should'' have been.)
** On the other hand, although the ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' fandom was more-or-less unanimous about [[Sixth Ranger|Cure]] [[Heartcatch Pretty Cure|Sunshine's]] identity, there was still some suspense to be had in-show...until the trailer for Episode 23 killed it: the preview footage consisted almost entirely of [[Student Council President|Itsuki]] transforming into said Cure.
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** 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 ''[[Mai-HiME]]'', Episode 15's trailer, after a cliffhanger involving {{spoiler|Mai's apparent death}}, contains a brief shot with {{spoiler|Mai in the background while Yukino is ordering food and drinks at the Hime Sentai's karaoke party}}.
* The intro of the first season of [[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]] Black and White had the Pokémon not covered in black,<ref>Unlike Best Wishes.</ref>
* 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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** When [[Roger Ebert]] reviewed ''[[DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story]]'' favorably, he said he was pleasantly surprised by how much funny stuff was kept ''out'' of the trailer. Likewise, he mentioned in his one-star review of ''Year One'' that the only funny stuff were lines already in the trailers.
* 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|David]] [[Kill Bill|Carradine]]'s last appearances before his rather unusual death) tells you absolutely ''everything''. Who our group of victims is, who gets killed, the [[Sins of Our Fathers|entire back-story]] for the killer's rampage, exactly which two characters survive until the end, and who the [[Large Ham]] killer is. About the only detail it leaves out is whether or not those last two make it to the end-credits, but it's a [[Foregone Conclusion]].
* ''[[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 (film)|Spider-Man]]'' films haven't been very discreet:
** 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 (film)|The Two Towers]]'' is rather notorious for giving away what is clearly set up in the film (and even more so in the book) as a point of mystery and
** 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...
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* ''[[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 (novel)|Twilight]]'' gave away ''absolutely everything''. The sequel, ''New Moon'', is even worse! The first trailer for it was fine, it stopped at the first major plot revelation. But the second trailer? Well that just takes one scene from pretty much every plot point in the movie, save the VERY last one, and mashes it all together in a sequential montage! You could nearly write the Wikipedia plot summary with just that trailer alone!
* The case of the VHS of George Romero's original ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' has a picture on the '''spine''' of one of the main characters dead and zombified, an event that occurs about ten minutes from the end.
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* 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 till Dawn]]'' makes explicitly clear that the inhabitants of the bar are {{spoiler|vampires}}, which is a twist halfway through the movie.
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* The trailer for the [[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|seventh Harry Potter movie]]. {{spoiler|Harry and Voldemort fight! Ollivander isn't dead! Hogwarts erupts into battle! Ron uses the sword! There's a dragon! Griphook comes back! Harry hands himself over to Voldemort!}} The worst part about all of it is that most of this stuff is from what has to be the ''second part''. So not only are they spoiling a good section of the book, they're spoiling a good section of the ''second movie''.
** 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.
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* 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 (film)|Halloween]]'' theatrical trailer gives away the first scene's twist - that the killer is the victim's six-year old brother.
* ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]'' trailer was basically a mini version of the movie, leading some people to blame it for the movie's poor box
* The theatrical trailer for ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' spoils {{spoiler|the Clergyman's funny voice, Count Rugen going into a battle stance before running away, the outcome of the battle of wits, and Wesley's "death"}}.
* 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.
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*** 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 ''[[The End of Eternity]]'' by [[Isaac Asimov]], the back cover clearly spoils that {{spoiler|Noys was sent back from the distant future to stop Harlan and the Eternity}}. Thanks a lot!
** [[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 Powerless of This World]]'', the back cover blurb is ''only'' the surprise ending, and nothing else. A Polish edition of [[Robert Sheckley]]'s ''[[Dimension Of Miracles]]'' likewise spoils the humorous ending, that {{spoiler|the hero gets back to his world but finds it insufferable}}. And the one for ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat|A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born]]'' spoils the {{spoiler|death of The Bishop}}, and even gets it [[Cowboy Bebop at His Computer|completely wrong]] ({{spoiler|claiming that he's killed by the police in an ambush, while in reality he's killed in a military attack on a distant quasi-medieval planet}}).
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* Happened in the Season 3 finale of ''[[Lost]]''. The commercials for it showed Jin, Bernard, and Sayid tied up. In, the show, Ben ordered their deaths, and you hear 3 gunshots through the radio. However, the scene with them tied up did not appear yet in the episode, telling people preemptively that they were alive.
** 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.
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*** 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 (film)|Evolution]]'' with David Duchovny featured one of the movie's final scenes, a trailer for season 2 of ''[[Lost]]'' featured the confrontation between {{spoiler|Mr. Eko and the smoke monster}}, a trailer for season 4 reveals who the Oceanic Six (one of the "main" mysteries in the first half of the season) are and on top of that features ''scenes from the season finale'' (the Oceanic Six arriving at home, {{spoiler|the island disappearing}}), and so on.
* One immensely frustrating one occurred to ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]''. At the very end (literally in the last five seconds) of the otherwise unrelated episode "Blood Fever," the crew discover {{spoiler|a Borg corpse, setting up the [[Wham! Episode|next episode, "Unity,"]] and the primary threat of the remainder of the series. It was pretty effective -- it came completely out of left field and chillingly evoked one of the most terrifying enemies in the Trek mythos (regardless of how unforgivably [[Villain Decay
** ''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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* 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, ''[[Wheel of Fortune]]'' (of all shows!) is guilty of this. The show uploads a preview of next week's shows on Sony's website every weekend. Nearly every preview shows contestants landing on or picking up prizes, the $10,000 side of the Mystery Wedge, or the Million Dollar Wedge. Occasionally, similar previews air on TV.
** 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]].
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* 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 ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' runs into this trope headlong with its opening cinematic, its instruction manual, and even the back of the box. Square Enix must feel that all the info for a game approaching its twentieth birthday must qualify as [[It Was His Sled]].
** 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.}}
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* The final encounter with the Hive Mind in ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' is revealed in the pre-release trailer, thus ruining a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|potentially awesome spectacle]].
* The Japanese trailer for ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Sky'', which was also dubbed as an American ad, shows {{spoiler|Grovyle, who is ''smiling'' at the main characters who are ''clearly worried about him'' dragging Dusknoir through the time portal. [[Good All Along|Well, there goes half the plot.]]}}
** 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: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]''. Take the standard trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1AVNa8q8T8 here]. Pretty much half the late game gets given away, and the Gamespot trailer actually goes further by showing even more. For that matter, one of the pre order sleeves for the game actually had a picture of the final battle on the front...
* Early promotion material for ''[[Half-Life 2|Half Life 2: Episode 2]]'' revealed that {{spoiler|Alyx dies, or at the very least gets incapacitated, although it's also avoided in that Alyx also gets better and her "death" (falling off a bridge in the promo) is totally different in-game. The trailer also reveals that the G-Man is back in a speaking role after being sidelined for the last game.}}
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* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'''s trailer has a prominent scene with all six characters flying on the back of a monster thing. Playing through the game, you get to a part where {{spoiler|Sazh "commits suicide"}}, but this scene hasn't happened yet. Clues you in that {{spoiler|he's still alive!}}.
** 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.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' included {{spoiler|a map of The World of Ruin, which is what the game world turns into halfway through}}, with the game. It also gives away the magic system (which has some storyline significance). Not to mention listing all the characters with mini-bios (giving away a few [[Heel Face Turn
* ''[[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.
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