Spoilers

Have you ever had a movie spoiled on you? Did it really ruin it or did you blow it off?

Evil comic!
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Strikes-Marvel-Comics-Version/dp/0960414606

Sam Posten said:

Have you ever had a movie spoiled on you? Did it really ruin it or did you blow it off?

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That damn Shakespeare went and spoiled Romeo and Juliet. He gave away the ending in the first minute.

The boat sinks in Titanic too...

I don’t really worry about direct spoilers from individuals as people are usually pretty decent about not revealing stuff one-on-one.

What’s more troublesome to me is this entire cottage industry of “weaponized spoilers” that pop up immediately as a film is opening or a show is airing, so that it becomes impossible to ignore what’s happened in a program. Clickbait headlines like, “You’ll never believe who dies at the end of the new Marvel movie” or “the major Star Wars twist you never saw coming” - headlines like that end up giving away the entire game even if you don’t click on the article. If you know someone is gonna die going into a movie, you can usually figure out who before it happens. If you know there’s a twist in advance, you’ll see it coming a mile away. Even if the article itself has a spoiler warning, the headline usually does more than enough damage.

For the new Star Trek show “Picard,” CBS All Access puts up new episodes weekly at 3am ET/12am PT. I’m on the east coast. If I don’t watch it at 3am, some clickbait headline is gonna ruin it for me when I wake up in the morning.

I never liked or watched Game of Thrones, and yet I know every major plot point and behind the scenes drama just because of the relentless coverage.

There’s an argument to be made for not spending so much time online, but the counter argument is that if you’re someone who needs to use the internet as part of your job (a description that applies to more and more of us all the time), that’s simply not practical advice.

The cynic in me wonders: is all of this happening on its own as traditional media is replaced by fan sites and influencers desperate for attention and instant gratification, or is this part of advertising effort by studios and content producers to create a sense of false urgency about needing to see things right away, being done to drive up opening weekend box office and TV/streaming ratings?

Josh Steinberg said:

The cynic in me wonders: is all of this happening on its own as traditional media is replaced by fan sites and influencers desperate for attention and instant gratification, or is this part of advertising effort by studios and content producers to create a sense of false urgency about needing to see things right away, being done to drive up opening weekend box office and TV/streaming ratings?

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(Ahem) Yes.

The Trailer Industrial Complex
The Spoiler Industrial Complex

"Mask" the 1984 movie starring Cher..not "The Mask" with Jim Carrey. A friend was talking to me saying he just watched it and "it was really good... he dies." I still remind him of this to this day.

Movies totally ruined for me include The Sixth Sense and Seven. But the one that really pissed me off is The Phantom Menace. I'm standing in a hobby shop talking to a friend about Star Wars and the anticipation of the new movie coming out. This was three weeks away from the release of Phantom Menace. Guy walks in and hears us talking, so he interjects himself into the conversation. The topic of Liam Neeson had just been brought up and this guy says "Does he play Guy Gon Jinn or Kwai Gon Jinn? He dies by the way."

I wanted to throw the guy through the glass door of the hobby shop at that moment.

I remember my friends and I leaving the auditorium after Return of the Jedi on opening day and loudly revealing fake spoilers.

I miss those days....

"Don't tell me how Apollo 13 ends!"

@Brian Dobbs @Sam Posten
Love "Trailer Industrial Complex"

However, that's about as far as I've gotten.

The podcast opens with a big spoiler bomb, no warning to the listener. The rules seemingly established for this episode, I'm listening in anxiety of more major spoilers to be dropped on me. So, I've stopped for the moment until I can check: Is the episode spoiler-riffic? Or can I safely listen?

(Related: I'm a fan of The Incomparable's Spoiler Horn to announce pending spoilered discussions. I'd post a link, but I can't quickly find a specific example. )

DaveF said:

The podcast opens with a big spoiler bomb, no warning to the listener.

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You should keep listening. What you hear is perhaps not as it seems. ;-)

DaveF said:

Is the episode spoiler-riffic? Or can I safely listen?

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Mostly safe, from what I recall.

Todd J Moore said:

I wanted to throw the guy through the glass door of the hobby shop at that moment.

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Justifiable.

Todd Erwin said:

I remember my friends and I leaving the auditorium after Return of the Jedi on opening day and loudly revealing fake spoilers.

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Cruel!

Thanks. Just checking. Looking forward to hearing the rest of it.

There are hints of spoilers to The Sixth Sense. and outright spoilers to The Empire Strikes Back but that should be it...

The Crying Game was spoiled for me, by no less than Siskel & Ebert who didn't even realize what they were doing! You see, when they talked about

I’d almost call that a spoiler by omission and my radar is up for that. Anytime someone tells me (or if i see a clickbait headline that says) “You’ll never see the twist coming” then I’m on the lookout for it from the start and I do see it coming.

Then there are times with a movie like “The Village” (which I did like):