20 Movie Trailers That Pointlessly Spoiled Huge Details

While it might not be as true today, given the myriad ways films are marketed across social media

historically, the most important part of the movie marketing process has always been the trailer

because it grants studios the grandest opportunity to convey to audiences what a film's plot

style, and tone are all about. And yet, it's a common criticism of modern movie trailers that

they just give away way too damn much. But hey, if you thought modern trailers were bad

hoo boy, the oldies were just as, if not more guilty. So let's take a look at some of the worst

shall we? I'm Ewan, you're watching WhatCulture, and with obvious spoilers ahead

here are movie trailers that pointlessly spoiled huge details. Everyone gets off the bus. Speed. The trailer for Speed

aka the bus that couldn't slow down, does a generally fantastic job of hyping the action

classic up as the sweaty-palmed, high-octane thrill ride that it ultimately is, but also

gets a little overzealous and basically spoils the movie's very conceit. In the hallowed tradition of 90s movie trailers that give away the A-Z plot for free, Speed's

almost 3 minute long reel flagrantly shows the ill-fated bus exploding while crashing

into a plane, and the actual passengers watching the explosion from a safe distance, making

it clear that they all get off the bus and survive. Beyond that, the trailer also spoils that there's an additional action sequence after

the bus scenario is resolved, where heroes Jack, Keanu Reeves, and Annie, Sandra Bullock

battle villain Howard Payne, played deliriously well by Dennis Hopper, on board a runaway train

while also spoiling that said train crashes onto the street. Yeah, it's just as well that Speed is

such an impossibly awesome movie that audiences wanted to watch it anyway, but the marketing team

yeah, they really didn't need to blow their whole wad here. 006 is the villain, GoldenEye

The trailer for GoldenEye, I found his weakness, didn't merely persuade audiences that Pierce Brosnan would be a kickass James Bond

but freely spoiled its mid-film plot twist, that the primary antagonist is Bond's old buddy Alec Trevelyan

aka 006, played by Sean Bean, who Bond believed died at the start of the movie, but had in fact faked his own demise

The trailer treats this shock reveal like it's simply a straightforward bad guy introduction

and given that the marketing could have easily focused its villainous attention on henchwoman

Xenia Onatop, played by Famke Jansen, it makes this spoiler seem even more pointless than it

already is. Like, just imagine if audiences watched the start of GoldenEye genuinely believing that

006 was dead, only to be left agape when he returned, just as director Martin Campbell

surely intended when he made the movie. And I watched this thing on DVD growing up and that

was my exact experience, so sorry if you were old enough to watch this in the cinemas and got it

spoiled, because that's gonna sting. But what the hay, GoldenEye was a critical and commercial smash

regardless, but it's unlikely that the 006 reveal had much of a hand in that success

so why give it away at all? The kid is still alive. Wolves. The new George Clooney-Brad Pitt

action comedy Wolves stars the duo as a pair of fixers who team up to dispose of the corpse of a

young man, played by Austin Abrams, who dies following an accident in a hotel room. Except

the big end of first act twist is that the kid is actually very much alive, sending Clooney and

Pitt's characters on a mad chase to capture him. This is all well and good, but the movie's

trailers freely give this surprise away, despite it not happening until almost 40 minutes into the

108 minute long film. Given that the kid's sudden burst to life would have made for a huge

hilarious surprise otherwise, it was criminal to ruin the gag ahead of time. And yeah

it's tough to imagine that director John Watts was too thrilled by this, given that he clearly

wrote and directed the reveal to be, well, a reveal that audiences only discovered while

watching the movie rather than being given away early on YouTube. Apollo Creed's Death

Rocky IV Now, generally speaking, sports movies aren't known for their unpredictability, and that's

certainly true of the Rocky franchise, although the fourth movie had quite the shocking surprise

up its sleeve. The death of Apollo Creed, played by Carl Weathers, at the hands of villain Ivan Drago

Dolph Lundgren, during a boxing match in the film's opening act. Even accepting that this happens early in the movie it such a jaw devastating moment that fans should have been bamboozled by it in the cinema not months beforehand All the trailers really had to focus on was Drago ferocity as a seemingly insurmountable

opponent for Rocky, but spoiling Apollo's demise was a cheap shot by the marketing department

pressing fans' emotional buttons in a desperate attempt to get their butts in seats

And to their begrudging credit, the gambit evidently worked, as Rocky IV remains the

highest grossing entry in the entire nine-film franchise almost four decades on from its initial

release in theaters. The Ransom Becomes a Bounty. Ransom. Ron Howard's terrifically entertaining

thriller Ransom boasts one hell of a twist at the end of its second act. Millionaire Tom Mullins

son Sean, played by Mel Gibson and Brawley Nolt respectively, is kidnapped for a $2 million

dollar ransom. But once Tom realises that the kidnappers have no intention of returning his son

even if the ransom is paid, he does something just about no one expected. Tom goes on TV and

instead offers the ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers, vowing only to rescind it if Sean

is returned to him alive, confirming he has no intent to pay the ransom. Yeah, it's an incredible

table-turning, oh my god, this got real moment that arrives at Tom's lowest point. Yet the

trailer spoils it like it's the plot of the movie, rather than a twist that's unleashed 70 minutes in

Also, unrelated side note about Ransom, we did get that great Swede Mason song from it

So that's pretty good too. Rose's villainous turn, Get Out. The trailers for Get Out sold it brilliantly, save for a single shot that told audiences

way too much about where the plot was actually going. After all, audiences are led to believe the bulk of the runtime that protagonist Chris's

girlfriend Rose, played by Allison Williams opposite Daniel Kaluuya, is an innocent party

and totally oblivious to the increasingly unsettling situation that is unfolding around her

However, the end of the trailer shows a memorable glimpse of Rose with her hair tied back

while shooting a rifle with a stoic expression on her face. This definitely doesn't look like a heroic character who is taking aim at the bad guys

Everything about her body language and facial expression makes it clear in this moment that

she's actually a secret villain. Given that Rose's true nature isn't revealed until the final 30 minutes of the movie, it

was totally excessive to spoil it ahead of time. On the upside though, at least it didn't reveal

the really creepy serial scene. George Beats His Illness

Funny People Judd Apatow's 2009 dramedy Funny People is about an actor and comedian

George Simmons, played by Adam Sandler, who is diagnosed with leukemia and must decide what to

do with what remains of his life. The first half of the movie's three and a half minute trailer

does a great job of selling it as an emotional comedic drama, but at the midway point it

pointlessly reveals that George's leukemia eventually goes into remission, in turn prompting

him to live each new day to the fullest. Given that George isn't given a clean bill of health

until the end of the second act, it's odd to give this away in the marketing, almost as though

Universal were nervous that selling the film as a full-on disease movie might hurt its box office

prospects. It didn't really matter anyway, as Funny People was a massive box office bomb

regardless, unaided by both its stonking $75 million budget and a brutal 146 minute runtime

I dunno, maybe people got cold feet after the whiplash from Click

Because that movie is seriously depressing. What the hell. Ant's Tongue Was Cut Out

Speak No Evil 2024 The trailer for the recent English language remake of cult horror film Speak No Evil just

couldn't help itself, could it? Though the trailer successfully conveys its tripwire tense premise persuasively, it ends

with a final stinger that needlessly spoils that serial killer Paddy's son, Ant, who

is actually a kidnapped victim has had his tongue cut out with a pair of scissors. This fact isn't

revealed until the end of Act 2 and helps set up the brutal finale. And up to this point, audiences

are led to believe that Ant can't speak due to a congenital birth defect, a small tongue that

leaves him unable to form words. And so giving this twist away in the marketing was howlingly

unnecessary. As left just about anyone who'd seen the original movie, absolutely irate for those

coming to the remake totally unaware. Companion The marketing team behind recent horror hit Companion certainly had a tricky job on their

hands because while its big surprise is revealed relatively early on it also would have been incredible to experience it entirely unspoiled Though the initial vibes based teaser trailer was somewhat vague about its premise Companion

full length trailer freely revealed that protagonist Iris, played by Sophie Thatcher, is secretly

a robot owned by her quote unquote boyfriend Josh, played by Jack Quaid

is actually revealed 25 minutes into the movie. So it's not quite an Abigail situation where the

marketing spoiled a mid-film twist, but wouldn't it have been so much more fun if the marketing

simply focused on the mystery surrounding Iris rather than giving it away outright

Sure, movie studios find vague marketing risky and would rather get butts in seats by focusing

on an attention-grabbing premise, but there's also something to be said for the thrill of discovery

and a film finding an audience from word of mouth about its exciting surprises

Heck, just last year, Longlegs proved that plot-like marketing can be hugely successful

and it's a shame, if not remotely surprising, that Companion didn't go this route too

Gladiator 2 With Gladiator 2's budget reportedly being as high as $310 million

dollars, Paramount obviously had a vested interest in doing everything within its power to lure

audiences to the cinema. And unsurprisingly, the easiest strategy was spoiling basically the entire

movie across its two main trailers, sans those horrific CGI baboons, which, yeah, I understand

why those weren't in any of the trailers. In any case, these trailers detailed the entire spine of

the story as well as the motivations of basically every single character, showcased every major

set piece, and most egregiously confirmed the oft-speculated truth about Lucius' parentage

that he is indeed the son of the original Gladiator's protagonist, Maximus Decimus Meridius

While this was hardly a shocking revelation, it still might have been worth holding it

back for audiences to discover with certainty for themselves, you know, in the actual cinema

As a result, there was precious little left to be surprised by when folks turned up and sat down to watch the movie

which turned out to be a disappointingly blatant retread of the original anyway

Wolfman Though everyone wanted Lee Whannell's new Wolfman adaptation to be great

the early marketing just wasn't hitting the right note, and failed to suggest it would live up to Whannell's brilliant prior take on The Invisible Man

With the film's box office tracking poorly in the weeks leading up to its release this past January

Universal ultimately decided to press the panic button. And a full 10 days before it hit cinemas

they dropped a clip spoiling the title character's full transformation. Now, in fairness, this was

probably done in part to combat pre-release misinformation over the character's design

after a hideous Wolfman-branded Universal theme park attraction led many fans to believe that it

it would be the creature's final look. On the one hand, it makes sense that Universal would want to

set the record straight, but did they really need to let loose and show the entire transformation

ahead of time? By the way, despite this desperate attempt to change the narrative

Wolfman was still indifferently received by both critics and general audiences alike

Ah well, here's hoping that Robert Eggers' own Wolfman movie ends up faring better

The Last Dance Sony evidently didn't give a single damn about holding any surprises back ahead of the third and apparently final Venom film hitting cinemas

Nor did they seemingly give a single damn about the party of this entire Spider-Man spin-off affair, but I digress

The marketing gave away basically every interesting thing in the movie, from the presence of iconic supervillain Null

even if he was ultimately a majorly missed opportunity, to the funniest gag involving

Mrs. Chen and the coolest action beat where Venom commandeers a horse. Hell, the trailers

even showed extensive clips from the threequel's climax, explicitly implying that Venom perishes

in a sacrificial act to save his host Eddie Brock, as does indeed happen at the film's end

This gung-ho approach certainly suggested that Sony was nervous about the film's box office

performance leading up to its release. And yet, the spoilerific marketing didn't stop it becoming

the lowest grossing entry in the trilogy, so what was the point

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes It's well into Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' second act before human protagonist May

played by Freya Allen, is properly introduced, and the final trailer casually revealed that she has

the ability to speak, almost as though it isn't meant to be a big surprise

And yet there's a clear discrepancy between the marketing and the movie itself, which absolutely

treats this as a revelation when May finally stands up and shouts NOAH while being pursued

This happens over an hour into the film, almost halfway through the runtime by the way, and is

mounted as a big grandstanding reveal that clearly meant to be a shock to both the apes and the audience But given that we all knew about this a few weeks before release it rather had the wind

taken out of its sails. Perhaps 20th Century Studios felt that the marketing wasn't emphasizing the human element

enough even though the recent apes films have performed well commercially with a focus on

the apes, so...yeah, this made no sense. Alien Romulus 20th Century Studios were hellbent on assuring fans that Alien Romulus was something of a

quote-unquote course correction for the franchise following the polarizing response to both

Prometheus and Alien Covenant, to the extent that they gave huge swaths of the movie away

for free. While any Alien fan knows that the majority of the series' characters are doomed to die

it's the how that is fun. and yeah, Romulus's trailers held little back in spoiling the fates of crew members Bjorn and Navarro

In the latter's case, the trailers increasingly showed more and more footage from Navarro being

impregnated with a chestburster before finally giving up entirely and showing her death itself

Sure, they had some restraint in not revealing CGI Ian Holm or the human xenomorph hybrid

but as these elements were ultimately among the movie's most divisive, it was surely a calculation

to keep them under wraps until release. Compare Romulus' marketing to the more ambiguous and iconic

trailer for Ridley Scott's original Alien, and it's a stark indication of just how much movie

marketing has changed for the worse over the decades. A Quiet Place Day One

One suspects that Paramount was a teensy bit anxious about releasing their first A Quiet

Place movie without Emily Blunt, considering that the two main trailers for A Quiet Place Day 1

revealed almost every single facet of the main plot. And this got even worse on release week

when the studio released a spoiler-packed final trailer making it abundantly clear how things

would turn out. Most notably, this trailer included a lingering glimpse of male lead Erik

played by Joseph Quinn, fleeing all the alien monsters and leaping into a body of water while

carrying Sam's pet cat Frodo, Sam of course being played by Lupita Nyong'o. As the marketing clearly

established Sam's unbreakable bond with Frodo, to the extent of even releasing a featurette about it

this shot made it easy to figure out that Sam was basically done-zo at this point in the story

And yeah, even though it's revealed at the start of the movie that Sam is terminally ill

this clip makes it clear that they end up giving Frodo to Eric before they go their separate ways

in the climax. Captain America Brave New World Given that the fourth Captain America film arrived amid a tidal wave of negativity

from reports about poor test screenings to extensive reshoots and concerns over its box

office potential, it's hardly a surprise that Marvel Studios decided to just give away its big

secret ahead of time. The first teaser trailer briefly revealed the presence of Red Hulk

which was bad enough, but subsequent trailers flat out confirmed him to be the super-powered

alter ego of one Thaddeus Ross, here played by Harrison Ford, a fact non-comic book fans

probably weren't aware of. Yet despite the marketing playing up Red Hulk as the film's

feature villainous attraction, while largely downplaying the real main villain, the leader

played by Tim Blake Nelson, he doesn't show up until the final 20 minutes and is on screen for

just a single action sequence. Surprising audiences with Red Hulk would have likely

resulted in a more positive reception from critics and fans alike, rather than revealing

it seven months before release, and then leaving viewers to weigh 80% of the movie with a big

marketing hook to finally show itself. Smile 2 Smile 2 was an impressively sturdy follow-up to its surprisingly solid predecessor, and yet

despite the original's mighty performance at the box office, Paramount went pretty hard with the

spoilers while marketing the sequel. One of the big mysteries surrounding Smile 2's release was

the status of the previous film's surviving character, Joel, played by Kyle Galner, who was

left cursed in its bleak final scene. But the fan speculation ultimately didn't last long

as the first teaser trailer very clearly showed Joel running into the street as a car careens

into him before coming to the gory remnants a few moments later, leaving little to the imagination

Beyond that, and showing almost every substantial set piece in the film

the trailers also placed a high emphasis on pop star protagonist Skye, played by Naomi Scott

performing in front of live audiences, leading many to correctly predict Smile 2's wild climax

where Skye is killed in front of a crowd of concertgoers, seemingly cursing them all in

the process. Yeah, given that Smile 2 was a highly entertaining sequel to a well-received horror

film, the marketing really could have been a little shyer