I’m going to make a wild guess that my fellow bloggers and our readers have, at some point in their lives, seen spoilers they’d rather not have known before they watched or read the movie/book/TV show/comic book.
The first time I can remember a spoiler was a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy finds Linus watching Citizen Kane and tells him “Rosebud was his sleigh.” The big question of the movie is why Charles Foster Kane’s (Orson Welles) dying word was “Rosebud” It turns out it’s the name of his childhood sleigh, bringing back what may have been his last happy or innocent memory. 
When I saw the movie in college it didn’t bother me to know the ending reveal. It’s important, sure, but the movie is about so much more than waiting for a surprise twist that I didn’t feel disappointed sitting through the rest of it.
But then there’s Psycho (1960) where having it spoiled well in advance left me quite frustrated. Once again I saw the movie in college; the spoiling came several years earlier, when a friend who’d caught it on TV described it in detail on the school bus. It was a mesmerizing account, to be sure, but the film is one where the twists matter.
The film starts out with what The Hitchcock Romance points out is a classic topic for Hitch: struggling lovers. Marion (Janet Leigh) and Sam (John Gavin) are in love. It’s a moderately long-distance relationship because Sam’s divorced and alimony has him in the poor house. If he and Marion married they’d have to keep house in his store’s stockroom; Marion would put up with it but he won’t do that to her. A frustrated Marion succumbs to temptation and drives away from her workplace with $40,000 of her boss’s money. It’s the beginning of a journey that will take her to an isolated motel and a strange young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) … and that’s all I’m saying, just in case anyone reading this doesn’t know what follows.
It’s impossible to overstate what a big deal Psycho was and how much it defined Hitchcock from that point on. 1959’s North by Northwest is much more typical of Hitchcock’s work but his later films were always “from the director of Psycho.” It has shocks, it has twists, and when I sat down to watch it in college I knew what they were. I still enjoyed the film but not as much as I anticipated. The spoiling saw to that. Of all the things that were spoiled for me over the years, Psycho is the one I wish I could somehow watch once without any idea what’s coming.
Which brings us to the question of the week: what piece of entertainment do you wish you hadn’t seen spoilers for? The ending of Thunderbolts #1? The big reveal of The Empire Strikes Back? That Superman was going to survive The Death of Superman (ROFL. Did any comic book fan over the age of six worry about that?)? Answer in comments
#SFWApro.
I think I knew most of Psycho before I saw it, but I was young enough it didn’t bother me. Same with Poltergeist.
I refused to watch Fight Club until I found out the twist; then I thought it was interesting to see.
I do have examples of what you’re talking about, I just can’t think of them right now. I hate spoilers these days.
I remember some girls at the busstop in 1978 quoting the line “you’ve got me, who’s got you?” and regretting I’d heard it.
While watching an ad for Thelma & Louise, a friend blurted out “they just gave away the ending!”. Of course, they hadn’t until he said that. I never did see the movie because of that.
Plus an endless stream of my mom trying not to give things away and failing miserably by saying things like “the twist surprised me but I won’t tell you what it is”. I ended up not seeing a number of movies because of her.
I probably will never see Psycho, because, what’s the point? Granted, it’s not my type of flick anyway…
I probably WILL see the 6th Sense someday, even though that is hopelessly spoiled.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what Rosebud was when I saw Citizen Kane. I also didn’t know what Soylent Green was ahead of time. I’m glad on both counts.
I consider people who spoil movies, even old movies, to be sadistic. I pride myself on describing movies in a way that won’t spoil them, regardless of how long they’ve been out.
I’ve eventually been spoiled on Thelma and Louise (Hello, Wayne and Garth), but the reason I never saw it is because the trailer I saw for it was literally nothing but the pair of them saying :Thelma!” “Louise!” over and over again.
Somehow, that just didn’t sound compelling to me. 😉
6th Sense is still well-crafted and a good movie, even if you know the ending (which I didn’t when I first saw it). Kind of slow, though; I don’t know if that’s a problem for you.
When I saw Sixth Sense, the exact twist hadn’t been spoiled for me, but the fact that there WAS some sort of major twist had, of course, and based on that, I was able to figure out the twist very quickly. Which did kind of ruin the movie for me.
While no examples immediately come to mind, there’s more than a few times “there’s a brilliant twist” has set me up to look for a brilliant twist when i wouldn’t have otherwise.
I saw Burt Reynolds’ “Sharky’s Machine” because it got some good reviews (it may have been Reynolds’ last good performance) but one review I read gave away a major twist as a way of saying “this has been done before.” I still enjoyed the movie but that was bad form.
My best friend Cindy did not know about the twist and punched my arm hard when she thought it was going to be a tragedy.
On the opposite end, I always remember a review I read of Star Trek: Generations which said ‘you know how this ends; the galaxy is saved, Kirk lives, same old’.
Wow. Did they even see the film, I wonder.
That particular reviewer had a reputation for making people ask exactly that question, apparently.
I’ve never had a problem enjoying a good movie, knowing the ending, or a good book; the artistry of the work will provide the enjoyment, not the specifics of the ending. I have gone into most things knowing the ending or at least having a pretty good idea how it was going to end. most twist endings either seem obvious, the moment you are told there is a twist and others you might not know the specifics, but, you expect it to have a “shocking” ending.
(SPOILERS, but these are old enough that I’m not sweating revealing it) Citizen Kane? Kind of telegraphed and it is obvious that he is never happy, after he leaves behind his childhood home. Psycho? It is obvious that Norman is the killer, though the mother being taxidermied isn’t something most people would think up, so you don’t expect it, though you might expect that he murdered his mother. Fight Club? The other personality does not act in a realistic manner and it just screams “fantasy,” to me, so I expected something along those lines, by the end. Rhe Sixth Sense? Obvious in the trailer: kid sees dead people, kid talks to Bruce Willis, no one else talks to Bruce Willis, Bruce only talks to kid, Bruce Willis is dead. Pretty logical conclusion. Kaiser Soze? not obvious in the trailer, but you know it is one of “the Usual Suspects.” The lone survivor tells the whole story and is the main conduit for the information about what occurred. He is likely the guy behind it all. Actually, they kind of missed the potential for that idea. The idea is pretty much that of Dr Mabuse, from the Fritz Lang films, a criminal mastermind who operates through a web of agents and cut-outs, none of whom know who they are working for. You could have taken that further. besides, the fact that Gabriel Byrne is presented as the leader of the bunch suggests that someone else is pulling the strings. he’s too obvious for it to be a twist. The real twist would have been his girlfriend….or one of the cops.
In terms of spoiler warnings, my answer is that after one year of release or publication, everything is fair game. You don’t want to know, stay out of a discussion of the work. It is not everyone else’s responsibility to not spoil it for you.
I was not prepared for one of the later killings in Psycho and that did come as a shock.
The only part of “The Usual Suspects” I’ve seen was the end, on TV years ago. I’ve never bothered seeing the movie because of that. I find that, for me, whether or not knowing the end will ruin a movie or book really depends on the movie or book. In some cases, it doesn’t make a difference whether I know in advance, in some cases, it may even make it better. But in some cases, particularly when it’s the whole point of the story, it definitely ruins it for me.
While I rarely put a book down without finishing it, sometimes if it’s totally not working for me I’ll skip two-thirds and read the last chapter. My instincts are apparently good as I’ve never done that and kicked myself because it got so much better in the stretch in-between.
I agree with the one year. I mean, if someone starts talking about a movie that you want to watch but haven’t you can stop them, but really If I go to a comic book site and they talk about X or Y comic and the “twist”, well that’s on me.
But if I say that I will watch the new Batman this weekend and my coworker then goes to spoil the whole movie then and there, then THAT is a dick move.
The Monday after the 6th Sense opened a couple of girls in my English class spoiled the twist. Sometimes I wonder if that colored my opinion when I finally saw it. Would I have enjoyed it more with the surprise?
One I’m glad wasn’t spoiled for me was The Crying Game (although I probably would have liked it anyway, I know I’ve seen it more than once).
Crying Game came out during one of my dead broke periods so I didn’t see it until years later on cable. It was spoiled by then — but yes, I liked it anyway.
Heh. Just based on the fact that I knew there WAS some sort of twist, I figured out the twist in the Crying Game just based on trailers or scenes shown in reviews or something. I’ve still never seen the movie.
There’s a movie – it might be one of the Naked Guns – where they give away the twist in The Crying Game in their closing credits.
Now I’m thinking of my grandad, who said that when he was a kid people would often buy movie tickets, then walk right in without waiting for the next showing to start, then they’d sit there and watch until “this is where we came in.” Must have been a very different viewing experience.
That’s kind of how I saw The Blair Witch Project, because I walked in on people watching it on DVD, towards the end.
I really don’t care about spoilers. I mean, I try not to find them but if something gets spoiled by accident so be it. I mean, if I go to a movie reviewing website and read the review of a movie that I wanted to watch, I don’t think is the fault of the reviewer if they spoil the movie(specially if they put the word “SPOILERS” in the part where they will talk spoilers)
I’m currently reading a sci fi series where I already know the ending. Hell, the ending was someting that was known like 40 years ago but the series is more about how they reached that ending. So, ¿Was I spoiled? Kinda, but not true, and if the travel is enjoyable I don’t really care that you spoil the destination or some plot twist
Two Twilight Zone episodes were spoiled for me: one, “To Serve Man,” was spoiled by a book about sci-fi movies & tv. The other, the one in which Burgess Meredith plays a character who wants time to read, was spoiled by a commercial for the series being released on video. I loved the series, but this was in the years before the marathons and you never knew which episode you were going to get on the UHF stations. I was annoyed when those episodes popped up, as the twists were the whole point.
“To Serve Man” gets quoted so often in various contexts I suspect most people now are spoiled before they see it. But that’s really bad about the commercial.
The identity of Laura Palmers killer: Twin Peaks was really really really succesful in Germany. So much so that the biggest tabloid here, the Bild-Zeitung (which is a horrible newspaper) spoiled the killers identity about 8-10 episodes into the show but in a smart way (which is very uncharacteristic for this garbage paper). They put a spoiler alert on the front page with the page number on which they would write the killers name but the reveal on that page was upside down as an extra spoiler safeguard. So, I´m having breakfast with my Mom and she is reading the paper, she gets to the page, turns the paper upside down, reads the name, says Ah and is nice enough to ask me: so, who do You think is the killer? And without ever having thought about that before I say: the …. She looks at me and says: You´re right! And I say: F…!!!
I saw The Empire Strikes Back during its first run but not right away. Yep, that big reveal was spoiled. But I’d already kinda guessed that might be the case.
One spoiler I guessed that gave me serious nerd cred with friends I’d shared my theory with beforehand: The ending for Steve Rogers in “Avengers: Endgame.”
Excellent question!
A friend spoiled both Sixth Sense and Unbreakable for me. I was not happy.
An innocuous article about how much money Star Wars actors got paid opened with a pretty gigantic spoiler. That was upsetting.
Nowadays it’s easier to spoil yourself– I’m watching a show and I Google something about an actor or I look up the show and I stumble on something I shouldn’t see. This just happened to me with something I’m still watching.
And it seems like people on the internet think all the nerdier culture– Marvel shows on Disney+, for example– is fair game, and spoil everything at 6 AM the day it came out, and the stupid algorithms point it our way on social media.
Actually, what bugs me more is when people try NOT to spoil something, but either 1. talk around it in such as way as to basically reveal what it is, or 2. simply state there IS a twist, which one can then figure out in advance.
I always remember when I was reading about the then-upcoming X-Men movie, and a movie site mentioned that there was a spoiler for a debated physical trait of one character.
I thought to myself ‘it’s a photo of Rogue with a white streak in her hair, isn’t it?’
It was.
I’ve just thought of a genuine example!
Old Yeller. I knew how it ended long before I ever even saw–
Y’know, I know how it ends and I still haven’t seen it.
I can’t watch it again because the dog dies. I don’t think it bothered me as much as a kid.
I’m amazed at how many movies there are where the title character is an animal – usually a dog – and dies at the end.