I was reading through the thread about movies where the bad guy wins and upon seeing Arlington Road on the list it reminded me of the fact that I didn't go watch it in theatres because my one friend told me that the bad guys win by getting the building blown up anyway. So I was thinking what movies have you had the ending to ruined by a friend or just some guy off the street.
Scooby Doo was ruined by my roommate. He said "MAn I can't believe that Scrappy was the bad guy." as soon as he saw the movie.
I also had The Sixth Sense ruined by a couple of kids that were standing outside the theatre door saying "Bruce Willis is dead the whole time!". They got ejected for disturbing the customers but it still ruined the whole movie because all I could thiink about was "Bruce Willis is dead?". Took me another viewing to actually enjoy the movie.
I had Citizen Kane ruined by Charles M. Schultz. Yes, that's right, the creator of Peanuts. One of his cartoons showed Linus watching Citizen Kane on TV, and out of the blue Lucy says "Rosebud was his sled." This, of course, resulted in a cry of frustration from Linus ... and from me. I hadn't seen the movie yet. Still, I enjoyed the film.
Scooby Doo was ruined by the script.
I had Sixth Sense ruined for me a long before I saw it, and I'll never know why that was the reason I found it boring and didnt really care about the twist.
And I just had Citizen Kane ruined for me about two minutes ago by reading this thread. Dagnabbit, that was high on my 'to see' list.
I ruined Scream for a couple of people cos they p**sed me off. But I lied to one of them and they sat there through the whole film trying to explain how obvious it is that Courtney Cox's character is the killer.
Pete
THE OTHERS was ruined for me by Maxim magazine. Although, to be fair, it was in a sidebar artice entitled "We Ruin the Endings of Movies for You". Too bad, because the whole point of THE OTHERS is that the family is dead. (Unlike THE SIXTH SENSE, where the fact that Bruce Willis is dead is just a bonus to the plot.) All of the suspense is just a slow reveal of that fact. Knowing how the movie ends makes the entire exercise sort of pointless.
I wouldn't worry about knowing the identity of Rosebud ruining CITIZEN KANE for you. The identity of Rosebud is just a Maguffin to move the story along. The reporter doing the seeking ends the movie with a speech about how a man is more than the sum of his parts. Showing that Rosebud was the sled Kane played on as a child helps illustrate his personality, but isn't really the point of the movie.
Also, history itself ruined the end of TITANIC for me.
Doh! Sorry about that. Still, even though I knew the big spoiler, I still enjoyed the film.
Guess that's the problem with a thread like this.
I guessed the twist of The Others without even seeing it, mainly because of one person too many saying "It was like The Sixth Sense."
I had the twist in Unbreakable ruined for me, still haven't seen it.
I did it to my self once.
I read the novelisation of "The Empire strikes back" before i saw the flick. "He's Lukes's what?" D'oh!
Oh, well." Titanic" is an common example of the problim with historical based tales. They only work when the characters are periferal to the historical action, yet effected by it. Same with "How the west was won".
BTW.....Drown,Leo, drown!
I read the novelizations of Alien and John Carpenter's The Thing, not to mention Prophecy, because I got tired of waiting for the movie's to come out. I am far more patient today.
Funny anecdote, when my dad took me and my brother to see Alien, he thought the face hugger was it and that the rest of the movie would be just about the crew dealing with it. But when he saw me tense up when John Hurt got sick at dinner....he knew something was coming. So I spoiled it for him.
Had EMPIRE ruined when I was a kid...I don't remember when I heard about CITIZEN KANE, but it was years before I actually saw the film. In that case it didn't really ruin the film--it's a neat ending, but the film doesn't really hang on the identity of Rosebud.
Also had SIXTH SENSE ruined, and E.T. Not that E.T. really has a twist ending, but a kid at camp told the whole story to everyone.
No, I'm not thinking of some Mexican-made Simpsons movie that came out in the 80's, rather in the show after Homer and Marge walk out of a theater after seeing a premier of Return of the Jedi. They walk down the street right next to the line about to watch the movie, and Homer says aloud "Wow. I can't believe Darth Vader is Luke's father," and the whole line groans. It's that kind of witty writing that made the show the best in the land.
-Scottie*
I had The Sixth Sense ruined by a trashy TV Entertainment show. They had "experts" predicting Oscar nominations and one joked, "Bruce Willis for Best Dead Guy". This was the afternoon I was going to see it. DAMMIT!
I also had the ending of Phenomenon ruined by a guy in line in front of me at the grocery store.
And Tho Others was ruined for me by a skit on MadTV. The annoying and pointless Rusty character was working the ticket counter and ruined it for the customer, therefor ruining it for me and everyone in the audience. That's just inconsiderate.
The Sixth Sense was ruined for me by my friend Stiffler, who told me "Bruce Willis was dead the whole time, don't even bother watching it." I smacked him a few times for it...we've never spoken the same since...
Speaking of Stiffler...
American Pie 2. Yeah, probably a lot of you hate it, but I like these 2 movies. Anyways, I had it ruined for me by a few friends. They told me that Michelle and Jim hooked up, as did Nadia and Sherman. f**kers...
I spoiled a good deal of Attack of the Clones for myself. About a year before it came out, I was searching around for some information on it, and found something claiming to be the script, or at least a detailed outline of the story. I got about as far as the massacre in the Tusken village and thought "what the hell am I doing?" I didn't read the rest. There was a good chance the thing was a complete fabrication, but it was good enough that I didn't want to take any chance of spoiling the movie.
On seeing the movie, I could see the script was the genuine article. It wasn't exactly like the movie that was released, but damn close. Probably an earlier draft.
I had The Crying Game ruined by David Letterman (he made the comment after it had been out for a long time, but still). But the twist is that I totally FORGOT he had said that - or I had forgotten the name of the movie he was referring to when I saw the Crying Game. Then, in the bedroom scene, right before they hung the big surprise out there, Letterman's crack came rushing back to me and I gasped in shock about two seconds before the rest of the audience did.
Way back in 1968, a friend ruined Planet of the Apes for me by telling me the ending about 5 minutes before the movie started! Still, it was so damn good and I got so caught up in it that I completely forgot about what he told me until the end came!
Hearing the 'twist' of the Sixth Sense made me lose all interest in seeing the movie (still haven't even tho I know it's supposed to be good).
Movies that rely on a twist ending for their impact aren't really made for repeated viewings, and I tend to watch movies I like over and over anyway....
I guessed the end of The Others before I even saw the movie. I even asked a friend and he denied that that was the twist (so as not to spoil the movie for me) but I still knew it would turn out that way.
I ruined The Blair Witch Project for myself. After hearing about it, I went looking on the net for more info and ended up at a site that stated it was fake. I would have enjoyed it so much more if I'd thought it was real.
The ads kind of spoiled Terminator II by showing that Arnold was the good guy.
Ads spoil a lot of movies. Terminator 2 is a good example.
I'm fond of pointing out that showing the giant mechanical spider in the advertising for Wild Wild West completely ruined the movie's big surprise, and the mystery at the centre of the plot. It's like a trailer for a murder mystery including a clip of the killer saying "yes, I did it." Idiotic.
>It's like a trailer for a murder mystery including a clip of the killer saying "yes, I
>did it." Idiotic.
Unfortunately, the people who make up the trailers ARE idiots. They just include whatever they think looks cool and will appeal to today's couch potatoes who have the attention span of a doorknob.
JohnL wrote: Unfortunately, the people who make up the trailers ARE idiots. They just include whatever they think looks cool and will appeal to today's couch potatoes who have the attention span of a doorknob.
***** I entirely agree with your sentiment but as I understand it, there's a method to the madness. I have a friend in advertising who does not do trailers but who says the theory is that people (not movie fans, but people in general) view going to pay $5-$10 on a movie as a risk. Apparently by letting them know in the trailer that they will get their happy ending, or HUMONGOUS special effects, or their steamy sex scene, it is MORE likely to attract ticket buyers. For people like you and me, it can ruin the entire experience, but for the movie-going public it is an assurance that their money will be spent on something they want to see. Conversely, a trailer that gives away very very little and is mysterious would make you and me want to see a movie -- but apparently it makes the general public uneasy about laying out the cash for a ticket.
I know -- I don't understand that line of thought either. But there it is.
One good example of not knowing jack squat in previews would be "The 5th Element"...the preview didn't let on anything at all....and then it sucked.
The review or the movie? I realliy liked "The 5th Element". Had a totally different feel than most sci-fi movies recently and was a lot of fun
There's a big spoiler out there right now- in every single ad for The Two Towers they reveal Gandalf's return. Now, for those who read the books it's no surprise, but those who haven't are having a potentially great little treat ruined. Of course, from a marketing standpoint, Ian McKellen's performance really got to people and he got an Oscar nomination, so I guess they're hedging their bets with that one.
And I guess big, spoiler-filled trailers are a key t o success. Trailers that reveal very little tend to be for films that eventually flop. Look at Solaris.
The trailers that show the best parts of the movie do make me want to buy a ticket, or at least they used to. The other side of the coin is the huge letdown when you find out that's all there is. To me, I've just laid out $12 for something I've already gotten, several times, for free.
Episode 1 Phantom Menace was ruined when my older brother started bragging about how he was the first one to see it in my family, then he all of a sudden said Darth Maul dies.