Staying Spoiler Free and Worst Example Of Something Spoilt

MiloYossarian

Recently as I sat in the cinema watching True Grit, it occurred to me that, apart from Jeff Bridges, I didn't have a clue who else was in the film. Films are my main interest. I spend the majority of my free time on them, but I stay remarkably spoiler free.

I achieve this by doing the following:

About a year ago, I put black plastic bags over my bedroom windows, and anywhere light entered the room, so it is in complete darkness. I then put three layers of tin foil over the walls to stop the signal getting in or out. (I know it sounds nuts but I made a tin foil hat just in case they can beam directly to my brain).
I sound proofed my room with egg cartons, rendering the interior completely noise free, in case somebody walks passed my room talking about films (I still have my tin foil hat in case they are thinking about films and I accidently read their mind).
I sit on a stool in the corner, naked, in complete darkness, the noise and signal blocked out, a whip in my right hand, and if a single thought about film enters my mind I self flagellate, just in case the thought I thought would be correct, thus ruining the film for myself.
Then, on Friday, at 1.45 pm an alarm goes off. I dress, put a dice in my pocket, blindfold myself, and get my specially trained guide dog to lead me to the cinema. Once there, the person at the counter says "What would you like to see?" I momentarily take the blindfold off, role the dice, and if it lands on "Four" I say 'One for screen four please.' Once in the appropriate screen I take the blind fold off, shoot the dog (in case he's already seen it, I know he can't talk but he would inhale sharply just before something big happens) and last but not least enjoy, a completely spoiler free movie.
(Okay, so maybe I'm just careful about what I read)

My question is this. How do you stay spoiler free and more importantly how has a spoiler in an UNEXPECTED PLACE ruined a film that you were really looking forward to? Or any spoiler really.

Hank_Jones

I think you'd be more at home here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=483

I just stay away from threads relating to films I'm going to see and if there are any items on television etc, I just switch them off.
Simple as, that and run away if anyone starts talking about a film you are going to see.

Syferus

I almost totally avoid trailers of all kinds. If I know I might like something I just block them out. Maybe catch a teaser on TV or a snippet of an article, but nothing more even if it's a film I'd love to see. The only exception I make is if I'm not sure about a film and need an extra push to throw it on my slate, which brings me to..

Big Fan. I heard about this film on boards.ie, as it happens. I wasn't sure about it, so I watched the embedded trailer the OP had and even just watching it I knew it was giving way, way too much detail. When I watch the film itself, I found the trailer gave me every single main plot point of the first three quarters of the film. It was maddening and spoilt the experience somewhat, but it was mitigated by the fact I may have not watched what was a good film had I not checked the trailer. It's hardly the most unexpected place, but it was easily the most graphic spoiling I've ever experienced.

Basq

Trailers that are over 2 minutes will more often than not reveal the entire movie..

Worst example of "being spoilt" was reading Empire on a train years ago and they did a rundown of top 5 twists of all time and there at #1 was The Sixth Sense. To say I was pissed was an understatement.. the massive red small-caps font they use didn't help!

Mickeroo

Someone told me how The Others ended so I ended up never watching it.

This happened to a friend of a friend but he was queuing up to see The Usual Suspects and he happened to glance at the poster, someone had scribbled the words "Kaiser Soze" and an arrow pointing to

Kevin Spacey

. At the time he thought nothing of it but once it became apparent what that meant in the context of the movie he was pretty peeved to say the least.

EIREHotspur

somebody once blurted out the huge spoiler for the end episode of Six Feet Under but I have only started watching it now on Sky anyway.

abouttobebanned

I bought the soundtrack to the sixth sense before watching the film.

krudler

soundtrack cd's are huge culprits for it, back of Episode 1, track title: "*instert main characters name*'s funeral" well thats that ruined...

The Mad Hatter

About two thirds of the way into watching Psycho for the first time as a teenager, my dad walked into the room, saw the film, said

You know his mother is dead, don't you? He's playing her himself.

, and left again. That was pretty horrible.

I do my best to avoid spoilers now - I don't usually read reviews until after I've seen the film, and don't pay very much attention to film news.

johnny_ultimate

Sixth Sense was spoiled on me before I got to watch it - was young at the time though, and if you hadn't seen it in the cinema (which I would've unable to since I was only 12) it was almost impossible to avoid the pop cultural satires of the twist that followed!

My biggest spoiler, though, wasn't for a film but for TV. Was working my way through the Shield, when I foolishly clicked into a trailer for the "complete Shield boxset" on a completely different DVD. Unfortunately, they had failed to label it "The Shield Seasons 5-6" and I was only on season two or three. Cue a major character death being mentioned in literally the first ten seconds of the ad. A swift exit, and then spent the next season or two waiting for the inevitable

When reading reviews before the film, I usually just skip to the last paragraph or two where the opinion usually lies! I prefer to read reviews after the film strangely, to see what others thought!

The spoilierist trailer I've ever seen is for Jim Sheridan's piece of crap Brothers. I watched the trailer, thought it gave away way too much. However, my Natalie Portman fandom kicked in one boring eve and I watched the thing on her presence alone. Trailer pretty much condensed the entire story - bar a dull epilogue - into two minutes, and I'm not joking - nothing was a surprise. And I'd recommend sticking with that two minutes, as it's far better paced than the feature length disaster it advertises.

Mickeroo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

When reading reviews before the film, I usually just skip to the last paragraph or two where the opinion usually lies! I prefer to read reviews after the film strangely, to see what others thought!

I do that too! The only exception is movies that are adaptations of books I've read, had no problems reading the Harry Potter reviews before i watched the movies.

Goldstein

2x big ones stand out, both ruined by radio DJs, think Foley on today fm was one of them.

The end of the Sixth Sense.

The very end of The Sopranos.
Knowing how it all ended didn't spoil my enjoyment of what proved to be one of my top 5 tv shows of all time. When the moment came I thought it was a brilliant way to go out. Still would have preferred not to know beforehand though.

Oh ya, one more - I saw a Soylent Green t-shirt which kind of ruined that one before I saw it too.

I'm generally quite good at avoiding spoilers, I'll generally only ever watch the first teaser trailer for a film and if it grabs me then I'll avoid any reviews, news, trailers, tv ads etc until I can sit down and watch the film. Far too many trailers theses days condense 90 minutes down into 90 seconds leaving little new to discover when watching the film. When ever I'm back home, as a joke my younger brothers will often threaten to spoil a film or tv episode, it's jovial fun but has let to some punches being thrown especially when it comes to Supernatural as they watch them while they air while I wait for the Blu Ray.

The only recent films ruined for me were Inglorious Basterds when someone said i can't believe that they kill.... and Black Swan. I walked into script class late a few weeks back to discover them discussing Black Swan. I asked them not to spoil the film and if they wanted to discuss it in detail I'd leave till they were done, cue lecturer and others then giving the ending away meaning that I now have no interest in watching the film any time soon. Most likely going to be a case of me buying the Blu Rya and after letting it rest on a shelf for half a year I'll finally watch it.

Optimalprimerib

At the very start of the movie. "do you see him, he's kayser sose". It really lost it's punch after that and I never understood what the fuss was about.

I also think if there is a twist in true grit it may have been ruined for me too.

Sad Professor

I dunno, maybe I've just never really been spoiled, but I can't remember an instance in which knowing major plot points in advance ruined the experience of watching a film for me. I've always enjoyed films more for the drama than for the plot. In fact, plot-driven films (like film noirs) have a tendency to leave me underwhelmed on a first viewing. I think how things things happen is far more interesting than what happens.

For example, I read the script for Black Swan before seeing the film. I knew exactly what was going to happen. It didn't affect my enjoyment in the least. I loved seeing how Aronofsky interpreted the script. I became so absorbed I forgot about the script. This isn't always the case, but I think a truly good will always be enjoyable to watch regardless of what you know about it in advance.

I understand where people are coming from, and I agree that trailers reveal too much, but I really think if the enjoyment of a film hangs on a plot-twist then it's just not a very good film.

johnny_ultimate

I'd agree that there are only a handful of films where the plot twist is an essential, game-breaking element. For example, I was left underwhelmed by the Sixth Sense when I finally saw it knowing full well what was what in advance. No denying that for many the surprise was what made the film so memorable. And there are some more films where a 'twist' at the end can make you re-evaluate the whole thing. Fight Club, for example, is an entirely different film second time around. However, there's little denying that the first time is a wonderful experience, and having the 'surprise reveal' is an integral part of the experience, and you'd miss something significant knowing it in advance.

There's only a handful of such films, that I will admit. But there are a tonne of of surprises in films that I would've hated to have spoiled on me.

The deaths

in Serenity were emotionally affecting as a fan of Firefly, and I would've hated to know about them before I watched for the first time. Similarly, when watching Lost (which you are most certainly a fan of Prof. ) half the joy of the narrative was the unexpected, genuinely excited to find out what happens. Actively avoiding the internet and spoilers was a nigh on necessity with that show, the cliffhanger a vital storytelling tool - of course analysis and speculation were a major part of the community, but out and out spoilers were much more negative. All these examples of course are largely revisitable with the twist, but knowing them first time around is a significant problem. Having had a significant moment in the Shield spoiled, I know it can have a heavy impact on how you watch and wait for the narrative to unfold the way you know it eventually has to, and not a good one at that.

But I agree - the majority of films that don't hinge on the surprise, and even the ones that do need far more than that to keep it afloat (which is why M Night Shyamalan's films often come across as deeply shallow). But having the 'shock' taken away through someone's ignorance is an extremely disappointing experience.

Turtyturd

I have never actively tried to stay spoiler free but oddly enough have managed to do so. There is nothing worse than sitting through trailers which completely give away the movie they are trying to convince you to go see.

The biggest offender of this that comes to mind is Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel. I remember watching the trailer in which Vin's bad ass character has to transfer a girl across the world while people are out to kill her...I am man enough to admit that despite Vin being in it and the storyline being done numerous times before I was interested in going to see it. However that all changed when the trailer revealed that

the girl had powers and could deflect any bullets which were coming towards her.

Good call on spoiling the main plot twist and point of your movie in the trailer.

MiloYossarian

Radio djs are constantly doing it, Rick O Shea spoiled some of the enjoyment of Kick-ass over something he said about RedMist. From there I could pretty much guess that strand of the story.

It wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't try so hard to stay spoiler free for that movie. Then bam, two days before it comes out, he just blurts this big thing out at 3 o clock in the day, just to kind of prove he saw it at an advanced screening. Like get some common sense Rick, and that's not even your real name, it's Paul.

And the worst thing is, he's one of those guys who claims to be in the know, on the cutting edge of "cool" films, and he just trots out the most generic comments that are just read off of some magazine or website.
'Ya, I'm a total treky.' He said one day while he was talking about STAR WARS like. I love his show tho, I mean I would have a more convincing argument and more up to date examples of stuff he said if I wasn't busy at that time of the day for the last few months.

Skerries

you won't like my t-shirt so

Brando_ie

Reservoir dogs.... spoiler written on the poster about 5 feet from the ticket window

Bastards!!! :rolleyes:

im invisible

i hate spoilers, i hate knowing what films are about before i see them, or what books are about, to the extent i dont read the back cover before i buy a book, or DVD

Sad Professor wrote: »

For example, I read the script for Black Swan....

stopped reading here, just incase something got revealed, apart from what i already know,

suicidal lesbian dancer??

, I havn't seen the film yet, i like to wait till they are out on tv, a few years later, and watch the film on my own, and see what all the fuss was about.

I only recently saw 'The Prestige' for the first time, but i had heard

"does he use a double?, does he kill him?"

before, so i watched the film, and didnt see a twist that would leave you wondering, its all pretty well explained in the film. the only twist, you should be able to see a mile off. (not saying i did)

havn't seen Inception yet, but

{{dream{dream{ dream }}}dream???}

would sum up what i know about it already, and after all the fuss, ill be disappointed if i dont enjoy it as much as

eXistancE

mikhail

im invisible wrote: »

i hate spoilers, i hate knowing what films are about before i see them, or what books are about, to the extent i dont read the back cover before i buy a book, or DVD

This is something which people don't fully understand: the blurb on the back has one - and only one - purpose: to get you to buy the book/DVD. It's written by marketing people, and authors/filmmakers don't always get to proof them, meaning that they can be packed with spoilers.

stopped reading here, just incase something got revealed, apart from what i already know,

suicidal lesbian dancer??

, I havn't seen the film yet, i like to wait till they are out on tv, a few years later, and watch the film on my own, and see what all the fuss was about.

What you've heard is slightly off, but don't worry - it's not a film which would be especially spoiled by a line or two.

I only recently saw 'The Prestige' for the first time, but i had heard

"does he use a double?, does he kill him?"

before, so i watched the film, and didnt see a twist that would leave you wondering, its all pretty well explained in the film. the only twist, you should be able to see a mile off. (not saying i did)

I didn't either, and I think most people didn't, but I think I'd rather not have heard what you did before seeing it for the first time.

havn't seen Inception yet, but

{{dream{dream{ dream }}}dream???}

would sum up what i know about it already, and after all the fuss, ill be disappointed if i dont enjoy it as much as

eXistancE

It's an interesting comparison, but where the fun in that film is more in the uncertainty of what's real, Inception is primarily a heist movie driven by action scenes. When you do watch it, turn the sound up. The gunfire is a bit loud (a Nolan signature, it seems), but the score is worth it.