What’s a ’spoiler’? And why are some people so easily spoiled?
Peter Sciretta at SlashFilm posted something the other day that summarizes a thought I’ve been having a lot lately: People have changed the definition of what a “spoiler” is.
Peter writes:
Originally a spoiler meant something from a film that gave away a twist or turning point in the story. Basically, anything that would ruin your experience watching the story on the big screen. I don’t know exactly when, but sometime in the last year the tide began to change online, and [even] studio-released production photos began to be considered “spoilers” even when they didn’t reveal something major about the story.
Nowadays we have people freaking out if they see or read ANYTHING about a movie, no matter how minor. Peter’s article was prompted by some fans getting upset when he posted photos of the new Hasbro toy version of the “Cloverfield” monster. To them, seeing what the monster looked like constituted a “spoiler,” and he should have warned them before posting the picture.
But it’s not a spoiler, for several reasons. First and foremost, anyone who was that jazzed about discovering what the monster looks like has seen the movie by now. And second, even if these photos had been published before the movie was released, knowing what the monster looks like doesn’t “spoil” anything. The movie isn’t “about” the monster’s appearance. It was the “Cloverfield” marketing department that somehow got people hyped up about “WHAT DOES THE MONSTER LOOK LIKE?!?! OMG I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT AND FIND OUT!!!!!!” As Peter put it, “Seeing Godzilla before a Godzilla movie is not a spoiler.”
My general rule when I write reviews is that if something happens within the first 30 minutes, or if it’s in the movie’s trailer, it’s fair game. But even then I try to err on the side of caution. I can think of a few instances where a character dies very early in the film (like in the first 10 minutes), and rather than say the couple “grieves over the death of their son,” I’ll write that the couple “suffers a tragedy” or something vague like that. And we all know that some trailers give too much away, so I frequently find myself being more cautious than they are.
If you ever do see something in one of my reviews that you think is a spoiler, please let me know! I don’t like having things spoiled for me — and I mean actually spoiled, not “here’s what the monster looks like” spoiled — and I certainly don’t want to spoil things for my readers. The point of a review is to give you an idea of what a film is like, not to lay all the major details out for you. So if I screw up, let me know.
But if your definition of a “spoiler” is “any information whatsoever about a movie’s content,” then you would do well not to visit movie websites (and to realize that not everyone shares your definition of the word). You’d think that would be obvious, but Peter can show you the angry e-mails proving that some people haven’t caught on yet.
(Note: At the top of Peter’s article, he has a graphic from a T-shirt in which 17 movies or stories have their twists revealed. Most of them are pretty famous anyway (”Rosebud was the name of the sled,” “Soylent Green is made of people,” etc.), but just in case, you might want to avert your eyes. That’s particularly true if you haven’t seen “Fight Club” or gotten around to reading the sixth Harry Potter book yet.)
February 19th, 2008 at 5:41 am
I liked this comment on Peter Sciretta’s “Spoiler” column:
I also think that blowing out a big part of the Harry Potter series before the movies that may hold it are released is about as repulsive a spoiler as you can swing and I’m pretty pissed about it, to be perfectly honest.
Yes, that J.K. Rowling is ALWAYS writing 700-page spoliers to those Harry Potter films. She simply MUST be stopped! Also, Margaret Mitchell simply RUINED my enjoyment of “Gone With The Wind”. And don’t get me started on Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë (she COMPLETELY gave away the “surprise ending” in Jane Eyre!).
February 19th, 2008 at 6:14 am
The title of this article really ruined the article for me. Next time how about a warning first before you give so much away?
February 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am
I think you do quite well at avoiding spoilers - I’ve seen a couple movies you recommended and there may be a “plot outline” but that is more useful and less spoiler-ridden than most trailers, because you don’t get the joke or shocker before getting any background to make the joke worth it. Thanks, Eric!
February 19th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I just don’t like when trailers spoil ALL of the funny parts in a movie. Who would have thought that a comedy could have exactly 3 1/2 minutes of comedy and all of can be seen in the trailer.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I find it interesting to see how your experience of a movie or book can change based on what you know about it. My wife can only enjoy an intense movie by first going on-line and reading as much as she can about it. Somehow knowing the resolution makes it easier for her to enjoy the rest of the film.
Then there are movies with mass spoilers from the marketing that change the way the original intent of the film plays. Terminator 2, for example, where if you went into having only seen the first Terminator and not seen or heard anything else, the whole first half hour of the film plays completely differently. However, it was nearly impossible to not know that *spoiler* Arnold is a good Terminator this time *end spoiler.*
What I also dislike, though there’s no way to really avoid it, is when people don’t spoil a movie, but overplay general moments like referring to “the big twist.” Now, while I’ll admit a twist is a plot device that can intrigue me into watching the film, it also preoccupies my attention as I look for the twist. Had people not talked up the big twist in the “Sixth Sense” I would never have been looking for and figured out the twist long before it happened. It would have totally changed my experience of the film.
Finally, I’ve learned that worse than spoilers is geeky speculation. I’m a geek, I like to geek out with other movie geeks about upcoming films. After Star Wars Episode 1, I began imagining how the story of Anakin would play out and link it to the original films. In reading the few bits of Anakin’s lore that had come out over the past 25 or so years, I began to construct my own story of how the events could have occurred. I unwittingly wrote my own mental version of the films, and all the cool things that could happen. Boy was I surprised when the films I’d built in my head ended up being so much better than the final product! I hadn’t spoiled my viewing of these films in the traditional sense, but the films sure felt spoiled to me–though I guess it would be spoiled in the week-old trash sense of the word.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I think TV is the worst about putting spoilers in their commercials. For instance, if you’re watching “Biggest Loser”, right before they go to a commercial the announcer will say, “And you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!!!”, right as they’re showing a picture of one of the people falling for the temptation and pigging out, or showing someone fall down and hurt themselves. It’s like, ok, yeah, now I really wonder what’s going to happen… no wait! You just showed me!!!
February 19th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I have to agree with GWGumby. Just knowing there is a twist has detracted from the enjoyment of a movie for me more than once. (Eric’s reviews have never done that.)
I had a friend who used to say things like “The twist at the end is awesome.” I’d spend the whole movie trying to guess what the twist was going to be. Notice I said “had a friend.” I don’t want to ruin the ending of that story for you, I’ll just say “who ever rakes that pile of leaves in the spring is going to get a big surprise!”
February 19th, 2008 at 11:06 am
The Cloverfield monster SHOULD HAVE BEEN Godzilla. Gosh darn it.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Sometimes, if the movie sucks, I want it to be spoiled for me. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Cus I know that I’m never actually going to see it.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I used to like to dole out fake spoilers. Back in the day when people used to line up hours early for a big release, I’d go to an early show, then exit the theater with my friends talking loudly about how I couldn’t believe that guy got decapitated or the ending would’ve been so much better if he hadn’t thrown up on his date or something random that was completely inappropriate to the movie I was supposedly describing. It was fun to watch people in my peripheral vision lean to each other to discuss these bizarre developments. I could just see them tensing up waiting for that misplaced event.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I have to admit that I am irrational about learning ANYthing about a movie ahead of time, except what grade you or another respected reviewer gave it. I go so far as to not even read your review in full prior to seeing it… not because I think you would be so irresponsble as to reveal some crucial surprise, but just because I hate to find out even what the monster looks like.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I’m with the people who said that knowing that there’s a twist changes their experience with the film. I also spend the majority of my time figuring out the twist and am generally successful at it.
I am also more likely to enjoy a good movie if I know very little about it. I don’t usually read the reviews if I’ve been looking forward to it. I will check out the Rotten Tomatoes rating, but that’s about it. If the movie seems like it could be junk, I might read some reviews, just to see if I need to prevent myself from being inflicted by the junk.
Hmmm… I just realized that I would be the kind of person that would feel spoiled about seeing a toy monster if I had any interest in seeing the movie. I guess I’m not interested in Cloverfield.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I’m with you on this. However, I will say tentatively that knowing how the Cloverfield monster looked would have impacted my enjoyment of the film. Those first few moments where you can see destruction but only vague flashes of something moving were doubly exciting for me now knowing what the heck was going on.
But that’s only my personal spin. I prefer to know as little as possible about a movie before I watch it, while a critic HAS to give things away as a part of duty. While even knowing the exposition impacts the film to me, it’s necessary for a critic to give certain details away. Anyway blah blah blah.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:03 am
People who complain about stupid, non-spoiler “spoilers” are just as annoying as the people who do the spoiling. Also annoying, people who get upset if you spoil a movie they claimed they had no interest in seeing or had sworn to never see. You’ve sworn to never watch rated R movies, then you get mad when I talk about who dies in the Matrix: Revolutions? Yeah, whatever.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Has anyone else here ever noticed that if you read enough reviews of one movie by several different critics–reviews that do not regularly reveal spoilers–you can decipher what the spoiler may actually be by putting all their varied clues together?
I’ve managed to do this on a regular basis with some films I’d rather not have spoiled for me. However, on others I don’t care to ever see, I find it amusing to come up with the furtive plot points without ever having to lose those two hours of my life.
Granted, I probably could have kept those hours to myself and not had good movies ruined for me had I not bothered to read all those reviews in the first place.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
****SPOILER ALERT****
The tongue on that Cloverfield doll is super gross.
****SPOILER ALERT****
February 20th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I was wondering about this for the longest time, I’m glad someone put it more eloquently than I ever could. It’s pretty easy to just say “The ending to Evil Monster Two: Electric Boogaloo made me sad and upset!” and have people treat that as a spoiler. What happened to the line between revealing something about the plot, and expression of a vague opinion?
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
The sixth Sense came out while I was on my mission and some mexican TOTALLY SPOILED IT. As in, when I watched the movie, it was as distasteful as an old rotten orange.
Screw you, that dude who spoiled the sixth Sense.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
There’s a girl in my drama class who didn’t know the ending of “Romeo and Juliet” and got really upset when we talked about it before we’d finished the play in class. That’s bad enough, but today we started “The Diary of Anne Frank” and a couple of us have aready read the source material. The professor asked us not to read ahead in the play, I joked that I already knew the ending, and Stupid Girl said, “don’t tell!” I wonder if she was suprised at the end of “Titanic” or “Passion of the Christ” too.
Oh, and Sixth Sense was spoiled for me by Eric himself, though it’s my fault for being a year late renting the movie. I saw the Garrens sketch “The Seventh Sense” before I watched the movie, and the surprise twist at the end was no longer twisty for me.