Alien: Resurrection's official trailer flat-out says that Ellen Ripley died before the events of the film no less than three separate times (using various characters' quotes).
The back cover for the UK DVD release of Alien³ outright spoils the fact that supporting characters Dwayne Hicks and 'Newt' Jorden are killed at the beginning of the film (before Ripley crashes on Fiorina 161).
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, suffered from this as it was released in the UK one week before it was released in US, but several rounds of British TV shows discussing the ending Gwen Stacy dying hit the internet, severely undercutting American interest in the film, leading it to be become a box-office disappoinrment.
The American DVD case and menu for Audition spoil the major Genre Shift twist in the second half of the movie.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: Dr. Evil's face is kept off-camera for about the first third of the movie, with the reveal that Mike Myers plays both Austin Powers AND Dr. Evil being a plot twist. Promotional materials related to the second and third movies feature Dr. Evil as prominently as Austin.
At least one DVD menu for Back to the Future Part III shows the Delorean being pushed by a train at top speed and disappearing into the future. You know, the climactic moment of the entire film. In addition, the film's marketing made no secret about Doc being trapped in the Old West, which was the cliffhanger ending of the previous film.
The main menu of the Barton Fink DVD spoils several crucial aspects of the ending.
In Tim Burton's Batman, Bruce Wayne isn't explicitly shown to be Batman until over halfway into the film. Although to be fair, unless that film was your first exposure ever to Batman, you already knew that before the movie began.
The final shot of Being There is often used on the cover.
The big twist of Child's Play (1988) is that Chucky the doll is the killer. This can be surprising to a first time viewer, Chucky becoming so known even to casual audiences that the franchise was eventually renamed after him.
It's pretty prominent in the backstories of Creed (2015) and especially Creed II that Apollo Creed died in the ring in Rocky IV.
Cypher: Jeremy Northam was not a well-known actor when he took the role of Morgan Sullivan in 2002. However, his acting and the way he morphs into various different characters as the story continues and his character learns how to be a corporate spy was considered exceptional at the time. It won him several acting awards for the part that he played which unfortunately spoils the film for anyone who hasn't seen it. He was awarded for playing three separate personas - Morgan Sullivan, Jack Thursby and Sebastian Rooks. The advertising of the awards it and its actors have won can ruin the major plot twist that Morgan Sullivan was Sebastian Rooks all along.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is a unique example, as the basic outline of the story was already shown in the theatrical version, with the details on what was missing surfacing after the release. As such, while the ad campaign for the original film was coy about things like how Superman is resurrected in an effort to avert the Trailers Always Spoil phenomenon, there's no Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer treatment for the Man of Steel here. In fact, the teaser trailer outright shows the entire team line-up, which was originally a carefully guarded image. Aside from revealing Superman's involvement in the story, the trailers — alongside the various set photos and stills that Snyder revealed following the theatrical release — have revealed a host of other spoilers from this version.
Both the marketing and opening scenes of Deadpool 2 actively make fun of the fact that Wolverine dies in Logan, so anyone who sees this film before the other one won't be surprised about its ending.
There are plenty of people who are going to be upset, but shouldn't be, about The Express's built-in Downer Ending: Ernie Davis died of leukemia two years later. Some of the current commercials lampshade this (probably hoping to stave off such a reaction).
The DVD prequel for 2 Fast 2 Furious assumes that the viewer has already seen the original film, as it spoils the ending of the first film and has Brian O'Connor running from an arrest warrant caused by his association with Dominic Toretto.
The DVD/Blu-Ray boxart for Fast Five blatantly spoils the moment Dwayne Johnson's federal agent pulls a Heel–Face Turn and begins supporting the team midway through the film. It makes the assault/rescue scene in Rio a bit less suspenseful.
The first promo clip released for Furious 7 revealed that Han had died at the end of the previous film during The Stinger, spoiling it for anyone who hadn't already seen Tokyo Drift or Fast & Furious 6.
The official music video for Wiz Khalifa's Award-Bait Song "See You Again" (from the Furious 7 soundtrack) spoils the entire ending, and was put online the week after the film's release. Although it's clearly intended to be a tribute video, it shows the "last ride" with Brian, who drives off into the sunset in the final shot. It seems like the producers just took the ending wholesale and ported into the music video, thus spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen the film yet. Additionally, the final scene was spoiled in one of the television spots and promo photos.
The opening credits of Final Destination 4 play across CGI reenactments of spectacular deaths from the prior three films, potentially depleting their shock-value for anyone seeing this installment first. Partially averted, as the reenactments use skeletal figures in the role of victims, hence the identity of who'd gotten killed in each manner is left in doubt.
All the advertising for The Fly II brings up the fact that the protagonist is the Spin-Offspring of Seth Brundle; in the original film, it was a pivotal, shocking third act twist that Seth impregnated his lover Veronica at some point (the question being whether it was before or after he unknowingly became a mutant). Knowing the sequel is about their son also somewhat spoils the ending to the first film in that the viewer at least knows that Seth does not manage to genetically fuse himself with Veronica and their unborn child. To be fair, spoilers usually weren't as big a deal in the 1980s and many reviews of the first film gave away the pregnancy twist.
Freddy's opening monologue in Freddy vs. Jason includes a rapid-fire flashback to several of the previous A Nightmare on Elm Street films' killings, which spoil a lot of them for viewers who initially take an interest in F Vs. J as Jason fans.
Once you pop the Ghost Rider (2007) DVD into your player, the background visuals behind the menus reveal that there is a second Ghost Rider.
Gillian Flynn has expressed interest in working with David Fincher in making a sequel to Gone Girl. Should this sequel happen, it will be downright impossible to market the film without giving away its predecessor's big twist: Amy is a psychopath.
The DVD cover of Halloween II (1981) outright spoils the fact that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' sister; something that isn't revealed until mid-way through the film.
There was a Disney Channel Original Movie called Halloweentown, and they made a sequel called Halloweentown 2: Kalabar's Revenge. The only problem? The fact that Kalabar was the villain was supposed to be a big reveal in the first movie. And it certainly didn't help that the two movies were released on DVD as a double feature.
For the theatrical release of Hancock, Charlize Theron received the Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer treatment in both trailers and promotional artwork, which gave the audience the impression she simply had a supporting role as Justin Bateman's wife, until it's revealed she also has superpowers, and had a tragic immortal history and ties with the titular character. The DVD cover art dispenses with the surprise by promoting Theron to equal Billed Above the Title treatment with Will Smith — the movie had always been promoted as a solo vehicle for Smith — and has her in her Dark Action Girl garb in an Ass Kicking Pose next to Hancock.
The trailers to Hannibal obviously show that Hannibal escaped in The Silence of the Lambs. Also, ask anyone about the characters in Silence of the Lambs and you're bound to get "A crazy guy who makes clothes out of women's skin.", a fact that isn't revealed in the movie until the 3rd Act, where it's a big reveal, and one of the changes from the book that is for the better (in the book Hannibal reveals that Bill is making a woman suit, and the revelation is relegated to "He knows how to sew").
Trailers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix obviously center on the Ministry's refusal to accept that Voldemort has returned, and clearly show that Sirius Black is a good guy, spoiling The Reveal at the end of the third book and movie. It's made even more explicit in this promo for the same film.
Trailers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince explicitly show that Voldemort was once known as Tom Riddle, a major plot twist in the second book and movie.
The trailers and posters for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are fairly blunt about a number of the original book's events, including the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry's turning himself over to Voldemort, and the show-down between Harry and Voldemort.
Also, if you haven't read or seen Half-Blood Prince, you might be a tad confused as to why Harry and Ginny kiss in the 7 trailer. But then, the trailer basically spoils everything aside from the final outcome of, since most of the trailer is made of stuff that is definitely from the second part. Way to go, trailer-makers.
This might be the reason why the Steve Jobs biopic Jobs ends in the very early 2000s. Since Steve Jobs had died a mere two years before the movie's release, the filmmakers probably figured everybody not living under a rock would know how the story ends. So the film cuts to credits with a simple title card that reads "Steve Paul Jobs: 1955-2011".
The tagline for Little Nicky basically spoils who his mom is...
The trailers for the second part of the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, made it very, very clear that Gandalf was not in fact dead as the first movie had implied. This was a pretty major plot twist in the book, but apparently the marketing team thought genre-savvy movie-goers probably figured it out; or they thought that most people had, you know, had already read the books, despite the clear situation of Adaptation Displacement here.
The VHS of the first film spoiled the whole "reality isn't real, everyone's in a Lotus-Eater Machine" revelation on the back of the freaking box! And then the DVD release did it again!
If you're about to watch Mommy on DVD and you don't already know about the aspect ratio change, don't worry. It's literally the first thing you see on the DVD menu.
Orphan: First Kill: The film wastes no time on establishing Leena Klammer as a mentally disturbed adult with dwarfism who poses as a young girl, which was the twist for the first film, Orphan. Unavoidable for a second film, since the information couldn't be played for the audience as a twist more than once.
A Shot in the Dark was the second film in Peter Sellers' Pink Panther film series, and it's the one where all the elements of the later films are introduced. But because it doesn't have "Pink Panther" in the title, it's likely to be one of the last films of the series you're going to watch. There are two elements in this film that were originally played as plot twists, but became unsurprising Running Gags in the later films:
Early in the film, a sinister-looking Asian man attacks Clouseau in his own bedroom. It's Clouseau's own manservant Cato, whom Clouseau has actually ordered to constantly attack him so Clouseau will always be Crazy-Prepared for an attack.
Later in the film, a shadowy figure stalks Clouseau and makes several attempts on his life. Is it the killer? No, it's Clouseau's own boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, who's been driven Axe-Crazy by Clouseau's shenanigans. This "twist" not only became a Running Gag, but became the main plot of The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
It's a fairly big plot twist that Barbossa has been resurrected, as shown in the final scene for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, to the point that the actors themselves were told that it would be Anamaria, who was mysteriously absent from Dead Man's Chest and the rest of the series as well. Posters for At World's End, On Stranger Tides, and Dead Men Tell No Tales feature him very prominently.
The 1999 THX DVD, Laserdisc and VHS cover for the original Planet of the Apes (1968) has the final, iconic shot of the Statue of Liberty. Despite this, there are still some people who don't know the ending.
The cover of the 20th anniversary collector's edition of The Princess Bride makes it quite clear who the Man in Black really is.
The theatrical trailer to Paul Bartel's Private Parts reveals spoilers from the end of the film.
The music that plays during the main menu of the Blu-Ray for The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the reprise of Science Fiction Double Feature, where the lyrics describe the ending of the movie. There are also several fake movie posters that give away several of the plot points of the film. For instance, there is one poster entitled "They Came From Outer Space", which not only spoils the plot twist that Frank N Furter, Riff Raff, and Magenta are aliens, but the poster also shows a picture of Rocky carrying Frank N Furter's dead body in his arms.
Late-Arrival Spoilers are an essential basis for the Saw franchise's plot development. Each movie assumes that the audience already watched at least the previous one before it, and their promotional material tend to show events or details related to spoilers from past installments. For example, Jigsaw dies in Saw III, and the trailers and one of the posters (also the DVD boxart) for Saw IV show his body lying on an autopsy table (from the movie's opening scene) and his disembodied head being weighed on a scale, respectively.
Subverted hardly in Se7en. Kevin Spacey is never shown in ads or posters, and his name isn't even in the opening credits. This was a man who was meant to get top billing. Bravo, good sir. Bravo.
The Criterion Collection special edition reissue/re-release of Seven Samurai includes a booklet that features essays from a number of commentators that go into different aspects of the film. While there is an attempt to avoid spoilers (largely by having some of the commentators refer to events in the film obliquely), reading through the guide reveals most of the ending — the bandits are routed and the villagers are saved (and the symbolic return of their harvest is shown), Kikuchiyo is killed during a climactic battle, and a photograph spoils the three surviving samurai — Kambei, Katsushiro and Shichiroji — who are left feeling aimless and unsure after their Pyrrhic Victory.
The music video for Gloria Estefan's track "Turn The Beat Around" for The Specialist (aired at the same time as the movie's release) plays a chopped-up, fast-forwarded summary of the film that spoils nearly all of the major plot points, including (in order) The Reveal that Ray Quick is a bombmaker, Quick and the lead female character (May) meeting and consummating their relationship via a Shower Scene, the villain walking towards a hotel room (only to lose most of his goons when the room blows up and falls away from the building), a final confrontation where May opens a cigarette case and learns that it's a bomb, the duo are confronted by the villain and then both leads fleeing from an exploding building through an underground tunnel. It even spoils part of the final shot of the film!
The movie doesn't hide a certain character, whose appearance was a big surprise in the first film'scredits scene, as the logo has two fox tails on the "2" and Tails himself being very visible on the posters and marketing.
One could call it downplayed, in that while it establishes that something happened to Spock in the last movie, it doesn't establish what — he must be separated from the crew in a dramatically interesting way for them to search for him, but that doesn't mean he has to be dead.
In fact, him being dead is the least logical of any conclusions to be drawn from the title alone, considering the fact that death is one of a few things that is hard to be found from.
The pre-title opening sequence replays Spock's death and funeral from the previous film.
At the end of Star Trek: First Contact, it is revealed that the species the humans had their titular first contact with were the Vulcans. Apart from the fact that this was already back then a quite, er... logical assumption, this has since then been treaded as well known Trek lore. Star Trek: Enterprise puts quite some emphasis into the early years of these two races' relationship, for example.
The synopsis on the back of the Star Trek Into Darkness DVD names Benedict Cumberbatch's character as Khan, despite the fact that his true identity as the iconic super villain is not revealed until halfway through the movie, with the character using an alias up until that point.
There's a very subtle one in this poster◊ for The Usual Suspects. The tagline is a hint. Kevin Spacey (aka Verbal Kint) is the only one who's over his name. Also, he's the last in the lineup and the last one named.
The DVD of The Usual Suspects is even worse. The scene index shows a still clip from each of the 25 "chapters" of the DVD. The still clip for the final chapter shows a fax machine receiving an image of Keyser Soze's face, and even at low resolution a casual viewer can easily see it's Kevin Spacey.
Also, if you watch too much of the main menu of the DVD of the The Usual Suspects you will see a man's feet as he limps down the street. His gait quickly becomes less shuffling and he's suddenly walking perfectly fine.
Most of the marketing for Watchmen falls under Trailers Always Spoil in that it's not very subtle about Veidt being the real villain. However, the bio for Rorschach on Facebook includes an audio clip of his journal, one of which has him flat out stating this fact. Commercials also reveal Rorschach's face, spoiling his identity for anyone who hadn't already read the graphic novel, or knew the character's actor.
The VHS release of What Dreams May Come spoiled Annie's suicide on the back of the box. And then the DVD release did it again.
for Wiz Khalifa's Award-Bait Song "See You Again" (from the Furious 7 soundtrack) spoils the entire ending, and was put online the week after the film's release. Although it's clearly intended to be a tribute video, it shows the "last ride" with Brian, who drives off into the sunset in the final shot. It seems like the producers just took the ending wholesale and ported into the music video, thus spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen the film yet. Additionally, the final scene was spoiled in one of the television spots and promo photos.
