History NeverTrustATrailer / Film

Naturally, as trailers are most often identified with movies, there's a number of reasons why you can NeverTrustATrailer, especially when it's for a film.

But if a trailer is just fibbing for purposes of not spoiling something, it doesn't belong here.

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[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Marvel Cinematic Universe]]
* ''Film/TheAvengers2012'':
** One of the trailers features [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] listing off his fellow Avengers, including himself. In the actual movie, Stark ''never'' lists himself in the headcount, and even lists off [[spoiler:the deceased Phil Coulson instead]].
** Also the trailers made the movie look pretty dark -- opening with Loki demanding to know why Fury depends on such "lost creatures" and emphasizing the conflict between the heroes. While these elements are in the film, [[LighterAndSofter the movie was buckets of fun and had a pretty light tone]], the heroes come together when they need to without much fuss, and its [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstruction of many superhero tropes was one of its biggest strengths.]]
* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'':
** Just Like ''Film/SpiderMan3'' (listed below), it was marketed as DarkerAndEdgier. While the movie is definitely darker than the first one, it's by no means ''dark'', and still has plenty of room for lighthearted fun.
** The mysterious cloaked woman who appears inside a cave in a trailer is not included in the theatrical cut of the film.
** Some trailers show [[Comicbook/ScarletWitch Wanda]] flinging a bolt of red energy, and then a red beam slamming Tony into a wall. The red beam attacking Tony actually comes from Ultron instead.
** The first trailer ends with Ultron ominously saying "There are no strings on me" after the Avengers have seemingly been defeated, complete with a shot of Captain America's destroyed shield. The clip of the dead Avengers and Cap's broken shield is actually taken from an illusion Wanda casts to mess with Tony's head, and has nothing to do with battling Ultron (who doesn't yet exist at that point in the movie).
** Ultron's line "I'm going to show you something beautiful: the whole world screaming for mercy," is never spoken in the actual film. [[spoiler:Instead, the line seems to be bits thrown together from his MotiveRant to a captured Black Widow in the film.]]
** A couple of TV spots will have Steve saying "She's with us," either in reference to Comicbook/BlackWidow or the Scarlet Witch. It also doesn't make it to the film.
** The second trailer digitally omitted Comicbook/{{Quicksilver}}, Scarlet Witch and Comicbook/TheVision from the final battle, presumably to avoid spoiling that the former two eventually betray Ultron and side with the heroes, and that the latter is actually in the movie at all.
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'':
** An early trailer shown at the Disney D23 Expo and San Diego Comic-Con depicted Thor with [[spoiler:both eyes intact]] in order to avoid spoiling the fact that [[spoiler:Hela tears out his right eye during the climax of ''Film/ThorRagnarok'']]. The Comic-Con poster did something similar, with the artist intentionally posing Thor in such a way so that [[spoiler:the right half of his face]] wasn't clearly visible. This was ultimately subverted, however, since [[spoiler: Thor is given a new robotic eye by [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Rocket Raccoon]] partway through the film.]]
** Played straight with [[spoiler:The Hulk being shown running into battle with the group in Wakanda -- in the film, Banner is present for the battle, however he is not transformed into the Hulk, and is wearing the Hulkbuster armor instead.]] The crew openly stated that this shot was specifically created for the trailer as a misdirect for how [[spoiler:Hulk spends the whole movie refusing to come out.]]
** The third trailer opens with Comicbook/{{Gamora}} seemingly telling Iron Man about Thanos and what he plans to do with the Infinity Stones. The two heroes never actually meet in the movie; Gamora's lines are taken from a scene where she tells the other Guardians about Thanos, while the shot of Tony comes from a scene where Doctor Strange explains the origin of the Infinity Stones. [[spoiler: This helps hide the fact that Gamora dies long before the rest of the Guardians meet Iron Man.]]
** Thanos is consistently shown in the trailers to only have two Infinity Stones in his gauntlet, even when showing scenes from the movie where he actually has more. This is to avoid spoiling the order in which events happen, since Thanos gains his second Infinity Stone at the end of the ActionPrologue and collects more over the course of the film.
** The second trailer ends with Spider-Man swinging through debris in the battle on Titan. This shot deliberately hides his Iron Spider suit's legs, which are not concealed through most of the film.
** The final shot in the first trailer of the heroes running towards the camera never actually happens in the movie and was likely designed solely for trailer hype-building purposes.
** Thanos declaring that he will have fun slaughtering his enemies while collecting the Infinity Stones doesn't happen, and in fact Thanos tries to negotiate with the heroes to let them achieve his goals and later non-fatally subdued the Avengers in Wakanda. His smile at the end is quite sad and bittersweet.
* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'':
** As spoiled in the leaked cellphone footage released on April 15, 2019, [[spoiler:Professor Hulk (a fusion of Bruce Banner's personality and mind with the body of the Hulk]] is present as the team walks across the Avengers' hangar before their mission. In the trailers, the character is not present at all in the lineup as the team walks.
** Several shots of Captain Marvel seen in trailers and TV spots (some of which show her floating in the air looking down at something while sporting her helmet) were also deliberately changed to hide the reveal that [[spoiler:she [[ImportantHaircut cuts her hair short]] prior to the final battle, similar to her mid-[=2010s=] incarnation]], which was also spoiled by the leaked footage.
** Many of the clips shown of Thor from the marketing are taken from the early parts of the film, thereby hiding the twist that [[spoiler:Thor becomes slovenly and disheveled, growing out his hair to boot, after the TimeSkip]].
** In general, the trailers heavily played up the rematch between the Avengers and Thanos, making it look like the movie was ''all'' a high-stakes battle for the fate of the universe. They deliberately obfuscated the fact that the second act is [[spoiler:a light-hearted {{time travel}} adventure to retrieve the Infinity Stones]], with a heavy dose of [[spoiler:comedic MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness moments]].
* ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'':
** The TV spots and first trailer climax with a shot of both teams of heroes rushing towards each other for an epic showdown. The American ads carefully edited the footage to avoid showing Comicbook/SpiderMan, who nonetheless can be seen during the Japanese TV spots showing the same scene.
** One of the trailers also has a scene where Comicbook/{{Bucky|Barnes}} apparently blasts Comicbook/WarMachine out of the sky, nearly killing him. [[spoiler:It's actually stitched together from two separate scenes that happen at different points in the movie. In the actual film, it's Comicbook/TheVision who shoots down War Machine, and it's completely by accident. The shot of Bucky raising his rifle to fire is from much later in the movie, when he and Cap infiltrate an abandoned Comicbook/{{HYDRA}} base]].
** Several trailers feature [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] saying to Steve "Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth," making it look like he's antagonizing Steve and trying to butt heads with him. Tony says it in a different context in the film, and it's not the full line either. In the actual context he's admitting that Steve can get on his nerves, but he's still worried that the SuperRegistrationAct could end up making him a criminal.
* The trailers for ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' sees Comicbook/NickFury get attacked [[spoiler: and seemingly killed]] by the Winter Soldier. Although he is ambushed, Fury manages to escape the initial attack. [[spoiler: The moment where the Winter Soldier seems to fatally wound him comes a little while later, shortly after he manages to rendezvous with Steve.]]
* The trailers for ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' present the group as having already been formed at the start of the film, when in fact it's all about how they meet and eventually decide to form a team. Also, Drax doesn't show up until after they're thrown in prison, unlike the trailer sequence that introduces them all.
* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'':
** An early San Diego Comic-Con trailer (not screened for wide audience) featured a shot of Creator/SylvesterStallone in a Nova Corps uniform, fueling online speculation about a "cameo as a Nova Corps" member. He turns out to be playing [[CanonCharacterAllAlong Starhawk]] and never wears a Nova Corps uniform in the movie.
** In the full trailer, Ayesha's comments about sensing great fear, jealousy, and betrayal within the Guardians, and that the Sovereign need to "cleanse the universe of this weakness", implying that the Sovereign are [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniacs]] who intend to wipe out all lifeforms that don't fit their mould. In reality, not only are the Sovereign not treated anywhere near as ominously as they are in the trailer, they are also mostly {{Plot Irrelevant Villain}}s as they are only after the Guardians because they stole some batteries from them and Ego is the true threat of the film.
* ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming''
** The movie was missing the shot of Spider-Man swinging through New York City with Iron Man flying beside him that we see at the end of the third trailer before it cuts to the title card.
* ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''.
** A trailer shows Dr Samson interviewing Banner in Betty Ross' house. This scene appears in neither the movie nor even in extra material from the DVD. This just causes a lot of confusion when we see that Samson is the one that turned Banner in when, given what we see in the movie, he never even should have known Banner was there. The second disc of the 3-Disc Special Edition DVD features the deleted scenes with Samson.
** Another trailer starts with Creator/RobertDowneyJr's cameo as Tony Stark, which gives the impression that the movie is a crossover with ''Film/IronMan'' and that Stark will have a significant role in the movie. In reality, Stark shows up for less than a minute in TheStinger and only interacts with General Ross.
* The first trailer for ''Film/IronMan2'' showed a long opening of Tony and Pepper talking aboard his private jet, where he asks her for a "kiss for good luck" and she kisses his helmet instead before throwing it out of the plane, leading him to go after it while telling her that "you complete me". The finished product begins with Tony just jumping out of the plane, no romantic subtext involved. The alternate opening with that scene appears on the DVD... with unfinished effects, showing they quickly dismissed that scene.
* ''Film/IronMan3'':
** The trailers and TV spots went out of their way to portray Creator/BenKingsley's Mandarin as the diabolical mastermind and the personal nemesis of Tony Stark, focused on turning his life to hell - in other words, much like his comic book self. However, [[spoiler: Kingsley is the wacky stage actor junkie, playing the part of "The Mandarin" to the public for pure Narm. The actual Mandarin and the BigBad is Aldritch Killian, who is a SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer.]] Also, half of Kingsley's BadassBoast lines don't appear at all and the other half are directed to the President/general public, not Tony.
** Also, one of the most remarkable lines of the second trailer, "There's my boys" said by Tony Stark [[spoiler:when his armors come to his help]], which was even referenced in ''VideoGames/MarvelAvengersAlliance'', is cut from the movie.
** The first trailer also made the film seem DarkerAndEdgier, complete some harrowing scenes set to very moody string music. In reality, the film is a borderline action-comedy at parts, and is probably the most humorous movie Marvel made before ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''.
* ''Film/{{Thor}}'':
** The trailers make it look like Thor gets banished in the first ten minutes of the movie and the rest of the plot takes place on Earth. In actuality, about half the plot takes place on Asgard.
** Also, Comicbook/{{Loki}} was featured in only one or two shots in all of the trailers, and when he does appear, he seems a bit like the [[TagalongKid tag-along younger brother]], which he is, until his StartOfDarkness. This may have helped create the strong audience reaction to Loki -- non-comics fans probably didn't expect him to have a major part, and comics fans probably didn't expect him to be portrayed as sympathetically as he was.
** It also used what was apparently a re-shot scene, with Natalie Portman kneeling over him and pleading "Please, open your eyes!" To which Thor responded "Oh, god, this is Earth, isn't it?" Fans of the comic exploded at this distressingly modern, un-Thor-like phrase, which made them certain that the film would present a bastardized version of the character. In the actual film, Portman says the more realistic "Do me a favor and don't be dead" after hitting him with her van, and Thor immediately leaps to his feet, demanding his father open the Bifrost and looking for Mjolnir, far more fitting to the character.
* The trailers for ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' did it again, featuring multiple scenes that were cut entirely, as well as making it look like the journey to/through the Dark World with Thor and Loki would be the major plot point of the movie, when really it is almost glossed over in the final movie.
* ''Film/ThorRagnarok''
** The trailers show the pivotal scene where Hela destroys Mjolnir taking place in New York City. Thanks to reshoots, the fight actually takes place in a field in Norway in the finished movie.
** The first trailer opens with a captive Thor giving the audience a HowWeGotHere voiceover that segues into the scene where Hela destroys his hammer, seemingly implying that she imprisoned Thor after defeating him. The trailer's opening was actually taken from the movie's ActionPrologue, where Thor is held captive by a completely unrelated villain. All the stuff with Hela only happens later.
* Several trailers for ''Film/CaptainMarvel'' feature her saying "I'm not going to fight your war. I'm going to end it!" as a BadassBoast. She doesn't say this line in the film, in fact the line isn't in the film at all in that form: it's a paraphrase of something her mentor, Mar-Vell, said. And it doesn't refer to a hero, or even a weapon, but to [[spoiler: a light-speed engine designed to get the Skrulls away from the Kree.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:#0-9]]
* The trailer for ''Film/NineAndAHalfWeeks'' promotes the film as being a lighthearted romance about two people having the best weeks of their lives falling in love. The film itself is much darker and more brutal than that.
* This sort of backfired for the movie ''Film/FortyDaysAndFortyNights''. The trailer and TV spots had the main character Matt state "No sex for Lent." Cue everybody who does not have sex at least once every forty days roll their eyes and lose interest. The commercials also made it look like it was a light romantic comedy or a chick flick where the guy meets a nice girl. What the commercials omit is that he was supposed to not have sex for Lent, or ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms do anything remotely sexual]]'', which probably would have made Matt more sympathetic to audiences. Not to mention a large part of the plot is that his friends are taking bets on whether he will make it which causes more problems [[HilarityEnsues when various people try to win the bet]]. The original teaser did flat-out state, "No self-gratification" and even "no kissing". Maybe it was the only one.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:A]]
* The trailer for ''Film/AboutTime'' suggests that Tim and Mary's entire relationship is eradicated from the timeline, but actually it's only their first meeting.
** Furthermore, the trailer gives the impression that he erases their meeting by going back in time to prevent his father from dying in a car accident. In fact, it's his sister, not his father, who's involved in a (non-fatal) car accident, and it happens much later in the movie. [[spoiler:His father does eventually die, of lung cancer, but there's nothing he can do to prevent it.]]
* The trailers for ''Film/TheAdjustmentBureau'' suggested that Thompson (Creator/TerenceStamp) is the primary Adjuster, when really he's only in the second half for four or five scenes. The primary Adjuster is Richardson, played by John Slattery. [[OneSceneWonder Although, Terence Stamp stole the show anyway.]]
* ''Film/{{Admission}}''[='s=] trailer is all about an uptight college admissions officer (Creator/TinaFey) meeting an easy-going alternative school principal (Creator/PaulRudd) and falling in love, with an odd moment where she really wants to hold a woman's baby. [[spoiler: That's actually important since the reason he wanted to meet her in the first place was because one of his students is the son she gave up for adoption in college]], which is either glossed over or not mentioned at all in the trailers.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'' downplayed [[NoFourthWall its]] [[BetterThanABareBulb quirkier]] [[SelfDeprecation elements]], making it look like a rather generic family action-adventure film with a few comedic elements. The actual film had several actiony scenes, but tone-wise was more in line with the original ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' show. Furthermore, the trailers also had Bullwinkle saying things like "I'm King of the world!" and "What's uuuuup?" It's likely these lines were going to be used in the film but got removed [[WereStillRelevantDammit so the film wouldn't seem too dated]]. In the actual scenes, he doesn't say anything, and he says "What's the difference?" in a bit of BitingTheHandHumor, respectively.
* ''Film/{{Adventureland}}''. Some people thought it was going to be a raunchy teen comedy, and that the trailer that played on Oxygen which played up the romance was the one that lied--after all, it surely must be yet another TokenRomance, right? Turns out, their relationship ''does'' drive the movie, and the movie as a whole was ''much'' more subtle and melancholy than was advertised. It was an excellent movie, but don't go in expecting ''Film/{{Superbad}}'' set in an amusement park.
* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'':
** One of the most notorious cases of this trope was an early, early teaser trailer for ''Film/{{Alien 3}}''. It showed an Alien egg floating towards Earth with the line, "In 1979, we discovered in space, no one can hear you scream. In 1992, we would discover on Earth, ''everyone'' can hear you scream..." This was all based upon a very early spec script. [[TroubledProduction By the time the movie was actually made,]] the final film was... a little different. (Sure, the Aliens would eventually get to Earth, just [[Film/AVPAlienVsPredator not exactly the way most fans would have liked]].)
** The trailer for ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' showed an epic moment where three predators were fighting off a handful of aliens. But as the camera moved back that handful turned to thousands of aliens. While this is in the movie, it is only shown in a flashback as one of the main character theorizes that's what had happened in ancient times. The movies also made the plot go along the lines of badass hunter vs badass creature, with poor humans thrown in the middle. [[spoiler: The first Predator dies without any real screen time against an Alien. And the third gets impregnated by a facehugger, setting up the plot for the second movie. The only time Aliens and Predators fought was with the second Predator]].
** ''Film/AlienCovenant'': Several of the trailers and prologue clips have sequences that [[MissingTrailerScene don't appear in the film itself]], and suggest the film is going to be much more character-driven. One of these trailers, "She Won't Go Quietly", positions Daniels as a Ripley-esque ActionGirl[=/=]FinalGirl who takes on the xenomorph on her own. [[spoiler:While she's still a resourceful individual in the film proper, she tends to use creative solutions to kill the aliens and isn't ever seen fighting them on her own]].
* One of the trailers for ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' showed a scene where Dave finds something that he thinks is poop that came from Theodore. Alvin tells Dave that it's a raisin, Dave tells Alvin to prove it, and Alvin puts it in his mouth. After Dave leaves, Alvin spits out the poop and says to Theodore, "You owe me big time!" This scene is in the movie, but in the movie version, it's actually Simon who eats the poop, and Alvin is not even in the scene at all. Not only that, but the trailer shows the chipmunks all wearing their trademark shirts in this scene, while in the film version, this takes place before the chipmunks even get their shirts.
** One trailer for ''The Road Chip'' showed Theodore singing "Baby Got Back" at a party while Dave and his girlfriend give disgusted reactions. In the actual movie, Theodore sings it at a golf course in front of Miles.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' include voice-overs of lines that don't occur in the movie, including lines hinting at plots that didn't occur in the film at all. "Do you think what happened to you, Peter, was an accident? Do you have any idea what you really are?" Nothing related to this line appears in the film.
** It's been hinted that these were cut, due to negative fan reception about the "secret story" concept.
** Or how about Conners tempting Peter with news about his parents.
* They did it again with the trailers for ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' including some ominous lines cut and making all of the villains other than Electro appear to have more prominent roles than they actually do. [[spoiler:The trailer has a scene where Harry reveals that Oscorp has Peter under surveillance, as well as some lines from Comicbook/NormanOsborn implying that he and Harry have sinister plans for Peter. In reality, Harry doesn't become The Green Goblin until near the end and then fights Spider-Man for about 5 minutes, while Norman dies ''very'' early on and never conspires with Harry or threatens Peter. The Rhino doesn't show up until the very last scene in the movie and while the trailer makes it look like we get to see them fight, we only get to see the start of it. The final image of the movie (Spider-Man swinging around a manhole cover) is in the trailer, yet we don't even get to see if it hits Rhino or not.]] At least some of these discrepancies are due to the film being heavily changed in the editing room, with parts of the film being reshot and others being dropped altogether.
* In yet ''another'' example involving George Clooney, ''Film/TheAmerican'' was promoted as an action-packed thriller in the vein of the ''Bourne'' films. It's actually a very introspective drama about the life of a hired assassin, punctuated only by brief bursts of action.
* The trailer in ''Film/AngelEyes'' plays it as a supernatural thriller. But in reality, the film is a romantic drama between Creator/JenniferLopez and Creator/JimCaviezel.
* ''Annapolis'' is implied to be a ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' style film about a U.S. Navy trainee that struggles in the face of a vicious, brutal academy, before being deployed to on his first mission. The "difficult training" aspect is actually in the film... for about the first 20 minutes. Then the remainder is actually about a boxing tournament at the academy. Also there are war scenes in the trailer that are not in the actual film.
* ''Film/TheApparition'' has a trailer with more of a plot than the finished film has - implying the evil whatsit will only attack people once they start believing in it, an interesting concept not present in the movie.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Arachnophobia}}'' used lighthearted music and put major focus on John Goodman's role as a quirky exterminator, making it look to be a lighthearted comedy. Turns out that while there are comedic scenes, the film is basically nightmare fuel (or considering the film is about spiders, would that be nightmare venom?)
* The trailer for the ''Film/{{Arthur}}'' remake has this pretty bad. The trailer makes it look like Jennifer Garner is playing the Liza Minnelli role and a random actress in one scene is playing the fiancee. In actuality, Jennifer Garner is playing the fiancée and Greta Gerwig (who appears in a grand total of one shot in the trailer) plays the actual love interest.
* ''Film/AsGoodAsItGets'' looked like it would have had a George Carlin type character using more cynical observations and one liners than the one in the preview. The subplot hijacking the main plot didn't help.
* The trailers for ''Theatre/AugustOsageCounty'' depict it as a heartwarming comedy-drama about a family who bicker but love each other deep down. In the actual film, the family genuinely hate each other, and the plot is thoroughly tragic due to the fall-out from their mutual loathing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'':
** The [[Film/BackToTheFuture first film]] was released at a time where the most successful comedies were raunchy R-rated affairs (e.g. ''Film/{{Porkys}}'', ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds''). Thus, many trailers featured the line "You mean my mom has the hots for me?!" to make it seem like such a film with a science fiction element, when the film is much more of a sci-fi comedy for all audiences with that mom thing being a subplot. Creator/RobertZemeckis and Bob Gale have spoken negatively about this in interviews.
** With ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', Zemeckis and Gale were displeased with how it was sold as a standalone film, [[TwoPartTrilogy when it was really the first part of a two-part movie]]. They blame this for its box-office decline, starting out strong, but quickly going down over time.
** A trailer for ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'' included what appeared to be Marty shooting at Doc Brown, knocking his hat off, which turns out to be two unrelated bits of the film.
* ''Film/{{Bandslam}}'' is actually more of an indie coming of age teen dramedy like ''Film/{{Juno}}'' or ''Film/NickAndNorahsInfinitePlaylist'', not the spiritual sequel to the ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' franchise the trailers made it out to be. A serious backfire, as the film seriously bombed despite relatively good reviews.
* In the UK, early TV spots for ''Film/{{Beastly}}'' tried to make it look like ''Film/{{Twilight}}'' by making the main character look like a supernatural being instead of a human under a curse.
* There was one shot of [[http://37.media.tumblr.com/1e92b91858c83c944fb79e35de2184ad/tumblr_mn2e8eJWeQ1qmw3xso2_r1_250.gif Ridley screaming]] in what looks like anger in the trailer for ''Film/BeautifulCreatures'' (at [[https://youtu.be/7HNfEe9PEDg 1:52]], after Lena snarls "I want you outta here!"). Thing is, what actually happens is that Lena tells her to get out, and then Ridley screams in anger that she's so sick of everyone treating Lena like she's special, to which Lena coldly replies "I said, get away from my boyfriend, you witch." Ridley's face changes to surprise and fear, and ''then'' she goes flying.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' make Creator/MichaelKeaton appear to be the main character, even making him sound like the top-billed star. In reality, the lead characters are played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. While the film is named after Beetlejuice, and the character is a major driving force of the plot, Keaton has only 20 minutes of screen time.
* In yet another example of a non-comedy starring a comedian marketed as a comedy, there's the 1994 Creator/RobinWilliams film ''Film/BeingHuman'' ([[Series/BeingHumanUK no relation]]). The trailer made it look like it was going to be another one of those "sweet-but-unlucky Robin" movies, and hey, the premise was the story of the same man through different periods of history, [[Series/BlackAdder that makes for good comedy]]. But the movie was really a drama. And it was boring. And now it's more or less forgotten.
* The trailer to ''Film/BeKindRewind'' has Creator/JackBlack saying "I've got another idea, follow me" placed after Mos Def realizing that his tapes have been wiped. Since Jack's character is crazy, it sounds sensible to think he comes up with the ZanyScheme... [[spoiler: until you watch the film and find that it's Mos who comes up with the idea. Jack's line is in there... just before he drags a HollywoodHomely into their scheme so he doesn't have to awkwardly kiss his mechanic.]]
** Heck, the fact that the trailer concentrates solely on the [[StylisticSuck sweding]], [[spoiler: and not at all on the Fats Waller and community spirit angles.]] The trailer made it appear that the major plotline of the movie was an idiot comedy about Jack Black and Mos Def trying to keep their neighbors from figuring out that the sweded films aren't the originals.
* The marketing for the Australian-American holiday horror film ''Film/BetterWatchOut'' makes the film look like a horror-tinged spin on ''Film/HomeAlone'' where a babysitter and her charges are tormented by home invaders. What is the movie itself actually about? [[spoiler: It's the [[SarcasmMode heartwarming tale]] about a [[EnfantTerrible violent, sociopathic boy]] who tries to seduce his teenage babysitter, stages a break-in with his friend and holds her hostage.]]
* The trailer for the movie version of ''Film/BicentennialMan'' made it look like a goofy comedy about a family and their robot. All clips were taken from either the first fifteen minutes or so or a single 4-5 minute comedic sequence later on in the two-hour romantic drama.
* Billion Dollar Brain; the trailer gives the impression the film is a science-fiction movie about an evil computer that attempts to take over the world; in fact it's about an incompetent British ex-MI5 agent (Michael Caine) who stumbles across a Texan oil billionaire's attempt to foment counter-revolution in Latvia; the eponymous computer is used to run his business empire and only appears in one brief scene.
* The trailer for the 2006 version of ''{{Film/Black Christmas|2006}}'' was full of interesting scenes, like a girl getting dragged by Christmas lights, or another one being trapped under the ice... scenes shot '''[[MissingTrailerScene just for the trailer]]''' to make the movie look scarier. The [[ExecutiveMeddling studio went behind the director's back to make those scenes]]; he was pissed when he found out.
** Although you can't really blame the producers since even they knew they had a turkey on their hands.
* ''Black Sea'' is centered around a submarine crew searching for lost Nazi gold in the titular sea. In the trailer, it is mentioned that that whenever someone is killed, their share of the money increases, implying that everyone is out to get one another over [[{{Greed}} greed]]. [[spoiler: In reality, one's killed out of frustration, and all the other deaths are due to on-ship accidents.]]
* ''Film/BlackSwan''. Nearly every clip in the trailer is used in entirely different context in the film itself.
* UK trailers for ''Film/TheBlindSide'' contain nary a hint of a sporting connection. Now that takes some doing.
* The American trailer for ''Film/TheBoatThatRocked'', released in the U.S. under the title ''Pirate Radio'', portrays the film as if Philip Seymour Hoffman's character would be the center of the plot (understandable marketing choice, since Hoffman was the only American actor of the main cast). However, while Hoffman's character is certainly prominent, most members of the main cast are more involved in the plot, though the story of Carl (played by Tom Sturridge) is perhaps given the most attention. The trailer in question can be found [[https://youtu.be/qX1SSiFWF-s here]]. For contrast, watch a more accurate trailer [[https://youtu.be/pyXu0mC38SE here]].
* The trailer for the 1945 film ''Film/TheBodySnatcher'' emphasizes that it stars both famed horror actors Creator/BorisKarloff and Creator/BelaLugosi. While Karloff does have a prominent role, Lugosi has a minor part as a janitor.
* The trailer for ''Film/BoogieNights'' made it look like a constantly fun, largely dance-oriented romp with lots of sex thrown in for good measure. The film is a very great deal more dark and downbeat than that and there isn't all that much dancing.
* ''Film/TheBookOfEli'' is a fairly understated, slow-burn drama about the different attitudes towards faith of two men, with a couple of (extremely brief) skirmishes and a scene of a siege in an old house. The trailer sets it up as an action packed ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''-esque series of blades, blood and exploding trucks, using pretty much all of the combat footage in the entire film spliced together.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheBoondockSaints'' includes a clip of Willem Dafoe's character saying "This could just be the first international mob war," or something to that effect. That line is indeed in the movie, but then three minutes later his theory is shot down.
* A TV spot on the Sci-Fi Channel for ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' consisted entirely of scenes from [[ImagineSpot Sam's dream sequences]], without any hint of the Orwellian future the movie actually takes place in.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Bridesmaids}}'' makes it look like a typical raunchy comedy with the same two jokes used over and over: Kristen Wiig is single and Kristen Wiig is an alcoholic. The actual film is much deeper and quite depressing at times but still manages to be funny (there is also more of a variety in humor).
* Fans of the book will know ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' is not a fantasy adventure story, as depicted in the trailers for the movie, but more of a tale about bonding between two friends who create an imaginary fantasy to cope with their troubles. The screenwriters have stated that they are not pleased with the way the film was marketed, and the actual movie proved to be much more faithful to the book.
* Despite winning widespread critical acclaim including a perfect "4" from reviewer Roger Ebert and still having a 70+ Website/RottenTomatoes score, Creator/MartinScorcese's ''Film/BringingOutTheDead'' is one of history's biggest ever movie bombs, with a net loss of over $32 million. It was felt that its marketing portrayed it too much as a [[Film/TheSixthSense Sixth Sense-]]style supernatural I-see-dead-people plot, which it very much wasn't (the marketing clearly missed the point). It's probably one of the most critically acclaimed movies ever to reach the other wiki's "List of biggest box office bombs".
* The trailer for ''Film/BroncoBilly'' made it look like a pure comedy, adding silly music and cartoon sound effects, as did the rest of the marketing. But the IMDB doesn't list it as a comedy, and they're right. With Creator/ClintEastwood starring and directing, it's so much more serious than it looks.
* All the trailers ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' make it out to be non-stop Godly antics, leaving out the part where about half an hour after Bruce gets his powers, the film becomes a soppy love story.
* The film adaptation of the play ''Film/{{Bug}}'' is a psychological thriller about a woman getting a new boyfriend and going insane. Yet, it was advertised as a horror film about bugs underneath your skin... and the film suffered because of it.
* The marketing for ''Film/BunnyAndTheBull'' made it look like a zany RoadTripPlot comedy, and a pretty weak spin-off of ''Film/TheMightyBoosh'' to boot (''every single'' trailer and advertisement reminded us not-so-subtly that it was by the director of the Boosh, and featured the shows' lead actors, Creator/NoelFielding and Julian Barratt). This probably made BATB more successful in the UK than it would otherwise have been, as the Mighty Boosh has a dedicated enough following to give pretty much anything associated with it a sizable popularity boost. But it was still ''hugely'' misrepresented by its advertising, and was far more [[DarkerAndEdgier dark, gritty and sombre]] in tone and content than the Boosh had ever been. There were humorous moments, but to call it a comedy would be wildly inaccurate. Also, Barratt and Fielding were not major characters (as the adverts seemed to suggest) and had only relatively small cameos. It was actually still a very good film on its own account, but some of those who went into it expecting "Mighty Boosh: The Movie" were sorely disappointed.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Buried}}'' depicted the film as being a ''Saw''-esque thrill ride. It's really more of an arthouse-type thriller in the vein of Hitchcock's ''Rope'' with Ryan Reynolds being the only actor onscreen. Not surprisingly, there were many walkouts at showings from people being fooled by the marketing and the film never went past limited release.
** One scene in the trailer shows Reynolds realising that a person on the phone knows his name despite his not having given it. The trailer frames it as a shocking revelation (the sort you wouldn't want spoiled by a trailer, frankly). In the film it turns out there's a wholly mundane explanation, which is provided almost immediately.
* You would be absolutely forgiven if you assumed, from the ads, that ''Film/BurnAfterReading'' was a wacky comedy starring Creator/BradPitt and Creator/GeorgeClooney.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'': [[spoiler:It's a DeconstructiveParody of horror films. It's advertised as a straight horror film.]] Ironically, this is one of the few films where it could be argued that this is exactly the mindset the viewer should have before watching the film.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheCableGuy'' made it look like another lighthearted comedy romp with Jim Carrey (this was 1996, before his career diversified). It's actually a BlackComedy verging on psychological horror. To be fair, [[MoodWhiplash the movie itself didn't seem sure what genre it was]].
* Neil Simon's ''California Suite'' combines comedy and drama as it tracks several sets of characters, one of which is a couple whose marriage is going down in flames. The film was advertised as a straight comedy, focusing on the funnier storylines with none of the anguish even mentioned.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheCampaign'', as with most trailers for R-rated comedies, tones down the language a little and has some instances of CurseCutShort and other creative editing, including the line "I let the goat lick my wiener", which in the film itself is "I let the goat lick my penis". The biggest difference is a scene where Marty shoots Cam in the leg on a hunting excursion. In the trailer, it's with a crossbow but in the film, it's with an actual hunting rifle.
* ''Case 39's'' trailer essentially gives the plot to a completely different movie: it insinuates that the young girl protagonist is stalked by a demonic force [[spoiler: when in reality she IS the demonic force, and several scenes in the trailer are, like many examples before it, not in the film or there in a completely different context.]] There's one which states that the church has investigated 38 cases of supernatural activity, and this is the 39th... no church plays any part in the film, and it's called that because it's a social worker's 39th case. It's so overt that WebVideo/{{Phelous}} even comments on it in his [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/phelous/27836-phelous-case-39 review of it.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Casper}}'' (1995) showed various scenes featuring Casper's hyperactive uncles, letting on that they were the main antagonists and the plot would be mostly them battling the human protagonists.
* ''Film/{{Casshern}}'' is a slow, plodding {{Deconstruction}} of the {{Toku}} genre and carries a [[{{Anvilicious}} strong message]] about the pointlessness of violence. The trailer features about 50% of the film's action however, so one might watch it expecting 90 minutes of crazy robot killing.
* ''Catfish'''s trailer is so notoriously misleading it has become fairly famous for it. It markets the film as a mockumentary-style thriller. The actual story is a bit less exciting: [[spoiler: The woman met on Facebook is actually a middle-aged woman who has created several false personas on the internet.]] A bit of a twist, but hardly a Hitchockian thriller as it was promoted.
* ''[[https://youtu.be/xWkl9xK_y1g Chairman]]'' is a spy movie about sneaking into UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's residence to steal a top secret plan. Its tagline is "Creators/GregoryPeck turned into a lethal weapon ... to stop the chairman before the chairman stops the world!" Mao is building a superweapon right? Wrong, the top secret plan is for a enzyme that can improve grain productions to feed everyone in China.
* Trailers for ''Film/ChasingAmy'' make it look like the plot is a man fruitlessly chasing after a lesbian (who [[IAmNotShazam isn't even named Amy]], as it turns out); he ''gets'' her halfway through, and the bulk of the movie is an exploration of sexual self-definition.
* Trailers made ''Film/{{Click}}'' out to be another low brow Adam Sandler comedy. In actuality, it's a fairly depressing drama about a man being forced to skip through his own life as he grows old and dies.
* The trailer for Rob Schneider's 2010 movie 'The Chosen One' makes it seem like it is another dumb lowbrow comedy, similar to his earlier works like Deuce Bigalow and The Animal. Instead it is a really slow drama about a man overcoming depression. The trailer grossly misrepresents scenes from the movie, like one where Schneider's character briefly sings Karaoke in a bar, with the trailer presenting it as a funny scene, when the actual scene is very slow and completely different to its trailer representation.
* The trailer for ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' includes a scene where Air Traffic Control is trying to contact an airliner which has just had a near-miss with a mysterious object, asking them if they want to report a UFO. There's no reply, only a long silence, making the audience think that the airliner has been snatched or even destroyed by the object. In the actual film, the crew eventually do respond: they've been thinking over whether making a UFO report is worth the trouble.
* The trailer for ''Cold Creek Manor'' made it seem like the house was haunted. Instead, it was just some crazy guy messing with the family (when we want ''both'', we know [[Film/TheShining where to go]]).
* The trailer for the Will Smith film ''Film/CollateralBeauty'' made it look like a weeper about a man who'd suffered a loss finding a coping mechanism by writing letters addressed to "Love, Death and Time", only to have the physical personifications of all three concepts begin showing up, helping him through his trauma. The film couldn't be further from this. [[spoiler: The only thing the film and trailer have in common is Will Smith, having lost his daughter, writing letters to Love, Death and Time. His employees, fearing that his erratic behavior will cost them their company, plan to have him declared mentally unfit so that they can oust him from the company without losing business. The method they choose accomplish this is to hire actors to play Love, Death and Time, surreptitiously film him speaking with them, then digitally remove the actors so that it will look like he's talking to thin air. The film doesn't even pretend for a moment that the actors might be the real personifications. It shows the actors being hired and the filming being planned well before Smith meets any of them]].
* The trailer for the 1986 Troma film ''Combat Shock'' toted it as being a Rambo-style bloodbath, though the film itself was more of a psychological horror.
** Troma likes to do this on all of their movies. Mostly because they want to the biggest audience possible but also because Creator/LloydKaufman likes to play jokes on the viewers.
* The trailer for the movie ''Film/{{Congo}}'' claims that the adventurers will find the missing link between man and ape. Of course no such thing happens.
* The trailer for the Creator/BruceWillis/Tracy Morgan film ''Film/CopOut'' gave the impression that Willis was a gritty longtime cop unwillingly saddled with a goofy new partner, or even that Morgan was not actually a ''real'' cop. In fact both characters are veterans and have been [[HeterosexualLifePartners working together]] for a long time, and Morgan's character (though indeed the less gritty of the two) is still definitely a proper detective.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Copycat}}'' make it appear that Daryll Lee Callum (Harry Connick, Jr.) is the BigBad of the movie and the copycat of the title. In reality, aside from the prologue, Callum spends the entire movie in prison.
* The latest Sherwood Pictures release ''Courageous'' features a [[https://youtu.be/i9VT_NBIVfs brief montage of scenes at the end of the trailer]] following a speech by Adam Mitchell (part of Albany's Sheriff's Department) calling on the men to be strong fathers (the crux of the movie). One of the clips involves another officer, Shane Fuller, hanging with his son. In the actual movie, by the time the speech is made, Shane is [[DirtyCop in prison for stealing drugs from the evidence room to be sold in exchange for cash]].
* The entire marketing campagin for ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' positions the film as a horror movie. While there are a few horror-style scares sprinkled throughout, the movie's actually a gothic romance period drama that happens to have ghosts in it - [[spoiler: ghosts who are not the villains and in fact do nothing of importance to the plot aside from pointing to a room for the lead to investigate and providing one distraction.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/CryWolf'' is almost entirely comprised of footage that isn't in the film itself, in an apparent attempt to market it as a PG-13 slasher film. The mild rating is actually justified in the film itself, as it's more murder mystery than slasher and one of the biggest questions is whether or not anyone has been killed at all.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Cyrus}}'' makes it seem like much more of a laugh out loud comedy than it really is. The actual movie, while not devoid of humour, is more of a low key, downbeat drama about lonely damaged people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D]]
* The [[https://youtu.be/qKesRqocYTU trailer]] for the Creator/KurtRussell cop thriller ''Film/DarkBlue'' does it in a twofold manner. First by making the movie seem like a non-stop urban action movie, while it's a character study of an [[DirtyCop incredibly dirty]] CowboyCop (Russell) with a deteriorating private life and investigations into his professional conduct who slowly comes to see the error of his ways, and how his lifestyle and those of others like him had a helping hand in shaping the social climate in Los Angeles prior to the 1992 riots. Second by [[BillingDisplacement significantly overstating]] Creator/VingRhames' role and presenting him as the main antagonist. Funny enough, [[http://www.impawards.com/2003/dark_blue.html the poster]] gives a much better indication of the film's content.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'':
** A television commercial for ''Film/BatmanBegins'' attempted to appeal to female audiences by playing Music/{{Nickelback}}'s "Someday" over shots of Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes looking at each other longingly. Not only did the TV spot spoil one of the climactic scenes of the movie (revealing that Wayne Manor gets torched), but it played up the expectation that the entire film was a love story with a bit of action on the side.
** [[https://youtu.be/iSe6tvfedb0 Another commercial]] for ''Begins'' (aired prior to showings of the film on ABC Family) played up the same "love story" angle, to the extent that viewers could be forgiven for thinking the film is a romantic drama[=/=]comedy (a whip noise is heard when Bruce asks if the Tumbler comes in black), where Bruce and Rachel reunite after many years. While it does play a part in the plot, it's nowhere near the most prominent story thread. Additionally, the trailer states that Bruce "fights for family", which is... ''very'' unrepresentative of the character's origin.
** While not terribly misleading, one trailer for ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' makes it look as though Comicbook/TheJoker causes a truck to flip just by firing a machine gun. The two moments happen during the same scene, but the one of the Joker shooting with the submachine gun happens ''after'' the truck flips over, and he's firing at cars on the street.
** Editing also made some parts of the Joker's dialogue misleading -- in the actual movie his line "It's all part of the plan" is part of his monologue about how people like order (while he never has a plan) and the part where he says "And here... we... ''go''" followed by an exploding building was from the scene where [[spoiler:[[WheresTheKaboom he's EXPECTING an explosion and is disappointed]]]].
** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' is another big-timer:
*** The dramatic exchange between Bruce and Alfred regarding the latter swearing to protect Bruce and failing does not come up in the actual scene. Alfred utters similar lines, though, at the film's finale.
*** The trailers make it appear that [[Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]] and Bane are close allies, but in reality she's more or less blackmailed and intimidated into giving him occasional help.
*** One trailer has Selina's line "You don't owe these people any more. You've given them everything!", which she says when she is mounting the Batpod. Given the above lie, you'd be forgiven for thinking Selina utters the line in defiance. In fact, she is pleading desperately for Batman to not potentially risk himself in vain. That said, Batman's line "Not everything... not yet" carries the exact same meaning in both the trailers and the final product in that he knows the people still need a true legend.
*** In an example of Never Trust a ''Leak'', one of Selina's lines, when leaked out of context, made fans assume that she'd be allied with Bane. In reality, she says the line to deceive the actual flunkies of Bane.
*** Hines Ward, when outrunning the imploding field, doesn't drop his football in shock in the final film.
*** In one trailer, Bane says "Let the games begin" when he's about to fight Batman. In the final film, he says this when he and his men are about to press the detonators that will blow up the football stadium and the bridges.
*** The shots of the Bat and placement of Selina's and Bruce's banter inside it make it seem as if it's involved only in the climax of the film. It actually debuts very early, when Batman is rescuing Selina from Bane right after the Stock Exchange attack.
*** Bane's "when Gotham is ashes" line is said more slower and has a word or two added to it.
*** One scene from the trailers portrays a Tumbler firing on the final battle between Bane's forces and the GCPD cops. This is a subversion: no such scene actually appears in the movie, although a similar scene appears in the script.
* Trailers for Tim Burton's ''Film/DarkShadows'' played up its FishOutOfTemporalWater humor, which it has plenty of -- but rather than a farce, it's a ''very'' archly-played drama with BlackComedy relief. [[https://trailersfromhell.com/dark-shadows/ The Trailers from Hell commentary discusses this trope and what the film is actually like.]]
* The American version of ''Film/DarkWater'' was advertised as a jump-a-minute teen shocker very much in the vein of ''The Ring''. They went so far as to market it prominently as "from the author of ''The Ring''", when in reality it was loosely based on a short story by the same person who wrote the book ''The Ring'' was loosely based on. The trailer relied on tricks like sped-up footage, scenes not present in the actual film, out of context dialogue, lots of droning sounds and quick-cut editing, and the use of every "jump" in the movie to further the notion it was a straightforward horror flick. While that's (debatably) true of the Japanese original, the American version is actually a slow, atmosphere-focused, dramatic psychological thriller that has far more character development than scares and has more in common with ''Rosemary's Baby'' than ''The Ring''. This is sometimes cited as the main reason for the split reviews and the film's box office failure.
* Television ads for the ''[[Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill2008 Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' remake have the tagline promise that humanity will heroically "Fight Back!" Really. In reverse, some of the ads imply that humanity is completely and totally doomed, and there is no point trying to fight back, making Klaatu look invincible.
* All of the trailers for ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' depict it as a StonerFlick. In the actual film, only one character (a supporting character) is actually a stoner and instead the film is a coming of age film about different types of people in different cliques (much of it told from the point of view of a 15 year old).
* The trailer for ''Film/DeadEndDriveIn'' makes it look like a ''Film/MadMax'' knock-off full of car action scenes. In fact, the trailer contains just about '''all''' the action in the film (as a result, [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil spoiling the film's ending]]), when it's actually a much slower-paced social satire that can best be described as a punk cover-version of ''Series/ThePrisoner1967''.
* ''Film/{{Deadpool 2}}'':
** The second trailer shows Yukio in the montage of Comicbook/XForce members, indicating she is part of Wade's team. [[spoiler: Yukio is actually Negasonic Teenage Warhead's girlfriend and a member of the X-Men, and has nothing to do with X-Force.]]
** The trailers also show scenes of Bedlam and Shatterstar fighting enemy forces. [[spoiler: They never actually get to do that since they (along with Peter, Zeitgeist and Vanisher) die during the helicopter jump scene.]]
** [[spoiler: In general, the marketing greatly played up the X-Force aspect and made it seem like assembling the team would be a major part of the film. In reality, the members of X-Force only appear in a handful of scenes before most of them are killed off in the aforementioned helicopter gag, leaving Deadpool and Domino as the only survivors.]]
* The ''Film/DeconstructingHarry'' trailer made the film out to be about Creator/WoodyAllen dying and going to a Hell run by Billy Crystal as Satan. The film is about no such thing and the one (1) Hell scene is a ''fantasy sequence'' showing you an idea for a novel that Woody's character Harry is describing to other people. Billy Crystal plays Satan in this scene because his actual character in the film is someone Harry hates.
* ''Film/{{Defendor}}'' was marketed as a family-friendly comedy in the trailers, but the actual movie dealt with the [[RealityEnsues implications of heroism]], drug abuse, and prostitutes.
* The trailer for ''Desperate Measures'' made Michael Keaton's character out to be, literally, Satan himself. His statements, "I cannot be killed; I am immortal," and, "What are you going to do, ''shoot'' me, Frank...?" were taken viciously out of context to this end, with the trailer-makers even going so far as to use an electronic distortion effect to make the latter line sound like it was spoken in a suddenly deep and clearly inhuman voice. In actual fact the Keaton character is just a brilliantly devious human sociopath and the film has absolutely no supernatural angle whatsoever, even in subtext. A second trailer portrayed the film properly as the cat-and-mouse between the cop with a sick son and the criminal he has to keep alive in order to save him (since he's a match for a bone marrow transplant).
* ''Film/DiaryOfAMadBlackWoman'' does this. The entire trailer portrays the antics of a crazy, elderly black woman, so the movie's title makes it seem like they're talking about a ''crazy'' black woman. Couldn't be farther from the truth; the only way those clips have any plot relevance is that the black woman seen in the trailer has a minor part in the plot. The movie is actually about a black woman who's angry (aka, "mad") at her husband for cheating on her and throwing her out of the house, and her schemes at getting back at him.
** To elaborate, the majority of the trailer shows the Tyler Perry character Madea, and her typical smart-ass comments. However, the actual story involved her ''granddaughter'' Helen. In fact, all of Madea's scenes in the trailer were almost all of her scenes ''in the movie.''
* ''Film/DieHard2'': The main trailer plays around with this. Early on it shows a group of soldiers loading their weapons and donning face masks while sinister music plays, implying they're the terrorists trying to take over the airport. They're actually a platoon called in to take the terrorists down and the sequence is when they're preparing to go into combat with them. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that they're in league with the terrorists and the "combat" they launch into is completely staged, which means this is actually a case of stealth foreshadowing.]]
* ''Film/TheDisappointmentsRoom'': The titular room is played up in the film's marketing. However, it barely appears in the movie, and a lot of the movie's events have very little to do with it.
* ''Film/DjangoUnchained'''s trailers make it out to be an action-heavy Western about two bounty hunters killing their way up to the BigBad. Just like Film/InglouriousBasterds, however, the film itself is much more slow-moving and suspenseful, with bounty hunting taking a backseat during the second half of the film. It also implies the Brittle Brothers work directly for Candy, the BigBad, when in reality, they're [[spoiler:easily dispatched in Django's first successful bounty]] and have no relation to Candy - and Candy himself [[spoiler:is a dimwitted idiot who's really manipulated by his slave, the real villain.]]
* A trailer for ''Film/TheDiaryOfAnneFrank'' shown on TCM spun it as an uplifting and happy story. The fact that they were hiding from the Nazis was given only a token nod at the beginning.
* ''Film/TheDilemma'' was advertised as a laugh-out-loud comedy. It does have some hilarious moments, but for the most part, the film is quite dark.
* The trailer for the made for TV film ''Disaster on the Coastliner'' shows [[spoiler: two trains colliding head on. The collision does not occur in the actual film]].
* The trailer for ''Film/{{District 9}}'' implies that the aliens just want to go home, and the humans won't let them. Sure, in the film the aliens are shoved into a slum, but the 'going home' sentiment just isn't there among most of them. Plus, the scene featuring an alien being interrogated isn't in the film and was fabricated totally for the trailer.
* Trailers for ''Film/DonnieDarko'' made it seem like the film was about an insane, homicidal teenager. Though the film teases the possibility that Donnie is crazy, it's a minor undercurrent.
* All trailers and marketing campaign made a big deal of showing the audience that ''Film/DraculaUntold'' would be about Dracula's StartOfDarkness and show his descent into villainy. This never happens in the actual film, and he remains a hero all the way through.
* The trailers make ''Film/DragMeToHell'' look like a straight horror film when it is really a horror-comedy in the vein of the ''Franchise/EvilDead'' movies. The fact that it's directed by Creator/SamRaimi, however, might be a tip-off....
* One woman felt that this trope warranted [[http://www.postchronicle.com/news/strange/article_212394856.shtml a lawsuit]] when she felt misled by the trailer for ''Film/{{Drive}}'' - which, in her opinion, had little to do with driving cars [[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious really fast]] and more to do with anti-Semitism.
* ''Film/DuckYouSucker'', Creator/SergioLeone's last spaghetti Western, was marketed as a lighthearted action/adventure Western set during the Mexican revolution. The film starts off this way, initially centering around a bandit managing to get an Irish explosives expert to help him rob a bank. Then of course [[spoiler: the aforementioned bank turns out to be a political prison, and John had tricked him into liberating a bunch of revolutionaries, making him a hero]]. After that point... let's just say it [[KillEmAll gets pretty brutal]].
** It's ironic when one considers that some of the more brutal moments are actually shown in the trailers (among them a particularly unnerving scene where [[spoiler: hundreds of revolutionaries are forced into ghettos, with soldiers standing on each side shooting them]]), and they still managed to make it look like it was fairly light-hearted.
* ''Film/DeadManDown'' trailers made you believe it was a revenge flick of a scarred woman (Creator/NoomiRapace) blackmailing a gangster's (Actor/TerranceHoward) [[TheDragon number two]] (Actor/ColinFarrell) to help kill him for what happened to her face, while at the same time falling in love before it all goes to hell. In the film, the Rapace is firmly a supporting character, and Farrell is trying to get his own revenge on Howard for unrelated reasons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E]]
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Elysium}}'' heavily implies that Max's exosuit is what gives him the ability to override Elysium's system. It doesn't, but the virus it lets him download from Carlyle's brain does. It also implies some shots of Kruger are actually of Max (such as Kruger's PowerWalk when he [[spoiler:begins the coup and specifically starts gunning for Max]]), and that Kruger is assisting the hero. The trailer also implied that Max's exosuit can remotely crash a ship, which was just gesture by Kruger (activating sticky homing explosives).
* This is practically the M.O. of Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg when it comes to marketing. Several times, the trailers for their films prominently advertise scenes that never take place as part of the actual plot. Probably one of the most egregious is in ''Meet the Spartans'' where the trailers featured parody scenes of ''Rambo''. These were entirely ''post-credit scenes'' with no relation to anything else anywhere in the film.
* ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' had one particularly bad ad that made it look like some sort of madcap comedy starring Creator/JimCarrey (which is not entirely surprising).
* The early teaser trailers for ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' focused on the creepy alien POV sequence from the woodland escape scene, complete with chilling music and a creepy atmosphere, which gave the impression that ET was to be a sci-fi horror film. To be fair, though, it [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Skies was]].
* Thanks to the trailers, sci-fi fans flocked to ''Film/EventHorizon'' expecting to see something like ''Franchise/StarTrek'' or ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. It turned out to be a senseless and horrific slasher film [[RecycledInSpace that happens to take place on a spaceship]].
* The trailers and ads for ''Film/EverybodysFine'' make it out to be some kind of quirky, funny little indie film. Something the whole family can enjoy while in reality it was a sad drama.
* This was actually used effectively for the action thriller ''Film/ExecutiveDecision'' which heavily used Steven Segal as the bad-ass special forces commander clashing with Kurt Russell's CIA man. Thus, when Segal's character [[spoiler: dies less than halfway through the movie]], it comes as a true shock and nicely shakes expectations up.
** It isn't even less then halfway into the film. It is literally under five minutes after the start of the mission to retake the plane, thus being even more surprising.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F]]
* The trailer for ''Film/FaceOff'' begins with Sean Archer (when he's being played by Creator/JohnTravolta) talking about how he's spent his career following and studying Castor Troy (Creator/NicolasCage). He concludes with "And now I've finally found a way to track him. I will become him," implying that he willingly takes on his enemy's appearance in order to find him. The film begins with Archer actually capturing Castor and putting him in a coma, and the face switch only happens because the FBI needs vital information from Troy's brother Pollux, and Archer reluctantly takes on the mission because he's the only one who can pass for Troy.
* The movie ''Film/FailureToLaunch'' had one trailer that aired on male-centric channels such as Comedy Central, in which the entire trailer consisted of several guys getting attacked by animals in the woods. Anyone who saw only this trailer would never figure out by it that the movie is actually a romantic comedy, and that the forest scene barely takes up five minutes of the movie.
* The trailer for the original ''Film/{{Fame}}'' began by introducing the main characters and their motivations, saying "For Lisa, it's the dance." However, the clip shown of "Lisa" is actually another character (Hilary) and Lisa spends most of the film ''not'' being a dancer - fairly early on in the story, she is dropped from the dance department and switches her major to drama.
* The film ''Film/TheFamilyStone'' was advertised as a romantic comedy. It really isn't, being instead a family drama with a rather bittersweet angle. And while there's romance involved, it's not between the characters advertised in the trailer.
* Just about all of the marketing for ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'' promoted the car aspect and very little about the heist or the undercover cops. So if you came in expecting a movie about racing, prepare to be disappointed as that whole plot stops after the 30 minute mark.
** The trailer for ''Fast & Furious'' (as in the fourth movie of the franchise) includes a scene of Mia driving. While this does happen, it's a very minor thing and only for about a minute near the end of the movie.
** The trailer for ''Fate and the Furious'' implies that after Dom's (apparent) FaceHeelTurn, he and Hobbs will have an epic rematch with Hobbs announcing that whether the old Dom is still in there or not, he will take him down, over a scene where an armored reflects bullets with a riot shield, as Hobbs fires a belt fed assault rifle. [[spoiler: Not only are these shots from completely different scenes, but the two never directly fight each other in the whole movie.]]
** Speaking of Dom turning on his team/family, the trailers seem to imply that whether he has really betrayed them for Cypher and why are going to be big mysteries in the film. [[spoiler: In actuality, it is made clear to the audience that Dom is being extorted into turning on them from pretty much the beginning, even if for what is not initially made clear.]]
* Trailers for ''Film/TheFavourite'' only feature Queen Anne being quirky and high-strung, making no reference to the lesbian love triangle that the movie is actually about. There's a ''very'' brief shot of Anne and Abigail dancing, with no context whatsoever.
* The trailer for ''[[Film/{{Fearless 1993}} Fearless]]'' depicts an inspirational, life-affirming story of a man learning to live life to the fullest after surviving a catastrophe, complete with scenes of dancing and laughter set to Music/{{U2}}'s "Where the Streets Have No Name." In reality, the story is much darker in tone, focuses heavily on the grief of the survivors, and the protagonist [[DrivenToSuicide is definitely not a happy man.]]
* A TV spot for ''Film/FightClub'' portrayed it as a romantic comedy.
** Most ads for ''Fight Club'' made it look like an action movie all about fighting (and the name certainly seems to back it up). Many theatergoers likely skipped it because of this, and were probably miffed when they realized it was something they might have liked.
** Ironically, the author of the book stated in the foreword of a republishing of ''Fight Club'' that absolutely ''nobody'' noted that the novel was a romance; which in a really twisted way, it is.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheFighter'' makes you think that the film is going to quite similar to ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' with Creator/MarkWahlberg playing the Rocky character and Creator/ChristianBale being the Mickey/Paulie-type of character. Instead, it's a more depressing film where Wahlberg's character being TheWoobie and always putting with abuse from his family and trying to ruin anything that makes him happy. The boxing and rags to riches scenes come later but it ends up taking a back seat to the family drama not seen in the trailer.
* The original Italian trailer for ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' makes it look like Don Benito Rojo is laughing as he watches the Rojos' minions torture Joe. It's actually Esteban that does so in the film proper, with Don Benito serving more of a "good cop" role in the sequence. As for the clip of Don Benito laughing? It's actually from the scene where the Rojos annihilate the Baxters later on.
* Some of the trailers for [[Film/{{Flight}} Flight]] portrayed the movie as a quirky and uplifting drama about a heroic, but misunderstood, airline pilot defending himself against bogus accusations related to the dramatic emergency landing of his plane. In reality, the film is actually a very somber and sad drama about the horrible effects that alcoholism has on a person.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheForbiddenKingdom'' totally omitted the [[TrappedInAnotherWorld basic premise]] and ''[[MightyWhitey main character]]'' of the film in order to sell it as a typical {{wuxia}} film but with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It's not.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'' makes it look like ''Film/AmericanPie'' [[AC:with [[RecycledINSPACE STEVE CARRELL!]]]] Turns out the actual message of the movie is nearly the exact opposite.
** The message of the movie isn't revealed until right towards the very end, so the trailer isn't really lying.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheFounder'' depict it as an optimistic story about the creation of UsefulNotes/McDonalds, despite it being a rather cynical story about the title character taking the franchise from the [=McDonald=] brothers. It could be trying to ride on the coattails ''Film/HiddenFigures'', an ''actual'' feel-good true story.
* Trailers for ''Film/TheFountain'' make it look like an epic fantasy/sci-fi adventure, when in fact it is the tragic story of a man whose wife is dying of cancer. Anything supernatural that occurs is strongly implied to have taken place inside the heads of either the protagonist or his wife. [[note]]The film was originally going to be like this but its budget was hugely cut down. The film had a well-known graphic novel written beforehand that followed the sci-fi adventure plot[[/note]]
* Many of the commercials for ''Film/FourBrothers'' made it seem like a comedy, with a scene involving the death of a major character being taken out of context and PlayedForLaughs. The actual film was a ''very'' dark, gritty drama about a group of adopted siblings out for revenge against the man who murdered their foster mother, and the aforementioned scene was a tragic turning point in the story.
* The theatrical trailer to ''Film/FourChristmases'' made the film look like a ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld''-esque race to visit four families in time despite a canceled flight, when the actual premise of the movie is that they have to visit four families ''because'' of the canceled flight.
* ''Film/{{Fred}} 2: Night of the Living Fred''. Aside from a brief clip of Fred trick-or-treating and getting eggs dumped on him by Kevin (which was a flashback), Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}'s commercials for it were just made out of Fred's imagination sequences, making it seem like it was a BigDamnMovie about Fred battling vampires. It was actually [[spoiler: a cliched plot about Fred thinking his new music teacher is a vampire]], thoroughly disappointing 99% of the people who watched it the night it premiered.
* An infamous ''Film/FreddyVsJason'' trailer has the FinalGirl shouting "Place your bets!" dubbed over her actual line of "Welcome to my world, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]!".
** That line was taken from a deleted scene (which can be found on the DVD). So it might possibly have been an innocent mistake, depending on when the scene was deleted.
* The trailer for the first ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'' film shows several false scares in amongst the actual murders, counting up to 13. The narrator for the trailer for ''Film/FridayThe13thPart2'' hadn't seen the first movie and/or couldn't count: "[[LogicalFallacies On Friday the 13th, 1980, 12 of her friends were murdered. Why should Friday the 13th 1981 be any different?]]" (Only seven people, not including [[spoiler:Mrs. Voorhees]], were killed that night, and the film's subtitle clearly sets it in 1979, while the second is established as being set five years later.) Then the trailer counts on from 14 up to... 23. Cue FacePalm.
** On a related note, the 1981 horror-comedy ''Saturday the 14th'' was titled and marketed to make it sound like a parody of the above film series, but was a MonsterMash parody of Film/HammerHorror tropes.
* The trailer for ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' notably plays up the second half when the vampires show up and makes it seem like the group gets to the bar early on, even though it doesn't happen until midway through the film. Additionally, the trailer makes it look both Gecko brothers and the Fullers team up to protect themselves from the vampires. [[spoiler: Richie is actually the first to become bitten and eventually turned almost immediately when the vampires reveal themselves.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' shows a bunch of short clips of battle scenes with a man providing an update on the war, and a few other random scenes of soldiers walking around implying that this is simply another Vietnam War film (and not even a terribly good one at that). If you'd never heard of Stanley Kubrick before seeing his name in the trailer, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a crappy b-movie trying to cash in on the success of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' or ''Film/{{Platoon}}'' instead of an in-depth character study of how war causes people to gradually lose their humanity
** The trailers also show nothing but men on the field. The whole first half of the movie involving R. Lee Ermey as a drill instructor turning a group of recruits into marines is completely absent. It's even more ironic when you consider the fact that the half of the film which the trailer ignores ended up being ''more'' famous than the later battlefield sequences.
* TV spots for Judd Apatow's ''Film/FunnyPeople'' generally avoid (or at least vaguely hint at) Adam Sandler's fight with leukemia in the first half of the movie, and promotes as the typical feel-good comedy that you'd expect from the director of ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'' and ''Film/KnockedUp''. It's a lot more serious than what the commercials made it out to be.
** While trailers for ''Film/FunnyPeople'' keep the tone of a dramedy intact, they make the Leslie Mann relationship seem all too perfect for Adam Sandler and make Eric Bana seem like a total douche. This ''isn't'' true. They also exaggerate the romantic aspect with Mann's character, who is in about a third of the movie and somewhat downplay the relationship between Sandler and Rogen which makes up the bulk of the film.
** A far more grievous example from the trailer of ''Funny People'' was the implication that Adam Sandler's cancer would only take up the first half hour or so and be a device to set up his "new lease on life" pursuit of Leslie Mann. Instead, his battle with cancer is long enough to constitute an entire film on its own.
* The official trailer for ''Fun Size'' has a scene where Fuzzy chases Albert and yells "Come over here, you little bastard!". In the actual film, Fuzzy is actually a nice guy and never says that.
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[[folder:G]]
* The trailer for the 1981 film ''Film/GameOfDeath II'' is another really egregious example. It makes it look like Bruce Lee is the protagonist of the entire movie. In reality Bruce Lee appears only in the beginning of the film in the form of stock footage (he had died well before this movie even started production), and his character dies quickly. The rest of the film has no Bruce Lee whatsoever.
* The theatrical trailer for ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'' depicts it as a fast-paced action-thriller by constantly recycling a shot from the single moment of violence in the film, when Jerome punches a policeman while fleeing; it also includes virtually no footage of the film's third star, Jude Law, who is roughly as important to the plot as Ethan Hawke's character. There is no indication that the film is actually a slow, meditative exploration of bioethics and genetic cloning.
* The trailer for Georgia Rule made the film out to be a fun family comedy about inter generational bonding. While there are some comedic moments, the movie was mostly a very dark family drama with HEAVY subject matter. Namely, the question of whether or not Lindsay Lohan's character was repeatedly raped by her stepfather between the ages of 12 and 14.
* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 2016}}'':
** There was some controversy over the initial trailer, as it made Patty look like a cliche SassyBlackWoman whose only contribution to the team was "street smarts" or some similar stereotype. While Patty does have some SassyBlackWoman traits, they're greatly toned down, and she's actually a much more intelligent character than the trailers made her out to be. The fact that she's a {{Bookworm}} with an extensive knowledge of New York's history and architecture is very relevant to the plot, but the trailers failed to highlight this, giving off the aforementioned offensive undertones. Even Creator/MelissaMcCarthy said she felt the trailer wasn't representative of the actual movie.
** The first trailer also deliberately mischaracterized the film as a sequel to the original franchise, via text implying that the events that took place 30 years prior are canon with it (in tandem with a shot of the original firehouse). In the film itself, the original actors ([[ActorExistenceFailure with the exception of Harold Ramis]]) appear as unrelated cameos as different characters, while the firehouse isn't actually used as the team's base until the very end of the film, when they finally get enough money/notoriety to purchase it.
* ''Film/{{Gigli}}'' was made out to be a light-hearted rom-com when it's really a very dark comedy.
* The trailer for ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' implied that Cobra's attack on the Eiffel Tower would happen early in the movie and that the G. I. Joe team would then be formed in response to that attack. In the actual film, the Joe team is fully assembled well before the Eiffel Tower attack, which happens roughly halfway through the movie following a lengthy action scene as the Joe team chases the Cobra operatives through the streets of Paris in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the attack.
* The producers of ''Film/GirlInterrupted'' did their damndest to make a grim drama about mental illness, [[spoiler:sexual abuse, and suicide]] look like [[https://youtu.be/5BHHUBZf7y4 a heart-warming, feel-good story]].
* In something of a repeat of the ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' situation, ''Film/TheGiver'''s trailers made it look like a brainless action movie only made to cash in on the success of the likes of ''Film/TheHungerGames'' and ''Film/{{Divergent}}''. It's actually much closer to [[Literature/TheGiver the book's story]].
* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'':
** The teaser trailer is made up entirely of original footage. There's no centipede monster, Las Vegas is shown smashed in broad daylight instead of San Francisco, the train is wrecked in Honolulu, and Godzilla is revealed in a pan-up shot in darkness, not a FaceRevealingTurn in a smoke cloud (though there's a similar shot in Chinatown during the climax). Although this teaser was not meant to be released to the public, some parts ''did'' make it into later trailers (like the shot of hundreds of dead people scattered about near a destroyed train), but the multi-legged monster was never supposed to be featured and was explicitly made up for the teaser.
** The "send us back to the stone age" comment refers to the EMP coming from what used to be the Janjira NPP, not Godzilla - and most of the scenes of destruction are wreaked by the [=MUTO=]s, not Godzilla himself. This was meant to hide the fact that there were other monsters (despite it having been revealed in early reports) and that Godzilla is more of a heroic character.
** Elle does not say "You're scaring me" at any point in the phone call with Ford.
** Ford Brody's "Can we kill it?" line does not occur with Serizawa and Serizawa is talking to Admiral Stenz with his above quote.
** Almost every trailer focused prominently on Creator/BryanCranston's character and only showed fleeting glimpses of Creator/AaronJohnson. Actually, Johnson is the main human character and [[spoiler:Cranston is killed off early on]].
* The trailer for ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' had a narrator with [[PunctuatedForEmphasis annoying diction]] continually blurting out, "The Good... The Bad... and the UGLY" over footage of the three title characters. Unfortunately, because the original Italian title ('Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo') translates literally as 'The Good, The Ugly, The Bad', Angel Eyes and Tuco were swapped in the trailer, making poor Lee Van Cleef appear to be the 'ugly'. Creator/EliWallach must have been flattered.
* ''Film/GoodByeLenin'' was marketed on being a comedy with the outrageous concept of the main character making it appear the Communist world never fell for his ailing mother. In reality, it's an arthouse movie with dark humor in between the genuine drama of the son's Byzantine schemes.
* The initial TV ads for ''Film/GoodLuckChuck'' place all of their emphasis on Creator/JessicaAlba's clumsiness, making the movie out to be a slapstick romantic comedy. The titular "good luck" curse that drives the movie, where any woman he has sex with meets her "true love" soon after, is never mentioned. They did eventually start running commercials that focused on the curse, though.
* The 2006 movie ''Film/TheGoodShepherd'' pined the movie as a deep look into the history of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, better known as the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}, including scenes of supposed espionage underway. Really much of the movie is about the personal life of Edward Wilson (Creator/MattDamon [[Film/TheBourneSeries of all people]]) his various affairs with women and his struggling marriage. And he just happened to find a secretive agency that spends most of its time trying to decipher a mysterious video. [[EndingFatigue The movie is well over two hours long!]]
* Rarely does the leading pig in ''Film/{{Gordy}}'' actually speak, but the trailer makes it seem [[TalkingAnimal like he speaks throughout the movie]].
* [[https://youtu.be/lfokH6v4aOM This]] trailer for ''Film/GosfordPark'' makes it look like a comedic whodunit rather than a dramatic movie about the British class system.
* ''Film/GrandmasBoy2006'' was marketed in the trailer as being about a slacker who lived with his grandma and smokes weed with his stoner friend and pet monkey. Hilarious antics of the trio would presumably ensue. In reality, the film focused on the character's job as a video game tester, which appeared nowhere in the trailer. Stoner antics turn out to be quite limited.
* Some TV spots for ''Film/GranTorino'' make you think it's about a GrumpyOldMan becoming a vigilante, as aggressive as [[Film/DirtyHarry another]] Creator/ClintEastwood role. If you don't count "saving" a girl from assaulting gangsters, only in the final minutes he does ForGreatJustice acts.
* In the trailer for ''Film/TheGreatMuppetCaper'', Gonzo exclaims "I think I've got a picture of the thief," and then we see a photo of Miss Piggy, followed by Lady Holiday exclaiming "Miss Piggy stole my necklace!" This obviously implies that the photo is what gets Piggy WrongfullyAccused. Actually, Piggy is framed when the stolen necklace is planted in her coat pocket, her picture is part of her modeling portfolio that she shows to Lady Holiday in an earlier scene, and Gonzo's picture is of the real thief, Nicky.
* The trailer for the ''Film/TheGreenHornet'' makes it seem (by splicing unrelated scenes together) that Kato builds the [[CoolCar Black Beauty]] for Britt's father. Britt then supposedly decides to put on a mask and become the Green Hornet to avenge his father's death. In fact, Kato only builds the car ''after'' Britt suggests becoming superheroes, and it is made clear that the father dies of [[spoiler:a bee sting, until the end when it is revealed he was actually murdered]].
* The trailer for ''Film/GreenZone'' implies a Bourne-style thriller, with the government trying to take Matt Damon's character out as part of a cover-up. This is done through changing the context of lines: "I know what you did" is actually [[spoiler: a line at the end of the movie]] and the line "Take that son of a bitch out!" is actually referring to someone else.
* Rare example of this being done for a movie that doesn't exist: One of the fake trailers in ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'', entitled "Don't!", is filmed so that you never hear the characters talking, and wouldn't know they were British. Many horror films of the '70s were marketed to Americans in this way.
* The trailers for the live action adaptation of ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' portray the film as a high budget historical sci-fi flick set in Edo period Japan, complete with serious narration and dramatic acting. Until the trailer ends and the words "It's a comedy" appear on screen overlaid on decidedly undramatic scenes of chasing beetles and picking noses.
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[[folder:H]]
* The 2014 film by Creator/BrettRatner ''Film/{{Hercules|2014}}'' [[http://io9.com/brett-ratners-hercules-is-a-lie-dont-fall-for-it-1610881361 has taken the Trope to all-new levels]] (and the article even mentions Wiki/TVTropes!)
** For those not reading the article: The trailers heavily focused on the CGI monster battles, to the point that a few of the internet trailers were nothing ''but'' that. In the actual movie these all happen in a montage only lasting a few minutes that all cut before violence really happens. And since it happens at the beginning of the film, a few people walking in late missed what they'd paid to see. The rest of the film is an original tail of what Hercules did after the twelve labors (never mind that already covered by the original myths) that simultaneously [[{{Demythification}} demythifies]] the original story. A viewer simply would not have known that that's what they were getting into and people clearly responded with more enthusiasm to the monster battle filled story that what was actually presented. It makes you wonder if they should have gone to the marketing department before they wrote the script.
* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'':
** The ''Film/HalloweenResurrection'' trailer made it seem like Laurie was in the house with the teenagers and would turn out to be a main protagonist in the plot. In the actual film, [[spoiler: she dies in the first ten minutes or so, due to an out-of-character amount of IdiotBall. The moment in the trailer when she greets Michael is taken from this sequence, which occurs at a mental asylum and not in the Myers house, and deceptively juxtaposed by the trailer with scenes involving the teenagers.]]
** Surprisingly subverted with ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'', [[CanonDiscontinuity the one Halloween film that doesn't feature Michael Myers]]. Plot synopses don't even try to make you think Michael Myers is there, and while a mask is featured in the teaser trailer and the poster/video cover, it's not the iconic mask worn by Michael.
* ''Film/{{Hancock}}'' is either the saddest comedy ever or ''not a comedy at all''.
** While it has definite comedic moments, it is not nearly the action comedy that the trailers implied it would be, thanks to the HalfwayPlotSwitch. The DVD art (giving an additional billing that wasn't there in the theatrical run) and later TV spots blatantly give this away.
* The trailer for the 1998 Creator/ToddSolondz film ''Happiness'' makes it look like a quirky romantic comedy. The film is anything BUT.
** Given how inappropriate the trailer is, it's likely this was intentional.
* ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy'' was advertised as a funny {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} romp. Then in the second act, it basically became a kid-friendly version of ''{{Literature/Carrie}}''.
* ''Film/HarryPotter'':
** The promotion of ''Chamber of Secrets'' seemed to really love Dobby, despite him being onscreen for ''no more than fifteen minutes'' of a ''two and a half hour film''. Apparently, Warner Bros.' marketing department decided kids love funny [=CGI=] characters and almost went so far as to made it look like Dobby would be the new movie's PluckyComicRelief. Instead, it just made reporters loudly raise the issue of whether or not Dobby was going to be the next [[Franchise/StarWars Jar Jar Binks]].
** The third film's trailer makes Harry's line "I hope he finds me, 'cause when he does I'm gonna be ready!" look like a BadassBoast. The actual scene has Harry go on to say, "When he does, I'm gonna kill him!" and it's actually about Harry slipping into a RevengeBeforeReason mindset.
** The line that "magic will spread from their world into our own" -- indicating that the Muggle world would feature prominently in ''Harry Potter 6'' -- in fact, Muggles play into only the first five minutes, and then we're back to the Wizarding world.
** In a minor example, countless TV spots for ''Deathly Hallows Part 1'' took Dobby's line "I like her very much" and used editing to make it look he's talking about Hermione. In the actual movie, the line refers to Luna.
** Another ''Deathly Hallows Part 1'' example: The movie channel with the rights to air it is showing trailers composed at least eighty percent of material from ''Part 2'' instead.
** David Thewlis, who plays Lupin in the HP movies, put together a [[https://youtu.be/zXzdDRnWFqs fake trailer]] for Harry Potter as a teen comedy romance.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheHatefulEight'' painted the film an action-packed and comedic western with quirky characters and snappy dialogue, similar to Creator/QuentinTarantino's [[Film/DjangoUnchained previous offering]]. The movie itself does have some pretty funny moments and a fair amount of action, but in general it's ''extremely'' dark and disturbing, more accurately described as a horror movie set in the old west than a true western. The humor showcased in the trailer is really just the comic relief used to break up the soul-crushing tone, not a representation of the movie by any stretch of the imagination.
* The TV spots for Creator/StevenSoderbergh's ''Film/{{Haywire}}'' depicted it as being like the director's ''Film/OceansEleven''. It is much darker and more action/drama-oriented than that film. This may have been the reason for the film's big CriticalDissonance.
* This was certainly the case with Music/TheMonkees' 1968 film ''Film/{{Head}}''. [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent Rather than a movie-length episode]] of the band's [[Series/TheMonkees TV series]], which the fans would have expected, ''Head'' was a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible strange, surrealistic, absurdist]] [[CerebusSyndrome Grand Statement]] about the band's manufactured image, mass media and rampant consumerism, with subtle anti-war messages scattered throughout. By the same token, it did feature to some degree the Monkees' madcap humor and an assortment of musical selections by the band, and [[Music/FrankZappa numerous]] [[Creator/TeriGarr guest]] [[Creator/AnnetteFunicello stars]]. An [[DadaAd avant-garde, minimalistic, black-and-white, dialogue-free TV commercial]] [[https://youtu.be/La0RsMB3MTU showing PR man John Brockman]] with the word "HEAD" appearing on his forehead in the last few seconds was shown, advertising the movie, with no mention of the Monkees (or the fact it was for a movie) at all. Predictably, the movie bombed, being too surreal for the band's teen demographic, while the presence of the already unfashionable Monkees alienated the counterculture. The movie [[VindicatedByCable won a new audience]] by TheNineties after repeated midnight movie showings on cable and its release on video.
* The trailer for ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' implied via context that HB and the BPRD fight a stone giant. In the actual movie, the giant is just a doorway.
* The trailers for ''Film/HighlanderEndgame'' (the fourth ''Franchise/{{Highlander}}'' film and the first one to be based on the TV series) featured footage that depicted the main antagonist with supernatural powers and abilities he never uses in the film (opening magic portals, stopping a sword mid-air with telekinesis, making duplicates of himself), making him look more powerful than he actually was; WordOfGod is these scenes were never intended to make it into the film and were only shot for the trailer. The trailer suggested Connor and Duncan would team up to fight the villain two-on-one, or there would be more scenes where they would fight as a team.
* ''Film/TheHistoryBoys'' is primarily about a group of working-class boys trying for Oxford and Cambridge, and their teachers' struggle between different schools of teaching. The trailer treated this as a shiny, happy coming-of-age story. To be fair, all this is important, but it ALSO leaves out a major chunk of the film dealing with homosexuality, which is what most viewers actually take from it.
* Parodied by [[https://youtu.be/hyzN7R9t4uI one of the trailers]] for ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. The trailer is set up as the in-universe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy entry on movie trailers, detailing tricks that most movie trailers make use of, which do not appear in the actual movie, implying the movie would be more clever, which of course it wasn't.
** Often, this section is preceded by the words "[[InAWorld In a world]]"....''[Earth explodes]''....but sometimes not.
** Trailers also normally employ '''[[Creator/DonLaFontaine A DEEP VOICE]] that sounds like a seven foot tall man who has been smoking cigarettes since childhood'''.
** The goal is to create a piece of advertising that is original and exciting, yet intelligent and provocative. In other words: [[StuffBlowingUp lots of things blowing up]]. ''[cue montage of explosions from other movies]'' Occasionally interrupted [[MsFanservice by a girl in a bikini]].
* The trailers for the movie version of ''Film/{{Hitman}}'' heavily implied a religious angle that is completely absent from the film itself. The trailer narrator even blatantly lied with a claim that the protagonist was "raised by an exiled brotherhood of the Church" while showing what turns out to be a perfectly normal funeral service in a Russian Orthodox Church.
* The entire ad campaign for ''Film/HollywoodHomicide'' had no idea how to sell the film. The U.S. trailer was reasonably close to the tone of the movie, however it focused only on the rap murders and Calden wanting to take acting. Calden's acting is a minor subplot. That trailer had no mention of Gavilan's real estate subplot (a more prominent subplot), the internal affairs investigation or the fact that the main characters had secondary jobs. And just to add insult to injury, alternate takes were used to make the film funnier and much of the last 20 minutes is shown to make it seem action-packed. For the international campaign, the film was sold as a straight action movie (which it REALLY isn't), complete with a trailer that played up the action and sex scenes. The film has relatively little action and only two sex scenes, one of which is Harrison Ford chomping a doughnut mid-coitus... The TV ads for both campaigns didn't help either.
* The trailer in ''Film/{{Hook}}'' has it look like a slasher film, but it's more about the adventures of a now adult Literature/PeterPan.
* The earliest trailer for ''Film/{{Hop}}'' featured nothing more than a rabbit playing the drums. There was no indication of the plot, the character's identity, or ''anything else'' about the film. The only slight hint came in the form of the title image, the word "hop" inside of an egg shape, which thinly suggested an Easter theme.
* The trailer(s) for ''Film/HotFuzz'' give the impression it's an action movie with lots of guns and explosions. It isn't, as it is a parody of those movies, meaning this could probably count as a subversion.
** Well, they at least made it clear that the film was heavy on comedy.
** It is a notable lie in that the trailers make the film look much more lighthearted and zany, with most of it focusing on Nick Frost's antics. In reality, it's an incredibly dark and disturbing black comedy with several moments of NightmareFuel.
* Nick's best line in the trailer for ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'', re: his fetish for ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', isn't in the movie.
* One TV spot for the live action ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' movie contained a scene with Cindy Lou Who encountering the Grinch saying, "Santa Claus?" in which the Grinch replies: "I'm certainly not the Grinch, if that's what you're thinking."
* The trailer for ''Film/HudsonHawk'' makes it more like a fairly standard action-comedy, which does not come close to representing the sheer lunacy of the film overall.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' depicts it as a family adventure film about the adventures of a young boy and girl in a train station putting together an automaton along with a lot of slapstick as the "evil" Station Inspector tries to catch them and gets thwarted in humourous ways. In reality while it was a family-friendly film with some elements of adventure and some comedy (including a bit of slapstick), it was also a very clever tribute to the beginnings of cinema.
** The trailers built up the Station Inspector as evil. In actuality, while he is the closest thing in the movie to an antagonist and and does cause quite a bit of trouble for Hugo, the film does at least make it clear that he's just doing his job. He even gets a romantic sub-plot and [[spoiler: [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns his happy ending]]]].
* ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' also had a misleading marketing campaign that made it seem like it was going to be a big, loud action extravaganza. Many moviegoers were disappointed to learn that the actual film was mostly a drama about a father and son, which just happened to have a few big action scenes to break up the dramatic bits. This is often cited as one of the reasons for ''Hulk'''s financial failure, as audiences who went in expecting a traditional superhero movie in the vein of ''Film/SpiderMan'' or ''Film/XMen1'' ended up being bored to tears.
* The suspense thriller ''Film/{{Hush}}'' had a trailer of the 'includes scenes shot but eventually cut from the final version' variety. Images which appeared included an overhead shot down a spiral staircase of a body being taken away on a gurney under a sheet; a shot which implied the son confronted his mother about her sinister doings; an all-out fight scene between Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange with shards of a broken mirror; and a climactic battle in a burning barn, complete with rearing horses and a collapsing hayloft. ''None of this happens at all in the film.'' Even if the makers are telling the truth about it being cut, it's obvious they made the most of their product seeming to be an action movie. It's hard to tell whether including the GenreShift would have improved or ruined the original movie or not.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:I]]
* ''Film/TheIceHarvest'', directed by Harold Ramis, was marketed as a comedy, playing up Creator/BillyBobThornton's ''Film/BadSanta'' fame. The movie itself is more of a drama/thriller.
* The trailers for ''Film/InBruges'' make it sound like a harmless little comedy about fugitives. It really, ''really'' isn't. Some trailers for the film refer to it as an action-comedy. What does that say?
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Inception}}'' had the main character claim he wanted to steal an idea, but the movie is actually about him planting one. The final trailer for the movie begins with these lines: "There's something you should know about me. I specialize in a very specific type of security... subconscious security." These lines are a perfect choice to explain the premise of the movie, but they're also an example of this trope because [[spoiler:they're a big fat lie, told to the recipient of the implanted idea [[BatmanGambit to get him to cooperate.]]]]
** It also grievously misrepresents the tone of the movie, making it look like a SummerBlockbuster. The actual film is much deeper and more intellectual, action sequences notwithstanding. It is a Chris Nolan film after all.
** The concept of "inception" is explained in the trailer like this: "We create the world of the dream. We bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their secret. Then you break in and steal it. It's called 'inception'". In the movie, this is actually the concept of "extraction", "inception" is an opposite process.
** Ariadne's dream where she rolls the city of Paris up like a taco is emphasized in the trailers, but in the movie doesn't affect the plot at all.
* Trailers for ''Film/IndependenceDay'' depict Creator/WillSmith's character saying "Welcome to Earth!" just as he is throwing a punch at an alien. In the actual movie, he says it seconds ''after'' punching it.
* Trailers for ''Film/TheInformant2009'' made you think it was a goofy, satirical comedy about a dumb, bumbling, inept paper-pusher who keeps trying and failing to inform on his company to the government. In reality, it's based on the true story of a very smart but socially-inept man who [[spoiler: successfully informs on his company to the government, later admits to embezzling over $9 million (or maybe $11 million), and pathologically lies to everyone]]. While the film has some laughs, it's not screwball at all beyond what's in the trailer, and the randomly hilarious narrations and mood dissonance over the film becomes a FunnyAneurysmMoment [[spoiler: when we learn that the narrations and behavior of Mark Whitacre were a result of bipolar disorder and a scumbag-level of brilliant scheming.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' has a minor example in that it implies a direct confrontation between Brad Pitt's character and Hitler; the more glaring example would be that they paid minimal attention to the "theatre-owner's revenge" plot, instead focusing on the squad's scalp-happy shenanigans.
** As a reminder that TropesAreNotBad, the theatre-owner's revenge plot does give much-deserved screen time to Landa & Dreyfuss and [[spoiler:proves to be more successful than the Basterds' plot]].
** A ''much'' bigger example is how the trailer makes the film out to be a World War II-themed spaghetti western following a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits a ragtag bunch of Jewish-American soldiers led by a loose-cannon hillbilly]] on a mission to assassinate Hitler. [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot You may be somewhat disappointed to find that the film is actually]] a very character and dialogue driven cat-and-mouse game between a [[BestServedCold vengeful]] French-Jewish woman and an AffablyEvil MagnificentBastard Waffen SS guy, with the crazy US soldiers in the back as a comic relief B-plot and the action sequences both few and far between and very short.
* ''Film/TheInternational'''s trailer basically marketed it as a fast-paced action movie. It's neither fast-paced or an action movie, though there is one notable and very acclaimed action sequence. The final line in the trailer is also grossly taken out of context.
* The first trailer for ''Film/IntoTheWoods'' took an approach similar to ''[[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' by hiding the fact it's a musical. Later trailers showed the actors' singing. Interestingly, the trailers emphasize the darker aspects over the comedy, the opposite of how Disney handled the trailers for ''[[Disney/{{Frozen}} Frozen]]'' and ''[[Disney/{{Tangled}} Tangled]]''.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheInvisible'' makes it seem like a dead boy is solving his own murder, according to what the other dead guy says. ''Strangely enough'', the other dead guy isn't even in the movie.
* As Creator/WilliamGoldman tells it, this happened to him with ''Invitation to Happiness''. Trailer: A tough boxing match - fifteen to twenty seconds. Something every action fan would love. Movie: Lots and lots of smooching. Twenty-three kisses, he counted 'em. Yes, the boxing bit also was in it - but no more than was in the trailer.
* ''Film/TheIronLady'''s trailer suggests that the film is about the political career of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher. The actual film is 1/3 about the political career of Margaret Thatcher and 2/3 about Thatcher as an old lady with crippling mental illness, haunted by the memory of her late husband. Whoever cut together the trailer correctly identified which part audiences ended up enjoying more.
* ''Film/ItComesAtNight'' was advertised as a horror film, with the implication that the protagonists were living in fear of creatures of some kind that had destroyed civilization. However, the film proper is a post-apocalyptic drama [[spoiler: and the protagonists are actually hiding from a virus that has ravaged the planet, rather than monsters]].
* ''Film/IWantSomeoneToEatCheeseWith'' has a trailer which looks like a standard romantic comedy between Jeff Garlin's and Sarah Silverman's characters. [[spoiler:After using him for a one-night stand, she's gone from the movie]].
* ''I Origins'': in the trailer, Michael Pitt's voiceover says "I'd like to tell you the story of the eyes that changed this world." In the film, however, the line is [[spoiler:"changed ''my'' world." Only one word, but kind of a different meaning!]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:J]]
* [[http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2544999680/tt0116669 The posters]] for ''[[Film/{{Jack1996}} Jack]]'' are all pictures of a happy guy with little kiddy writing. Quite inappropriate really, for a movie that is about a kid who, at the end of the film, [[spoiler: is graduating from high school at apparently 72 years old, and will in all likelihood be dead in a couple years]].
* The trailers depict ''Film/JackTheGiantSlayer'' as being a campy family comedy instead of the dark action film that it really is. It's possible Warner Bros. did this to avoid people claiming that Singer copied ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' series.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Jarhead}}'' make it out to be a fast-paced, gritty war movie full of explosions and heroics (several scenes in the trailer are not present in the film). This is an JustForFun/{{egregious}} example as the entire point of ''Jarhead'' is that the platoon ''never'' sees direct action, and nobody dies. The most dramatic scene in the movie is a standoff with a handful of nomads... and it ends peacefully. Interestingly enough, the DirectToVideo sequel was exactly the type of movie that the trailer made the first film out to be: a fast-paced, gritty war film with plenty of explosions and heroics.
* This was a big part of the reason why ''Film/JennifersBody'' bombed. The film was made as a feminist horror-comedy about rape culture and a toxic RomanticTwoGirlFriendship that director Karyn Kusama and writer Creator/DiabloCody intended chiefly for young women, but the posters and trailers for it sold a campy sex romp about Creator/MeganFox as a [[GirlOnGirlIsHot bisexual]] AlphaBitch {{succubus}}, aiming it at straight young men to the point of alienating the audience it was actually made for. [[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/jennifers-body-diablo-cody-karyn-kusama-feminist-horror Kusama said]] that she knew the film was doomed the moment she started speaking to the marketing team; the posters featured Fox in a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule skimpy schoolgirl outfit]], and one particularly bad idea that they came up with to promote the film (which was thankfully vetoed) was to have Fox host ''an amateur porn site''. It would be years before the film was [[VindicatedByHistory rediscovered]].
* The third trailer for ''Film/JohnCarter'' made the embarrassing choice of using dubstep and added in a line from Deja Thoris that hinted at a plot element about the risk of both Mars and Earth being destroyed. [[BoxOfficeBomb The film didn't do so well at the box office]], so Disney were probably forcing the failure a little too hard.
* ''Film/TheJudge'' was promoted as an edge of your seat suspense thriller during the trailer. However, the film is more so a SliceOfLife film about a man returning to a small town where he grew up and dealing with unresolved issues with family and a past girlfriend. Many critics were disappointed.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Juno}}'' focused on Paulie Bleeker, Michael Cera's character and the father of Juno's baby and barely showed Juno at all. The film itself focused much more on Juno herself, with Bleeker simply featured as a supporting character. This probably came as a result of trying to capitalize on the momentum of Michael Cera, who had a StarMakingRole in ''Film/{{Superbad}}'', which opened a few months before ''Juno.''
* While it was among the {{Missing Trailer Scene}}s, the final trailer for ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'' had a bit where [[spoiler:Clark noticed the engagment ring he'd intended to give Lois is ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' and framed it as [[IWasHavingSuchANiceDream a dream]] a still-grieving Lois was having. In truth, given their clothes, it was clear that it was part of their reunion after the League brings Clark back.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:K]]
* ''Film/KangarooJack'' was marketed with scenes of a wisecracking, talking, rapping kangaroo who appears only during a [[DreamSequence hallucination]] had by one of the main characters. The title kangaroo does not talk, and the film is not as kid-friendly as one would assume from the trailer.
** Also spawned a serious case of [[CriticalResearchFailure research failure]] in amateur film critics, many of whom blasted the film as "another kid movie about talking animals." Anyone who saw the movie can tell you it is neither kid-friendly nor about talking animals. Ironically, there was a DirectToVideo animated sequel where the kangaroo ''did'' talk, by means of a magic spell.
** The dream sequence in question is, in fact, a BigLippedAlligatorMoment that was added at the end of production specifically so it could be used in the trailer. The poster for the movie also shows the kangaroo wearing clothes and sunglasses and acting very human. Basically, the studio was afraid that they had a bomb on their hands with this film, so they made a crass, calculated, last-ditch effort to salvage the film by selling it to the public as a children's film (which actually worked somewhat as the film managed to do reasonable business at the box-office and a sequel was later made) Some of the dialogue was redubbed to be more kid-friendly, too. There's a running gag where everyone keeps calling the main character "chickenshit." In the final film, this was changed to "chicken blood."
** The kangaroo in question even [[LampshadeHanging complains about this]] at the end of the film.
** This was pointed out by Creator/DougWalker in his WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic review of the film:
-->So it's revealed that this nightmare fuel is actually a nightmare, but that won't stop advertisers from putting it in every trailer, making every kid think it's about a rapping kangaroo.
* If you saw only the Green Band trailers for ''Film/KickAss'', you might be thinking that it's a fun, whimsical Kid Fu-type movie to take the children to see. And here's something else you'd be: '''[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids Wrong.]]''' Seriously, do ''not'' let the kiddies see this one; they'll be scarred for life, if not very badly influenced by [[TykeBomb Hit-Girl]]. There were complaints about the strong language, sexual references and off-the-charts gruesome violence from clueless parents who brought their children to the movie, in spite of its having "Ass" right in the title and a prominently-displayed "R" rating. Trailers for ''Film/KickAss2'', however, were much more clearly indicative of what sort of movie it was.
* At the end of the first ''Film/KillBill'', [[ActionGirl the Bride]] takes on the Crazy 88s in a scene which is shown [[BlackBlood in black and white]] to avoid an NC-17 rating, and also as a homage to earlier bloodier films shown in black and white for the same reason. The trailer, however, has clips of this scene in color, showing that it wasn't filmed in black and white.
* The trailer for ''Film/KillerElite'' depicts the film as a violent action film where Creator/JasonStatham and Creator/CliveOwen are trying to kill each other to get to Creator/RobertDeNiro's character (with the tagline "May the best man win"). Though the actual film is still rather violent, it is actually an espionage thriller about a retired hitman having to kill three SAS agents as part of a revenge plot planned by a sheikh. Owen's character is a government agent whose job is to watch him and his associates every move.
* The trailer for ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'' shows a long clip of a sex scene with Orlando Bloom, no doubt luring some female fans into the cinemas expecting a longer version of the scene. In actual fact, the couple of seconds we see in the trailer are probably even longer than what actually appears in the movie.
* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'':
** Mildly. The trailer makes it seem like "He's as much Kingsman material as any of them" refer to Eggsy, but in the movie Harry is actually talking about the recently-deceased Lancelot. The trailers in general downplay just how balls-to-the-wall the film is and make it look more serious.
** BigBad Valentine never says "Humanity is a virus, and I am the cure" in the film itself, though it does sum up his motives. He does say "I guarantee it" and "Do I look like I give a fuck?", but neither of them are in response to being told "millions of people will die."
** The trailer makes it look like the church melee occurs when Valentine activates the SIM cards around the rest of the world, when it actually occurs much earlier as a test run. [[spoiler: It also seems to imply that Harry hasn't been affected by the signal and is just trying to fight off the crazed churchgoers, when in actuality he ''is'' affected and winds up causing most of the casualties in the entire brawl]]. Earlier trailers before the final one even gave the impression that the churchgoers were Valentine's minions [[spoiler:rather than a crowd under the effect of a HatePlague.]]
* In the Creator/NicolasCage movie ''Film/{{Knowing}}'', trailers presented viewers with a question: if you knew when and where a disaster was going to happen, could you stop it? It promised a film about a hero deciding what he was willing to sacrifice in order to save strangers from events only he knew were coming. Instead, it becomes a head against wall moment when the list of dates and locations (and body counts) turned out to be [[AbortedArc entirely pointless]] and the movie ends with [[HigherTechSpecies benevolent]] [[AssPull aliens]] loading up [[LastOfHisKind humans and animals]] into [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture space arks]] to save them from an unavoidable [[ApocalypseHow Class 6 apocalypse]].
* The trailer for ''Film/KungFuHustle'' faithfully showed lots of action scenes, which was, after all, what the movie was about. Of course, it did show those scenes to the song "Ballroom Blitz" and never allowed a line of dialogue to be heard, meaning that not till you've bought your ticket and were in the seat did you find out that the movie is in Chinese.
** They later dubbed the movie.
* ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'' had commercials in which several epic battle scenes were shown. However some of them were just a teaser for the sequel (which has yet to be released, if it ever will) after the end credits and never had any impact on the real movie plot. In reality though they were just deleted scenes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:L]]
* Creator/MNightShyamalan's ''Film/LadyInTheWater'', while marketed as a horror movie, is actually a semi-metafictional fantasy story with only a few moments of suspense. This was also true for another of his films, ''Film/TheVillage''. Its trailers present it as a scary horror film while in truth it's nothing but a drama/love story movie. [[spoiler: Albeit with a couple of Shyamalan's trademark twists.]]
* ''Film/LaLaLand'' has several examples of this:
** The trailer implies that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's characters fall in LoveAtFirstSight, showing a clip of them instantly kissing. The clip in question is taken from [[spoiler:a dream sequence at the end of the film, after both characters have agreed to end their relationship]].
** The trailer shows what is apparently Sebastian honking his horn outside Mia's apartment, to which her roommate asks if he does that often and she replies in the affirmative. While Sebastian does do the same trick, the context of the first clip is very different in the finished product - [[spoiler:he's honking the horn near the Boulder City library so he can find her, after she leaves L.A. in shame when her one-woman play seemingly bombs]].
** The filmmakers also subverted this in a quick shot from the trailer. A clip is shown of Sebastian and Mia walking down an L.A. street at night, hand-in-hand, as they pass a busy jazz club. The scene is in the film... [[spoiler:but with Ryan Gosling replaced with Tom Everett Scott, who plays Mia's husband in the epilogue. The scene was reshot to preserve the twist]].
* The teaser for the 2016 Finnish horror movie ''Film/LakeBodom'''s as well as its official synopsis, heavily implied that the movie would be about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bodom_murders the 1960 murders]] that took place at Lake Bodom in Finland. The movie is actually set in 2016, and besides the location any link to the murder case is left up to interpretation.
* The trailer for the Korean disaster movie ''The Last Days'' features a huge tsunami smashing through the city of Pusan and causing untold destruction. Truly, something that wouldn't have looked out of place in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve''. What the trailer doesn't tell you is that, to watch those (very) few minutes of {{scenery gorn}}, you'll first have to sit through almost an hour and a half of Korean {{dramedy}} of [[{{Narm}} dubious value]].
* The trailer for ''Film/TheLastHouseOnDeadEndStreet'' may be made of pure NightmareFuel, but it is neither ''Film/TheExorcist'' clone it appears to be or even connected to ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' at all.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' remake make it sound like the parents get their revenge on [[RapeAsDrama their daughter's attackers]] as in the original; they're not (except for Krug at the very end). A case where even the ''tagline'' lied!
* An international example: Michaelangelo Antonioni's ''Film/LAvventura'' is a very slow, high-concept, epic-length Italian film about a girl disappears and her friends being so empty inside that they have no remorse and merely get with each other to fill the void that the missing girl left (friend, lover). This is a film so difficult that it was BOOED AT CANNES. If you had only the trailer to go on, you'd boo it too, as the promotional clip makes it appear to be some sort of sexy, breeze romantic comedy, instead of the extensive, meandering ennui you get.
* As American Football is not a very popular sport in the UK, trailers for ''Film/{{Leatherheads}}'' completely disguised the fact that it is a sports movie, which leaves the title very, very bizarre. Some people thought it was about barnstormers and the name was a reference to flying helmets...
** As to not alienate anyone who isn't a fan of football, most of the TV ads in the US solely focused on portraying it as a wacky period rom-com. Unfortunately, that meant football fans were not enticed by the romantic angle, the ladies were not enticed by the early-1900s football setting, and the film flopped.
* Trailers for ''Film/TheLegendOfTarzan'' made it look like an origin story instead of the ''Film/DancesWithWolves''-type film it actually was, and oddly downplayed the fact that Creator/SamuelLJackson is in the movie.
* ''Film/LesMiserables2012'' had TV spots that didn't let on the film was a musical. The first theatrical teaser trailer suspiciously doesn't use clips of any of the cast singing, apart from "I Dreamed A Dream," and even the later trailer, which features more singing, features a disproportionate amount of spoken dialogue, which only amounts to snippets in the actual movie. As a result, many people not familiar with the stage show didn't realise that the film was sung the whole way through. Anne Hathaway was also given third billing despite having about twenty minutes worth of screen time in the 150 minute epic.
** To even further this idea, some TV spots featured an unused line of Creator/RussellCrowe speaking: "I know you. You're Jean Valjean!" Any one who has seen it knows he practically sings through his part.
** ''WebVideo/HonestTrailers'' must be aware of this, as their "honest" trailer of Les Mis says, "Universal Studios proudly presents the film you realized had absolutely no dialogue whatsoever only ''after'' you bought your ticket."
* The trailer for ''{{Series/Lexx}}'''s pilot episode, ''I Worship His Shadow'', claimed it was set in the future. It even gave a specific year: 4004 AD.
* The trailer for ''Film/LittleNicky'' made it look like the movie was about Nicky going to live in New York and his brothers coming to ruin his life for no reason. In reality, the movie was actually about the brothers going to New York and Nicky coming to stop them from taking it over. Also, a lot of the commercials and even the tagline of the movie itself said Nicky was the son of an angel, which is treated as a twist almost 20 minutes before the movie is even over.
* The original teaser to ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' made Maggie Q's character look like an agent and an ally to John [=McClane=]. She's actually TheDragon and only poses as an agent in order to accomplish a task for the film's villain. Additionally, the teaser also presented [=McClane=] as being more stoic and grim, when he's actually just as much of a smartass as ever.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Logan}}'' feature Logan out in desert landscapes, suggesting it takes place in an AfterTheEnd dystopia like [[ComicBook/OldManLogan the story the film's based on]]. In the actual movie civilization is doing okay, and Logan is intentionally avoiding populated areas most of the time, to avoid the Reavers and [[spoiler:because Charles Xavier's deteriorating mental condition is causing him to suffer telepathic seizures which could seriously hurt or kill anyone in the immediate area.]]
* The trailers for ''Film/TheLoneRanger'' made Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter out to be the female lead. She's only in the film for about 10 minutes.
* ''Film/{{Looper}}'''s trailers made it look like an action-packed movie with even the DVD covers showing Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis's characters aiming guns. In the actual film, the action scenes are only a small part of the film, and the far more important scenes with Sara and Cid are barely given any screentime in the trailers. The director and Willis [[http://www.slashfilm.com/ten-mysteries-in-looper-explained-by-director-rian-johnson/ actually approved of this marketing]], feeling that it helped keep the other scenes a surprise for audiences.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' films had trailers like this. One that was during daytime TV that featured only the Aragorn/Arwen romance scenes shown with soft melodies.
** This was parodied in one of the Creator/{{TBS}} promos for the trilogy, which intentionally takes scenes out of context to make it look like the film is [[HoYay a love story between Frodo and Sam]].
** Another TBS promo was all about Gandalf on his white horse.
* The trailer for ''Film/LordOfWar'' made it out to be more of an action comedy than the super-depressing drama with some BlackComedy it ended up being. And then they flipped it for another of Nicolas Cage's movies, ''Film/BangkokDangerous'', which the trailers made look like a slow, thoughtful examination of the assassination trade, when it was actually a pretty standard shoot 'em up action movie. Clearly, the promotional firms for the two movies should have been switched... as it is, they should just be fired.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheLosers'' made the film look like the titular group spends the movie fighting back against the CIA, especially with the line "We're declaring war on the Central Intelligence Agency." However, aside from one or two references early in the movie, the main villain has absolutely nothing to do with the government agency.
* ''Film/TheLoveGuru'' trailer has Don [=LaFontaine=] aka (The Movie Trailer Guy) as the voice on the Voiceover Machine. The final movie has Creator/MorganFreeman. This could be due to the fact that this was a movie trailer so why not have [=LaFontaine=] used in clever manner. It would make less sense to have him in the final movie.
* A trailer in 2002 advertised the film ''Lucky Star'' directed by Michael Mann and starring Benicio Del Toro as a professional gambler milking vast amounts of money from casinos and the stock market before drawing the attention of government agents. Turned out that there was never going to be a film at all -- the whole thing was actually an advert for the new Mercedes SL, his getaway car. The new Volvo [=S80=] also used a film-trailer-style TV ad, and LG also pulled this stunt with its new Scarlet line of [=TVs=].
** This particular variant was parodied by Samsung in a fake trailer promoting smartphone. "No Guns", "No Romance", "No Plot", "Just Phone". "The Greatest Product Placement Movie of All Time".
*** So he's the jerk to blame for giving the ad execs the "bright" idea of those smarmy, annoying commercials we got flooded with at the theaters over the last couple years!
* The trailer to ''Lymelife'' greatly overemphasized the comedic elements. The film is barely a comedy at all. Furthermore it also made Jill Hennessy's character look like an overprotective bitch. While far from perfect, Hennessy is probably [[AdultsAreUseless the most sympathetic adult in the entire movie]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M]]
* The ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'' trailer shows a battle between a human army and the creatures of the Moors. What it doesn't show is that this is in the start of the movie and not its climax.
* The trailers for ''Film/ManOfSteel'' adopted a very dark look in order to attract the same viewers of ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga''. The trailers also tended to play very somber music and philosophical voiceovers in order to make the film seem very intellectual and quiet. However, the quiet moments showcased in those trailers are perhaps the only ones in the movie, which is in fact actually ''full'' of massive city destroying action. Some of the louder scenes were even dubbed over with sad music rather than the actual heroic themes during then.
* The trailer for ''Film/ManOfTheYear,'' a film starring Creator/RobinWilliams, makes the film look like a comedy. It is actually mostly a drama about a comedic talkshow host who runs for president... [[spoiler:and gets elected half an hour in.]] The trailer also hides that it ''isn't only'' about him; it gives no hint of a more critical and dramatic plot in the film.
* ''Film/MarleyAndMe'' is a spectacular example. The trailer basically screams "See the cute puppy! See the cute puppy get into crazy antics!" The movie itself, however, says-"See the cute puppy! See the cute puppy get into crazy antics that get old after the first five minutes! See the cute puppy [[spoiler:[[DogDiesAtTheEnd grow old and die]].]]" Wasn't that a fun movie, kids? (Cue kids crying.)
* The dark comedy ''The Matador'' was billed as an action movie, which it is not. As a result, the film did very poorly in theaters even though critics generally liked it.
* The trailer for ''Film/MaxPayne'' emphasizes the winged beasts and walls of fire Max sees and has lines like "The Devil is building his army. Max Payne is looking for something that God wants to stay hidden." It's like they're trying to make it look like a supernatural movie. People who've actually played the games will know that these are merely hallucinations the protagonist suffers and the plot is actually more of a typical crime drama. It's possible that, due to the FilmNoir qualities of the movie, they were afraid of it looking too much like a rip-off of ''Film/SinCity'' and tried to take it in a different direction. In fact, when ''Film/SinCity'' hit theatres, some fans of the ''Max Payne'' games thought the opposite. Apparently, modern audiences are unaware of the noir genre.
** Movies based on games having the reputation they do, people who know the game might just think the movie [[AdaptationDecay completely missed the point]]
* For whatever reason the trailer for ''Film/MeanGirls'' switches Gretchen and Regina's descriptions. In the movie itself Gretchen is described as "knowing everything about everyone", "that's why her hair is so big -- it's full of secrets," and Regina is rumored to have two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus. The trailer switches this around, probably to make Regina seem like more of an AlphaBitch.
* Another backfiring example: ''Film/MenInBlack''. An early trailer made it look like an eerie sci-fi FX extravaganza punctuated with mild humor. In truth, humor is its greatest strength. Sadly, later trailers [[TrailerJokeDecay spoiled some of the best humor.]] The trailers also committed the common sin of [[MissingTrailerScene including scenes (and dialogue) that were nowhere to be found in the actual film.]]
* The first trailer for ''Film/MenInBlack3'' was like this too. Based on the time jump scene (where Manhattan looks a little too clean) and the scene at the HQ (where everything looks futuristic and Agent O replies that K had been dead for over 40 years), one could infer that J and K wound up in a battle with a time traveler who killed K and brought J with him over 40 years into the future, then J discovers he is in the future when O mentions K being dead, and must return to his own time. Based on these assumptions, the line about the secrets of the universe could be interpreted as implying the existence of another organization, even more secret than the Men In Black, who protect time.
* A trailer for ''Film/MinorityReport'' featured Danny Witwer saying 'I have a warrant in my pocket that says murder'. The trailer grafted his use of the word 'murder' onto the end of his in-film line 'I have a warrant in my pocket that says different', which he said early on, in response to Anderton's relatively undramatic insistence that Witwer not be allowed a tour of the precog room.
* The trailer for ''Film/MrMagoriumsWonderEmporium'' was downright baffling. All that was shown was a whole lot of beautifully-rendered CGI magic, plus Dustin Hoffman in the middle of it. No indication of the actual ''plot'' was ever advertised, which must have created a bit of MoodWhiplash for a few viewers when they learned that the movie is really about [[spoiler:Mr. Magorium's magically extended lifetime coming to an end]].
* ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' is another Creator/RobinWilliams film whose trailers will make you think 'zany wacky' and that the Dad he plays is dressing up so as to avoid the results of some harebrained scheme that went wrong. The trailers kind of completely ignore the heart-wrenching scenes wherein he and Sally Field tear each other to emotional pieces as and after their marriage falls apart--in front of their kids. Creator/PierceBrosnan is made to seem an unwanted interloper - in fact he is scads more responsible and stable than Williams' character. And the unmasking scene is not an 'uh-oh' but a huge emotional gamble that at first backfires hideously.
* Deliberately invoked in [[http://youtu.be/6CloKbXtD28 this trailer]]. Looks like your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, right? [[spoiler: Actually, it's a [[Film/TheMuppets Muppet movie]].]]
** [[https://youtu.be/cn69ZyQU9JI&feature=channel_video_title They had]] [[https://youtu.be/DUUcOmgYEhY&feature=relmfu a lot of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio?blend=1&ob=4#p/c/1F1BE18087BDFDA1/1/QHqLcEtt368 fun with this]], to the point they got to [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading it]]
-->'''Jason Segel''': ''Wait, Wait, Wait Stop! Is this [[LampshadeHanging another]] [[spoiler:Muppet Trailer Parody?]]? Why don't we just show a real trailer? I mean, what are we hiding? Did we make the [[TrailersAlwaysLie movie in Swedish or something?]]"''
** [[https://youtu.be/KsPz51_M3fI&feature=channel_video_title And then...]] [[spoiler:They parodied ''themselves''.]]
* Two examples from the original trailer for ''Film/TheMuppetChristmasCarol'':
** The opening narration states: "He [Scrooge] was the greediest man alive, until the night he met someone extraordinary..." We then see Kermit saying "Hello," implying that Kermit is the "someone" he meets. Kermit plays Bob Cratchit, who, of course, already works for Scrooge at the beginning of the story.
** As an irreverent gag at the very end, we see Tiny Tim/Robin saying "God bless us, every one!" followed by Miss Piggy/Mrs. Cratchit dismissively saying "Whatever." In the actual movie, Piggy's "Whatever" is from a different scene, and "God bless us..." is the traditional SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} played fully straight.
* The controversial drama ''Film/MysteriousSkin'' needed to omit the references to sexual abuse, homosexuality, and [[ClusterFBomb extremely heavy]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cursing]] to make their trailers suitable for general TV. This naturally put too much emphasis on the "alien abduction" aspect, so it looks like a family-friendly sci-fi movie with dramatic moments here and there. ''It is '''[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids not]]''' family-friendly.'' [[spoiler: Brian only thinks he got abducted by aliens because he repressed the ''real'' memories of getting molested by his Little League baseball coach.]] While the movie is regarded positively by those who went in expecting a tragedy, people who saw only the trailers may have been surprised after the first twenty minutes.
* ''{{Film/The Mummy|1999}}'' (1999) was advertised as a straight-up horror film, instead of the high-spirited ''Franchise/IndianaJones''-esque film it was.
* The American trailer for ''My Baby Is Black!'' (French title: Les Lâches vivent d'espoir) makes it look like the white female lead having a black baby is some kind of medical mystery, but in the film itself they show from the start that the baby is black because the father is. The title change was also to make it seem more like an ExploitationFilm, when it's more of a serious drama.
* The trailer for ''{{Film/Moon}}'' makes it look like a psychological thriller, with the protagonist slowly losing his mind from three years of being isolated on the far side of the moon. The actual movie is about [[spoiler:clones]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N]]
* ''Film/NationalTreasure'' featured a very overwrought use of the line 'Do you trust me?' followed by the typical 'yes', and then one hand lets go of the other. This scene means bugger all in the movie. The drop is less than a foot, and the scene takes in all about three seconds, but it made centre stage for the trailer. The rest of the trailer is pretty faithful though.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheNegotiator'' featured Kevin Spacey saying something akin to "Now you have to deal with both of us", a line that would have indicated the movie taking a much different route than it actually did.
* ''Neighborhood Watch'''s first trailer made it look like a typical black comedy film with the main characters just being complete idiots and causing disaster everywhere. Which still looks to be the case, but you'd have no idea from the initial one that they're trying to stop an alien invasion the entire time.
** And despite a name change (to ''Film/TheWatch''), the second trailer isn't any better about it. It's like Fox doesn't want anyone to get interested the film. Possibly an EnforcedTrope, since the marketing had to be revamped due to the Trayvon Martin case being uncomfortably similar to the movies premise (about neighborhood watchmen who get a bit overzealous).
* The trailers for ''[[Film/{{Neighbors2014}} Neighbors]]''make the feud look very one sided with the fraternity depicted as purely malicious bullies terrorising the innocent Radners. In the actual film the feud is much more a GreyAndGrayMorality one, with Teddy and his friends having several PetTheDog moments while the Radners stoop pretty low themselves.
* Hey everybody! [[SarcasmMode It's the latest and greatest comedy]], ''[[https://youtu.be/oS_fK7oHB9Y Next Day Air!]]'' This hilarious parody (starring Donald Faison) of the life of drug dealers and mailmen will leave you rolling on the floor struggling to catch your breath! Except for the fact that [[spoiler: the length of the trailer amounts to maybe half of Donald Faison's screen time, and the main story follows two unlucky criminals who, by luck, acquire some drugs and are pursued by a drug lord who seeks to kill them.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/NightOfTheLepus'' goes out of its way to avoid showing any [[KillerRabbit Giant Killer]] [[NightmareRetardant Bunny Rabbits]], which of course raises the question: if you realize upfront that your monsters aren't scary, why would you still make a movie about them?
* When the film ''Film/NoReservations'' was coming out in theaters, there were two trailers for it. One hyped up the "romantic comedy" angle, leaving the plot of the main female character having to care for her newly orphaned niece completely out, as if she didn't exist; another trailer, oddly enough usually shown much later at night, mostly did the reverse, focusing on the niece and including only a few shots of her tension with the guy as if he were just a minor complication to the whole thing. Now that it's coming out on DVD, the trailers used are for the "all romantic comedy" version, and the other side has been completely omitted.
* ''Film/NonStop'':
** The trailer makes it look like Hammond is the first victim of the killer, [[spoiler: when it is Marks who ends up killing him, and out of self-defense]].
** It also gives the impression that the terrorist is a woman in a red dress, [[spoiler: though the hijacker(s) are actually two males]].
* The [[https://youtu.be/zc8XXv3pl10 trailer]] for ''Film/{{Nothing}}'' makes it out to be a psychological thriller/horror/sci-fi much in the same vein as Creator/VincenzoNatali's earlier film ''Film/{{Cube}}'', when in actuality it is a lighthearted buddy comedy that is almost nothing like that.
* The trailers for ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'' make it look to be that these magicians are using highly advance technology to pull off their crimes, even showing one of them using the "Teleporter". Where in the movie the teleporter is just a prop and it is done by someone in the audience. Though it is clear through the nature of the film this was intentional since everything (such as finding high tech plans) leading up to the teleporter in the first act heavily suggests that the trailer was true.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:O]]
* The [[https://youtu.be/GgTGPJtvmS8 trailer]] for the documentary ''Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa'' is filled with ominous music and repeated shots of guns and destruction. In reality, the confrontation depicted is a single subplot out of many and was soon resolved peacefully off-camera. The film is actually a fascinating study of a tiny rural community cut off from the rest of society and the wide range of interesting characters who choose to live there.
* ''Film/OutsideProvidence'' was not a wacky Farrelly Bros. comedy, despite their pushing the connection (one of them wrote the story, in truth) and showing the funny scenes. In actuality it was more of a coming-of-age dramedy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P]]
* ''Film/PacificRim'': Del Toro stated that despite sounding exactly like [=GLaDOS=] in the trailer, Ellen [=McLain=] will sound nothing like her in the final product and was simply done for fun because he is a fan of ''Portal'' and wanted people to know she was in the movie. This is subverted by the fact that for the trailer Del toro used Valve's [=GLaDOS=] filter, but for the final film he made his own which was toned down but sounds almost identical. Specifically, it's [=GLaDOS=]' voice without her catty sociopathy. ''Except'' for one little hint of it:
-->''Would you like to try again?''
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Paddington}}'' focused a lot on the bathroom scene and gave the impression that the film would be chock-full of ToiletHumor when the actual film has only one or two fleeting instances of crude humor with the rest of the film being much more in the low-key whimsical spirit of the book.
* Part of the reason for ''Film/PainAndGain'''s controversy is that the trailers for the film made it appear as if the Sun Gym Gang were pulling off some wacky heist against an unscrupulous crime boss. The movie, however, does not present the [[VillainProtagonist protagonists]] on the whole as even remotely sympathetic, portrays the victims sympathetically and has the Sun Gym Gang do some fairly gruesome things.
* ''Film/PansLabyrinth'' was marketed as a family friendly fantasy adventure a la ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. '''It isn't'''.[[note]]It really, really, isn't.[[/note]] In addition, the trailers and promotional material kinda left out one detail: The movie's in Spanish with subtitles. This resulted in so many complaints along the lines of "It's in the wrong language! I want it in English!" that movie theaters (and rental stores, once the film hit DVD) had to put up signs saying "''Pan's Labyrinth'' is in Spanish and that's the way it's meant to be".
** And apparently [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids the R rating didn't stop people thinking that either]].
* ''Film/ParanormalActivity'':
** In the final frame of one trailer for ''Film/ParanormalActivity2'', you can see the family dog in Hunter's room barking at something unseen in the doorway. The crib is empty, however creepily enough in the mirror's reflection you can see baby Hunter standing in it. This never happens in the film.
** Many of the scenes in the ''Film/ParanormalActivity3'' trailer [[MissingTrailerScene were not in the movie]], and are likely being saved for the director's cut DVD.
* The trailer for ''Party Monster: The Shockumentary'' featured a prominent clip of one of the club kids talking about the rumors that initially surrounded the disappearance of Angel Melendez, including that his "head was cut off and was in someone's freezer in Brooklyn." Its placement in the trailer makes it seem like this was fact.
* [[https://youtu.be/zN69_DFySJA This trailer]] for ''Film/{{Payback}}'' is littered with them, ranging from the minor factual stuff like saying "This is [Porter's] dog" -- it's only a dog named ''[[WeNamedTheMonkeyJack after him]]'' by a friend/love interest -- up to completely misrepresenting the movie as something of a comedy (it's a rather dark FilmNoir) and portraying the chillingly ruthless and competent anti hero Porter as a NoRespectGuy and something of a bumbler. And that's putting aside things like featuring scenes that were cut from the film and would only be restored years later in the [[ReCut Director's Cut]].
* The trailers for ''Film/Piranha3DD'' depict it as being your standard horror-comedy, similar to the first film. The final result is actually a parody in the vein of The Wayans Brothers' ''Film/ScaryMovie''.
* Not a trailer, per se, but the same idea for the first ''Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' installment, ''Film/PitchBlack''. In order to promote it, Sci-Fi Channel made a 45-minute faux-documentary/drama called ''Into Pitch Black'' about an insurance investigator hiring a mercenary to find Riddick and what was left of the ship. Seems like a good way to promo the movie and reveal more backstory, doesn't it? Well, it might have been, if it'd had any actors from the film, acting and production values better than a 1990s FMV game, or the merest semblance of competent writing. Even the entire ''genre'' of the movie is misrepresented: [[spoiler: The film is a sci-fi horror thriller in the vein of ''Film/{{Alien}}'' about people fighting to survive a long-distance journey through a desert in months-long darkness, filled with monsters who can see in the dark. The video instead doesn't even show any of the aliens until the end, and only in quick flashes. Instead, it deliberately re-edits footage to make it seem like some kind of ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' slasher film, with Riddick stalking the main characters, when in fact, he's actually ''the "[[AntiHero hero]]"'' of the film.]] There's no question they lost more viewers than they gained. If you're really feeling masochistic, have a search for it on Website/YouTube.
** Though the misrepresentation of the plot is probably the best you can do while avoiding TrailersAlwaysSpoil - knowing that [[spoiler: the planet is inhabited by predatory aliens and Riddick ends up as the hero]] would ruin the tension early on when the audience is meant to assume otherwise.
** They couldn't have been that wary of revealing Riddick's SociopathicHero role, as the DVD contains a never-released version of the trailer with the tagline "Fight evil with evil".
* The trailer for ''Film/ThePlaceBeyondThePines'' implied that it was a touching story of a troubled young man (Gosling) just trying to do what's right: support his son financially. So, in order for this to happen, he must go around robbing banks. Then, it showed Cooper being the police officer. It implied that he was the cop who was trying to investigate the bank robberies, and catch Gosling's character. Then it showed Ray Liotta, who seemed to be Cooper's boss in the trailer. It also implied that Gosling and Mendes come together as a happy family and she accepted his bank robbing ways and they were to live happily ever after until Gosling was arrested. Not even remotely close to the actual plot.
* ''Film/{{Precious}}''. The television commercials show only the main character's day-dream sequencing, implying that the film is about an up-and-coming diva, when the actual film is not even close.
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Predators}}'' imply that the planet is full of the title monsters, but in fact there were only four in the movie.
** There is a scene in the trailer where dozens of triple laser sights pop up on Royce. This scene is in the film, but there is only one.
* The trailer for ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives the viewer the impression that Creator/ChristianBale's character has ''actual magic powers'' which he uses for his StageMagician act. The closest thing to actual wizardry in the movie is [[spoiler:Nikola Tesla's machine, used by Creator/HughJackman]], but given the movie's theme of stage magic and its heavy reliance on misdirecting the audience, the use of this trope is rather appropriate.
* Notoriously used for the 2007 film ''Film/{{Primeval}}'' which is loosely based on the true story of man-eating crocodile Gustave. The trailer describes Gustave as a serial killer who has claimed more than 300 victims and remains at large. It completely omits the fact that it's a crocodile. The only mention of his non-human status is a brief line in the trailer where the narrator says "He's real, but he's not human" which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. A crocodile only flashes on screen for about a second.
* The trailer for ''Privates on Parade'' featured footage of Creator/JohnCleese doing a SillyWalk on a parade ground, making it look like a wacky Pythonesque comedy. In fact, the SillyWalk scene was edited in at the very end of the movie and through most of it, John Cleese is actually fairly restrained and a serious character.
** Cleese reportedly complained to the producers about this out-of-context use of the shot.
* The trailer for ''Film/TheProposition'' has David Wenham's quote "If you're going to kill one, make sure you bloody well kill them all," placed in such a way as to trick the viewer into thinking that the quote has some relevance to the main plot, regarding the Burns Gang. In the film, it's just a [[KickTheDog dog-kick]] regarding his character's views on Aborigine uprisings.
* Hitchcock deliberately misled audiences with the marketing for ''Film/{{Psycho}},'' making them think that Creator/JanetLeigh was the star. Then [[spoiler: her character gets killed halfway through the movie]]. Only then does the real story (the mystery of the Bates Motel) become evident.
* The UK network Sky's trailer for ''Film/ThePursuitOfHappyness'' made it out to be a comedy. It certainly isn't.
* The trailer for ''Passengers'' implies that Chris Pratt's and Jennifer Lawrence's characters both wake up from stasis on an abandoned spaceship simultaneously, with a major mystery as to why they both woke up. The reality is Pratt's character wakes up due to an electrical failure, develops an obsession with Lawrence's character, and then very purposefully wakes her up for company. None of these plot points are spoilers or twists- they all happen in the first act. The UnfortunateImplications in the actual product contributed heavily to the film's [[https://www.moviefone.com/2016/12/15/uh-oh-the-first-passengers-reviews-are-brutal/ negative]] [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/15/passengers-review-spaceship-romcom-scuppered-chris-pratt-jennifer-lawrence critical]] [[http://www.cbr.com/review-passengers-soils-its-escapism-with-repulsive-reveal/ response]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Q]]
* Trailers for ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned''--and even the title--imply Akashia to be the central character. It's actually Lestat. Not only does Akashia's total screentime add up to about twenty minutes, her only purpose is to tempt Lestat into being evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R]]
* The trailer for ''Film/RachelGettingMarried'' makes the film appear to be a quirky indie comedy a la ''Film/{{Juno}}'' or ''Film/LittleMissSunshine''. Sucks for anyone who saw it expecting that and discovering it's actually a very heavy and heartwrenching drama, with many of the humorous scenes in the trailer actually not funny AT ALL in context.
* One TV spot for ''Film/RadioFlyer'' gives the illusion of a lighthearted fantasy about two brothers building a flying machine. They don't give away the fact that they're building it to help the youngest brother escape from their abusive stepfather.
* The trailer for ''Film/RacingStripes'' added a lot of new dialogue to make it seem like comedy all over, when it wasn't entirely that.
* Commercials for ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'' show a scene where a little girl yells in her room, and then it shows ''Franchise/KingKong'' wrecking stuff in Oasis, giving the implication that the giant ape is the little girl's avatar (a ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior'' poster is shown behind her, strengthening the point). In the actual movie, the little girl is just a random player ragequitting after losing in a shooting game and King Kong is just one of the obstacles of the race trial.
* The trailer for the 2011 sci-fi film ''Film/RealSteel'' has a scene where Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman)'s son asks Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly) what Jackman's character was like as a boxer, and she describes him as "number 2, top of the line" or something to that effect. While she does indeed use that description, in the actual film she uses it to describe a boxer he was fighting against.
** Also, the trailer makes you believe that, contrary to everyone else, Hugh Jackman is controlling his robot with his own movements giving him better reaction time as well as actual boxing experience and this is seen as something radical against the multitude of remote controls everyone else uses. In the movie, the robot is mostly control by a voice recognition headset, while the "shadow function" only comes into play in three direct instances; it's used (largely unseen) to "train" the robot's fighting moves, for the little boy to dance with the robot for pregame showmanship, and ''finally'' like the trailers to actually fight (but even then, only for the very last round). General consensus is the trailer had the better idea.
* The David Mamet film ''Film/{{Redbelt}}'' trailers made it look like an action movie that takes place in a UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts tournament. Let's reiterate: a ''Creator/DavidMamet'' film.
* ''Film/RedDog'' is misleading, similarly to ''Marley & Me''. The trailer is very light in tone, as is much of the film, but not without considerable MoodWhiplash when [[spoiler:Red Dog's owner dies in the middle and Red Dog follows at the end]].
* The dramatic thriller ''Film/RedEye'' was named for the fact that it mostly takes place on a red eye airline flight. Trailers for the movie took footage from the film and used special effects to make the antagonist's eyes glow red in an attempt to attract undue interest. Also, the trailers usually tricked you into thinking it was a chick flick, until halfway through, when they'd usually play the "My business is all about you" clip.
* ''Film/ReignOfFire'' advertised with an image of dragons attacking London, with helicopters flying to defend. The real movie wasn't nearly as exciting.
** Multiple commercials for ''Film/ReignOfFire'' ended with Matthew [=McConaughey=]'s character leaping off a tower straight at the dragon with an ax {{screaming|Warrior}} at the top of his lungs. Just see what happens in the movie.
** Weirder, the trailer says the film is set in "2087 A.D." when it's actually set in the year 2020. It's unknown, and possibly inexplicable, why this is.
* The original trailers and commercials for ''Film/ResurrectingTheChamp'' portrayed the growing bond between Creator/SamuelLJackson's homeless ex-champion and Josh Harnett's newspaper reporter and the latter's reconnection with his own family. This is actually what the movie is about. But, inexplicably, a couple weeks before the opening, the trailers shifted to portray what looked like a "One man crusade for justice" on behalf of the Jackson character.
* The trailer for the 1987 B-Horror movie ''Film/ReturnToHorrorHigh'' (featuring a young Creator/GeorgeClooney!) made it look like a like a sequel to a 1982 film called ''Horror High''. It also makes the killer seem supernatural, thanks to showing a cheerleader from behind, who turned around at the last moment to reveal a skull-face (in fairness, the cover of the movie also shows a skeleton-cheerleader). It's actually a standalone film about a high school that was rocked by a series of murders in 1982 and now, several years later, is being visited by a sleazy producer hoping to make a documentary about the killings, only to discover that the killer, who was never caught, is still in the school. No skeleton-cheerleaders anywhere in the film.
* ''Film/{{Rings}}'': Most of the trailers make it seem like the core conflict will be about the protagonist trying to stop the BodyHorror Samara is inflicting upon her and avoid her "rebirth" with the help of Vincent D'Onofrio's Blind Character. This is not the case in the actual film. [[spoiler: Or rather, the BodyHorror happens in the very final scene, the "rebirth" concept is only revealed and addressed in that scene, it happens too fast for anyone to stop it, and Vincent D'Onofrio only shows up at the very end to turn out to be the main villain]].
* ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'' depicts Caesar as a scheming villain out to uplift his fellow apes and overthrow humanity. [[spoiler:In the films, he's the hero and a pacifist who prefers diplomacy in his dealings with humans.]]
* The trailer for the movie ''Risk'' portrays it as being an action-thriller, when it's actually just, well, a thriller with one action scene towards the end.
* ''Film/TheRoad.'' Where do we begin? Tons of disaster footage in the beginning that does not appear in the film, which even deliberately avoids showing what caused the apocalypse. A great emphasis on Charlize Theron, who appears only in flashbacks and whose role could only be described as a cameo. And an attempt to sell the film as an action movie, which it is very far from, rather just a very sad and somber look at the dying world and humanity in it.
* ''Film/RoadHouse'': Due to the success of ''Film/DirtyDancing'', which also starred Creator/PatrickSwayze, a lot of trailers targeted women audiences by playing up its romantic subplot. One wonders how stunned they were when they saw Swayze [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill rip out a guy's throat with his bare hands.]]
* ''Film/TheRulesOfAttraction''. The trailer makes it more like a riotous teen comedy. Those who read the book by Creator/BretEastonEllis however, knows it's not that.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S]]
* The trailers for ''Film/Sabotage2014'' rearranged scenes from the movie to suggest a story often miles away from the actual film's plot, and actually looped in new lines of dialog to perpetuate the fraud. [[spoiler:Key example: the cartel's kidnapping of Breacher's family happens ''before'' his team's raid on the safe house, not as a result of same. And what we think is Breacher's reaction to the kidnapping ("I'm gonna destroy them") is actually "I'm gonna destroy that bitch," in reference to discovering that Lizzy has killed her husband Monster.]]
* In the original teaser trailer for ''Film/TheSantaClause,'' the voiceover narration claims that Santa was "out for the rest of the season" after falling off Scott's roof, implying that he was merely injured and that Scott would be a temporary substitute. In the actual movie, Santa is killed by the fall and Scott becomes the new Santa permanently.
** Several TV spots focused entirely on Scott/Santa getting arrested by the cops and the E.L.F.S. rescue squad attempting to break him out, making it seem like it was some sort of family-friendly prison escape movie. It barely takes up 6 minutes of the movie and doesn't happen until near the tail end, and the true plot of Scott coming to accept his transformation is barely glossed over.
* ''Film/TheSantaClause 2'' trailer featured reindeer speaking proper English, when Comet was the only reindeer who could talk, although he spoke gibberish.
* The trailer for ''Film/SavingMrBanks'' accurately promises a movie about Creator/WaltDisney making ''Film/MaryPoppins'' in the early 1960s. However, it gives undue attention to Disney and ''Poppins'' creator Pamela Travers's visit to Disneyland, which is a very brief scene in the movie. It also makes ''Saving Mr. Banks'' look like it's exclusively a comedy, barely focusing on Travers's childhood and not bringing up any of the movie's traumatic moments.
* A number of the trailers and TV spots for ''Film/ScoobyDoo'' showed moments from the scene with the Luna Ghost, implying that it was going to be crucial to the film. In actuality, the Luna Ghost only shows up at the beginning of the film for about five to ten minutes. The real supernatural creatures barely show up in any of the trailers, and when they do it's only for a moment.
* ''Scream'' deliberately (and cleverly) played with this convention by putting Drew Barrymore front and center in the advertising. (Barrymore was the most recognizable name in the cast at that time.) But then [[spoiler:her character dies in the first scene]], in a deliberate nod to ''Psycho.''
* The trailer for ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' had the tagline, "A fantasy with wizards...and villains...and heroes!" At the line "and heroes", the trailer cuts to a scene with a boy mouse brandishing a stick and declaring, "I'm scared of nothin'!", implying this boy mouse will be one of the heroes. Actually, he's a minor character, just one of several of the children of the real hero of the story, Mrs. Brisby, and does nothing heroic. In that scene, he's just being a bratty kid.
* The trailer for ''Film/SecretWindow'' painted the movie as a horror film with the main character haunted by a ghost by emphasizing scenes that were hallucinations. The film is actually a psychological thriller.
* Trailers for the Music/SClub7 movie ''Seeing Double'' made it look like the band getting arrested was the main plot. In actuality the band are only in prison for about five minutes in the first act. The film's real plot - a mad scientist cloning pop stars over the world - was not mentioned at all.
* ''Film/SevenPounds'' - the trailers gave only a small part of the plot: Will Smith's character is being TheAtoner and helping seven people (drama ensues). The ads also imply this, adding that Smith's character is an IRS agent; his atonement could be monetary. The critics described the film as a ''romantic comedy'' [[spoiler: and Smith's atonement is donating his organs to seven people (the title refers to his heart, which is going to his love interest).]]
* ''Film/SevenPsychopaths'' was advertised as a comedic romp where multiple crazy people, including Creator/ChristopherWalken, go around trying to kill each other, and hilarity ensues. Just to give you a hint of how off that is, [[spoiler: Christopher Walken plays a pacifist who doesn't kill anyone in the entire film. The clip from the trailer where he pops out of a coffin and shoots two people is from someone's imagination of how an event would go.]]
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Shaft}}'' and its sequels. The trailers and posters for the first two implied that TheMafia was taking over black neighborhoods, for the first, and that the mafia was trying to control black neighborhoods in the second. In reality, the first movie was about John Shaft rescuing a black gangster's daughter from the mob, even though it was that gangster who started it in the first place. The second was mostly about Gus Mascola and his black minion, and Shaft wasn't involved until Gus was told that Shaft was trying to take over his business in Queens.
* ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'''s [[https://youtu.be/lr8D5D92lCc official Italian trailer]] makes it look like some kind of badass action thriller, implying that most of the film is centered on the heist to bring The Asset out of the facility, and completely removing the romantic angle. It even includes the part where Elisa tells (with sign language) Strickland to fuck off and a scene of the Amphibian Man snarling.
* Trailers for ''Film/Shazam2019'' make it seem like a goofy and lighthearted kid's film. Despite its KidAppealCharacter protagonist, it's actually one of DC's most ''violent'' films (and it has more swearing and FlippingTheBird than most as well).
* Creator/GuyRitchie's ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'' with Creator/RobertDowneyJr and Creatro/JudeLaw was bafflingly mismarketed. The trailers, by taking nearly every line and scene utterly out of context, paint Holmes as a depraved, ineffectual lech, juxtaposed with a squeaky-clean Watson against a backdrop of explosions and scantily clad women. The film itself is a ''far'' more faithful depiction of the mood, setting, and characters as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intended them to be portrayed, and probably one of the more faithful screen adaptations of Holmes.
** On a smaller scale, there's a scene in the trailer of him kissing Irene Adler and later being naked in that incredibly funny chained to the bed scene (the "beneath this pillow lies the key to my release" scene), insinuating that there will be a romance between them. While there's some small romantic tension, [[spoiler: she's actually kissing him as he passes out from the drugs she put in the wine. After he's unconscious she strips and handcuffs him, presumably to keep him from chasing her immediately when he wakes up. None of it is consensual on Holmes' side.]]
** And to the disappointment of {{Yaoi Fangirl}}s everywhere, Irene's line "They've been flirting like this for hours" as seen in the trailer does not appear in the film. However, the film was filled to the brim with HoYay.
* ''The Shortcut'' at first looks like a happy-go-lucky teenage romantic comedy, but near the end it becomes apparent it's a horror film.
* Trailers for the Dutch movie ''Shouf Shouf Habibi'' overemphasized its comedic aspects, focusing mostly on the failed bank robbery orchestrated by the main character Ap. It's much more of a tragi-comedy about a Moroccan-Dutch family struggling to find a place for themselves.
* The trailers for ''Film/ShutterIsland'' latched on to two moments of the movie to make it look like Martin Scorsese had decided to make a supernatural mystery, completely ignoring most everything that happens in the last 85% of the film.
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Sideways}}'' made it seem like a slap-stick comedy. Instead it's a dark drama/comedy detailing the depressing antics of two maladjusted friends. Sandra Oh's beating of Thomas Haden Church is actually quite brutal when seen in context.
* Much to the bafflement of fans, an airing of ''Film/TheSixthSense'' on ABC had an ad campaign making it look like a tragic love story between Dr. Malcom Crowe and his widow Anna. While there is a love story in the film, it's actually a paranormal mystery movie about a doctor trying to help a boy who is traumatized by visitations of troubled spirits, as those of us who have seen the movie already knew. One would wonder the reaction of people who were watching the airing based on the ad's lie.
* ''Film/SilentHillRevelation3D''. The trailer has many misleading bits, including the implication that the Seal of Metatron causes reality shifts, the careful editing to make Pyramid Head look like a threat (it's not a spoiler to point out he's an ally of the protagonist in this film), and a trailer-exclusive line where Dahlia tells Heather "You were chosen to destroy the demon," which is not the plot of the movie - though [[VoodooShark the confusion]] [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot is understandable]].
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004). Creator/AngelinaJolie is in the movie for all of 15 minutes, [[AdvertisedExtra but you'd think she was the star given her prominence in the advertising]].
* In one of the dumbest marketing moves possible, the trailer for the indie drama ''Sleepwalking'' seems like a sugary "heartwarming" family-oriented movie like what is often seen on The Hallmark Channel. Probably not the best marketing strategy for a fairly gritty R-rated movie. Unsurprisingly the movie tanked at the box office.
* The trailer for ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'' makes it look like a happy love-and-success story, using ''only'' the shot of the kid with his girl to the tune of "The Sun Always Shines On TV". It completely fails to touch on how hellish his life is to that point. A poster also advertises the movie as "Two hours of unbelievable happiness!".
* Parodied in ''Film/SmokinAces''. The trailer begins by suggesting it would be some sort of sappy romance, then abruptly switches to a frenetic action montage more fitting for a movie about competing assassins. The film itself was much slower paced and dramatic than the trailers suggested.
* Disney's film ''Film/SnowDogs'' was marketed with scenes of the title animals talking and joking, cartoon style - which occurs only during a DreamSequence had by Cuba Gooding Jr.'s main character.
* In the trailer for ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'', the soundbite of Mark Zuckerberg being read his charges ("You are being accused of intentionally breaching security, violating copyrights, violating individual privacy...") gives the impression that he's being accused of doing all of this by making Facebook. It's actually the Harvard Ad Board referring to Facemash, an unrelated website that he created in college.
* Of the two trailers that were made for ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', one made it look like an action-adventure, the other focused on the romance story. The film may have failed due to audiences expecting such types of movies, instead of the philosophical, dialogue-heavy film it turned out to be.
** Obviously meant for someone not familiar with Creator/StanislawLem's original novel.
* ''Film/SomethingBorrowed'' has a great deal of comic elements in the previews, making it seem like a comedy. In fact, these seem to be the ''only'' upbeat parts of the film.
* ''Film/{{Sorcerer}}'' was marketed as a supernatural thriller since it was produced just after ''Film/TheExorcist'' (which shared William Friedkin as director). In fact, it's a non-supernatural action thriller. To be fair, the title itself is already very misleading.
* Practically unavoidable with ''Film/SouthlandTales''. Since everything in the film is dependent on context, and that any part of it taken out of context is at best confusing (and at worst incredibly misleading), this is one movie where the people cutting the trailer were in a private hell.
* The trailer for ''Film/SpacedInvaders'', while indeed marketing the film for what it was (a silly family action/comedy), featured '''''completely different dialogue''''' from what was in the film.
* Space Station 76 is a parody of 1970's science fiction. The trailer makes it look like a comedy, but it's a depressing drama with very little humor.
* During the promotion of a network broadcast of ''Film/{{Spanglish}}'', Creator/AdamSandler screams in his typical wacky fashion at super-sexy Spaniard Creator/PazVega, completely misrepresenting the tone of the film. He's actually the OnlySaneMan of the family (really!) and that was his outburst from all the frustration finally boiling over.
* While it does accurately convey the basic plot and tone of the movie, the trailer for ''Film/TheSpecials'' has a couple of misleading elements: Melissa Joan Hart is prominently featured and listed among the main cast: she has a one-scene cameo with about five lines of dialogue. Also, it shows a sequence where each of the main characters comes out of the base poised for action, including some special effect shots. While this ''does'' happen in the movie, it's not until the very end, and we never actually see any of the superheroes fight any crime in the film itself.
* ''Film/SpiderMan3'' had a TV spot/trailer for it made which made it seem like Spidey had the black suit for about half an hour before Comicbook/{{Venom}} came in and became the film's major villain. Clips of police officers shooting upwards and Symbiote Spider-Man swinging about were cut together with clips of Peter being smashed through buildings and dodging debris, giving the impression that Venom and Spider-Man would have epic, city-wide battles. Of course, [[spoiler:Venom was a very minor character, in comparison to New Goblin and Sandman, and even Gwen Stacey had more screen time. He appeared only at the very end of the film, and was killed off after a short appearance. The character didn't survive even one night within the film's universe, and was completely annihilated in an explosion]]. [[https://youtu.be/yulxywCKu6o&feature=relmfu Here it is]].
** The trailer also made the movie look a lot DarkerAndEdgier than it really was.
** One trailer for the movie had Peter asking Mary Jane for help, but in the actual movie, he was asking [[spoiler:Harry]] instead.
** One trailer for ''Film/SpiderMan2'' actually used scenes from the movie to make it look like Peter Parker admits he is Spider-Man. He reveals voluntarily to just one person ([[spoiler:Dr. Octopus]]) in the movie.
** And lest we forget, a trailer for the first ''Spider-Man'' had a scene never shown in theaters, in which Spidey's web ensnares a helicopter in the space between the twin towers, but this was cut after 9/11.
** The trailers for the first movie also show one scene where Spider-Man jumps onto the hood of a car while chasing a criminal. In the trailers he's in full costume, but in the actual movie he's still wearing a makeshift costume at that point.
* ''Film/{{Splice}}.'' The trailer promises two hours of a demon homunculus eating people and wreaking havoc. Actual movie? [[spoiler: An introspective on bad parenting.]]
* ''Film/{{Stardust}}'''s trailer focuses on the word "ooh" so much that it appears to be something like ''Witches of Eastwick'' focusing on middle aged female spellcasters who like to get naked, and the rest of the trailer at least lets you know this is somewhere in the fantasy action genre. It might have driven away its intended audience.
** It also features a scene where all three of the witches are young when only one of them was in the movie.
* Spoofed in an ad for ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' on {{Showtime}}. The trailer begins by making it seem like a normal coming of age story before the transition, "... as a young man learns what he was born to do... kick the crap out of man eating alien mutant bugs!" as it switches to the action scenes.
** A real trailer showed what was apparently an early mockup for the special effects of a space scene. In the trailer, the Earth is the "Blue Marble" photo from the Apollo 17. The actual film shows an original global depiction of Earth (or at least a less recognizable stock image).
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Who can forget the [[https://youtu.be/mfBbpyiK7ds early trailer]] for ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''? It gave the impression that Captain Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise-D to help Picard and his crew fight off a Klingon Bird of Prey. Of course, it probably jolted audiences when they actually saw the film and witnessed [[DroppedABridgeOnHim what happened to Kirk]].
*** The trailer for ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' is basically one huge lie (or 'alternative interpretation'). It seems to give off the idea that Kirk and Picard team up in their ships to ''"save the universe"'' when what they basically do is save 230 million people (who we never see) by whaling on Malcolm [=McDowell=]. Then Kirk literally gets [[DroppedABridgeOnHim a bridge dropped on him]].
** Speaking of Captain Kirk's death, a trailer for ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' shows the scene where he gets vaporized. NOOOO! [[spoiler:It was actually the shapeshifter.]]
*** This is a particularly egregious example because the shot used in the trailer contains just a frontal close up of Kirk getting killed as he looks stunned. [[spoiler:That shot doesn't appear in the film. The actual shot used was shot from behind with both Kirk and the shapeshifter in frame at once.]]
** The early trailer for ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' featured footage from the TNG series, including of the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D, presumably because the producers didn't want to reveal the look of the new Enterprise-E at that time. Additionally, the trailers makes Picard's line "The line must be drawn '''HERE!!!'''" look like a BadassBoast, when, actually, it's part of Picard's SanitySlippage. And they played up the prospect of an all-out Federation invasion by the Borg, when, in fact, there's only one ship targeting Earth.
*** We also see a pair of eyes open to reveal the circuitry implanted within them. It's awesome. It's creepy. It's [[spoiler: actually Geordi, having upgraded from his old visor to bionic eyes.]]
*** Similar to the BaitAndSwitch with Picard's line, another line is used in an entirely different context within the trailer than it actually is in the film. [[spoiler: Data]] yelling "Resistance is futile!" makes it look like he's undergone a FaceHeelTurn [[spoiler: while in the movie itself he yells it as an IronicEcho at the Borg Queen, as he's revealing that he's never betrayed the Enterprise crew.]]
** ''Film/StarTrek2009'' implied a Kirk/Uhura romance when, in actuality, [[spoiler:she's already in a relationship with Spock]]. Lines are used out of context as well (for example, the splicing of the villain's lines "James T. Kirk was a great man" and "but that was another life!). The scene where Kirk takes the captain's chair looks like a dramatic moment in the trailer, but it's actually PlayedForLaughs in the film, as the crew are in disbelief that the annoying, brash kid is now in command, since they were unaware that Pike had promoted him moments earlier in case of capture.
** The trailers for ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', do a very good job of hiding the plot while still showing off a lot of the action. You'd never know from the trailer that [[spoiler:the film comes off as ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'']]. You also get the impression that the ''Enterprise'' crashes into the San Francisco Bay, when it's actually [[spoiler:the ''Vengeance'' with Khan at the helm]].
** The scene in the ''Into Darkness'' trailer where a huge ship that's twice the Enterprise's size appears out of nowhere, leading Kirk to turn and despairingly say "I'm sorry" to the crew as he realizes they're completely outmatched? It's not John Harrison's, like the trailer implies. [[spoiler: It actually belongs to [[GeneralRipper Admiral Marcus]], who's [[SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer completely cut from the promotional materials]] - though "Harrison" does later commandeer it.]]
** The very first trailer for ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' featured bright colors, a soundtrack by Music/TheBeastieBoys, and seemed to be much more action and comedy driven than either of the film's two predecessors, perhaps intending to ride the wave of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''[='=]s success. It was received so negatively that co-writer and star Creator/SimonPegg had to come out and assure fans that the trailer was nothing like the completed film, which ended up being much more character driven and truer to the original TV show than the trailer implied.
* One of the 1977 taglines of the original ''Film/StarWars'', now known as ''Film/ANewHope'', was "No legendary adventure of the past could be as exciting as this romance of the future." Ironically, ''Star Wars'' actually ''is'' set in the past: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."
** [[https://youtu.be/9gvqpFbRKtQ The original trailer]] complicates the matter by claiming that "somewhere in space, this could all be happening RIGHT NOW." So, we could be in the past, present, or future.
** Much of the 1977 advertising implied or outright stated that Luke and Leia get together. Not that you could blame the marketers of the time for not knowing how ''that'' would work out. There's a 1977 TV spot included on the DVD, labeled "Forbidden Love," which focuses entirely on this. ("[[https://youtu.be/41ALruZJOuE Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. In Danger! In Love! In ''Star Wars''!]]")
** Not exactly the fault of the marketing department, but promotional posters and trailers for ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi,''showed Luke's new lightsaber having a blue blade. It was supposed to be blue, but it was determined that the blade wouldn't have stood out against Tatooine's blue sky in the opening sequence, so the color was changed to green. Similarly, the film was initially marketed as "Return of the Jedi," but briefly changed to "Revenge of the Jedi," to give it a darker edge, and several posters that feature the "Revenge" title exist. The title was changed back to "Return" before release due to George Lucas' protest that revenge isn't the Jedi way.
** ''Star Wars Episode III: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' had a trailer that showed shots of Darth Vader in his iconic costume, and showed what appeared to be various characters reacting to it (R2-D2 beeping wildly, Padme looking nervous, etc.). The trailer made many audiences think that the costumed Vader would have a large role in the movie itself. In fact, Anakin doesn't get armored up as Vader until the last few minutes of the movie; he interacts with none of the other characters except for Palpatine, and rather than being menacing, Vader shouts a wimpy "Noooo!" that quickly went into Internet meme history as one of the most laughable moments in film. (Many audiences laughed at this scene even in the theater.) There perhaps has never been a greater gulf between what a trailer promised and what the movie actually delivered.
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Scenes of Finn wielding a blue lightsaber are heavily advertised in all of the trailers, heavily implying that he is an up-and-coming Jedi set to follow in Luke's footsteps. [[spoiler:It's actually ''Rey'' who is groomed to become a Jedi, is shown developing Jedi powers, and has the final battle with Kylo Ren while Finn is never implied to have any force sensitivity- only using the lightsaber a few times in a pinch.]] Meanwhile Rey- the film's other main character who is far more central to the plot- was barely in many of the trailers, making the film's entire marketing campaign a total mis-direct to purposefully conceal the film's story.
*** The trailers made it look like Chewbacca blows up the bridge of a Star Destroyer using bombs. It's actually a Star Destroyer hangar bay control center, destroyed by Poe and Finn during their escape.
*** The trailers also prominently featured Captain Phasma, implying she was going to be a major villain alongside Ren and Hux, but she has about a minute of screen time and really doesn't do much except look cool.
** Darth Vader only pops up twice in ''[[Film/RogueOne Rogue One]]'', both effectively being cameos where he has little impact on the plot. But ''every damn trailer'' after the initial teaser shows Vader at least once, implying a much larger part in the story than he actually had. He even made many of the posters and marketing materials.
** The editing of the official trailer for ''Film/TheLastJedi'' implies that Rey tells Kylo Ren: "I need someone to show me my place in all this," and he then extends his hand to her. However, fans pretty quickly theorized that the two scenes take place in different locations. Though the context of Kylo extending his hand is fairly similar in the film, Rey says this line to Luke and Kylo is nowhere near to hear it. Also, the trailer includes a shot of Rey running with her lightsaber on Ahch-To (in a scene that was cut) and raising her saber threateningly on Ahch-To (it's a reversed shot: in the film, she lowers it).
* ''Film/StateOfPlay'' does a good job of showing the plot of a political murder mystery, but it makes you think the victim was shot and killed by a professional assassin. She was really pushed in front of a train by a professional assassin. Someone else is shot. Both murders are early enough in the movie to not be a spoiler.
* The trailers for the movie ''Film/StrangerThanFiction'' made it out to be another wacky Creator/WillFerrell comedy, when nearly all the humorous scenes were shown in the trailer. The tone of the movie was actually fairly serious.
** Which isn't to say that it's not funny. It's hilarious, but relies more on smart humor then on the slap-stick Ferrell is known for. But the trailer uses music that isn't used in the movie, misrepresents ''many'' scenes that are more serious, and if you didn't know beforehand you'd swear that the trailer was hinting at a romance between Eiffel and Krick.
** Also, to the extent it is a comedy, Ferrell is basically the straight man, and it is more the supporting cast--especially Dustin Hoffman--who provide the laughs.
* The trailers for ''Film/StruckByLightning'' conveniently leave out the fact that [[spoiler: the entire movie is told in flashback sequences after the main character is killed by lightning in the first scene.]]
* ''Film/StuartLittle'' is a criminal offender. Several commercials show Stuart flying a plane or fighting the cat and other cool things, but none of that happens in the film. But it does happen in the ending credits as a montage for what happens ''after'' the story is over.
* ''Film/SuckerPunch''. It is not a lighthearted film at all. Many believe the film [[BoxOfficeBomb bombed]] precisely because the ads played up the skimpy costumes and goofy violence. [[MisaimedMarketing Audiences were turned off by what they thought was just another exploitative action flick]], when the real film had some HiddenDepths. [[BrokenBase Well, at least according to some people...]]
* Many of the trailers for ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' made it appear as a typical "ill-fated excursion" movie, except [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]. Although the film did have elements of that, the trailers didn't advertise a movie that provided a character study of a group of people tasked with sacrificing their lives for the good of mankind.
* ''Film/SuicideSquad'' somewhat infamously went through at least six different cuts before reaching theaters, which led to some very misleading trailers with a ''lot'' of unused footage.
** Early trailers sold the film as an extremely dark and psychological thriller starring depraved and violent characters, with footage of Creator/JaredLeto as the Joker torturing Harley Quinn as a centerpiece. However, after the negative response to the dark tone of ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' and controversy around Leto's behavior on set, the movie was dramatically recut to be more lighthearted and almost all the Joker scenes were removed.
** Later trailers were more lighthearted but still represented a ''very'' different movie than what was eventually released due to the sheer amount of unused footage.
* ''Film/SunshineCleaning'''s trailer makes the film look a bit more light-hearted and comedic than it actually is. It also splices together dialogue from different parts of the film to make it look like they're part of one scene, though this is something even more honest trailers do frequently.
* ''{{Film/Super 8}}'''s first teaser trailer makes the film look more like a sci fi horror type movie with a more vicious looking creature than the more family friendly, Spielberg throwback the film ended up being. Later trailers were more honest about the tone of the film .
* The first trailer for ''Film/SupermanReturns'' consists entirely of footage of a teenage Clark experimenting with his powers, Martha Kent checking out a mysterious meteor in her back yard, and Lois Lane meeting Superman on a rooftop and looking shocked--all set to Jor-El's narration about why he's sending Kal-El to Earth. This gave a lot of people the impression that the movie was a {{remake}} of ''Film/{{Superman}}'' instead of its latest sequel. The fact that the title hadn't yet been revealed (the posters and trailer just showed the Franchise/{{Superman}} logo on a blue background) didn't help.
* The publicity campaign for ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' said nothing about it being a musical. The trailer also showed several scenes out of context, changing their meaning. A [[HangingJudge random trial]] appears as Sweeney's. A scene in an asylum appears as Sweeney in prison. And eye spying on Joanna appears to spy on Sweeney. And Lovett's line "but what are we going to do about him?", coming after the song "Epiphany" instead appears to come after Sweeney's [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome At last my arm is complete]] line.
* The film ''Film/{{Syriana}}'' was marketed as though it were an almost ''Film/MadMax''-esque thriller set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, and was full of stuff blowing up. In fact, the film was a ensemble piece on the effects of oil politics on a whole swath of people from totally divergent backgrounds.
* In the lead-up to the 2019 remake of Storm Boy, some cinemas started showing the trailer for the original 1976 version as if it was a reissue.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T]]
* The UK trailer for ''ComicBook/TamaraDrewe'' is yet another one that disguises the film as something funnier than it is. At the end of the trailer, two characters are walking past each other, greeting each other, and then calling each other a "twat" or an "asshole". This dialogue is not in the movie; instead they just communicate more generously, since it is more of a drama than a comedy. The U.S. trailer featured this clip without dialogue.
* There is [[https://youtu.be/5zkCnHUnoYY a very misleading trailer]] for ''Teenage Mother'' which depicts the main character as a promiscuous girl who gets pregnant thanks to a gang who "got even with" her. There are four {{Missing Trailer Scene}}s -- Arlene brushing her hair while [[LingerieScene wearing only a bra, panties, and boots]], her engaging in some EroticEating with a chicken wing, her and a boy in a steamy scene culminating with them kissing, and her caressing herself in front of a mirror -- all accompanied by erotic voiceover dialogue from her that is never said in the actual film. In short, the trailer completely disregards [[spoiler:TheReveal that Arlene was actually not pregnant; it was all an act of OperationJealousy regarding her boyfriend Tony and the new teacher Miss Peterson]].
* It was initially believed that Eric Sacks was going to be ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'''s incarnation of the Shredder. [[spoiler:He's actually TheDragon to the real Shredder]].
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''
** The trailer for ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' (along with the title itself) implied that the movie would be mainly about the struggle between human underdogs and ascendant machines after Judgment Day--showing among other things a scene of ragtag humans carrying a tattered American flag on a battlefield, which turned out to be part of a rather brief scene of a possible future. The film itself ended [[spoiler: as Judgment Day was happening]].
** The trailer for ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' implied that Arnold would be playing the villain again, as in the first Terminator, and that another member of the Resistance had come back to stop him. (Said 'Resistance member' was actually the T-1000.) Most of this was done by taking scenes out of context, but one shot shows the T-800 sarcastically promising the audience that it will not kill anyone. In-movie, the young John Connor is also in-shot, and it's him that the T-800 is truthfully promising to.
** In a trailer for ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'', Sarah calls kid Kyle ''John''.
* The first trailer for ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'' made it look like a human named P.T. Boomer was the main villain rather than the train Diesel 10, since this was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen the original idea for the movie]]. However, just after the trailer was released, Boomer was removed and Diesel 10 became the villain. He only appears in the final movie for a few seconds in actuality, with no major role whatsoever.
* In yet ANOTHER George Clooney example, the trailer for ''Film/ThreeKings'' presented it as a straightforward action/adventure film. Viewers probably didn't expect torture, murder of civilians, questioning of the USA's role in Iraq, and realistic depiction of gunshot wounds.
* The [[https://youtu.be/ukRdEVthmWM trailer]] for the Matthew [=McConaughey=]/Kate Beckinsale disaster ''Tiptoes'' plays up the notion that the whole film is a quirky comedy about a woman realizing that her boyfriend's family is comprised of dwarves, the wacky misadventures that follow and the couple's realization that she's pregnant. This, coupled with an out-of-character turn by Creator/GaryOldman as the man's wisecracking brother, would lead you to believe that this would be (at the very least) funny. (You would also be forgiven if you thought the film was made in the mid '90s, judging by the trailer. It's not: it was made in ''2003''.) In actuality, ''Tiptoes'' involves Beckinsale's character [[spoiler:not only working to further the rights of "the little people," but also deciding to start a relationship with her lover's brother near the end of the film because he has rejected his dwarf child]]. There are also plot threads that go nowhere (Peter Dinklage, who's seen in the trailer, is given very little screen time, and exists merely to hammer home the fact that dwarves can have relationships with normal-sized people).
* Ah, ''Towelhead''. Based on the trailer and title, you'd think it's a coming of age comedy about a young Arab girl dealing with racism and restrictive parents while growing up. Actually it's a very {{Squick}}y film about a girl's sexual awakening as she goes through puberty, with racism only a mild element. As for being a comedy, basically any scene in the film that can elicit even a chuckle is in the trailer. And many of them aren't at all funny in context in the actual film.
* A minor one in the trailer for ''Film/TheTown.'' Many people falsely took it as an example of TrailersAlwaysSpoil as the trailer presents the events as Rebecca Hall is stressed about being at a bank robbery, hooks up with Ben Affleck and in a plot twist, Ben Affleck is one of the bank robbers. In the film, the audience knows that Ben Affleck is a bank robber from the very beginning. The film is shown from his point of view, not Rebecca Hall's.
* The ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' has plenty of this as well.
** The original teaser trailers for the first two films made them look far darker in tone than what they actually were, especially [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen the second film]], which really was supposed to be the darker installment. It ended up filled with humor and some of the most juvenile comedy available. Needless to say, the [[Film/{{Transformers}} first film]] was much better in this regard.
** Early trailers for the original film did not feature any dialogue from the Transformers themselves. This made some, including the writers at Website/{{Cracked}}.com, believe the robots would be entirely silent.
** ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'' is an equally bad offender, but for understandable reasons -- the trailers and promo material tried to build up Shockwave as the main villain. [[spoiler:In reality, he has next to no story importance, and his actions can be summarized with "having a cameo in Chernobyl, then walking down a street in Chicago and getting killed". The true villain is Sentinel Prime, but his FaceHeelTurn being the big plot-twist in the middle of the film, they of course didn't want to spoil this.]]
** To a lesser degree, Optimus Prime himself also came off as something of a bad guy with the trailers focusing on him being mad at the humans, slaughtering other robots and delivering the line "We will kill them all!" Actually, he was simply pissed-off, but still a good guy.
** The trailers of ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'' made it seem like an entire spaceship fleet was heading towards Earth to kill humanity, leading many to complain that it would be just a rehash of the previous film. Actually, those ships only appear in a flashback from the Cretaceous, and something entirely different is threatening the humans with extinction. The Dinobots were also heavily advertised despite only being introduced at the very end of the film.
*** In one trailer, as Grimlock charges towards him, Optimus Prime lets out a battle cry before slamming Grimlock in the face and sending him flying, where Grimlock collides into the river. In the film, Optimus tries reasoning with Grimlock, "''We're giving you freedom!''" before delivering the big punch, and the 3 other Dinobots (Slug, Strafe and Scorn) are in the background watching Grimlock cringing in pain, as while they were hidden from the trailer.
** The trailers for ''Film/TransformersTheLastKnight'' went out of their way to make it seem DarkerAndEdgier, with some believing this would be the most somber and serious entry in the franchise to date. In reality, the movie is just as goofy and juvenile as its predecessors.
* An early trailer for ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' did exactly the same, focusing mainly on the scene where Truman sings to himself in the bathroom mirror. Later trailers focused on Truman's catchphrase of "Good morning! And if I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!" This made it look like ''The Truman Show'' would be yet another screwball comedy starring Carrey as another of his goofy characters. In actuality it was straight drama, and the scenes shown mostly happen pretty early in the film, when Carrey's character, an affable everyman, is just joking around with his neighbors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U]]
* The trailer for ''Film/{{Unstoppable}}'' would have you believe that the runaway train was carrying not only hazardous material, but also two passenger cars full of schoolchildren, who are in constant danger of being either blown to bits or crushed to death. In reality, the kids are on a different train and are safe and sound 15 minutes into the film.
** Also, the trailers make the film seem more thrilling than it actually is. The real film is more of a drama with a few action elements.
* Creator/GeorgeClooney's film ''Film/UpInTheAir'' has Clooney saying many life-affirming quotes in voiceover, making it appear that he's some sort of frequent-flier-mile-happy life coach ''a la Film/LoveHappens''. A later trailer reveals the character is the complete opposite: he's "hired by companies to fire people when they don't have the balls to do it themselves," and the young airline stewardess-like woman is his protégé. He does make money by being a life coach on the side, but this is more of a subplot. The philosophy he teaches is also ''extremely'' cynical, contrary to the trailers. [[spoiler: At least initially.]]
* In order to explain what one of the characters does later, in the film ''Used Cars'', there is a scene where it tells how honest they are, Creator/KurtRussell says to a woman, "I want you to get up on that stand, and lie." While she does in fact do this, that scene never appears in the film.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:V]]
* The trailer to ''Vulgar'' somehow managed to make the films seem ''lighthearted''.
* The infamous SoBadItsGood film ''Film/VampiresKiss'', featuring Creator/NicolasCage [[ChewingTheScenery in his most]] [[LargeHam over the top performance]], was actually advertised as a ''romantic comedy''. The actual film is a psychological horror similar to ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', where Cage plays a mentally disturbed rich publishing executive who thinks he was bitten by a vampire.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:W]]
* The ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' movie trailer has the male and female leads kissing. It looked like they were going to be romantically involved but it was just a fake kiss to show up his ex-girlfriend, and their only kiss in the movie. There is also no indication whatsoever that the film is based on a graphic novel, nor is there any mention of it: a relatively easy thing to gloss over, given the film's [[NotWearingTights omission of the costumes worn in the source material.]] And of course the movie actually had almost nothing to do with the book.
* ''Film/WarriorsOfVirtue'' looked like a serious martial arts fantasy movie. It took until ''Film/HarryPotter'' to realize kids movies don't have to be cheesy.
* In a trailer of ''Film/TheWarriorsWay'', one of the main characters said "ninjas...[[OhCrap damn]]". It became a fairly popular phrase, but is never used in the actual scene in the actual movie.
* The ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' trailer makes it look makes it look like Dr. Manhattan, not Rorschach, is the point of view character.
** More so it makes Rorschach look like the villain, ending the trailer with the line: ''the world will look up and shout "save us" and I'll whisper "no"''. Also every trailer and summary for the movie features the whole "superheroes are being killed off" bit when in fact the Comedian is the only one who is killed by an assassin, the rest all being retired (or dead already).
*** Might be interpreted as a bit of FridgeBrilliance in the case of Rorschach: For people who haven't read the original graphic novel, it attempts (intentionally or not) to derail the whole MisaimedFandom thing from the start.
** The trailers were very action oriented. It seems like every action shot in the movie made it into the trailer, making the movie seem more action packed than it was, which pissed off a fair few filmgoers.
* ''Film/TheWaterHorse'' trailers suggested it would be a kiddy film about a boy and his cute little water dragon, in the tone of ''Film/{{Babe}}''. One trailer even showed the bulldog saying it was the titular horse's "best friend". Sure, the movie starts out this way, but for the most part it's a lot more gritty than that, especially when the water horse grows up. It nearly kills the boy, and devours all the lake's wildlife. Towards the end, the military mistakes the water horse for an enemy sub [[spoiler: and nearly kills him and the boy.]] Oh, and remember that bulldog who is supposedly the horse's best friend? [[spoiler: Towards the end, when the water horse goes berserk, he swallows the dog whole and then tries to kill the owner. Make one wonder if the marketing people even watched the movie, there wasn't any hint of friendship between the dog and the water horse. The dog spends the earlier part of the film trying to catch the water horse when it's a baby, and then spend the end of the film in the water horse's belly.]] Combine all that with a boy who is counting down the days when his father will come home from the war, [[spoiler: only to slowly realize his father is never coming back since he's dead]] and it's far from the happy go lucky mood of the trailer. That said, that doesn't make it a depressing film and there are some heartwarming moments.
* ''Film/TheWayOfTheGun'''s misleading trailer made it look as though it was going to be a farcical comedy, when in fact the movie itself is a fairly sullen action flick.
* A [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v6xhk scam]] [[https://youtu.be/54kT8uYTbhE trailer]] for ''Film/WhatAboutBob'' for anyone who hadn't seen the actual trailer when it came out makes it look like a ''horror'' movie.
* The trailer for the film version of ''Film/WhereTheWildThingsAre'' makes it look like it'd be a fun, cute kid's adventure movie about a little boy who befriends a bunch of monsters. The actual film, however, is pretty depressing.
* ''Film/{{Whiteout}}'' is insinuated in the trailer to be a sci-fi style horror film. [[spoiler: It's more along the lines of a slasher/thriller film.]]
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' trailers had the scene where Roger gets a load of bricks dropped on him, but with a line of dialog that occurred slightly earlier in the scene. Some trailers included the "I'm a pig!" scene, which was cut from the film.
* The trailer for ''Film/WickerPark'' is cut to seem like ''Film/FatalAttraction'' mixed with 'StalkerWithACrush' film, but in fact, it is a psychological drama about a man searching for his ex-girlfriend after he thinks he sees her two years after she disappeared. 'LoveMakesYouCrazy' in this film, but not in the expected ways.
* The trailers for ''Film/TheWrestler'' made it out to be a bit of a modern ''Film/{{Rocky}}'', and one of those "sad person gets his or her life back together, heartwarming ensues," movies. It's actually quite the subversion - wrestling is his highly self-destructive form of escapism from his crappy life, which he tries [[spoiler: and fails to get back together, then kills himself fighting in the ring.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:X]]
* The domestic trailer for ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve'' showed a MonsterOfTheWeek-style plot, matching decently to the movie. The international trailer went out of its way to pretend it was about aliens -- it had blurry lights in the distance (actually car headlights) with reaction shots (from different scenes) and minimized the shots of the psychic and actual villains.
* Minor example: TV commercials for ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' would feature some of the other mutants in the movie, with one of them noting Comicbook/EmmaFrost. Her role in the movie is to turn into diamond at one point, making her more of a cameo than the semi-major character the commercial played her up to be.
** This has happened with other characters like Comicbook/{{Deadpool}} as well. Some comments have been made about the TV spots, saying how ridiculous it is that a whole 30 seconds said more about the characters than their screen time throughout the entire film.
* The TV spots for ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' imply that Charles is pointing a gun at [[Comicbook/{{Magneto}} Erik]] as a threat; it's from a scene where they're training together.
** Charles's line to Erik "A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it" isn't actually in the movie.
* The first official trailer for ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' gives the impression that Wolverine will be sent back in time to recruit the primary mutant characters we met in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', including Comicbook/{{Mystique}} (with a clip showing off her [[ActionGirl badass fighting skills]] coupled with spliced-together dialogue stating, "[We need her] because she's a cold-hearted bitch"), so that they can unite with the present-day X-Men to battle the Sentinels. This is actually the furthest thing from the truth: Logan's the only one who travels through time in the film, and it's for the purpose of uniting Charles and Erik in the past so that they can ''stop'' Mystique from carrying out the assassination that will lead to the creation of the Sentinels in the first place.
** The "I don't want your future!" line from Young!Charles [[spoiler:is directed to Logan and his memories, not to Future!Charles as the trailer implies.]]
** In the first trailer, when Logan asks Magneto where he will find him, Erik says, "A different path, a darker path"; he's actually referring to Mystique in the movie, not himself. [[spoiler: Not that it wouldn't apply to his past self just as perfectly.]]
* One spot for ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' features Nightcrawler, having just been rescued from the mutant fight club by Mystique, gazing at her in awe and remarking, "You're her!" This gives the impression that Nightcrawler is [[LukeYouAreMyFather recognizing her]] as his biological mother, and that a [[MissingMom family]] [[ConnectedAllAlong drama]] is about to unfold. In reality, Nightcrawler recognizes Mystique as a mutant hero and revolutionary; the full line is, "You can transform! You're her! The Hero!" The issue of Nightcrawler's parentage never comes up in the movie, and there's no indication that he and Mystique are related.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Y]]
* Most of the trailers for ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' contain a scene that's not in the movie showing Fredrick, Inga and Igor in a room together with a book. Fredrick says, "I guess we can all use a little laugh," then they all get scared by a lightning strike. This scene isn't even included on the Deleted Scenes portion of the DVD!
* The trailers for ''Film/YourHighness'' make Creator/JamesFranco and Creator/NataliePortman out to be equal billing with star/co-writer Creator/DannyMcBride. In actuality, most of Franco's screen time takes place in the middle of the film and Portman doesn't show up for the first 45 minutes. Fourth-billed Creator/ZooeyDeschanel is nothing more than an extended cameo (which somehow became an AvertedTrope as she was barely in the trailers).
* The trailer for ''Film/YouthInRevolt'' made it look like Nick's family is living in a trailer home, when really, they were only staying in the trailer during the summer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Z]]
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'' features the titular entity saying "The gun is good...". Audiences who saw the film were understandably weirded out by the omitted second part, "The penis is evil."
[[/folder]]

----

** Several shots of Captain Marvel seen in trailers and TV spots (some of which show her floating in the air looking down at something while sporting her helmet) were also deliberately changed to hide the reveal that [[spoiler:she gets an ImportantHaircut and cuts her hair short prior to the final battle, similar to her mid-[=2010s=] incarnation]], which was also spoiled by the leaked footage.

* Several trailers for ''Film/CaptainMarvel'' feature her saying "I'm not going to fight your war. I'm going to end it!" as a BadassBoast. She doesn't say this line in the film, in fact the line isn't in the film at all in that form: it's a praphrase of something her mentor, Mar-Vell, said. And it doesn't refer to a hero, or even a weapon, but to [[spoiler: a light-speed engine designed to get the Skrulls away from the Kree.]]

** The third trailer opens with Comicbook/{{Gamora}} seemingly telling Iron Man about Thanos and what he plans to do with the Infinity Stones. The two heroes never actually meet in the movie; Gamora's lines are taken from a scene where she tells the other Guardians about Thanos, while the shot of Tony comes from a scene where Doctor Strange explains the origin of the Infinity Stones.

* ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''

** A ''much'' bigger example is how the trailer makes the film out to be a CrazyAwesome World War II-themed spaghetti western following a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits a ragtag bunch of Jewish-American soldiers led by a loose-cannon hillbilly]] on a mission to assassinate Hitler. [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot You may be somewhat disappointed to find that the film is actually]] a very character and dialogue driven cat-and-mouse game between a [[BestServedCold vengeful]] French-Jewish woman and an AffablyEvil MagnificentBastard Waffen SS guy, with the crazy US soldiers in the back as a comic relief B-plot and the action sequences both few and far between and very short.

* The trailer for the first ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'' film shows several false scares in amongst the actual murders, counting up to 13. The narrator for the trailer for ''Film/FridayThe13thPart2'' hadn't seen the first movie and/or couldn't count: "[[YouFailLogicForever On Friday the 13th, 1980, 12 of her friends were murdered. Why should Friday the 13th 1981 be any different?]]" (Only seven people, not including [[spoiler:Mrs. Voorhees]], were killed that night, and the film's subtitle clearly sets it in 1979, while the second is established as being set five years later.) Then the trailer counts on from 14 up to... 23. Cue FacePalm.

* Trailers for Tim Burton's ''Film/DarkShadows'' played up its FishOutOfTemporalWater humor, which it has plenty of -- but it's a BlackComedy with moments of high drama rather than a farce.

* The trailers for ''Film/{{Jarhead}}'' make it out to be a fast-paced, gritty war movie full of explosions and heroics (several scenes in the trailer are not present in the film). This is an JustForFun/{{egregious}} example as the entire point of ''Jarhead'' is that the platoon ''never'' sees direct action, and nobody dies. The most dramatic scene in the movie is a standoff with a handful of nomads... and it ends peacefully. Interestingly enough, the DirectToVideo sequel was exactly the type of movie that the trailer made the first film out to be-a fast-pased gritty war film with plenty of explosions and heroics.

* There was one shot of [[http://37.media.tumblr.com/1e92b91858c83c944fb79e35de2184ad/tumblr_mn2e8eJWeQ1qmw3xso2_r1_250.gif Ridley screaming]] in what looks like anger in the trailer for ''Film/BeautifulCreatures'' (at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HNfEe9PEDg 1:52]], after Lena snarls "I want you outta here!"). Thing is, what actually happens is that Lena tells her to get out, and then Ridley screams in anger that she's so sick of everyone treating Lena like she's special, to which Lena coldly replies "I said, get away from my boyfriend, you witch." Ridley's face changes to surprise and fear, and ''then'' she goes flying.

* The American trailer for ''Film/TheBoatThatRocked'', released in the U.S. under the title ''Pirate Radio'', portrays the film as if Philip Seymour Hoffman's character would be the center of the plot (understandable marketing choice, since Hoffman was the only American actor of the main cast). However, while Hoffman's character is certainly prominent, most members of the main cast are more involved in the plot, though the story of Carl (played by Tom Sturridge) is perhaps given the most attention. The trailer in question can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX1SSiFWF-s here]]. For contrast, watch a more accurate trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyXu0mC38SE here]].

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWkl9xK_y1g Chairman]]'' is a spy movie about sneaking into UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's residence to steal a top secret plan. Its tagline is "Creators/GregoryPeck turned into a lethal weapon ... to stop the chairman before the chairman stops the world!" Mao is building a superweapon right? Wrong, the top secret plan is for a enzyme that can improve grain productions to feed everyone in China.

* The latest Sherwood Pictures release ''Courageous'' features a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9VT_NBIVfs brief montage of scenes at the end of the trailer]] following a speech by Adam Mitchell (part of Albany's Sheriff's Department) calling on the men to be strong fathers (the crux of the movie). One of the clips involves another officer, Shane Fuller, hanging with his son. In the actual movie, by the time the speech is made, Shane is [[DirtyCop in prison for stealing drugs from the evidence room to be sold in exchange for cash]].

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKesRqocYTU trailer]] for the Creator/KurtRussell cop thriller ''Film/DarkBlue'' does it in a twofold manner. First by making the movie seem like a non-stop urban action movie, while it's a character study of an [[DirtyCop incredibly dirty]] CowboyCop (Russell) with a deteriorating private life and investigations into his professional conduct who slowly comes to see the error of his ways, and how his lifestyle and those of others like him had a helping hand in shaping the social climate in Los Angeles prior to the 1992 riots. Second by [[BillingDisplacement significantly overstating]] Creator/VingRhames' role and presenting him as the main antagonist. Funny enough, [[http://www.impawards.com/2003/dark_blue.html the poster]] gives a much better indication of the film's content.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSe6tvfedb0 Another commercial]] for ''Begins'' (aired prior to showings of the film on ABC Family) played up the same "love story" angle, to the extent that viewers could be forgiven for thinking the film is a romantic drama[=/=]comedy (a whip noise is heard when Bruce asks if the Tumbler comes in black), where Bruce and Rachel reunite after many years. While it does play a part in the plot, it's nowhere near the most prominent story thread. Additionally, the trailer states that Bruce "fights for family", which is... ''very'' unrepresentative of the character's origin.

* The producers of ''Film/GirlInterrupted'' did their damndest to make a grim drama about mental illness, [[spoiler:sexual abuse, and suicide]] look like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BHHUBZf7y4 a heart-warming, feel-good story]].

* The 2006 movie ''Film/TheGoodShepherd'' pined the movie as a deep look into the history of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, better known as the {{CIA}}, including scenes of supposed espionage underway. Really much of the movie is about the personal life of Edward Wilson (Creator/MattDamon [[Film/TheBourneSeries of all people]]) his various affairs with women and his struggling marriage. And he just happened to find a secretive agency that spends most of its time trying to decipher a mysterious video. [[EndingFatigue The movie is well over two hours long!]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfokH6v4aOM This]] trailer for ''Film/GosfordPark'' makes it look like a comedic whodunit rather than a dramatic movie about the British class system.

** David Thewlis, who plays Lupin in the HP movies, put together a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXzdDRnWFqs fake trailer]] for Harry Potter as a teen comedy romance.

* This was certainly the case with Music/TheMonkees' 1968 film ''Film/{{Head}}''. [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent Rather than a movie-length episode]] of the band's [[Series/TheMonkees TV series]], which the fans would have expected, ''Head'' was a [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible strange, surrealistic, absurdist]] [[CerebusSyndrome Grand Statement]] about the band's manufactured image, mass media and rampant consumerism, with subtle anti-war messages scattered throughout. By the same token, it did feature to some degree the Monkees' madcap humor and an assortment of musical selections by the band, and [[Music/FrankZappa numerous]] [[Creator/TeriGarr guest]] [[Creator/AnnetteFunicello stars]]. An [[DadaAd avant-garde, minimalistic, black-and-white, dialogue-free TV commercial]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La0RsMB3MTU showing PR man John Brockman]] with the word "HEAD" appearing on his forehead in the last few seconds was shown, advertising the movie, with no mention of the Monkees (or the fact it was for a movie) at all. Predictably, the movie bombed, being too surreal for the band's teen demographic, while the presence of the already unfashionable Monkees alienated the counterculture. The movie [[VindicatedByCable won a new audience]] by TheNineties after repeated midnight movie showings on cable and its release on video.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn69ZyQU9JI&feature=channel_video_title They had]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUUcOmgYEhY&feature=relmfu a lot of]] [[https://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio?blend=1&ob=4#p/c/1F1BE18087BDFDA1/1/QHqLcEtt368 fun with this]], to the point they got to [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading it]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsPz51_M3fI&feature=channel_video_title And then...]] [[spoiler:They parodied ''themselves''.]]

* Hey everybody! [[SarcasmMode It's the latest and greatest comedy]], ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS_fK7oHB9Y Next Day Air!]]'' This hilarious parody (starring Donald Faison) of the life of drug dealers and mailmen will leave you rolling on the floor struggling to catch your breath! Except for the fact that [[spoiler: the length of the trailer amounts to maybe half of Donald Faison's screen time, and the main story follows two unlucky criminals who, by luck, acquire some drugs and are pursued by a drug lord who seeks to kill them.]]

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8XXv3pl10 trailer]] for ''Film/{{Nothing}}'' makes it out to be a psychological thriller/horror/sci-fi much in the same vein as Creator/VincenzoNatali's earlier film ''Film/{{Cube}}'', when in actuality it is a lighthearted buddy comedy that is almost nothing like that.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgTGPJtvmS8 trailer]] for the documentary ''Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa'' is filled with ominous music and repeated shots of guns and destruction. In reality, the confrontation depicted is a single subplot out of many and was soon resolved peacefully off-camera. The film is actually a fascinating study of a tiny rural community cut off from the rest of society and the wide range of interesting characters who choose to live there.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN69_DFySJA This trailer]] for ''Film/{{Payback}}'' is littered with them, ranging from the minor factual stuff like saying "This is [Porter's] dog" -- it's only a dog named ''[[WeNamedTheMonkeyJack after him]]'' by a friend/love interest -- up to completely misrepresenting the movie as something of a comedy (it's a rather dark FilmNoir) and portraying the chillingly ruthless and competent anti hero Porter as a NoRespectGuy and something of a bumbler. And that's putting aside things like featuring scenes that were cut from the film and would only be restored years later in the [[ReCut Director's Cut]].

* ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr8D5D92lCc official Italian trailer]] makes it look like some kind of badass action thriller, implying that most of the film is centered on the heist to bring The Asset out of the facility, and completely removing the romantic angle. It even includes the part where Elisa tells (with sign language) Strickland to fuck off and a scene of the Amphibian Man snarling.

* ''Film/SpiderMan3'' had a TV spot/trailer for it made which made it seem like Spidey had the black suit for about half an hour before Comicbook/{{Venom}} came in and became the film's major villain. Clips of police officers shooting upwards and Symbiote Spider-Man swinging about were cut together with clips of Peter being smashed through buildings and dodging debris, giving the impression that Venom and Spider-Man would have epic, city-wide battles. Of course, [[spoiler:Venom was a very minor character, in comparison to New Goblin and Sandman, and even Gwen Stacey had more screen time. He appeared only at the very end of the film, and was killed off after a short appearance. The character didn't survive even one night within the film's universe, and was completely annihilated in an explosion]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yulxywCKu6o&feature=relmfu Here it is]].

** Who can forget the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBbpyiK7ds early trailer]] for ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''? It gave the impression that Captain Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise-D to help Picard and his crew fight off a Klingon Bird of Prey. Of course, it probably jolted audiences when they actually saw the film and witnessed [[DroppedABridgeOnHim what happened to Kirk]].

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gvqpFbRKtQ The original trailer]] complicates the matter by claiming that "somewhere in space, this could all be happening RIGHT NOW." So, we could be in the past, present, or future.
** Much of the 1977 advertising implied or outright stated that Luke and Leia get together. Not that you could blame the marketers of the time for not knowing how ''that'' would work out. There's a 1977 TV spot included on the DVD, labeled "Forbidden Love," which focuses entirely on this. ("[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ALruZJOuE Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. In Danger! In Love! In ''Star Wars''!]]")

* There is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkCnHUnoYY a very misleading trailer]] for ''Teenage Mother'' which depicts the main character as a promiscuous girl who gets pregnant thanks to a gang who "got even with" her. There are four {{Missing Trailer Scene}}s -- Arlene brushing her hair while [[LingerieScene wearing only a bra, panties, and boots]], her engaging in some EroticEating with a chicken wing, her and a boy in a steamy scene culminating with them kissing, and her caressing herself in front of a mirror -- all accompanied by erotic voiceover dialogue from her that is never said in the actual film. In short, the trailer completely disregards [[spoiler:TheReveal that Arlene was actually not pregnant; it was all an act of OperationJealousy regarding her boyfriend Tony and the new teacher Miss Peterson]].

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukRdEVthmWM trailer]] for the Matthew [=McConaughey=]/Kate Beckinsale disaster ''Tiptoes'' plays up the notion that the whole film is a quirky comedy about a woman realizing that her boyfriend's family is comprised of dwarves, the wacky misadventures that follow and the couple's realization that she's pregnant. This, coupled with an out-of-character turn by Creator/GaryOldman as the man's wisecracking brother, would lead you to believe that this would be (at the very least) funny. (You would also be forgiven if you thought the film was made in the mid '90s, judging by the trailer. It's not: it was made in ''2003''.) In actuality, ''Tiptoes'' involves Beckinsale's character [[spoiler:not only working to further the rights of "the little people," but also deciding to start a relationship with her lover's brother near the end of the film because he has rejected his dwarf child]]. There are also plot threads that go nowhere (Peter Dinklage, who's seen in the trailer, is given very little screen time, and exists merely to hammer home the fact that dwarves can have relationships with normal-sized people).

* A [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v6xhk scam]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54kT8uYTbhE trailer]] for ''Film/WhatAboutBob'' for anyone who hadn't seen the actual trailer when it came out makes it look like a ''horror'' movie.

* Trailers for ''Film/TheFavourite'' only feature Queen Anne being quirky and high-strung, making no reference to to the lesbian love triangle that the movie is actually about. There's a ''very'' brief shot of Anne and Abigail dancing, with no context whatsoever.

* Trailers for ''Film/TheFavourite]]'' only feature Queen Anne being quirky and high-strung, making no reference to to the lesbian love triangle that the movie is actually about. There's a ''very'' brief shot of Anne and Abigail dancing, with no context whatsoever.

* ''Film/WaterHorse'' trailers suggested it would be a kiddy film about a boy and his cute little water dragon, in the tone of ''Film/{{Babe}}''. One trailer even showed the bulldog saying it was the titular horse's "best friend". Sure, the movie starts out this way, but for the most part it's a lot more gritty than that, especially when the water horse grows up. It nearly kills the boy, and devours all the lake's wildlife. Towards the end, DrillSergeantNasty mistakes the water horse for an enemy sub [[spoiler: and nearly kills him and the boy.]] Oh, and remember that bulldog who is supposedly the horse's best friend? [[spoiler: Towards the end, when the water horse goes berserk, he swallows the dog whole and then tries to kill the owner. Make one wonder if the marketing people even watched the movie, there wasn't any hint of friendship between the dog and the water horse. The dog spends the earlier part of the film trying to catch the water horse when it's a baby, and then spend the end of the film in the water horse's belly.]] Combine all that with a boy who is counting down the days when his father will come home from the war, [[spoiler: only to slowly realize his father is never coming back since he's dead]] and it's far from the happy go lucky mood of the trailer. That said, that doesn't make it a depressing film and there are some heartwarming moments.