6 Trailers That Completely Ruined The Movie

Creating a movie trailer is undeniably a difficult job. Not only do you have to compile an entire feature length film into a couple of minutes, you must also pick out the bits that will entice audiences to watch the movie whilst not giving anything away. That is, unless you’re the creators of the following trailers that gave crucial information about their movies away before they had even been released:

Castaway (2000)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfXpFgyAY_U]
Director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks reunited after the success of Forrest Gump to create one of the most harrowing tales of survival ever brought to the big screen. On a cold Christmas Eve, Chuck Noland boards a FedEx cargo plane that ultimately plummets into the Pacific Ocean. Noland is left stranded an island and we, as an audience, are held in suspense as the tale unfolds. Only anyone who saw the trailer wasn’t held in suspense as it makes it clear that Noland survives, he escapes the island on the raft, and he is reunited with the people who thought he had died. Also, there’s just not enough Wilson in the trailer.

Rec (2007)/ Quarantine (2008)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGJ_jPKOj1c]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoBh5S_aWwk]
These found-footage films share the story of a female reporter and a cameraman as their night of horror unfolds. They begin the evening shadowing firefighters who are called to an apartment block to aid a resident who is extremely ill. After a firefighter is brutally mauled it becomes clear that resident was infected with a contagious strain of rabies that turns humans into unrelenting killers. If no one will let the reporter out of the apartment block to find safety, will she survive the night? Nope. The trailers for both movies clearly show the reporter being pulled into the darkness, so it wasn’t hard for audience’s to figure out how this movie ended.

Terminator: Salvation (2009)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjWCyJ0krI]
Not only does Hollywood seem unable to give fans a worthy Terminator movie, they don’t seem to be able to create spoiler-less trailers for them either. Terminator: Salvation is the first of the franchise to be set entirely in the post-apocalyptic future, so fans were understandably excited. We follow an adult John Conner (Christian Bale) as he frees human test subjects from an experimental SkyNet laboratory. This is where he meets Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), who the trailer told us is a machine that thinks he’s human and chooses to fight with his friends rather than his fellow terminators. Wright is arguably the movies most interesting character and plot point, so revealing his entire character in the trailer was a bad move.

The Island (2005)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5hRQwewcUY]
The only reality that Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) know is the inside of a futuristic complex where their every move is assessed and scrutinized. The outside world is no longer inhabitable, that is, except for a beautiful, tropical island where lucky lottery winners are taken. So you don’t have to figure it out for yourself, the trailer explains that this is all completely made up, ‘The Island’ isn’t real, and Lincoln and Jordan are in fact clones. You’re welcome.

Free Willy (1993)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxU17Z0BAc8]
Bothersome foster child Jesse (Jason James Richter) gets one of the best punishments for his bad behaviour ever when he’s assigned to grounds maintenance at the local amusement park. There, equally troublesome Orca Willy and Jesse create a bond that cannot be broken. When the owners decide that Willy is more valuable to them dead than alive, Jesse must free Willy and just in case you can’t wait to see whether they are successful the trailer shows that yes, indeed they are. Of course, as Free Willy is a family movie it was almost inevitable that there would be a happy ending, but placing the most iconic scene in both the trailer and on the movie’s posters did sort of take the fun out of imagining different finale scenarios.

Children Of Men (2006)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VT2apoX90o]
Alfonso Cuaron’s Children Of Men explores a dystopian Earth where women have become infertile for some unexplained reason and the population is slowly diminishing. Unfortunately, the trailer covers almost every crucial plot detail and character development in the entire feature long film, leaving audiences with all the story the movie had to offer before it even premiered.