Spoiler alert!!!!! But just what IS a spoiler?

It doesn’t happen just on movie review sites, but in general life too…we’ve all done it, said something to someone about a movie and someone in the conversation looks downcast and proclaims a spoiler. Spoiler aversion seems to be on the increase. If you look at trailers from the 1940’s and 50’s, you hardly needed to see the movie. They were longer, had voiceover narrations and did nearly the entire movie in a 5 minute capsule. Back then it was common for people to walk in on a movie half way through, see the end and watch the beginning; theaters were NOT emptied after each showing.

Now we are in the era where trailers, reviews and even casual conversations are subject to someone angrily declaring a spoiler, the worst of movie offenses. So…just WHAT is a spoiler? This is a question proposed to our forumers. What’s the threshold level of revelation for a spoiler? Is it different for different kinds of movies?

The worst and most obvious spoilers of course are in full-out fiction. Revealing, in a bittersweet love story, whether the guy ever does get the girl is certainly a spoiler, but is it a spoiler to say that one or the other of them is crazy or hard to get along with when the first shot in the trailer shows them being cute?

What about trailers? Some of them say a little, some say more, but is it fair ground to assume that anything in an official trailer that shows up in the theater or on Youtube is acceptable to reveal in a conversation or review?

If a movie is about history, is the historic event itself that can be a spoiler? Really, is there anybody out there that thinks that it’s a spoiler while discussing a Civil War movie to say that the North wins? In a World War movie, is it OK to say that the Germans are on the losing side in both wars to someone who has not seen the movie? Is spoiler aversion just a substitute for a lack of basic historical knowledge?

I’ll grant that completely fictional stories and fictional characters added to realistic movies can be spoiled. I’ll state that D Day certainly happened, and that it IS a spoiler to say whether a fictional character makes if off the beach and to the end of the war, but can anybody claim that the overall D Day events themselves can be spoilers?

What’s the consensus of opinion on this? What ARE the rules for what constitutes a spoiler?

A reviewer shouldn't spoil the film for another person by revealing the ending or important plot developments, unless of course


Saying the North wins is of course not a spoiler, BUT saying the leading actor is shot and killed during the ending is a spoiler (unless it's Lincoln), otherwise it's common sense.

Anything that gives away information which could have enhanced the viewing experience which cannot be safely assumed in advance.

I think, like many things, it depends on your audience. It doesn't really help you, but I think it's the case.

My own pet peeve is being told there is a spoiler. The knowledge that a film has a spoiler is almost always enough to give it away early when watching.

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But surely it is if the person you're talking to doesn't know the North wins? I've heard people talk about Titanic not knowing it actually existed.

There's no mercy for the ill informed

I see your point (and I certainly wouldn't think of it as a spoiler) but, I think it was GS, who recently saw Psycho with his g/f and she didn't know the ending. I'd consider that ill informed, but we're not really going to shout spoiler with a film that old, are we? There's certainly a good argument for it.

There's got to be a statute of limitations on spoilers. I can't go through life worrying that someone doesn't know that King Kong gets shot off the building by airplanes.

Woah! Spoiler alert!

But, there is a continuum to the spoiler thing. I don't know exactly what it is, certainly anything new comes under the spoiler ethic, but on the other hand, eventually movies move in to the realm of common knowledge. A minute ago, I typed casablanca wiki into Google and came up with a a paragraph that says - " Renault suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville. As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.""



Were this a new movie, that would absolutely qualify as a spoiler, but being that a film like Casablanca has been shown innumerable times, had clips made, been imitated in other films, etc, it's ending certainly has passed into the realm of common knowledge, as has King Kong and the airplanes. So all other movies sit somewhere in the middle of the spoiler realm. I think I stay on the side of caution, but then somebody in the ticket line blows the whole thing....the perils of life.