MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > How do we feel about "Spoilers"?

How do we feel about "Spoilers"?


I run into people here who cry every time someone let's slip the ending to any and every movie no matter how old and well-known. To me, it's utterly ridiculous. Some movies we know there is a real twist at the end and we shouldn't reveal it. That's what the movie really hangs on. But generally speaking, a film is a journey, and what happens in the end isn't the only reason to watch it. Drives me crazy when people seem to feel the whole movie is ruined because they think they know the end.
How do others feel about this?

reply

spoilers in a thread title are abusive.

but aside from that, discussions about films presume they've been viewed. that's a reasonable assumption.

reply

I'm with you on that. Putting a spoiler in the title is just plain rude.

reply

Actually, I think it’s sadistic.

reply

I've really tried to watch myself about delivering spoilers. Never occurred to me someone might title a thread Rosebud is * **** ! That's almost funny.

reply

Rosebud? Well thanks alot! You just spoiled the whole movie!

reply

Why MMC ! Aren't YOU the ***** ***** !

reply

shhhhhhhhhh....

reply

I love them. The plot is always the least interesting part of a movie. Spoilers help discourage silly plot twists and surprise endings.

It's also definitely a free speech issue. A lot of forums ban them. If you want to insulate yourself from information about a movie, it should be your responsibility to insulate yourself from information about a movie. You shouldn't feel so privlidged that you can just dump your burden onto other people and restrict their freedom to discuss on a discussion board.

reply

[deleted]

Lol are you serious?

reply

Usually people will give warning that there is a spoiler, like *****spoiler***** or something like that, hopefully.

reply

It's best to avoid posting spoilers just out of respect to other users
Most users here are pretty good about that

And if you want to avoid them certainly stay off boards until you've seen the show or movie! Some people spoil something completely by accident and without ill intent (it can happen when we all get to gabbing)

reply

Exactly ! I don't go out of my way to blab what happened at the end of every movie I've see, but I was on the Hombre (Paul Newman) thread, and there's an old argument where some people don't like the end of that movie. Like they wanted to have a happier ending ! So of course people were discussing the finale, and somebody jumps in and complains about the Spoiler !
I said what if I bring up how Abe Lincoln died? Am I spoiling someone's month because they don't know simple history? Am I spoiling Avatar if I say the male protagonist is paraplegic and gets to be a different humanoid in VR? At least that's relatively early in the (very bad) film ! How can we talk about well-known films if we can't discuss the endings?

reply

*SPOILER ALERT!!!

The Titanic sinks at the end of Titanic!

Yep, some people are dumb lol

reply

OMG ! I've seen this movie ! I thought Kate went out for a swim, and Leo couldn't resist following her even though he couldn't swim ! The whole ship went down ?!? Wow ! That sure leaves Kate in a Pickle ! Now what does she do ?

reply

*SPOILER ALERT!!!

Every guy here would have gone for a swim with Kate even if they couldn't swim lol!

reply

A fair warning must always be there. Who decides how long a movie/TV show can be spoiled after its release? Some may feel one week. Others may feel one year.

reply

I'm sure some people make honest mistakes, and and others may do it intentionally, but movies that are decades old and aren't The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense should be free to discuss.
And of course, it's up to the individual to avoid following movies they want to experience w/o prior knowledge. It's purely on them. I'm starting to think people who complain about spoilers are just trolling for the fun of it.

reply

Here's why I don't agree with the decades old argument. There are many young people who are now getting to a point where their movie palette is beginning to grow and now they'll start watching more. The Sixth Sense came out 20 years ago, is it really a 14-year-old's fault they haven't seen it, whereas someone who is in their thirties has had 20 years to do so?

reply

My argument is that such a person can either avoid reading up on the Sixth Sense, or hopefully realize there is more to that movie than the ending. There are whole threads where people claim to have guessed the ending right from the beginning. That's the nature of discussion. I'm not giving away 6th sense by mentioning it here, but I figure as soon as I do bring it up, a sensitive reader should back off. Also, I've seen the movie once, and one particular scene disturbed me and I have no other reason to see it again. Maybe it's just not that great a movie regardless of how well the ending is pulled off. Or not. But I don't mind seeing Usual Suspects again if it comes my way at the right time.

reply

I'm not talking about message boards, but rather when having discussions with people.

reply

Discussions with people? Does that still go on in some corners?
Well, that's certainly a different subject. How anyone could discuss a movie with someone who hasn't seen it, and blurt out the ending, that's hard to even imagine. That's like being at a party and overhearing a conversation then going "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

reply

Back in the day, IMDb had a way of dealing with spoilers, and thankfully, moviechat has followed suit.

All one has to do is type [ spoiler ] at the beginning and [ /spoiler ] at the end of of the spoiler (without the spaces between the brackets, of course) and the spoiler becomes blacked out. Then all the reader has to do is move the cursor over the blacked out part and it becomes readable.

Here, I'll show you ... [spoiler]You see, it's not that difficult![/spoiler]

Sadly however, there are posters who are just plain lazy, thus they won't do that little extra work so as not to spoil something for the rest.
Oh well, such is life.

P.S. I guess I should point out that here at moviechat, you can only place one blacked out spoiler per post. The same holds true for italics and bold. IMDb allowed multiple uses of them per post, not to mention a much simpler method of attaching emojis.
Ahh, the good old days.

reply

This is interesting and instructive and all, but I just posted my thoughts about people who court danger by reading about a movie they haven't seen. I'm not likely to go out of my way to post something only to hide part of it. But I appreciate your response. Maybe I'll play around with the black out tool, (I always seem to misunderstand some part of the instruction).

reply

Anything is free game on the movie board where said movie is being discussed. You don't want spoilers, you shouldn't be there. But dropping spoilers for films on unrelated boards and general discussion pages is seriously shitty. I don't want to be talking about Gordon Ramsay and have Sixth Sense spoiled for me scrolling through the comments.

reply

Hahaha - Sixth Sense is one of the archetypal spoiler movies. No one seems worried about spoiling the end of Wizard Of Oz or It's A Wonderful Life.

reply

I've still never seen Wonderful Life even though it's been on the tv in the background of christmas parties countless times. A guy has a deaf ear or something? IDK. We live in a world now where an entire new generation is coming up to see these movies we all take for granted now. I was lucky to grow up in a world without internet. Old movies were still fresh.

reply

If what you are saying is true (and why would it not be?), you really owe it to yourself to watch it thoroughly. It's a real feel-good film, perfectly cast. Definitely a variation on A Christmas Carol. I can't say enough good things about IAWL, and I'm not alone here.

reply

It's definitely on my "I really should sit down and watch this one day" list. I figure it will be a good movie for when i'm in my 60s. There's a lot of classic "everybody's seen these" movies I haven't bothered with. Like that Gone With the Wind. I have no idea what's going on in that movie.

reply