Had a friend back in college who went to go see Presumed Innocent; halfway through, he suddenly realized he’d heard the ending in a Kids in the Hall sketch:
I used to love doing that - or at least reading the last line or two of the last page. But ages back when the Mote in Gods Eye was released, I did the same again and read something like:
“If anyone could teach a horse to sing hyms, it would be a trained mediator”
That sort of cured my of the habit right then and there.
Spoilers don’t bother me too much, but they drive my wife nuts. I knew that Wash would die in Serenity and that Maggie would be paralyzed in Million Dollar Baby, but would never imagine telling that to her.
Here’s how serious she is about spoilers. I don’t watch Battlestar Galactica. She does. And she will only describe the episodes in the vaguest terms to me just in case I decide to watch them someday. Which is unlikely, or somewhere in the very remote future, when the Statute of Spoiler Limitations will have expired in any case.
Troy
I see a similar thing up above, but we were also spoiled on this: My wife and I were waiting in a really long line to see The Empire Strikes Back when it came out in theatres. We were meeting friends from out of town at the mall, and about 15 minutes before the show we hadn’t hooked up with them. Well, the line stretched outside the mall, so my wife thought she’d walk in to where the theatre box office was to see if they were hanging out there waiting for us. She walked in, and right as she got up to the ticket booth, the prior show(s) were letting out.
One preteen is walking out with his friend, and my wife overhears “Man, I can’t believe Darth Vader is Luke’s father!”
A couple of friends of mine walked out of the 7pm show of the original Star Trek movie back when it was first released, past the line-up of people waiting to get in for the later show, saying: “Man, I can’t believe they killed Captain Kirk!”
My fiance and I have to see certain movies the day they come out, because we know that my parents will see the movie on opening weekend, and that my mother is a notorious movie ruiner. Here is an example of how bad she is;
Last Christmas, I gave her the full collection of Twilight Zone episodes, and the whole extended family is watching them during our Christmas day fesitivities. What is Twilight Zone if not just an M. Night Shyamalan twist after 21 minutes? So no one else has seen any of these episodes but my mom and brother, and every twenty one minutes, like clockwork, my mom would put another episode on and then exclaim, “I love this one, where the _____ turns out to __________.”
Every time.
Troy: I’m akin to your wife, I think. Spoilers seriously bother me, by and large, though I guess it depends on what it is. I love giving spoilers, but I’ll only do it if people want to hear them. If it’s for a fantastic show the other person doesn’t watch (as with your wife and Battlestar, I suspect) then I try not to spoil, as I’d much rather they watched it themselves.
About three months prior to the cinema release of Return of the King, we “accidentally” told a friend of mine that Frodo died at the end, and promptly invented a hugely entertaining alternate ending which we’d talk about in hushed tones every time he was around, just letting him overhear little bits of it. Man, was he surprised when he actually saw the film. He saw it later than various others we hung around with, too, so we got them in on it once they’d seen it, just for completeness’ sake.
Tim
See, my friend told me that, too, and about the hand, but I totally did not believe him. In fact with stories so ludicrous, I was convinced he hadn’t even seen the movie.
Heh.
I can’t stand spoilers, though. I especially hate TV commercial movie previews; if I have any interest in seeing the film I’ll cover my ears, close my eyes and say “lalalalala” through the whole thing.
I found out the end of Million Dollar Baby through inference. I overheard some people talking about the movie in general. Thankfully, I was able to avoid watching the film because of it. I’m sure the acting, direction and script are great. I just don’t dig that that wrenching, manipulative conclusion. If I wanted to be depressed, I’d listen to The Cure.
I remember some of the kiddie magazines I’d read back then having debates about whether or not Darth was REALLY Luke’s father. Greatness.
Before I saw it, some shitball told me that Darth Maul gets killed in Episode One. I don’t care so much about Star Wars, but he was the main villian and was hyped so much at the time that it was reasonable to think he’d be around perhaps for all three of the new movies.
Went to see Seven with a friend. At the end of the movie, “oh great, I love this actor (Kevin Spacey), he’s the one who played Keyzer Söze”. Of course, I hadn’t seen Usual Suspects yet.
Same friend, a few months later, going to see Titanic “you’ll see, only one of them dies, I won’t tell you which”. Considering the movie is a flashback told by the woman, well…
Man alive, your friend is a fucking douchebag. Please punch him in the face for me.
But, did you know the ship sinks at the end of the movie?
I’ve heard a story about some teenage girls standing in line and an older couple talking about the movie and the guy is commenting on the FX for the ship sinking. To which the teens chime in with " thanks for ruining the movie for us".
Any more though, if I go see a movie I can usually figure out the ending, or the “surprise” twist that they seem to love to throw in now.
Sixth Sense, Crying Game, ect.
Though Fight Club, didn’t see that one coming.