# Anne Hathaway spoiled the ending of Les Misérables on The Daily Show
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 8, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476 "2013-01-08T13:58:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/1 "2013-01-08T13:58:44Z")
Though she did yell “Spolier Alert!” first, there wasn’t really time for anybody to tune out if they’d wanted to. She casually and unapologetically mentioned that.
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. both her character and Hugh Jackman’s die at the end.
When members of the audience groaned, Jon Stewart turned to them and said, “Oh, read a book!”
So, is it just assumed that everybody knows the plot of _Les Misérables_? I realize it’s been around for years, but I’ve never seen or read it, not really my thing. I wasn’t planning to see the film, but I probably will if I do the Best Picture marathon again this year; it’s likely to get nominated.
I wasn’t terribly upset to have the ending spoiled, but if it were a movie I cared about, I might. Then again, if I cared about this film, I probably would know the plot already. But I imagine lots of people who are unfamiliar with the story may want to see the film anyway…
So I dunno. Was that cool what she did? Do you care?
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### Author:  [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/2 "2013-01-08T14:02:50Z")
It’s a 150 year old book, or a 30+ year old play. I’m perfectly cool with what she did.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/3 "2013-01-08T14:09:30Z")
I’m a little torn. On the one hand, as mentioned, it is pretty old. On the other hand, I’m not fond of anybody giving out spoilers, for anything, before the freakin thing’s on DVD. It’s not something I want to see made a habit of.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/4 "2013-01-08T14:11:57Z")
Avoiding spoilers for Les Miz is about as sensible as avoiding spoilers for the Epic of Gilgamesh. I totally agree with Stewart - read a book, people.
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### Author:  [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/5 "2013-01-08T14:13:22Z")
Yeah. I don’t believe one can ‘spoil’ an age old classic.
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/6 "2013-01-08T14:14:23Z")
(By the way, she said “Spoiler Alert,” not “Spolier Alert.” But that would have been funny if she’d verbalized a common internet typo:))
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/7 "2013-01-08T14:18:07Z")
Book from the 1800s, you don’t go to the musical for the plot. I suppose she could have just said “we did not tack on a bogus happy ending” but that would have been easily figured out anyway.
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### Author:  [@PacifistPorcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PacifistPorcupine)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/8 "2013-01-08T14:18:19Z")
> [@Anaamika](#):
>
> I’m a little torn. On the one hand, as mentioned, it is pretty old. On the other hand, I’m not fond of anybody giving out spoilers, for anything, before the freakin thing’s on DVD. It’s not something I want to see made a habit of.
So one should avoid spoiling any story, no matter how old or well known, until it is made into a movie?
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### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/9 "2013-01-08T14:18:48Z")
> [@Wheelz](#):
>
> So I dunno. Was that cool what she did? Do you care?
The plot of the book / show / movie is so convoluted that (at least in years past), when you see the show on stage, the playbill includes a detailed plot synopsis of every plot point along the way including the ending so if you couldn’t tell what the hell was going on, you could consult your playbill. If you look at the song list, one of the song titles is a major spoiler. I don’t think they are expecting to surprise anyone with plot twists here - for this one, it’s about the journey, not the destination.
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/10 "2013-01-08T14:19:54Z")
[I don’t think Kobe was 100% joking about this](http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/07/sports/la-sp-ln-kobe-bryant-jokes-that-the-lakers-dont-know-who-abe-lincoln-is-20121207). I know that pro athletes don’t represent all Americans, but it’s a data point, maybe.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/11 "2013-01-08T14:23:35Z")
Not only that, but at the end the Titanic sinks.
And Quasimodo dies. Unless it’s the Charles Laughton or the Disney version.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/12 "2013-01-08T14:24:21Z")
> [@PacifistPorcupine](#):
>
> So one should avoid spoiling any story, no matter how old or well known, until it is made into a movie?
Considering Wikipedia’s claim that the first film adaptation of Les Miserables was in 1909, I think she’s still safe.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/13 "2013-01-08T14:26:48Z")
The deaths aren’t really climactic reveals or surprises to the audience, so it’s not much of a spoiler to know about them in advance. I mean, Valjean dies of _old age_ at the end of the movie. Fantine’s death moves the plot forward but happens in the first half of the movie. Neither death alone is really what the movie is about.
(Like Hathaway says, almost everyone in the show dies except for like two people).
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/14 "2013-01-08T14:27:37Z")
The last time I saw any treatment of the book was so long ago that yes, that would have spoiled it for me if I had any intention of seeing it again.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/15 "2013-01-08T14:32:28Z")
> [@PacifistPorcupine](#):
>
> It’s a 150 year old book, or a 30+ year old play. I’m perfectly cool with what she did.
Eh, unless you’re a vampire or something, I don’t see how that matters. Its not like you’ve had 150 years to read the book. I’m in my twenties, and so I’ve had an equal amount of time to read Les Mis as see Superman II. The fact that one predates the other by more then a century doesn’t really help.
Also, the OP’s spoiler is somewhat ironically visible on mouseover.
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### Author:  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/16 "2013-01-08T14:33:22Z")
Just don’t spoil the ending of _Jesus Christ Superstar_ for me.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/17 "2013-01-08T14:44:38Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> Eh, unless you’re a vampire or something, I don’t see how that matters. Its not like you’ve had 150 years to read the book. I’m in my twenties, and so I’ve had an equal amount of time to read Les Mis as see Superman II. The fact that one predates the other by more then a century doesn’t really help.
>
> Also, the OP’s spoiler is somewhat ironically visible on mouseover.
When a work of art is that old, it’s sort of expected that it is so ingrained in the public’s consciousness that even if you haven’t actually seen it, chances are you have heard the ending already. Sort of like the ending of The Sixth Sense or Luke’s relationship with Darth Vader.
Superman defeated Lex Luthor and General Zod, FYI.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/18 "2013-01-08T14:45:21Z")
> [@PacifistPorcupine](#):
>
> So one should avoid spoiling any story, no matter how old or well known, until it is made into a movie?
I don’t know. In MY perfect world, I’d prefer that no one spoiled anything, to be honest, without appropriate warning. I don’t like spoilers one bit. But I understand my perfect world does not exist.
I’d like to think that the actors directly involved in the movie could learn to shut their fat traps, however.
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### Author:  [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/19 "2013-01-08T14:46:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Not only that, but at the end the Titanic sinks.
You bastard!
That was only 100 years ago, use some freakin’ spoiler tags already.
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### Author:  [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/20 "2013-01-08T14:55:14Z")
There have been 3 other major film adaptations of the story that I can think of (one is less than 15 years old) off the top of my head. It is one of the most, if not the most, popular musical in the history of Broadway, and it’s a widely read 150 year old classic.
The ending was no more spoiled than me telling you that Romeo and Juliette die at the end of the play of the same name. Actually less, because their death is more important to the resolution of the plot. It’s closer to me telling you that Dorothy makes it back home at the end of the _Wizard of Oz_.
Edit: Crap, the Liam Neeson version of Le Mis was in 1998, so it’s not less than 15 years old. Now I am going to go somewhere quiet to have an existential crisis about how old I am.
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