# Anne Hathaway spoiled the ending of Les Misérables on The Daily Show **URL:** \ **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:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/101 "2013-05-26T11:37:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The other three depend entirely on how important and dramatic the scenes are. They sure sound like spoilers due to their specificity. They sound like they take reveal something that the work tries to keep in suspense. > > And, that, my friends, is the definition of a spoiler. Does the work itself contain any portion where suspense is lost because you know something ahead of time? Then it is a spoiler. The work as a whole may not be harmed, but that little bit of conflict is gone, and the experience is irreparably changed. I may still be able to enjoy the work, but I my enjoyment will be lessened at that one part. > > I don’t know if the deaths mentioned are spoilers, as I don’t know if knowing they die lessens any of the suspense. I do know that the logic of defending them as not being spoilers is wrong. It doesn’t matter what you think I already should have read. What matters is the above. plus whether the venue is one in which people who want avoid spoilers know they have to avoid. I would say that this post here could almost be the OP for a whole new thread. Those things all happen within the first 10 minutes of the movie, but they sure SOUND like spoilers don’t they? They aren’t, for the same reasons you gave at the start of your post (that I didn’t quote). Setting aside the question of if something that is 200 years old and has been made into dozens of film adaptations and the most popular Broadway play of all time can even have spoilers, setting aside that the whole concept of a spoiler has morphed into something totally strange in the last 10 years or so, shouldn’t you allow that people who actually are familiar with the work know better than you what is important to keep secret and what isn’t? How Valjean dies is sort of important, THAT he dies is pretty much a given based on the setup of the story. It sets out to tell his whole life story, which by definition includes his death. Why Fantine dies and the details surrounding her death…MAYBE maybe should be hidden, but her death is more or less the inciting incident for the plot. It’s like giving away that Dorothy accidentally kills the wicked witch of the East when she lands in OZ. Maybe it sounds like a spoiler if you don’t know the work, but it really really isn’t, it’s the start of the story. If you haven’t seen OZ, you just have to trust me on that. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/102 "2013-05-26T19:58:01Z")
I figuratively slap the OP with a fish. Anne Hathaway cannot ruin ANYTHING! She can only adorn and enhance it. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/103 "2013-05-26T20:06:47Z")
Why does happening early on mean something can’t be a spoiler? ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/104 "2013-05-27T04:44:13Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The second and last ones are the point of the work: it’s a musical set during the French Revolution. No, it’s not - the fighting in this story is the [June Rebellion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Rebellion) of 1832. Just an FYI. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476/105 "2013-05-27T15:37:09Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Why does happening early on mean something can’t be a spoiler? Because it’s a set-up, not a reveal or a turning point nor an unknown conclusion (a known conclusion would be a biopic of a person’s whole life, and so, you know they die at the end). It’s like if the actor playing Superman ‘reveals’ that his character really is an alien and not human. That’s part of the set-up. Fontine’s death might as well be in the jacket of the book: “…but ValJean’s true redemption comes when he uses his freedom to care for the orphaned child of one of his worker’s whose death he holds himself responsible for.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anne-hathaway-spoiled-the-ending-of-les-miserables-on-the-daily-show/646476.md?page=5)