When has it become such an egregious error to inform someone of a plot point before they’ve seen the show? It’s gotten to the point where I have to read entire pages in highlighted text in a movie discussion so I can see the content in those fucking spoiler boxes. Hey jackass, unless the OP specifically says NO SPOILERS don’t go lurking in the thread if you don’t want to be “spoiled.”
Moving on, how is being made aware of a single plot twist ahead of time the same thing as ruining a movie? Romeo and Juliet spoils itself in the introduction, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling. In fact, the dramatic irony that comes with audience omniscience often adds to the intensity of the drama. That’s why Titanic stories are so popular. Don’t you ever watch movies a second time to watch for the foreshadowing clues once you know the ending? If The Sixth Sense didn’t hide important circumstances from the audience just for the sake of shock value, it would have been a much more emotionally credible film, and I wouldn’t have been rolling my eyes out of their sockets once the director got tired of stringing the audience along and finally unveiled the laughably obvious twist. If you’re just watching movies to be surprised, maybe you should stick to playing with jack-in-the-boxes.
The exception to this is when an entire movie hinges on the audience being kept secret to the conclusion, such as with murder mysteries, but if that’s all a show has going for it it’s not very good to begin with.
Finally, if you insist on going into a show completely blind and happen to not see the opening along with 90% of the population, please do us all a favor lock yourself in a sensory deprivation chamber so we all don’t have to hold our tongues in fear of offending your geeky, popular culture dependent ass.
It’s called ruining a movie. How about every time you want to see a movie, I see it first and then tell you how it ends? I’m sure you wouldn’t mind, as evidenced below.
Sometimes there is really only one plot twist, and not knowing ahead of time is key to enjoying the movie.
Case in point. You saw it coming, good for you. M. Night. Shamalamalamalanalan also sucks ass.
Please give me your home phone number, I will than tell you the ending to every movie you have yet to see. We wouldn’t want anyone to think you were watching them to be surprised, then you’d be an asshole.
If it’s not very good to begin with, it’s wise of you to not spoil it, we’d like to find out that it sucks on our own.
90% of people see movies on opening weekend? I did not know that. I assume that includes you, to whom all movies are either predictable or not worth watching.
I’ll not be using my sensory deprivation tank this week, it’s gotten a bit musty since your mother had numerous anal orgasms in it. Pop culture dependent, not me. The only thing I can depend on is that there will be a non-stop parade of cock-licks like yourself that pay top dollar to see flicks on opening weekend only to decry them. Dumbasses.
I do suggest though that you hold your tongue, you’ll need it to lick the asses of the few directors whose movies you do enjoy.
I’ve had a similar conversation with a friend who insists that my enjoyment of a movie shouldn’t be affected by whether or not I know significant plot points before I see it.
I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: My enjoyment of a movie is entirely subjective, and no amount of pseudo-logical blustering about how I should enjoy a movie will change it. Furthermore, if you know somebody prefers not to have plot points spoilered before they see a movie, the polite and mature thing to do is to respect their wishes and shut up about the goddamn movie.
dnooman wins it in two, though I wish to amend that I do agree wholeheartedly with the OP’s point about spoiler overcaution within a thread whose topic is the name of the thing potentially being spoiled. If you open a thread entitled “Harry Kane and the Crying Jedi” without having read the book, you do not get to express shock and horror when it is revealed that Rosebud killed Luke’s father, and it had a penis.
As to everything else, though…there are legitimate, logically valid reasons why a person might not want to know the ins and outs of a piece of entertainment before experiencing it. dnooman already touched on a few of those, and I’m sure others will elaborate.
In the meantime, how about this: some people, for whatever the hell reason, don’t like spoilers. Ergo, by failing to go out of your way to provide spoilers for stuff to the general populous, you are effectively being nice to those people. Do you like intentionally avoiding being nice to people? Why? Are you an asshole? Just asking.
I think it also depends a lot on the type of work. Books and movies always take a long time for fans to partake. It’s silly to think that spoilers the morning after opening night are going to be well received. Blowing the big twist in Sixth Sense or Empire Strikes Back or whatever right after it opens is just being an asshole. In SS, the entire design of the movie is centered around the twist, in ESB, the twist was a huge, completely unexpected blow, one of those “wow” movie moments. Spoil that and you significantly affect the person’s viewing experience.
TV shows, OTOH, are (generally) broadcast once, at the same time, across the entire country. It is business as usual to discuss popular shows around the watercooler, if there’s a surprise, it’s going to be discussed. If you’re going to Tivo it, expect that you may be spoiled when you’re watching other TV or listening to the radio.
Of course describing the resolution of a film/show or whatever ruins it. But some people here really go overboard in their spoiler paranoia. I once started a thread where title had data from the description of a show that I got from the friggin’ tv listing, and people jumped on me for that. It was the setup of the show, that literally happened before the beginning credits started rolling.
It’d be nice if there was some guidelines for this. I hope we can all agree that the basic 1 or 2 line description of a show, as described in the newpaper’s TV listing, is not a spoiler? If that’s the minimal text one must use to describe that episode, as opposed to a different episode of the same show?
Person from another country here, who cannot see a movie or TV series until sometimes as much as six months or even a year after the US has seen it.
I am unable to consume anything online or in magazines related to shows like Lost because spoilers abound when people think the statute of limitations on TV shows is about 36 hours. To put this in context, we just saw episode 2.6 of Lost here in Australia. A local magazine gave away the big reveal to this episode, about three weeks ago.
I was behind a guy at the video store once. He was buying a 7 tape set (it was a while ago) of The US Civil War. I made sure I didn’t spoil the ending for him.
Thanks to dnooman for providing the caricature of the anti-spoiler position, making it ridiculous enough that no time need be wasted in refuting it.
Of course anyone might not want advance information about a movie, TV show, book, art exhibit if s/he plans to see it him/herself and wants to do so with an uncluttered mind. That is why we do not give dnooman our telephone numbers (well, one of the potentially many reasons). In addition to that prudent step, those of us who are not morons will steer clear of articles and reviews about such movies, avoid our acquaintances’ and co-workers’ discussions of same, and, above all, we do not peruse internet conversations whose very title threatens to pollute the tabula rasa with which we want to first experience the work of art in question. Of course, this has nothing to do with dnooman’s hypothetical asshole (designated with the arbitrary letter “I”) who’s threatening to call up strangers and spoil endings of movies.
Some culture consumers actually are capable of absorbing more than mere plot from a movie or other narrative art form. They might as easily be as offended by a naked description of character, color, pacing, background music or any other component of the work. Somehow, I’ve missed any complaints from that group. Perhaps they know how to read thread titles, or maybe they’re just naturally reluctant to join in discussions of a topic they know nothing about yet. Either way, I think I prefer their approach to movies or any other art form.
I am basically with the OP here. Assuming that the thread title is descriptive enough so that folks know what it is about, I think that using the spoiler tag should be considered bad manners. Really, if you have yet to see the work in question and are dumb enough to open a thread about it you get what you deserve.
The one notable exception that I would make is in the case where the thread is more open ended. You know the “Stupidest plot twists” type threads. In this case, since the thread can cover multiple works in multiple genres I can see the use of the spoiler tag (although even then there should be some threshold for works that have been out for a long time).
I think that a certain amount of discretion is in order if the movie is still in the theaters. If it’s already on DVD, then all bets are off. We should be able to have a reasonably complete discussion of a movie that’s been out for months without worrying about whether someone hasn’t yet gotten around to putting it on their Netflix list.
Of course, the thread title should say “Open spoilers” so that anyone who hasn’t yet seen the movie can stay away from the conversation. And obviously, don’t put a spoiler in the thread title.
dnooman, go ahead and call me, but you can save the cash by resting assured that I read the movie spoiler sites before I go out to a movie. I genuinely don’t think of movies as being capable of being “spoiled”- either it’s a good movie or it isn’t. Personally I watch movies to analyze them, and I can’t afford to go to in-theater movies twice, so I read the spoilers so that I can concentrate on the analysis. I know not everyone does that, and I respect that, but in a thread about a specific movie it’s not at all natural for me to hold back.
I might be the one who sent deevee over the edge with my use of spoiler boxes in this thread. I can sum up the reason behind using spoiler boxes in one word: Courtesy.
I like having the plot spoiled before I see something. I much more likely to enjoy the movie if I’m not worried about the outcome (I’m not big on horror movies or suspense). I read the end of books, first, too. So I can’t agree with “of course revealing the end ruins a movie.” However, I don’t spoil unless asked, because I know that alot of people enjoy the suspense and surprise.