I’m referring to the sort of things in movies/books/plays that is no surprise to a large portion of the audience who sees it for the first time (without being told), but which some people find a surprising twist.
Some examples:
[ol]
[li]The movie Burke and Wills. Anyone with a knowledge of Australian history knows the ending, but I saw some people complain about reviews that gave it away.[/li][li]Spider-Man. When Spider-Man let the thief go by (the one who robbed the box office), my wife and daughter gave a big “serves him right” to the promoter he stole from. Little did the know . . . [/li][li]Sunset Boulevard (the musical). My wife and daughter were genuinely shocked when Joe was shot.[/li][/ol]
Any other examples, especially those with reactions to people who didn’t know what was coming?
I don’t know if this counts, but new viewers of the Star Wars saga who view the prequels first will no longer find the shocking revelation in The Empire Strikes Back (and to a lesser extent, that of Return of the Jedi) that shocking.
I don’t know if this is what RealityChuck’s OP is looking for, but way back in 1981 the NBA playoffs were not on live tv but were on CBS late night tape delay. Boston and Philly were in a deathmatch, with Philly up 3 games to 1. Game 5 was on a Friday night and I wanted to see it, so I avoided all the tv/radio news and settled in at 11:30 to watch the game. All was going well until halftime when CBS’ own Brent Musberger came on live to say, “Be sure to tune in Sunday for Game 6.”
My husband and I have actually had an argument about that.
He wants our daughter to watch them “in order” 1-6 when she watches them the first time.
I replied that they wouldn’t be as good in that order, not only would you know who Darth Vader was, but you would know Luke and Leia are brother and sister - just not as good.
I think I will win this one, everyone has to know they just are not as good if you know the secrets beforehand.
I’m not sure if this counts or not, but when Apollo 13 came out, my daughter (around 12-13 at the time) went to see it with some of her friends. Afterward I asked how she liked it.
She said it was good, but asked, “Why did they change the ending?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“In the movie the astronauts survived,” said she.
Somehow she had it in her head that IRL the astronauts died in space, so she was genuinely surprised when they didn’t.
The correct order to view the movies is A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (up until the Death Star blows up. Then shut it off), Raiders of the Lost Ark, American Graffiti.
How about Gandalf returning from the dead? Not exactly a spoiler, eh? Except I saw someone here on the dope complain that someone gave away the twist outside of a spoiler box. :smack:
I’d like to make a suggestion for this thread since I don’t anticipate a lot of people using spoiler boxes: how about putting the titles of whatever you are discussing in bold (if you don’t already do that) to make it easier for people to see which posts to not read if they don’t want something spoiled.
Similarly, A&E advertised a Biography episode for Ken Jennings while his Jeopardy! streak was still ongoing. Since there’s no way they’d run it without supplying his final total, it was obvious that the biography would play on the day (or at most the day after) Jennings lost.
I was talking about the first season of Rome with a co-worker, who told me that she thought Caesar’s victory over Pompey was “unrealistic.”
Um… I kinda wanted to ask her if she knew that Caesar got killed, but I was just too gobsmacked. Fortunately, she’s watching season 2 while I’m waiting for the DVD, so I don’t have to hear about how unrealistic Philippi was, or whatever other ahistorical goofiness.
The Japanese won WW II. The surrender was part of the plan. It’s just like The Mouse That Roared. All you have to do is lose to the silly Yanks, and they’ll shower you with riches.
Don’t know if this is exactly the same situation, but in SERENITY when Shepherd Book is killed-- for someone who hasn’t seen Firefly already, Book is just a sorta-vaguely-drawn supporting character, an older mentor-type to the hero… it’s probably not too surprising when he gets killed by the bad guy halfway through the film. But for someone familiar with the show, Book is a key character with a mysterious past that the show had only begun to reveal, so his death is a lot more shocking.
I’m reminded about an anecdote told about NY restaurant owner Toots Shor, who was more familiar with boxing than ballet. Someone gave him some tickets to see a new production of Hamlet. Toots said he thought he was probably the only one in the audience who went back in after intermission just to find out how it ended.
