# The Sixth Sense: Was it spoiled for you before you saw it or no? (SPOILER WARNING) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521 "2009-08-06T12:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/61 "2009-08-06T21:13:42Z")
I’m a 2. Not only was it spoiled but it was spoiled, of all things, by a stupid Blockbuster radio commercial. They used to have radio spots called something like “Movies in 15 seconds”. The one for “Sixth Sense” was like: “I’m a psychologist who was shot. What’s your story?” “I see dead people” “Wow, really?” “I see you” “Hey, that must mean…” Why in God’s name Blockbuster would promote a new release for a suspense-twist ending film by _giving away the ending_ is anyone’s guess. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/62 "2009-08-06T21:15:45Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Why in God’s name Blockbuster would promote a new release for a suspense-twist ending film by _giving away the ending_ is anyone’s guess. :rolleyes: There used to be old video packaging of _Planet of the Apes_ that had a picture of Heston in front of the SoL on the beach. Never underestimate marketers for being monolithically stupid and short-sighted. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/63 "2009-08-06T21:58:55Z")
Mrs. FtG and I were in group 4. Right from when Willis was shot. The thing that astonishes me is that some people still didn’t catch on even after the kid’s hospital bed confession. They don’t know they’re dead and they don’t see each other. Why were this points mentioned folks? To explain why Bruce didn’t know his was dead and why he didn’t see the other dead people! Duh city. How anyone staying awake for that part can claim to be surprised by the ending is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/64 "2009-08-06T22:07:56Z")
I was definitely a 1. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/65 "2009-08-06T22:17:21Z")
I didn’t read the whole thread, because I am posting from work, but did we decide that there should be a number ‘5’ , which is, ‘only guessed it because I heard so much about a twist ending’? A pure and beautiful ‘1’ is only those who heard nothing at all about a twist ending. ETA: Of course, I am a pure and beautiful ‘1’. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/66 "2009-08-06T22:24:51Z")
I’m a 1, although I actually kind of did have it spoiled for me. Some entertainment magazine left lying around in the student center had what I now realize was a review with major spoilerage – it said _The Sixth Sense_ was, like _Sunset Boulevard_, from the perspective of a dead man. But while watching the movie it somehow failed to occur to me that this was the plot twist I’d been hearing so much about, maybe because in _Sunset Boulevard_ the death of the narrator isn’t a twist. You know from the first scene that he’s been killed, and the rest of the movie is a flashback. Since _The Sixth Sense_ obviously isn’t a flashback, I was thinking that maybe Bruce Willis would be killed at the end or that the Donnie Whalberg character who commits suicide at the beginning would show up as a ghost or something. I’m usually better at predicting plot twists than my mother is, but she did manage to guess the ending of _The Sixth Sense_, although not until shortly before it was revealed. After the school play, in the scene where Haley Joel Osment was encouraging Bruce Willis to talk to his wife while she’s sleeping, my mother says it occurred to her that Bruce Willis must be a ghost. I think if I hadn’t known there was a twist in _The Sixth Sense_ I’d have had a better chance of guessing it, because as things were I kept being distracted thinking “When is that big twist going to happen? Wait, was that the twist? That wasn’t really a big twist, could that be what everyone’s talking about? Maybe the twist hasn’t come yet. How long is this movie? Things seem to be wrapping up, did the big twist happen already?” Ironically enough, not that long before the release of _The Sixth Sense_ I’d been talking to a friend about movies and had said I thought it was kind of silly how in movies people who get shot usually drop dead instantly when in real life plenty of people have survived being shot. So at the crucial point in _The Sixth Sense_ my reaction was “Finally, a movie where someone survives a gunshot wound and carries on with his life!” :o As for _The Others_, I realized fairly early on that either Nicole Kidman & Kids were ghosts or the servants had to be ghosts, but it was close to the end before it hit me that they were _all_ ghosts. One of the things that made me sure that Nicole Kidman was a ghost was actually something I mishead – she says “since 1940” at one point and it sounded like “since 1914” to me. The movie is explicitly set in the '40s and Nicole Kidman’s character looked too young to remember much about 1914. Because of this I was thinking that the big twist would be not that she was a ghost, but that she’d been a ghost for decades and her husband had been killed fighting the Germans back in the _first_ World War. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/67 "2009-08-06T22:35:04Z")
Sort of. Someone was mentioning it in the same breath as Armageddon for Bruce Willis dying so when I saw the first scene & he was gut-shot I thought, how unlikely is it that he would survive that only to die later in the movie? So I early on caught on that what was going on might be what was going on, & spent the movie watching to see if Night S. kept portraying it in such a way that it could appear to be either. He does trick the audience once early on by showing Bruce next to the boy’s mother as if they were just talking, but we never actually see the mother acknowledge him. Very well done. Also, there’s a point exactly midway through the movie where the kid gives a big clue. Also, it could have been a girl, there were a lot of girls when Kane was young. _Sir._ ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/68 "2009-08-06T22:44:54Z")
Big ol’ number 2. Still bitter about it. I’d been looking forward to that movie for weeks, and my husband (whose dumbass friend had spoiled him for no good reason) just came out with it. The conversation went something like: Me: Can’t wait til we go see Sixth Sense this weekend!!! Him: Chris told me that Bruce Willis is dead the whole movie. Since I’d known there was twist, I knew he’d blown it for me. Still went and saw it, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more had I not been spoiled. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/69 "2009-08-06T23:58:32Z")
1. I caught on about a split second before Bruce Willis did. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/70 "2009-08-07T01:01:14Z")
Definite #1. I had no idea of the twist, or any idea that there would be a twist. My wife had seen it before me, so she had the fun of witnessing my reaction as well as being able to appreciate the genius of the anniversary dinner - the first time you see it, she’s pissed off; the second time you see it, she’s heartbroken. Same piece of film, but you have a totally different reaction based on your preconceptions. Damn shame he’s gone to shit as a director. He needs to write a lot of scripts and throw away 99% of them. ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/71 "2009-08-07T01:04:15Z")
One, definitely. Thought it was a great flick. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/72 "2009-08-07T02:32:47Z")
Group 1. I somehow saw it before there was a lot of talk about a twist ending. I didn’t catch on until a few seconds before Bruce Willis figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/73 "2009-08-07T02:36:58Z")
Still not spoiled. Was spoiled on “Crying Game” by an article in New York Magazine and am still angry about it, but eventually would have been spoiled by The Simpsons anyway. I was not spoiled on “Witness for the Prosecution” and have now watched it and can no longer be. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/74 "2009-08-07T06:04:49Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > Ha. Wait for it… > > The 4ers will be a’comin’, I assure you. I’m surprised there aren’t more group 2s. I heard a lot of people had it spoiled for them by various other schlubs. : p ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/75 "2009-08-07T06:08:15Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Yes, I’d like to add that to my comments too. I didn’t have a scooby-doo about the movie - I was bunking off work with this girl I liked and we decided to go to an afternoon performance of this movie I’d never even heard of. > > I promise you, if you don’t know a damn thing about the movie at all, let alone a twist, the effect is electrifying. I always feel stupid to admit it, but yeah, I’m a 1. I just wasn’t looking for a twist, and was content to let it unfold. It was kind of a lazy day, I was there by myself, and I was enjoying the movie without putting any effort into the experience. A rare, “turn off my mind and be entertained without preconceptions” moment. And yeah, I was really quite surprised. Just -BOOM!- and it all fits into place immediately. It was quite enjoyable, satisfying, and sad. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/76 "2009-08-07T06:34:53Z")
I see the Group 3’s are all keeping quiet. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/77 "2009-08-07T06:57:37Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > 1. I caught on about a split second before Bruce Willis did. I don’t think that figuring it out at the reveal counts. I was a 1. It was a fantastic moment for me. My father was a 3. My family saw it all together and went out for dinner afterward. We’re all discussing how surprised we were and how much we liked the movie. Probably half an hour into the conversation my dad goes “Bruce Willis was dead?!?!” ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/78 "2009-08-07T07:18:32Z")
Group 1. If anyone ever asks, this is the moment I will point to as being the exact point at which I realized I was a moron. How many times, as a relatively serious fan of horror fiction, have I seen or read or heard this exact same story? Lots. On a second view, are all of the pieces there? Yep. He got me. I would really like to brag about how I was all over Unbreakable and he got nothing past me, but that particular bit of public humiliation will have to wait for its own thread. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/79 "2009-08-07T09:25:25Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > This is a surprising reaction, to me. I think the movie is a very dramatic portrayal of a mother’s love for her son. Toni Collette’s performance is amazing. Pretend there’s no such thing as the supernatural, and watch it from the mother’s point of view. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I think it’s an engrossing movie on that basis alone. Add in the supernatural, then the twist and BANG. It’s an unbelievable film. Yep, and for some reason, I cried like a baby when he’s telling his mom and what _her_ mom had said. Oh, BTW, I’m a #1. My sister went and saw it in the theater and told me that if there’s one movie you have to see in your life, it’s this one. She’s normally not a dramatic type, so I went immediately. I was completely blown away by the entire story as well as the ending. I can’t remember a movie that offered so much: creepiness, gore, exceptional acting, and a truly touching story. ---
**Author:** ![Digger1914](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@Digger1914](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digger1914)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521/80 "2009-08-07T10:28:55Z")
I saw it at the budget movie theatre on Halloween (because of the season I wanted to see a scary movie, I figured it was a Bruce Willis movie and therefore was bad) and hadn’t really heard that there was a twist. Therefore I was shocked and actually cried. Comment about spoiling, wife and I went to see Crying Game, about 20 minutes in she leaned over and said “that’s a dude”. Later in The Others, about 20 minutes in I got her back. I was surprised by the Usual Suspects. The movies are much more enjoyable in general if you are able to really dig into it and not think too much about the theartre, people around you, popcorn, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sixth-sense-was-it-spoiled-for-you-before-you-saw-it-or-no-spoiler-warning/505521.md?page=5)