Movies Where the Poster Spoils the Twist

The marketing department saw the movie, and wanted you to know how it ends.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. Ancient Roman columns and a stone fountain under a sky of falling ash, a volcano erupting in the distance.

    10. Pompeii

    Paul W. S. Anderson · 2014

    The poster has two lovers kissing in front of an erupting Vesuvius under the tagline No warning. No escape. The ending had been spoiled since AD 79. Credit where due, it is the most historically accurate thing about the film.

  2. A single combat helmet resting on a rocky Afghan mountainside, four sets of boot prints in the dust behind it narrowing to one.

    09. Lone Survivor

    Peter Berg · 2013

    Four Navy SEALs on a 2005 mission in Afghanistan, adapted from Marcus Luttrell's memoir. The poster shows Mark Wahlberg alone, under a title that had already done the math. The movie is serious. The marketing was arithmetic.

  3. Two panes of glass side by side, their spiderweb cracks lining up perfectly across the gap, lit from behind.

    08. Split

    M. Night Shyamalan · 2016

    Its cracked-glass poster matches the one for Unbreakable from 2000, the lines meeting in several places side by side. The final scene reveals Split is an Unbreakable sequel. Shyamalan hid his twist in the marketing, which is the most Shyamalan move available.

  4. A golden throne in a vast hall with a horned helmet on its seat and a stone war hammer leaning against it.

    07. Thor: The Dark World

    Alan Taylor · 2013

    The poster puts Loki's feet beside Thor's hammer and Odin's helmet. The final scene reveals Loki alive and disguised as Odin on the throne. Alan Taylor directed this and Terminator Genisys, so he has been spoiled by his own marketing twice.

  5. A golden gauntlet with six glowing gems on a stone ledge, gray dust drifting off the edge into wind.

    06. Avengers: Infinity War

    Anthony and Joe Russo · 2018

    The Japanese marketing tagline translated to Avengers, totally annihilated. Half of everything turning to dust was the ending. It is an accurate summary of the film. That is the problem with it.

  6. A cozy underground bunker room with a jigsaw puzzle on the table, a jukebox, and a huge glowing shape visible through a small hatch above.

    05. 10 Cloverfield Lane

    Dan Trachtenberg · 2016

    Paramount kept the U.S. campaign sealed like a bunker. A poster from Thailand showed Mary Elizabeth Winstead running from the alien ship that turns up in the last act. The film is mostly three people in a basement, and now you know why they stayed down there.

  7. A giant copper-green torch and crown jutting from a deserted beach, waves rolling in, a horse's hoofprints in the sand.

    04. Planet of the Apes

    Franklin J. Schaffner · 1968

    The ending is the Statue of Liberty half buried in sand, and Fox later put it right on the home video box. One DVD reviewer said Fox gave the ending away in a BIG way. By then the twist was so parodied it hardly counted as a spoiler.

  8. An orca mid-leap over a stone harbor jetty at golden hour, spray arcing, an empty sneaker on the rocks below.

    03. Free Willy

    Simon Wincer · 1993

    The theatrical poster is an orca leaping over a jetty above a boy, which is exactly how the movie ends. The tagline promised a friendship you could never imagine. You did not need to imagine it. It was on the poster.

  9. A small handheld game controller resting on a console, its tiny screen showing a planet breaking apart in fire.

    02. Ender's Game

    Gavin Hood · 2013

    A poster tagline read This is not a game. The twist is that Ender's final simulation is a real battle that destroys the alien homeworld. The tagline was later swapped for The future must be won, which gives away nothing, including a reason to go.

  10. A cracked mirror on a ruined wall reflecting a glowing red mechanical eye where a person's reflection should be, embers floating.

    01. Terminator Genisys

    Alan Taylor · 2015

    The second trailer and a final poster revealed that John Connor, savior of humanity, is now a Terminator. That was the twist. Alan Taylor said he didn't approve. It made $440 million anyway, so the plot was not the selling point.

Honorable mentions

  • A motel room key on a wooden desk, a closed shower curtain behind it, and a stuffed owl on a shelf.

    Psycho

    Alfred Hitchcock · 1960

    Hitchcock reportedly had copies of the novel bought up, kept his stars away from the usual interviews, and sold it as the first U.S. film where nobody got in after it started. The anti-poster. Studios have studied his campaign for decades and ignored it.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A swan-shaped pool float drifting in a swimming pool in front of a raging fire, a pair of metal claws resting on the pool edge.

    Deadpool 2

    David Leitch · 2018

    A poster tagline read From the studio that killed Wolverine, spoiling the ending of Logan, a completely different movie. Fox signed off on it. Anyone still saving Logan for a quiet night found out from a man on a swan pool float.

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