I was thinking about movies recently, and in particular this idea popped up: simply knowing that there are spoilers is itself a spoiler. Well duh, every movie with a plot more complicated than “See Spot run” is going to be spoilable, of course. Where this really matters though, is with movies that have some sort of surprise or twist to them.
Normally when I watch a movie I’m not really thinking about how it’ll end ahead of time. I don’t go into it thinking “Ooh, I wonder what all of the potential endings could be,” I just enjoy it moment-by-moment and let it unfold at its own pace. Whenever I read that a movie has some BIG SURPRISE or ironic twist to it though, natural curiousity sets in and I start to wonder. Sometimes the mind will get lucky and stumble across the right answer before I stop wondering about it and presto, the movie is now spoiled for me, even though nobody really told me anything about it.
For example, The Sixth Sense was obvious. As soon as I heard that there was a surprise twist to it, and knowing a famous line from it, I had an immediate guess as to what it was. Checking online verified it, and I haven’t even bothered to actually watch the movie since. If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have even made that guess and might very well have enjoyed the movie, but what’s the point now? In the case of The Usual Suspects it *should* have been obvious in hindsight, but I went into it not knowing anything other than that it was highly recommended, and was pleasantly surprised. If I had been warned ahead of time, would I have enjoyed it as much?
I’m not really much of a movie-goer so I don’t really care *too* much, but it’s an interesting phenomenon, at least.
The Sixth Sense was a surprise for me with the twist, then I was mad at myself because it seemed obvious after the fact and I think I should have gotten it. Unbreakable was also a surprise ending, as was the Usual Suspects, although with the Usual Suspects I guessd it because that seemed to me the most unlikely solution (therefore in movie logic, it was the MOST likely).
By the way, the comment box seems too long, it goes all the way over and under the sidebar to the right. SO I blame all my typos on that as I can’t see half of what I’m typing. :P