How Soon Is It Acceptable to Spoil a Movie?

Spoilers are the worst.

So much of the art of filmmaking is designed to take the viewer on a journey, usually via a well-crafted plot that has its share of unexpected twists and turns. In film school, you're taught how to follow structural beats, how to build tension and catharsis, and elicit a reaction from the audience. It's storytelling! That's what we're all here for. But spoilers rob the story of that impact.

If it wasn't already clear, I hate spoilers. I hate it when things are spoiled for me. I hate seeing other people have things spoiled for them. And I particularly hate spoiling things for other people (which I'll admit does sometimes happen, but usually unintentionally). There's no quicker way to take the wind out of the sails of a story than with a spoiler. So it's at this point that I'll tell you this article does contain some spoilers, particularly pertaining to Marvel's Thunderbolts.

As a member of the press, I'm often offered the chance to watch movies and TV series early. Do I enjoy seeing these new projects before everyone else? Yes! There is something inherently exciting about knowing you're witnessing the action before anyone else. But there's a sanctity to this experience that prohibits you from spoiling what you've seen (for some, it's called an NDA, for others, it's called respect). Still, the media machine means that spoiler-filled explainers and discussion articles will be posted online the second a movie or new TV show episode drops. That's just how it is, and it's why we mute keywords and yell “NO SPOILERS” whenever someone brings up a movie we haven't seen.

I would personally never want to ruin the experience I've just had for someone else by spoiling it. The idea of watching something that probably took years to make and that the cast and crew poured their souls into, and then distilling it to a casual ten-second “oh yeah and then x dies” is like a gut punch to the art of the film.

Yet there are some people out there who derive pleasure from spoilers. Do they actively seek them out because the idea of having this knowledge is somehow powerful? Like Game of Thrones book readers who knew the Red Wedding was coming? As someone who has played The Last of Us and is currently watching Season 2, I can understand that. I look forward to seeing what my non-game-player friends' reactions are to some of the show's big moments. But I'm not out here giving them a play-by-play of the game - because they deserve to have that experience for themselves. If you want to go out there and watch all the trailers, read the spoiler reviews, and dive into leaks and theories on Reddit forums, go for it; that's your choice to make. But don't take that choice out of the hands of others.

The internet is a lawless place. I don't expect the trolls to keep spoilers to themselves. But my concern is that it's no longer just the internet that has a disregard for spoilers - it's the movie studios themselves. When a studio goes out and spoils a film's biggest twist as a marketing ploy, it makes me fearful of engaging with any marketing at all.

For context, Marvel's Thunderbolts came out in theatres on May 2nd. By May 4th, Marvel Studios was already posting to its social accounts that the movie was titled The New Avengers, which is a twist that occurs right at the end of the film. Sure, it's a clever marketing tactic. Ever since its announcement, Thunderbolts has had an annoying * at the end of its title, hinting that this team name is just a placeholder for something else. When the plot of the movie made that official, it's a payoff for the marketing team to be able to tear away the name Thunderbolts and reveal the asterisk refers to The New Avengers.

But what about the people who never got to experience that third act for themselves and were instead harmlessly scrolling their social media feeds one day only to find advertising for a New Avengers movie? The comments sections on these posts are flooded with complaints like this, from people who didn't have the chance to see the movie on opening weekend but have now had the film's crux spoiled without their consent. And this comes from the studio, which, only days before Thunderbolts' release, posted a “No Spoilers” PSA on its Instagram accounts as a deterrent to fans, only to have its own marketing team broadcast the movie's ending two days after its release. And, naturally, as soon as Marvel did it, everyone was doing it. It was impossible to find a corner of the internet that didn't talk about the New Avengers.

Looking at it from a business perspective, you can see the logic. Rebranding the movie to something with Avengers in the title is more likely to get butts in seats, as people flock to find out how and why this team exists. But it also shows blatant disregard for the people who may have wanted to experience the film for themselves, not through a 30-second Instagram spot. It also puts unnecessary pressure on the timeline in which people should go and see movies. Thunderbolts' marketing implies that if you don't see an MCU movie on opening weekend, you're pretty much asking for it to be spoiled.

So, when is it ok to spoil a movie? It's clear that Marvel should have waited longer than opening weekend, but when would have been an appropriate time to roll out that New Avengers marketing? Two weeks? A month? At the end of its theatrical run? Never? There's no clear answer.

My general stance on spoilers is that they're ok with consent. If you have a spoiler warning in your article or you take the time to find out if the people around you have seen a film before blurting out the details, it's acceptable. But I don't subscribe to the idea of there being a timeline for spoiler warnings. The thought that when a movie is [insert x amount of time here] old it passes some imaginary threshold where everyone should have seen it by now is inherently false. I've never seen The Sixth Sense, but it will forever be ruined for me because of how openly people quote its most iconic line.

The worst part is that if a movie or show has been spoiled for me, I actively have less interest in seeing it, because I've switched into a different state of being where I'm now anticipating what happens in the story rather than engaging with it. I respect that's not the same for everyone. In fact, there have been studies done that show some people gain more enjoyment from a story by knowing how it ends, because it allows you to appreciate how something happens rather than focusing on what happens. But in any case, having pivotal moments spoiled by a meme has to be the least impactful way to experience a story, and it's sad to me that someone's hard-earned work to craft an entertaining story can be actively ruined for someone by a harmless social media scroll.

This is all to say I don't expect spoiler culture to change, but I do wish the studios backing these stories wouldn't engage in it.