The Movie Spoiler
September 4, 2001 9:18 PM   Subscribe

The Movie Spoiler is a good site that'll save you a few bucks. [Warning: It contains spoilers and does reveal movie endings.]
posted by riffola (6 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Dude, that is so cool! I've actually talked with friends for a long time that a site like this needs to exist, and I'm thrilled to find out that someone's beaten me to the punch and actually put it up! I mean, how many times have you seen a teasing trailer for a movie where you knew the movie would be crap, you already knew you didn't want to see it, but you did kinda want to know how it ended, find out what the "gotcha" or "twist" was.

For example, "Ghosts of Mars" is supposedly quite horrible, and I surely don't want to see it, but I was idly curious about what the gimmick was- was it a standard horror movie ghost? A "lost souls of an ancient Martian civilization" disturbed by space exploration? Some morality tale about how the evils of corporations/prisons mutated into a supernatural force of evil? An X-Filesean virus or insect that makes people all ka-razy? A cheap ripoff of last year's lame Mars movie, "Red Planet"? What? What?! Well, now I know, and I didn't have to waste money or two hours of my life. Sweet! :)

The question is, will this site get sued for giving away the whole plot? And if so, on what grounds: Is it actually against copyright violation to give away the ending to a movie? Will it be against the DMCA simply because they're giving away the ending using the "In-Ter-Net"? But what about if you do so as part of a movie review? Could be an interesting thing...
posted by hincandenza at 10:49 PM on September 4, 2001



Plots aren't copyrightable anyway. At least, not at the level we're talking about here. You could take any of these plots and make a completely different movie out of it.
posted by kindall at 10:59 PM on September 4, 2001


I actually enjoy films more if I know everything about them beforehand. Is this uncool?
Surely it's not what happens in a movie - it's the way it's made to happen - that matters. If the director makes it exciting and, more importantly, credible, then "spoilers" only add to the fun.
Verisimilitude - spellchecker, please! - is all.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:08 AM on September 5, 2001 [1 favorite]


Wow, Miguel, you're a posting fool tonight- every thread I go to, there you are!

skallas, kindall: My point in the lawsuit question, and the very reason for these sites, is that we live in the age of multiplexes where they can run 8, 10, 12 movies at once and- unlike the old single or even 4 screen theaters- don't have bank on a single film being quality enough to sustain business. Think of it like multiplexes are cinematic hedge funds! Memento, the best movie I've seen this year, was playing in Seattle mostly at the old movie palaces, where it was the only thing showing- but all shows had lines forming well before the screening started. Obviously, they would never take a chance airing Bubble Boy since their ability to make rent that month could be relying solely on whether Bubble Boy was actually any good. I'm curious if there could be some creative application of copyright laws or DMCA to prevent divulging the full details of a specific movie in a published or digital format, because the production companies might fear people not seeing their movie once they know "the secret" that the teaser trailer hints at. Imagine if Roger Ebert started saying "Not only am I giving this movie thumbs down, but here's the whole plot in review, so you know how the whole thing plays out including the trick ending! Anyway, don't see this film!" More so than just a bad review, that could keep people from seeing a gimmick film like "The Others" (which btw I've heard is actually pretty good).

I have this whole theory about how multiplexes are leading to less quality at the cinema, which I won't get into except to say that you can throw together a crap movie, and with a decent marketing campaign designed to tease, you can draw in a big opening weekend crowd on mere curiousity or hype alone- the curiousity I alluded to above, of kinda just wanting to know what happens even if you know the movie's gonna suck. Sites like these- Movie Pooper is another one- potentially cut into gross revenues as some people who might have gone to see an otherwise turkey movie can just get the story or the gimmick on the net for free. The good movies won't have this problem, but if your profit margin as a cinema or a production company relies on the spaghetti-against-the-wall theory of movie making using the big weekend and the quickly dwindling crowds (see: Pearl Harbor), you need a lot of people to go see your movie on the curiousity factor or you can't make any money. Indeed, you might have to start hiring talent to make fewer, and better, films. God forbid... :)
posted by hincandenza at 1:09 AM on September 5, 2001



A posting fool. indeed! Can you tell I only just discovered you guys? I'm sorry for my excessive zeal. Honestly. Give me another three or four years - and the inalienable right to post links, currently denied me by your tyrannical system, and I'll be as cool, blasé and generally non-intrusive as everybody else.
As a gesture of good will I shall be reading-only for the next few minutes.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:37 AM on September 5, 2001


No worries Miguel- post away! I meant it in good fun, since you're in the midst of this flurry of activity. Besides, you're a long way from that rat- bastard holgate, who's currently somewhere in the 2,400 comment range and climbing fast.

I kid the hol-ster, of course... ;)
posted by hincandenza at 3:30 AM on September 5, 2001



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