Friday Fight: SPOILER ALERTS
Even though Lindsay and Gabe are friends, they very rarely agree on anything. Every day, they have a fight about something. On Fridays, we publish one.
lindsay: I read spoilers for movies I don't even want to see
gabe: well that's not a spoiler
gabe: if you don't want to see the movie then it doesn't count
gabe: then it's just saving yourself time
lindsay: well, true, but I read the other ones too
lindsay: whenever I see a trailer for a thriller, I go to moviespoilers.com to see if it's up yet
lindsay: Like Flight Plan starring Jodie Foster. haven't seen it, know the end
gabe: well, that's still not a spoiler
gabe: but right, i don't do that
lindsay: I don't think a truly good movie can be spoiled
gabe: that's not true at all
gabe: what?
gabe: explain yourself
lindsay: well, knowing almost everything about no country for old men didn't spoil it for me
lindsay: I mean, by "good movie" I mean a really good movie
lindsay: not just a moviegoing experience
gabe: but your enjoyment can change
gabe: i read No Country For Old Men already so there weren't any surprises
gabe: it's still enjoyable
gabe: but it's different
gabe: the tension isn't there in the same way when you know the outcome
gabe: also, i think that spoilers not only ruin surprises but they distract from teh rest of the movie
gabe: because i get wrapped up in "when is the thing i know about going to happen"
lindsay: That's true, but with The Dark Knight, how is seeing Two Face's face going to spoil it?
gabe: well i never said that
lindsay: I mean, unless it's normal
gabe: although i do think that for some nerds it just takes away from the excitement of the reveal
gabe: which is fair
gabe: the thing is, regardless of where you stand on spoilers, i don't think you get to make the judgement for other people about what is or is not one
lindsay: I wasn't?
gabe: well you're saying "how is that a spoiler"
gabe: as in "you can't seriously be bothered by knowing/seeing that"
gabe: and i'm saying some people can
lindsay: I know, or it wouldn't be such a big deal
lindsay: But I guess I'm thinking of all the really great movies I've seen
lindsay: and I'm not sure if they could have been that spoiled
lindsay: but the bad ones could?
gabe: but again, i don't really follow the argument that a movie can't be spoiled
lindsay: Like, people go INSANE over spoilers
gabe: you're saying that it can't be spoiled for you
gabe: which i guess is fair
gabe: except that even you
gabe: admit that your experience of the movie is way different
lindsay: There are people out there who don't even believe spoilers should exist on the internet, because they can't control themselves from clicking on them even when they know it's a spoiler.
gabe: ahhahahaha, who are these people?
lindsay: So it's like wanting cigarettes to be illegal because you can't help yourself from smoking them
gabe: you are just making things up now
lindsay: No, that is a very real thing
gabe:well i think that spoilers on the internet
gabe: even for people who don't have this ridiculous compulsion that you just imagineered into existence
gabe: spoilers are frustrating becasue most sites will put that shit in the title
gabe: or in the photo
gabe: or in the first three words of a post
gabe: there's very little effort made to protect people from spoilers
gabe: whcih i think is shitty, because it's deciding how other poeple get to experience things
gabe: there are ways to still have the discussion without ruining it for people who don't want to particiipate
gabe: i.e. putting it after a jump
lindsay: it would be funny to imagine old movies with twists in the era of blogs
lindsay: like "We Found Out What Kind Of People Soylent Green Is Made From!"
lindsay: "Here's Where To Buy A Sled Just Like 'Rosebud'"
gabe: haha
gabe: well, with your vast knowledge of spoilers
as a spoiler connoisseur
gabe: do you spoil things for people all the time?
lindsay:This girl spoiled The Sixth Sense for me the night it came out by loudly yelling the twist at a party
lindsay:So I've never been able to experience that movie like the rest of the people in the world
gabe: So you know the pain of a well placed spoiler?
gabe: is that what you are saying?
lindsay: Yes, but I would never do that to someone?
lindsay: I'm not saying that it's okay to spoil without permission!
gabe: right
lindsay: I'm just saying that for a movie like the dark knight, everyone is up in arms but you can't really spoil the whole movie if it's really as good as it's supposed to be.
gabe: sure but there are so many trailers and leaked footage from that movie that i refuse to watch anything else because i feel like i've seen half of it and my enjoyment actually will be diminsiehd
gabe: and that's not even spoilers, that's just promotion
lindsay: Well, it's just overhyped
gabe: keep your laws off other people's spoilers, robertson
lindsay: SPOILER ALERT
gabe: SPOILER ALERT
gabe: it turns our you're a jerk.
Posted by Gabe at 6:29 PM in Friday Fight
Tags: Citizen Kane | Soylent Green | Spoilers | The Crying Game | The Dark Knight | The Sixth Sense
This reminds me of the episode of The IT Crowd where Roy wants to watch the zombie movie but someone tells him there's a twist at the end and every time he tries to watch it someone tries to ruin it. Good episode.
I think some movies aren't ruined by spoilers, but suspense films and thrillers really rely on having a great ending and it sucks to know what happens. Like I knew the ending to Citizen Kane before I saw it and it didn't affect how much I loved it, because despite how the movie was framed about the Rosebud mystery, in the end that's not what it was really about, that just gave the guy a reason to go talk to all those people and learn Kane's story. I think I would've liked Soylent Green more if I hadn't known the ending, because it really is a shocking twist. If I had known the end to Psycho before I saw it, it wouldn't have been as awesome, because even though it's still a really well made movie, it's a suspense film and when you take out the suspense factor you're just watching people running around waiting for them to figure it out.
Score = 0
"whenever I see a trailer for a thriller, I go to moviespoilers.com to see if it's up yet"
Meeeeeeeee too. I do it for anything too stupid or scary for me to spend 2 hours on, but I gotta know the ending.
And the Sixth Sense got spoiled before I saw it, too. Sucks.
Score = 0
i totally looked up the spoiler for Flightplan, too. It looked crappy but after watching all the ads I needed to know what the hell happened to that kid.
Score = 0
I noticed you put a picture from "The Crying Game" in this article. There's a movie where the twist had already been revealed to me, but director Neil Jordan did a good job of making sure the movie didn't rely entirely on that twist. Instead, it was a sudden surprise planted in the middle of the film, and in the end, it didn't even really seem to matter for the film's protagonist. So, kudos to Neil Jordan for being able to make a movie that doesn't hinge entirely on its twist.
Score = 0
How do you not smack Gabe every week when you have to do these? Do you work in different offices? He reminds me of the nerd in high school that had to pick fights with everyone about everything you couldn't prove wrong because there was no Wikipedia. I love him but..dayam.
Score = 0
well i hope they work in different offices, cause the only thing lamer than spoilers for movies is instant messaging someone in the same room.
Score = 0
Don't ever go to Jezebel then..they do it EVERY DAY.
Score = 0
I usually hate spoilers in movies, and still haven't seen The Sixth Sense because it seems pointless now, but after seeing previews for Miracle at St. Anna before Hellboy and Incredible Hulk, I'm DYING to know wtf is up with that statue.
Score = 0
http://journalite.blogspot.com/2005/09/spoiler-warnings-for-jodie-fosters.html
Score = 0
SPOILER ALERT!
Gabe and Lindsay do work in the same office! THE TEXTS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!
Score = 1
I think a good movie can be ruined by knowing the reveal, but it depends on the type of movie that it is. I somehow managed to not know the ending to the Sixth Sense for years before I finally saw it, but when I got to the end I was just pissed off because I didn't think it was nearly as interesting an ending as everyone else did. All of the signs didn't add up, and it depended on people remembering crap from the beginning...all in all, I thought it was over-hyped.
Thrillers are ruined by knowing what happens before you see it. What I don't like is that there are people on Wikipedia who are against putting in spoiler alert labels in articles because they see them as censorship. That's rather stupid because you're not preventing someone from seeing it; you're letting someone know what is in store so that they don't find out something they don't want to know. Morons.
Score = 0