Robert Zemeckis will appear again soon on this list. 2000’s Cast Away worked on a premise that Tom Hanks’ FedEx worker was stranded on a desert island following a crash, left to grow a beard, befriend a volleyball, and wonder if he’d ever get home again.
Those who had watched the trailer for the movie knew full well the answer. For some reason, a scene of him arriving home – so, basically, the end of the movie – was edited into the promo. If you’d seen it, it wouldn’t have outright ruined the movie, but it certainly dampened one of the film’s big questions. Fortunately, it was not a film that hinged on its ending to work.
12. The Sum Of All Fears
I confess: I managed to see Ben Affleck’s underrated Jack Ryan adventure without having seen the trailer first. Good job, too, as the promo gives away a big shocking moment that doesn’t quite take place at the end, but certainly acts as a pivot for the plot. It’s a genuine shocking moment, one that you’d think was worth keeping under wraps in advance.
11. Arlington Road
We’re big fans of Mark Pellington’s under-the-radar thriller Arlington Road here, and we’d strongly advise if you’ve not seen the movie that you ignore both the trailer and the next paragraph or two of text. Like most thrillers of its ilk, the less you know, the better.
Ambiguity, after all, is at the heart of Arlington Road, and the thrust of the movie sees Jeff Bridges trying to work out if his neighbor, played by Tim Robbins, is actually a terrorist.
Appreciating that Arlington Road isn’t and wasn’t a major blockbuster, it was always going to have to punch harder to get noticed. But this trailer is just ridiculous: it may not give you the exact answer to everything, but it gives away so much of the working out, that you’re not left in any doubt. A real pity.
