The art of spoiling a film in the trailer

Like most people, I was absolutely overwhelmed by Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga this weekend. Chris Bumbray sums up perfectly HERE why the film is a great entry in the Mad Max franchise. It may have been the trailer that was shown before most films in 2024. It was everywhere. Still, it's hard to watch the film and feel like you've seen something completely new when the marketing has already given so much away.

*Spoilers for Furious Read at your own risk*

I must make it clear right from the start that I loved Furious. It is a brilliant epic that features Chris Hemsworth's best performance yet and proves why Anya Taylor Joy is believable in every role. The brilliance of Furious cannot be underestimated in either its technical achievements or its narrative. And my criticism is clearly directed at the film's marketing and not at anything to do with the film itself. Because when I left the cinema, I couldn't help but think: did the trailer spoil the film?

The way Furiosa is kidnapped, her audacity in causing it, and her repeated attempts to escape are all highlighted. Since this takes up most of the first half of the film, these moments are severely stripped of tension in the actual film. She's always trying to escape. It happens to her at every opportunity. Show these moments to hint at what a kick-ass she is. Yet we see the actual captures in the trailer, so we already know that not only does she not escape, she gets caught pretty quickly. So there may be a long, drawn-out escape sequence, but we're already privy to the end. I'm OK with showing the set-up, but maybe the punch line shouldn't be shown.

However, I would argue that the biggest problem is that Anya Taylor Joy doesn't show up until an hour into the film. It's crazy that I'm even writing this, considering how prominent she is in all the marketing materials. And I'm honestly not sure there's any solution other than prominently featuring young Furiosa (who gets a whopping 10 seconds of screen time in the first trailer). So they managed to both give too much away and lie to the audience about how much the leading lady would be in the film.

And that's not to say that Alyla Browne does a bad job. Quite the opposite, but in this day and age, when studios are fighting to get audiences into theaters, such role reversal seems dishonest. I understand that you often have to give things away that happen in a movie to sell it. And Anya is clearly a very marketable actress with a large fan base. But it's never good when you leave the theater and people are proclaiming, “That one girl hasn't shown up in ages.” (a real quote when leaving the theater.)

Furious is not the only film to come out this month with this problem, because Planet of the Apes: Kingdom did the same thing: Proximus Caesar was prominently featured, only to not appear until over an hour into the film. And since Kevin Durand has been promoting it so much, that creates a certain expectation. But I'd argue that the film still manages to hide its plot in the trailer and offer a pretty fresh experience. Proximus isn't the lead, so it doesn't feel like a big deal. Villains often have less screen time, especially in the first act. And since this was probably the second most-shown trailer in theaters this year, it would have been easy to make the same mistakes.

And yes, Furious is a prequel, so in that sense you will always know what is coming. In that respect, as long as each character is at the beginning of Fury Roadanything can happen. But did we need Dr. Dementus saying, “The question is: do you have what it takes to make it epic?”, clearly hinting at his own death? Or so much of the trailer making it look like the same road movie that Fury Road was? There is a real danger of scaring away an audience rather than just giving a hint of the great epic to come.

Conversely, the horror world has an absolutely phenomenal marketing team working on Long legs. There have been countless trailers and yet the plot is still vague. They managed to build up so much hype and still keep the mystery alive. That is an extremely difficult task and something I think other marketing teams should look into. Because we as viewers should be given just enough information to decide whether we want to see it or not. We don't need to see the whole movie. Okay. I'm going to start shouting at the clouds again now.

What do YOU ​​think about Furiosa? Did the trailer give too much away? Why do studios insist on giving so much away in their trailers?