A lot of marketing work goes into promoting a movie, from teaser trailers to posters. But movie posters can be more than just a crucial piece of marketing. Although they’re designed to grab audiences’ interest and get them to buy a ticket, they can also become iconic pieces of pop culture in their own right, with memorable art that fans love.
Often, movie posters help set the tone for a film and indicate to audiences what they can expect. They can even hint at what happens in the movie. But some go beyond simple hints and spoil movies entirely, whether by laying out the plot, ruining the ending or even spoiling crucial plot twists. While this is somewhat expected of trailers, which show more of a movie, it’s surprising when a single image on a poster has an impact on audiences’ viewing experience by giving away too much.
10 ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)
Directed by Alan Taylor
In Thor: The Dark World, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) finds the Aether, a powerful weapon created by the Dark Elves capable of destroying the entire galaxy, and becomes its host. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) teams up with Loki (Tom Hiddleston)—imprisoned after a failed attempt at a coup on Asgard—to save her before Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), the leader of the Dark Elves, captures her and uses the Aether to destroy Asgard and, by extension, Earth.
The spoilers in the posters for Thor: The Dark World are more subtle than others. One features not Thor but Loki, offering some insight as to what he’d been up to. The poster shows him to be in Asgard, and two Asgardian artifacts at his feet, Thor’s hammer and Odin’s helmet, hint at the fates of all three characters. Of course, this being Marvel, these spoilers were likely all intentional and placed for attentive fans to notice.
9 ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018)
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
The Avengers united to battle Thanos, the most powerful enemy they’d ever faced, and prevent him from gathering the six Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War. Each Stone would grant “complete omnipotence over one aspect of the universe,” and possessing all six would make the owner the most powerful being in the universe. The movie was followed up with the sequel Avengers: Endgame in 2019, which brought the Infinity Saga to an end.
Thor: The Dark World wasn’t the only Marvel movie to have a spoiler-y poster. The Japanese poster for Infinity War includes a line which roughly translates to “Avengers totally annihilated,” hinting at the Avengers’ failure to stop Thanos and their own losses as a result. It was a shocking ending to the film—audiences are used to seeing the Avengers win, and some of the franchise’s most beloved characters were among those Thanos killed.
8 ‘The Impossible’ (2012)
Directed by J. A. Bayona
The Bennett family—a couple and their three sons—are vacationing in Thailand over the Christmas holiday in 2004 when a devastating tsunami hits in The Impossible. Maria (Naomi Watts) and her oldest son, Lucas (Tom Holland), are separated from Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their two younger sons, Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast) and work to reunite, each battling their own injuries. The movie was based on a true story.
The Impossible poster’s image of the family’s emotional reunion is a moving one, but it gives away the movie’s ending. Still, it doesn’t take away from the harrowing ordeal the family went through, especially considering the movie was based on the real-life experiences of a vacationing family. And for viewers looking for a dramatic film with a happy ending, the poster is a signal that the movie is exactly that.
7 ‘Rocky IV’ (1985)
Directed by Sylvester Stallone
In Rocky IV, Rocky’s (Sylvester Stallone) plans to live a quiet life in retirement are disrupted when Rocky agrees to train his friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) for a match against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a fighter backed by the Soviet Union. During the fight, Drago horribly beats Creed, who dies from his injuries. Rocky vows to get revenge and begins training for his own showdown with Drago, in Russia on Christmas Day.
Rocky securing a victory over Drago is expected, although the good guys don’t always win in Hollywood, they do often enough. Rocky’s win also comes as no surprise considering the film deals with the tension between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But by showing a victorious Rocky draped in the American flag, the poster makes the winner clear before the movie even begins. Still, part of the fun of Rocky movies is watching the fight play out, so at least the movie wasn’t totally ruined.
6 ‘Carrie’ (1976)
Directed by Brian de Palma
In the horror movie Carrie, a shy, outcast teenage girl (Sissy Spacek) with telekinetic powers who lives with her overprotective mother is asked to the prom by a classmate who feels sorry for her. But things take a turn when other classmates use it as an opportunity to continue their bullying of her. The movie was based on the Stephen King novel of the same name and has been remade multiple times.
The image of a wide-eyed, blood-drenched Carrie is an iconic one—even the remakes used it in promotional materials, but for viewers who don’t know how her prom night goes, it spoils what happens to her. The tagline, “If you’ve got a taste for terror…take Carrie to the prom,” also hints at the events of the prom. Although the poster doesn’t spoil how the movie ends, it still tells audiences too much and ruins the shock of the moment.
5 ‘Ender’s Game’ (2013)
Directed by Gavin Hood
In Ender’s Game, hostile aliens called the Formics attack Earth, and only Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) was able to defeat them. When the International Military finds themselves in need of a new leader, they recruit a gifted boy named Ender (Asa Butterfield), who takes Mazer’s place and ultimately succeeds at stopping the aliens. The movie was based on the novel of the same name.
While viewers who had read the book already knew how Ender’s Game would likely end, those who hadn’t got a pretty big clue from one of the film’s posters. It gave audiences a glimpse at the ending, with Ender about to fire on the enemy aliens. Although it’s a great shot, and it’s easy to understand why it was chosen to be featured on a poster, it also ruins some of the movie’s suspense.
4 ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ (2016)
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
After a car accident, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) awakes in a bunker with two men in 10 Cloverfield Lane. One of them, Howard (John Goodman), tells her the ground above is now uninhabitable due to a chemical attack and that they must remain in the bunker in order to survive, and it has plenty of supplies to last a year or two. The movie was the second in the Cloverfield series.
Part of the suspense of 10 Cloverfield Lane relies on Howard and whether he’s telling Michelle the truth—or if he’s even sane, and what happens when Michelle attempts to leave the bunker. And while marketing materials largely kept up the mystery, one of the international posters did not. It showed Michelle fleeing from a large monster, eliminating any question as to what was actually happening, although it doesn’t spoil the film’s ending, at least.
3 ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (2011)
Directed by Drew Goddard
In The Cabin in the Woods, a group of college friends head to a remote cabin for a brief getaway, where they’re attacked by a variety of monsters—revealed to be controlled by two scientists. They’re working on behalf of the Facility, a mysterious group who sacrifice archetypal horror characters to prevent something even more sinister from taking over the world. It was written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who also directed.
The Cabin in the Woods isn’t just a typical horror movie, it plays with horror tropes to create something new and surprising, which is what makes it so great. But for audiences who aren’t aware of that, the international poster ruins it. While it doesn’t fully spoil the twists or the meta nature of the movie entirely, it does hint that there’s more going on here than meets the eye, which takes some of the fun out of the reveal.
2 ‘Terminator: Genisys’ (2015)
Directed by Alan Taylor
John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator assassin in Terminator: Genisys. But something goes wrong, creating a different timeline, one in which Sarah knows who Kyle is and why he’s there, and the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a father figure to her. The movie was the fifth in the Terminator franchise.
In the altered timeline, John is later revealed to be a Terminator himself, making him the movie’s villain—a plot point spoiled by not only the poster but also one of the trailers. It meant the moment the audience sees John as a Terminator came as no surprise, stripping it of its power. Fans speculated that perhaps it was an intentional choice to encourage people to see the movie and find out the reason for the twist.
1 ‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968)
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
After being kept in hypersleep during a long mission, three astronauts crash and find themselves in the 40th century stranded on a planet ruled by apes with human-like intelligence and abilities and where humans are a primitive mute species kept as slaves in sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. The film has gone on to spawn a successful franchise spanning decades, making it the longest-running sci-fi series in American film.
The big twist in Planet of the Apes is that the film didn’t take place on another planet, but rather Earth, revealed when the main character discovers the remnants of the collapsed Statue of Liberty. It’s a shocking moment, but it’s one that was ruined by some of the film’s posters, where the statue is a prominent part of the art. Although these posters weren’t used during the film’s theatrical run, they have been used as DVD covers, spoiling the twist for viewers watching for the first time.
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