We did NOT see that coming: 40 spoilers for those who dare to read on
Deaths, doppelgangers, ghosts, fathers, imaginary friends, magicians and a sled. Lean in and enjoy a world in which there are only so many ways to twist a tale
Binge watch enough shows, catch up on enough movies and two things start to become obvious:
1. You can’t escape spoilers. They’ll find you eventually.
2. There are only that many ways to twist a tale: Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Harry Potter is a horcrux. Grandiose stories of space travel and multiverses are, at heart, just tales of family. The killer is the person you least suspect (and sociopaths are often disguised as unicorns). A fantastic tale ends up playing out only in someone’s imagination. Someone is a ghost. The key piece of the puzzle was part of the opening scene. A beloved character dies. Heroes cross seven seas to learn that what they were seeking was in their backyards all along. The underdog saves the day.
“Honestly, I don’t think I enjoy a film or a series any less than I would have had I not encountered a spoiler,” says filmmaker Tanuja Chandra. “I tend to watch things long after they have been released, anyway.” She does admit that the final scene in Pathaan (2023) would have come as a bigger surprise had she not read about it. Right now, she’s wondering how Only Murders in the Building will wrap up its third season.
Film critic Raja Sen hates the people who spew spoilers more than the plot twists themselves, especially Indian viewers who “watch HBO finales in the early bloody morning,” and gloat online for the rest of the day. “I’m also more ticked off by thoughtlessly assembled trailers that give away too much than by any individual spoiler. And the savage callousness of news outlets that give the game away in the headline,” Sen says.
Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra believes Indian plots are so predictable, we don’t even need spoilers. For film critic Sucharita Tyagi, they “aren’t an exact science”. “The way you interact with a story changes the meaning of what a spoiler is,” she says. “If I have read The Wheel of Time series, nothing on the show is a spoiler for me. If I haven’t, everything is. I got trolled for saying Rami Malek is in Oppenheimer! How is that a spoiler?”
