Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with spoilers

Questions about War of the Worlds (2005)

nooneyouknow — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:20:22 -0800

So, I just finished watching War of the Worlds 2005 with Tom Cruise and I have some questions. I flipped around while the movie was on and missed parts of it, plus when it was on I wasn't always paying complete attention so I think I missed some key plot points.

1) The end, where Tom Cruise, shows up to his ex-wife's house and the street is not damaged at all, and she and her grandparents are still alive, and his son somehow managed to survive the earlier battle and beat him back to the house, that was a dream sequence or something right? I mean we aren't actually supposed to believe that that happened?

2) What was all the red stringy stuff that showed up outside after Tom and Dakota holed up in Tim Robbin's house. Was that people? I think it might have been people but I'm not sure. And if was people why did the aliens switch from death rays to to taking people apart?

3) There was a scene where the aliens held some dude down and took all his blood. WTF? What did they want with his blood?

4) Why did the aliens go from incinerating people to capturing them in "buckets" under their tripods?

Can I see the new X-Files movie and then watch the series later?

snowleopard — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:08:06 -0800

Can I see the new X-Files movie and then watch the series later? I'm going to go see X-Files: I Want to Believe in the theater tomorrow, but I've only seen the first season of the show. If I see the movie first, will that spoil me as to anything major in the series? (I'm thinking of if you saw Serenity before Firefly or such like that). Should I skip seeing the movie in the theater and watch the series first?

Please no spoilers for either the series or show in the comments - I don't want to be spoiled, which is why I'm asking this question!

There are six-- I mean, five replicants.

EatenByAGrue — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:03:06 -0800

I have a plot question concerning the movie The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen the movie, you won't be able to answer my question, so there are definitely spoilers inside. At the end of the movie, when Gordon and Batman are discussing how to cover-up Two-Face's crimes, Gordon mentions that five people were killed by Two-Face, including two cops. The problem for me is that I only count three people killed by Two-Face, one of which is a cop. The cop in the bar was killed, and the mob boss and his driver. That makes three. Ramirez, the other crooked cop, wasn't killed, as far as I can tell, because the flipped coin came up clean. So even if you count Harvey Dent as one of the killed (which doesn't seem right to me), that leaves one person unaccounted for; two if you don't include Dent. Can anyone help me figure out who the missing people are? Thanks.

Extra deaths in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

booksandlibretti — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:57:33 -0800

Productions of Hamlet in which an additional character dies unexpectedly? (spoilers for a 400-year-old play and modern productions) One currently running production does this (once the show closes, I'll comment to give you the details). I saw it, and was amazed -- then curious whether it'd ever been done before.

A friend suggested that Martin Sheen's Hamlet, from 1968's Public Theater production in Central Park, may have done something similar with a Vietnam-y setting. Unfortunately I can't find information about that assertion, either way.

People expected to die in Hamlet:
-Hamlet
-Hamlet's dad (offstage)
-Fortinbras's dad (offstage)
-Polonius
-Claudius
-Gertrude
-Ophelia
-Laertes
-Rosencrantz
-Guildenstern

Know about a production with an even higher death toll? I'm interested in anything you've got -- from the local production in a church basement on up. The more documentation, the better, obviously. I have access to jstor and other scholarly resources, so feel free to link those articles as well as any others you find. Thanks!

Spoiler Alert

Tube — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:24:51 -0800

What is the origin of the term "Spoiler Alert". I don't ever remember reading a movie or book review from the 1970's or 1980's that began with the term "spoiler alert" or "spoiler ahead". It's possible that they were there all along, and that I just didn't notice them, but I seem to have first encountered the term in the late 1990's.

I also wonder if this is a term that originated on the Internet rather than in conventional print, as it seems to me to have coincided with the growth of the Internet.

When did this term become almost universally used?

Ultimate spoiler: you are God. Sound familiar?

Curry — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:55:02 -0800

Anyone recall seeing a Web page that said something like "Ultimate Spoiler: You are God"? I have a vague yet nagging recollection of a page, either one-off gag or part of a spoiler aggregate site, that professed the ultimate spoiler for life, i.e. you are god. My extended and thorough searching hasn't produced any leads. Sound familiar to anybody?

Help me find Harry Potter Spoilers

fermezporte — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:44:42 -0800

Please help me spoil Harry Potter 7! So I've finished Harry Potter, and now I want to read all of the spoilers I wouldn't let myself read before. I'm most interested in those that are creative and elaborate, yet ultimately, though seeing who got it right before it really leaked might be interesting too. I'm more interested in stuff that was actually supposed to spoil it, rather than straight up fan-fics. I've check the wired article that was on Metafilter a while back, but it's changed to a spoof.

Help me remember part of "Wolf Creek".

23skidoo — Thu, 17 May 2007 08:17:28 -0800

If you've already seen it, help me remember a phrase used in the movie "Wolf Creek". [SPOILERS INSIDE] There is a scene towards the end where the bad guy takes a knife and stabs it into a girl's spine, twisting it once it's in there, in order to paralyze her. As he does this, he describes what he is doing, going so far as to give the name of the maneuver.

What name did he call it? Was this manuever real (that is, did it exist before the movie) or was is invented for the film?

"Fruits Basket" manga spoilers, please?

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:05:45 -0800

I'm looking for spoilers about the "Fruits Basket" manga. I have seen the TV series, which covers the first 35 chapters. At one point I found, downloaded, and read caption translations for all the chapters up through about chapter 80. (These were not "scanlations"; they were just text from fans.)

I recently learned that the manga finally ended last November, with chapter 136. So that means the mangaka finally revealed the mysteries, and I want to know what they were.

What I mainly want to know was just what Tohru did, or was key to, which lifted the curse from the family. I had my own guess about it, back when I first watched it: that the curse would be lifted if Kyo could beat Yuki in a fight. Then the Cat would feel it had gotten satisfaction from the Rat, and would lift the curse on the family.

But as long as Kyo was blinded by hatred when he fought Yuki, he could never win. The key, then, was to make it so that Kyo and Yuki could become friends, or at least no longer be enemies. Then Kyo could fight dispassionately, and if he did then he would win. Tohru was, therefore, the key: she was a catalyst used by Shigure to get Yuki and Kyo to spend time with each other, and with familiarity would eventually come acceptance (at least) and maybe even friendship.

Was I even remotely correct? If not, just what did happen? I heard that it turned out that Akito was actually a girl. (Considering the disturbingly large number of transvestites among the other members of the Zodiac, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to learn that Akito was a reverse-trap.) Did that turn out to be critical, somehow?

I have some other questions, too, and I hope that someone who knows about the series would be willing to let me exchange three or four emails with them with further questions.

Help me find evidence concerning the deadliness of splinters

ubernostrum — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:54:12 -0800

I just watched the Mythbusters pirate special, and I'm looking for historical evidence to argue with the cannonball/splinter conclusion. (don't click through if you don't want spoilers) The myth in question concerns the deadliness of splinters thrown out by a shot penetrating the ship's hull; after testing with air cannons and a replica six-pounder, they weren't able to produce significant splinter-related injuries to the pig carcasses in use as human analogues.

Much as I'd love to argue with the methodology, it was probably the best that could have been done; finding a heavier ship's gun (say, in the 18-pound to 36-pound range seen on warships of the 18th and 19th centuries) and being able to test fire it doesn't seem likely. So I'll leave the methodology alone; instead I'm hunting for historical records which would support the threat posed by splinters and similar debris.

I've done some initial poking around in Google and found a couple promising items (for example, this description of a Revolutionary War battle lists two splinter wounds, one of which apparently proved fatal), but what I'd really like is to get my hands on some real historical accounts -- the more primary the source, the better. A really good example is this Wikipedia article, which (while being horrifically badly formatted) reproduces a British captain's official letter detailing a battle from the War of 1812, including mention of two splinter wounds. Unfortunately, if there's a web-accessible repository of these sorts of captains' reports, I haven't been able to find it.

Anyone know of such a thing, or of similar records which would contain relevant information? I know the evidence is out there, I just need to find it!

SpoilerFilter

hwestiii — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 11:10:49 -0800

"The Prestige" spoiler question, do not read if you have any intention of seeing the movie. The wife and I just saw the film "The Prestige" last night and have been unable to agree on what happens with "the machine". For those familiar with the movie and/or the book (I haven't read it), I'm wondering whether, when the machine is activated, is the original item transported and a copy remains in the machine, or is the transported item the copy, or does it even matter?

From an existential standpoint, it would have definitely mattered to me, although I thought the film muddied things a bit, contrasting Angier's behavior after his first experience in the machine, and the later public performances of "The Transported Man".

Spoilers in Twin Peaks DVD commentaries?

Dean King — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:56:18 -0800

Do the commentaries on the Twin Peaks DVDs contain spoilers? I watched the entire series when it was originally broadcast, but my wife is seeing it for the first time. We'd like to listen to the director's commentaries together, but not if the plot twists are going to be ruined for her by spoilers. Could anyone who's already heard the commentaries let us know if they're "safe"?

Held me understand the twist of Inside Man

Alex Handcoding — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 09:16:46 -0800

I saw Inside Man with some friends last night, but I don't get it. Please help me understand it :). Spoilers inside. It was a good movie, to be sure, but I just don't get it. Right up until the last minute before the movie ends, I thought I understood what was going on. Then it ended and I was left puzzled.

Here're the relevant bits that I understand so far:

*The owner of the bank was previously affiliated with the Nazi party and he doesn't want that secret getting out

* Jodie Foster's character is hired to try to get rid of the Nazi-related stuff from the bank owner's deposit box

* Clive Owen's character already found some of it

* After staying cooped up in his spider hole, Owen's character walks out of the bank but doesn't take the diamonds

* On his way out of the bank, he bumps into Denzel Washington's character, either by accident or design (?)

So, what's the twist? Why would Owen's character go through all that effort just to not steal stuff? Is Washington's character on the take? And who is the inside man? As a side note, I'm also interested in any "clues" that you noticed earlier in the movie which may have hinted at these secrets before they were actually revealed.

The ending of

nicwolff — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:46:06 -0800

At the end of the movie "The Good Thief"... [SPOILERS INSIDE]

Question number 12879

invisible ink — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 01:30:56 -0800

IDontHaveTimeToReadTheBookFilter - I have some questions about the LOTR movie trilogy that can only be answered by those who have actually read the books. (mi+)

Question number 11251

sfz — Tue, 26 Oct 2004 17:34:47 -0800

AskMovieSpoilerFilter - So a while ago I was watching the excellent "The Color of Money" and I can't figure out exactly why the Tom Cruise character was so pissed at the Paul Newman character at the very end. [spoiler] Did Fast Eddie throw his match because he had been payed off to do so? Presumably simply resigning a match would arouse suspicions if that were the case. Or did he do it to avoid playing Tom Cruise in a tournament? I can't find a precis anywhere on the net that goes into that level of detail...

Question number 9169

gwint — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 07:40:38 -0800

I would like to know the ending to The Village so I don't have to actually see the film, which is supposed to be awful.

Question number 8907

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 19:58:16 -0800

I just finished watching Jules et Jim. I really liked it, but I have a slightly spoilerish question which I will ask inside.

Question number 4759

Prospero — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 18:05:53 -0800

The film Perfect Blue is very confusing. (more inside, with major spoilers)

Question number 4268

willnot — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 14:11:43 -0800

How does the movie Stuck on You end? Some friends went to see it recently. There was some technical problems with the projector, and they had to leave before seeing it. It's driving them crazy, but not crazy enough to sit through it again (If you haven't seen it yet, expect the thread to contain spoilers).

Question number 3912

widdershins — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 10:07:18 -0800

I just finished watching David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, and I'm stumped. Can someone explain to me what that was all about?

I should add that I'm not a huge DL fan - I don't enjoy strangeness for strangeness' sake - but didn't expect to be so utterly left in the dark. Anyone?