People Are Sharing Movies That Were Drastically Different Than Their Trailers Marketed Them To Be
Recently, in a thread on the subreddit r/movies, redditor u/sonofwelk asked for fans to name some "films that were completely different to the trailers," and movie lovers really came through with some great responses!
United Artists Releasing
So, with that in mind, here are just a few of the most popular responses shared:
1.Downsizing (2017)
"A modern comedy take on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids? No. A confusing climate change apocalypse movie."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
2.About Time (2013)
"The trailer made it seem like it's entirely a pure 'get the girl' rom-com."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
3.Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
"The trailers implied that it was going to be a whimsical children's fantasy film, similar to Narnia. In reality, it was a coming of age tale dealing with sudden death and loss. I read the book when I was a kid, so I was thrown off when I first saw the trailer. Based on the trailers, I thought they took Terabithia literally and made a movie about the place. I'm glad that I was wrong, as the movie is basically a shot for shot adaptation of the book, just set in the mid-2000s instead of the '70s."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
4.Kangaroo Jack (2003)
"Its hilarious that whenever this subject comes up, this absurd movie that bombed that everybody immediately forgot about comes up again and again. I'm guessing it's because my whole generation were kids at that age, saw the trailer, and were super into the idea of a talking, risqué kangaroo, and got really pissed when the whole trailer turned out to just be about a five-minute dream sequence in the movie itself."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
5.Godzilla (2014)
"The trailer was about 50% Bryan Cranston, who was super-popular after Breaking Bad. You'd think he was actually the protagonist, but if you watch the movie, he's only got a few scenes."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
6.Hancock (2008)
"Hancock isn’t about a drunk superhero like it seems in the trailer. Instead, he's a drunk angel. It’s weird."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
7.The Grey (2011)
"The trailers made it seem like 'It's Taken...WITH WOLVES!' Instead, it's a bleak existential drama. Very strange experience."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
8.Antebellum (2020)
"The trailer manipulated movie footage to create the illusion of supernatural or sci-fi elements. There was nothing like that in the actual movie. For example, the little girl in the hotel hallway was manipulated to look like a ghost in the trailer. In the movie, she was actually just a normal little girl. The glitching airplane flying over the cotton field in the trailer indicated time travel or parallel universes, but it was just a normal airplane in present day. There was no glitching in the movie."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
9.Sucker Punch (2011)
"I only recently watched it, but it looked like a simple movie when I saw the trailer. On actually seeing it, I think I was surprised by how much it was just a series of music videos. There’s a plot, but it’s not particularly engaging between the long segment parts."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
10.Drive (2011)
"The trailers made it out to be a car chase centric thrill ride. In reality, all car scenes were shown in their entirety in the trailers."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
11.Adventureland (2009)
"It was sold as a dumb boner comedy, but it's much better than any of those types of films. I think it's one of the best films of 2009."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
12.Jarhead (2005)
"The trailers made it out to be a Gulf War-era testosterone-laced action romp. This was insane given the minimal amount of action shown in any of the trailers. In reality, what we got was a deep character study on the futility and 'shut up and wait' aspect of war. To be clear, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, especially during subsequent viewings once my expectations were fully tempered."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
13.Stranger than Fiction (2006)
"The trailer included all of the comedy scenes from the movie and made it seem like it was a wacky story because it starred Will Ferrell. The movie is actually quite serious for the premise, and Will Ferrell delivered a wonderful dramatic performance."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
14.Thelma & Louise (1991)
"I’ll answer this on behalf of my late mother, who I went to see this movie with because she thought it was 'a wacky female roadtrip adventure comedy' from the commercials. Wrong."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
15.500 Days of Summer (2009)
"The trailer made it look much funnier and more light-hearted."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
16.Halloween Ends (2022)
"There is so much cut content in the trailers."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
17.Loser (2000)
"The movie with Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari is one I have been thinking about recently. I remember seeing the trailer in the early 2000s and thought it looked like a typical college rom-com with some American Pie humor, but the film turned out to be quite humorless and actually dark in places."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
18.Click (2006)
"I thought it was just another Adam Sandler goofball comedy where he could control time. Instead, I bawled my eyes out the last 20 minutes."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
19.Fight Club (1999)
"This one comes to mind. Obviously, they wouldn’t want to give away the twist, but the trailer made it look like just a bunch of guys who organized bar fights."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
20.Galaxy Quest (1999)
"The trailer basically promoted it as a kids movie, but in reality, it’s the best Star Trek movie ever made."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
21.In Bruges (2008)
"The trailer makes it look like a goofy crime comedy when it's an incredibly bleak (but still hilarious) dark comedy."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
22.Happy Feet (2006)
"The trailers were happy-go-lucky and cute. The film was that, too, but also big and weird and sad and genuinely experimental, especially for a big-budget studio animated film. For some (like myself), it really worked. For others, it came off as confrontational and 'too much for a children's film.' Having talked to people that worked on it, this was intentional because they had no idea how to market the movie's wildly varying tone, or its darker sequences, or its religious and environmentalist subtexts, so they culled most of the stuff from the first 30 minutes and went with what was safest."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
23.Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
"I think the trailer showed most of the 'action,' and it was a lot slower paced in reality. A couple near us got up and walked out declaring it 'shit' as they walked by. I still enjoyed it."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
24.Mother! (2017)
"The trailer sold me a creepy thriller, but I got zero thriller. Instead, it was two thirds of a movie and one third of a PowerPoint presentation."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
25.Flight (2012)
"I thought it was going to be some corporate cover-up that gets pinned on Denzel Washington and he has to uncover it to prove his innocence. Turned out to be about alcoholism."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
26.Observe and Report (2009)
"The trailer made it seem like a really silly comedy, but it was much darker. A YouTube comment I saw once referred to it as, 'What if Taxi Driver was a comedy?' and I agree with that. I found it to be way less funny and way more uncomfortable than the trailer made it out to be."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
27.Crimson Peak (2015)
"I was really disappointed with this movie. The trailer made it look like a really cool ghost story, but it has almost nothing to do with ghosts."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
28.The Descendants (2011)
"The trailer made it seem like a light, heartfelt comedy with George Clooney hiding in bushes and running around. Instead, it was a heartbreaking drama about loss, regret, and dysfunctional family."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
29.The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
"The trailer I remember seeing made it look like bank robbery was the central theme, but that was, like, 10 minutes of it."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
30.The Green Knight (2021)
"The trailer completely misrepresents the main character's arc. The trailers make it seem like he's a noble knight on a quest to prove his nobility. In the actual movie, he's a naive moron in completely over his head."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
31.Moulin Rouge! (2001)
"I remember the trailer didn't make it very obvious that it was a musical."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
32.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
"This had trailers that made it look like a goofy Jim Carrey comedy. It is not."
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
And finally:
33.Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
"Not a trailer, but I remember a bus advertising for this movie in the UK tagged it as 'The feel-good movie of the year.' Yeah, that’s a 'no.'"
You can watch the (somewhat misleading) trailer here:
You've read their picks, but now it's your turn! What's a movie you felt turned out drastically different than its trailer led you to believe? Share in the comments below!
Some responses were edited for length and/or clarity. H/T: Reddit.
