10 Movies That Couldn't Wait To Spoil The Ending
5. Arlington Road Gave Audiences The Hard Sell, Spoiled The Final "Twist" In Trailers
The Ending
College professor Michael Faraday's (Jeff Bridges) suspicion that his neighbour, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins), is a terrorist turns out to be totally true, but in the climax Faraday is tricked by Lang into planting a bomb in the FBI HQ.
After it detonates and Faraday is killed, he's framed for the bombing and depicted as a lone wolf domestic terrorist in the media, while Lang and his cohorts get away scot-free.
How It Was Spoiled
The film's trailer is quite infamous for leaving virtually zero doubt about Lang's guilt, showing a newspaper article of Lang being arrested for a prior terrorist incident.
Furthermore, it includes extensive footage of Faraday rushing to prevent the final attack, and even the bomb and its detonator moments before it explodes. It doesn't take much reading between the lines to realise how this all turns out.
Had Lang not turned out to be the bomber, then sure, this would've been a fine trailer, but given that it basically makes an argument in favour of the final "twist", it sucks much of the suspense and intrigue out of the movie.
The marketing was so desperate to get people interested in the movie no matter the cost, yet it ultimately flopped at the box office, and on the DVD commentary even Bridges himself criticised the overzealous trailer.