10 Dumb Movie Trailers That Ruined The Film's Ending

Despite mixed critical reviews, Free Willy proved a box office success for Warner Bros, whose film about a troubled child forming a bond with a captive orca proved so popular that the whale used as the eponymous Willy became famous.

But, while Keiko's story was ultimately a sad one (he died of pneumonia in a Norwegian bay during an unsuccessful attempt to release him back into the wild), the happy story of Willy's escape is one that we all seem to know.

The reason that we all know that Willy escapes his tank and swims to freedom is because we've seem him do it, whether we've seen the film or not. The trailer gets us on side instantly by showing us just how compassionate and misunderstood a create Willy is, and we buy into him and Jesse's relationship as well as the boy's plan to set him free. This is where the trailer should have quit while it was ahead.

Instead, the advert ends in the same way the film does - with the iconic shot of Willy jumping over Jesse and landing in the ocean, free to re-join his pod and live his life as nature intended. Being a family film, nobody expected Willy to botch the jump and crush Jesse, though at least give the viewers the opportunity to kid themselves for a while.