10 Movie Trailers That Cleverly Hid Huge Spoilers

8. Arnie's Heroic T-800 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The Spoiler

That Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't returning as yet another antagonistic, murderous cyborg, but a benevolent machine re-programmed by the human resistance to protect their future leader, John Connor (Edward Furlong).

How The Trailer Hid It

The marketing for T2 was, like the movie itself, really quite ahead of its time, and did an initially fantastic job of concealing the true nature of Arnie's role in the smash hit sequel.

The iconic original teaser trailer for T2 provided not a hint that the T-800 would be heroic this time, simply depicting another seemingly "evil" machine being manufactured from an assembly line, complete with the customary terrifying red eyes.

And the first full trailer ingeniously re-edited scenes entirely out of context, showing the T-800 thoroughly cleaning house but neglecting to clarify that this was in the stead of protecting Connor rather than icing him.

The trailer remains ambiguous regarding the nature of the two Terminators, though the fair implication is that the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), decked out in a cop uniform, is the heroic new Terminator.

The final shot of the trailer even re-frames the famous "I swear I will not kill anyone" scene, by literally cutting John Connor out of the shot and suggesting a more grimly ironic tone than is evident in the final film.

Sadly later trailers basically gave up the ruse and made Arnie's heroism clear, but given how less-pervasive movie trailers were in the early 1990s, there was at least a solid chance you were able to avoid it.