10 Times Movies Secretly Spoiled Their Own Story
They spelled it all out.
A big reveal or a shocking plot twist can elevate a movie far beyond mere entertainment to an unforgettable work of artistic genius, and when a filmmaker knows they've got a killer revelation up their sleeve, they often can't resist the urge to hint at it throughout the movie.
And so, we have these 10 films, all of which effectively spoiled their story, twist and all, long before audiences actually got anywhere close to the finish line.
Though you'd need to be paying close attention to figure these clues out on a first viewing, none of the films made it totally impossible for audiences, leaving everything they needed to know hidden in plain sight.
At the same time, there's no denying the sneaky creativity with which these filmmakers managed to delicately lay out their more crucial story beats in a way that most viewers absolutely glossed over on a cold sit.
But if you managed to stumble upon any of them on a repeat watch, they certainly made for an ultra-satisfying lightbulb moment of recognition...
10. Ransom's Guilt Is Spelled Out Several Times - Knives Out
The big reveal in Rian Johnson's deliciously twisty whodunnit is that Harlan Thrombey's (Christopher Plummer) death was set into motion by none other than his scheming grandson Ransom (Chris Evans).
This isn't explicitly revealed to the audience until the end of the film, at which point a dead-to-rights Ransom attempts to stab Harlan's heroic nurse Marta (Ana de Armas) to death with a knife, only to hilariously discover that it was actually a retractable prop knife.
Ransom's big mistake is actually teed up at the end of the movie's first act, just as we learn that Harlan slit his own throat after believing he had been accidentally poisoned by Marta.
Before he dies, Harlan tells Marta that Ransom is, "Playing life like a game without consequence, until you can't tell the difference between a stage prop and a real knife."
Then there's the fact that housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) literally tells Marta, "Hugh did this!," in her dying breath half-way through the movie, though because only the hired help refer to Ransom by his first name Hugh, both Marta and the audience assume she's saying, "You did this."
And finally, near the start of the movie the dogs respond with hostility to Ransom unlike everyone else, which might be the most obvious spoiler of all.