12 Brilliant Movies That Completely Lied What They Were About
2. The Crying Game
The Lie: The original 1992 trailer for Neil Jordan's Best Picture-nominated dramatic thriller sells it as part-thriller, part-romance, a story about an IRA volunteer, Fergus (Stephen Rea), who bonds with the man he is tasked to guard, Jody (Forest Whitaker), and agrees to look out for Jody's girlfriend, Dil (Jaye Davidson). Fergus falls for Dil, and the trailer's intrigue revolves around a secret that Dil is keeping.
The Reality: So, while the advertising plays fair in letting you know that something's up with Dil, the revelation that she is transgender in the movie's second half still comes as a majorly unexpected shock, completely turning everything we know on its head and transforming the whole into something totally different.
Again, this deception is totally necessary to support the point the film is trying to make, but unsurprisingly there was plenty of outcry from less-enlightened audiences when the movie came out, angry that they paid for a sexy thriller and got a "gay" central romance. Though the twist might seem obvious in 2016, where the trans movement has made significant leaps forward recently, back in the 1990s and even the early 2000s, it was still incredibly shocking.