25 Films That Intentionally Spoil Other Films

It’s hard to just pick one movie that references the big twist from the original Star Wars trilogy's middle film, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), but why not go with another modern classic? Toy Story 2 managed to follow up Pixar’s revolutionary 1995 masterpiece with a strong story, new characters, improved visuals, and an expanded universe that kept things moving in a meaningful direction - not bad for a studio that was still green as grass.

John Lasseter’s sequel puts Woody and Buzz (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) on a crash course with evil Emperor Zurg (Andrew Stanton), Buzz’s in-universe fictional arch-nemesis. Now, Toy Story - like many of the kids films of the '90s and 2000s - has always been loaded with references, gags, and in-jokes for the adults who accompany their offspring to the cinema, but rather than a throwaway line, Toy Story 2 makes one of its references an integral part of its storyline.

Woody and Buzz’s adventure culminates in a showdown with Zurg, in which he and Buzz do battle, and it is revealed Zurg is - you guessed it - Buzz’s father. We get the whole scene from Empire with Buzz downed and the Vader-like Zurg towering over him, delivering the line, "No, Buzz, I am your father." It’s a bold move to spoil another film while pinching its biggest twist for your own story, but given the never-ending longevity of the Toy Story franchise, it seems to have paid off.