25 Films That Intentionally Spoil Other Films

A long-awaited sequel for spoof comedy Spaceballs is finally on the way, and while audience sensibilities have changed quite dramatically over the past four decades, particularly where comedy is concerned, the property has enough of a fanbase and a place in the zeitgeist that it’s almost certainly going to get the box office it’s looking for.

The original space opera parody took comedy stars like John Candy and Rick Moranis and shot them into space for an adventure so nearly libellous against the saga from a galaxy far, far away that it was only Mel Brooks’ no-merchandise agreement with George Lucas that saved it from litigation.

Now, Spaceballs spoils many things, but few so overtly as the original Planet of the Apes. The villains’ Mega Maid ship is blown apart and lands on a planet of intelligent apes, in the same formation as the Statue of Liberty that Charlton Heston’s George Taylor finds on the beach in the 1968 original Apes film. This time, though, expectations are subverted by having the planet not be Earth, and this ominous arrival signifies the disruption and possible destruction of the apes’ lives and culture.

This neat and gag-heavy spin on a well-known spoiler keeps the already much-parodied scene alive and breathing.