The True History Of Movie Spoilers

The Future Of Spoiler Culture

It's tough to know what will be made of spoiler culture in the coming decades, considering how technology has re-shaped the industry and our engagement with it in ways nobody could've fully expected even just 20 years ago.

Many love to bemoan "spoiler-phobia" as a sign of a decaying culture that's relentlessly obsessed with plot while disregarding its equally crucial context, but people have always loved being surprised, and that's never going to change.

What is going to keep evolving is the continuing uptick in digital distribution of movies. Over the next decade, we're likely to see more and more movies - especially mid-budget ones - going to VOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime day-and-date.

This not only creates a wider audience for day-one discussion on sites like Reddit, but ensures there will be lavish GIFs of all a movie's marquee moments spread across social media networks within hours of their release.

As such, it's likely only going to become more difficult to avoid spoilers as time marches on, where eventually only the biggest, Avengers-sized movies will end up being released solely in cinemas.

Neither spoilers nor people's fear of them ruining a "sacred" experience are ever going away, then. As modern technology allows us to interface with media in close to real-time, it's only going to get tougher for people to avoid being spoiled.

The reality of this likely means tighter screening protocols and later press embargoes for movies. After all, the very first Avengers movie was screened to press almost a full month before it hit cinemas, while Endgame was mere days before.

It's a sign of not only the MCU's astronomical growth in less than a decade, but also a culture and an industry fascinated with secrecy for reasons both earnest and cynical.

We can all agree on one thing, though - if you want to go into a movie like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker spoiler-free, stay off Facebook, Twitter, Reddit et al. for a solid week before it comes out. The world will survive without your hot takes in the meantime.