Top 20 Misleading Movie Trailers

Unlike the first trailer for most monster movies, this indie sci-fi flick was happy to reveal its large creature upfront. What it only vaguely alluded to, however, were the film’s darker undertones. When it was billed as a black comedy, most people assumed the darkness came from the fact that this kaiju was destroying Seoul. But in reality... the issues are much more personal. Given the age of the characters, the presence of beers in the trailer seems unremarkable, but in hindsight, they were our first signs of the real problem - alcoholism. The film also gets pretty deep into toxic relationships. Not exactly the quirky monster film people expected.

#19: “Ghost World” (2001)

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As with “Colossal”, the trailer for this graphic novel adaptation also seemed to suggest a lighthearted comedy. In fact, it’s much more of a tragedy. “Ghost World’s” trailer basically shows every joke in the movie, giving the impression that it’s a typical coming-of-age flick filled with awkward teenage humor. In actual fact, the story follows two cynical teenage girls who play a cruel prank on a lonely man. This triggers a series of events that sees the girls drifting apart, and several other relationships in ruins. It’s far more evocative and dramatic than the trailer lets on.

Once you make one popular movie, all your others will be judged according to its standards. Such is the unfortunate case with director Greg Mottola, whose gross-out “Superbad” was a hit with audiences. This meant that his intimate and meaningful film, “Adventureland,” about a young adult who gets a job at an amusement park, was marketed as another crass, inappropriate film like his predecessor. Although audiences were treated to a relatable story filled with surprising depth, many left disappointed that they didn’t see more nut shots and awkward sex scenes.

#17: “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” (2015)

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The movie is called “Sponge Out of Water,” so it seems obvious to market the movie as a SpongeBob adventure on land rather than the ocean floor. The movie follows SpongeBob and his gang as they travel to the surface to take back a magical book, but the problem is that they only break the surface in the last twenty minutes. While audiences were expecting an animation/live-action hybrid on the surface, they were instead given a typical SpongeBob experience with only a fraction of the running time actually taking place on land.

#16: “The Place Beyond the Pines” (2012)

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Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper are two of this generation’s finest actors, so naturally filmmakers wanted to show the two together when marketing this film. The trailer focuses extensively on Gosling and his story, even though the film is split into three distinct acts, and Gosling disappears after the first. It’s a fantastic story about what it means to be a father, and director Derek Cianfrance was praised for his ambition, but that ambition was misrepresented in the trailer, which only focuses on a small part of a much larger framework.

Steven Soderbergh’s thriller about a devastating pandemic has certainly NOT lost any relevance today. “Contagion” is about the spread of a deadly virus around the world, and the trailer is packed with action scenes and images straight out of a horror movie, from post-apocalyptic cityscapes to military checkpoints. As such, many moviegoers were surprised when “Contagion” turned out to be an incredibly realistic depiction of a pandemic, featuring a lot of scientific research and talking. It wasn’t what the trailer led people to expect, but proved fascinating all the same.

#14: “The Cabin in the Woods” (2012)

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Top 10 Misleading Movie Trailers

It’s hard to convey satire in a trailer, so we guess they decided to just drop the satirical angle altogether and create another typical-looking scary movie preview. The trailer features every cliché in the book, including a secluded cabin and a creepy gas station attendant, all playing over loud rock music and ominous text. What they failed to convey was that the movie was actually satirizing these elements and creating an original horror movie that paid homage to all that came before it in a unique fashion.

With what’s perhaps one of the oddest trailers ever, this movie was marketed as a lighthearted romantic comedy, when it was anything but. The preview shows clips of the characters having tons of goofy fun, complete with happy, bubbly music in the background. The movie is actually about a couple erasing their memories of each other, and is an intensely dramatic and at times depressing film. It even won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, proving how complex and emotional the film really is. Why they used a song like “Mr. Blue Sky” is beyond us, although we’re guessing they were deliberately misleading us.

#12: “Funny People” (2009)

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Just like “Adventureland” director Greg Mottola, Judd Apatow has a penchant for raunchy comedies, so when his dramatic “Funny People” was released, the trailers tried to get as many of his fans on board as possible. The trailer is filled with goofy jokes and an upbeat-sounding song, portraying a fun movie. The actual experience definitely wasn’t as innocent, as the film deals with Sandler’s impending death from cancer and his failure as a romantic partner. The film has even been compared to “The Great Gatsby” due to its tragic nature, so when you go in thinking it’s an Adam Sandler comedy, well, you’ll be surprised.

#11: “The Rules of Attraction” (2002)

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As the funky music starts and we watch teenagers party, drink, and generally misbehave, it seems like we’re witnessing the coming-of-age, teen comedy of the year. With James van der Beek uttering one-liners throughout the trailer, we were under the impression that we’d be leaving the theater laughing. What we got instead was a pessimistic story centered on a sociopath, which also features suicide and is filled with a lot of unhappy teens struggling with alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity, and depression.

#10: “Suicide Squad” (2016)

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Kudos to whoever edited the trailer for this poorly received but financially lucrative DC film. Set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the trailer promised a highly stylish, atmospheric film. It looked like it was going to be a relatively gritty flick, but one with enough quirks and dark humor to avoid coming across as gloomy. Basically… it came across as an angsty action flick with superpowers. And, for all intents and purposes, it seemed to pretty clearly set up the Joker as the villain. Sadly, this sense of identity was sorely lacking in the actual film, and the Joker was reduced to little more than a bit player.

Featuring a plot to poison the entire Eastern seaboard and performances by the likes of Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell, the sneak peek for this action film really had moviegoers pumped. With Seagal leading the strike force to commandeer the plane that’s been hijacked, the trailer convinces us (with explosions, one-liners, and smooth voiceover) that this is going to be another action flick in which Seagal will entertain us with some serious butt-kicking. Most of us were surprised, then, when the star died in “Executive Decision”’s first 20 minutes. So much for kicking butt…more like kicking the bucket.

From the moment this trailer opens, the sight of a bald Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier is enough to convince us to put this movie on our must-watch list. With scenes of commanding officers barking out orders, military exercises, explosions, gunshots, and planes zooming overhead, we thought that this 2005 film might be another “Saving Private Ryan.” However, fans of action-packed war movies were disappointed to find out that “Jarhead” was actually a biographical drama that intentionally contained very little action. In fact, Gyllenhaal’s character never actually ends up shooting his rifle.

The trailer of this gothic revenge tale begins by showing a young man, played by Johnny Depp, with a wife and child enjoying a happy life. But this is soon destroyed by a corrupt judge who sends him off on what seem to be false charges while his wife and child are captured. He returns a changed man and is now a killer who gangs up with his landlady and has a desire for revenge. What the trailer doesn’t tell you is that the flick is a musical, and that Johnny Depp and the rest of the gang sing on…and on…and on…

#6: “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006)

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The trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece featured an English narration and showcased the film’s fantasy elements. Yes, the opening shots were of real life battle. But this seemed to be the incidental background to an enchanting fairytale. So you could have been forgiven for sitting down in theaters expecting a delightful fable … In fact though, the movie is in Spanish, and the historical context plays an essential role, with the film exploring the brutal Francoist dictatorship in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. It was a powerful fusion of history and fantasy, and in this case, viewers got so much MORE than the trailer suggested.

#5: “Drive” (2011)

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Featuring a calm and stony-faced Ryan Gosling, the trailer for “Drive” convinced viewers they were in for a flick reminiscent of the “Fast and the Furious” movies. It was packed with revving engines, squealing tires, dangerous stunts, and gunshots. So many were taken aback when the film turned out to be more of an emotional and layered drama than a mindless action picture. One Michigan woman was so upset about being misled into thinking it was a “race action film”, she took the case to court - and threw in accusations of anti-Semitism to boot. A judge dismissed her case, as did a court of appeals.

#4: “Godzilla” (2014)

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Don’t get us wrong, the trailer for 2014’s “Godzilla” does capture the suspense, dread, and epic scale of the movie. However, it also makes it look like Cranston has the lead role - a strategic choice that capitalized on his “Breaking Bad” popularity. Well, turns out, his monologue used in the trailer IS one of the most powerful parts of the film. But his character actually dies at the end of “Godzilla’s” first act. His son, a generic soldier hero type, takes over the lead instead. Cranston later called this decision a “mistake”, removing the “emotional core” of the film.

This trailer opened up almost like a slasher flick. It’s there in the eerie music; the children opening their eyes in the dark; and the door latch slowly lifting, before the doors shoot open and green light pours in. The sneak peek made viewers think that “Hook” was going to somehow lean into the serial killer or monster movie genre. In reality, this Steven Spielberg film about an adult Peter Pan rescuing his kids in Neverland ended up being a charming, funny, and magical family adventure.

Two children laugh and run together into a forest. Inside is a magical kingdom filled with fairies, walking trees, and an assortment of other bizarre and fascinating creatures. This trailer has all the features of a kid-friendly, adventure fantasy that’re sure to lift the soul and inspire the imagination. Unfortunately, anyone hoping for these characteristics must have been quite disappointed. What they got was an emotional drama about kids struggling with grief, abandonment, and death. There was actually very little of the enchanted kingdom showed so prominently in the trailer.

#1: “Alien 3” (1992)

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This teaser trailer played off the famous tagline for the first movie in the franchise … This announcement seemed to make it clear that the threequel would be set on Earth —which it most definitely wasn’t. It was actually set on a prison planet! The reason for the misleading trailer was that at the time of its release, the sci-fi horror movie hadn’t been completed. In fact, filming began before there was even a final script. Production issues and multiple rewrites resulted in a completely different movie - one that largely disappointed fans.