History Main / Spoiler

* In an episode of ''TheLegendOfKorra'', Bolin tells Asami the ending of the movie he's starring in, and then adds "Oops… spoiler."

* There was a reveal in a season 5 episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' which was genuinely out of left field and, with no foreshadowing before the very brief scene to which it belonged, was pretty much impossible to guess. However, a fan saw some of the filming of the episode and posted it on the internet. Fortunately they did so in such a way that no one would have read it accidentally. As most people don't intentionally spoil shows for themselves (and especially so back then), the reveal was not widely known until after the episode aired.

* In an episode of the fifth season of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', Morgan has forgotten the ''StarWars'' saga completely, and as he heads to re-watch them, Casey (who's still bitter after his incredibly jerkish attitude in the previous episode) spoils the truth about [[spoiler: Darth Vader being Luke's father and Leia his sister.]]

* The British TV guide ''RadioTimes'' is bad at this; so bad, in fact, that one of the writers of ''Series/DoctorWho'', Steven Moffat, once went onto a massive ''Doctor Who'' forum and warned everyone to stay away from it. Ironically, said magazine is made by the same people who make ''Doctor Who'' in the first place.

** RussellTDavies caught some flak for them putting Dalek Sec on the front cover, he'd decided to go for the cover than the surprise.

* Some fans got the series 7 finale of ''DoctorWho'' early when the [=DVDs=] were accidentally shipped out a week early. Moffat requested that people not talk about the final scene and, surprisingly, people obeyed.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': River Song, another time traveler who has already met the doctor (in her timestream) refuses to talk about stuff that has already happened to her but is still in the future for the Doctor. As such, this is basically her catchphrase. Shh, Spoilers!

[[caption-width-right:222:Do not trust this man.[[note]][[ComicallyMissingThePoint He's not wearing]] [[OverrankedSoldier the proper rank]] [[ArtisticLicenseMilitary and, thus, is out of uniform.]][[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:222:Do not trust this man.]]

* Probably the biggest examply by sheer amount of people affected: shortly after the theatrical release of TheOthers, a member of the Spanish government thought it appropriate to bring up [[TheReveal the biggest reveal in the film]] as a metaphor... during a key televised debate in Parliament. Yep, the guy actually spoiled the film ''for the whole country''.

* ''TheBill'' has this happen frequently.

* Weaponized during a sparring match in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' - during the repeat of the "take the bells from Kakashi" bit, Naruto threatens to spoil the plot of the next Icha-Icha book. Kakashi considers this worth clapping his hands over his ears ''and'' shutting his eyes, as his EvilEye automatically reads Naruto's lips.

[[caption-width-right:222:[[VisualPun MAJOR SPOILER IN THIS IMAGE]]!]]

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation": Leonard fights with Sheldon after Sheldon spoils the ending of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book that Leonard is reading, and Penny reveals how relationships developed. Finally, Sheldon gives away a major plot-point from ''TheWalkingDead''. The concept of spoilers is used and played with in this episode.

* ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'''s [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall cracking]], [[ContinuityNod in-joke spouting]], [[LampshadeHanging lampshade-hanging]] 200th episode...called, of course, "200" (for reasons both related and not to this fact)...featured the return of [[spoiler:Richard Dean Anderson]]'s character [[spoiler:General (formerly Colonel) Jack O'Neill]] for the first time on the show since the beginning of season 9. This exchange says it all:

Not to be confused with the DCUniverse character [[{{Batman}} Spoiler]] (though there's a reason she's called that; see below). Or with ''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Double Spoiler]]'', for that matter.

* In the {{Batman}} comic books, the Cluemaster, [[CriminalMindgames a B-grade Riddler knockoff]], got over his compulsion to leave hints behind at crime scenes after thorough psychiatric counseling ("[[NiceJobBreakingItHero Thank you, Arkham]]"). Stephanie Brown, his daughter, became disgusted with his villainy and decided to give up the information in his place, calling herself "the Spoiler." The name, however, became an ArtifactTitle soon afterwards as Stephanie continued to fight criminals beyond her father and no longer left hints or clues, instead directly intervening herself. She eventually became the [[LegacyCharacter fourth Robin]] and then ComicBook/{{Batgirl| 2009}}.

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

* A spoiler from the sixth ''HarryPotter'' book actually managed to become an [[ItWasHisSled Internet]] [[MemeticMutation meme]]. Someone who found out that [[spoiler:Snape kills Dumbledore]] went out to the Internet, posted it everywhere, and now you can even see image macros in the biggest Web forums with this spoiler that, on top of that, is as short, powerful and final as the one from ''Anime/CowboyBebop''. There's even a story about a fanboy who killed himself after he accidentally stumbled upon it!

For a few tips on how we treat spoilers around this wiki, see SpoilerPolicy.

* The big twist in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' was considered so integral to the enjoyment of the film that Hitchcock didn't let anyone come into the movie casually (as people were allowed to walk into films late at the time) and specifically requested at the start of the film to not talk about the plot to any of their friends.

* During the 2012 London Olympics, NBC was showing the time delayed segment of a Woman's swim event. They cut to commercial asking "And will Misty win Gold in the final? Stay tuned to find out" and _immediately_ cut to the promo of the Today show interviewing Misty and asking her how she felt winning gold.

** ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' has a similar episode in which the main characters attempt to NOT find out what the score of the Super Bowl was.

* {{Portlandia}} has an entire sketch centered on spoilers. Spoiled items include, TheSixthSense, TheUsualSuspects, TheWire, TrueBlood, and {{Dexter}}.
-->'''Fred''': Michael C. Hall in the van!

** The [[spoiler:Voldemort-kills-Harry-then-has-battle-in-Hogwarts]] has become this, too.
*** As a result, ridiculously elaborate precautions were taken to keep the 7th book under wraps until it was in the hands of bookstore customers; the printers worked in darkness, the manuscript was kept in a safe, etc. etc. etc.

** Not just Brazilian ones, British TV guides and women's magazines love to discuss upcoming plots. When I pointed out that these magazines always spoil plots and yet she still reads them, my mother said she likes how it's played out, not what happens.
*** A particularly noteworthy example is the first episode of the notorious flop Eldorado. This involved characters talking about their friend Bunny, who was returning to Spain from England with his new wife. The thinking was that they knew Bunny, but we didn't, so they could drip-feed us information about him, while they were as in the dark about his new wife Fizz, as we were. This would keep us hooked throughout the episode, and we'd be shocked at the end when chubby, middle-aged Bunny turned up with beautiful young Fizz in tow. The reality was that Bunny and Fizz were heavily featured in all the publicity, to the extent that Fizz was the cover star of that week's Radio Times, so the viewers already knew everything. The non-existent mystery made for a very boring episode indeed. Eldorado never recovered.

** Many ''Doctor Who'' stories have been spoilt by the ''title'', particularly when featuring popular and prominent villains such as the Daleks and the Cybermen. As such, many a big dramatic surprise reveal and cliffhanger that these feared adversaries appeared in would be completely ruined by the fact that the story was titled '(Something) of the Daleks / Cybermen', thus priming the audience to expect them to appear at some point. The new series isn't entirely free of this; guess what appears in the episode called 'Dalek'?
*** RussellTDavies caught some flak for them putting Dalek Sec on the front cover, he'd decided to go for the cover than the surprise.
*** "Bad Wolf" did not have its title revealed until some weeks into Season 27/1.
*** In season 30/4, the producers have tried to avert this with the twelfth episode, which remains unrevealed several months after the other titles have been revealed.
*** In "Silence in the Library" the Doctor berates Donna for trying to look in some history books from the future as they'd contain spoilers for reality.
**** The episode's subsequent 'Next Time' trailer then ended with two characters repeating the word "spoilers", followed by a third shouting "No, don't tell, you mustn't tell!" into the camera. Knowing what Steven Moffat's like, it's not hard to imagine that the trailer was edited that way deliberately.
*** A notable aversion, though, occurred in 1982, when the Cybermen returned to the series for the first time in seven years. The episode title ("[[spoiler:Earthshock]]") doesn't mention them, the TV guide listings were carefully crafted to avoid TV Guide Spoilers, and the then producer actually turned down a ''Radio Times'' cover story in order to keep the surprise.
**** The Jon Pertwee serial "Invasion [[spoiler: of the Dinosaurs]]" did something similar. The title was simply "Invasion" until the big reveal, after which the complete title was shown.

** And it was.

** Of course, the most egregious use of spoilers in wrestling was done by WCW, against the then-WWF. WCW's Monday Nitro was aired live, while WWF's Monday Night RAW was taped a week in advance; thus, right before 9:00 (when WWF RAW started), the WCW commentary team would spoil the WWF's main event for the evening, in order to coax viewers into continuing to watch Nitro instead. This backfired, however, when Tony Schiavone revealed that Mick Foley -- then wrestling as Mankind -- would be winning the WWF Championship that evening; he jokingly said "yeah, that'll put butts in seats". [[InsultBackfire An estimated half a million viewers switched over to RAW]], an act which killed Nitro's ratings, gave the WWF the upper hand in the Monday Night Wars, and caused fans to start bringing "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat" signs to WWF shows.
*** It also didn't help that the night in question also featured WCW's biggest JumpTheShark moment, the "FingerpokeOfDoom".

* Right at the start of ''RomeoAndJuliet'', one of the actors comes out on stage and tells the audience everything that's about to happen in one soliloquy. In Baz Luhrmann's ''WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'', this happens twice. First a small TV with a news anchor reciting the soliloquy, and then we get it again but [[MundaneMadeAwesome with more dramatic editing, imagery and narration]].