History NeverTrustATrailer / LiveActionFilms

** And despite a name change (to ''Film/TheWatch2012''), the second trailer isn't any better about it. It's like Fox doesn't want anyone to get interested the film. Possibly an EnforcedTrope, since the marketing had to be revamped due to the Trayvon Martin case being uncomfortably similar to the movie's premise (about neighborhood watchmen who get a bit overzealous).
* The trailers for ''Film/{{Neighbors|2014}}''make the feud look very one sided with the fraternity depicted as purely malicious bullies terrorising the innocent Radners. In the actual film the feud is much more a GreyAndGrayMorality one, with Teddy and his friends having several PetTheDog moments while the Radners stoop pretty low themselves.

* When the film ''Film/NoReservations2007'' was coming out in theaters, there were two trailers for it. One hyped up the "romantic comedy" angle, leaving the plot of the main female character having to care for her newly orphaned niece completely out, as if she didn't exist; another trailer, oddly enough usually shown much later at night, mostly did the reverse, focusing on the niece and including only a few shots of her tension with the guy as if he were just a minor complication to the whole thing. Now that it's coming out on DVD, the trailers used are for the "all romantic comedy" version, and the other side has been completely omitted.

* The trailer in ''Film/{{Hook}}'' has it look like a slasher film, but it's more about the adventures of a now adult Literature/PeterPan.

* The trailers for ''Film/{{Paddington}}'' focused a lot on the bathroom scene and gave the impression that the film would be chock-full of ToiletHumor when the actual film has only one or two fleeting instances of crude humor with the rest of the film being much more in the low-key whimsical spirit of the books.

* This sort of backfired for the movie ''Film/FortyDaysAndFortyNights''. The trailer and TV spots had the main character Matt state "No sex for Lent." Cue everybody who does not have sex at least once every forty days roll their eyes and lose interest. The commercials also made it look like it was a light romantic comedy or a chick flick where the guy meets a nice girl. What the commercials omit is that he was supposed to not have sex for Lent, or ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms do anything remotely sexual]]'', which probably would have made Matt more sympathetic to audiences. A large part of the plot is that his friends are taking bets on whether he will make it which causes more problems [[HilarityEnsues when various people try to win the bet]]. The original teaser did flat-out state "No self-gratification" and "no kissing". Maybe it was the only one.

* The trailers for ''Film/Smile2022'' make the film seem like it will be nothing but a cheesy, made-for-teen, gimmick horror movie like ''Film/WishUpon'', ''Countdown'' or ''Film/TruthOrDare'' that won't take itself even remotely seriously. By contrast, the actual film takes itself ''very'' seriously, exploring the struggles of mental illness and how society often pushes those who have it away; generational trauma, and despair.

* ''Scream'' deliberately (and cleverly) played with this convention by putting Drew Barrymore front and center in the advertising. (Barrymore was the most recognizable name in the cast at that time.) But then [[spoiler:her character dies in the first scene]], in a deliberate nod to ''Psycho.''

* This was a big part of the reason why ''Film/JennifersBody'' bombed. The film was made as a feminist horror-comedy about rape culture and a toxic PseudoRomanticFriendship that director Karyn Kusama and writer Creator/DiabloCody intended chiefly for young women, but the posters and trailers for it sold a campy sex romp about Creator/MeganFox as a [[GirlOnGirlIsHot bisexual]] AlphaBitch [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubus]], aiming it at straight young men to the point of alienating the audience it was actually made for. [[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/jennifers-body-diablo-cody-karyn-kusama-feminist-horror Kusama said]] that she knew the film was doomed the moment she started speaking to the marketing team: the [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jb_poster.jpg poster]] featured Fox in a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule skimpy schoolgirl outfit]], and one particularly bad idea that they came up with to promote the film (which Kusama thankfully vetoed) was to have Fox host ''an amateur porn site''. It would be years before the film was [[VindicatedByHistory rediscovered]]. Tellingly, more [[https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/7a5db988-eefa-4e89-afdc-208d5333a117_1.5d1fb312f21dd8ddad04a5149adb8b93.jpeg recent DVD covers]] for the film heavily toned down the {{fanservice}} and focused more on both Jennifer and the actual protagonist, Creator/AmandaSeyfried's Needy.

* One of the trailers for ''Film/Saban's Power Rangers (2017)'' shows Rita Repulsa hovering over Trini (the Yellow Ranger) while she is laying in bed. Rita taunts Trini by claiming "I've killed Rangers before", implying that there were other Rangers in the past that she attacked. However, in the finalized release, she simply says that she killed the Yellow Ranger before.

* The trailer for ''Desperate Measures'' made Michael Keaton's character out to be, literally, Satan himself. His statements, "I cannot be killed; I am immortal," and, "What are you going to do, ''shoot'' me, Frank...?" were taken viciously out of context to this end, with the trailer-makers even going so far as to use an electronic distortion effect to make the latter line sound like it was spoken in a suddenly deep and clearly inhuman voice. In actual fact the Keaton character is just a brilliantly devious human sociopath and the film has absolutely no supernatural angle whatsoever, even in subtext. A second trailer portrayed the film properly as the cat-and-mouse between the cop with a sick son and the criminal he has to keep alive in order to save him (since he's a match for a bone marrow transplant).

** The second trailer shows Yukio in the montage of Comicbook/XForce members, indicating she is part of Wade's team. [[spoiler: Yukio is actually Negasonic Teenage Warhead's girlfriend and a member of the X-Men, and has nothing to do with X-Force.]]

* Some of the trailers for ''[[Film/{{Flight}} Flight]]'' portrayed the movie as a quirky and uplifting drama about a heroic, but misunderstood, airline pilot defending himself against bogus accusations related to the dramatic emergency landing of his plane. In reality, the film is actually a very somber and sad drama about the horrible effects that alcoholism has on a person.

* Parodied by [[https://youtu.be/hyzN7R9t4uI one of the trailers]] for ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. The trailer is set up as the in-universe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy entry on movie trailers, detailing tricks that most movie trailers make use of, which do not appear in the actual movie.

* The trailers for ''[[Film/{{Neighbors2014}} Neighbors]]''make the feud look very one sided with the fraternity depicted as purely malicious bullies terrorising the innocent Radners. In the actual film the feud is much more a GreyAndGrayMorality one, with Teddy and his friends having several PetTheDog moments while the Radners stoop pretty low themselves.

** The very first trailer for ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' featured bright colors, a soundtrack by Music/TheBeastieBoys, and seemed to be much more action and comedy driven than either of the film's two predecessors, perhaps intending to ride the wave of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''[='=]s success. It was received so negatively that co-writer and star Creator/SimonPegg had to come out and assure fans that the trailer was nothing like the completed film, which ended up being much more character driven and truer to the original TV show than the trailer implied.

* The marketing for the Australian-American holiday horror film ''Film/BetterWatchOut'' makes the film look like a horror-tinged spin on ''Film/HomeAlone'' where a teenaged babysitter and her charges are tormented by home invaders. And...that's what you get. [[spoiler: For the first twenty or so minutes. Then comes the reveal the [[EnfantTerrible kids staged the break-in]] and hold her hostage, with the leader of the two being a violent psycho who actively trying to seduce his captive. The rest of the film is her trying to escape.]]

* The marketing for the Australian-American holiday horror film ''Film/BetterWatchOut'' makes the film look like a horror-tinged spin on ''Film/HomeAlone'' where a babysitter and her charges are tormented by home invaders. What is the movie itself actually about? [[spoiler: It's the [[SarcasmMode heartwarming tale]] about a [[EnfantTerrible violent, sociopathic boy]] who tries to seduce his teenage babysitter, stages a break-in with his friend and holds her hostage.]]

** And lest we forget, a trailer for the first ''Spider-Man'' had a scene never shown in theaters, in which Spidey's web ensnares a helicopter in the space between the twin towers, but this was cut after 9/11.

* Deliberately invoked in [[http://youtu.be/6CloKbXtD28 this trailer]]. Looks like your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, right? [[spoiler: Actually, it's a [[Film/TheMuppets Muppet movie]].]]

* ''Film/Case39's'' trailer essentially gives the plot to a completely different movie: it insinuates that the young girl protagonist is stalked by a demonic force [[spoiler: when in reality she IS the demonic force, and several scenes in the trailer are, like many examples before it, not in the film or there in a completely different context.]] There's one which states that the church has investigated 38 cases of supernatural activity, and this is the 39th... no church plays any part in the film, and it's called that because it's a social worker's 39th case. It's so overt that WebVideo/{{Phelous}} even comments on it in his [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/phelous/27836-phelous-case-39 review of it.]]

* ''Case 39's'' trailer essentially gives the plot to a completely different movie: it insinuates that the young girl protagonist is stalked by a demonic force [[spoiler: when in reality she IS the demonic force, and several scenes in the trailer are, like many examples before it, not in the film or there in a completely different context.]] There's one which states that the church has investigated 38 cases of supernatural activity, and this is the 39th... no church plays any part in the film, and it's called that because it's a social worker's 39th case. It's so overt that WebVideo/{{Phelous}} even comments on it in his [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/phelous/27836-phelous-case-39 review of it.]]

* This was a big part of the reason why ''Film/JennifersBody'' bombed. The film was made as a feminist horror-comedy about rape culture and a toxic PseudoRomanticFriendship that director Karyn Kusama and writer Creator/DiabloCody intended chiefly for young women, but the posters and trailers for it sold a campy sex romp about Creator/MeganFox as a [[GirlOnGirlIsHot bisexual]] AlphaBitch {{succubus}}, aiming it at straight young men to the point of alienating the audience it was actually made for. [[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/jennifers-body-diablo-cody-karyn-kusama-feminist-horror Kusama said]] that she knew the film was doomed the moment she started speaking to the marketing team: the [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jb_poster.jpg poster]] featured Fox in a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule skimpy schoolgirl outfit]], and one particularly bad idea that they came up with to promote the film (which Kusama thankfully vetoed) was to have Fox host ''an amateur porn site''. It would be years before the film was [[VindicatedByHistory rediscovered]]. Tellingly, more [[https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/7a5db988-eefa-4e89-afdc-208d5333a117_1.5d1fb312f21dd8ddad04a5149adb8b93.jpeg recent DVD covers]] for the film heavily toned down the {{fanservice}} and focused more on both Jennifer and the actual protagonist, Creator/AmandaSeyfried's Needy.

* The early teaser trailers for ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' focused on the creepy alien POV sequence from the woodland escape scene, complete with chilling music and a creepy atmosphere, which gave the impression that it was a sci-fi horror film. While [[WhatCouldHaveBeen this was the initial concept], the final product is anything but horror.

** The trailer for ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' gives the impression that Captain Kirk comes aboard the Enterprise-D to help Picard and his crew fight off a Klingon Bird of Prey. It probably jolted audiences when they actually saw the film and witnessed [[DroppedABridgeOnHim what happened to Kirk]].
** The [[https://youtu.be/mfBbpyiK7ds early trailer]] ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' is one huge lie (or 'alternative interpretation'). It seems to give off the idea that Kirk and Picard team up in their ships to ''"save the universe"'' when what they do is save 230 million people (who we never see) by whaling on Malcolm [=McDowell=]. Then Kirk gets [[DroppedABridgeOnHim a bridge dropped on him]].

** The promotion of ''Chamber of Secrets'' seemed to really love Dobby, despite him being onscreen for ''no more than fifteen minutes'' of a ''two and a half hour film''. Apparently, Warner Bros.' marketing department decided kids love funny [=CGI=] characters and almost went so far as to made it look like Dobby would be the new movie's PluckyComicRelief. Instead, it just made reporters loudly raise the issue of whether or not Dobby was going to be the next [[Franchise/StarWars Jar Jar Binks]].

** The line that "magic will spread from their world into our own" -- indicating that the Muggle world would feature prominently in ''Harry Potter 6'' -- in fact, Muggles play into only the first five minutes, and then we're back to the Wizarding world.
** In a minor example, countless TV spots for ''Deathly Hallows Part 1'' took Dobby's line "I like her very much" and used editing to make it look he's talking about Hermione. In the actual movie, the line refers to Luna.