This week, Jason decides once and for all whether spoilers are good or bad. (Or does he?)
Hi Erica,
Last week, you asked how I feel about spoilers. My answer is either fairly nuanced and thoughtful, or a bit lazy and hypocritical. We're going to have to work through this one live on air if we're going to figure it out.
As much as I love showing up to the movie theater early, I otherwise try to avoid watching trailers for movies. So far, I've avoided the trailer for the new Mission: Impossible movie, not because I'm worried about the trailer giving away the story. (The subtitle, The Final Reckoning, makes it pretty clear where all this is headed.*) What I don't want is to see the moments — the stunts, the jokes, the locales. I had a sense of where The Last of Us Part II was headed when I played the game, but experiencing that moment both in the game and again in the show still felt enormous. On the other hand, so did my responsibility not to tip that information to anyone.
I've been thinking about this quite a bit in the context of Andor, a Star Wars prequel that's very good, more revolutionary political sci-fi than the usual Star Wars space opera fairly tale. I haven't finished the second season yet, but — perhaps learning from Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel series — when the audience knows where the story is headed, the best way to create suspense is to give your main character a headstrong love interest who's mysteriously absent later on in his life. The fact that our guy ends up morally bankrupt and alone isn't nearly as interesting as "what the heck happened to Kim?"
That's the paradox. I agree that great art transcends spoilers, and knowing where we're headed doesn't nullify great work. But not knowing is also fun sometimes! Being surprised is fun! And I am generally pro-fun.
Does that make me anti-spoiler? After all that, I'm honestly not sure. How's that for a surprise ending?
In leisure,
Jason
*My prediction is that the ending will be derivative and cheesy as heck, but I wouldn't have it any other way: At the height of the third act, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt is faced with a truly impossible choice. Save his team or save the world? Neither. He finds a third way, passing the torch to a new hero, and sacrificing himself to save everyone. We are to believe he's dead. Our supporting characters save the day, but still they mourn him. Sad! Then, an epilogue: Our new hero finds herself walking alone down a crowded city street. She is handed a cassette player from a stranger selling bootleg merchandise. On it, a set of instructions for her next mission, if she chooses to accept it. She listens, feeling uncertain, until she notices something in her pocket. A token of her former mentor, something she thought was lost forever. Something that couldn't be there unless... She looks up, and there he is, off in the distance standing still among a river of people. He gives her a look, as if to say "you got this." Suddenly, the cassette player self destructs. A moment's distraction. When she looks back up, he has disappeared back into the crowd. She's ready now. Cue theme music.
