The techniques used by film studios to protect us from spoilers

Do you remember the old joke of the little boy who went to the movies in the morning to know the name of the murderer, and who went back at night and demanded some coins from the public to keep quiet? Today, an entire industry is being created to deal with people who reveal the details of the scenarios. The studios use self-destruct scripts, drone killers and faked scenes. No, this is not the spoiler of a new spy movie, but quite the opposite, methods to protect us.

Hitchcock distributed cards asking viewers not to spoil the end of  Psycho

• Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to fight against spoilers. For the release of his film Psychosein 1960, the director has printed special cards that were placed at the entrance of the cinema instead of leaflets that contain scenes from the film. The cards only showed the title of the work and the director’s picture. He spoke directly to his audience: “If you do not know how to keep a secret, do not talk to anyone after seeing  Psychose ” or “After seeing Psychose, do not reveal its end. It’s the only one we have. “

The Game of Thrones crew shot down drones flying over the board and used self-destructing scripts

• Throughout the 7 seasons of  Game of Thrones, filming information was constantly on the web. In particular, drones flew over the plateaus, giving rise to debates about landscapes, interiors and plot twists on the Internet. To film the eighth season in peace, the filmmakers decided to radically combat this phenomenon and installed special devices based on Drone Killer technology on the set in Northern Ireland. These devices allowed to turn off the drones when they approached the site.

• Sophie Turner, the actress who played the role of Sansa Stark,  revealed that the filming was kept in the greatest secrecy: the real titles of the episodes were never revealed to the actors, they turned false scenes and were led to near paparazzi, wearing costumes that have never been seen in the series.
• In their fight against spoilers, there are also digital scripts that disappeared after reading. According to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister, these scripts were made for each scene of the eighth season. Once the actors had finished filming the episode, the scripts disappeared and artists were strictly forbidden to reveal details in the interviews.

The creators of Avengers have made false scenes to Tom Holland and did not tell him against what virtual character he was fighting

• It turned out that Tom Holland did not respect the confidentiality clause several times regarding the movie Avengers. The actor who played Spider-Man did not stop sharing the story’s twists in the interviews and ended up losing the directors’ trust. Robert Downey Jr. was even asked to participate in the creation of fake scenes of the film intended to induce his partner in error.
• On the set of one of the episodes, they even hid Tom Holland against which virtual character was fighting the spider-man. “Thanos demands your silence” has become the motto of the filmmakers.

• The day of the release, the directors, the Russo brothers, launched a campaign on social networks with the hashtag #DontSpoilTheEndgame (“Do not reveal the end”). The filmmakers urged people to keep their mouths stitched and not to reveal the end of the film.

• In addition, the producers of the movie Avengers: Endgame checked the publications of actors on social networks. The reason for this control was the selfie of Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Pepper Potts. She posted an Instagram photo of Tony Stark on her Instagram account, which allowed fans to determine the type of armor and understand that the character would join the superhero team. At the request of management, the actress had to quickly remove the photo and the filmmakers themselves began to monitor all the publications of the actors.

Mark Hamill was forbidden to keep the Star Wars script more than a day

• The shooting of the new Star Wars episode required equally strict security measures. Even the lead actor, Mark Hamill, was not allowed to keep the movie script for more than a day. According to the actor, the scenario was brought home by one of Disney’s trusted employees: “They waited for me to read it and demanded that I return it immediately. I could not even keep it at home all night to read it more carefully. “Hamill also added that, for the first time, unprecedented steps are being taken to fight spoilers. Previously, the actor always had a hard copy of the scenario in which he left his notes.

The storyline of The Lord of the Rings TV series is being written in a bunker

• The creators of the television series The Lord of the Rings also do not skimp on the means in their fight against spoilers. The script of the new TV adaptation by Amazon is being developed in a bunker protected by black windows, which are only accessible by a fingerprint. However, Chris Ryan, the host of The Watch, described the security measures as ridiculous, as the series is based on well-known books and the popular film trilogy. According to him, this campaign was only launched in order to awaken the interest of the spectators for the future TV adaptation.

Film companies do not always avoid spoilers

Sometimes the studios themselves make mistakes. In this way, for the movie Avengers: Endgame, spectators found a  hidden spoiler.

Bonus: How to protect yourself from spoilers?

Often, the spectators themselves have to face the spoilers. Large Internet companies have developed many special applications to protect against information leaks. Thanks to them, you can avoid seeing new information and publications on a film or series that you have not seen yet and you want to keep the plot intact.

• Google has launched a browser extension that allows you to block spoilers, especially on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
• Still, on Google Chrome, you can find an app called Unspoiler.
• Firefox has a similar function.
• On Firefox, you can also disable unwanted comments and recommendations on YouTube.
• The Social Fixer app will protect you from spoilers on Facebook.
• Twitter, meanwhile, has developed the  TweetDeck .

So what do you think about these ways of fighting spoilers? And you, how do you do to avoid them? Do not hesitate to give us your opinion and to share your experience in the comments below!

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