A California judge ruled that movie studios can be sued for deceptive trailers. The plaintiffs were led to believe that the Universal Studios film Yesterday would feature the actress Ana de Armas, and it didn’t, despite her appearance in the trailer. The lawsuit is going ahead, setting a precedent that many moviegoers wish could be applied retroactively. How many times have we seen something cool in the trailer that didn’t show up in the film itself? Here are a few examples.
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Jurassic Park
One of the exhibits used by Universal in their defense was the teaser trailer for Jurassic Park, composed of original footage that did not appear in the film. The judge dismissed this argument, and true enough, it isn’t exactly Ana de Armas-level exciting. The trailer includes glimpses of amber mines and laboratories, which do exist in the movie, where they’re shot with a more awesome cinematic sweep. This example does offer a window into what blockbuster marketing was 30 years ago. Unlike that magical first trailer for Cloverfield, there is no mystery here. A narrator gives the elevator pitch, because the premise of Jurassic Park was so good that it sold the book before it was published, sold the movie before the official trailer, and of course, sold the dinosaur experts on Isla Nublar – before their change of heart at feeding time.
King Kong (2005)
Speaking of prehistoric beasties, the three-hour King Kong remake from 2005 has a three-minute official trailer, which shifts away from the marketing style of Jurassic Park and toward the spoiler-heavy short films of today. However, it’s the second official trailer whose inability to contain itself extended to at least one shot excluded from the final cut. At one minute and 57 seconds in, the spines of a large swamp creature speed toward sailors on a raft. This is arguably a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, but it’s a phenomenal image that, unlike shots of the T. rex and King Kong himself, conceals the monster. What’s that thing gonna be?
For his love letter to the original King Kong, director Peter Jackson put on his John Hammond hat and created an entire island of biological attractions. In this film, the monsters are important! However, only a fraction of Weta Workshop’s creatures made it to the movie or even the official game of the movie. This swamp creature turned out to be the “Piranhadon,” a giant killer fish that racks up a significant body count in its deleted scene. No wonder King Kong underperformed at the box office. How can such a long sequence be staged, shot, post-processed, and then excised? Also, could the concept artist who designed the Piranhadon sue the studio for cutting a creature they especially wanted to see?
I Am Legend
The overly long official trailer for I Am Legend bears further hallmarks of what trailers were becoming, right down to the Clint Mansell score, this time nicked from The Fountain. It also spoils the entire movie, including a memorable shot from the climax. Or does it? With direction by the underrated Francis Lawrence, I Am Legend was a surprisingly intense post-apocalyptic thriller, especially given its PG-13 rating. It may have proven too much for test audiences, especially the ending. In the climactic shot, deleted for the theatrical release, the film's vampires reach protagonist Dr. Neville (Will Smith) in a lab and slowly encircle him.
In the theatrical release, Neville sends the cure off with Anna (Alice Braga) and goes out in a literal blaze of glory to take the vampires with him. Now, this description leaves out the bizarre tackle that Neville performs on the lead vampire, which ought to demonstrate how much the producers wanted as Hollywood an ending as possible. A hero who loses? No. A hero who wins, in the manner of football! The deleted scene would have instead brought the film closer to the source material, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.
The movie offers no clue as to why the title is “I Am Legend,” because in the book, Neville learns that the vampires he’s been experimenting on are part of a new society, and they seek to convict him for his crimes. He’s become what vampires were in human culture: a boogeyman, a legend. This would require that Neville was the villain all along, altering the audience’s perception of the entire film.
The Transporter
In the trailer for the French action movie The Transporter, Jason Statham kicks a lot of butt and, in one shot, deflects an RPG (Rocket-Propelled Grenade) with a metal serving tray. Despite not being in the film, the shot appears in every trailer for The Transporter, including TV spots. And yet, it’s only one absurd thing to happen in a trailer full of them, so what’s the harm? Once you see the RPG deflection, it’s been seen; what’s the difference if it’s in the film or not? If this were something like a Star Wars movie, it could be a matter of canonicity. Imagine, the forums alight with debate about whether or not Frank Martin could, in fact, be killed by an RPG. There’s simply no canon evidence.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Speak of the devil and he will appear, with a deep voice and flowing locks. The official trailer for The Force Awakens is a masterpiece, regardless of how the movie turned out. It was so exciting, so dramatic, and yes, it overpromised. However, it’s the teaser trailer from a year earlier that presented an even more inaccurate picture, with just one shot. It might not sound like a lot, but this is Star Wars! A long time ago, in this very galaxy, fans would pore over every detail offered up by trailers and tie-in material.
The teaser is composed of shots devoid of context. A droid rolls across the desert, and stormtroopers deploy. 50 seconds in, a tracking shot follows a mysterious figure in a black hood and flowing cape – who we now know as Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) – through a snowy forest before he hunches over and draws his tri-handle lightsaber. This shot does not appear in the film, though it would've led to his confrontation with heroes Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega). If included, it might’ve drawn the audience to Ren’s perspective. In the shot, the suspense is his, as if his opponents are worthy of fear. An example like this is more abstract than allowed by the judge’s ruling, but it speaks to the abstract nature of film. Is the experience of Kylo Ren’s fear any less substantive than one scene with Ana de Armas, especially as it reflects on the movie as a whole?
Predators
With the advent of 2022’s Prey, there’s no reason to be upset about Predators, though it once courted fan ire for being a soft reboot and taking place on an alien planet. Turns out, it’s a solid sequel, and its greatest offense was actually outside the film itself. Before switching gears into action mode, the official trailer stops dead for a shot of Adrien Brody standing still against the wind-blown ash, as the three-dot laser sight appears on his face. And then another on his chest. And another, with such speed, you lose count before it’s a dozen. In total, there are 15 laser sights on Adrien Brody, which implies two things ultimately unfulfilled: one, there are 15 Predators in this scene alone, and two, Adrien Brody is gonna have to fight 15 Predators. There are four Predators in the entire movie, which is a decrease of 73.33% Predators, uh, repeating, of course.
Lilo & Stitch
The Predator movies persist because sometimes people just want to see aliens, whatever the setting. Spaceship, jungle, Old West – Beauty and the Beast? The first trailer for Lilo & Stitch paid tribute to Disney animation by splicing the blue alien into The Lion King, in the hands of Rafiki instead of Simba. This heralded a run of teasers where Stitch flies by Aladdin and Jasmine's flying carpet ride, hangs ten past Ariel, and brings down the chandelier in Beauty and the Beast. This was a year after Shrek, so meta-humor and crossovers weren’t such a strange notion, especially to a young audience who might have expected Lilo & Stitch to follow up on the tease.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
This installment in the saga has enjoyed a fair bit of reclamation as if it were a cult favorite in 2016 and not one of the year’s biggest blockbusters. Granted, the reporting around the film’s reshoots felt like an assassination attempt reminiscent of Heaven’s Gate or Titanic. There were more rumors than truths, to the consternation of fans. While director Gareth Edwards and Tony Gilroy ultimately delivered a coherent picture despite the publicized reworking, there were cuts that only made it to the trailers. In this example, deleted shots were shared among multiple trailers.
In the official trailer, heroine Jyn Erso limps across a walkway as a TIE Fighter rises before her. This takes place on the tower of the film’s climax, which included no such TIE Fighter. It looks like a real jam for Jyn, and one may wonder how she’d get out of it. The official teaser trailer features one of the most iconic images from the film which, astonishingly, isn't in the film: the very last shot, where Jyn in Imperial uniform turns to face the camera, and Saw Gerrera's voice-over says, “What will you become?” The moment speaks to the themes of sacrifice and the dehumanization of war, but maybe those things are bigger than one shot. It’s just such a good shot.
Straight Outta Compton
The official theatrical trailer for Straight Outta Compton benefits from pulling from a strong source. There was no need to exaggerate, but some things still slip through. For example, Paul Giamatti's narration about meteoric success transitions to a scene where his character, Jerry Heller, is meeting up with Eazy-E, who’s about to start touring. He discovers that the rap star has a machine pistol in his bag, and reacts by saying, “Are you kidding me? You can’t take that on the bus!” It’s a great delivery from Giamatti but it never made it to the theatrical cut.
Unlike the other examples, this Straight Outta Compton scene doesn't feature expensive effects. It was funny, but not necessarily suggestive of something greater, some spectacle or plot thread that was sorely missed. And yet, biopics are litigation magnets all their own. The real-world Jerry Heller sued Universal for defamation and copyright infringement. While the judge eventually dismissed Heller’s lawsuit, there could be a precedent for any and all dissatisfied moviegoers to fight back.
After all, people watch movies for any number of reasons, and while suing over Ana de Armas’s absence in Yesterday is absurd, the plaintiffs’ disappointment was no less real than those of Predator fans or Disney kids. At the same time, this is an age of unprecedented consumer entitlement. Excising a scene is part of the creative process, but now Hollywood filmmakers have yet another factor to consider in that process; the editing bay is ever more crowded. Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, the next Yesterday may very well preserve whichever unneeded cameo or scene, and everyone will suffer the artistic compromise.
