The most misleading movie trailers of all time

The job of movie trailer editors is to get audiences excited about a film without making the whole storyline public. The goal of releasing a trailer is to give viewers a brief idea of the movie – the characters, and the plot, essentially trying to sell it to them. However, over the years, we have watched several trailers of movies that misrepresent it, either intentionally or because the editors did not have enough footage to make a more precise one. Here are some of the utterly misleading trailers.

Drive (2011)

Featuring a stony-faced and tranquil Ryan Gosling, the trailer for ‘Drive’ convinced us we were in for a flick reminiscent of the “Fast and the Furious” movies. Spotlighting revving engines, squealing tires, dangerous stunts, and a lot of shooting guns, the film shocked us when we found out it was more of an emotional and layered drama than a mindless action picture. One Michigan woman was so distressed about being misled into thinking it’d “race action film” when it had “very little driving” that she took the case to court!

Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla was an awesome movie and the trailer effectively captures the suspense, the dread, and the sheer epic-ness marvelously. From Bryan Cranston’s opening monologue, we knew that the film will be glorious, and the subsequent seconds of the preview brilliantly weave together scenes of destruction, panic, and fearfully spoken lines. However, disappointingly, while the trailer of the movie makes it look like Cranston has a lead role, possibly to capitalize on his “Breaking Bad” popularity, his character dies at the end of “Godzilla’s” first act.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

When Guillermo del Toro’s amalgamation of a war-torn Spain under the control of Franco’s fascist party and a fantasy world with nightmarish creatures first appeared in the form of a preview, we were entranced. With a tragic and dark atmosphere that perpetuated throughout the trailer, along with haunting music and an intense voiceover describing the events we see, the absence of dialogue made Pan’s Labyrinth’s trailer even more brooding and mysterious. When it finally came out though, viewers understood why – the entire movie was recorded in Spanish.