Spoiler Alert: Spock Dies!
July 8, 2015 4:40 AM   Subscribe

 
Oh, relax. Spock doesn't die, he just falls to the floor in a Kobayashi Maru simulator test. Go on, enjoy the rest of the film!
posted by bicyclefish at 4:48 AM on July 8, 2015 [11 favorites]


I'm not sure I've seen anything that's made me so unexcited about so many good movies before.
posted by Zalzidrax at 4:55 AM on July 8, 2015


So, Entertainment Tonight actually spoiled the end of STII? Christ, what assholes.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:01 AM on July 8, 2015 [8 favorites]


Maybe after the first Star Trek movie Universal figured this was the only way to get people to see this one. "Your favorite Star Trek character bites it! You won't believe how!"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:10 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love how they also spoiled the fact that Rachel was a replicant.
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 5:15 AM on July 8, 2015 [6 favorites]


Spielberg obviously knew not to trust ET with any info about ET since "little is known about this film."
posted by photoslob at 5:17 AM on July 8, 2015 [7 favorites]


I figure any summer where Blade Runner and The Thing are released the same day (and are not even collectively all the science fiction movies released that day) has got to be pretty good.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:46 AM on July 8, 2015 [6 favorites]


The sad thing is that both The Thing and Blade Runner were considered box-office disappointments at the time.
posted by octothorpe at 6:02 AM on July 8, 2015


My first response was "Holy shit, spoilers . . ."

Also ET was an extension of Close Encounters?
posted by Seamus at 6:11 AM on July 8, 2015


". . . waiting light years for . . ."

No.
Considering people were making this mistake back then, I would have hoped that we could have gotten over that by now. A person can dream.
posted by Seamus at 6:12 AM on July 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


Fascinating.
posted by spock at 6:49 AM on July 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


The sad thing is that both The Thing and Blade Runner were considered box-office disappointments at the time.

Yeah, I know. I have more than once written on the blue about how the movies that IMDB voters perpetually keep at #1 in the top 250, The Shawshank Redemption, was nowhere near as successful at the box office as Jason's Lyric and Only You and The River Wild and a bunch of other movies that audiences last thought about as they were walking through the parking lot after seeing them in 1994.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:55 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tron looking oddly out of place there, like a 70s relic, which is ironic because I'm sure at the time it was the most future thing evah.
posted by Artw at 7:16 AM on July 8, 2015


Who is the young black dude in the Poltergeist trailer? Don't remember him.
posted by fordiebianco at 7:21 AM on July 8, 2015


He was one of the paranormal investigators.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:43 AM on July 8, 2015


The real test for me for how well a film holds up is "would I stay and watch the whole thing if I happened to come across it on a random TV channel?"

So, Tron hasn't held up well.
posted by yhbc at 8:22 AM on July 8, 2015


Tron doesn't really hold up all that well but it's still better than the sequel.
posted by octothorpe at 8:28 AM on July 8, 2015


If I ever have to take large amounts of painkillers the sequel is going to be my go to film to watch though.
posted by Artw at 8:59 AM on July 8, 2015


So many good films that year though seriously! I was a little kid and I spent the entire year in the cinema seems like. Great year for fantasy too, last unicorn, secret of nimh, dark crystal...
posted by Iteki at 9:17 AM on July 8, 2015


Both offspring of Night Skies are present.
posted by Artw at 9:23 AM on July 8, 2015


If I ever have to take large amounts of painkillers the sequel is going to be my go to film to watch though.

But... but... Zardoz! And Saturn 3!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:32 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


". . . waiting light years for . . ."

"I need to go to the bathroom, Dad."

"You're gonna have to wait about 40 miles."
posted by straight at 9:38 AM on July 8, 2015


Han Solo can make the Kessel run in 12 Parsecs.
posted by Artw at 9:45 AM on July 8, 2015


Ahem. Han Solo made that mistake intentionally because he was testing Luke to see just how big of a rube he was in order to get a better idea of how many space credits he could fleece out of the naive farm boy. I mean, obviously!
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:58 AM on July 8, 2015 [4 favorites]


Back when D.C. was a charming Southern city and not NY-lite, the Circle Theater in Foggy Bottom was a repertory film house that ran double features every day. As I recall, the bills changed daily, which seems crazy, but those were different times.

At any rate, I was back in the country for a few weeks after working overseas for a few years and went to catch a double bill of Blade Runner and STII:WoK, neither of which I'd seen.

Still one of my most amazing days of filmgoing ever.
posted by the sobsister at 10:10 AM on July 8, 2015 [5 favorites]


Han Solo can make the Kessel run in 12 Parsecs.
posted by Artw at 9:45 AM on July 8 [+] [!]


"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."
posted by chavenet at 11:30 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


NO WONDER I STILL LOVE GOING TO THE MOVIES SO MUCH. This was the summer I turned 10, and I specifically remember seeing Tron (it did in fact get me out of the arcade), Poltergeist (I had never been so scared in my entire life), Star Trek II (and had no idea that Spock was going to die and still can vividly recall my aghast disbelief, but the scene that made the most vivid impression on me was the damn crawly bugs being put in ears OH MY GOD), and E.T. (the ending made me cry and I was old enough to be really embarrassed by that but thankfully nobody noticed).

For a minute I couldn't figure out why on earth I would have missed Blade Runner orThe Thing, but then I remembered that those are rated R, so I had to wait to see them on VHS or Showtime at my friend Chad's house (his parents didn't pay attention to what we watched).

I can still remember where, and in which theater I was sitting for each of those, too, now that I think about it: Tron I saw at the mall on my side of town, the aisle was down the middle and we sat 2/3 down on the left, and after the movie I wanted to go there and be in the video game so bad so of course we all hauled ass across the concourse to the mall arcade to stand in line to play the Tron game; Poltergeist was at the big ol' single-screen theater in town, aisles down the side, and we sat smack in the middle, and I was so horrified at the maggots and face-peeling scenes that I couldn't eat chicken or even look at a steak for weeks; STII was at the mall theater on the other side of town so we got there just a bit late and had to sit down front, off to the right...close enough to make those ear crawlers really vivid; and E.T. was at the same theater complex, we got there a little late again (mom never could account for cross-town driving time very well) and sat in the back on the right-hand side, which bummed me out until the end and I was all weepy and nobody saw because I was in the back.

Man. What a great summer for movies, and for being 10.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:42 AM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tron is more entertaining if you view it as an allegory about mid-1990s Microsoft
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:28 PM on July 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tron is more entertaining if you view it as an allegory about mid-1990s Microsoft

Tron is even more entertaining if you view it as the prequel to The Big Lebowski.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:00 PM on July 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


Hey, what about 1983. Return of the Jedi! WarGames! er ... Flashdance! Ok, you have a point.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:44 PM on July 8, 2015


And I think as a kid I was pretty disappointed when I found out what The Star Chamber was about.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:47 PM on July 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


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