Movie studios will do just about anything to get your money.
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00:00When looking forward to a film, everyone handles it a little differently. Some of us want to soak
00:04up all the anticipation by watching every second of footage that gets released, and some of us
00:08avoid the trailers as much as possible so we can go in completely clear of expectation. That being
00:13said, whether you head to the cinema or boot up a movie on your streaming service of choice,
00:17you can't avoid at least seeing some kind of marketing image. Over the years, many films have
00:22outright fibbed about their content to us in order to get us to part with our cash. Sometimes it's a
00:27sneaky little misdirection, and other times they get away with bold-faced lies. The film posters on
00:32this list made promises they couldn't keep, and you'll never get your money back because of it.
00:36I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 movie posters that lied to your face.
00:4110. X-Men 3 The Last Stand
00:44Before the MCU kicked open the door for any combination of Marvel characters to grace our
00:48screens, we had the X-Men trilogy. Getting excited for a new X-Men film was kind of like waiting for
00:53a new Pokemon game to come out. What kind of new friends and enemies would we see this time?
00:57Each entry in the franchise included new mutants from the back catalogue of the comics,
01:01and The Last Stand was no different. Angel, with all of his boyish good looks and his luscious
01:06wings, was a big part of the marketing for the film, and he appears on every single poster,
01:10usually clad in the X-Men's leather uniform. It feels like Ben Foster probably only got to
01:15wear the outfit for one day, however, and that was for publicity shoots, as during the runtime
01:19of the film, Angel never dons the outfit. Promising a new member of the X-Men team on
01:23the poster does not reflect the movie's course, as Angel's story is pretty much its own thing
01:28entirely. Additionally, the poster also features Cyclops all suited up and ready to fight.
01:33Infamously, this is a blatant red herring, considering the fact that he's killed off
01:36unceremoniously 25 minutes into the picture. Justice for Scott Summers!
01:419. Frogs Frogs is a totally bizarre 1970s
01:46eco-terror film about wildlife photographer Pinkett Smith, as portrayed by Sam Elliott,
01:50who, whilst exploring a swamp, gets wrapped up in the strangest series of events.
01:55Taken to a private island, numerous animal-based murders occur,
01:58and landowner Jason refuses to let Pinkett leave. The poster for the film and the title are
02:03actually both misleading, as whilst frogs are certainly mentioned, the marketing for the movie
02:08seems to imply a much greater role than they get. Looking at the poster, you'd assume that this was
02:12a movie about giant, man-eating frogs. Not only are the frogs totally normal-sized, they're also
02:17not all that important an aspect. There's a lot of random deaths in the film caused by any number
02:22of animals – lizards, tarantulas, eagles, snakes, leeches – but the frogs don't really get
02:27involved until the final moment. And do they eat someone? No. Their en masse appearance seems to
02:32cause death by heart attack. Most likely, this is a case of an artist being given the film's name
02:37and genre, and then just coming up with something based on that alone. It's a totally nonsense movie
02:42at the best of times, so perhaps the poster is suitable for being equally ridiculous,
02:46but if you promise giant, man-eating amphibians, then you better deliver.
02:508. My Sister's Keeper
02:52If your initial expectations for My Sister's Keeper are bright, warm and sunny, then you have
02:56the poster to thank for that. Cameron Diaz is smiling, Abigail Breslin is smiling, and Sofia
03:01Vasileva is innocently blowing bubbles. This looks like a heartfelt and wholesome romp about a happy
03:07family. In truth, these characters have very little to smile or blow bubbles about. The
03:11story follows a rather twisted family dynamic. Diaz's Sarah and her partner have their second
03:17daughter Anna expressly for the purpose of harvesting her organs to sustain the life of
03:21her leukemia-ridden older sister Kate. Terminal illnesses, legal clashes between family members,
03:26and mortality are not the subjects that come to mind when you see this poster.
03:30Let's just say, it's not exactly the kind of thing you'd pick for a cosy night at home
03:34or a family film gathering. What's promoted as a touching drama is actually a pretty harrowing
03:39affair, and Sarah forcing her daughter into medical servitude is some pretty god-awful
03:44supervillain stuff. My Sister's Keeper is a fairly melodramatic tale that involves a lot
03:48of shouting and crying. There's not a lot of smiling or frolicking to be had, despite what
03:52the poster seems to imply. 7. Reign of Fire
03:562002's sci-fi fantasy flick Reign of Fire should have been a slam dunk. The concept of a world
04:01under siege from once-hibernating dragons was exciting and a fresh evolution of the
04:05dinosaur mania that had gripped the world following Jurassic Park. Its star-studded cast
04:10includes Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and Gerard Butler, just to name a few. You could sell
04:15the picture today on that alone. Still, it never quite succeeded in the way that it should have,
04:20and some didn't enjoy the film's grey and grim Mad Max-style post-apocalypse wasteland. It probably
04:25didn't help that the marketing for the film was a lot brighter and had some frankly fantastic
04:29visuals that don't show up in the movie. What makes this poster worse than being a lie is that
04:34it looks, quite intentionally of course, way more awesome than the actual movie is. With dragons
04:38flying over a burning modern-day London, it seems to imply that the setting of the picture is during
04:43the war between humanity and Giant Lizard, rather than, in truth, set decades after the fact.
04:49Of course, such a thing would have been a budgetary nightmare, but marketing your movie
04:52like it's the next big CGI blockbuster when it doesn't have the chops to back it up makes this
04:57a pretty big misdirect. 6. Bridge on the River Kwai
05:00This 1957 war drama is widely considered one of the best films of all time. It certainly has the
05:06accolades to back it up, being the highest-grossing movie of its year, winning seven Academy Awards,
05:11and being now preserved in the National Film Registry for its significance to western culture.
05:16That being said, for all that it did well, there were some very weird missteps along the way.
05:21Bridge on the River Kwai had a few promotional posters, but one that stands out is the one with
05:25William Holden's character, Commander Shears, standing tall with the eponymous bridge in the
05:29background. Holden has first billing on all of the film's marketing, but what makes this strange
05:33is that he's arguably not the picture's main character. A pre-Obi-Wan Kenobi Sir Alec Guinness
05:39plays Colonel Nicholson, whose character is at the heart of the bridge and who has the most
05:43important arc of the story. A British soldier who becomes obsessed with his labour to build the
05:48bridge, Nicholson ends the film by taking down his work in a final act of defiance.
05:53Colonel Nicholson is the beating heart of the piece, so this poster seemingly saying it's all
05:57about Commander Shears thrilling heroics is all wrong.
06:005. Mortal Kombat 2021
06:03The original Mortal Kombat film might be B-movie nonsense, but it did give us the adored dance
06:08floor filling techno theme tune, so we have to thank it for that. Mostly it was gloriously stupid
06:13fun, with the highlight being the fight scenes with the series mainstays Sub-Zero and Scorpion,
06:17even if they are brief. It felt as though the 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat had this in mind
06:22then when the marketing for the film put these two characters in pretty prominent positions.
06:27The movie's poster was literally just these two faces and nothing more,
06:30and the trailer seemed to back up the idea that this would be a colour coded ninja focused affair.
06:35In actuality, whilst it is the best scene in the film, Sub-Zero and Scorpion's interactions are
06:39contained to the first 15 minutes and they're not even in their classic garb. After the fight
06:44concludes, we jump forward to the present day. Sub-Zero acts as an ongoing antagonist of the
06:48flick, but Scorpion only returns in the final showdown in a rather muted fashion.
06:53Mortal Kombat released during the Covid-19 pandemic and asked for a pretty hefty rental
06:58fee, especially here in the UK. How did it get you to part with your cash? Promising
07:02you a story focused on two characters that barely interacted in the film.
07:064. Camp Hell
07:08There's definitely something wrong with knowingly making a poster to pull the wool over your
07:12audience's eyes to make a quick buck. It's bad when it's a big studio, but it's somehow worse
07:16when it's a group of small filmmakers trying to ride the coattails of a kind favour. Camp Hell
07:21is a 2010 horror film that explores the clash of religious faith and sinful urges. It's generally
07:27regarded as of middling quality and a pretty pointless movie to watch. More infamous than
07:32anything about the film itself is the way that Jesse Eisenberg reacted to being on the poster.
07:36To help sell the film, Eisenberg agreed to appear in a cameo for a reduced fee as a favour to friends
07:41of the production. Even as the most successful actor in the film's runtime, especially off the
07:45back of the social network, he didn't anticipate that the poster for Camp Hell would be nothing
07:50more than just his floating head. In June 2012, the actor won a preliminary court case suing
07:55Lionsgate and Grindstone Entertainment for misrepresentation. He didn't want to be part
08:00of the charade when he knew full well he only had a brief appearance that was shot in less than a day.
08:05Eisenberg earned $3 million in damages, which is more than the movie's budget,
08:09going to show that, like crime, telling lies doesn't pay.
08:133. Escape from New York
08:15Escape from New York is the tale of a walled-in Manhattan prison and the mission of one man,
08:19Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken, as he ventures inside to save the United States President.
08:24The film's poster depicts Snake and company seemingly trying to escape a riot,
08:28with the head of the Statue of Liberty lying prone in a random Manhattan street.
08:32It's famous for multiple reasons. First of all, it's a really cool piece of art,
08:36and the kind of thing you'd frame and hang on your wall.
08:38Secondly, it doesn't reflect a scene in the film, it's all made up.
08:42There is exactly one moment where we see old Libby, and that's near the start of the movie.
08:46Fun fact, this is the only part of Escape from New York actually shot in New York.
08:51At no point does the statue ever come back into things,
08:53and naturally, of course, she doesn't get beheaded either.
08:56Come to think of it, considering she's way offshore,
08:58how exactly would the Statue of Liberty's head end up in a random street anyway?
09:02It's certainly a really cool image, but it badly misrepresents the film.
09:06If you were waiting to see that crazy action sequence, you were going to wind up disappointed.
09:112. Dracula 3000
09:13Dracula 2000 is an edgy and altogether awful noughties revamp of Bram Stoker's classic tale,
09:19so why anyone would want to pay homage to it by creating a film
09:22called Dracula 3000 is beyond comprehension.
09:25At least it's faithful in that, like Dracula 2000,
09:28there are also almost zero redeemable qualities in its runtime.
09:32Set aboard a spaceship 1,000 years in the future,
09:34cyborg Aurora and vampire slayer descendant Abraham Van Helsing
09:38must fight off Count Orlok and stop him from getting to Earth.
09:41The vampires of the film look exactly like the most low-budget expectation
09:45of a vampire as possible.
09:47Red contacts, fake fangs popped in over the teeth, impractical collars.
09:51So what the heck is that thing on the poster?
09:53Clearly trying to evoke the futuristic feel and going way too far with it,
09:57it badly misrepresents the film and promises a lot more than it can deliver.
10:01Some sort of cyborg-vampire hybrid would have actually given this flick something interesting,
10:05and it definitely gets the mind turning over way more than the movie deserves.
10:09As it stands, the vampires in Dracula 3000 are boring,
10:12which is at least perfectly in tune with the story,
10:14directing, casting and everything else.
10:17But hey, at least it's got that crazy poster.
10:20Number 1 – Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines
10:23At one point, Terminator 3 was considered the worst of the Terminator films,
10:27but then a few more came along that got progressively shoddier.
10:30The franchise had once been a clever sci-fi thriller,
10:32so many disliked Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines,
10:35taking a bigger step than before into ultimately thoughtless action.
10:39Schwarzenegger returns to the main role of the T-800,
10:41and his duty of protecting John and Sarah Connor
10:44continues against the new threat of Christiana Locken's T-X.
10:48What makes matters worse is that before the film's release,
10:50the posters seemed to show so much more potential than the finished product.
10:54Under Arnie's cold and blank expression was what appeared to be an army of Terminators
10:58with the T-X at the forefront.
11:00This ensemble of robots, and the subtitle Rise of the Machines,
11:04seemed to imply that the film would finally be an all-out war
11:06between humanity and Cyberdyne's creations.
11:10What we got instead was a watered-down version of Terminator 2
11:13that put the franchise to bed for six years.
11:16Terminator Salvation finally gave us a look at the mass-scale clash of human and cyborg,
11:20but, ironically, its poor reception made Terminator 3
11:23a much easier pill to swallow by comparison.
11:26And that's the list.
11:27Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below,
11:30and any other movies that you can think of that are completely different from the poster.
11:34Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe,
11:38and hit that notification bell.
11:40I've been Sy for WhatCulture, and have a good week.