Four Word Spoilers

The aim is to come up with a spoiler for a well-known film* using exactly four words, without naming the film or any of the characters or actors in it.

The idea is to try to do it with subtlety and creativity, such that it doesn't actually act as a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen the film (because they won't be able to identify which film it is), but anyone who has seen it should be able to recognise it (though it might require some thought).

Play the game to see some examples.

The Rules

• Choose a well known film*, that there's a reasonable chance of the other players having seen.
• Use exactly four words for your spoiler.
• Must be a spoiler (ie something revealed during the course of the film, whether it's the final denouement or a key twist of the plot), not a synopsis, precis or description of the entire film.
• Must be feasible to identify by those who have seen it. It must be possible for someone who has seen the film to identify it from the spoiler. In other words, very vague things like "the goodies are victorious" or "he gets the girl" that could apply to any of a jazillion films are not allowed. However, inevitably as plots are recycled, some spoilers may apply to more than one film, and that's ok. But the best entries are those that are unique to one film.
• Should not be easily identifiable by those who haven't seen it. So, even though it's a spoiler, it's not actually a spoiler for those who haven't seen the film, as long as you don't reveal the answer.
• Thus: Don't include film name, character names, or actor names. You can use a word from the film's title if it's generic and doesn't give it away too much. One of the examples in the game does this.

* You can, of course, extend this to other media, but I think films work best for this game, as they have the greatest commonality of experience - that is, more people are likely to have seen a particular well-known film, than have read a particular well-known book or seen a particular well-known play. Of course, if you play this game in a room full of Eng.Lit professors, then books might be the better choice. Either way, the default media should be agreed in advance, and any deviation from it should be announced.

Why 4 words?

Because it seems to be the right number for this game. When I first came up with the idea it was going to be 3 words, but I think 4 gives a bit more flexibility to be subtle. Also, it's the number of words in the archetypal spoiler: "The butler did it."

Play the game

I've made a very simple online version of the game. Play it here. You'll be able to add your own soon.

Conceived and developed by Ben Wheeler @ Uniq Code Ltd <ben@uniqcode.com>
Many thanks to my Facebook friends who enthusiastically embraced the idea and contributed entries.