Wikipedia: Twelve Monkeys/Talk

I guess this is as good a place as any to bring this up: should movie articles in Wikipedia contain spoilers? The last paragraph of the article gives away a very important twist of the plot. Do we want to do this for the sake of being complete, or do we want to leave things vague so that the movie isn't ruined for people who haven't seen it? -- STG

I think it's better not to give too much away, at least not without a very clear warning that a spoiler follows. --KQ

I disagree. An encyclopedia article should relate all of the important information about a movie. Perhaps a spoiler warning would be helpful, but encyclopedic presentation of knowledge should take precedence over entertainment issues. -MRC

People generally read about math, physics, and chemistry to learn their principles. People generally read about movies to decide whether to see them; finding out how the movie ends before watching the movie makes the it less enjoyable. So I think that brief plot synopses should not contain unlabelled spoilers. Yet some other people read about movies to learn how they're made--the typical behind-the-scenes stuff on DVDs showing FX tricks, director's commentary, various drafts of screenplays, discussions of camera movement, the director's discussions of different conflicts, etc. I don't think there's anything wrong with this kind of discussion on wikipedia; I find it useful for people who have seen the movie already & developed a fascination with it, but I do think that it should still be flagged as containing spoilers to warn off people who haven't yet seen it and wish to. --KQ

I had a big wrangle with myself when doing it. It occurred to me that the balanced point of view is that if one is looking in an encyclopedia for something, one is trying to find something out, which is completely different from reading a movie review, where you're trying to whether a movie is worth seeing or not. sjc

This is an encyclopedia, not a recommendation web site. I think that should but us close to literary criticism (well, cinematic criticism in this case, but I tend to write about books). In this context one always writes about all of the book or film. If you don't want to know things about something, then don't real a scholarly article about it. --Pinkunicorn

I'm not saying "don't write about it," I'm just saying to put a warning if it contains spoilers. Most people are not used to reading about movie plots in encyclopedias, with all that that entails, you know. --KQ

I agree with Pinkunicorn. Maybe someone should write an article, Wikipedia contains spoilers. Encylopedia entries about art, from paintings to literature to film, need to be comprehensively critical, which includes a full discussion of plot in the case of literature/film/etc. Spoiler warnings in the context of an encyclopedia would be silly. --The Cunctator

Good idea. --Pinkunicorn

Conspiracy?

Where is this a conspiracy-theory movie? --Yooden

: The whole thing is all about a search for a conspiracy. sjc