109: Spoiler Alert

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Spoiler Alert

Title text: And then it turns out they're both Tyler Durden.

Explanation

Spoiler alert! The following explanation mentions plot twists from Harry Potter, The Matrix, Citizen Kane, and Fight Club.

This comic refers to several unexpected plot twists from various Hollywood movies and combines them into one giant twist invented by Randall. A "spoiler" is a term used to describe information about the plot of any media that could spoil the media for someone who has not viewed it. The term "spoiler alert" has become popularized as a warning to potential readers used to precede such spoilers, particularly in online posting. It is also a phrase often used ironically or angrily to suggest that something someone has just said is a spoiler. It is also used jokingly to suggest that something just said (or is about to be said) was a spoiler so long ago that "everyone" should have heard of it by now (e.g. "Spoiler alert, Vader is Luke's father").

Severus Snape is a character from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books, Trinity is a character from The Matrix trilogy of movies, Rosebud is from the 1941 film Citizen Kane, and, from the title text, Tyler Durden is a character from the novel and movie Fight Club. All four references share the common ground that they are all involved in significant events or ideas in their respective movies that have been often spoiled by careless viewers for those who have not yet seen the movies. Here, the relevant events are mashed together into one and spoiled in one go.

Spoilers

• Trinity dies

• Rosebud is a sled

• Tyler Durden, mentioned in the title text, is both characters

As mentioned above, this is an amalgamation of four spoilers from four different stories:

• In Harry Potter, Snape (a professor at the Hogwarts school) kills Dumbledore (the headmaster) at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the penultimate book of the series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (in the final book, we learn that it was part of Dumbledore's plan).

• Trinity (the female protagonist in The Matrix series) is killed in the third film, The Matrix Revolutions.

• The central mystery of the classic film Citizen Kane is the meaning of "Rosebud" (the title character's last word), which is revealed at the end of the film to be the name of his childhood sled.

• The title text refers to the film Fight Club, at the end of which it is revealed that the character played by Edward Norton is actually Tyler Durden (the name Brad Pitt's character goes by); and Pitt's character is really just a figment of the Norton character's imagination; and that the viewer has been watching from Norton's point of view, seeing Pitt doing things Norton did not want to admit to himself he was capable of. In other words, the two roles are the same character. Near the end of the movie, Edward Norton kills Tyler Durden (his split personality) at the top of a skyscraper.

Transcript

[At the top of the panel there is a large heading:]

Spoiler Alert!

[Below that Severus Snape with long black hair is smacking a trenchcoat-clad Trinity off the top of a building with a brown sled. Below them is the following caption:]

Snape kills Trinity with Rosebud!

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Discussion

Trinity doesn't look dead, he looks like he's dodging the sled. He'll be back in two movies. Davidy22 (talk) 03:41, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

He? Did Carrie Anne Moss get gender reassignment surgery?  ;) -- mwburden 70.91.188.49 20:19, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

"I always thought... you were a guy." "Most guys do." Alivechihiro (talk) 07:59, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

~ ~ ~ ~ Larry (Lana) Wachowski did. 108.162.249.223 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Upon the release of The Matrix Reloaded, a series of false spoilers on Slashdot incorrectly claimed that Trinity died at the end (she didn't die in that movie -- she died in the one afterward.) Example: search this post for "Trinity". In that community, "Trinity Dies" became recognized as a reference to this Slashdot trolling phenomenon. 173.245.54.66 20:22, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

The event depicted in the comic did not actually occur in any movie. No shit, Sherlock.108.162.250.190 00:59, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Well, this comic actually does contain a spoiler for Citizen Kane. 172.68.11.45 21:20, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

I think most people would conclude that it's a wooden door with motion lines -Kazvorpal (talk) 22:24, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

It contains spoilers for every movie it references. I took the liberty of graying them out unless you highlight them. ^{)|(}Quill_{)|(} 14:52, 21 April 2021 (UTC)
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