15 Awesome Movie Trailers From the Past 15 Years
I love movie trailers. To me, one of the best parts of going to a new, big film at the theaters is the anticipation of watching them, even if I saw them already them online (which is usually the case nowadays). It’s a pretty cool experience! I would have to say that I enjoy teasers more than the trailers themselves, mainly because it gives just enough dialogue and plot to make you salivate for more. Sometimes full trailers reveal a bit too much.
The most interesting part of film previews is that they can be edited to make even a horrible movie look amazing, which is definitely the case with some of my picks below (You guys can most likely figure out which ones I am talking about). But that certainly doesn’t take away my enjoyment, because I look at them as a kind of a mini-film: a few minutes of pure excitement. Live in the moment, guys!
So, here are 15 awesome trailers (and teasers!) from the past 15 years.
Super 8 (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCRQQCKS7go
Type: Trailer #1
Man, they certainly knocked it out of the park with this trailer. The music, the editing … everything was great. The intense sense of mystery and intrigue in this trailer was so good, you just HAD to see what the heck was going on in this town. Though the movie didn’t live up to the hype, it was still pretty fun.
Bonus! For you LOST fans, featuring the music from the above trailer:
Superman Returns (2007)
Type: Teaser Trailer #1
Though the film itself was a disappointment, this trailer was really goosebump-inducing: the build up of the music, Jor-El’s speech to his son, and the fact that we haven’t seen a Superman on the big screen in almost 20 years prior to this trailer.
Man of Steel (2013)
Type: Teaser #1
I chose this specific Man of Steel trailer because I first watched it while I was on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, near Iceland; it took me about 45 minutes to download the thing because of the horrible satellite Internet connection. Soooo, my advice is that if you love the Internet, don’t work on a boat for 8 weeks. Nonetheless, this trailer really stuck with me and it was a perfect teaser to tell us the Supes is coming back!
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001)
Type: Theatrical Trilogy Announcement Trailer
I only read The Hobbit prior to the trilogy, but I was still extremely excited when I first heard they were making these films because I did know what The Lord Of The Rings was all about. This spectacular trailer informed the viewers that they were about to embark on an unprecedented adventure; something very special. And they were right.
Note: I believe the very first preview-video pertaining to The Lord of the Rings was available online some time waaaaay back in 1999. Check it out here. Woa … time flies, doesn’t it?
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Type: Teaser Trailer #1 & #2
Yes, there are a lot of haters, but I enjoyed the heck out of this movie and thought it was incredibly eerie and original. Found footage films certainly don’t work on everyone and I understand that completely! You really have to have a specific frame of mind, convincing yourself that what is going on is really happening. That and you can’t be someone that gets motion sickness easy! But they do work on me. I was in high school when this movie was released and the end scene haunted my dreams for quite awhile. I can honestly say that this movie made me a HUGE fan of the horror genre.
So, the trailer! This was probably one of the creepiest, most effective trailers I have ever watched. The mainstream audience really didn’t know much about the ‘found footage’ gimmick*, and this trailer was a perfect introduction. It was something new, and as a result, it made a ton of money.
*I know there have been found footage films prior to the Blair Witch Project, but this movie set a new precedent for the genre.
Red Eye (2005)
This is the only movie on the list that I didn’t actually see because of how bad I heard it was when it was released. Also, the full-trailer that aired soon after this one made me go “ugghghghghuuuuhgghhghghghgh,” which is a sound I really can’t explain. However, this particular teaser always stuck with me because it was the first (and only) time I went from “ahahahahah, what a dumb movie ” to “Was that Satan?”
Cloverfield (2008)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM]
Type: Teaser Trailer #1
This trailer surprised the hell out of me when I first saw and did an incredible job with the sudden burst of intriguing chaos. Just what the hell was attacking New York City? I HAD TO FIND OUT. Decent movie too!
Spider-Man (2001)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-r7qymfa0Q]
Type: Teaser Trailer #1
Though Sam Raimi’s franchise ended, in my opinion, on a very sour note* (emo peter parker dancing to jazz music heeyooo), this trailer (and movie) was really the beginning of a new era: super heroes can actually look cool and realistic on the big screen. I remember how surreal it felt to see Spider-Man for the first time in a live action video.
Some say X-Men was the catalyst for the superhero movement, but did it ever take off after the success of first Spider-Man film.
* One good thing did come out of this movie.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Type: Trailer #1
Just by this trailer alone, I knew that Heath Ledger’s performance was going to be special. And ohhh boy, was it ever. This trailer was so good that The Dark Knight became one of the most anticipated movies of all time. Ledger’s Joker was, by far, my all-time favorite performance by an actor.
World War Z (2013)
Type: Trailer #1
My girlfriend gave this movie and the above trailer “10 stars up” (actual quote) so I just had to put this in here! She said the trailer was too incredible not to be listed, and since I had trouble on deciding between a 15th trailer (and because there’s that whole love thing), this one made the cut!
Inception (2010)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xitHF0IPJSQ]
This trailer became an internet classic because of all the spoofs (and legitimate, real trailers) that were born from it. BWWAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Though the trailer itself was OK, it was the musical score that made it so memorable.
The Strangers (2008)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE]
Type: Trailer #1
Ahhh! Oh boy that was scary! This preview was probably one of the creepiest, most effective trailers in recent memory. The movie itself was pretty great (and insanely terrifying).
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Type: Teaser Trailer #1
This is a perfect example of how incredible a teaser trailer can be without showing a single second of actual footage (another one being the first Dark Knight teaser). This trailer, however, didn’t even have a line of dialogue from the film. It’s a pretty interesting thing to accomplish.
The Village (2004)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_B_ukrGKo]
Type: Trailer #1
Why not end things with a few Shyamalan movies? As horrible as he is now, he did make some enjoyable films that had really, really good trailers, the first being The Village. This suspenseful and eerie preview was very well done; however, it seemed to be the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan’s downfall in the film industry. HOPE YOU GET BETTER SOON, MAN.
Unbreakable (2000)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_f1uCWKZQs]
Type: Trailer #1
Last, but definitely not least: Unbreakable. This is actually one of my all-time favorite trailers. The sense of mystery right from the get go makes you want to find out why this man was the only survivor and what his destiny truly is. This is one of those films lives up to the hype .
So, what did I miss?!
-Lyle
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Lyleus
Red Eye’s not a bad movie, for what it is (a claustrophobic PG-13 thriller). If nothing else you’ve got two great performances anchoring it, and they’re both worth watching. Don’t expect the world, obviously.
I personally would argue that 300 had the most effective trailer, maybe… MAYBE in motion picture history. Most people were pretty much unfamiliar with the book, the story, and the people involved, and yet that trailer made the movie a meme before it even came out. AND it made it a box office success.
And it’s pretty cool, even today.
You are right on the money with 300! That probably would have made the list if there weren’t so many to go through. The trailers listed above are mainly ones that really stuck in my memory. Great choice, though, David!
As for Red Eye, I guess I can give it a shot if you think it’s a decent thriller!
Daybreakers had one of the best trailers I have ever seen.
Watchmen had one of those “OMG, this is going to be the greatest movie ever!” trailers that broke everyone’s brains. It was such an incredibly affecting and effective trailer that the ultimate disappointment of the movie basically made me create the Zack Snyder rule: No matter how good a trailer is, remember that Zack Snyder is a terrible director.
I really was stoked for Star Trek when this trailer came out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PM1pvOzn_w
And Project X’s was pretty great too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rl1TJG17Wk
The full trailer for Jarhead should be on this list. It is awesome. And also 5x better than the actual movie.
I will agree with the above poster about the trailer for 300
One of the best trailers I have ever seen (and much better than the actual move) was for Where the Wild Things Are. The look, the music, everything about it had me so excited to go and see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-PqqifyjA
The spiderman trailer reminded me of how I hate it that they don’t make any good spiderman games anymore. Spiderman 2 was the epitome of feeling like Spidey swinging around in Manhattan, doing good and being awesome.
Nowadays all spidey games are simply brawlers with tube levels where you can’t even swing around most of the time. Damn.
Also, the Strangers was pretty much the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. The scene where he kills his best friend because he thinks it’s one of the strangers while he simply came to help is so freaking terrifying.
#billdog had a good one with Star Trek. Thinking more recently, the Into Darkness trailer got me super pumped, and Elysium has done the same.
Great list, fond memories 🙂
The title for this list automatically conjured up memories of several amazing trailers that I remember better than the movie itself:
– Inception, the only one on this list
– Pineapple Express, mostly for making MIA a household name
– Where The Wild Things Are, the teaser trailer with the alternate version of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”
– Pan’s Labyrinth, good movie but not as awe-inspiring as the less-is-more teaser trailer
– Hot Tub Time Machine, “It’s some sort of… hot tub time machine”
– Little Miss Sunshine, Olive jumping in the moving van
– 500 Days of Summer, “I love the Smiths…”
Yeeg…. Teal and orange overload.