Movie trailers are intrinsic to the success of any film’s opening weekend. They are designed to grab your attention, pique your interest, and make you a leading brand advocate for building buzz for the offering.
Most recently, the trailer savant, Christopher Nolan, has captured the imagination of the world about a man who called himself “death” and “the destroyer of worlds.” Who knew Oppenheimer was going to be the most compelling movie of Summer 2023, but there it is.
And, it is a beautiful dive into the troubled and near-haunted psyche of J. Robert Oppenheimer
That’s the brilliance of a movie marketing campaign. Movie trailers can place you in an iron vise and never let up. The actual movie could be a lackluster experience causing you to petition to the moviehouse manager for your money back. But that trailer?! Chef’s kiss!
Think about full movie trailers that have frozen you in your steps and hypnotized you to replay the video more times than Kayne West has reconsidered his stance on being Kosher. What are the best two-and-a-half minutes that have ever been spent in front of a TV commercial or video?
These are the Top 10 most epic movie trailers of all time.
Author’s Memo: Now, let’s be real about something. Many critics and fans consider Citizen Kane to not only be the best movie ever made but having one of the best movie trailers of all time.
It was 1941, so grabbing a cell phone and crashing YouTube wasn’t a thing. Not to mention, there were a few hundred thousand people defending our country on the shores of Normandy, who probably missed the Orson Welles’ news.
Numbers are not the leading source to sway metrics on this list. It’s what the movie trailers did to people and how it controlled water cooler talk like if Marilyn Monroe had an open OnlyFans account. The year may not be a thing you recall, but if you do your homework, you know that had to be something to behold!
On with the show.
HM. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
It was a moment many nerds knew was coming, but there was no telling how a Spider-Man multiverse was going to be presented. Are there 10 better movie trailers that speak to the art of a trailer? Most definitely. However, when 355.5 million people watch a film’s teaser or full-length trailer in only 24 hours, you must tip a cap to that kind of mastery.
Add to that ballyhoo the Spider-Man rogues’ gallery, along with the hints of previous Spider-Mens making the trip, and it’s easy to accuse anyone of putting this trailer on their Top 10 movie trailers list! It was an amazing spectacle.
Not for nothing, but second on the world record of most viewed movie trailer was 2018’s Avengers: Endgame with 67 million less people swarming the Internet to watch it. Spidey will have this record for a long time.
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)
The British comic troupe is a collection of brilliant deadpan actors who used jokes like a surgeon uses a scalpel. They didn’t just slash you open with laughter; Monty Python went directly for the comic jugular with a 100% knick rate.
The trailer was a movie short in itself, with a self-deprecating flair followed by the most bizarre occurrence ever in pre-movie hype. You see, the trailer became an advertisement for a Chinese restaurant. No, really. No one saw it coming. And to this day, that uproarious path stays unpaved and untread.
There is no question of this film’s absolute and tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek genius!
9. Inception (2010)
Some people watched this teaser and put down the joint within seconds. Who laced this thing? Was the stinky green just full of mold? Whatever it was, this is one of those movie trailers that forced you to reach out to someone you knew with “Bruh. What in the literal eff was that?!”
Of course, the movie trailers Wunderkind was behind this one as well. How does Christopher Nolan come up with various methods to jack with our psyche time and time again? This trailer has no words but still fills our imagination with what’s possible. Nothing about the plot was revealed, yet we watched hypnotized by Hans Zimmer’s captivating score. And that friggin’ top?!
And just when you think Nolan is done surprising you with his teaser prowess, here comes Oppenheimer to rock your world. The guy has marketing and movie trailers on lock!
8. Star Wars: Episode VII, The Force Awakens (2015)
Now that Star Wars was part of the Mouse, what could Mickey do to make us care about The Skywalker Saga again? Regardless of what you believed about the movie itself, J.J. Abrams made you an instant believer in Rey, Kylo Ren, and Captain Phasma.
And now that you developed the feels for new characters, fan service slapped you square in the mug with Darth Vader’s helmet, Han Solo’s ship, and John Williams’ music. It was a glorious beatdown, right?
You couldn’t control the excitement for this trailer. You have a snootful of Vader in Revenge of the Sith. Now, you’re smothered in the hype for a sequel trilogy. People who claim to hate this film could never do the same with a straight face about this preview. One of the best movie trailers ever did its job in a powerful way.
7. Godzilla (2014)
When you see a film getting remade over and over again, and they all suck, you give up on the idea. (Yes, Fantastic Four, we’re looking at you). So when rumors before 2014’s ComicCon started making the rounds about our favorite nuclear lizard, you could hear the collective rolling of eyes worldwide.
Then came this tremendous trailer and it shut everything down, except for applause.
If you know anything about director Gareth Edwards, you know he is a true master at scale. Going back to Toho Studios, Godzilla has never seemed all-powerful or fearful. When this trailer dropped, the world looked dystopian in the creature’s path. Buildings and coastline bays dwarfed in its colossal size, and we were better for it.
When you consider the “Monsterverse,” there was a ton riding on this trailer. So to see Godzilla in all of its teased glory, it was a revelation. Good night, did it deliver!
6. Watchmen (2009)
Be honest. Had you ever read Alan Moore‘s and Dave Gibbons’ magnum opus before you saw Zack Snyder’s film? It’s okay. Most people didn’t, but once this avant-garde trailer hit, millions of fans rectified that situation fast.
Characters you’ve never heard about before were pulling you in like a Death Star tractor beam. A plot about retired and not necessarily appreciated superheroes somehow worked on your soft, spandex-laden heart.
This is a trailer that already had the world against it, and the world lost. Few understood what this story meant to comics. And after the trailer, they connected those dots into a puzzle they never realized needed to be put together.
5. The Social Network (2010)
The first-ever social network to capture the world deserves a movie trailer that did the same. How could that happen with Facebook? Add an unexpected, compelling dash of Radiohead’s iconic song to set the story in the voice of a children’s choir.
Of course, Mark Zuckerberg is a creep! Then, offer a generous helping of Aaron Sorkin‘s masterclass writing, and a few clips that have you slapping the remote with conviction. This trailer was moving and a force of emotion.
David Fincher understood how Zuckerberg could create one of the most seminal platforms in history, so why not follow suit with an incomparable trailer? Fincher and Sorkin made this into a master class in screenplay development. But it took a work of art to bring us all to class in the first place.
4. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1994)
James Cameron took a moment away from typical storytelling and kingdom-building movie trailers. Instead of using footage from the film, Cameron built a new trailer, literally. This trailer hit so hard back in the day. Who cares about the plot, characters, or even explosion porn. Here, we learned how Terminators were created!
Using a metal cranium to inspire the endoskeleton, then we get flesh and muscles. And not just any biceps–those were Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s. It was a fantastic examination of how movie trailers don’t have to fit a particular mold to be successful. And then, it stops with one of AFI’s most memorable film quotes in history.
It’s fitting one of the top film sequels ever gets one of the best trailers. Cameron just setting expectations!
3. Man of Steel (2013)
Movie trailers position a story and allow your mind to connect the dots. Fans have a unique relationship with trailers. It becomes their story because of the feelings associated with them. No other trailer captivated storytellers and created feels like that to Zack Snyder’s superb origin story, Man of Steel.
Oh, and the producer of this trailer in particular? Christopher Nolan!
Both Kal-El’s and Clark’s fathers provide narration. A young and older Superman also chimes in. But that trailer is nothing without Lisa Gerrard’s haunting and hypnotizing voice. This movie trailer was the favorite part of this moviegoing experience for some fans–and that movie was The Dark Knight!
2. The Exorcist (1973)
Seriously, what are older movies doing on this list when technology is more advanced today? Just because you have CGI, doesn’t mean it’s a shortcut for how movie trailers are made. Sometimes, imagination is the most effective tool there is.
*WARNING: If you have a problem with strobe lights, you may not want to watch this trailer.*
The trailer takes us to one of the most regaled shots ever, followed by near :60 of mine-numbing and bone-chilling strobe flashes of some demon girl and a spirit we would come to know as Pazuzu. This preamble to the film is an original, a one-of-one. There hasn’t been a movie trailer like it since!
Goosebumps during movie trailers. Who would’ve thunk it?
1. Alien (1979)
All hardcore sci-fi geeks knew this would be on the list. Among movie trailers, there is something special about Ridley Scott‘s Alien. Prior to this movie, most movie trailers featured a 1950s anonymous trailer guy sharing the cast and a few critics’ pull quotes with some high-pitched voice and nasally delivery.
Then came Alien. No narration about who is in the movie, only tension to establish the tone of what is in the movie. Trailers were boring and campy. Ridley Scott’s idea forced movie trailers to make us feel the film before we saw it. And that tagline, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Oh yes, please!
Sure, you’re not freaking out like you did when you saw the film (with the PEEK-A-BOO clip from an innocent abdomen). However, once you capture the indirect references, you see the egg and the word “ALIEN” spelled out to introduce you to someone completely unexpected.
This trailer changed the approach to how production houses marketed their films forever. It left fans drooling for what could be. And, as fate would have it, this film ended up being a supreme thirst quencher.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.