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The big game is rarely about the big game. Yes, the Super Bowl easily draws more eyes than any other television event, but not everyone is watching to see the football. That’s especially true of nerds, who couldn’t care less about the San Diego Pie Pans scoring more touch backs than the Cheboygan Sea Anemones or whatever. Those nerds just want to see the nerdy trailers.
Fortunately, the one leads into the other. Because the Super Bowl is such a major television event, studios will shell out big bucks to advertise their films. Moreover, because they know that they have so many eyes on the screen, they do their best to make the movie palatable to everyone, even those who do care about the Pie-Pans and Sea Anemones. So let’s take a look back at some of the most compelling, memorable, or downright strange trailers of Super Bowls past.
Independence Day (1996)
Most of the 30-second clip that 20th Century Fox aired during the Super Bowl contains exactly what you’d expect from the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. No shots of stars Jeff Goldblum or Will Smith, just lots of ominous images of shadows looming over various locations, with random extras looking up in awe. Of course, this builds to the movie’s money shot, a beam blowing up the White House. It’s effective and exciting, but the best part of the clip comes right at the end, when it declares, “Enjoy the Super Bowl… It may be your last.”
Daredevil (2003)
20th Century Fox really thought they had something back in 2003. The Daredevil clip that aired during the Super Bowl for that year promises superhero action, with lots of shots of Ben Affleck as the Man Without Fear bending backwards to dodge a throwing star or swinging from a building. Between the brightly-lit action sequences and techno-infused soundtrack, the clip presents Daredevil as a good time, a continuation of the studio’s superhero hit from a year earlier, Spider-Man. It’s such a good clip that we almost believe it… but of course, we’ve seen Daredevil and know that the dour, plodding mess is a far cry from the movie teased here, let alone Spider-Man.
Troy (2004)
To see how much Hollywood has changed over the past two decades, just contrast the current marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey to the Super Bowl teaser released in 2004 for Troy. Greek mythology takes a back seat to dreamy movie stars, as the names Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, and Orlando Bloom flash on screen, proceeded by shots of each respective A-lister staring out from behind locks of hair. Troy‘s less-than-legendary box office receipts aren’t what killed the movie star, but the clip sure seems like it comes from a different era.
Batman Begins (2005)
In 2005, Batman‘s name was mud. Okay, we nerds loved the Dark Knight, but the average cinema goer still had the bad taste of George Clooney in Batman & Robin in their mouth. In fact, when this writer found himself at a Super Bowl party that year, he had to demand that everyone be quiet as soon as the teaser for Batman Begins started playing. Yes, there were chuckles and snickers, but between the bits of the Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard score and images of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne assembling the iconic bat-suit, something changed. By the time 30 seconds had ended, Batman had gone from a big joke to something that everyone wanted to see.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
When the first Transformers movie released in 2007, Paramount didn’t even bother buying a Super Bowl ad for the update of the ’80s toy franchise. Two years and $709.7 million in box office returns later, the studio wasn’t going to repeat the mistake. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen got a full press push, including a Super Bowl spot that highlighted returning stars Shia LaBeouf and Josh Duhamel, but especially the incoherent action that director Michael Bay provided throughout the 2000s.
Star Trek (2009)
To this days, Trekkies continue to bemoan how J. J. Abrams turned the voyages of the starship Enterprise into something that felt like a space dogfight out of Star Wars. Whether or not that’s a fair assessment of Abrams’s approach to the franchise, it sure describes the way Paramount advertised the 2009 reboot Star Trek. The 30-second spot is all cut after cut, pausing a moment for someone to say something meaningful or recognizable so we know that we are indeed looking at Kirk and Spock and Bones, but then moving onto the next action set piece. Nerds might have hated what they were seeing, but regular folks sure were thrilled.
Fast & Furious (2009)
Traditionally, the Super Bowl is the domain of jocks. But, as this list shows, Super Bowl movie ads are for nerds. No franchise brought the two together like The Fast and the Furious, especially after its reassurance with 2009’s Fast & Furious. The TV spot for that Justin Lin-directed fourth entry doesn’t foreground the excess and absurdity that would become hallmarks of the series. However, it does invite the viewers to celebrate the return of Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner and especially Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, who had been largely absent since the original movie.
Avengers (2012)
Superhero movies certainly existed and did well at the box office before the MCU. But 2008’s Iron Man ignited a passion for cape and cowl pictures, even if the average moviegoer couldn’t quite imagine a shared universe movie. If Marvel Studios felt the weight of expectation, you can’t tell by their Super Bowl ad for The Avengers. The clip is all celebration, giving the viewers looks at their new favorites together for the first time, and even teasing a bit of the great oner of all the Avengers assembled. By the time the clip ended, there was no question that Marvel would rule the cinemas for the rest of the decade.
Logan (2017)
No matter how many times Marvel resurrects Wolverine and Professor X, Logan remains a powerful, moving take on the superhero genre. The pathos of the project is clear even in the trailer that 20th Century Fox aired during the big game. Instead of simply repeating the somber first trailer, which used Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt,” the Super Bowl trailer contrasts lots of onscreen chaos with the sounds of “Amazing Grace.” The combination works, foregrounding the weight that Hugh Jackman’s Canucklehead carries throughout the film, and his ongoing search for forgiveness.
Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018)
There’s nothing particularly unique about the fact that Paramount debuted a trailer for Mission: Impossible—Fallout during the Super Bowl. What is unique is the trailer itself, easily one of the best trailers ever made. It’s not just that get glimpses of the base jumping stunt that the ever-reckless Tom Cruise performs as Ethan Hunt. It’s that we also get to see Cruise hang off a cliff face, that we get to see Hunt and Ilsa Faust stare one another down. It’s that we get to see Henry Cavill apparently reload his biceps before throwing a punch, and we get to hear Angela Bassett deliver the words, “That’s the job.” How could anything on a football field compete with such awesomeness?
Top Gun: Maverick (2020)
Like the Mission: Impossible franchise, Top Gun: Maverick distills Tom Cruise‘s movie star persona into pure blockbuster spectacle. However, unlike Mission: Impossible, a lot of time had passed between the original movie in 1986 and the 2020 sequel. As a result, general audiences were skeptical of another patriotic plane movie. That is, until the trailer played… in the first commercial break after the singing of the national anthem. By the time the clip finished, even the biggest skeptic was ready to watch Tom fly fighter jets against faceless pilots of some unidentified enemy nation.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Here’s what the average viewer knew about Sonic the Hedgehog before he made the jump from video games to movies in 2020: he’s blue, he’s fast, and he’s got attitude. Rather than try to further educate the public, the Super Bowl trailer for the first Sonic movie plays up those qualities. The first half consists of real-world athletes talking about the one person who can best them, before revealing that person to be Sonic himself, voiced by Ben Schwartz. Only then do we get a smattering of clips from the film, including a healthy dose of Jim Carrey returning to Ace Ventura mode to play Dr. Eggman. Clearly, the gambit worked, as the Sonic franchise has been a steady earner for Paramount, certainly nothing they need to be embarrassed about anymore.
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