8 Most Thrilling Movie Trailers Ever, According To Reddit

Movie trailers are an interesting thing. They are a marketing tool designed to highlight the best, most enticing moments from an upcoming film, but without giving away too much and spoiling the entire plot (most of the time, anyway). In some cases, movie trailers actually wind up being better than the finished film upon release. Clever editing, music and capturing the overall tone of an upcoming film can build hype for a release that few other marketing campaigns can.

But which trailers would some consider “the best of all-time”? Luckily, this isn’t a discussion that is scarcely found on the internet. In fact, it’s actually a conversation that comes up quite often in online forums. Reddit especially!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Some people might not believe this, but there was once a time where it had been years between Star Wars films. Pop-culture saw tons of animations, books and comics between the prequels and the new trilogy, but the idea of a new saga was seemingly a pipe dream until Star Wars: The Force Awakens released an official teaser trailer in 2014.

Redditor original_scent gives the accolade to The Force Awakens teaser trailer (2014) because “it introduced the new characters, didn’t give away the story, and gave us the first new footage of the Millennium falcon since Return of the Jedi”.  It’s all of these elements that likely led to the trailer’s 79-million views on YouTube.

Man of Steel (2013)

Back in the early days of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe), Warner Brothers was trying to crack the code on how to reverse engineer their movie universe to compete with the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). It all started with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel; a new take on the legendary superhero that pivoted more towards a mature audience to differentiate themselves from the quip and witty films of the MCU.

According to MatchesMalone66 on Reddit, “I still remember watching it 6 years ago and getting incredibly excited, though lot of the credit probably goes to the LOTR soundtrack and the dialogue from the All-Star Superman comicbook”. Giving more grounds to the statement that music, editing and tone are imperative building blocks to any great movie trailer.

Hereditary (2018)

Horror and thriller movie trailers haven’t always been held to the same standard as drama or action films. To be fair to the genre, it’s more difficult to sum up what viewers can expect in a 2-minute trailer when studios want to save all the scares for the full release. But Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster, managed to balance the two beautifully.

Like mentioned before, sound design and editing can make or break a move trailer, which is exactly why Redditor harrisonisdead claimed it was one of the best of all time. “It’s super well edited, has great sound design and effectively creates interest for the film”. Not to mention the fact that the trailer itself was horrifying.

The Social Network (2010)

Biopic films are an interesting genre to build a trailer around. They follow the true story, or mostly true stories, of some of the most interesting people to have ever lived. But editing together a trailer for true events can be hard when Wikipedia can spoil an entire film before it releases.

Once again sound design plays a big part in why Redditor Johnny_Mc2 claims The Social Network has one of the best trailers ever: “It’s first trailer is the probably the best I’ve ever seen, the use of Radiohead’s Creep and the clips at the end is flawless”.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

The MCU had an Achilles Heel for the early days of their universe, and it was their scores. It wasn’t until The Avengers that a properly scored theme started to take hold, but it was James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy that truly propelled the Marvel soundtrack to the next level – which all started in a trailer that brilliantly used 80s music to introduce fans to a new group of misfit heroes.

This is one of the reasons PokerTheKristin claims that Guardians of the Galaxy has one of the best trailer set ups ever. “Everything you need to know about our characters is in this trailer without a single thing about the plot. No one knew the guardians and so introducing them with a line up was brilliant. Also, Ogga Chakka!”.

The Handmaiden (2016)

The amount of top-tier entertainment coming out of South Korea in recent years has been staggering. It’s didn’t start Squid Game (2020) or even Parasite (2019) for that matter. Loads of critically acclaimed and cult followed films have released in recent memory and there isn’t a Reddit thread on the internet that doesn’t mention The Handmaiden as one of the best films and trailers in the past decade.

With edited-to-sound precision that would make Edgar Wright cry, The Handmaiden has captured so much attention from Redditors that some even resort to watching it every month. “The Handmaiden is one of the few trailers I like to watch every few months. I wasn’t the only one who liked it, the director of Kong: Skull island was inspired by it” claimed peteballoon on Reddit.

Logan (2017)

Between 2016-2017 there was a new avenue of comic book movie being tested out by studios, making them R-Rated. Sure, movies like Blade and Spawn had tried it years prior, but it wasn’t until Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool (2016) that studios realized they could profit from limiting the audience to 18+. While Deadpool – an honorable mention for best trailer – teed up the R-Rated ball, it was Logan that smashed it home.

Once again the choice to sample Johnny Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails hit “Hurt” contributed to its success as Redditor Wiger_King points out: “Possibly the best combo of trailer and music ever”. Even to this day it’s hard to watch the Logan trailer without becoming covered in goosebumps. It’s not a stretch to say that the current tone of comic book movies can be traced back to this particular trailer and film.

Alien (1979)

Just like how Logan and Deadpool inspired the next 10 years of comic book movies, it’s safe to say that Ridley Scott’s Alien continues to inspire, even 43 years later. Alien not only paved the way for women-in-film to lead action movies, but the trailer itself managed to build a level of suspense, curiosity and uneasiness that is still being replicated to this date. And it did all of this without any dialogue or voiceover.

Which is something that multiple Reddit users agree on. AF2005 gets more specific with their opinion of the trailer saying, “It holds up well. A great example of tension building. The pulse beat with Nostromo’s Klaxon alarm in the background still gives me goosebumps.” A suspenseful score, quick cuts and showing just enough to entice and horrify audiences is why Alien continues to reign as the best movie trailer ever.