Shhhh!!!! Can You Keep A Secret???

The weekend of Dec 18 I was concerned about a particular secret being kept.  That close to the holidays, there are many secrets, surely this one will get out. Isn’t the saying “loose lips sink ships”?

What type of secrets do you keep?

There are many types of secrets that we keep.  The intimate personal secrets you fear getting out.  “Game play” secrets that help maintain a competitive advantage in the combat of sports, business, or warfare. The gift secret is used to maintain the surprise & delight of a present.

While I’ve never been a fan of the personal secret, the gift secret is one that I do like to keep.

There’s no other time of year with so many gift secrets as the end of December. And the pressure is always on to make it “a December to remember.”  Plain shipping boxes are delivered. Their contents elaborately wrapped to keep the secret. Parents hiding the presents from the North Pole in closets, trunks of cars, attics, and other dusty corners of the house.

These secrets are worth the effort when the surprise and delight on opening the gift is such a magical payout.

There’s one other type of secret that we all engage in. The plot secret. It's this type of secret I was hoping would be kept on December 18. In other words…. no spoilers.

December 18 was a big day in American (and global) pop culture.  I’m guessing the number of people in the world who don’t realize Star Wars: The Force Awakens has opened might only constitute the population of North Korea.

Do you know anyone who didn't know this was coming to a theater near you?

As someone who remembers the thrill of seeing the original film in 1977, I was definitely excited for Episode VII.  But our tickets weren’t until Monday, December 21.  4 days later.  Half of my friends would have seen the movie by then.  Would someone spill the movie’s secrets on social media?

In 2015, spoilers abound.  People live tweet and post on FB about Scandal, Empire and sports events as they broadcast.  To enjoy the surprise for yourself you have to avoid social media completely.

Imagine if you learned for the first time by glancing at someone’s Twitter feed...

{SPOILER ALERT!} Darth Vader @youngskywalker #lukeiamyourfather

I didn’t want that. I was worried on Saturday December 19. Would my friends, who had seen the movie already, manage to keep the plot secrets?

I peeked at FB. Started seeing a few random posts.  What I found was….

“Thank you JJ Abrams.”

“Better than I expected.”

“Can you reboot episodes 1-3 next?”

No spoilers in sight.

Collectively we kept the plot of The Force Awakens a secret.  Feels like this is the first time it's happened. Why did we honor this movie’s secrets?

Star Wars has become a cultural event all across the world.  It’s a touchstone for everyone. The story of the hero’s journey, good vs. evil, dealing with family tensions, and coming into your own are universal human themes we all relate to. And we shared these experiences in the theater. We recite lines from the films…. “Luke, I am your father” or talk like Yoda.  For us, a point to make, hmmm?

Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, all have passionate fans but have yet to cross generations and penetrate pop culture so significantly.

The new film even brings back the original cast! Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca.  The Millennium Falcon.  Even my 70 year old parents are eager to see Episode VII in the theater.  For a 47 year old, it brought back feelings of my 9 year old self when I first landed in 1977 on Tatooine with a pair of droids.

Because of this life long relationship and cultural event-status of the franchise, we want to experience it properly, like opening a present.  The surprise and delight can only happen once, and we don’t want the Grinch to steal it from us.

Don't be a Grinch and spoil the plot, please.

The movies are also a shared experience, so your reaction is magnified as you sense the reactions of those around you.  The person next to you cheering makes you want to cheer. Star Wars is an opportunity for us to have that shared pleasure.

Now, over a week later, few spoilers have been broadcast. Its fortuitous that the release was pushed to the holidays, when keeping secrets becomes accepted behavior.

Viewing Episode VII is like a holiday gift to ourselves. The gift is the plot secrets – and those must be maintained.  You don’t want to be the one that spoiled Christmas by revealing Santa’s identity, just like you don’t want to ruin the gift of a Star Wars movie by revealing the true identity of Kylo Ren.