Spoilers are serious business, both on the internet, and in real life. But an Australian judge has officially ruled that you can go too far in your desire to come into every media experience in our info-soaked environment completely clean, sentencing a police officer in the country to 100 hours of community service, plus a formal conviction that will almost certainly see him removed from the force, after he responded to threats by one of his co-workers to spoil Top Gun: Maverick
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Now, according to Variety, the officer in question, Dominic Gaynor, did keep his finger away from the trigger during the confrontation with his co-worker Morgan Royston, which is only polite when you’re stating you will murder someone if they tell you what Miles Teller has been up to in airplanes lately. Also, Gaynor was laughing as he told his coworker “I’ll shoot you,” which we’re sure was a great comfort to Royston after his joking comments that “I’ll spoil it for you” about the 2022 movie were met by having a gun pointed at him for five seconds. Gaynor’s lawyer apparently referred to the incident as “a case where the skylarking and tomfoolery in an employment context has gone awry,” which we certainly hope will be submitted for this year’s big Comical Understatement Awards, “Tomfoolery” Division.
Royston has since quit the police force, saying that he experienced “overwhelming shock and fear” in the moment, and that his trust in his former colleagues has been seriously eroded.
And, obviously, there are some very heavy issues to unpack here, many of them sitting at the intersection between police culture, gun culture, the ease with which violence can become integrated into the thought processes of those indoctrinated to use it as part of their daily work, etc. But also: Who the hell is pulling their piece over spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick?! What, were you worried Maverick wasn’t going to make it out of this one, dude? Concerned it was going to end with the good guys losing and World War III kicking off? Were there terrible Goose secrets you were horrified to have revealed? It’s a Tom Cruise movie, dingus; keep the firearm in your pants.