By NOAM COHEN

After 58 continuous years of performances in London, the surprise ending of the Agatha Christie play “The Mousetrap” has been largely preserved by the estimated 10 million people who have seen the play.

Shows strive for
surprise; the Web
thrives on exposure


There is one notable exception: Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia , in a single sentence, reveals the killer. In an age of information overload, it is getting harder to preserve mystery and surprise in entertainment. Olympics results are reported via Twitter before they are shown on television, and TV show plots are revealed by people on the set or Web sites .

“It’s hard to argue that there is an intellectual or academic reason for getting deeply into the secrets of a movie that the vast majority of the public has not had access to,” said Andrew Jarecki, whose 2003 documentary, “Capturing the Friedmans,” also contained crucial plot twists. Wikipedia, however, considers itself a comprehensive reference work and thus doesn’t censor facts.

Movies, plays and books may be caught in the worst bind. “There is a distinct difference between spoiling something, and writing about something after it happens,” says Carlton Cuse, an executive producer of the “Lost” TV series. “ ‘The Mousetrap’ is a work that exists in both spaces.” Mr. Cuse said he had no problem with Wikipedia printing the plot of the much-anticipated finale to “Lost.” “Once it has officially aired, the narrative is out there for public consumption,” he said.

The musician and mystery writer Rupert Holmes was less forgiving of Wikipedia’s penchant for exposing his twists. “The rules of ‘full disclosure’ don’t apply to fictional creations,” he wrote in an e-mail. “ We want, even hope to be tricked, surprised, stunned.” An illusionist “is selling us the childlike thrill of believing, for one moment, that there really could be magic in the world.”

He also questioned the motives of someone eager to report the surprise in a creative work. “It’s the self-aggrandizing vandalism of another person’s potential pleasure,” he said. David Thomson, the film critic and author of “The New Biographical Dictionary of Film,” said he had learned not to give away the endings of the movies after hearing from readers.

Mr. Thomson, who was born in Britain but lives in San Francisco, said he was less concerned about “The Mousetrap.” “I was raised to believe that everyone in Britain had already seen ‘The Mousetrap,’ ” he said. “I saw it when I was a child, and I can’t remember the ending.”