If you were sitting in a darkened movie theater in November 1998, there’s a good chance you weren’t actually there to see the movie on the ticket. You were there for the trailer for Meet Joe Black. Well, technically, you were there for what played before it.
The story of this trailer is one of the weirdest footnotes in Hollywood history. It involves a $90 million gamble, a Jamaican woman who sees through Death, and a sudden, massive influx of Star Wars fans who had absolutely no intention of staying for the actual film.
The Star Wars Connection: A $9 admission for a 2-minute teaser
Let's be real: in 1998, the internet wasn't exactly what it is now. You couldn't just hop on YouTube to watch the latest teaser. So, when Lucasfilm announced that the first-ever trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace would be attached to specific movies, the world lost its mind. One of those movies was Meet Joe Black.
People literally paid full price for a ticket, watched the two-minute Phantom Menace teaser, and then stood up and walked out. They didn't care about Brad Pitt’s bleached hair or Anthony Hopkins’ existential crisis. They wanted podracing.
This created a bizarre box office bump. The trailer for Meet Joe Black became a Trojan Horse. It brought in a demographic that would never, in a million years, voluntarily sit through a three-hour romantic fantasy drama about the personification of Death learning to love peanut butter.
What the trailer actually showed us
If you ignore the Star Wars of it all, the actual trailer for Meet Joe Black was an exercise in 90s prestige marketing. It was directed by Martin Brest—the same guy who did Scent of a Woman—and he knew exactly how to push those emotional buttons.
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The trailer sets up a pretty wild premise. Bill Parrish (played by a very dignified Anthony Hopkins) is a media mogul about to turn 65. Then, Death shows up. But Death looks like a young, incredibly handsome Brad Pitt.
Key elements that defined the trailer:
- The Deal: Death (Joe Black) wants a "vacation." He’ll give Bill more time if Bill shows him around the human world.
- The Romance: Joe meets Bill's daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani). It’s that classic "boy meets girl, girl realizes boy is literally the Grim Reaper" trope.
- The Tone: It’s haunting, slow, and expensive-looking.
One thing the trailer didn’t really prepare people for was the pacing. The movie is long. Like, three hours long. The trailer makes it look like a taut, mystical romance, but the film itself is much more interested in long, lingering gazes and the way peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth.
That "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Moment
You can’t talk about the marketing or the impact of this film without mentioning the music. The trailer for Meet Joe Black used Thomas Newman’s score, which is basically the gold standard for "make the audience feel something deeply."
But the real kicker was the inclusion of Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World." While the song is technically on the soundtrack and heavily associated with the film’s legacy, it was the trailer and subsequent TV spots that solidified it in the public consciousness.
Honestly, that song does a lot of the heavy lifting. It masks some of the more absurd parts of the plot—like the fact that Brad Pitt spends half the movie acting like he’s never seen a human body before—and makes the whole thing feel like a spiritual masterpiece.
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Why people still search for it today
It’s been decades, yet the trailer for Meet Joe Black still pops up in film circles. Part of that is the "viral" nature of one specific scene that the trailer barely hints at: the car accident.
If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve seen the clip. Brad Pitt’s character gets hit by one car, then bounced off another like a pinball. In the context of the movie, it’s supposed to be a shocking, tragic moment. Out of context? It’s one of the funniest things ever committed to film.
The trailer handles this with a bit more grace, focusing on the "meet-cute" in the coffee shop before the chaos ensues. It’s a perfect example of how 90s marketing could make a movie look like a high-brow Oscar contender while hiding the absolute lunacy lurking beneath the surface.
The Director’s Cut vs. The Marketing
Martin Brest is a perfectionist. He famously had a massive falling out with the studio over the length of the film. The trailer had to sell a 180-minute movie to an audience with a 90-minute attention span.
Interestingly, there is a shorter version of the movie that exists—a two-hour cut made for television and airlines. Brest was so annoyed by this version that he took his name off it, using the "Alan Smithee" pseudonym.
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When you watch the trailer for Meet Joe Black now, you’re seeing the version of the movie the studio wished they had: a concise, romantic, slightly spooky story about life and death. The reality was a much more indulgent, beautiful, and occasionally frustrating epic.
Lessons from the Meet Joe Black marketing machine
If you’re looking at this from a film history or marketing perspective, there are a few things to take away.
- Strategic Partnerships Matter: Attaching the Star Wars trailer was a genius (if slightly deceptive) move to ensure a high opening weekend.
- Music is a Mood Shortcut: Using Israel Kamakawiwoʻole was a masterstroke in setting an emotional tone that the script alone couldn't always carry.
- Visual Cues: The trailer emphasized the chemistry between Pitt and Forlani, which remains the strongest part of the film.
If you want to revisit this piece of 90s history, your best bet is to find the original theatrical teaser. Watch it and try to imagine you’re a 19-year-old in 1998, holding a bucket of popcorn, waiting to see if Darth Vader is going to show up, only to be met with Anthony Hopkins talking about "singing with rapture and dancing like a dervish."
Go find the original 1998 theatrical cut of the trailer on a site like YouTube to see how Universal Pictures balanced the "Death" concept with a traditional romance. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, compare the pacing of the trailer to the actual "Coffee Shop" scene—it’s a masterclass in how editing can completely change the energy of a performance. Afterward, look up the "Alan Smithee" edit history to see why directors often fight so hard against the very marketing teams that help make their films hits.