It took me nearly 14 months but eventually I managed, thanks to my girlfriend leaving me sole control over the apartment for Saturday night, to sit down and watch Sam Mendes’ Skyfall. Released in late 2012 the movie was of course a massive critical and commercial success. Everyone was talking about it. So how on Earth have I managed to make it this far and not have the ending of the film spoiled on me? I honestly have no idea.

For me spoilers are tantamount to destroying someones experience with a movie. Even little hints and giveaways annoy me. “There’s a big twist at the end” makes me sit through the entire movie guessing the potential curveball. “It’s a really sad ending” makes me spend the time figuring out who’s going to die. For people who refuse to shut their brain off in movies even the tiniest spoiler can ruin the experience. Yet I was never even given a hint as to what the ending entailed, and this is not because I’ve surrounded myself with friends of stellar character. On the contrary, my friends will openly ruin stuff just because they know I’ll nerd rage out.

I have become so obsessed with avoiding spoilers that over a decade ago I made the conscious decision to stop watching movie trailers, even in the theater. This has garnered me long, confused looks from the people sitting next to me and embarrassed groans from anyone choosing to accompanying me, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. Trailers don’t just give away plot points they give away the spectacle and once you see a particular sequence you can never get back your first experience with it, so I like to save that for when I’m watching the actual movie.

Skyfall as a whole was a very entertaining movie but probably not one that I’d attach with a large amount of hype. It has some great sequences but even some of those fall into the modern movie quagmire of cgi versus physical. A motorcycle chase atop of a bazaar stood out particularly glaring in terms of its green screen and artificiality. It was in the last half hour that I found myself genuinely shocked and this was not because of the improved quality of the movie. On the contrary, the movie was excellent all the way through. It all came down to the ending, a conclusion that I never saw coming despite being over 14 months late to the party. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about, and as a person who makes a strong effort to avoid spoilers I can honestly say I was shocked this one hadn’t been revealed to me. You win internet. For once you weren’t as transparent as I thought.