This is becoming more and more common as films are edited right up to the date of release, while marketing plans (including the trailer) must be prepared months in advance. I experienced this “trailer tease” most memorably with the Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Almost nothing we laughed at in the trailer was in the finished film. According to the IMDB site, there were so many discarded subplots and unused scenes that the filmmakers made an entire second film, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie and included it on the second disc of Anchorman’s DVD release.
Can you think of any other examples of trailer teases that failed to deliver?