The greatest plot twists lie at the end of a long trail of clues, dramatically revealing an answer hidden in plain sight all along.

The marketing campaign for independent distributor Neon’s surprise horror smash, “Longlegs,” took that concept a step further.

Breadcrumbs — in the form of enigmatic trailers, chilling phone messages, encrypted newspaper ads, fake blog posts and other stunts — littered the promotional path to “Longlegs.” And audiences took the bait, handing New York-based Neon its biggest opening ever as well as the best launch for an independent horror flick in a decade.

The R-rated title — which cost less than $10 million to make and promote, according to the studio — premiered at No. 2 last weekend with $22.6 million in domestic ticket sales.

Its performance “seemingly came out of nowhere,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, especially when sandwiched between safer, flashier pushes for major studio films such as “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”

“If you had talked to people a month ago and said, ‘Is this movie “Longlegs” on your list of films to be one of those sleeper, surprise hits?’ they’d say, ‘What’s “Longlegs”?’” Dergarabedian said.

“Getting audiences on board like this is not easy,” he added. “The way you entice that audience is to do something that goes above and beyond the ordinary … and they certainly did that.”

Helmed by Osgood Perkins (son of the late horror great Anthony Perkins), “Longlegs” stars veteran scream queen Maika Monroe as an FBI agent investigating a series of gruesome homicides. Nicolas Cage plays the film’s titular bogeyman — but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the marketing materials, which deliberately obscure the actor’s face.

He’s barely shown in the main trailer, which reveals little about the plot. (The studio scrapped its original plan for a more conventional preview after audiences responded enthusiastically to an early, cryptic teaser.)

“It increases the intrigue,” said Monica Koyama, an entertainment marketing expert and communication management professor at USC.

“I mean, he’s definitely frightening in the film. But … sometimes what’s in your head is scarier than what shows up onscreen.”

In an added effort to sell audiences on the fear factor, Neon released a recording of Monroe’s heartbeat spiking from 76 beats per minute
to 170 while filming her first scene with Cage as Longlegs. The studio pulled the audio from a microphone taped to Monroe’s chest after a conversation with Perkins — who deliberately separated the actors before shooting that sequence and said Monroe’s heart was racing during the encounter.

“It’s so simple,” Koyama said. “They gave us data. … ‘We’re saying this is scary. Here’s the actual raw data from the actress.’”

It’s all part of Neon’s ploy to place moviegoers in the shoes of the protagonist.

The success of “Longlegs” is “a testament to the wildly creative, exciting film [that director] Osgood Perkins and his fantastic group of collaborators created,” Elissa Federoff, president of distribution at Neon, said in a statement to The Times.

“We couldn’t be happier with the results, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Osgood and his team of producers, all of whom have allowed us the freedom to build a campaign we believe in.”

Koyama suspected that Neon intentionally blurred the lines between the horror and crime genres to appeal to a wider audience. She also credited plenty of tried-and-true advertising moves — such as quoting rave reviews calling it one of the scariest movies in years — with getting “Longlegs” over the line.

“This is going to reignite the creativity within marketing,” Koyama said. “I’m hoping studios will feel more excited about taking chances.”

Elon Musk said Tuesday on X that he is moving the headquarters of both SpaceX and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to Texas — citing several criticisms he has of California and doing business in San Francisco.

Pointing to a new state law that bans teachers from telling families about student gender identity changes, Musk tweeted that he is moving the headquarters of SpaceX from Hawthorne to the company’s launch test site in Texas.

The move would be a blow to Southern California, where SpaceX has helped to anchor a burgeoning space economy.

“This is the final straw,” Musk posted shortly after noon. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”

The law the SpaceX founder cited was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday after a contentious battle between conservative school boards concerned about parental rights and LGBTQ+ activists worried about vulnerable youths.

Later Tuesday, Newsom retweeted an older Donald Trump post on X about Musk with the comment: “You bent the knee.”

Trump’s tweet talked about how Musk came to the White House seeking help for all his “subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere… I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”

Shortly after his post about moving SpaceX, Musk posted that he would also move X, formerly known as Twitter, from San Francisco to Austin, saying that he has “had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”

Since acquiring Twitter in 2022 in a $44-billion deal, Musk has made sweeping and controversial changes to the social media site, firing top executives and laying off thousands of employees.

The announcement is the latest salvo in Musk’s long-running feud with California and comes nearly three years after he announced the move of Tesla’s headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto, citing the high cost of housing and long commutes for employees. The electric vehicle company maintains a manufacturing operation in Fremont.

It comes amid the highly charged presidential campaign during which the libertarian Musk has increasingly moved to the right. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the billionaire plans to give $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC.

Musk has an estimated net worth of $254 billion, making him the world’s wealthiest person, according to Forbes. His announcements drew immediate applause from Republicans. GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted: “Let freedom ring!”

California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, who voted against the parental notification law, issued a statement that “Gavin Newsom’s anti-parent agenda isn’t just bad for families — now it’s doing serious damage to California’s economy.”

Musk also drew a comment from the other side of the political spectrum, with Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, posting that Musk hugely benefited from California subsidies. “Will this be a fake temper tantrum move just like Tesla’s fake ‘move’ to Texas?”

In an interview, Wiener said, “I’m not confident that whatever he’s going to do has anything to do with a law that we passed to protect the safety of trans kids.” He added, “He has a history of saying one thing and it not being true.”

Newsom declined to comment on Musk’s announcements.

Musk, who announced in 2020 that he had moved from Los Angeles to Texas, has previously complained about crime in San Francisco. Last year, he said in a post that a friend had experienced two shootings outside his apartment in the city, with a bullet going through his wall.

In posting he would move SpaceX’s headquarters, it was unclear whether Musk was referring just to the company’s executive offices or also production and other employees.

Founded in 2002, SpaceX has deep ties to Los Angeles. In 2007, it moved into a former Northrop Corp. facility off Crenshaw Boulevard that it rapidly expanded last decade.

The sprawling Hawthorne campus is the location of the company’s mission control center and employs thousands of workers who design and build the company’s spacecraft, including the workhorse Falcon 9. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, made to service the International Space Station, also was built there under a $2.6-billion contract with NASA.

Other facilities in Southern California include one at Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, where it wants to expand operations. SpaceX is seeking approval to launch 90 rockets from the Santa Barbara County launch site by 2026.

The company also conducts rocket launches in Florida and from Starbase, a site in Boca Chica, Texas, off the Gulf of Mexico. That is where it is building and has launched its massive Starship rocket, which SpaceX intends to send to the moon.

SpaceX has recently suffered some setbacks.

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the company’s Falcon 9 rocket after its second stage failed to boost a payload of the company’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit during an uncrewed mission.

And last month, SpaceX and Musk were sued by eight former employees who allege that they were fired after asking the company to address a toxic work culture they say is rife with sexual harassment and discrimination. The company has declined to respond to the claims.

Last year, the Justice Department sued the company, alleging that it discriminated against employees and refugees by discouraging them from applying for jobs and by refusing to consider or hire them because of their citizenship status.

Times staff writer Caroline Petrow-Cohen contributed to this report.

A group of hackers says it recently leaked internal communications at Walt Disney Co. over the company’s handling of “artist contracts, its approach to AI, and its pretty blatant disregard for the consumer.”

The self-proclaimed hacktivist group known as NullBulge told multiple media outlets, including CNN, that it had breached thousands of Disney’s internal messaging channels and leaked roughly 1.2 terabytes of information.

NullBulge did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment.

A Disney spokesperson said in a statement to The Times that the Burbank-based entertainment behemoth was “investigating this matter.”

The compromised data included computer code and information about unreleased projects, as well as conversations about marketing, studio technology and job applicants, according to the Wall Street Journal.

NullBulge told CNN that it was based out of Russia and that it penetrated Disney’s system thanks to “a man with Slack access who had cookies” and initially tried to kick the hackers out. Slack is a popular workplace messaging platform used by companies for internal discussions.

NullBulge bills itself as a group “protecting artists’ rights and ensuring fair compensation for their work.”

Companies such as Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix have come under scrutiny lately amid widespread concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence and its effect on entertainment workers.

Labor unions representing Hollywood actors, writers and crew members have all fought in recent months for limitations on the use of AI. The rapidly evolving technology emerged as a key issue in negotiations between the unions and the studios during last year’s strikes by writers and actors.

California lawmakers are also trying to regulate AI through legislation, and tech companies have responded by urging caution against overregulation.