Have you ever found yourself in a movie theater where things have gone wrong? It is a strange and almost eerie event. You are surrounded by people you have never met before who suddenly start muttering things like “Rip-off!” and “I should go up there!” One might even say that it is the start of a mob getting ready to attack.
So there we were, in the theater and about 1/3 of the way into our movie when suddenly, for a brief moment, the lights turn on, and then right back off. Now, I am not sure if you have ever seen something like this happen, but it has a very interested effect on your eyes. I think right after it happened, everyone was thinking the same thing… “Did the lights just come on, or was that in the movie.” At this point, the movie made a scratching noise, and shut off.
Now, it is not my style to just wait and see if the movie comes back on. So I started my trek out of the theater. As I reached the lit up hall way, I saw about 10 people who either had the same idea as me, or thought they would use this time to hit the restroom. However, all of them seemed very confused. As I walked to the front I started to ask those walking with me what theaters they were in, mine being theater 12, and if theirs had gone out. By the time I made it to the front I learned that at least screens 14-7 were completely out.
As I rounded the corner I realized that it must be all of the screens that were out, because there were at least 30 people all surrounding one small blonde girl. All of them confused and angry; not getting satisfied answers from the 20 year old ticket taker. One woman was directly in front of the girl and pointing in her face while saying “You need to fix this! You need to make this right! I have 10 eight year olds in there!”
I pushed my way through the crowd and got up to the woman who looked at me in surprise. I told her “Relax, everything is going to be just fine. What theater are you in?” She told me and I looked to the next person. “You?” I asked. As other people started to shout their theater numbers I reached over and took the pen from the ticket takers hand and ripped a piece of paper form her clipboard.
I looked back to the angry woman and said “Sorry ma’am, you said you were in 5 right?” She nodded then turned to walk back to her theater. I continued to get all the theaters in question (Which was all of them) and I wrote them down. Suddenly a man came pushing through the crowd. He was wearing very expensive golfing clothes and a gold Rolex. He got much closer to me than I would have otherwise liked and said “Are you in charge here?” Clearly the running shoes, shorts and red Batman shirt were not enough to make clear that I was just here for the movie. I looked over at the ticket taker to see if she thought that was as funny as I did. However, she was traumatized by her attackers, and just stood there like a zombie. Looking back at the man I smiled and said “Yes, sir. Everything will be taken care of, please return to your theater.” The man gave a satisfied grumble and marched off.
Turning back to the ticket taker and holding up the piece of paper I said “These are the theaters that are complaining that the screen is out. Please let your manager know.” She looked back up at me with a scared look and very sadly said “I don’t know where he is.” I placed the piece of paper into her hand and told her “I assume that he is in the projection room. Just stick to your post and let him know when you see him.” I headed back to my theater and made it in right before the screen came back on… Not even missing a second.
I suppose if there is a lesson behind this, it is that sometimes the person you follow in a disaster really doesn’t know much more than you… they may just have been the one who did not let the anger or fear go to their head.
Also, we got free movie tickets out of it… So it was actually a pretty good deal.
As Random As Random Gets 