Apparently, this Star Wars thing is kind of a big deal to a lot of folks.
If you’ve been on the Internet at all the past week, you know that posting any spoilers to the newly-released Star Wars: The Force Awakens is tantamount to a capital crime.
Case in point: this past Friday, when a midnight showing of the film at iconic Los Angeles venue Arclight Theatre nearly descended into anarchy after a projector error caused the film to jump ahead several minutes, spoiling a potential plot point.
Video shot from inside the theatre shows the moment borderline pandemonium breaks out as angry Star Wars fans decry the theatre’s technical snafu (and resulting spoiler).
“You’re ruining my life!” one fan shouts in mock despair, but the reaction around him is anything but jovial. Fans can be heard screaming obscenities at theatre staff, while other fans reportedly covered their ears and sprinted from the theatre in an attempt to avoid spoilers.
The clips have gone viral since they were posted this past weekend, with nearly half a million combined views on YouTube.
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“Now that we watched the movie, we know it wasn’t the ending,” Eric Melendez, who recorded one of the videos from inside the theatre, told CNN. “However, at the time, we thought it was because we saw the movie fast forwarded and believed it to be spoilers.”
Eventually, theatre staff managed to restore the projector to working order, and the film resumed – this time at the appropriate place.
This isn’t the first time the ArcLight Theatre has been associated with the latest Star Wars film in a negative way.
Just last week, director Quentin Tarantino blasted Disney after they forced the ArcLight theatre to cancel their planned run of his new film The Hateful Eight in order to continue screening Star Wars over the holiday season.
The irony was not lost on the fans in attendance at the midnight showing – at one point, someone can be heard shouting “Is Tarantino running the projector?”
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