I love going to the movies. It is one of my favorite things to do and places to go. For a couple of hours you get to enter a new world full of excitement and the unknown. I have a lot of memories of going to movies in my lifetime and almost all of them are positive ones. One year ago today the movie theater was not one of my favorite places to go. On July 20, 2012 a gunman walked in to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises and changed the lives of so many people. I will not go in to details of the shooting because though I was not there, it is still hard to relay in my words what I saw on the news. Instead I will go in to my memories of that day as well as my memories of seeing The Dark Knight Rises.
Until I was about eleven years old I lived in Aurora, Colorado. The Century 16 movie theater was not built when I lived in Aurora but I did go to a number of movies in the surrounding area. I still remember going to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze for my ninth birthday with my brother Chase and best friend William only a couple blocks from where the theater now stands. Though I no longer live in Aurora I still visit it 5 days a week as it is where I work. My office is less than ten minutes away from the theater which is probably why the morning of July 20 a couple of my coworkers called to check on me. They knew I was planning on seeing The Dark Knight Rises that day, they just didn’t know when and where. I should mention that besides The Avengers, seeing The Dark Knight Rises had been at the top of my movie watching list for the summer.
I can still remember most of what I did on July 20 as well as the night before. On July 19 I went to dinner with some family friends I’ve known since I was a kid. After dinner I helped one of them with an Excel training session. We finished up about 9pm and as I got in to my car I thought about going to a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I was only a couple blocks from my local theater and I didn’t have to go in to work the next morning, I was already scheduled to work from home. I decided to wait until the next day to see it because it had already been a long day. I went to bed that night knowing that a few of my friends as well as my brother were already in line to see a midnight showing of the film.
The next morning I woke up at 5am and it was at that time that I realized something wasn’t right. My TV was tuned to ESPN as it usually was and at the bottom of the screen I saw almost immediately an alert scrolling that mentioned something about people dead in Colorado. I turned on 9News and the only thing they were talking about was a shooting that took place just 35 minutes from my house. I sat there stunned and unable to turn away from it for close to an hour. As I previously mentioned I was working from home that day so once I got all set up to start work I turned on the news and again it was all about the shooting. Around 7 that morning I started getting calls, texts and emails checking to make sure I and my movie friends were ok. I heard from my mom early that morning and she told me that my brother was not at the theater for the midnight showing, I didn’t think that was a theater he went to.
My half day of work felt like it took forever because I had a hard time concentrating but I got through it. Once my work day was complete I had a decision to make. I had originally planned on seeing The Dark Knight Rises that afternoon but I was unsure if I should go and if I even wanted to. In the end I decided to go see the movie as I had originally planned because I didn’t want to let my fear of what happened hold me back from doing something I love doing. I decided on going to the same theater I almost went to the night before, an AMC theater in Brighton. As soon as I got to the theater I could tell some things were already different. There were signs stating that all bags are subject to being searched and all the employees seemed to be more attentive. I bought my ticket and headed to my assigned theater to grab a seat. I looked around at everyone else in the theater. Once I got to my seat in the theater I checked all of the entrances and exits as well as everyone that walked in to the theater after me.
Usually when the lights go down in a theater I get excited because the movie will be starting soon. On July 20, as the lights went down I was nervous. The excitement I had just 24 hours earlier to see the movie was now gone. I made it through the entire movie that day, but it wasn’t easy. I would check the emergency exits every so often and every time someone would get up to go to the restroom or concession stand I would follow them with my eyes. I liked the movie that day but I didn’t enjoy it, I wasn’t able to. The whole experience felt off that day but I am still glad I went.
A few weeks after my initial viewing I went to see The Dark Knight Rises again, this time with my dad and a friend of ours. I enjoyed the movie more the second time around but I still didn’t enjoy it as I should have. Today as I am writing this I am watching the movie for the fourth time since it was released. Every time I watch it I enjoy it more than the previous time but it still feels weird. I have a feeling that July 20 and The Dark Knight Rises will always be connected in my mind. Today on the first anniversary of that terrible day it is important to remember those who lost their lives and those who had their lives forever changed.
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