Image Credit: Giles Keyte
Have you ever jumped a little too high, sobbed a little too long, laughed a little too loudly at an inappropriate moment, or had some other physical reaction (involuntary groaning or spontaneous applause) in a movie theater that left you genuinely embarrassed? SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen One Day, or read the book, go ahead and skip straight to the comments and share your story. If you have, here’s mine.
Last night, I went to see One Day by myself (not the confession!). I wish they could put a camera on the audience and capture the reactions when Emma (Anne Hathaway) gets hit while riding her bike. I’m 99.9 percent sure I jumped the highest in my theater, with a full-on audible hand-to-mouth gasp. Even though I suspected it was coming (and I hadn’t even read the book), I wasn’t prepared for the swiftness of it. It had the shock value of Brad Pitt at the start of Meet Joe Black, only it happened at the end of the movie, so you knew this person and it left a hole in your chest. If you want to talk about the actual ending, Aly Semigran started a conversation here about whether it should have been changed for the film. I’m just bringing it up because I was genuinely embarrassed at my reaction, and without someone there to laugh about it with me afterward, I can only cling to the knowledge that no one was watching the jumpy girl in the front rows of the theater, they were all watching the screen (or, possibly, the tough guy behind me whose girlfriend probably didn’t think he was even enjoying the movie until he yelled out angrily).
Your turn. What’s the most embarrassing reaction you’ve had in theaters? The other one that came to my mind: The inappropriate laughter I could not stop when Mark Wahlberg was bobbing in the water with Diane Lane superimposed onscreen like a cheesy Sears portrait in The Perfect Storm. It was like when Jerry put that Pez dispenser on Elaine’s lap at the piano recital. I did have my friend Sheila with me that time, and it just made it worse.
Read more:
One Day: About that ending…
When I saw The Ring, I was legitimately clutching the friend sitting next to me and screaming out loud. Not just gasping. Screaming. At the top of my lungs. (That being said, I was not the only person in the theater doing this. That ish was terrifying.)
I was with my then-boyfriend and he was doing the whole “tough guy” thing like he wasn’t scared, but when Samara came out of the TV at the end he went “Aw, CMON!!” But you’re right, he (ok, we) weren’t the only ones yelling at that point.
Lol, when Samara crawled out of the TV, I let out a pretty loud “holy s***!”
Screaming at the T. Rex during JP, BAWLING during Forrest Gump, throwing up during Jaws.
When I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Jason Segel did his whole full-frontal thing, I said very loudly, “Ew!”
The part in The Ring where Samara crawls out of the tv, I was screaming, and was practically IN my boyfriend’s lap, because I was petrified.
While watching LOTR I screamed and put my hands over my eyes at one point. Then I looked at the person sitting next to me and it was at 10 year old boy looking at me, like ‘What is your problem?”
I learned to be a little tougher that day.
I felt like such a nerd at Return of the King. Since the theater was packed, I was sitting next to a dude I didn’t know on opening night. At the ‘end’ of the movie he kept trying to stand up and get a head start leaving the theater. I kept putting my hand on his leg, going, ‘it’s not over yet’. It wasn’t embarrassing at the time, but looking back at my 16 year old self, I certainly SHOULD have been embarrassed.
I WEPT throughout Return of the King. WEPT. Big fat tears rolling down my face for half the movie. I don’t know what was going on with me, but every time Sam or Aragorn showed up on screen, I cried. My sleeves were soaked by the end of the movie. I was so embarrased, but I couldn’t stop.
Oh Anne, I thought I didn’t have a story but you reminded me of something. I watched “P.S. I Love You” on a plane sitting next to a complete stranger. I had an aunt who passed away from cancer when I was a teen. Though she didn’t do any crazy international scavenger hunts, she did have time to prepare a lot before she died. I literally cried from the funeral scene (which for those who haven’t seen it, is the second scene) until the end. Just a constant stream of tears running down my face sitting 4 inches from a stranger without the benefit of a dark theatre.
When I saw Harry Potter 7.1 I started crying when Harry let Hedwig go because I knew she was essentially flying to her death. The kid next to me (10 or 11 yo) looked at me like I was some kind of psychopath.
My embarrassing moment was in HP 7.1 too, but it was inappropriate laughter. When Ron was mad in the tent, and being all serious like, “Yeah, I’m still here” both of my roommates and I could not hold in our laughter. We definitely got some dirty looks.
Every time I saw DH 1, the whole theater laughs when Ron says that line. I think it’s meant to be funny.
Every single time I watch Return of the King: I begin crying silently when Sam picks up Frodo and carries him up Mt. Doom. I begin quietly weeping when the hobbits return to the Shire. I sob loudly when everyone’s saying goodbye to everyone at the Grey Havens. Finally, as the credits roll, I begin a desperate, someone-in-my-family-has-died bawling that doesn’t stop for about 30 min.
Every. Single. Time. Friends and family get concerned.
Oh, speaking of, I began a similar kind of sobbing at the end of The English Patient. I called my Mom and couldn’t speak, I just kept crying. She got so worried that she kept yelling at me, “Do I need to call 911? WHAT IS WRONG?” I gasped out, “English. Patient.” She about killed me, then said, “You know, I didn’t care for that movie much.”
I laughed twice during Titanic, once when the boat goes vertical and one of the CGI bodies hits a pole and the clink is audible, then near the end when Rose is taking up all the space on that slat of wood and she realizes Jack’s all dead and looking like a Smurf and says “I’ll never let you go,” then lets him go. A woman in front of me turned around and yelled at me for having no heart.
K, I feel your pain. When I went to that movie, we were coming out of the theater and everyone was s-o-o-o-o-o somber and morose. My friend said to me in a normal speaking voice, “Ya know that Titanic thing? That happened to me once.” I let out a laugh that my lungs and vocal chords have never replicated since — truly it was like a farted a funeral with the looks of horror and anger that were directed toward me. Titanic fans are quite serious about that movie.
That was quite the funny story, Jasper.
Oh, Jasper, I can’t stop laughing at your anecdote; my eye sockets hurt! What the heck was your friend talking about? Too funny.
I had to go get a kleenex for my eyes, your story made me laugh so hard. Then I realized I might wake my son so I tried to be quite and that made it worse. BTW; I’m so stealing your friend’s comment and plan on using it the next time Titanic comes up in conversation; priceless.
I was in high school when Titanic came out, and of my group of friends, only one of us was taking the movie seriously. When Rose and Jack were having relations in the car, and the hand smacked up on the foggy window, five of us burst out laughing hysterically and one of us got very mad.
I did the same thing in Twilight, and those folks take that movie pretty seriously, too. I started giggling inappropriately, then when he said ‘spider monkey’ I completely lost it. My husband stage-whispered “if you can’t get it together I’m going to take you out of here”, just so I wouldn’t get murdered in the seat.
My Titanic moment was the opposite. I started bawling at the beginning of the movie when the boat is leaving and everyone is happily waving goodbye. I was about 14 at the time. My sister literally gaped at me. I believe at one point she even said, “Nothing’s happened yet!”
don’t feel bad…my friend and i were HELL BENT on not going to see it. we had decided it would be the dumbest thing ever. then, lo and behold we go and rent FACE/OFF and TITANIC is the preview before the movie. we were mesmerized and went immediately to see the movie. we sit down and i go, ‘dang, we didn’t bring any tissue.’ my friend goes to the bathroom and comes back with a few lenghts of t.p. for us. uh…yeah. we started crying the second the dang movie started. when the boat hit the iceburg, we grabbed each other’s hands and didn’t let go until the last name had ended on the credits. we were puddles on the ground we were crying so hard. the only other time we did that was during the beach scene of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
I start crying just after they hit the iceberg, when the captain gathers everyone together and someone asks how many people are on board. When I hear “2200 souls on board, sir,” the tears begin, and I sob straight through until the end.
I went to see Titanic by myself (I was in my late 20′s), and I had lost my paternal grandparents four months apart, a few years earlier. When Rose dies at the end and sees Jack and all of the people who died on the boat, I LOST IT. This lady was there with her 12 year old kid and her friend and she handed out Kleenexes to all of us.
I went to see Titanic with a bunch of friends when I was 8 months pregnant. I was so absorbed in the movie that I did not get up to go to the bathroom once and at that stage of pregnancy that’s very impressive, as long as that movie was. I attributed all the bawling to the hormones.
I must not have a heart then, either – when I sighed and checked my watch during the death scene, and then walked out of the film proclaiming how schmaltzy and overly long I thought it was, people directed visual death-rays at me.
This is for the man who sat about 3 rows ahead of my sister and me during a LOTR: Fellowship showing…when a certain character gets shot by multiple arrows at the end, this middle-aged man literally stood up in his seat, stretching his hands out to the screen while moan-shouting, “NOOOOO!” lol It was awesome.
OMG My husband had the same reaction, only he put in a few more words, d a m n
When I first saw the trailer for Devil, that evil elevator movie, I laughed out loud when “from the mind of M Night Shyamalan” came up. It didn’t help that the trailer was silent at that moment.
Everyone laughed at that trailer in my theater
If I remember right, that trailer showed before “Inception.” We’d just had a discussion about how horrible “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was. When Shyamalan’s name popped up onscreen, the theater erupted in mixed laughter and moans of disgust.
A friend and I went to see the Nicole Kidman movie “The Others” in college. During the opening credits, something spooked my friend, and he jumped so high his popcorn flew everywhere. We then proceeded to laugh so hard for the next five minutes we were shushed repeatedly. Same friend and I saw Bridget Jones Diary, and he gave a loud “Oh noooo” groan when Bridget wore her bunny costume to the garden party. Great movie going companion!
Mine’s from The Others too! I was watching it while sitting next to one of my guy friends, pretty close because I was getting scared. Someone else in the room said “there’s someone at the door.” I looked at the door and saw the shadow of my sister’s friend and I jumped a foot into my friend’s lap. Classy.
When I saw “Moulin Rouge” for the first time, I was sobbing so hard at the end that the tears were spraying out cartoon-style, soaking the people to the left and right of me. Okay, not really. But I was crying THAT hard.
The most embarrassing part about that is that you made it through the entirety of Moulin Rouge. It remains the only movie I’ve ever walked out on… and I saw Last Action Hero in the theater, so that’s saying something.
Moulin Rouge is also the only movie I ever walked out on. Worst. Movie. Ever. And I’ve sat thru some pretty horrendous movies…
I was 13 or 14 when Moulin Rouge came out and I remember I wanted to see it so bad (I love musicals) forced my mum to go with me and she fell asleep and I sat through it completely bored. I really wanted to walk out but I had already paid so decided to stick it out. I can listen to the soundtrack but don’t ever want to see it again.
“Moulin Rouge!” is a beautiful study in Aesthetics but is good even if not thought of that way. If you like musicals and listen to the soundtrack anyway, you should definitely see it again. You change a lot in the ten years from age 13 or 14 to 23/24. Try it again. It’s a really good movie (despite what these couple of people above say)…. funny, sad, and incredibly gorgeous to behold.
I screamed “hit her!!!!” at the end of Hostile when Jay Hernandez found himself behind the wheel of a car and within striking distance of the woman who baited him and his friends into being tortured. I’m a mild mannered woman, so it was sort of a suprise that it came out like that. Years later I sat next to a woman in the first Deathly Hallows movie who kept screaming over the snake. My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing.
I seriously crapped my pants during The Blob remake in the 80′s.
Almost the entire audience applauded when Paris Hilton got killed in The House of Wax remake.
When we saw it I laughed when she was killed. I don’t even know why! There was just something so comical about her death to me.
Here’s to hoping Kim Kardashian gets killed off in some movie for a future installment of an article by EW.
Silence of the Lambs. I was screaming at Jodie Foster to look behind the damn door when she was going after Buffalo Bill, and then hiding my eyes and screaming more obscenities at her. People were looking at me, but I didn’t care. I was scared!
I fell asleep during the new Conan the barbarian movie. Had been up since 5am and it was a late show.
I actually laughed out loud at several “dramatic” parts of that turd of a movie. The first and loudest laugh was when Conan’s father performed the world’s quickest one-handed c-section on his pregnant wife on the battlefield.
Meet Joe Black. In the beginning when he gets hit by one car, then another car and then slides off-screen. I full-on belly laughed and couldn’t stop. Tears and everything. Two older women turned and shushed me, also teary-eyed but for a much different reason.
Yes. Great choice. Everyone in the theater was pin-drop quiet at that moment until my buddy burst out laughing. Then the entire theater joined him. He then had to leave the theater, because he couldn’t stop laughing.
What a ridiculous scene.
I didn’t really think that was supposed to be sad. Was it??
Saw Meet Joe Black in the theater with a bunch of friends when I was in high school- and when he gets hit by the car and the dummy just like bounces around, we all burst out laughing. It was just so ridiculous.
It was really badly done. The whole movie is a joke compared to the original “Death Takes a Holiday”. They completely changed the entire meaning of the film. And it is a really deep, philosophical film. Definitely see the original… it’s soooo good.
So glad I didn’t see that in the theater! I gasped so hard and sat there in shocked silence for about 10 seconds then started laughing so hard I had to pause the movie!
I love it when he gets hits by the car. There’s a split second before the second car hits, when I always think, “Oh he’s probably not dead.”
What you just said reminds me so much of that scene in “Groundhog Day” when Bill Murray’s character is trying to commit suicide in all of these different ways and he drives a car over a cliff and Chris Elliott looks over and tries to console Andie MacDowell by saying, “He could still be alive.” Then the car bursts into flames and he says, “Well, no, probably not now.”
In Signs when they are looking around the house, think the aliens are all gone, and then one shows up. I jumped and screamed really, really loud. The only one in the movie theater to do that. Then my friends and I laughed uncontrollably.
I have screamed out loud twice in the theater:
1) It was a LEGIT theater, I was seeing “The Pillowman” on Broadway back in 2005 or so. It’s a great play but there’s one visual scare that caught me by surprise so much that I actually let out a scream. During live theater.
2) I see scary movies all the time, but the last time I can remember having an audible response was when I saw I Am Legend. I can’t remember the part, but I absolutely remember letting a little yelp out.
I have another live theater moment, although it wasn’t me. I saw the tour of West Side Story in Atlanta, and when the gun shot went off at the end, someone SCREAMED in the theater, which made everyone else laugh through the emotional climax of the play.
When I saw West Side Story in Detroit and Chino fires the gun at Tony the whole first floor jumped and yelped, you could actually feel people bouncing in their seats.
It was the weirdest feeling, especially since who doesn’t know that Tony dies at the end.
I also had a live theater moment! I saw a production of Dracula and, during the climax of the show, Renfeild jumped out and I screamed. It was super embarrassing, especially because the guy who played Renfeild was my drama teacher at the time and I was in the front row.