Iron Man Stunt Goes Wrong At Missouri Movie Theater

Note to everyone: It is not a good idea to bring weapons to a movie theater. Ever. Even if the guns are fake. The owners of the Goodrich Capital 8 Theater in Jefferson City, Missouri, were forced to issue an apology this week after an Iron Man stunt went predictably wrong.

According to ABC, the operator of the Missouri theater thought that it would be a good idea to have someone dressed up in full tactical gear at the Iron Man 3 premiere last weekend. The man was dressed in all black, had body armor on, and was carrying an assault rifle.

Despite the presence of another actor dressed as Iron Man, many people at the theater said that they were scared when they saw the guns at the theater. Some even called the police to report a gunman at theater.

Capt. Doug Shoemaker said: “Everything was in place – it’s the opening night of a superhero movie, it’s somebody walking in all-dark clothes – everything pointed to bad things about to happen… There’s really no good that can come of this… It’s an unfortunate lack of wisdom in this particular judgment that hopefully will never occur again.”

Are you surprised that the Iron Man stunt went wrong? The movie theater said on its Facebook page that it frequently has actors dress up as movie characters for big premieres but admitted that it did not take the proper precautions to alert movie goers about the fake weapons.

The company wrote on Facebook: “We apologize and are sympathetic to those who felt they were in harm’s way with our character promotion for Iron Man 3. This was not a publicity stunt. We have worked with the Cosplacon group on many movies to dress up and help entertain our customers. We have had many complaints about the members dressed specifically as S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives carrying fake guns. We didn’t clearly tell our customers and some people didn’t realize it was for entertainment purposes only. We apologize that police were called to come out to our theater. We have a wonderful working relationship with the Jefferson City Police Department. Going forward we will take the necessary steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Security and safety for our customers is our number one priority.”

Several movie theaters around the country increased their security measures after the shooting in Colorado during the premier of The Dark KnightRises. Tensions have diminished since then but it’s still not a good idea to bring weapons to a movie theater.