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The manager of a movie theater in Jefferson City, Mo., is defending himself after a publicity stunt resulted in a police response last weekend.

KMIZ reports that management of Goodrich Capital 8 Theaters hired an actor to dress in full tactical gear (complete with a fake gun) and walk into the movie theater during the opening weekend of "Iron Man 3."

Several moviegoers called police, who responded anticipating an active shooter situation.

"We received a series of 911 calls stating that a man dressed in all black and body armor and a rifle was walking into Capital 8 Theaters," Capt. Doug Shoemaker told KMIZ.

Capt. Shoemaker told Fox 4 News, "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."

The theater's management is defending the stunt saying its job is to entertain the guests. Capital 8 Theaters manager Bob Wilkins told KMIZ that the stunt resulted in only a few complaints.

Via KMIZ:

When asked if management took into consideration what happened in the the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater, Wilkins responded, "Absolutely. That's my number-one priority every day. It's the safety and security of our guests."

ABC 17 News asked Wilkins if he had any regrets for allowing the publicity stunt and he said, "No, my job is to entertain people."

John Morlock, an army veteran who suffers from post traumatic stress, saw the stunt play out.

"We had just finished watching 'Iron Man 3,'" Morlock told KMIZ. "We're just getting into the car when I spotted a man in full assault gear, carrying what appeared to be a modified M-4 and 9 mm on his side."

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I get the whole doing a stunt on opening night of a big movie to add a little more excitement to the movie... but come on! What did they expect was going to happen? You can understand their need to call 911 after the last big incident in a movie theater in Colarado.

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The idiocy...

Guys with swords for a fantasy movie, yes.

Guys in a superhero costume for a superhero movie, yes.

A squad of properly dressed up army men for a military movie, yes.

a lon guy with an "assault" rifle and in body armor going into a movie theater after a superhero movie... just plain dumb.

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If the guy was all dressed up like Iron man I think it would have been ok.

Dressed all in black combat dress, that's a little bit to close to what happened during the DKR incident

He didn't think this one through did he :)

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He is lucky his ass didn't get shot by someone with a REAL gun. Idiots.

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I'm quoting Valo from here: http://news.yahoo.co...-182812328.html

Alright well I did some digging and here's what I found that none of the news stories on the matter seem to be reporting. There WERE people there hired by the theater dressed as Iron Man, Nick Fury, and several other characters. The folks in tactical gear were supposed to be from S.H.I.E.L.D, and were carrying guns that were at best, airsoft guns, with the orange tips that identify them as airsoft guns. There's an overwhelming number of pictures from the event that show happy smiling kids posing with Iron Man and the other characters that turned up. I can understand how at first glance it might look alarming but people who were there say that these people came strolling in WITH Iron Man. I agree that their should have been some warning SOMEWHERE that this was going to happen so as not to freak people out, but really all that has actually happened here is the news wrote the story to make it sound like it was much worse than it actually was.

They still should have known better than to try any character with guns in a theater.

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The theater's management is defending the stunt saying its job is to entertain the guests. Capital 8 Theaters manager Bob Wilkins told KMIZ that the stunt resulted in only a few complaints.

If just one person complains then that automatically means they have more rights that everyone else combined.

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I'm quoting Valo from here: http://news.yahoo.co...-182812328.html

They still should have known better than to try any character with guns in a theater.

I think this goes to show something though. A lot of people are all for owning guns, but the second we make a fake scene with them, everyone is up in arms... literally. So they aren't dangerous enough for everyone to have, but they are dangerous enough to not allow even fake guns to be used as a prop. Just confusing to wrap your head around it all.

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If just one person complains then that automatically means they have more rights that everyone else combined.

To be fair, how many people normally complain after going to see a movie? Unless there were obvious technical difficulties I'd imagine there are very few and the job of a cinema is to entertain its guests - while many people may have enjoyed it, clearly some didn't. It was in especially poor taste after the Aurora shooting. But of course, one person's opinion is no more important than that of another.

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  • 1 month later...

iron man dress:  cool

 

 

tartical gear support characters, looking like regular military gear???  no need for them at all.   a bit dumb really!

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