First Midnight Premiere at 18

If going to the movies was a religion, I already follow it because I love movies. I always know what I want to see and I'm never disappointed, for the most part, I can go see the worst movie possible but if I like the food and being with the audience while I enjoy the atmosphere of the theater, then that's more than enough for me. Sure, I may not remember the movie but I'll remember the experience. This experience, on the other hand, was something special to me for the best reasons.

It was July 2012, I just graduated high school a month prior and I was talking to someone I liked at the time to where I was hoping she'd be my girlfriend, the only thing that was missing was me having a job but that's another story. Anyways, I had a pretty solid 18th birthday and I got $1000 in birthday money, I saw The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield in the role for my birthday and before the movie started, they played movie trailers for stuff that's coming to theaters soon. The one movie that was coming that was on my mind the most was Christopher Nolan's conclusion to Batman, The Dark Knight Rises. I was more than excited for this movie because Batman is one of my favorite superheroes, I loved The Dark Knight, and I was ready to see how Batman was going to make it from fighting Bane plus Bane is one of my favorite villains to see Batman fight.

Now, after I saw The Amazing Spider-Man, I told my brother about it and he said he wanted to see it so I planned everything out while I was going. I bought the tickets for the midnight premiere to see Batman a few days after my birthday and on my mom's birthday, I was going to give her a day off from me so I left the house the whole day and didn't come home until it was nighttime but in the middle of that, I took my brother with me to go see Spidey and got our tickets for Batman, and after the movie, long before I went home, I bought my mom a book for her birthday, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I had a really good day on my mom's birthday but by the end of the day, I hope her birthday was even better than my day.

About 3 days later, it was time to see Batman but I had some prep time to deal with first because I knew I wasn't coming home right after I saw the movie so I packed my backpack with a few clothes and made sure I had everything super important like my wallet, my house key, and my phone. I hung out with my brother for the rest of the day and we just played Grand Theft Auto 4 all day before it was about 11:30 PM.

On the way there, we debated on getting snacks from Dollar Tree to try and sneak food inside but it was closed. We ended up not getting food at all since we were too excited to eat anything anyway, the night was a little cold for a summer night but it still didn't matter. The closer we got to the movie theater, the more excited we got and next thing we knew, we were there.

My brother and I got out of the van and walked into the movie theater to see The Dark Knight Rises, the line wasn't long or anything but it was getting packed so we got in line and started talking to each other. The moment we stopped talking, we started noticing how much longer the line was getting and how packed the theater was becoming. Then, the best part happened, the hardcore fans who dress up were coming in. We saw one guy dressed in a full outfit like Christian Bale as Batman which was awesome but what made the night even better was that we both saw a guy who was built like Tom Hardy but a lot taller dressed as Bane and he was walking like him too with his hands resting at his collar while he wears boots and pants that kind of looked like sweatpants along with a sweatshirt and a wrist gauntlet like the character in the movie.

So while we're admiring all of the fans who dressed and being in this state of "I can't believe we're here", we heard an usher ask around but we didn't know what they said so they repeat it and they asked if only two people came together, my brother says we did. We ended up going into a theater and from there, we were ready to see the movie while everyone was settling in. As soon as the Warner Brothers logo and the music played for a bit, we all started to applaud because we were ready for the movie.

Nothing went on but awesomeness while the movie was playing and by the time the movie's credits started rolling, I was shaking a little bit because I never thought I'd go to a midnight premiere of a movie throughout my whole life and that's one of the first things I did as soon as I turned 18. We went back to my brother's place and we stayed up until 5 or 6 AM playing Grand Theft Auto 4 and a few Family Guy jokes that I thought were ridiculously funny. Then, I went home the next day and that's when I learned about the tragedy that happened in Colorado while the same movie I saw was premiering.