The Batman Screening Interrupted By Actual Bats In The Theater

In a screening of the new film The Batman, a viral video shows real bats appearing in the movie theatre and fluttering around as audience members look on in bewildered amusement. The new film from Warner Brothers premiered this weekend, with legions of moviegoers flooding theatres across the world to see the latest iteration of the iconic Batman canon in action. A reboot of the original Batman franchise, the film notably stars Robert Pattinson in his eagerly-awaited debut as the Caped Crusader.

Directed by Matt Reeves, the film follows brooding billionaire Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, as he defends Gotham City against the sadistic wrath of The Riddler, played by Paul Dano. The Batman also stars Zoë Kravitz playing the elusively seductive Cat Woman and Andy Serkis playing Wayne’s fastidiously loyal butler Alfred. The Batman’s twice-delayed release from its original June 2021 premiere date due to the Covid-19 pandemic renders the anticipation for the film particularly potent and the opportunity to emerge from the ease of home-screening to enjoy a collective theatrical experience of The Batman particularly enticing for fans.

According to a Twitter update from an audience member named J, in the middle of a screening of Batman, real-life bats began circling the room. A now-viral video that racked up almost 800,000 views in 18 hours, the 20-second clip shows a dimly lit theatre with blurry black shapes moving at lightning speed in and out of the frame. A voice, presumably that of the Twitter account owner, incredulously says behind the camera: “I’m at the Batman movie, and there are bats at the movie” identifying these black spots as real-life animals, who one can only assume must have been rather frantic in such an environment. Audible whisperings around him confirm that other members of the audience were similarly perplexed and bewildered.

Click here to view the tweet on Twitter

In a reply to his original tweet, the amused moviegoer updated his hooked internet audience by adding: “They’re saying someone snuck the bats into the theater.” Indeed, the lights are on and the film seems to be paused, further confirming that the appearance of the bats seems to be a sort of prank from a trickster or possibly just a coincidence. Still, the animalistic addition surely added a fun hint of realism to the screening of a film that is largely quite fantastical.

Even without such a surprise occurrence, The Batman has been spurring constant headlines,enjoying an opening weekend box-office of over $120 million as well as glowing critical reviews. What with the surprise animal guests, members of this particular viral screening received a show more interactive than they might have anticipated, but the apparent high caliber of the film suggests that the movie itself remained the highlight of the night. Indeed, to many audiences, it doesn’t take real-life bats for the release of The Batman to feel monumental.

Source: J