TMT: In Space No One Can See The Popcorn Fly
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time, a series that was begun here. It’s becoming a habit, or synchronicity… whatever, for these records to unexpectedly skip up the chain. [spouse: “you mean there’s a plan?“] I say this because I read a blogger friend’s excellent and personal film retrospective. Thus, we have today’s post. So, a thank you and shout-out goes to christian and his Retro-View post of a genre-classic for inspiring just that.
Theatre
The AVCO Centre Cinemas:
Movie
Time
May 27, 1979: I’m going to dig myself a hole, for sure, if I reference who accompanied moi for this recollection. So, I won’t mention the girlfriend person I took to see Ridley Scott’s Alien. Unlike others in this series, AVCO Centre Cinemas complex was not some unique or beautiful (let alone iconic) edifice, either (though it does have a haunted history).
Even so, it was in a part of town, Westwood Village near U.C.L.A’s campus, that fast became the place on the westside of L.A. to take a movie date to back then. Many a date would be spent in this district. Before or after she-whose-name-who-must-not-be mentioned. For all that, the truly indelible part of this memory was the film itself.
Alien was massive hit day one upon its May 25th release. No question. That the film had audiences jumping out of their seats and screaming at the screen was part of the appeal. It drew me. We went to Sunday’s sold out late show (the one right before the sold out midnight screening) on the cusp of Memorial Day.
Surely, I’m not the only one to recall when this motion picture made an impact on my movie-going psyche. Without question, those impressions commenced when this notorious scene arrived… and the amounts of popcorn that flew unexpectedly from their containers that night, from the stunned and startled patrons, is now the stuff of legend.
The entire series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.
17 Responses to “TMT: In Space No One Can See The Popcorn Fly”
Let the popcorn fly! Who could be hungry after that scene anyway?
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Excellent point, Naomi! I think the fact that the scene started off in a meal setting added to the discomfort level. Thank you.
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Wifey is a thrower. One night the gotcha moment came and she was holding some red wine and it went everywhere. Now when I anticipate the event I reach over confiscate the glass until the moment is over. LOL.
Thanks for the mem.
PS can you believe I’ve never seen the
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Wifey is a thrower. One night the gotcha moment came and she was holding some red wine and it went everywhere. Now when I anticipate the event I reach over confiscate the glass until the moment is over. LOL.
Thanks for the mem.
PS can you believe I’ve never seen the Alien series, I’m such a chicken and it really is hard to get that red wine out of the cream carpet.
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DUCK! That’s funny, Herb. Haven’t seen this?!? The first two in the series are classics. The second pair are diminishing returns, but each have their supporters. Thanks so much, my friend.
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[…] many with his exceptional sci-fi horror motion picture, Alien, back in 1979 (me included by way of my own experience with the film). So, there was no way my friends at work and I were going to missed his next feature. As well, its […]
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[…] for delivering on Ridley Scott’s 1979 groundbreaking sci-fi horror film (one that is covered here in the series) were extraordinary. But damn it, the enfant terrible director and cast […]
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[…] it to me in such grim detail afterward. The Exorcist (1973), 1979′s Alien (outlined in this TMT), and later, The Thing (1982, TMT located here) were some of my such […]
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[…] it seems I’ve already done my fair share in TMTs: Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T., Alien, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day and others. No matter. I’ll do this anyway. “The […]
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[…] Funny how things work out, and how you return to them. I have a penchant for the latter. Just three days before this, the film Die Hard premiered at the AVCO Centre Cinemas in Westwood Village. The same place on the outskirts of UCLA I had taken she-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned to years before on a memorable, popcorn flying movie date. […]
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Joke at the time? Spaghetti mate…No thanks! Great article matey!! 🙂
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Love that! Thank you so much, Mike! 🙂
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No worries I loved the article!! 🙂
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I love this movie. It was on my original project so here is a share for you if you have not come across it.
http://kirkhamclass.blogspot.com/2010/06/alien-1979-movie-day-day-11.html
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Awesome, Richard! Thanks for sharing that 🙂
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[…] I’d be. Dragging she-whose-name-who-must-not-be mentioned to this. The R.N. I’d been dating at the time. Flash-forward three years, we’re now living together. Me attempting to cajole her into […]
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[…] long-time, and soon-to-be ex-, girlfriend, the same one who attended Alien with me, came along for one of our fewer and fewer movie dates […]
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