Harry Potter and the.. fight that broke out in the movie theatre

{as told by nick}

Last week while Michael was visiting us, Britt had the wonderful idea to go down to Horton Plaza and watch the 11:10 showing of Harry Potter. Being a big HP fan, I was thrilled. We went down early and ate at the Sushi Deli and when the time got close, we headed over. Britt, Michael, and I handed in our tickets, found the theatre, and found our seats. A couple minutes before the movie started, Britt stated that she was thirsty. Being the gentleman that I am I ran to the concessions stand quick and was in line to get her a bottle of water when I noticed the guy in front of me being loud and rude to the employee working the stand. He was in his thirties, muscular, with tattoos, dreads, ( I mention this merely to give an accurate and descriptive picture to the story as I too have tattoos) and apparently drugs in his system. He was demanding that for $16 he should get more soda and popcorn, a fact that I agree with but have just accepted that being robbed from the movie concessions stand is just part of life. He finally told them using words that I will not repeat that he would take the items but was not happy about it. With him done with his purchase, I moved up to the counter and ordered my water, making small talk with the employee about the gentleman's rude language and behavior. As I turned around to head back to the Theatre, I noticed an elderly gentleman and his wife standing next in line. He was tall, about 6'3", he had snow white hair and a well groomed beard of the same color. He was dressed well and reminded me of a college professor. With me being done, he moved towards the counter to make his purchases. Back in the theatre, I gave Britt her drink and settled in to watch Harry Potter. I noticed that the elderly gentleman and his wife had also come in to the theatre and sat a couple of rows in front of us and to the right. Then in marched the loud guy from the line. He walked straight up to the old man and his wife and began to yell at them using choice words and being very threatening, especially to the old man's wife. The old man didn't take this for a second, slapped the rude guys drink out of his hand, reeled back and punched him in the face. After this, I couldn't tell much. Popcorn went flying, someone hit the floor, and the rude guy began yelling and swearing. Michael and I jumped up and husled over to the fight. When we got there, the old man was on the ground. His shirt was pulled over his head so we couldn't even see it, and the rude guy had two hands full of the old guys shirt. Now there are people all around this fight but no one would move to help. They were just in a big circle around it yelling "fight!" or "let him go" but no one made a move. Michael stepped in and told the rude guy to let go and I grabbed his arms and jerked them away from the old guys clothing. I grabbed the old guy under the arm, lifted him to his feet and told him to start heading for the door and Michael helped him along as he was very shaken. The rude guy wasn't done yet, he was trying to push past me yelling all kinds of things at the old guy. I had to physically hold him back to keep him from attacking the old guy as he made his way out. Finally he gave me a shove and ran towards the old guy catching up to him just outside the theatre doors. He started to chest bump him asking him if he wanted to go. I jumped in and pushed him away, gently pushing the old guy against the wall so I knew where he was. The rude guy was relentless, throwing himself against me as I grabbed his shirt and told him to get lost. At this point the old guy dropped to the ground and I thought for sure he was going in to cardiac arrest. This was Michael's area of expertise and he was right there, checking the old guys pulse, and making sure he wasn't dying on us. This gave me a chance to turn all of my attention to the rude guy, grabbing his shirt and his arm I directed him away from the theatre and gave him a good shove and told him to get walking. There was a manager of the theatre standing just to the side and he escorted him around the corner but he didn't stop there. He proceded to grab every straw, salt packet, and napkin off of a table and throw them around, yelling profanities at everyone and threatening to hurt them. Finally security got there and escorted the rude guy away from the theatre. The old guy was shaken up and exhausted from the fight, but was fine. We walked with one of the managers to the office and were asked to fill out incident reports. For our troubles, they gave us three movie passes a peace. Michael and I missed the opening of Harry Potter and scared Britt half to death, but had a great time breaking up a fight!