Perfection: How I Got to Go to the World Premiere of The Dark Knight - Page 3

And I’ll be damned if I didn’t get to go.

Waiting idly, peering and poking around, I counted the passing minutes and the press and Bat-fans assembled. The barricades boxed us from the black carpet and steered us plebes away from the ticketed fans, whose slips of blue and white paper provided the gateway into the one theater I would have given a limb for.

At least, that’s how it stood for an hour or so. After the well-attired members of the ticketed fanbase had entered, the water-on-the-brain-sized heads of the security guards removed the cattle fencing, allowing us as close to the carpet as humanly possible. To say I was giddy would be like calling the Teletubbies mildly off-putting — I was on air.

Michael Caine was the first to arrive — I presume he had an early bedtime and wanted to get the premiere out of the way — followed by the diminutive Nestor Carbonell and the gleaming Aaron Eckhart, each of whom pandered to the fans. Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman both sped past the chanting crowd, but Gary Oldman, looking jarringly like a turtle without Gordon’s moustache, made sure to satiate the fans’ autograph appetite.

The stars were obliging, the sun was shining, and the fans were smiling, all feeding off one another, when a tight-dressed woman caught my peripheral. With pamphlet-looking pieces of paper stacked in her hand, fans grappled and grasped for her attention. Making her way toward me, I saw that the pamphlets were instead single pieces of stiff, dim paper, plastered with logos of TDK. ‘How cute,’ I thought. ‘Information about the movie for those who aren’t completely obsessed. Sure I’ll grab one, why not take a memento?’

I have never been happier to find myself wrong.

When one finally reached my outstretched hand, I saw that the slip contained more than just the pertinent information, more than the flashy logos and the action shots of the main characters. This was my ticket in. This was my ticket in. There was the assigned seat, the title of “Screening Pass” scrawled on the top, the microscopic terms and conditions plastered on the back.

Minutes passed, although I’ll never quite remember the bustle and words emanating from the surrounding. My mind was too far in the clouds, ethereally pumped with the realization that I would be attending the first public showing of what could very well be the greatest movie I’ve ever seen.

LSD, ecstasy, speed — they have nothing on this feeling.

With the tightly-dressed woman’s second pass, I snagged another ticket for my certain special someone. Although I didn’t feel mentally prepared — I still had three days left! I had no idea this would be happening! — you would have an easier time taking the teeth from a live gator than taking that voucher from me.

Article Author: Casey Michel

Casey Michel is a student at Rice University who, despite a Pacific Northwest rearing, somehow found himself in Houston. He bleeds Blazers black and Mariners blue, and likes to think his teams are always just ONE player away.

Visit Casey Michel's author page — Casey Michel's Blog