Comic book writer Gail Simone launched a trending Twitter discussion of the biggest and best audience reactions in movie theaters this past weekend with the hashtag #MovieCheers.In her initial tweet on Sept. 18, Simone wrote, "Name a time when people spontaneously cheered during a film in a movie theater while you were in the audience. Please you [sic] hashtag #MovieCheers." In follow-up tweets, Simone cited Boomer the Dog escaping an explosion in Independence Day, Ripley wearing the exo-suit in Aliens and the foster siblings' transformation into superheroes in Shazam! as examples from her experience. Within a day, the initial #MovieCheers tweet had been seen by over 4 million users, with enthusiastic responses from movie fans pushing the hashtag up to Twitter's top two trends at one point.
The final battle in Avengers: Endgame, most notably the stretch in which Captain America proves to be worthy of Thor's hammer and the rest of the Avengers "assemble" after arriving through portals, has been one of the most mentioned scenes in the hashtag. Videos of audience reactions to the scene became so popular that Disney even used one such video as part of Marvel Studios' advertisement to celebrate theaters reopening.
Avengers: Endgame was far from the only superhero movie to get crowds going wild. Other Marvel Cinematic Universe films that have been frequently brought up within the hashtag include the first Avengers (particularly the "Puny God" scene) and Black Panther. In the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman's arrival in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of the Justice was a popular crowd-pleasing scene amidst a more divisive movie overall.
One particular scene from The Lord of the Rings films cited by many in the hashtag is the moment in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in which Eowyn, challenged by the Witch King who claims "no man" can kill him, removes her helmet and declares "I am no man" before killing the Nazgul leader once and for all.
More blockbuster moments to become popular hashtag responses include the T-Rex saving everyone in Jurassic Park and the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars. Twitter users have been recounting stories of audience reactions to movies ranging from Get Out to The Matrix to The Blues Brothers. It's a stirring reminder of how powerful the theatergoing experience can be at a time when the combined rise of streaming and the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to place the future of cinemas in doubt.
Source: Twitter