Fire Alarms Are Only Useful If You Notice Them
Posted by Skrud at Sunday, July 2nd 2006 at 1:21am
I went to see Superman tonight. I thought it was great. Well directed, well casted – just about everything was great. Except for what was quite possibly the worst last 20 minutes in movie history.
During the movie, the fire alarm went off. Not because the building was on fire, mind you, but because some punkass kid decided to pull a prank. I really hate kids, but that’s not the point. I previous had a fire alarm story at Concordia, where the fire alarm sounded like a doorbell so no one new it was a fire alarm until a voice came on the intercom saying “Uhm, there’s a fire in the building… please evacuate”. I don’t know if any of you have ever been in a movie theatre when the fire alarm is triggered, but the experience isn’t all that different.
When you’re watching a movie, you get to see all kinds of events unfold. Plot twists, action scenes, and all around pretty entertaining stuff – hopefully unexpected stuff to keep it interesting. A lot of movie stuff is loud, and rightfully so. Loudness in movies helps with the illusion of cinema. What if a fire alarm goes off in the midst of that loudness? Can you even hear it?
Yes, you can hear a fire alarm in a movie theatre. That’s not the problem. The problem is that you can’t tell if the fire alarm is part of the movie or not. Especially if it chimes in during a conversation about “super-hearing” and you wonder if maybe Superman can hear that fire alarm too. In such a scenario, how useful is a fire alarm? At one point the audience’s collective consciousness did realise that the fire alarm was not part of the movie. But no one left the theatre until the screen shut off anyway. Since it turned out to be a false alarm, we got ushered back into the theatre and were given free tickets.
I think movie theatres need a far less ambiguous way of telling audiences when there is fire. Shutting off the screen immediately, for example. That would at least clue the audience in to the fact that something is amiss. Or even better, write a message: “FIRE ALARM. EVACUATE THE THEATRE.” on the screen. Something that says, without a doubt, “THERE IS A FIRE, SO LEAVE NOW”.
hehe dont forget at one point someone tried to hit the fire alrm to shut it off. i think he succeeded temporarily. says alot for fire alrm quality.
I don’t remember which theatre I was at (Paramount, i think), but a firealarm went off, and I ran into the same problem.
They should install a red rotary light (like the ones on police cars) at the top or bottom of the screen. I think that would be the perfect visual cue for people watching a movie.