An Open Letter To The Jerk Who Spoiled Avengers: Endgame For Everyone at Edwards Bodo

Fridays, by far, are the busiest day of the week in our office.  Chances are as you prepare for the weekend, it's a pretty busy day for you as well.  Knowing that I was going to see Avengers: Endgame was what pulled me through to quitting time. 

For the record, I'm a curious person who hates surprises.  I'll completely admit to searching out spoilers for Avengers: Infinity last year and what I found out broke me.  I spent the two hours and 40 minutes knowing that one of my favorite superheroes was going to break apart like he was the tail of the Windows 98 logo.  It's all I thought about and I didn't realize how many major plot points I missed because I was in my head the entire time until we re-watched the movie last weekend.  This time around, I told myself that I wanted to be completely in the moment and have no clue what to expect just film's directors had requested.

On April 16, Joe and Anthony Russo released a letter to fans showing their appreciation for how deeply immersed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe they've been over the past eleven years.  In that letter, they explained that the outcome of Endgame has been a tireless work for them for three years and would deliver a surprising, emotional and yet satisfying ending to anyone who's followed the films.  That's why they nicely asked fans to NOT post spoilers and ruin the movie for others who may not have a chance to see it on premiere night, opening weekend and beyond.

Unfortunately, not everyone was respectful of the Russo brothers' letter.  On Thursday night I was scrolling through Instagram posts about the NFL draft and as I was reading comments, I quickly realized people were posting spoilers about the movie.  I closed the app and promised myself to stay off social media from then until the time we saw the movie at the BoDo Edwards Friday night at 6:40.

When I showed up an hour before the movie, there was already a line in the hall as we waited for the theater to be cleaned and open for our showing. Giddy with anticipation, I opened Facebook on my iPhone to post that it was finally happening  As I'm typing, I got a notification that "Josh's iPhone" wants to AirDrop me a picture and flashed the image on my screen.  Involuntarily, my eyes scanned the picture so that my brain could process what was happening before I could hit decline. It was too late and I'd already seen the meme that spelled out the end of the film. Deep down, I hoped that it was a joke but three hours later, I realized that a complete stranger had taken advantage of every Apple user in that movie theater lobby and ruined it for everyone.

You guys know me.  I'm usually a laid back person who can laugh things off, but I have to say it...Josh, you're a jerk.  This movie meant a lot to people.  For me? The Marvel movies brought my husband and I closer together.  He grew up as a comic book nerd.  Shortly after we started dating he realized that I hadn't seen any of the Marvel movies outside of the three Iron Man films and couldn't wait to geek out while bringing me up to speed. That's when I was all in on superhero movies and was just as nerdy (if not nerdier) than him when Wizard World was in town last week.

I know someone else who has publicly admitted that his life was in shambles due to poor choices he'd made in life when Iron Man came out 11 years ago.  The few remaining friends he had left at that point in his life invited him to the movie.  After reluctantly accepting the invitation, he saw a lot of himself in Tony Stark - the imperfect guy who drank, lied and only made choices that would benefit him in the long run. In that first MCU film, Tony made another choice to better his life and redeem himself by becoming Iron Man. At that point, this person knew he could make a similar choice, fell in love with the MCU and is a completely different person today because of this movie franchise. The movie release was a holiday to them.

Why would anyone try to steal that magic from people?! To see the reactions on peoples' faces when they unwillingly got your photo on their iPhones? That's pretty low. It's inconsiderate. You probably changed the way a lot of people watched this movie and cost them appreciating the true masterpiece that it was. You are one of those people the Russo brothers despise.

If nothing else, I hope that our unfortunate "run-in" with Josh is a cautionary tale to other Apple users going to see the movie later this weekend.  Turn off your AirDrop. Save yourself from jerks like Josh.