Two words in the recently released A Minecraft Movie are sending cinemas across the world into chaos.
Footage circling around TikTok sees excited cinema-goers sitting on the edge of their movie seats until Jack Black’s character Steve says the words “chicken jockey”.
As soon as he does, they erupt into cheers and applause. Some throw popcorn and streamers throughout the cinema, others take off their shirts and spin them above their heads.
Watch the video above.
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The stunt has been a simple bit of fun at some cinemas, at others it’s been taken too far. In one cinema in the US, police were called. One UK cinema has issued a warning after the trend resulted in disruption.
The mid-cinema chaos has been prompted by a TikTok trend. It’s hard to say exactly how it began – as is normally the case with trends like this – but it has been prompted by a scene in the middle of the film.
In the scene, Jason Momoa’s character Garrett Garrison is ready to face off with a chicken in a ring-fight scene. Then he looks up to see a crate hanging over the chicken, it opens and a baby zombie drops down onto the chicken.
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Black’s character, Steve, says, “Chicken jockey” as the baby zombie and chicken storms towards Momoa’s character in a moment that has clearly caught the love of fans.
The scene is a reference to the chicken jockeys in the Minecraft game, which are the rare appearance of a baby zombie, or other baby Minecraft character, riding a chicken, according to Fandom.
The scene originally featured in the movie’s trailer, and Black’s “chicken jockey” line became a fan-favourite – sparking the online trend.
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Several videos of the chicken jockey stunt have been shared online with social media users expressing mixed feelings about it.
“This whole night was surreal and one of the most unforgettable movie experiences I’ve ever had,” one TikTok user wrote.
“Our theatre screamed chicken jockey and we all started clapping and screaming it was fun,” wrote another.
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“Theatre employee here. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just don’t be obnoxious I worked both opening days and it has been a living nightmare. Nothing wrong with cheering but dont be swearing,” one frustrated staff member expressed.
“As a movie theatre employee, if you throw popcorn, you deserve to not only get kicked out. But to clean that s–t up. Working through the Minecraft movie has been HELL bc of the people coming in,” echoed another.
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https://twitter.com/ollie_twt/status/1908414804823543938
Speaking about the phenomenon on Today Extra this morning, David Campbell said that his kids went to see the movie and they said it was, “so rowdy”.
For Campbell, it’s reminiscent of the reaction to a certain memorable scene in Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame.
“We went nuts and I can still feel the chills,” Campbell said.
The chicken jockey controversy aside, the new film, which was released last week, has smashed box office ratings.
A Minecraft Movie logged the biggest launch weekend ever for a video game-inspired movie, raking in US$162.75 million ($268.8 million) in the US alone.
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