Although it's nothing spectacular, this is a true story which reflects some of the real day to day stuff that happens. It happened tonight when me (m19) and my brother (m15) went to see Unbroken at the theatre.

So 20 minutes into the movie it's pretty good when all of a sudden an older lady diagonally in front of us - probably late 50's - turns around and very angrily says "whoever is tapping their foot stop that damn tapping" and glared right at me and my brother. At first I was shocked because there was no noise at all and we had been to the movies many times before and had never seen an outburst like that one. Not wanting to just take a false accusation I replied a but flustered, "What tapping? We're sitting way over here." After that, I was stressed and I could tell that my younger brother, who is a very nice and gentle kid was tense and feeling very uncomfortable. I was hoping it was over but about 10 minutes later, she got out of her seat and walked past her male companion, who she was with, to the aisle (we were sitting in the very top corner of the theater) and very heatedly said while pointing her finger at us "If you don't stop that damned tapping I'm going to report you." Seemingly directing more of her anger at my brother, who had not said anything back to her.

At this point I wasn't going to take any of her shit and I replied "Look ma'am we aren't making any noise and haven't done anything wrong, I have no idea what you're talking about" I looked at the guy next to me who was an older foreign man for any assistance and he just confusingly shook his head to say he had no idea what was going on either.

She complained to the AMC staff three times because they came up and looked around the first time and on two separate occasions came and were watching from the entry/exit to the theatre below us. She clearly was upset about something else and was looking to take it out on someone - which happened to be us or in her eyes: two teenage boys - the AMC staff looked but didn't see anything and didn't say anything and handled the situation very well and professionally. After the movie she and her partner got up and I had been considering what to say to her for the rest of the movie and although I really wanted to call her out for being a crazy bitch I decided that a calm and reasonable response would be more effective. So I stood up and said "Excuse me Ma'am I'm sorry something was bothering you but next time you decide to yell at someone make sure they've actually done something wrong and believe it or not we paid full price for these tickets and we just wanted to watch the movie."

She then proceeded to have a short crazy rant at about half yelling volume about how she wouldn't have gone apeshit if we had stopped poking her seat (which is very funny considering both of us were sitting at least 7 feet away from her; and she did not say anything to the man next to me who was actually sitting behind her) meanwhile all the people around us were looking at her like she was crazy... after she and her male companion left, three different people said some friendly words and encouraged both of us to forget it.

After we left, I encouraged my brother and told him that he did nothing wrong, that I will always have his back, and if in the future he was ever in a similar situation on his own, he always had the right and capability to stand up for himself.

It was clear that she was upset about something else and was just looking to take it out on someone around her. She then thought that instead of trying to do it on another full adult man sitting behind her she would try it on two teenage boys. The male companion who she was with did not say anything to us but also did not try to stop her, which was disappointing. I for sure in the future will not hesitate to say something to someone I am with who is causing a scene like that, even if it causes extra friction between me and them and I will never see the stranger who they are reprimanding again. Hopefully karma will come round but if nothing else, I'm positive that her angry behavior, constant stress, and high blood pressure has an effect and will definitely pose a problem sometime soon.

TL;dr - Me and my brother went to see a movie at the theatre and a seemly crazy, upset woman sitting in front of us confronted us about making noise, proceeded to get out of her seat to yell at us, and later complain and attempt to have us thrown out by the staff - who responded by observing on separate occasions, denying her, and not taking any action.