According to one of our spies, the big show at Los Angeles's Arclight Cinemas was shut down at the 100-minute mark after the air conditioning malfunctioned, turning the theater into a sweltering hotbox:
Arclight Cinerama Dome. 8:15 show. At about 10 o'clock, the light suddenly went on and the projection cut out. After 5 more minutes of heckling, a lamentable usher came out and announced that due to air conditioning failure, they are stopping the movie. Which was odd, because it was warm inside, but nothing that would warrant pulling the plug on an sold-out show on opening night.
Bedlam ensued. Folks were dumping their soda on the floor. In the lobby, they were handing out free Arclight passes to furious attendees.
Spotted outside the theater were Chris Nolan and Dileep Rao looking really concerned about the whole situation. Both were working their phones furiously (while signing a few autographs) and appeared to head back towards the theater as we headed out to find another screen to watch the rest of the film.
Attendees had the option of watching the film again from the beginning in another screening room -- a mighty thing to ask of moviegoers who'd made it 100 minutes into a 148-minute film. Still, what seemed like a bad dream to them must have been even worse for Nolan himself. (Though maybe there's an upside, and the braintrust behind the Arclight -- supposedly LA's premiere movie multiplex -- will finally upgrade its A/C units and its circa-1996 website while they're at it).