

From the Dark Knight Rises press kit, sent out last year.

Some idle corners of the Internet are chattering about a number of coincidences that would appear to connect Dark Knight Rises with America's two most recent horrifying gun massacres. After the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater during a midnight screening for the film, the word "Aurora" was spotted in bright lights atop a building in Dark Knight Rises. Now it seems the name "Sandy Hook" also has ties to the Batman flick... two, it would seem.



In the movie

Before the movie came out, some media outlets received a "viral package" that contained a map showing a targeted area called Sandy Hook, which was labeled "Strike Zone 1." In the movie, this is where Gotham Stadium is, and Commissioner Gordon points to it on a map (it's the only thing you can read on the map aside from the word "Gotham"). What's circulating is a theory that the Sandy Hook massacre was, on some subliminal level, brought on by the movie:

"As more of these 'strange coincidences' continue to pop up, it would take a fool not to question the motive behind it all: Is this all part of an evil pre-conditioning program? This definitely begins to tread into Satanic and occult territory, the purpose of which is known to only a select few in tight-knit circles at the very top branches of various secret societies."

This attempt to draw a legitimate connection between a fictional film and a devastating real-life massacre comes off as trivializing. But we've got to admit it's a pretty weird coincidence. If you're inclined to take a closer look, there's this: