While much of America is gearing up for an iconic Barbie/Oppenheimer double feature, others are going all-in on Sound of Freedom, the Jim Caviezel-led thriller about child trafficking.


The movie, which Rolling Stone generously described as “QAnon-tinged” and said was “designed to appeal to the conscience of a conspiracy-addled Boomer,” is particularly big with Trump-loving conservatives who are already primed to see conspiracies everywhere they go.

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Case in point: Savannah Lathem. An actress of little note, Lathem posted a TikTok in which she and her fiancé Matt Blaes claim that the “deep state” sabotaged their screening of Sound of Freedom. Sabotaged how, you ask?







First, the air conditioning was out, and Lathem’s fiancé added that he heard about at least one other movie theater that was also having air-conditioning difficulties while screening Sound of Freedom.

 If that wasn’t enough, they also left the lights on throughout the screening of the film. In Blaes’ words, “They were trying to make it like, not enjoyable, they were trying to make it unenjoyable.”

“They don’t want you to see this movie,” Latham concluded.

Watching a movie with the lights on and in the sweltering heat does sound pretty unenjoyable. But is it evidence of a conspiracy, or evidence of technical difficulties and bad timing? Or better yet, evidence of how bad the theater-going experience has become?

After all, as one tweeter noted, “There’s no conspiracy here, that’s just how a lot of the big theater chains operate anymore. Everything is ‘automated,’ and they no longer have trained projectionists that are ensuring the best experience.”