Shelley Pfaff of the Village of Sabal Chase was watching “Bridge of Spies” at about 2 p.m. Thursday when moviegoers were told to evacuate the Old Mill Playhouse in Lake Sumter Landing.
“At first we weren’t sure what was going on,” she said. “But everybody was very orderly and we all got up and went outside.”
The Villages Public Safety Department arrived on scene to investigate and determined it was a false alarm.
Hundreds of people were in the theater at the time the alarm went off, but they exited the building swiftly and safely.
The evacuation took place shortly before heavy rain moved into The Villages.
Moviegoers were given the option of picking up where the movie left off or getting a refund.
“Picking up where the movie left off is easy because we are all digital,” said Rachel Ballou, who oversees the theaters in The Villages.
She had high praise for theater staff and those who had been in the seats.
“It went about as smooth as you could have hoped,” Ballou said.
Pfaff opted to go back in to see the rest of “Bridge of Spies” which is a Cold War-era movie about the negotiations for the exchange of prisoners.
“I had to know how the movie ended,” she said.
