A man has reportedly passed away from a heart attack while watching Avatar: The Way of Water at a movie theater in India.
According to The Independent, the incident occurred in the Kakinada district of the country's southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh - where a man named Lakshmireddy Srinu collapsed inside a movie theater. Local media has reported that Srinu was viewing the latest installment in James Cameron's Avatar series when collapsed in the middle of the movie.
First responders rushed to the scene, however, he was declared dead on arrival at Peddapuram Government Hospital. The outlet detailed that he has left behind a daughter and a son.
Dr. Sanjeev Gera - director of Cardiology at Fortis Hospital in northern India - explained to The Hindustan Times that watching movies with stressful scenes can trigger changes to the heart's beating pattern, and eventually lead to cardiac arrest.
"Heart attack can cause a cardiac arrest and patients can have sudden cardiac death also. Heart attack can be due to blockage in arteries especially when there are issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sugar, heavy smoking, obesity, or bad genetics.
"So when you are not accustomed to some exercise regime and if you undertake sudden exercise routine like you do some weight lifting etc you can collapse," Dr. Gera explained.
"Especially after Covid, there is a continuing inflammation in our blood vessels. Because of stress, increase in BP like what happened in this case, arteries of heart could have ruptured and that can cause sudden cardiac arrest," he added. Dr. Gera also detailed how "risk factors," genetic conditions, and stress can all cause rhythmic disturbances.
This recent incident, however, is not a lone event - in fact, Wion News reported that a Taiwanese man passed away while watching the first Avatar movie in 2010, allegedly also succumbing to a heart attack from "over-excitement."
It's hardly news that the latest James Cameron movie is generating excitement, having already grossed close to $1.4 billion at the box office since its mid-December release, according to Box Office Mojo. Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Kate Winslet, the movie follows the story of the Na'vi people on the fictional planet of Pandora.
The sequel to the 2010 global hit explores a second human invasion of Pandora, over a decade after the original takeover. Now a father to four children, Jake Sully and his wife Neytiri are on the run from Colonel Miles Quaritch who intends to capture them and their children.
Rotten Tomatoes has received a critic score of 77%, with many critics applauding the film's visual effects. "Weigh the flimsy story against eye-popping, shoot-the-works visuals that fill the screen to bursting and the choice is clear: Cameron's 3D sequel to his biggest hit is the ultimate in-theater thrill ride. You've never seen anything like it in your life," ABC News stated in their review.
Other reviews criticized the storyline, with Observer writing: "The film's focus is split in so many directions that none of its characters feel whole, even after three full hours."