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July 24, 2014: The Day I Saved HALL H at the San Diego Comic-Con

Comic-Con by Luis A. Jaime

"My son was there. He was in the bus. He saw what Clark did." - MAN OF STEEL (2013)

Of all the lines of dialogue in the film, MAN OF STEEL, this particular one stands out in my mind. It is a line that I will always associate with one of the most incredible days of my life - Saturday, July 14th, 2012.

Not only did I get to experience the first ever footage of MAN OF STEEL, but I also helped save almost 10,000 people in line for HALL H... and it almost killed me.

Two years ago, at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, everyone was eagerly anticipating the Warner Bros. panel inside HALL H. There was a pretty exciting line-up that year: Pacific Rim, The Hobbit and MAN OF STEEL were going to be featured.

My brother Ivan and I were going to be there that Saturday. The only way to make sure we get inside was to get in line early. Real early. We got in line at 2:00 a.m. that Saturday morning. We would have lined up earlier, but I needed to get some rest beforehand, because I had donated blood at Comic-Con Thursday morning. I only got two hours of sleep that night.

Even though I was starting off a little tired, what kept me going was the anticipation of MAN OF STEEL. The night began normally. You arrive at HALL H at 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning, you find the end of the line and you sit down and wait for the next 8 hours. Until someone directs everyone to get up and start moving towards the entrance.

Around 4:00 a.m., I decided to go see how many people were in line before us. I roughly estimated there were about 2,000 people in front of us, so we had a great spot in line. HALL H can hold up to 6,500 people, so we were definitely going to get inside.

Next, I went to count how many people were in line after us. As I reached the end of the line, I noticed something was wrong. The end of the line had no one supervising it. Normally, you need a security guard, so people will know where to go line up. The line can grow as big as 10,000 people, before they even start letting anyone inside at 9:00 a.m.

Without anyone directing people, the line had started to go in the wrong direction. Instead of the line continuing to grow around the perimeter of the Convention Center, it started to double back towards the Hilton Bay Front Hotel.

"Why does this matter?" you may ask. Well, picture in your mind the classic video game TRON. Specifically, the part where they ride the cool motorcycles. As they drive along the course, they leave a solid wall behind them. As you keep making turns, the walls make it harder for you to maneuver until eventually, someone crashes into that wall because there was nowhere else to go. That's the best way I can describe this line. If it continues to grow, it will either hit a "wall" when it reaches the hotel, or when it heads towards the busy street with oncoming traffic.

I had to do something.

I found a security guard and told him the situation. His solution was to just "cut off" the line when it reaches the hotel. I told him that wasn't going to work because we can't stop people from lining up. People will continue to arrive to get in line, even though it's 5:00 a.m. He seemed pretty sure that his solution would work, but I was not. There will still be a few thousand people that are going to arrive. Where are they going to go if they can't get in line for HALL H? They would most likely start gathering near the end of the line, or worse yet, some kind of riot could happen and someone could get seriously injured. Imagine hundreds of people very angry because they are not being allowed to line up.

I left to find another security guard that would listen to me, because I was NOT going to just stand there and let this situation turn into something serious that could put people in danger.

"What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?" "Maybe." - Young Clark Kent & Jonathan Kent, MAN OF STEEL (2013)

By now it's 5:30 a.m., and I still haven't found anyone else. I go back to the first security guard and attempt to convince him to listen to what I had to say. A few minutes later, his supervisor shows up and asks him the same thing I was asking, "What are you going to do about the line?"

He tells her that he's going to stop people from lining up. She informs him that he can't do that. I respectfully interrupt and tell her I have a solution. All you need to do is go to the location of the line where it started going in the wrong direction, and re-direct all those people the correct way. Since I've been in this line many, many times over the years, I knew exactly which way to go. I told her that I could move all those people on my own, if I were to get her authorization.

She thought about it for a second, and then she said, "Okay. Do it. Do what you need to do."

So I ran down to the spot where the line went in the wrong direction, and I began my monumental task.

First, I needed to get everyone's attention. So, in my loudest, yet most authoritative voice, I yelled, "Attention, everyone! We are going to need to move this line in order for more people to line up! You will not lose your place in line! Just follow me and everything will work out okay!"

I started re-directing the line, at 6:00 a.m., so it could continue growing safely. As the line moved in its new direction, it should've gotten shorter, but it didn't, because more people kept lining up.

One hour later, I'm still directing the line, and I get a phone call. My friends are calling asking where I was in line. They were going to meet up with Ivan and I in the morning. I told them that I'll have to call them back. I'm doing something so incredible right now, they probably wouldn't believe me if I told them. I told them to call Ivan, and he'll tell you where our spot is, because I'm busy saving HALL H.

Of course, they didn't believe me. Why would they? It's sounds ridiculous. Why would I be "saving" HALL H? After two hours, a security guard comes by to bring me something to drink. I tell him they will need to start "compressing" the line sooner than expected; otherwise, there won't be any more room for the line to grow. That means they'll need to make everyone near the front of the line to stand up and move forward, thus eliminating all the open spaces and forcing the line to move forward.

Half an hour later, as the line finally starts moving, a huge wave of relief gushes over me. A huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. At this point, I'm just pointing people to the end of the line, and controlling it so it goes in the right direction.

The security guard from earlier comes by again, and I tell him that I can continue guarding the line. All I want is to be able to get into HALL H to meet up with my friends. He called a few people, and then he said yes.

They opened the doors to HALL H at 9:00 a.m., and I was still there, guarding the line and making sure it didn't get out of control. People were showing up in hordes by now, but I kept at it. For the next three hours, I kept control of that line. At some point, someone took the time to actually count how many people were in line before him. He estimated he was number 6,000 in line. From that point, I kept a count of people as they kept lining up.

At noon, they sent a new security guard to take over for me, and I was free to go. After six hours of managing the line, I had just counted just over 10,200 people.

I finally joined my friends inside. I was beyond exhausted. I never got any sleep that night. I had been up for 30 hours, and I hadn't eaten anything while I was outside directing the line. I was just glad to be inside HALL H.

When the Warner Bros panel finally began, Ivan and I tweeted what we were seeing, anxiously awaiting MAN OF STEEL. And then it finally started. This was it. The panel lasted about 30 minutes. I held my video camera high above everyone's head so I could record it.

And, finally, they showed us the first ever footage of MAN OF STEEL.

After everything I'd been through to get to that moment, I can honestly say, THAT was the greatest experience of my life. The musical score coupled with the voiceovers by Jor-El and Jonathan Kent. The shots of a young and old Clark Kent. His rocket. The cape.

Then, we saw him fly. It was the most amazing thing ever. Tears rolled down my face as I watched. The entire room was silent as they watched alongside me. When it finished, a deafening roar blanketed HALL H. Everyone cheered, yelled and clapped for what they had just seen, myself included.

Then they showed it again.

Luis on Twitter

If I were to drop dead from exhaustion after all this, I would have died happy. I experienced something that only 6,500 people in the entire world got to see first. I helped get those people inside HALL H safely without anything going wrong or anyone getting hurt.

Most of them will never know what part I played in their experience.

But that's okay. I just think to myself, "This is what SUPERMAN would have done."

Luis Jaime


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