Big Rapids Cinema

The AMC Classic 4 Theater (formerly GKC Carmike Big Rapids Cinema) is a defunct theater, formerly located in downtown Big Rapids, MI. It was a host location to several events in Dozerfleet history. However, it eventually fell prey to the accursed "Great Reset" in 2020, and was shut down permanently.

More notable than the theater itself, perhaps, is an alleyway located between the theater and Williams Family Medical - which was known as All About Health Market and Wellness in the 2000s. Several Dozerfleet works reference this alleyway.

Early history
In the heyday of this theater's glory, it was opened at its location near Michigan Ave. and Elm St. as the Colonial Theater. The Butterfield Michigan Theaters Company took over control of the Colonial in 1941, renaming it "Butterfield Big Rapids Theater." Butterfield Big Rapids at some unspecified point was converted into a GKC theater, operating under that title until it fell under control of the Carmike theater chain. During the GKC era, the theater was renovated from a one-showroom affair into a four-showroom system. Unfortunately, the Carmike group showed very little interest in maintenance or upkeep for the building after acquiring it from GKC.

Loss of public good faith
By the late 2000s, patrons began to notice that the building was falling into disrepair. Workers complained of low wages - and feeling a lack of motivation to work. Bathrooms often went uncleaned, with the theater being apparently too strapped for cash to even regularly invest in air fresheners. Other complaints from patrons included non-functional equipment, poor quality and overpriced popcorn and snacks, and a wholesale unwillingness by staff to update the sound equipment or seats.

Lack of regard for cleanliness led to floors often being sticky, with the issue going unaddressed for days at a time. Seats didn't recline, and lacked cup holders. Perhaps worst of all, dust, cobwebs, and even black mold were discovered to be building up on the walls and ceilings - with the staff and management behaving as if totally apathetic about how this posed a serious public health hazard. Reviewers claimed on Google that some of it "looked like it had been collecting there since the early 1990s!" While no reviews mentioned insects, rats, or mice, these too were high possibilities for such a poorly-maintained building.

Staff began to be poorly trained, and the theater was forced to hire from whoever was still willing to work - while losing interest in training them. This led to poorly-trained staff with serious personal issues going unaddressed, leading to several customers feeling alienated by staff they found "eerie." As the popcorn machines continued to have issues, popcorn that was days old started being served to customers. Complaints fell on deaf ears.

Any time management tried to address concerns about the theater's needs to the greater chain, the greater chain declined to show an ounce of concern. The Big Rapids market apparently "didn't matter." The Carmike theater chain in general began to care less about the welfare of patrons, and more about simply milking them for as long as possible. Complaints to the health department, if there were any, led nowhere. The theater was apparently told that the only way it would get the help it needed, was to make a very sudden (and very large) amount of money out of nowhere, whilst doing nothing special. Prices on movies had to be set by the greater chain.

The only control on prices that local management had, was on the price of snacks - all while still not allowed without greater chain prior approval to invest in better equipment, so as to ensure said snacks met basic industry quality assurance standards. As a consequence, patrons began to complain about how the poor-quality snacks were ludicrously overpriced. Management tried to make up the difference by including more ads before feature presentations, which annoyed customers due to increasingly absurdly late showtimes.

Meet the new boss (same as the old boss)
By 2017, the jig was up. The theater was losing business badly; and bad reviews on Google were driving it to ruin. Management tried one last time to plead the case with the greater chain that this wouldn't have been an issue if not for the greater chain's apathy and negligence. Which according to patrons, bordered on criminal negligence. The greater Carmike chain, however, was unamused. Far from pony up to give Big Rapidians the theater experience they deserved, or even just close the theater outright and write off their losses and admit failure, Carmike elected to give Big Rapids the biggest possible one-finger salute on their way out of town. They sold the theater, in its total state of disrepair and all, to AMC Theaters.

AMC, run by companies with strong ties to China, and caring more about impressing the CCP than with giving Americans what they actually pay for, initially moved into the building on a pretense of goodwill. They were going to fix the theater up. They were going to make it worth the customer's while again. That was the sales pitch to customers after AMC bought the theater. But in the end, the only thing they really did was give the building's exterior a mild facelift, then keep going with the crap interior just as it was. Locals were steaming mad, with reviewers on Google strongly warning potential future patrons to do whatever was necessary to take their time and money anywhere else.

Other local patrons grew infuriated that the most significant change made to the building when it was renamed to AMC Classic Big Rapids 4, was that the outdoor marquee was gone. Therefore, patrons were forced to walk inside of the poorly-maintained building - just to know which movies were playing! Or, to check their phones before going downtown - and pray the crew wasn't too lazy to update the website. Because maintaining a Now Playing sign required too much extra (and supposedly unnecessary) work in the new crew's eyes.

Scamdemic
With its business down to almost nothing apart from the most desperate of college students, the AMC theater found itself once again at the mercy of China. With help from the killer clown Fauci, supervillains like Soros and Bill Gates, and sleazy politicians like Romney and Biden; China was able to engineer the Globalist Scamdemic - as a way to usher in the "Great Reset," which sought to revert Americans to living under medieval-era European feudalism. Using the ruse of a "killer virus" - even in locations with zero cases of it - this cabal of international terrorists was able to blackmail numerous world governments into betraying all principles of liberty or even basic human decency. Global tyranny befitting a sci-fi dystopia movie began to engulf the world in real life - with Australia getting the worst of it.

Amidst this, mob boss governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Great Nursing Home Killer, issued draconian lockdowns all across the state of Michigan. She stopped just short of using drones to spy on everyone's every move, as was being done in states like New Jersey. In March of 2020, AMC ordered the theater to close - just as every other theater was ordered to "temporarily" close its doors. Not even the two-bits that AMC bought out for control of the theater were able to skirt around Whitmer's lockdowns - no matter how much they may have previously mollycoddled her.

The real reason for this was plain as day. Obama, the Man of Lawlessness, was behind efforts to put Biden in the White House - no matter what level of robbery, theft, fraud, or skullduggery was necessary to change the election's outcome. The only thing that was without a doubt, was that Americans' (false) hopes of getting their country back via Trump needed to be completely and utterly crushed - leaving them with no sense of hope whatsoever. Crushing their souls with a cruelty befitting of a show such as Squid Game. (Masonic imagery, organ harvesting, and satanic ritual abuse optional.)

Said Man of Lawlessness had gone to college in the past not so much to study the American Way so as to uphold it; but rather, to learn how best to undermine and destroy it. His plan, via first destroying Trump, was all made possible because of China experimenting with bioweapons with help from traitorous Americans. The Georgia Guidestones cultists further salivated at the chance to instigate genocide - with Trump naively trusting Anthony Fauci as a "guide" for everyone through "hard times." (The puppy abuse videos wouldn't leak until way late in 2021, leading to much of the public blindly worshiping Fauci as a demigod.)

What this cabal at the national level feared most of all, was the spirit of Classic American Patriotism that would awaken as a backlash. The lockdowns were odd in regards to which places the disease magically did or didn't know how to attack someone inside of. But what was clear from the get-go, was that the measures were designed to prevent a Second American Revolution from properly taking shape.

The original Americans to declare independence:


 * Met in bars, taverns, churches, stage theaters, and sit-down restaurants.
 * Stood close by when talking, so the British troops couldn't overhear them.
 * Preached against the evils in both America and Britain, unabashedly, from the pulpit, without fear of church taxation or tax status penalty. The pulpit was not to be bullied by the state.
 * Developed their own currencies, to avoid the pitfalls of the evils of centralized banking.
 * Would only stay home if confirmed to be sick. Quarantine was for the severely ill; not the healthy.
 * Would not let fear of what they might get sick with interfere with sharing crucial information.
 * Would never dare consider surrendering their arms and means of defense as a valid option to appease anyone.

By contrast, even Trump foolishly played along with an agenda that:


 * Closed the bars and taverns down with extreme prejudice.
 * Suppressed sit-down restaurants.
 * Closed theaters with extreme prejudice.
 * Bullied churches into closing their doors.
 * Issued 2nd amendment-violating bump-stock bans, thus effectively rendering the most practical of guns for defense against tyranny all but useless.
 * Bullied churches into accepting the unconstitutional 501(c)3 agreement, leading to censorship of the pulpit's message by increasingly abusive tax officials - whose jobs were being increasingly politicized and made partisan.
 * As a consequence, sermon content about basic morality had to be watered down, so it wouldn't offend "the left" as much. Essentially, the church was being told it needed Satan's permission to obey God.  Sadly, most churches bent the knee rather quickly.
 * Insisted on a 6-foot "social distancing" rule - borrowing terminology directly from the Nazis' playbook, and hoping no one would notice.
 * For airborne pathogens, 26 feet is a more logical distance.
 * The real reason then for the 6-foot rule, quite readily apparently, was to make sure that whispering was impossible.
 * Any criticism of the incoming regime had to be vocal, and had to be spoken where it could be within earshot of snoops and snitches.
 * Phone and internet transmissions were already being tracked and monitored, so online expressions of dissent were already devoid of privacy.
 * With YouTube and Vimeo in cohorts with the cabal, videos and transmissions over those sites weren't safe. They were subjected to harassment of creators, to removal, to banning of creators, to police harassment of creators, to other forms of censorship, and other dirty tactics.  Facebook also began to be in cohorts with this, making it dangerous to share any form of dissent.  Outside of the US, dissidents of literally any form were reported to local police - who often acted as state thugs rather than officers of peace.  In Australia, a man daring to complain that extreme and over-the-top lockdowns were causing his kids to starve could find himself arrested, just for posting about it to Facebook!
 * This led to the rise in popularity of alternatives like BitChute, among others. Leading to fascism-happy advertisers engaging in illegal zapping campaigns to try to eradicate companies that allowed suppressed voices a chance to be heard.

Anyone who knew their history could see what was really afoot: the evil ghosts of tyrants past, with a modern set of vessels, looking for long-overdue revenge on the legacies of men like Washington and Adams. Said evil ghosts wishing to erase the legacies of the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the US constitution entirely from existence!

Amidst all of this, AMC Big Rapids became just one more casualty of mass theater closings. Ironically, the next revolution was not too likely to meet in that theater anyway, given how unpopular it had already become due to years of mismanagement.

Final shutdown
A circuit decision in August of 2020 ruled that the theater wasn't worth saving. Not only did the cabals want to demoralize Big Rapids further under the crushing weight of Great Reset propaganda by denying the town one of its most iconic historical buildings; but AMC in particular showed no interest in ever solving the problems it had inherited from Carmike. The building's interior was filthy and decrepit. The seats were broken. The floors were sticky. The popcorn machines were worthless. Nothing about the building's interior was viewed as being worth the while to keep it up.

By late August of 2020, the decision was finalized to make the theater's closure permanent. Other than the cherished memories it brought about in Dozerfleet history, the building would remain an empty shell of its former glory, haunted by memories and echoes of bad popcorn smell and dissatisfied customers' complaints. With everything the theater was up against in its lifetime, it was a miracle it survived as long as it did.

Dozerfleet history
One evening in late August of 2006, most Ferris students were attending the Meijer Madness event. The Dozerfleet founder went to the Carmike instead, and had almost the entire theater exclusively to himself. Snakes on a Plane was showing. Its ending immediately inspired ideas for an animated series spinoff. Snakes on a Blog mentioned this animated series pitch in a post in 2007, and was intrigued by the idea. However, New Line never contacted about it.

In the spring of 2007, TMNT was on at that same theater. This led later on to the discovery of the Big Rapids Party House - which would later inspire an episode pitch for Camelorum Adventures in 2015 and 2016.

Around May 17th of 2007, the alleyway outside of Carmike became a shooting location for Mutt Mackley and Gambino Penguin's "Somewhere I Belong" music video, along with the nearby JC Penney.

The theater's alleyway was proposed as a shooting location for Volkonir in February of 2008. However, the scene in question never materialized on video, given that actress Bethany Hasse backed out of the project before shooting could commence in April. This led to the film's prequel being shot for class instead, in Grand Ledge.

Later in 2008, shortly before the making of Slovak Girls: Keepin' Summer HOT!!!, the Dozerfleet founder took Luka Underground founder Marta Luka on a date at the Big Rapids theater. They saw Hancock on the big screen, since The Dark Knight hadn't quite been released yet. An attempt to see that film solo later on in 2008 led to an interesting dilemma: a storm knocked the power out, forcing the theater to grant viewers a free showing the following day, after about a third of the movie's runtime.

In 2009, the theater hosted a special screening for Toy Story 3 with improved 3D tech. In celebration of this, Pixar re-released Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in remastered renders in 3D, to make those films measure up to Toy Story 3 render and stereoscopy standards that weren't entirely possible in 1995 and 1999. The Dozerfleet founder attended the 2-part showing, but needed to meet up for class group meetings regarding Blood Over Water production. As such, he only stayed for the showing of the first Toy Story having been remastered. While the theater itself would not have been necessarily used for anything, nearby JC Penney almost became a shooting location for the pitch that preceded Blood Over Water: a series pitch titled "Kozerlen."

Alas, the theater played no role in 2010 productions. Its general area was visited in mid-June of 2019, as the Dozerfleet founder met with Merre Bowmaster for one last time before her untimely death in 2020. The area was visited again in the summer of 2020, to gather sufficient area photography to assist in making as accurate a build as possible for The Sims 4: Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff. By then, the theater had already been closed up - soon to be closed up permanently. No indoor shots were possible, not even through the blacked-up windows. Given the historical building's appearance's having been desecrated by AMC, Google Street View was utilized during OBRL production to restore the building's external aesthetics to their former pre-2017 glory. The version of the Carmike Theater utilized during production was Google's snapshot of the theater's exterior from 2011.

In addition to a basic trip to see Merre, the 2019 trip was also a scouting tour for gathering location data for the comic version of Blood Over Water. It also served as a trial run for Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour. Most notably, it was an endurance test on the old minivan that would later need to be able to survive a journey to Boonville. The Big Rapids trip revealed maintenance issues that were essential for repairing the van's power steering hose prior to the trip to Boonville, which cost money that otherwise would have been spent on making the trip to Boonville last one day longer, with more data collected.

Moderate success in Boonville and Evansville then led to the van being (justifiably) trusted for another excursion later that same year: A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo. This trip to Canada successfully led to footage being gathered for scouting locations for writing Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo. Sadly, in 2020, Big Rapids was the farthest trip that could be afforded. Shutdowns and disease panic led to lots of quarantines, which ultimately cost the Dozerfleet founder essential money that could otherwise have gone toward more tours. In 2021, the house in Grand Ledge was sold, and Dozerfleet operations were relocated to Florida.

Big Rapids Cinema in Dozerfleet media
The alleyway was where Toy Volkonir was discovered by Cassie Helm in 2008's Volkonir. That same alley is used for scenes involving Gambino Penguin in Mutt Mackley and Gambino Penguin's "Somewhere I Belong".

Since AMC took over, they placed a white stucco facade over top the red brick exterior that appears in the alleyway. They also removed the chain link fence, which looked silly and produced a ludicrously narrow walkway for anyone entering the alleyway. For The Sims 4: Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff, the Carmike Theater's original colors were restored. For Volkonir 2008 and Sorbet, as well as briefly in the Blood Over Water comic, there are intentions to use the Sims 4 render in place of the actual building.

The building's render also features in the trailer for OBRL, along with still photos taken in the summer of 2020 of the real building's exterior (post-AMC buyout.) The Dozerfleet Studios section of the official Dozerfleet blog features a background on pages for viewable videos. This background is an animated GIF file that features a flickering screen inside a showroom. This is strongly implied to be one of the four showrooms in AMC 4, as the Big Rapids Cinema render in Sims 4 was altered in Photoshop Elements 2019 to create the GIF file. In the OBRL trailer, the Ghost of Big Rapids Living Spirit Past (disguised as Merre) takes Mike and Meagan to the theater in late August of 2006 to watch Snakes on a Plane.

The couple has an opinion that the film and theater were "just okay." This prompts "Merre" to show them places to eat in town instead. While they enjoy Szot's and Mancino's, the couple fall in love immediately with the local Biggby.

To date, Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff is the only game made and authorized by Dozerfleet Labs to feature Big Rapids Cinema. This is also the only known instance of the theater in any video game. The July 18th, 2020 render is included in The Merre Edition of OBRL. This version uses in-game cheats to produce a lot with a mockup of the old Carmike era signage - without resorting to use of actual custom content.

As a result, the lot will load on PlayStation and XBox consoles just as effortlessly as on a PC when imported via the Sims 4 Gallery. This is a noble departure from other similar lots, such as Mancino's and Biggby, wherein the custom signage requires that older CC-free versions remain on the Gallery for use by console players.

Gameplay in Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff
Big Rapids Cinema in The Sims 4 is listed as a "Generic" lot type, due to its greater complex being included. The theater section lacks proper functionality to function as a real life movie theater, or as a proper retail venue. It is depicted as being adjacent to All About Health, the Earth Wind & Fire Salon, and a furniture store. Only some features in the furniture store are close to the actual former venue. All About Health and EWFS are mere shells, put in the game mostly for decorative and scenic purposes.

Further viewing

 * The infamous alleyway in 2011