Picture this: you're watching a movie in a darkened London cinema when suddenly, a figure emerges from the shadows. Not a ghost. Not an usher. A ninja.

In September 2012, the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square launched one of the most creative solutions to a universal problem: people who won't shut up during movies. Their answer? A volunteer "Cinema Ninja Taskforce" dressed head-to-toe in jet-black Morphsuits—those skintight lycra bodysuits that make you look like a living silhouette.

How the Ninja Program Worked

The cinema recruited volunteers and offered them free movie tickets in exchange for ninja duty. These volunteer enforcers would position themselves in the darkest corners of the theater, blending into the shadows. When someone's phone lit up, or a conversation got too loud, the ninjas would spring into action—appearing beside the offender to deliver a quiet but firm reminder about cinema etiquette.

Paul Vickery, the cinema's head of public relations at the time, admitted the concept "may sound ludicrous" but insisted it had been "a real success in clamping down on those ruining films for everyone else with inconsiderate behaviour."

The Element of Surprise

One moviegoer caught using his phone told reporters that being "suddenly" confronted by two ninjas was "pretty terrifying at first." But after the initial shock wore off, he got a good laugh out of it—and quickly realized he was being a distraction to others.

That mix of humor and effectiveness was exactly what the cinema was going for. The program was initially planned as a short trial run, but proved popular enough that the cinema extended it beyond the original timeline.

A Product of Its Time

The ninja initiative was a collaboration with Morphsuits, a company that made the full-body lycra suits that became a brief cultural phenomenon in the early 2010s. You'd see them at sporting events, parties, and apparently, lurking in the back rows of independent cinemas.

The Prince Charles Cinema itself remains a beloved London institution—an independent arthouse cinema that's been showing cult classics, singalongs, and marathons since 1962. While the cinema is still operating as of 2025 (though facing lease disputes with its landlord), all documented mentions of the ninja program come from 2012 when it launched.

Whether the ninjas still patrol the aisles today remains a mystery. But for one glorious moment in cinema history, London moviegoers knew that justice wore a Morphsuit.

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