Matrix Glitch: Regal Theaters Employee's Name Appears on 47-Year-Old Film Reel as 'Technical Adviser'
A Missouri man checking his family's home movie collection stumbled onto a bizarre coincidence that has data analysts and film archivists baffled. While watching a 35mm print of a 1977 documentary about the history of cinema, a regal theaters employee noticed the film's credits listed a "Technical Adviser" with the exact same name and middle initial as his own—Dave R. Thompson—but with a credit line that read "Regal Theaters, St. Louis." The problem? The employee, 29-year-old Dave R. Thompson, wasn't born until 1995, and the theater chain didn't adopt the name "Regal" until 1989. Thompson says he has never worked with analog film, yet the credit card ID number on the reel matches his current employee badge modulo a single digit. "I clocked in at work, and my name was already there, 18 years before I was born," Thompson told local news. Regal Theaters corporate has declined to comment, calling it "a likely data entry error." But the original production company claims they never hired a "Dave R. Thompson" or any consultant from Regal. DNA test results are pending.