A loneo gunman fired mumerouso shots in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises July 20. The massacre left 12 dead and 58 wounded—many of them youth. James Holmes, 24, was apprehended in minutes, and police soon discovered he had booby-trapped his apartment.

The tragedy left Americans shaken, and Warner Brothers, maker of The Dark Knight Rises, cancelled world premieres in Paris, Tokyo and Mexico City, as well as hurriedly edited its television commercials to expunge any gunplay. “Speaking on behalf of the cast and crew of The Dark Knight Rises, I would like to express our profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community,” the movie’s director Christopher Nolan said. “I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting, but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms, and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me.” (CNN, Entertainment Weekly)