The Attack at Mimi's School of Dance, on March 16, 2005, was an ambush by James on Bella Swan.
History
Background information
- Bella: "Okay, so the course that the tracker's on now is going to lead him to a ballet studio?"
- Alice: "You've been here?"
- Bella: "I took lessons as a kid. The school I went to had an arch just like that."
- — Bella Swan and Alice Cullen about Mimi's School of Dance.
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The Cullen baseball game being interrupted by the Nomads.
By March of 2005 Bella Swan and Edward Cullen had officially started dating, on one of their dates they had decided to join the rest of the Cullen family for a friendly game of baseball. While they were playing, a nomadic coven led by James heard the noise and approached them about joining them.[1]
James, who was a tracker, caught on to Bella's scent and wanted to attack, but Edward defended her.[1] With hunting being James' main obsession, Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale decided to take Bella back to Phoenix, Arizona. While Edward, Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie Hale, tried to deceive James by leading him away, north towards Canada with a false trail using the scent from Bella's clothing.
The ambush
Phone call
Alice and Jasper had been keeping Bella safe, camped out in a hotel in Phoenix. When Alice received a phone call from Edward saying that James had escaped their grasp and that everyone was going to fly to Phoenix. Alice agreed that they would meet them at the airport. But while they were still in the hotel room, Bella got a phone call from her house.[2] Assuming the caller was her mother Bella answered the phone, she was met with frantic words from her mother, only for the voice of James to take over. James claimed to have taken Renée hostage and if Bella sacrificed herself he wouldn't hurt her mother. Bella would have done anything to save her mother, even sacrifice herself. She knew it was going to be hard to get away from Alice, due to her visions, and decided not to do anything yet so as to not to reveal her plan to Alice.
The airport
Alice, Bella, and Jasper went to the airport to meet the rest of the Cullen's. While they were waiting, Alice say her vision change to include Bella in the dance studio with the hunter, and she didn't know why. Bella had Jasper escort her to the restroom and then used the opportunity to escape from everyone to save her mom. Taking the first bus she saw, which was a shuttle to the Hyatt hotel, Bella then took a taxi to the ballet studio.
Ballet studio
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James revealing that he never had Renée
Bella arrived to Mimi's School of Dance alone. The only sound that could be heard was Renée's hysterical voice from inside a closet. Bella bolted across the room only to find a TV screen that was playing an old home video with her mother frantically searching for young Bella. James revealed himself, admitting that he never had captured Renée. He proceeded to throw Bella across the room into a mirrored pillar, the glass shattered shards cutting her head. James was gloating commanding Bella to tell Edward - on video - how much it hurt and to avenger her death. Bella's refusal resulted in James breaking her tibia.
Edward, being faster than the rest of his family was the first to arrive at the ballet studio. He pounced at James throwing him across the room, and tried to escape with Bella. With her in his arms, mid-leap Edward was pulled from the air. Bella was thrown to the ground, resulting in one of the shards of glass being embedded in her Femoral artery, she pulled the shard out and began bleeding profusely. James and Edward continued to throw each other around the room, and before Edward could stop him, James bit Bella infecting her with his Venom. Edward smashed James against a mirrored wall, ripping out pieces of his throat when the rest of the Cullen's, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle arrived.
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Edward smashing James against a mirrored wall.
Carlisle attended to Bella, while Emmett, Jasper and Alice worked on tearing apart and burning James. Carlisle used a belt as a tourniquet to try and stop the bleeding. While Edward tried to save Bella's humanity by sucking James' venom out of her body.
- "Edward, stop. Her blood it clean. You're killing her. Edward. Stop. Stop. Find the will."
- ―Carlisle Cullen[src]
Aftermath
Edward was able to restrain himself and stop from draining Bella of her blood. To cover the evidence about what happened Alice, Emmett, and Jasper burnt down the ballet studio. They created a cover story on the way to the hospital to explain Bella's injuries. It was decided that Bella went to meet with Edward at their hotel when she tripped down a flight of stairs through a window. While Alice went to fabricated the evidence to corroborate the claims, Bella was admitted into the hospital. It was at that time that Carlisle alerted Charlie to Bella's condition, who then called Renée. Jasper and Emmett drove Carlisle's car back to Forks, while Alice, Edward, and Carlisle stayed with Bella.
When Bella finally awoke, Charlie was in the cafeteria getting coffee, Edward was "asleep" in a chair in the room, and Renée was by her side. After Bella told her mother that she wanted to remain in Forks, and she left the room to find Charlie. Edward told Bella that she should go to Jacksonville, so that way he could never hurt her again. Bella refused, claiming to only be alive because he saved her. This was the beginning of Edward trying to push Bella away for her own good.
Behind the scenes
- According the Catherine Hardwicke, the Attack at Mimi's School of Dance was the very first thing that was filmed for the Twilight movie, because Summit Entertainment wanted to use parts of it for early advertising.
- The entire scene took six production days to shoot.