Jen McCoy/Daily Register
Julie Beroukas poses with movie theater employee Adam Krause on Wednesday night at Eastgate Cinema in Madison. She was an extra in the movie “Public Enemies” during a courtroom scene behind actress Lily Taylor.

It might have been an unusual sight, but not if you knew who was in the audience. A handful of extras and two busloads of Columbus residents waited until the very end of the "Public Enemies" to applaud their city at the end of the credits. But bursts of cheering and the occasional "whoo hoo" were not uncommon throughout the film on Wednesday.

In the stadium seating at the Eastgate Cinema, Henry and Cathy Lenning dressed as a gangster and a flapper.

"I'm here because it's fun to be with your neighbors, watching a movie made in your town," Henry Lenning said.

Lyle Sampson, who wore a plastic black fedora and a skinny tie, came to see his hometown on the big screen.

"We figure we're going to have to buy the DVD and pause it (for Columbus scenes)," Sampson said.

Before a Columbus scene, a lone voice cried out, "Yeah Oshkosh" during a bank robbery. And then, it was pure elation for the audience when Johnny Depp was shown driving up to a stoplight in Columbus. Someone yelled, "There's the bank." Another person joined in: "That's Main Street."

The extras who shot scenes in Columbus have kept in touch.

Mike Alioto was a police detective in the scene, and Depp was able to escape the city without being caught by the law.

"I'm wearing a newsboy cap, and you can vaguely tell it's me," said Alioto, who lives in Madison.Jennifer Taylor shrieked when she saw herself on the streets of Columbus.

"It was bizarre. I looked really bored, which I was (because of take after take)," Taylor said. She lives in Madison and also was featured three times in the Darlington courtroom scene.

Scott Rawson said he was just happy he made the final cut.

"At the stoplight in Columbus, I walked by the car (driven by Depp)," said Rawson, of Baraboo. "I can guarantee that when the DVD comes out, we'll all get together and watch it frame by frame, and alcohol will be involved."

And when an extra couldn't see a full-face picture, sometimes just a piece would do. Mauricio Parra said he could barely find himself in a crowd but said he thinks he saw something familiar.

"Who knows? Maybe my ear showed up," Parra said.

When buses returned to Columbus, residents cracked open a bottle of champagne and toasted their city.

jmccoy@capitalnewspapers.com

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