1986: Image Maximus

The first 3-D IMAX film is shown

It’s wild how putting on a pair of funny glasses in a movie theater can make you feel like an electric eel is swimming right into your face, or a helicopter is hovering about an inch over your head, but that’s exactly the effect that super-sized IMAX movies give when they’re designed for 3-D viewing.

When the 20-minute Transitions was shown on this day in Canada, it stunned viewers with some of its illusions: eggs appeared to break in your lap, and logs seemed to roll off a conveyor belt into the theater.

As the science of 3-D has developed further and IMAX theaters have opened around the world, more feature length 3-D movies have delighted viewers with their crazy, in-the-thick-of-the-action sensations. Now just imagine for a moment watching a 3-D IMAX film on the largest IMAX screen in the world in Sydney, Australia. It’s 96 feet high—the equivalent of an eight-story building. No wonder IMAX is short for “Image Maximum.”