pentlandbiker
Appalling commentary and people jumping off things.The first few seconds increased my adrenaline four fold – why was I watching this tosh? A gravely voiced doom-mongering narration of the story of our two heroes as they walk in slow motion across the desert. The photography of the base jumpers was good and the sky diving also, but that’s pretty standard stuff on IMAX these days. Meanwhile our narrator maintains his style with a delivery that you would normally find in trailers for cheap horror flicks. The film then descends into some stupid stuff about Leonardo’s’ original drawing of a parachute – will it work? They build it; they drop it from a plane with a guy holding on to it. At about 2000 ft from the ground he lets go (!) and lands using a modern parachute. Leonardo’s’ crashes to the ground – hardly a signal to uncork the champagne. A truly awful film with nice pictures.
Ethan Quern
Spoilers ahead: I saw this recently at the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian in DC with a couple of business buddies. At first, I have to admit to mild acrophobia and being some skeptical of the title, but the boss was buying and I couldn't weazel out. When the movie began, I could barely look directly at the screen, as free-falling to the ground from a plane isn't exactly an experience I relish. However,as the movie progressed and began to explore the biology behind the excitement of these daring (crazy?) feats, I was slowly conquering my queezy stomach. By the time they tested Leonardo Da Vinci's parachute over the Mohave, and I watched it majestically soar over the desert, I was enthralled. At the finale, when it was time for the jump from the mountain I promised myself to follow it all the way through, and landed a changed man. Great experience, well worth seeing!
kakudmi-1
One thing you must understand, this movie is a documentary about skydiving and B.A.S.E. jumping, which is another type of skydiving except it's not done from any aircraft but rather from some fixed object on the ground such as Buildings, Antenna's, Spans or Earth (mountains, cliffs).So, don't expect to see anything else.However, the way it was produced, filmed and performed is just phenomenal and very enjoyable.Please watch it and have fun. You really don't have to be involved in this sport to truly appreciate it.
wayne-191
The best IMAX movie I've ever seen. There's this mile-high sheer cliff with 4 guys in parachutes ready to jump off... you're in a helicopter directly overhead looking straight down on them as they jump... the visuals are dizzying at this and other points.The story revolves around a group of people called "base jumpers", which means jumping off something attached to the ground. Cliffs, buildings, bridges over deep gorges... anything goes. They also jump out of airplanes, and do some amazing aerobatics.The "science" part of the story involves describing in simple language how an adrenaline high is a natural high that some people desperately crave for biochemical reasons. They team up with some scientists trying to see if Leonardo da Vinci's centuries-old design of a parachute will work. They actually built it, hang a person off it, and lift both up to 10,000 feet using a hot-air balloon. Then they drop it and... you get to see what happens. Did Leonardo successfully design the world's first parachute, centuries before the first aircraft flight? You be the judge.The music, visuals, cinematography, and story are all excellent. If you see just one IMAX movie in your life, see this one. Forget "Dinosaurs in 3D" and others, which are mostly crap. See this one.
AD
