Experience Canada on board the Rocky Mountain Express at IMAX

The Rocky Mountain Express takes viewers on a remarkable journey with the steam engine train through Canada’s breathtaking Rockies

Stephen Low, an award-winning Canadian filmmaker, spent the last thirty years of his life crafting movies for the big screen including up to 17 IMAX film. He also works as a writer and consultant on different IMAX production. He has won over fifty awards world-wide including the life achievement award.

“There isn’t a subject more meant for the big screen than a giant steam locomotive,” says Low. “This is a film I’ve wanted to make since I was a kid. Couple this with the epic nation-building story of engineering one of the most impossible railways in the world and it was just something that had to find its way onto the IMAX® screen.” During a convention, Rocky Mountain Express won the award for best cinematography and best film of the years.

The film weaves together spectacular IMAX® aerial cinematography, magnificent west coast landscapes, archival maps and images, as well as the rhythmic steam locomotive, and transports audiences back to the age of steam.

Using a camera mounted on the front of a helicopter, Low and his crew achieved some incredible (and at times dizzying) footage. “We would often overfly an area before the locomotive arrived; because we wanted to be sure there was nothing in our way was we flew backwards at 100 mph!”

The film recounts the incredible hardships that the workers endured, especially during the blasting of the granite cliff-sides while carving a rail bed through the Fraser River Valley.

“While the story of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. has been told before, it’s never been seen or heard like this—with the visual scale and fidelity of IMAX® and the power of a carefully crafted six-channel soundscape,” explains producer Pietro Serapiglia.

If you’ve considered taking a cross-Canada train trip; this film could be the catalyst you need to call up the folks at VIA and book your tickets.

After five years in the making, Rocky Mountain Express is now on the largest screen in the city at the Montreal Science Center. For Tickets and information: call 514-496-4724 or visit: www.montrealsciencecentre.com