The 70mm Print Of Oppenheimer Went On For 11 Miles, So IMAX Had To Get Creative

Social media isn't always a hellscape of hatred and profound ignorance. On far too rare occasions, it can spur wholly unexpected enlightenment.

This is what happened when IMAX shared a TikTok walking viewers through the special measures the company had to implement to project a three-hour, 70mm print of Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer." As you might've heard, the platter weighs 600 pounds, while the reel is 11 miles long. This is unprecedented, given that an IMAX film projector couldn't handle a platter that ran longer than 150 minutes. But Nolan is a celluloid purist, and the company knows their product's ideal format is film, so when the filmmaker asked them to accommodate a print that exceeded their capabilities, they got inventive.

In doing so, they had to soup up a 21-year-old piece of technology.

The device is the Palm Pilot m130, which has long been the go-to for the management of an IMAX projector's quick turn reel unit — and we're only talking about this because techies were tickled to see the ancient handheld device in the company's TikTok. Basically, the m130 makes sure each spliced-together reel spools out in a fleet, orderly fashion. But here's the problem: there are only 25 IMAX theaters in the United States capable of projecting a 70mm IMAX platter; ergo, a labor-intensive overhaul of these houses would be prohibitively expensive. So the most reasonable course of action was to tweak the old, reliable m130.

The entire process of hot-rodding the m130 is documented in an exhaustive, yet entertaining article over at The Verge. Aside from financial considerations, sticking with the device was a practical decision designed to make projectionists' lives easier. As a company spokesperson told Motherboard:

"The original Quick Turn Reel Units operated on PalmPilots. In advance of the release of 'Oppenheimer,' Imax Engineering designed and manufactured an emulator that mimics the look and feel of a PalmPilot to keep it simple and familiar for Imax film projectionists."

Is this ingenuity worth the trouble? Though the exhibition of actual film is now a boutique industry, I assure you, if you take a Zoomer who's grown up on DCP projection and streaming media, they will sense the difference. As utilized by a visual master like Nolan, it will likely blow their minds.

I know that young shutterbugs have been getting turned on by analog photography of late, so the celluloid adherent in me doesn't want to give up hope as to the fate of 35mm and 70mm film. Digital won this battle long ago, but if a massively popular director like Nolan can turn younger generations on to the unmatched texture and beauty of film, a renewed demand for the projection of celluloid doesn't seem entirely unrealistic. The challenge would be finding people skilled enough to run the projectors.

But if a ridiculously outmoded Palm Pilot can prove useful in 2023, surely we can find mechanically inclined people to master the art of projection. And when people discover movies don't have to look dark and lifeless, maybe the industry's current revival will turn into an artistic windfall. Wouldn't it be nice?