Living in the age of Airplanes — at an IMAX near you
Twin Otter seaplane flying over the shallow waters of the Maldives.
It’s been already a couple of weeks that I was planning to write this story. I know that since you’re into watches, I can safely assume that you are also fascinated by airplanes and everything related to aviation.
We were invited with my lady to the IMAX Telus Theatre in Montreal, for the prescreening of Brian J. Terwilliger’s latest movie “Living in the Age of Airplanes”, a giant screen film produced for the National Geographic Studios.
Terwilliger made its debut as a director with “One Six Right: The Romance of Flying“, a movie that he produced and distributed independently. In a short period of time, it has achieved a passionate following among pilots and aviation enthusiasts worldwide who see the film as being able to communicate their passion for aviation. With One Six Right, Terwilliger presented the aviation industry seen from the perspective of local airports, through the life, history and struggle of Southern California’s Van Nuys Airport. One Six Right established Brian J. Terwilliger as one of the most important storytellers and cinematographers about aviation.
With “Living in the Age of Airplanes”, Terwilliger takes us to an epic journey trough time and space. Shot in 95 locations around the globe, from remote places like the South Pole to historically significant sites of ancient civilizations, it is a beautiful essay about aviation and its impact on our lives.
The images are breathtaking, which is not a surprise, considering that certain scenes took them more than 20 days to shoot and only a couple of seconds would be used in the movie. The story is narrated by actor and pilot Harrison Ford and features an original score by Academy Award-winning composer and pilot James Horner (“Avatar,” “Titanic”). Unfortunately, this was the last movie that Horner could finish, he passed away earlier this year, in an airplane crash…
As a watch geek, it was really cool to see Hamilton featured in the movie, there is a scene where we can see an X-Wind Auto Chrono — IMAX size — and right after there is a scene shut at Tourneau in Vegas, focusing on the Hamilton shelfs. Hamilton has a long history both with aviation and Hollywood and it fits perfectly in this documentary.
Hamilton Khaki X-Wind Limited Edition
On our way home, we were discussing with my wife, how aviation changed our life. While our grandparents traveled quite a lot trough Europe, sometimes forced by history, other times for pleasure, none of them ever flew. Visiting another continent was unimaginable for them.
Many people like to complain about flying: the security check, the food, the baby crying next to them, it became chic to criticize everything. I’m a lucky guy, my wife shares my passion for traveling, for us getting on an airplane is still an adventure filled with excitement. We know that when our airplane will land, we will be in a different timezone, a different climate, a place that we could have not visited otherwise.
This reminds me the only bad thing, I could say about “Living in the Age of Airplanes”, I would call it a negative side effect. After watching it, we had an uncontrollable urge to fly somewhere.
If you don’t like flying, go see this movie, it might change your mind. If you love flying, it’s a no-minder.
