IMAX

ROCKY MOUNTAIN EXPRESS

Rocky Mountain Express propels audiences on a steam train journey through the breathtaking vistas of the Canadian Rockies and highlights the adventure of building a nearly impossible transcontinental railway. Recruited to realize this venture—one of the greatest engineering feats of all time—were engineers and laborers from around the world. The film weaves together spectacular IMAX aerial cinematography, archival photographs and maps, and the potent energy and rhythms of a live steam locomotive to immerse audiences in this remarkable story from the age of steam.

Our main challenge here was to illustrate, graphically, how impossible the building of this railroad was going to be, with the tools available in the late 1800’s !! To build a railroad going through the Canadian Rockies was simply, insane…

To show this, our graphic maps were computer generated using all of the available satellite data to accurately reproduce the actual terrain of the Rockies. Which means that all of the elevations you see in the animated maps are proportionally accurate to the real Rockies !