In order to take us back to the 1940s for Oppenheimer, film engineers have to take us back to…2002. To project Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic (out this Friday, July 21st), IMAX will use technology almost as old as the nuclear bomb itself: A PalmPilot.
At three hours long, the IMAX version of Oppenheimer is estimated to be one of the largest film reels ever produced, coming in at 11 miles long and 600 pounds heavy. To accommodate it, IMAX had to specifically design extensions for their film platter, the surface that splices reels together just before they’re projected. And it is all being operated using an emulator of the well-known gadget.
“The original Quick Turn Reel Units operated on PalmPilots,” an IMAX spokesperson told Motherboard. “In advance of the release of Oppenheimer, IMAX Engineering designed and manufactured an emulator that mimics the look and feel of a PalmPilot.”
Motherboard points out that a lot of old software actually has a much longer lifespan than you might think, as some companies and organizations (IMAX included) tend to operate by an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. A particularly relevant case in point: the US Defense Department was using eight-inch floppy disks for their nuclear command and control system until 2019. Why bother spending the money to modernize today if you can just keep putting it off until your technology becomes alarmingly decrepit?
In a TikTok below, you can see IMAX’s setup boasting a replica of PalmOne m130, a n0-frills budget Palm first released in 2002. Even after Blackberries and iPhones effectively eradicated Palm Pilots from the market and collective conscience, the assurance that some things really don’t change is oddly comforting — or disconcerting, when you start to think about what other ancient software is still milling about.
Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, and many more. None of them were present at the film’s UK premiere, however, in compliance with SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing strike.
Constantly pushing the boundaries of film ️. #Oppenheimer #ChristopherNolan #IMAX
So apparently imax theaters ran off of palm pilots for the quick turn reel unit. And nowadays, rather than having it run off a microcontroller or PC or raspberry pi or iPad, they just run a palm OS emulator? Lmao pic.twitter.com/1FJF5sAPmi
— Tom Barber (@torbar) July 17, 2023
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