Speed: IMAX (1984)

Speed: IMAX is a whimsical look at the history of the human discovery and experience of speed. At just 30 minutes (short even for IMAX), it's a broad-brush treatment but an entertaining one. A quick check of IMDB confirms that Speed: IMAX is from 1984 not 2004, which one would expect given portions of its soundtrack and special effects. While the strictly '80s stuff is dated (esp. the extended "wormhole" transit that is beneath Kubrick's 2001 in technique and appeal), the rest of the soundtrack is actually quite impressive (I would buy every one of the individual tracks). The broad-brush treatment moves rapidly through five chapters (ground-based muscle power, ground-based engine power, air and space flight, faster than humans, and "we have just begun to crawl," which is a good wrap-up of the relative pleasures and future prospects for speed). The film surveys the gamut from running to cycling to driving to racing to air and jet flight and beyond. We see Chuck Yeager's X-1 flight but a few hypersonic flight records (X-17 and Apollo 10) are glossed over with just captions. The whimsical touch appears often as a Cro-Magnon man chases a deer and flees a tiger, a couple hits the road in a Stanley Steamer, and as 1950s racer Bill Vukovich hot-rods cross-country to the consternation of his girlfriend and the local constable. You may be best impressed by the jet-engine-powered cars and Blue Angels flight formations. Speed is a good IMAX film and, at 30 minutes in length, certainly no skin off anyone's nose. 4 stars.