Watch The Mummy, defy the laws of gravity and win a Galaxy S8+ and a pair of virtual reality goggles? Why not!
25.5.2017
Translation: machine translated
Summer is blockbuster season. As well as superheroes, the legends of ancient Egypt also have their Hollywood version. This year, the mummy returns to charm audiences in the guise of Sofia Boutella. Not forgetting Tom Cruise's impressive stunts.
Let's start with the most important thing of all, our competition, let's immerse ourselves in the world of Hollywood stunts.
Prizes to be won
Here's our concept:
- Post a comment under this article and tell us which scene you'd like to see with a mummy in VR
- Vote for or against other comments
The winners will be those who win the most votes. But those with the worst idea will also get something. What, you'll see...
- The 1st prize: an S8+ and a pair of VR glasses
- 2nd to 11th prize: two tickets to The Mummy
- From 12th to 21st prize: a The Mummy t-shirt
The RV before the film
We haven't skimped on the preparations: you'll be able to take part in a parabolic flight thanks to virtual technology. In fact, we've collaborated with Universal Pictures to show you footage already shown at Fantasy Basel across Switzerland.
Dates and times
- Thursday 25 May 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Friday 26 May 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Saturday 27 May 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Friday 2 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Saturday 3 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Friday 9 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Saturday 10 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Friday 16 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
- Saturday 17 June 2017: 7pm to midnight
Theatres
- Pathé Küchlin, Steinenvorstadt 55, 4051 Basel - Three RV stations
- Pathé Westside, Riedbachstrasse 102, 3027 Bern - Five VR stations
- Pathé Flon, Rue du Port-Franc 16, 1003 Lausanne - Five VR stations
- Pathé Balexert, Avenue Louis-Casaï 27, 1211 Genève - Five VR stations
- Pathé Dietlikon, Moorstrasse 2, 8305 Dietlikon - Five VR stations
And if no session suits you, you can easily set up a VR station at home and enjoy parabolic flight too.
This article will show you how to go about setting up a VR station.
Tom Cruise, stuntman
Although Tom Cruise's religious beliefs are a source of questioning, he is one of Hollywood's greats. While others prefer to call in an understudy at the drop of a hat, he performs most of the stunts in his films himself.
- For the purposes of the film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Tom Cruise climbed the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Yep, that was him, not special effects!
- In Edge of Tomorrow, he wore a 40kg suit of armour for days on end as he was catapulted through the air. Tom and Emily Blunt, with whom he co-stars, were suspended from their armour during takes in order to be relieved of all that weight.
- In "Jack Reacher", Tom Cruise did all the driving stunts.
Although stunts always look more dangerous on the big screen than they actually are, that doesn't mean they aren't risky. Stuntmen and women put their lives on the line every day for the enjoyment of viewers.
For example, Olivia Jackson was involved in a serious motorbike accident during the filming of Resident Evil: Final Chapter, one of the worst action films of recent years, and definitely the worst of the saga. She survived, but she lost an arm, and her face was bruised.
So you always have to think about the need for stunts, especially when Tom Cruise is doing them.
When I was messing around with the VR goggles, I recognised one of the weightless passengers on the plane: Tom Cruise. Let's take a closer look at the stunt.
The principle of weightlessness
To be weightless, you have to escape the Earth's attraction, which is found everywhere on the planet. Failing a trip into space, states of weightlessness can be artificially created on Earth using a technique that filmmakers borrow from astronaut training programmes: parabolic flight.
Parabolic flight is like letting people float inside a plane.
More seriously, the principle is as follows: the plane climbs steeply, at an angle of 46°. During this climb, passengers are subjected to a force of 1.8g. This compares with 0.5g to 1.25g on commercial flights, although no aircraft measures this.
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Some people already feel bad at 0.5g, so parabolic flight is nicknamed Vomit Comet in the trade...
After the climb, the pilot cuts the engines. This very short phase marks the beginning of the state of weightlessness. The momentum compensates for the resistance of the air, and the plane slows down. Passengers experience the same sensations as when landing a plane.
The pilot lowers the nose of his aircraft. The passengers follow the trajectory and are gently lifted into the air. This phase lasts about 20 seconds, during which time the aircraft reaches the top of the parabola and then descends steeply. The pilot first ensures that the passengers gently enter a state of weightlessness.
Then the flight becomes abrupt again. The passengers are subjected to a force of 1.8 g, highly conducive to nausea. After two minutes of straight flight, the plane climbs again.
Tom Cruise breaks free from Earth's pull
For The Mummy, Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis and other members of the film crew took 64 parabolic flights and spent two days aboard one of the famous "comets". According to Hollywood accounts, most of them threw up at least once, except Tom and Annabelle.
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But Tom Cruise isn't the only one to have spent time on such flights. The stars of Apollo 13, released in 1995 with Tom Hanks in the lead role, flew for 13 days and completed 612 parabolic flights. One of the scenes in the film shows a parabolic flight from the inside. Listen to the sound of the jet engines and watch the effect gravity has on the actors.
Why have fun with a balloon when you can quietly read the newspaper in the background?
Employees of Digitec Galaxus AG are not eligible to enter the competition, which closes on 2 June 2017 . Winners will be notified by e-mail shortly after the deadline. Prizes will only be sent within Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Any recourse to legal action is excluded.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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