Movies are a great way to pass the time. For about two hours, you’re taken out of your mundane world and transported to a world of over-the-top explosions, twisted storylines and given a chance to live a life vicariously.

No matter how large the explosions or how fast the action, though, you’re still a viewer, stuck on a seat, watching a 2-D moving image. You wouldn’t be faulted for wanting more, a little extra that puts you right in the scene with the characters, and makes you feel like you’re actually running for your life, dodging bullets and fighting monsters.

Fortunately there’s an alternative. SM Prime gives you the awe-inspiring IMAX experience, in 3D. To get an idea of how the IMAX experience works, we were able to get some time to speak with senior vice president of SM Cinema Edgar C. Tejerero, who was more than willing to give us an overview of how they make the IMAX experience jump another dimension.

There are a few differences between IMAX and regular cinema. First off, the screen is about 8 stories high, and is coated in silver to help produce a more realistic image. The huge screen is also curved, so that no matter wherever you are in the theater, you will see the screen as if you were sitting right at the center, without the distortion that happens when you’re off to one side. Put this together with an unobstructed view of the action, and every seat in the house is the best seat. Easily seven times the expense of a regular cinema goes into putting up an IMAX theater.  That’s P70 million, all to make your viewing experience richer.

The equipment used to project the huge image is also vastly different from conventional cinemas. “Our Imax projectors use 15,000 watts, compared to 3,500 watts on regular cinema,” Tejerero noted. “The film also measures 70mm, compared to 35mm on other cinemas, and here, a 100-minute movie takes 21 kilometers of film.” He added. All this film required massive loaders in order to play, since there’s no way a single person could ever manage to lift, much less load, such massive amounts of film. “The amount of force required to start the reel has about enough force to pull a truck,” Tejerero was pleased to share. All this film means the theater can show massive amounts of huge, very detailed images, which makes for a great show.

SM Cinema senior vice president Edgar C.Tejerero.

To make the images appear in 3D, there are two different technologies that come into play. Massive cameras are used, recording two separate videos, to come up with an image for the left eye and the right eye. The two rolls of film are played back through two separate lenses, and projected onto the screen. That takes care of the projection side. To convince your brain that you’re watching in actual 3D, Tejerero explains: “Here at the IMAX theater, we use special polarized glasses that only let the appropriate image pass through. This way, the left eye sees only the film projected for the left eye, and the right eye sees only the image projected for the right eye, just like how you see two different images from slightly different angles from either eye. This tricks your brain into thinking you’re seeing the film in three dimensions.”

The eyepieces are not the 3D glasses from your youth. The lenses on the polarized IMAX glasses don’t discolor the image or distort what you see in any way. What you see in a regular movie is the same as in the IMAX cinema—although bigger, clearer and in 3D. “Our glasses also go through a special sanitizing process that cleans the lenses, because you can’t just wipe them with your hands or a cloth, since that will cause streaks,” Tejerero explained.

When asked if certain films were better to watch on IMAX than others, Tejerero shared: “The best films to watch on Imax are action movies with intense chases, or cityscapes that give you a sense of perspective. On regular cinema, the details in such movies can get lost in the bigger picture, and the action remains flat. With IMAX, the image is really large, and if the film is in 3D, you really feel like you’re right in the action,” he noted. “We also have educational films that put the viewer under the ocean or at the top of a mountain. This lets you experience these things from the comfort of your theater seat.”

The IMAX experience takes regular cinema, and turns the dial up to 11. Through special equipment and advanced movie technology, the theater gives you a movie experience that’s unlike anything else you’ve ever seen.