"Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol" to open on IMAX

If Tom Cruise is going to hang outside the world's tallest building for a movie scene -- for one of Hollywood's most incredible stunts ever -- and if the movie's director thinks the best way to film the scene is with an IMAX camera, then isn't an IMAX Theater the best place to see this movie?

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk -- and movie critics -- think so.

See "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" as it was intended, when the Hollywood blockbuster opens on Fri., Feb. 17 in The Maritime Aquarium's IMAX Theater -- Connecticut's largest, with a screen that's six stories high and eight stories wide.

Show times are 7 and 9:35 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays. "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" also will play during the school vacation week of Feb. 20-23 at 7 p.m.

"A good portion of `Ghost Protocol's' action sequences -- not just the one famous Tom Cruise stunt -- were captured with IMAX film cameras," said Chris Loynd, the aquarium's marketing director. "With our IMAX theater's screen size, film clarity and surround-sound system, audiences will be right in the middle of the drama. Experiencing `Ghost Protocol' in IMAX will be nothing like seeing it on the smaller murkier screens of the local cineplex."

Critics also say the best way to see "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" is in IMAX. USA Tod ay gushed about seeing Cruise scramble up Dubai's Burj Khalifa -- the world's tallest building -- assisted by ingenious suction gloves.

Loynd anticipates that seeing "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" in IMAX will replicate the experience of viewing another recent Hollywood hit at the aquarium.

"Like `Ghost Protocol,' `The Dark Knight' was partially filmed with IMAX cameras," Loynd said, referring to the 2008 Batman film. "And when that first scene went from letterbox to the full six-story image, it was breathtaking. That incredible moment was repeated throughout the movie as the movie's director kept switching formats -- from 35mm letterbox to IMAX full screen. If you do not see `Mission: Impossible' in IMAX, you'll never feel the intensity and excitement that director Brad Bird intended. Or even if you already saw it in a regular cinema, you owe it to yourself to see it in IMAX."

In this fourth "Mission: Impossible" film, Cruise returns as Impossible Mission Forces operative Ethan Hunt. When Hunt's IMF team is blamed for a terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, the U.S. President disavows the agency by initiating a "ghost protocol." Left without any resources or backup, Hunt must find a way to clear his agency's name and prevent another attack. To complicate matters further, he's forced to embark on this mission with a team of fellow IMF fugitives whose personal motives he does not fully know.

The film was directed by two-time Academy Award-winner Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Ratatouille") and boasts an international cast that includes Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor and Lea Seydoux.

"Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" is 133 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence.

Tickets for the film are $11.50 for adults, $10.50 for seniors and $9.50 for children 2-12.

View the trailer, get more details and reserve tickets at www.maritimeaquarium.org. Or learn more about Maritime Aquarium IMAX movies, exhibits and programs by calling 203 852-0700.