This article contains spoilers for F1.
I believe in the sanctity of the moviegoing experience.
When you step into a theater you should shut off your phones, and pay undivided attention to the film. I don’t even love recliner seats, in part because I think reclining encourages people to take a nap. But there’s one movie theater gimmick I can highly endorse—and it’s going to see F1 in 4DX.
4DX, if you aren’t familiar, is the technology that essentially turns a regular old movie into a theme park attraction. The seats move in tandem with the action onscreen. Occasionally there are wind and water effects. For some movies, this all just feels unnecessary—even silly. For F1, it rules.
In director Joseph Kosinski’s summer blockbuster, Brad Pitt plays an aging race car driver named Sonny Hayes, who’s recruited by his pal Ruben (Javier Bardem) to drive for a failing F1 team named APXGP. Pitt even got behind the wheel of real Formula 1 cars himself. As such, there are copious racing scenes—which are absolutely ideal for the 4DX experience.
Do you actually feel like you’re driving an F1 car? Honestly, probably not. (I’ve never driven one. But I bet neither had anyone else at the Regal Times Square theater.) But does the 4DX make you feel like you’re in the (nonexistent) passenger seat? Absolutely. Throughout my 4DX screening, I squealed with delight as my seat shifted with the action, jolting me as Sonny’s car swerved. I got a thrill when a vehicle backfiring was mimicked by air spraying underneath my feet, or when the wind machines in the theater went on full blast to mirror the propulsion the characters must be feeling going over 200 mph.
The brilliance of F1 in 4DX is that Kosinski and his team have employed it thoughtfully. To be frank, I was nervous before the lights went down. F1 is a long movie, running over two and a half hours, and I had already seen it. The thought of being hurled around nonstop for that amount of time wasn’t a pleasant one, and I told my partner that I reserved the right to bail if I was unhappy.
Instead, the 4DX really only comes into play when the cars are involved. As they rev up, there’s rumbling under your seat. When Pitt and his co-star Damson Idris, who plays upstart Joshua Pearce, are driving smoothly, there’s an almost placid quality to the movement of the chairs. When things get chaotic, your chairs start to jerk around. The 4DX is not relentless, which means when it arrives, it’s all the more fun.
The most incredible use of the tech comes during the most pivotal race of the film, the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Just as it seems like our APXGP drivers are getting an edge on the competition, rain hits. And, sure, thing: Mist suddenly envelopes the theater. It’s not strong enough to get you uncomfortably wet, but it is palpable enough to give the sensation of standing outside in the rain. Pair that with the way in which your body is propelled along with the beats of Kosinski’s action, and it’s just short of mind-blowing.
