A Six-Story Celebration

In 1996, the Tennessee Aquarium opened the first major expansion to its campus on Chattanooga's downtown riverfront. This new building showcased every kind of sea life imaginable, not to mention every conceivable biome on the planet.

It also introduced guests to dinosaurs and interstellar phenomenon and — much later — wizards, superheroes and one exceptionally embattled Greek king just trying to get home.

This year, the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater celebrates its 30th anniversary. It has done so in typically cinematic style by dusting off its old, but still very much venerable IMAX 70mm GT projector to offer guests the opportunity to see the first-ever film recorded entirely on IMAX 70mm film: director Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

In this episode of the show, our theater's most-tenured projection staff and the Aquarium's earliest proponent of opening a giant-screen theater, join host Casey Phillips in the Studio Dive Cage to chat about the shift from film to digital (and back again), what makes 70mm cinema so special and why The Odyssey shines best in this format.

Episode cast

• Casey Phillips, host/senior communications specialist/former film critic
• Corey Cobb, director of IMAX operations
• Adam Lundy, IMAX manager/systems operator
• Gordon Stalans, vice president & chief operating officer (now executive vice president)

Screenings of The Odyssey, which is only available to view on 70mm film at a handful of American theaters, have been extended at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater through Sept. 30, 2026. Further details available, along with screening schedule and advanced tickets, at https://www.tnaqua.org/imax