Sea Monsters 3D: A Prehistoric Adventure

Click HERE for IMAX Theatre showtimes.

There is no late seating in the IMAX® Theatre.  Please arrive at least 20 minutes before your scheduled show time.

National Geographic transports audiences — through stunning photo-realistic computer-generated 3D animation — back to the Late Cretaceous period more than 65 million years ago, when a great inland sea divided North America in two and covered most of Texas.

You won't want to miss seeing the treasures from the Texas Natural Science Center's Texas Memorial Museum on exhibit in the IMAX lobbies on the first and second floors. You can see fossils of some of the creatures featured in the film that were discovered right here in Texas.

The film follows a family of Dolichorhynchops, also known informally as “Dollies,” as they traverse ancient waters populated with saber-toothed fish, prehistoric sharks and giant squid.

On their journey the Dollies encounter other extraordinary sea creatures: lizard-like reptiles called Platecarpus that swallowed their prey whole like snakes; Styxosaurus with necks nearly 20 feet long and paddle-like fins as large as an adult human; and at the top of the food chain, the monstrous Tylosaurus, a predator with no enemies.

The film, narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber and with an original score by longtime musical collaborators Richard Evans, David Rhodes and Peter Gabriel, takes audiences on a remarkable journey into the relatively unexplored world of the “other dinosaurs,” those reptiles that lived beneath the water. Funded in part through a grant from the National Science Foundation, the film delivers to the giant screen the fascinating science behind what we know, and a vision of history’s grandest ocean creatures.

Sea Monsters 3D: A Prehistoric Adventure is a remarkable visual journey that also educates audiences on the “How do we know that?” side of paleontology. Do scientists need full skeletons to learn about these creatures? Not always, as we learn from shark teeth found throughout the central United States, proof that these modern-day hunters were thriving during the age of dinosaurs when Kansas was at the bottom of the sea. How do we know what these creatures ate, and what pursued them? The shapes of jaws and teeth provide dietary clues, and occasionally paleontologists are lucky enough to discover bones of one species inside the remains of another. In fact, one fossilized Xiphactinus, a 17-foot-long predatory fish, was found with an entire 6-foot fish inside — swallowed whole.

From fossil digs to larger-than-life visions of predatory chases in shallow seas, the film immerses audiences in a rarely explored environment during the dinosaur age. Merging ultra-high-resolution 3-D graphics with National Geographic’s trademark authenticity, compelling imagery and powerful storytelling, the film is a perfect combination of subject and medium: ancient leviathans of the deep brought to life in the world’s biggest film format.

Sea Monsters 3D: A Prehistoric Adventure, opens at the IMAX Theatre of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum on October 5. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors/military/college students (with valid ID), and $5 for youths age 18 and under.

The IMAX Theatre is located in the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum at 1800 N. Congress Avenue at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. For more information, call (512) 936-IMAX.

Local Media Sponsor: Time Warner Cable.