Go Inside the Mind of the World’s Best Cyclists When Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France Opens at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on Friday, March 3
Groundbreaking IMAX Film Explores the Latest Neuroscience that Drives Athletic Excellence
DENVER— A Tour de France cyclist navigates a sharp turn on a high-speed descent in the Pyrenees mountains when a sudden warning cry alerts him to danger in the road ahead. Instantly, the camera zooms straight toward the rider, follows the sound into his ear along the auditory canal and then, changing scales, arrives at a strange world of web-like filaments shimmering with pulses of electrochemical energy. You’re inside the cyclist’s brain at the moment the danger message is received and processed.
Combining dramatic scenes from the 100th anniversary of the world’s most famous bike race with spectacular computer-generated medical imagery, Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France delivers an unprecedented look at the amazing workings of the human brain. Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France was produced by Partners HealthCare and made possible by the National Science Foundation and Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, Inc. The giant-screen film opens at Phipps IMAX® Theater at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on Friday, March 3.
Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France tells the true story of two elite cyclists in the legendary race— Australian Baden Cooke, and his French teammate Jimmy Casper— as they compete in the grueling three-week-long event. Narrated by British actor Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, The Da Vinci Code), the film follows Cooke, Casper and the other riders over the towering peaks of the Alps, through the knotted villages of Provence, and the cobblestone streets of Paris, as they try to avoid danger, overcome crushing pain and fatigue, control their emotions, seize fleeting moments of opportunity, and stay highly motivated. Powering each of these feats, of course, is the source of universal ambition and ability: the human brain, presented here as a dynamic engine of possibility.
“What we now know about the brain, how it works and the intimate connections between brain function and every single thing we do is unbelievable,” said Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D., one of the film’s science advisors. Selkoe is the Vincent and Stella Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Partners Program of Excellence in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. “Wired to Win very cleverly illustrates how a healthy brain works, and how cyclists in the Tour de France use the mind— not those equally impressive leg muscles— to integrate a huge amount of information to execute a plan to beat the competition.”
Seamlessly integrating the excitement of the Tour de France and the latest understanding of neuroscience are elaborate computer animation sequences made possible through the use of innovative film, digital and medical imaging technologies. Created by nWave Digital, a Brussels-based worldwide leader in large-format, high-resolution computer graphics, these images transport audiences into the inner recesses of some of the brain’s most complex structures.
For example, in a sequence on pain, the narrator tells us: “Pain is not where we think it is. Not even in a cyclist’s leg.” During this sequence, a detailed animation shows how specialized nerves send electrical signals up the spinal cord to the sensory strip of the cortex, the area that allows the rider to locate the source of the pain. Meanwhile, another part of the cortex, the anterior cingulated, tells the rider how bad the pain is. In addition to guiding the film team toward the correct terminology to explain how the experience of pain is constructed and deconstructed in the brain, the film’s scientific advisors took great care to ensure that the images on screen were neuroanatomically accurate.
"We worked closely with the film team to explain how the brain interacts with the body, which parts of the brain are involved in each of its functions, and how best to illustrate what brain activity looks like. We also worked to clarify how the intense actions of the tour riders are replicated in the daily life of our brains," said Bruce M. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., President and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at McLean Hospital and Director of the McLean Brain Imaging Program.
Besides telling a fascinating scientific story, Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France puts the audience squarely in the middle of the action in a way only the IMAX experience can. Pulling this off was no small feat. "We knew we wanted to get cameras in with the riders, to put the audience in the race," says director of photography Rodney Taylor, "We couldn't use a car, or even a three-wheel vehicle. It would have taken up too much space on the road. The only thing that was going to work was a motorcycle.”
That was not as simple as it sounds. The film crew took a BMW motorcycle and redesigned it to accommodate the huge IMAX camera and a special mechanism designed to keep the camera steady as the driver navigated the treacherous Tour de France courses. But with a driver and a camera on board the motorcycle, there was no place left to put a camera operator. The crew tried to film using a remote control system in a car, but found it unreliable in a race where over 30 motorcycles and hundreds of vehicles fight for space on roads, and where sheep sometimes have the right of way. Solving the problem required a radical solution: the filmmakers would control the camera from a helicopter flying above the race—something that had never been attempted before. Though the logistics were complicated, the system worked beautifully providing sequences that make the audience feel like they’re riding alongside the most elite cyclists in the world.
“Making a giant-screen documentary during an event over which we had no control was beyond complex,” admits director Bayley Silleck. “But, the diverse techniques, the nearly 26 days of shooting and the excitement of the crew about this project and its potential resulted in some of the most spectacular images ever taken of the Tour de France, not to mention an incredible human story."
The film’s presenting sponsor was also pleased with the final product. "Our sole focus is on pioneering neurological solutions that change people’s lives," said Neal Fowler, president, Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, Inc. “We are honored to join Partners HealthCare and the NSF in supporting this groundbreaking educational platform that will captivate and stimulate youth around the world by transforming the way we learn about brain biology.”
Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France is a Partners Healthcare Project with major funding provided by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, Inc. Distributed by National Geographic Giant Screen Film Distribution.
Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France opens at Phipps IMAX Theater on Friday, March 3. Tickets are $8 for adults, and $6 for children (ages 3 to 18) and seniors (ages 65 and over). Please consult www.dmns.org for showtimes. Expanded evening showtimes available Friday, March 10, through Friday, March 31. For more information, call 303-322-7009.
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Many of the Museum’s educational programs and exhibits are made possible in part by generous funding from the citizens of the seven-county metro area through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
