The best movie experiences of the year had one thing in common

I don’t know about you, but it takes a lot to get me to the movies these days. The handful of films I chose to see in theaters this year — Dune: Part Two, The Substance, and Twisters among them — all felt like “safe” moviegoing experiences, in the sense that I knew going in they would be best viewed on a big screen. But generally speaking, if I’m going to pay 18 bucks and be forced to put socially appropriate clothes on, the experience had better offer me something I can’t get from sitting on my couch at home in pajamas.

Which is why I was intrigued when our senior video editor Clayton Ashley first told me about 4DX movies. The technology has been around for over a decade, but 4DX theaters are still relatively scarce in the U.S. Nonetheless, he managed to snag a screening of Twisters in 4DX a couple weeks ago, and walked away from it convinced that this was the future of cinema.

Here, I should mention the obvious: This sort of experience is not appropriate for every movie. It’s geared toward action-heavy films, and the technology is undeniably at its best when CJ 4DPLEX, the company behind 4DX, works hand-in-hand with the film’s production team to create something that feels less like a gimmick and more like a genuine enhancement of the film — in other words, an experience that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

There’s a surprising amount of thought and creativity that goes into that, and if you’re curious to learn more about the process or the future of 4DX, check out the video above.