New Film The Walk Inspires Vertigo, Vomiting

'My head was reeling'
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2015 7:03 PM CDT
New Film The Walk Inspires Vertigo, Vomiting
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "The Walk." Early viewers of the film have reported feelings of nausea and vertigo from the film's climactic tightrope walk.   (Sony Pictures via AP)

Business Insider has one piece of advice for moviegoers planning on seeing Robert Zemeckis' new 3D film The Walk: Don't eat a big meal beforehand. The film tells the story of Phillippe Petit, who tightrope walked between the towers of the World Trade Center without a net in 1974. Apparently Zemeckis wanted audiences to get a sense of vertigo during the climactic scenes, and he seems to have succeeded only too well. Multiple journalists reported feeling sick following a screening of the film last weekend in New York, with one tweeting about multiple people vomiting in the men's room afterward, the New York Post reports.

“It felt very real," one filmmaker told the Post after seeing the movie. "I felt a knot in my stomach. It’s like my head was reeling but I was not dizzy." And a board member of the Boston Jewish Film Festival who was at the screening says he felt "a little bit queasy." “The thing I always wanted to do was present the walk itself," the Guardian reports Zemeckis saying at a press conference. "We worked really hard to put those audiences up on those towers and on the wire.” The Walk, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is currently playing in IMAX theaters and will open everywhere Oct. 9. Maybe bring a bag or something just in case. (More Robert Zemeckis stories.)

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