On Thursday morning, Vero and I walked around Montreal, getting a bite to eat for breakfast, heading down to the Old Port, and ending up at Les 3 Brasseures for lunch before hitting the road back to Ottawa.
But down at the Old Port, we headed towards the Montreal Science Museum for the Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology exhibit! Benoit had gone to it the week before and said it was great.
When you enter, the give you a little video pad that you listen to commentaries on, interact with the exhibits, and feel like an archaeologist! For example, if you swipe the video pad across a pillar with a number on it, it will indicate that you have to find four items within the room and swipe your pad next to them. If you find all four items, then you obtain a piece of a statue. In the end, if you go into each room and solve their puzzle, you will obtain a completed virtual statue which you can then display on the final room’s video screen with your name under it. It was quite fun just to try and figure out the puzzles.
I personally loved the movie props and artwork…I wish I could have seen a week’s worth of material! Costumes, props, storyboards for action scenes (like the rolling boulder from Raiders)…it was all there. You can punch in a number corresponding with a prop into your video pad and they may show you behind the scenes videos, or a commentary about it.
Plus, there was the element of historical fact throughout the entire exhibit. They may talk about the ancient temples that Indiana and company were exploring and why it was so important in the archaeological world.
Other rooms had actual archaeological items within them…digs from Macchu Pichu, or documentary clips about the Naska lines over in the Middle East. It was fascinating stuff. Vero really was into that portion of the exhibit. I actually completed the exhibit a good hour ahead of her and then she made me realize that I had just skimmed over some of the stuff so I went back and educated myself a little more.
I believe the exhibit is only in Montreal for a few more weeks before it leaves the continent so if you are a fan, I would definitely recommend going fast!