This Friday, April 6, a highly-anticipated film opens on the four-story giant-screen IMAX theater here at The Franklin Institute. Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure chronicles Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to be the first to cross Antarctica on foot, a story of how 28 men survived 24 months in that barren world.

In December 1914, Shackleton set sail with his crew, many of whom, it is said, answered a recruitment notice that read: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful." Ice conditions at sea during their trip were unusually harsh, and their wooden ship, the Endurance, was trapped in pack ice. For ten months, the ship drifted, locked in the ice. Eventually the ship was crushed by the pressure of the ice, stranding Shackleton and his men in hopelessly barren, frigid conditions.

Shackleton's 800-mile journey across the mountains and glaciers to find help is recreated in the film as three world-class mountaineers trace his last steps toward rescue.