Inside Popnology, Museum of the Rockies’s Newest Attraction

On Oct. 3rd, the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) unveiled the newest addition to its history of traveling exhibits: Popnology. The exhibit connects science fiction and technological reality throughout the ages, blurring the line between the two in a way that can appeal to museum-goers of all generations. 

Interactive features are built into almost every part of the exhibit, and everywhere I turned, something caught my eye.

"We've got ‘ET,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Terminator,’ R2-D2. We've got R5-D4 — which actually, you'll see — zipping around here from time to time," said Scott Williams, interim executive director of the museum.

The remote-controlled droid whistled and beeped as it moved between the aisles, attracting curious glances from children, and that was only the beginning. The exhibit featured curiosities from pop culture brought to life, including a reproduced DeLorean from “Back to the Future II” and a life-sized model of the alien from “Alien.” The tangibility of the reproductions is paired with historical progress in fields like lasers, cell phones, robotics and prosthetic limbs. The exhibit is a spectacle of pop culture and modern technology, and of the intrinsic connection between the two.

Shortly before Popnology opened, an anonymous donor's attorney called the museum, offering to loan an exclusive piece for the exhibit: Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and severed hand from “The Empire Strikes Back,” props Mark Hamill used on set. They now sit in alarmed glass, which Williams was very specific about. The piece sold at a Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction to an anonymous buyer for $3.75 million, becoming the most-paid for “Star Wars” prop in history. Its presence speaks to what MOR aims to do with the traveling exhibits it rents, according to Williams.

"Part of our mission here is to bring the world to Montana and Montana to the world," he said. "If you come in here, you're going to see things that you remember from TV shows and movies, but also actual inventors, innovators, people who have helped drive technology, basically move the ball forward when it comes to how we use technology today."

The unification of fictional science and the real thing shows up across many mediums. It's not just cult classics, but also video games and literature. Popnology includes copies of “Gulliver's Travels” and an interactive station where visitors can bring the Nautilus from “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” to a screen that tells the story of how Jules Verne's imagined submarine became real.

One of the exhibit's goals is to introduce younger audiences to the pop culture of past generations and to remind adults of the wonder of imagining the future. 

"In 1967, that was all science fiction, and now we take it for granted. So, it's neat because someone who was born in 1935, 1940 can come in here and see and track all these changes that have occurred in the last 90 years. And while AI may have been far-fetched in the 1950s, 1960s, AI is a reality now," Williams said.

Popnology seems to have a space for every generation and genre of pop culture, and every discipline of science. Grandparents stood transfixed on one side of an exhibit feature while grandkids immersed themselves in interactives a few feet away.

Unlike many museums, MOR does not charge extra for its traveling exhibits. Popnology is included with general admission and free for members, through Jan. 11, 2027.

Williams noted his typical stop at the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet, where, as usual, there was a line. He comes up a couple of times a day on his breaks and plays until he gets frustrated. 

"I don't remember Donkey Kong throwing these barrels that fast," he said. 

Maybe it's his reflexes; maybe it's just that the game has been waiting for him all along. Either way, it's the exhibit in miniature: a man who remembers rotary phones, standing in line behind the kids, remembering what it was like to wait for his turn at the future.

For more information on Popnology, visit the MOR’s website https://museumoftherockies.org/exhibitions/popnology.