Coming Soon!
Now Playing!
Passes available for purchase online now!
Full Series pass: $56 general / $35 GI members / $42 seniors, students, children
Monthly passes: $24 general / $15 GI members / $18 seniors, students, children
Scintillating Series Details Below!
Strap on your helmets and charge up the disintegrator, folks — good old-fashioned Saturday matinees return again to the Grand Illusion!
Each week you'll see...
- A cliffhanger episode of the original Buck Rogers serial from 1939 (12 episodes, complete) — the way it was meant to be seen! ...After 500 years in suspended animation, our hero awakes in a fantastic world ruled by the despotic super-gangster, Killer Kane. Joining forces with the last hold-outs in the Hidden City — including the brilliant Dr. Huer and the lovely Wilma Deering — Buck and his buddy, um, Buddy, wage a futuristic war to form an alliance with the Saturnians and save Earth from eternal tyranny!!
- Plus a secret classic sci-fi feature — favorites, rarities, and cult classics from 1919-1974! Incredible vistas, amazing stories, and epic destruction that will transport you to spectacular futures beyond imagination!
And don't miss our special Leap Year Time Warp Show on Feb. 25, with mind-bending shorts and a chronosynclastic featurette! (And the original time-warpeteer Buck Rogers, of course.)
Brain-shattering monthly themes guide you to the Future!
- January: Space Madness!
Aliens and high strangeness...invasions and doomsdays!- February: Steampunk Adventures!
Retrofuturist worlds of wonder...and other time warps!- March: Beasts From Beyond!
Strange creatures and monsters...giants and bug-eyed behemoths!Galactic savings with Monthly and Full Series passes!
Available online via Brown Paper Tickets (credit cards accepted)
or, at the Grand Illusion box office (cash or check only).
1403 NE 50th St. in Seattle, WA — tel. (206) 523-3935Full Series pass — 5 free shows! Over 40% off:
$56 general / $35 GI members / $42 seniors, students & childrenMonthly passes — 1 free show! 25% off:
$24 general / $15 GI members / $18 seniors, students & childrenDay-Of Admission:
$8 general / $5 GI members / $6 seniors, students & childrenMemberships at The Grand Illusion start at only $30 — the best movie deal in town!
JANUARY, 2012: SPACE MADNESS!
Hostile aliens and high strangeness...invasions and interplanetary doomsdays!
An alien invasion wreaks destruction across the globe! Will humanity be exterminated?!
Buck Rogers, Episode 1: Tomorrow's World - After an airship crash in the frozen Arctic, Buck and Buddy fall into suspended animation. When they awake 500 years later, the world is ruled by a despotic gangster. Oh crap!
Undead aliens lure intrepid space explorers into a ghoulish trap! Who will escape?!
Buck Rogers, Episode 2: Tragedy on Saturn - Buck and his crew travel to Saturn to get help in their battle against Killer Kane. Instead they are taken captive and stand trial.
A rogue planetoid is on a collision course with Earth! How can humanity be saved?! (Not available on US home video!)
Buck Rogers, Episode 3: The Enemy's Stronghold - Buck tries to stop Prince Tallen of Saturn from forging a treaty with Killer Kane.
The doomsday machines of a dead alien race threaten Earth! Can they be stopped?!
Buck Rogers, Episode 4: The Sky Patrol - The Hidden City unwittingly attacks when Buck returns in Kane's ship.
Dinosaurs run amuck, a super-rare sci-fi musical, and more...
Plus, on Sat. Feb. 25 only: a special Leap Year Time Warp Show, featuring mind-bending shorts and a chronosynlastic featurette! (...And Buck Rogers, of course.)
Did we mention you can get monthly passes?

The Sprocket Society seeks to cultivate the love of the mechanical cinema, its arts and sciences, and to encourage film preservation by bringing film and its history to the public through screenings, educational activities, and our own archival efforts.
Since 2007, we have produced film screenings in the Seattle area, with programs ranging from silent film, to documentaries, to experimental and electronic cinema, to the Secret Matinee series (complete with weekly serial episodes), and more.
To receive announcements of upcoming events subscribe to our email list by inquiring at sprocketsociety [at] gmail. We also have an official Facebook page.
Our Primary Goals
The Sprocket Society is not a corporation or business, non-profit or otherwise. It is simply a small group of people with a common interest.
The group had its genesis in a series of private backyard movie parties, which began in 2005 and are still ongoing.