The highly anticipated 2014 World Cup is kicking off with an opening ceremony that will rival the Olympics with scientific innovations, performances from Jennifer Lopez, and more.
The event, which is expected to feature all the "pageantry and decadence to be expected from a FIFA production," will feature one moment that is likely to drop jaws across the globe, NBC News reported.
Before Brazil, the host country of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, play the first match against Croatia, a marvel of scientific innovation will be demonstrated at the event.
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Paralyzed from the waist down, a young Brazilian, will leave their wheelchair behind and get into "what's being described as an Iron Man-like exoskeleton" that will allow them to kick the tournament's first ball using signals from his brain.
"It's going to be like putting a man on the moon," Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, the neuroscientist who has been working for years on transmitting brain signals to make machinery move, told NBC News.
The robotic bodysuit will be unveiled at the World Cup's opening ceremony in Sao Paulo's unfinished stadium as an attempt to "show that Brazil is investing in science and things beyond football," Yahoo Sports reported. Starting last summer, millions of Brazilians have protested their government squandering billions on the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
In addition to that, the event will also highlight the beauty and history of Brazil.
"The Opening Ceremony is a tribute to Brazil and its treasures: nature, people, football," the show's artistic director Daphne Cornez told FIFA.com. "The sense of excitement here is amazing and everyone is very motivated. It doesn't matter whether they're feeling tired or hot sometimes or if they have to go through routines again and again: they just keep on smiling. It's amazing."
Cornez added that each of the country's treasures is represented in the show by characters and props. The event will feature a central "living" LED ball made of 90,000 light clusters producing a luminance of 7,000 Nits.
The 25-minute show will also feature more than 600 performers, including Pitbull who will be performing "We Are One (Ole Ola),"the tournaments unofficial song, alongside Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte.
