Behind the Attraction (2021) s01e04 Episode Script

ANNOUNCER 1: Remain seated, please.
(in Spanish)
Please remain seated.
(lively music)
(elephants trumpeting)
MAN 1: The love of liberty.
(moans)
(screams)
NARRATOR:
If you've ever been to a Disney Park
and looked upwards,
there's a good chance you'll see
(firecracker crackles)
a tall tower piercing the sky!
And although none of these towers
look quite the same,
when it comes to the way they sound
-(creaking)
-(people screaming)
Well, that's the unmistakable squeal
of Disney Park's guests
being thrilled
as they plummet directly downwards
and upwards on one of the world's
most advanced drop rides.
NARRATOR:
With a theme lavished in Old Hollywood
ANNOUNCER 2: Hollywood, California.
It's an attraction that spans dimensions,
defies gravity,
and in some cases becomes
something else entirely.
You're welcome!
NARRATOR: But the true origins
of Disney's famous drop ride,
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
and later, Guardians
of the Galaxy, Mission: Breakout!
actually do begin in Old Hollywood itself,
the place where people have come
seeking fame and fortune
since the 1920s,
including a young Walt Disney,
who came over from Kansas City
to try his hand at becoming a big shot,
which obviously worked out pretty well.
REPORTER 1: This is the Walt Disney Studio
in California.
NARRATOR: And in 1989,
Disney paid tribute to this bygone era
with the grand opening of the Disney-MGM
Studios Theme Park in Florida.
-Which was appropriately
-Dedicated to Hollywood.
-And very soon it was clear
-The park was wildly successful.
REPORTER 2: Everyone gave the new studios
a big thumbs-up.
It greatly exceeded our expectations
on many levels.
NARRATOR: The park had made
such an impression
that Disney CEO Michael Eisner,
along with COO Frank Wells,
gave the order to
-Make it bigger.
-(audience cheer)
So, we were given the task to expand
the park to meet the guest demand.
So, what are we going to do
to expand this story?
We were working on what was a doubling
of the studio tour in Florida
as an expansion project.
NARRATOR:
Unlike their smaller Californian cousin,
in Florida, space is not an issue.
-However
-There are parameters.
We already know we are in 1930s,
1940s Hollywood.
GARY: That's a parameter.
NARRATOR: Also, it needed to be
based on an idea.
outside of the current Disney catalog
GARY: That's a parameter.
We also knew that the Walt Disney World
Resort needed another resort hotel.
NARRATOR: Oh, an actual hotel
as part of the attraction?
-That's a parameter. And
-What? There's another one?
Michael Eisner
was encouraging Imagineering
to produce some sort
of attraction that had
(people screaming)
a controlled-drop-type experience
for the audience.
(people screams)
That's a parameter.
NARRATOR: Well, being resourceful
as they are, the Imagineers wondered
-Could we have both?
-NARRATOR: Both?
A real guest resort hotel along
with an elevator-drop-type experience.
Because an elevator would be
perfectly in continuity
to being within a hotel.
NARRATOR:
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing
GARY: The Hollywood Tower Hotel.
It would fit the time and place setting,
it fits the glamor of Hollywood
at the time.
-NARRATOR: It also
-It just wasn't gonna work.
When I think of staying in a hotel,
I think of restful, quiet,
peaceful place to sleep in contrast to
(people screams)
the screams that you might hear
from a thrill attraction.
NARRATOR: Ah, restful.
So, with a "do not disturb" sign
put on that idea,
the concept, however,
requested a late check-out.
The hotel idea stayed.
NARRATOR:
And the elevator-drop concept, too.
But for that, guess who had a parameter.
Michael Eisner says,
"Well, I want the elevator doors
-to be able to open to the outside."
-Oh, my gosh.
Well, elevators don't move
when the doors are open. They stop.
-NARRATOR: Even still
-GARY: That's a parameter.
Why would elevator doors
open to the exterior of a building?
-Good question.
-Oh, yes.
But you have to admit
So, having elevator doors
that could open up
while you're 200 feet in the air,
and you have a view out over
Central Florida, that's cool.
-Who else is doing stuff like that?
-NARRATOR: Absolutely no one.
So, a drop ride based around an elevator
with doors that open to the outside world,
based on an acquired idea
that Disney could develop further.
All set in a "Golden Age
of Hollywood" style hotel
that's not actually a hotel.
Easy enough?
But if not an actual working hotel,
then what?
Perhaps it could be a haunted hotel.
NARRATOR: Well, there was already
The Haunted Mansion.
Not exactly a hotel,
but still, the haunted thing
was kind of covered.
So instead, they thought
You can have a ghost story
that's more the paranormal.
NARRATOR: Paranormal?
In that case,
you probably can't go past
-The Twilight Zone.
-MAN: Your next stop, The Twilight Zone.
NARRATOR: This iconic series
only ran for five years.
But for many, it's a classic
that was ahead of its time.
The Twilight Zone episodes
always revolved around ordinary people
-This machine is predicting our future.
-in ordinary situations
Do you think I could just
walk away from it?
where something extraordinary
happens to them.
Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone
is somewhat unique and calls
for a different kind of introduction.
It's, like, fantastic.
It's a fantastic TV series.
Somebody end this now!
NARRATOR:
But would it make a fantastic attraction?
This isn't just watching
an episode of The Twilight Zone.
We are now going to be in it.
Oh, yes, it's good. It's very good.
NARRATOR:
The Imagineers sprang into action
by kicking back
and watching all the episodes.
They watched every single episode
to try to find ideas for the attraction.
NARRATOR: And they did, but it wasn't
one specific episode.
There was something
they all had in common.
Invariably, the stories dealt
with ordinary people
in ordinary situations
that have an extraordinary thing
happen to them.
So, this idea of walking into a hotel
and confronting an elevator
that takes you to another dimension.
That's not fair.
That's the twist that provides
us a doorway into The Twilight Zone.
NARRATOR: Yeah, but first, they needed
to provide an elevator door
that opened to the outside
and an entire premise for why on Earth
you ended up in The Twilight Zone.
-But not to worry.
-Coulter.
NARRATOR: Chief architect on the project,
Coulter Winn
I'm an Imagineer.
NARRATOR:
Well, he'd work it out, wouldn't he?
So, one of the first ideas
I came up with was,
"Well, I'm gonna make it look like
an earthquake hit this building
and part of it
collapsed in this calamity."
And Michael Eisner comes in,
looks at my illustration on the wall,
and goes, "I hate it."
First thing I did is
I call Michael Sprout up.
I'm what's called the the show writer.
I'm thinking, I'm gonna lose my job.
I've only been here for a couple of years,
but I tell him the story
of what went wrong.
I go, "Can't we make some
sort of phenomenon
or something to dissolve part
of this building?
Can't we do something?"
'Cause, you know, this sort of,
like, seems it didn't work out.
NARRATOR: And Michael Sprout thought
If we could actually put you
in The Twilight Zone,
-this would be something unique.
-NARRATOR: But how?
"Hey, maybe there's
spiritual phenomenon out there
that caused this building to disappear."
-NARRATOR: And like all the best ideas
-It was like lightning strike.
-And it couldn't have been more perfect.
-NARRATOR: And the idea
This bolt of lightning
strikes the side of the building.
NARRATOR:
Oh, it was a bolt of lightning. Right!
A lightning bolt phenomenon
hits the building,
vaporizes part of the building.
The guests
The elevator with the five guests,
you know, vanishes.
To get that feeling of weightlessness
in the pit of their stomach.
NARRATOR: But would Coulter
dare present this idea to Michael Eisner?
Michael Eisner loved it.
-NARRATOR: With his idea well received
-Oh, yeah.
-and his job secure
-I felt much better.
The Twilight Zone Tower
of Terror attraction was all systems go.
We were off and running.
NARRATOR: Now they had to work out
the most logical way
to create the ride system.
-But there was a problem.
-NARRATOR: What? Already?
There's an elevator drops
in a lot of parks.
And it kind of starts at the top,
and it just rolls down,
and then you roll out, and you slow down
as you go around the ground.
NARRATOR:
Well, that actually sounds kind of fun.
-It's not what we wanted.
-NARRATOR: Right, sure.
You wanna have that scary feeling.
Tower of Terror was designed
to make you think it was an elevator,
to feel like an elevator.
NARRATOR: Yeah, an elevator falling.
Elevator breaks loose and falls.
It doesn't go out like that, it goes down,
and it has to stop
before you hit the ground.
(screeches)
We could scare you to death in this thing.
NARRATOR: Now that sounds fun?
But nothing's as fun
as an office field trip.
We went to an elevator manufacturer.
COULTER: So, imagine if a bunch
of Disney Imagineers come in and say,
"Hey, we want you
to help us build this attraction
where the elevator falls."
And then they look at you
like you're crazy.
We went to their tower
that was 300 feet tall, and they said
"You know, basically,
everything that we, as a company,
have tried not to do
is what you would like us to do
in the design and engineering
of this attraction."
NARRATOR:
But the question was could it be done?
BOB: They said, "All we have to do
is take off the mechanism
that required this thing to slow down
to normal building standards."
As the Imagineers
and one elevator engineer,
who's gonna control this fall,
he hits the fall
-and screams.
-(screams)
(people screaming)
The elevator doors open,
BOB: Imagineers are all there,
the elevator guys are saying,
"What did you think?"
NARRATOR:
And Bob Weis could only muster four words.
It's not fast enough.
We realized that for you
to feel that you're falling,
it has to pull you, not drop you.
NARRATOR: So, throwing the laws of gravity
out the window, if that's even possible,
the Imagineers devised a concept
that would put Isaac Newton to shame.
This vehicle's design
has cables that are attached to the top
and the bottom of the cab.
Whichever way the huge motors up
on top move is the way you move.
TJ: It actually pulls you down
faster than the acceleration of gravity.
NARRATOR: Faster than gravity?
Gravity doesn't pull you down,
the ride is pulling you down.
NARRATOR:
Now the Imagineers had defied gravity
and were bending the laws
of nature to their will.
All the rules are off.
NARRATOR: Developing an incredibly
powerful motorized pulley system,
they soon discovered that what goes down
must also come up at incredible speed
and then down again.
All heck breaks loose
as you start to go up and down.
NARRATOR: Nice! That'll work.
They're always pulling one rabbit
out of the hat after another.
NARRATOR: But for their next trick,
they'd need more than magic,
because they wanted to go
Into the fifth dimension.
The elevator needed
to leave the elevator shaft.
NARRATOR: Leave? What on Earth?
-Now you're going horizontally
-GARY: And that alone informs the guests
that we're now moving
into the fifth dimension,
and we have absolutely no idea
what's going to happen.
NARRATOR: But the Imagineers did.
The fifth dimension
was based on technology.
That is, an autonomous vehicle,
sits on top of essentially
a lifting platform,
a vertical vehicle conveyance platform.
NARRATOR:
And this patented trackless ride system
allowed guests to board a bank of seats
that could go, well,
wherever they wanted to.
Those vehicles are actually following
the little eighth of an inch guide wire
that's underneath the concrete.
It picks up a signal and it follows that.
NARRATOR: So, to summarize
The way Tower of Terror in Florida
is designed,
you basically have
two independent ride systems
that are sitting side by side
in the building.
NARRATOR: Guests who dared enter
the attraction would walk into a
-Autonomous vehicle.
-that would move onto a
-Vertical vehicle conveyance platform.
-NARRATOR: Right.
MIKE: So, as guests come up
through the load shaft,
once they get to the fifth dimension
NARRATOR: That trackless ride system
kicks in, and you go
Across the building floor.
NARRATOR: As you do, driving about in
the fifth dimension, which leads you to
The drop shaft.
NARRATOR:
Where you plummet upwards and downwards.
In the dark, several times,
before it finally gets to the basement
level where it backs out,
basically allows guests to unload.
NARRATOR: Then returning you back
to the third dimension,
or otherwise known as real life,
the place where construction
on the brand-new,
200-foot-tall tower was happening.
-It was gonna be taller.
-We ended up maxing out at 199 feet 11.
NARRATOR: And the reason why?
Any building over 200 feet tall,
internationally,
has to have a flashing
red aircraft warning light on it.
That really wasn't gonna work
with our abandoned hotel story.
Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone
is somewhat unique
and calls for a different
So, we literally design the building
to 199 feet, 11 inches and change.
Just to avoid having to have the blinky
red light on top of the building.
NARRATOR: Well, if not a big, red,
blinking aviation light,
then what would be up there?
COULTER: One of the things
I was really tasked to do
was to give this a scary profile.
Now, you think of Mickey Mouse.
Mickey is three circles.
Circles are friendly, they're endearing.
But spiky, pointy things are not.
They're very off-putting,
you know, kind of eerie.
And you get the silhouette of the chimneys
or the finials and all the spires.
NARRATOR: So, as Coulter worked
to terrify onlookers
Yeah, right now,
it's just beginning to take shape.
You look to the top of the building,
you'll be able to see a little
more of the architecture.
NARRATOR:
But not just any old architecture.
It's got that Pueblo Deco style
that's very Hollywood.
NARRATOR: Ah, Pueblo Deco,
infused elements of Art Deco
and Pueblo Revival design.
YOUNG COULTER: Which is a real style,
but what we're doing
is trying to communicate
with the existing Hollywood
backlot architecturally.
NARRATOR: And to work that out,
well, they had another office field trip.
So, of course, we looked at hotels
that might be inspiration,
hotels in Los Angeles
that would fit the time and place setting,
and that all sort of fed
into developing that hotel story for us.
NARRATOR: A story that mostly took place
inside the building.
Then we brought in this
whole Hollywood glamor,
you know, the "Golden Age
of Hollywood" feel.
COULTER: The interior lobby
for Tower of Terror Florida
is reminiscent of the elegance
of those days,
but it's also kind of creepy.
Our set decorators
scoured estate sales, scoured shops,
did everything they could to find keys
or a tie-in,
even an overt nod to specific episodes.
It's nothing like seeing it in real life.
NARRATOR: Whether the guests notice
this level of detail and overt nodding
-You may never know.
-NARRATOR: What we do know
is that in their pursuit
of replicating that very special era
-Hollywood in the 1930s.
-the Imagineers had a lot of fun
with the Disney credit card
at the antiques store.
And by the summer of 1994
-We're getting there.
-they were getting there.
Now, as for the story
they were constructing
GREG: The story that we had come up with
was in an elevator cab,
this group of five people
are riding up the elevator,
this bolt of lightning strikes
the side of the building
and creates this amazing energy
that courses through the building,
culminating in the complete
disappearance of those people
from inside the elevator.
The lights and the thunder,
and they would just
-(electricity crackles)
-totally disappear.
The doors open, we enter into what looks
to be like maybe a maintenance elevator,
and we sit down, and we realize
People had been there five seconds before,
and they just vanished.
This may not turn out well for us.
NARRATOR: Yep, it might not.
Really. It was a plot
that could have come out of any episode.
This town happens to lie
on the outskirts of The Twilight Zone.
Tower of Terror was a film noir.
Right? A mystery.
An exploration.
So, a buildup of tension, and
And by the time you're sort of
having the story and story and story,
and then you're like, boom!
NARRATOR: So, true to this formula
Wouldn't it be great
if we could get Joe Dante
who had directed a portion
of The Twilight Zone movie?
And action!
NARRATOR: Now all they needed was
Rod Serling himself,
the creator and host of The Twilight Zone.
Really, they couldn't do it without him.
Sadly, he had passed away about 20 years
before our attraction opened,
which makes it challenging on
how do you put
make it authentically
a Rod Serling attraction.
NARRATOR:
Oh, come on. These are Imagineers.
They defied gravity
and the various dimensions in general.
They'll work something out.
Using digital technology
and a wonderful voice-over actor
who provides the voice for Rod
calls for a different
kind of introduction.
This is, as you may recognize,
is a maintenance service elevator.
NARRATOR: But the question was,
did they deliver
an authentic Twilight Zone experience?
As we visit the hotel today,
everything looks like it was left
just as it was at that moment
when the bolt of lightning struck.
GREG: And there is a staff of people
still working in the hotel.
And it seemed like
they're in on something.
And then, suddenly, the lights go down,
and there's a flicker
on an old television up in the corner.
And there appears Rod Serling.
Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone
is somewhat unique and calls
for a different kind of introduction.
And so, now it's up to you,
if you're brave enough,
to board one of the elevators.
NARRATOR: Well, on July 22nd, 1994,
people were very much brave enough
to go on The Twilight Zone
Tower of Terror.
Something very strange is going on
at Disney-MGM Studios.
Screams have been heard coming
from a 200-foot
-A hundred ninety-nine feet eleven.
-tower jutting into the sky.
Checking in to this hotel will make
your hair stand on end.
And for the rest of the '90s,
hairs stayed on end.
And Tower of Terror became one
of the most popular attractions
at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
-I won't ride again today.
-I will.
NARRATOR: And soon,
at other Disney Parks around the world.
Tower of Terror
for Florida was so popular,
we knew we had to put it in other places.
GREG: So, Disney's California Adventure,
when we had the opportunity
to expand and add it there.
NARRATOR: But as that park expanded,
for California Adventure,
the attraction shrunk a little.
California has three individual
show scenes,
all of which can be working at any time
and eliminates the need
for two very expensive other shafts
to have to be built.
It can do the whole thing with one.
Much more efficient.
NARRATOR:
But if you're looking for efficiency,
across the Pacific Ocean in Japan,
a new and exciting park was opening.
But unlike the original Tokyo Disneyland,
which was basically where they
Take Disneyland and move it to Tokyo.
NARRATOR:
That wouldn't work this time because
The Japanese know nothing
about The Twilight Zone series.
It's irrelevant to them.
This, as you may recognize,
is a map of the United States.
They knew that they had to come up
with a different story.
And what they decided to do
was to create a unique story,
unique to Tokyo DisneySea.
We created this story
about this interesting man.
GREG: Harrison Hightower III
is this wealthy explorer
who loved to travel and go
to different lands throughout the world
and collect artifacts.
Basically, pillage cultures.
On one of his adventures,
he found this idol called Shiriki Utundu.
He takes it
before the natives can stop him.
He whisks it away takes it
with him back to his hotel.
Looking at his idol in his penthouse
at the top of the tower,
and it came to life,
pushed him down the elevator.
-The elevator crashed.
-(electricity crackles)
DANIEL: But when they pulled apart
the elevator,
there was no one inside
except for the idol, Shiriki Utundu.
NARRATOR: Well, a convincing story
is one thing, but to really get this done,
they couldn't do it alone.
So, with a simple call to the wild
help came, stumbling out of the mountains
in the form of this guy.
JOE: An artist, a painter, a sculptor,
and a set designer.
-NARRATOR: He's also a professor and
-I'm an Imagineer.
I have been for almost 40 years.
NARRATOR: As the lead Imagineer
on Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park,
-Joe is a veritable lion among Imagineers.
-(lion growls)
I'm a storyteller who works
with real materials to tell stories.
All I've ever heard about Joe Rohde
is that he's a genius.
I don't write and I don't use film.
My stories are created with real stuff.
You go to Animal Kingdom,
that is Joe on a plate.
NARRATOR:
He also put Mount Everest in a theme park,
specifically Expedition Everest
at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
I had just gotten back from the Himalayas
because I was working
on Expedition Everest.
JOE: I had this great big beard.
NARRATOR: Instead of requesting designs
from this legendary bearded Imagineer
They requested that I model
for one corbel.
-NARRATOR: Sorry, a what?
-A corbel.
NARRATOR: Oh, yeah, a corbel.
A kind of bracket for a building
made out of art.
That's the thing.
NARRATOR: But it's a thing that remains
firmly in one place.
On the outside of the building,
there's a place where this window comes up
and there's this scowling face
built into the corbel.
And I have a good scowl-y forehead,
and so I was used as the model
for this scowling face.
And then the next thing it turned into
was architectural elements like murals
and stained glass windows
and whole installations.
So that in the end, there's something
like a thousand images of my face
as this character all over that building.
It's very peculiar.
So I ended up shooting
all these Japanese language commercials
as Harrison Hightower.
-(screaming)
-(electricity crackles)
MAN 2: Tower of Terror!
A very, very odd experience.
NARRATOR:
But while Joe's beard was big in Japan,
heading westward to a place
that specializes in towers,
Disneyland Paris was looking
to build a new one, American style.
Paris is identical to California.
The only big change is that
it's a concrete building, not steel.
NARRATOR: Oh, la, la.
They built buildings out of concrete.
NARRATOR: But it's not just the world's
most romantic building material or city.
Things are a little different in France.
So, we looked at the story
that was in there and said,
"You know, let's pull
a character out of that story."
And there's a little girl
that's featured in that story.
Let's make her the star now of the ride
and have her sort of step
out of The Twilight Zone static and say,
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you."
-NARRATOR: With nothing more terrifying
-I wouldn't go in there
-if I were you.
-than a creepy kid,
Disneyland Paris was set,
and Tower of Terror
was on all four corners of the globe.
REPORTER 3: Thirteen-story Twilight Zone
Tower of Terror.
ROD: Wave goodbye to the real world.
NARRATOR:
And the little scary girl's warning
I wouldn't go in there if I were you.
was thoroughly ignored.
(people screaming)
NARRATOR: And for the coming decade
It is one of the most popular attractions
at Disney California Adventure.
-Disneyland Paris.
-(people scream)
-JEANETTE: Walt Disney World
-Tokyo DisneySea
People loved it.
NARRATOR:
And they kept loving it year after year.
Guests came back again and again
as the Tower of Terror
stood proudly as a beacon
of unchanging, terrifying perfection.
One might assume that
it would stay that way forever.
However
-Walt Disney said
-Disneyland will never be complete.
NARRATOR: He also said
There will always be
something new and unusual.
-Right.
-Right?
-Right.
-Mm-hm.
NARRATOR: Well, it just so happened that
the Disney California Adventure Park
was looking to have a new
and unusual attraction
up and running by Memorial Day 2017,
which was only about 11 months away.
Oh, my.
Clearly not enough time
to build a new attraction from scratch,
the Imagineers set their sights
on taking an existing attraction
and sprucing it up a little.
And some people call this reprogramming.
-Or
-NARRATOR: Sprucing up?
-Changing up.
-NARRATOR: Good enough.
And now you have the opportunity
to take something that the guest
already knows as an experience
and give them something
that they weren't expecting.
NARRATOR: As for working out
which attraction that would be,
they turned to the model Imagineer,
-or at least the guy who modeled
-For one corbel.
But this time,
they wanted him to take just one look
at the Disney California Adventure Park.
Joe is always game
for any kind of experience.
NARRATOR: And one such experience
was when he partnered with Jeanette Lomboy
to create Aulani,
a Disney resort and spa in Hawaii.
I think to create these places
that are based on culture
and have this richness and depth,
you have to be that.
NARRATOR: So, with that
Memorial Day 2017 deadline looming,
Disney approached these
cultural specialists and asked
Uh, so how about we convert
Tower of Terror by Memorial Day?
Although not exactly in his wheelhouse,
the legendary Imagineer
must have been between projects, so
That's the same day
I am opening Pandora: The World of Avatar.
NARRATOR: So, not between projects at all.
(speaking Na'vi)
NARRATOR: Because this expansive world,
being built in Florida, mind you,
had Joe's hands very full, so
-So
-(screaming)
How's that gonna work?
NARRATOR: Putting that impressive
furrowed brow to good use
I have a common, initial, cranky response.
NARRATOR:
But he thought he'd have a look anyway.
And using
those Animal Kingdom instincts
I approach from behind,
so I'm not really seeing the theming
of the building.
JOE: Just a mass. And
NARRATOR: And, as he looked upwards,
Joe Rohde realized
It's not that hard to get this
to not look like a hotel anymore.
It only looks like a hotel
because of the superficial additions
we've put on it.
If I remove those, it becomes anything.
-NARRATOR: Anything?
-Anything.
NARRATOR: Turning that brow upside down,
Joe Rohde was on board,
-only slightly reluctantly.
-(muttering)
And so, we literally sat down and said
"Okay, what could Tower
of Terror be?" Well
There's not a lot of time.
We don't have a lot of time
to do this job.
Let's try to make the job easy.
NARRATOR:
Well, a little bit of good timing
would at least
make their decision-making easier.
Fortunately for us,
Guardians of the Galaxy
was coming out with a second film,
and, actually, we both liked the movie.
Because I like the irreverent,
self-referential,
let's have fun with the form.
That is fertile. That's gonna pay off.
And then things cascade very rapidly.
And then it is kind of like an epiphany.
JOE: Where you look at the building,
and suddenly,
you can see through the building
to the bones of the building.
Like, "Oh, it could be like
some kind of fortress."
And if it was a fortress,
who has a fortress?
NARRATOR: Well, this character,
the Collector, played by Benicio del Toro,
-he has a fortress.
-That could be interesting.
NARRATOR: With the deadline looming,
things seemed to be clicking into place.
-Click, click, click.
-(finger snaps)
NARRATOR: See? Especially because
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
was due to hit the big screen
on May 5th, 2017.
Just three weeks before
-Memorial Day.
-on May 29.
Are you kidding me?
NARRATOR:
And much like the original attraction,
-filmed elements would be needed.
-Tower Hotel.
But unlike the high-tech
reincarnation of Rod Serling
Different kind of introduction.
this time, they didn't need
the fifth dimension.
They were in production
NARRATOR:
Just a four-hour flight to Atlanta.
Which meant there were cameras
and actors ready.
So we need to storyboard now.
Like now, in the next three weeks.
'Cause when we hit the ground,
we need to know what we're shooting.
-NARRATOR: So, what were you shooting?
-Something, right?
-NARRATOR: Right.
-Okay, let's see
if we can create a premise
that makes sense.
NARRATOR:
And here's what they came up with.
JEANETTE: The Guardians are stuck
in Tivan's fortress.
They're part of the collection,
and Rocket wants to get them out,
so he needs our guests
to come and free them out.
-That's kind of interesting.
-It just worked.
It was like everything fell out of the sky
and it magically worked
because it's funny.
-That is true!
-Well, look at Rocket.
-Rocket's filled with antics, right?
-That is also true!
NARRATOR: Well, ready or not,
it was time for action.
Amy Jupiter called me and told me
that there was this plan
to re-skin the Tower of Terror.
And taking all of the parts and pieces
and reimagining
what you could do with them.
And everybody was really excited
about that.
It was a huge opportunity
to partner with James Gunn
and being able to partner
with the film talent.
They shot the entire thing
with the genlocked cameras all together,
so that later, they could do moves in post
that could mirror the perspective
of where the audience would be sitting.
Cut! Great. Okay!
NARRATOR: But a wrap for the actors
was just the beginning for the Imagineers.
They had a ride mechanism to modify.
We did not have time
to modify the ride mechanism.
NARRATOR: You didn't? So
So the ride mechanism is exactly the same.
NARRATOR:
So how would it be different, then?
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
is all aiming at this feeling
of scream-y fear ride.
NARRATOR: Well, why would that not work
for Guardians?
Not appropriate
to Guardians of the Galaxy.
We needed different emotion.
We need laughter.
(laughs)
And we need a gleeful kind of scream.
-(man screams)
-(Rocket laughs)
NARRATOR: Well, if you want to change
a scream from this
-Boo, drop, horror.
-to this
We needed to change the physics
of the up-and-down part.
NARRATOR: Ah, changing the physics.
Well, that sure takes us back.
Back to the brilliance
of the original Imagineers
-for the project.
-It goes down.
Who not only changed
the laws of physics, but
The up-and-down part.
-NARRATOR: If only there was a way
-Change the physics.
-to find out what they knew
-I'm an Imagineer.
-and just how they did it
-I'm an Imagineer.
NARRATOR:
Oh, hang on. Maybe there is a way.
We had to gather together
the original architects and designers
who worked on this thing originally.
That's me.
And we are going to grill them
like prisoners.
Actually
What is safe to deal with
in terms of schedule?
How does that thing really work?
NARRATOR: Well, by any means necessary
-How far can we push it?
-Joe Rohde
What can be done with that building
-in this amount of time?
-got answers
from whoever was left
that he didn't scare off.
NARRATOR: With the physics lecture over,
Professor Rohde wrote the new rules.
We changed the top of the physics
of that arc so you hover more.
Like, the hang time where you're like
(gasps)
breathing.
Breathing happens there.
You do, you know, still fall,
but you spend a lot more free fall time.
-Right?
-NARRATOR: Right.
Right?
NARRATOR: This altering
of the existing mechanism resulted
in a wildly different experience.
It was amazing to us, all the things
you could do with the motion.
And then the music would fill it.
NARRATOR: Ah, yes, the music.
It's a big part of the movies.
JEANETTE: When we landed on great music
from Guardians of the Galaxy,
I thought to myself, that's it!
(finger snaps)
I think this could really work
in a way that's never been seen
or done before in any park.
NARRATOR: So, music it is. But what music?
(clatters)
NARRATOR: The soundtrack
to Guardians of the Galaxy
is very important to the storyline, but
How do you bring music into an attraction
that didn't have music before?
NARRATOR: And how would they choose
just one song?
And some of them were, like,
iconic songs that you were like,
"This is gonna be so great."
NARRATOR: Well, the Imagineers
took this part of their job
very seriously.
So, we would ride at night.
To find something
that really wanted to say
It's gotta be a certain tempo.
A certain speed.
-Disruption, irreverence, a driving beat.
-It's gotta have a certain feel to it.
And the timing. Like, you know,
you only have a certain amount of time.
NARRATOR: With a certain amount of time
and an infinite amount of music
AMY: We would ride and ride and ride.
I was screaming bloody murder
the entire time.
We would ride a lot. A lot.
Pass. I think I'm done.
NARRATOR:
With an unhelpfully long shortlist,
the Imagineers and Joe Rohde
began to realize
I'm might be able to afford
two versions of this show.
NARRATOR: So, two versions of the ride
with two different songs?
I'm not buying it.
NARRATOR: Hmm.
Well, not quite satisfied with just two,
Joe went back and reassessed the budget.
I can afford six.
NARRATOR: So that's what they did.
Six uniquely programmed experiences
for six completely different songs,
randomized so no one knows
which one they'll get.
Each profile,
each of the six different songs
has its own unique profile,
so it's different
every time you get to go on it.
It's randomized, so we don't even know
what you're gonna get
until you actually get on it.
NARRATOR:
Well, soon enough, people did get on it.
We've been looking forward to this moment
for quite a long time.
-NARRATOR: Because on May 27th, 2017,
-Memorial Day.
it finally opened.
ANNOUNCER 3: We now pronounce Pandora:
The World of Avatar open.
NARRATOR:
Oh, yeah. That opened that day, too.
And somehow, Joe even managed to make it
to the grand opening of both.
I hope not to have to repeat
this travel schedule again in my career.
NARRATOR: Well, when Guardians
of the Galaxy, Mission: Breakout!
finally launched directly upwards
-MAN 3: This is so cool!
-and downwards,
the Disney California Adventure Park
would never be the same again.
-It was a
-Well?
-Thankfully, it was a hit.
-NARRATOR: Of course, it was.
In less than a year,
the Imagineers had turned
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
into what could well have been
a completely new attraction.
DAVE: And you see it there, it's like,
"Oh, yeah, this was just built.
This is amazing."
NARRATOR:
And when the first guests entered,
any doubts anyone had Guardians
of the Galaxy, Mission: Breakout!
went out the window.
See? There they go.
(screaming)
People really doubted.
Our guests really doubted
that this was gonna be an attraction
-that they wanted to get on.
-Until it opened.
NARRATOR:
And there's a very good reason for that.
Because it's good. It's good.
NARRATOR: Because at the end of the day
We do these things,
we do them for the guests.
-NARRATOR: And they'll keep doing them.
-Well, hello, boys.
NARRATOR:
In fact, the Guardians of the Galaxy
have become so popular in California
that there are very big plans
for their next big adventure.
This time, in Epcot, Florida.
Guardians: Cosmic Rewind is going
to be one of the biggest attractions
Imagineering has ever done.
NARRATOR: Not to mention Stark Expo
at Hong Kong Disneyland,
and Avengers Campuses
at Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris.
-And really, the sky's the limit.
-NARRATOR: Is it, though?
A hundred ninety-nine feet eleven.
NARRATOR: That's more like it.
In whatever form this attraction takes,
these four towers now stand proudly
in four Disney Parks around the world.
But it was only when Imagineers
took the time to
See the bones of the building
and what else it could be.
NARRATOR: It became clear that like
many of life's great lessons,
it's what's inside that counts,
especially when it's
A very large motor
pulling a vehicle up and down.
NARRATOR: And it's the Imagineers who
built this gravity-defying mechanism
That's me.
who laid the groundwork
for unlimited storytelling.
You can take the same typewriter
and tell a horror story or a comedy.
The typewriter's just a tool.
It's what you do
with that tool that counts.
NARRATOR:
And this heavy-duty storytelling tool
was not only able to change the rules
of gravity, but also people's lives.
You just do your job,
but it's more than that.
CÉDRIC: That's the most great experience.
When the kids come back,
they give you a hug and give you the gift
that you're not supposed to deserve
because you just do your job.
I could cry for that.
We don't think enough about how important
these projects are to people
as an Imagineer.
JOE: It's a chance for you
to make something come together
and mean something
and maybe bring meaning to the world.
NARRATOR: Maybe.
However, there is one other theory
about why people like it so much.
Be it The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
or the Guardians
of the Galaxy, Mission: Breakout!
this attraction is really
(screaming)
really, really, really quite fun!
And thanks for choosing
the Hollywood Tower Hotel
for your next vacations.
(people screaming)
(lively music)