There’s never been an attraction anywhere on Earth quite like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – nothing as massively scaled; nothing as committed to immersion; nothing as filled with inexplicable, impossible, and ingenious Imagineering moments. More than an E-Ticket, this next-generation, multi-modal attraction is one-of-a-kind… and yet, it’s made possible entirely by the Imagineering landmarks that have come before.
Today, we’ll set off into Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance to explore nine of this ride’s most surprising moments and inexplicable surprises. So be warned: if you haven’t experienced this 21st century masterpiece – or if you don’t want its jaw-dropping effects spoiled by learning their inner workings – maybe instead make your way to a different in-depth feature.
For those who are ready to set off from Batuu and take on the might of the First Order, hold on tight. To uncover the Secrets of the Resistance, we’ll ride through the Rise experience from beginning to end, describe how its greatest tricks work, and explore the Imagineering “ingredients” – the prototypes and precedents – that add up to make this once-in-a-lifetime ride possible.
1. The Resistance Encampment
Before Rise of the Resistance opened, tens of thousands of guests walked right past it and never noticed. That’s because Rise is hidden away in the wilderness of Batuu, far outside the bustling marketplaces of Black Spire Outpost. The only landmark at its entry is a piece of old, rusted artillery. Beyond that, a winding queue leads through a waterfall-fed oasis and into ancient caverns carved through the planet’s rocky spires. Those unassuming natural caves soon give way to chiseled-out bunkers strung up with makeshift wiring, tunnels held up by hydraulic presses, and scattered collections of Resistance equipment, ready to be picked up and moved in a hurry.
HOW IT WORKS: “Immersive queues” have been a signature of Disney’s E-Ticket attractions since the “Ride the Movies” era that began with Star Tours. The idea of using a queue as part of the experience – an opportunity to settle into the “world” and get into the “headspace” of an immersive ride – was an important innovation in the design of queues.
At Rise of the Resistance, the winding queue passing through the overgrown remains of a Batuuan encampment are doubly important. They not only give guests a glimpse at the “history” of the planet, but set up the makeshift solutions that the Resistance has invented, wiring up old caverns and bunkers as a way of skirting the First Order’s notice. The queue also establishes a very, very strong aesthetic for the Resistance – earthly, brown, organic, and nimble – which contrasts strongly with the cold, silver and blue, metallic authoritarianism of the First Order.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: We say that the queue here learns from two important Imagineering precedents:
- Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland has one of the world’s most beloved queues, which seems like an odd thing to say until you’ve walked through it. The quarter-mile trek to the ride’s hidden showbuilding is disguised as a descent through the ruins of the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, with ancient tunnels, rotundas, caverns, and cathedrals to the lost god Mara along its course. It’s clear that the artistry behind the queue is as intense as that of the ride, and so it is on Rise, where rockwork rivaling Cars Land surrounded guests… all while they wait!
- Avatar Flight of Passage is perhaps the best Standby queue in Orlando. Aesthetically, the line for Flight of Passage sees guests physically rise through the mountains of Pandora, passing through caverns and reclaimed laboratories and overgrown ruins just like Rise. Narratively, the hour-plus wait is also important, lending a sense of importance to the ride to come. It’s the same with Rise of the Resistance, where the physical wait may not be fun per se, but it somehow feels like a requirement to understand how important the rite of passage to follow really is.
Batuu also borrowed from Pandora’s immense realism and “in-universe” logic, which – for better or worse – means neither Rise of the Resistance nor Flight of Passage has a prominent marquee denoting the rides’ entrance or even names. It’s a victory for Imagineers seeking to prioritize show over efficiency, but a headache for operations and first-time visitors who aren’t sure how to actually enter the biggest rides in the world!
2. The Intersystem Transport Shuttle
After a briefing from Rey and BB-8, guests are given their mission: with the First Order having descended on Black Spire Outpost, we – the next generation of Resistance recruits – have no choice but to evacuate the encampment at Batuu and instead rendezvous with General Organa at a new Resistance base on Pacara.
With an escort by Poe Dameron ready to deliver us to the Mid-Rim planet, recruits are released outdoors, where an Intersystem Transport Shuttle (ITS) piloted by Lieutenant Bek and Nien Nunb awaits beneathe the rocky outcroppings of Batuu. The ship’s starboard doors open as its thrusters begin to warm up, blazing deep blue against the planet’s Spires.
Once standing on board with Nien Nunb and Bek in the flesh, the Transport lurches forward, rising and swaying as it lifts off from Batuu, breaking through the clouds and out of the planet’s atmosphere. However, the First Order launches a surprise attack, grabbing the Transport in a tractor beam. As we’re pulled through the humming blue magnetic shield airlock, Dameron jumps to lightspeed, promising to return with reinforcements. As the Bek instructs us to keep the location of the Pacara base secret, the starboard doors open again, but this time, officers of the First Order step aboard, instructing guests to exit into the hangar and prepare for interrogation.
HOW IT WORKS: If the rumble of the Transport’s motion base doesn’t convince you, the same starboard door opening both times leaves many riders genuinely shocked by the improbable – yet undeniable – proposition that the Transport did move… That’s because it did! If it weren’t for the whole rest of Rise of the Resistance, the Transport would easily be one of the most clever and sensational tricks in any Disney Park.
In reality, the Transport you see parked on Batuu never moves even an inch. It’s a facade that conceals a circular showbuilding with three Transport interior spaces arranged on a very large turntable. Once loaded, a “takeoff” sequence rotates the turntable to the second of three positions, where the “show” takes place. Then, it rotates to the third position, aligning behind a second Transport facade in the Star Destroyer hangar where guests are released. The physical rotation of the turntable ingeniously adds a “thrust” to takeoff and a physical “halt” to the ship’s coming to rest in the Star Destroyer, leaving this easily among the most genuinely shocking “how’d they do that?” moments in the park, surpassed only by what’s to come.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: We can’t think of many other “ride to get to the ride” situations (though that sort of thing has been “faked” here and there, as we’ll discuss later). But there are a few important precedents here:
- The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland does indeed have a real, necessary “ride to get to the ride.” In California, the Stretching Room does the essential job of lowering guests to a basement level so that they can pass under the Disneyland Railroad. (The scene is so iconic, though, that it was retained for other versions of the Haunted Mansion without the functional elevator piece; instead of the floor lowering, the ceilings rise.)
- Carousel of Progress is an unlikely “ingredient” here since – like that 1964 classic – the Transport is essentially a giant turntable with three audiences in one of three positions: Batuu (load), the “show,” and the Star Destroyer (unload). Like Carousel of Progress, that makes the Transport surprisingly high capacity.
B-MODE: If an Audio-Animatronic on board the Transport is not operational, a wall can be raised to block views of the cockpit while Nien Nunb and Lieutenant Bek switch their appearance to the ship’s screens. If the turntable is down, there’s no B-Mode except a very depressing and inexplicable walk down a behind-the-scenes Cast Member hallway that connects Batuu to the Star Destroyer’s hangar.
3. The Interrogation
Once escorted out of the hangar, guests pass through labyrinthine corridors of the Star Destroyer, always under the watchful eye of Stormtroopers. Eventually, guests are sorted into smaller groups, led into a cell, and readied for interrogation.
General Hux and Kylo Ren appear on a catwalk overhead, insisting that they know we’re recruits of the Resistance and demanding we hand over the location of the secret base or have it taken from us. A goosebumps-inducing moment sees Kylo Ren use the Force on us… but before he can finish the job, he’s called away to the bridge, where he’ll be waiting for us…
HOW IT WORKS: General Hux and Kylo Ren are seen “in the flesh” for the first time during the Interrogation. However, they’re not really “in the flesh.” Here, the two characters are brought to life by a special kind of projection called Musion projection that makes them appear to inhabit a 3D space. The trick is “sold” with a few added embellishments: red spotlights from behind the characters angled outward toward guests cast the characters’ shadows as they pace. In reality, the shadows are separate projections perfectly synched to the characters’ movements, subconsciously making the bad guys’ projected presence feel more real. Likewise, Kylo Ren’s control of the room’s lighting (and an associated Force moment, emphasized by subwoofers and a sudden, stark silence) make the projection far more physical than it would otherwise be.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: The Interrogation is both exceedingly simple and yet highly technological. Fittingly, we’d say its “ingredients” are one of each:
- The Haunted Mansion returns again, this time for its modern use of a very old trick. The “Pepper’s ghost” effect is a classic mid-19th century illusion that uses theatrical light and reflection to make objects appear out of thin air. The effect is popularly used in the Haunted Mansion’s ballroom scene, making translucent ghosts appear at the party (when in reality, guests are seeing reflections of Audio-Animatronics on a massive pane of glass. When lit, their reflection appears; when unlit, it disappears.)
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was one of the first uses of Musion projection, which modernizes the Pepper’s ghost effect by instead reflecting a crystal clear projected image against a 45-degree-angled glass pane hidden between a physical foreground and background. The results (which you can also see as the pre-show in all of Universal’s Harry Potter rides and Fast & Furious: Supercharged) can make a projected image appear to inhabit a physical, 3-D space.
With our interrogation unfinished, we’re left in the cell to await our end… until hushed whispering and banging from a wall sees something extraordinary happen… Read on…
All hope may seem lost as we await Phase II of our interrogation at the hands of Kylo Ren… But just then, a super-heated point of light appears on the cell wall and traces the shape of a door. Our rescue has arrived. A piece of the cell is pulled away – its molten edges cut with a laser – as members of the Resistance burst in with a risky rescue plan to get us back to Batuu…
4. The First Order Fleet Transport & R-5
Behind the newly-opened wall, we find two First Order Fleet Transports piloted by R-5 droids, sitting askew in a small chamber. We climb aboard as the Resistance leaders explain that our R-5s have been reprogrammed to navigate through the Star Destroyer and get us to its Escape Pods, where they’ll pilot us back to the encampment on Batuu. With Lieutenant Bek on comms to help us make sense of the ship’s maze-like interior, a sliding wall opens as R-5 pilots us out into the interior of the Finalizer.
The first encounter is an unexpected meeting with other Transport Units (these ones with no human passengers) patrolling the ship, their red-eyed R-5s beeping out an inquiry to our orange-eyed ones. “Tell them it’s a prisoner transfer,” Bek tells our on-board pilot. With a return squeal, our R-5s get us past our first hurdle. A dead-end leads to a narrow escape from a floating Probe Droid, then the path to the Turbo Lifts is clear… except for some patrolling Stormtroopers, who sound the alarm and send us scurrying deeper into the ship…
HOW IT WORKS: The Fleet Transport (FT) units are, of course, trackless dark ride vehicles, using Disney’s “LPS” (that’s local positioning system) technology. Each vehicle follows a programmed route through the attraction, using RFID pucks embedded in the floor to communicate its position. “LPS” dark rides aren’t uncommon at Disney Parks (think Ratatouille, Mystic Manor, Runaway Railway, and more) but their introduction in Rise is. Entering a room with two of them simply parked is pretty amazing. Guests don’t step off of a loading platform or wait for airgates to open; they literally just walk into a room with two vehicles askew and cimb into them, unsure where they’ll head first. (Depending on your cell, sometimes the vehicles first move forward; sometimes, backward.)
What’s also cool is the R-5 unit that goes along for the ride. The on-board Animatronic has been “reprogrammed” by the Resistance to deliver us to the Star Destroyer’s Escape Pods (including its orange-eyes). The empty, patrolling Transports we pass with their red-eyed R-5s are only playing the part of “bad guy” momentarily. They’re actually vehicles that just finished the attraction and unloaded their passengers, and are returning to their own cell-adjacent rooms where their eyes will turn orange just in time for another group of recruits to board. Still, it’s delightful that Imagineers turned the otherwise-not-show-appropriate recycling of empty vehicles into a clever story moment!
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: Given that Rise of the Resistance is considered a pretty exhilerating and even slightly scary ride, it may be surprising to say that this trick is made possible by perhaps the least intimidating dark ride Disney Imagineers have ever designed…
- Pooh’s Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland was the first of Disney’s dark rides to premier new trackless technology. Using “LPS” (local positioning systems – typically, RFID pucks embedded in the ground), the ride allows a series of “hunny pots” to float out of the load area and do the unthinkable. Aboard Pooh, the vehicles appear to “choose” different routes through scenes, spin and reverse, and even dance around each other in careful coordination. Disney’s LPS dark ride technology has been used nearly a dozen times since (Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Mystic Manor, and Runaway Railway, for example) but Rise makes spectacular use of the technology’s capabilities.
- STAR TOURS also gets a nod for a simple reason… like the original Star Wars ride, the idea of having an Audio-Animatronic along for the ride is simple, but highly compelling. In this case, the R-5 units that pilot the First Order’s Fleet Transports become a character in their own right if you bother to watch them. They chirp, holler, turn to face the action, and rotate their heads 180 degrees before reversing. It’s a simple but effective way to explain why and how our vehicles are driving around on their own and making “choices” about which path to follow.
5. The Hangar and Bridge
With news of our prison break spreading through the ship and Stormtroopers on the lookout, R-5 is forced to find an alternate route to the Escape Pods. Wouldn’t you know it? That path takes us into a Hangar housing full-sized AT-ATs. Our path is cut off as Stormtroopers descend, firing laser blasts through the air.
With no clear way out and blast doors slamming shut all around as enemy fire launches from all sides, the vehicles back into gantry lifts to carry them down to the Pods… Finn is there, firing rounds at the Stormtroopers and instructing us to get down to those Escape Pods, stat. But of course, our lifts accidentally rise instead. “No, no, not up! Down!”
Momentarily escaping the mayhem and laser fire, the vehicles arrive at the Bridge, where Hux and Ren learn of the prisoners’ escape just as Poe and the Resistance return. Ren senses our presence. “How brave,” he says as he turns toward us, “yet ultimately hopeless.” As R-5 speeds away backwards, Ren chides, “There’s nowhere to run.”
At last, the vehicles back into a Turbo Lift as searing white security lights shine directly onto us… Ahead, Kylo Ren jumps down from above, ignites his jerry-rigged Lightsaber, and physically advances toward us. The lift doors close just in time and our descent to the Escape Pods is at last assured… Right?
HOW IT WORKS: The Hangar itself is one of the ride’s most jaw-dropping moments, and one of the biggest scenic reveals in Disney Parks. The massive room is made to feel even larger with a very simple trick: the partially-closed blast doors at the rear of the room conceal (ready for this?) a mirror, insinuating that we’re seeing only half of the Hangar.
During the attack in the Hangar, the two Transport vehicles split up, taking one of two gantry lifts up to the highest floor of the Hangar. Once parked on the lift, low-level gates rise to ensure the lift can’t advance forward. The first is fired on by First Order troopers with a laser cannon; the second is right in the pathway of an AT-ATs blasters. In both cases, lighting and projection make the laser blasts appear to travel through the air and cause physical damage.
Riders’ escape from the Bridge is an impressive effect. After encountering Hux and Kylo Ren as Audio-Animatronics, the vehicles reverse toward the open Lifts while Kylo gives chase. The Ren that drops from the ceiling, stands, and begins walking toward the Lift is a projection, but you’d be forgiven for being fooled. He’s projected onto a screen that does physically move toward riders. To make the encounter even more real, the Lightsaber is a practical effect. It actually does ignite and swing in perfect coordination with the advancing projection.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: Aside from the clever walking Kylo Ren effect (which we honestly can’t think of a precedent for), the past projects that echo this portion of the ride aren’t about specific effects or moments, but its scale and technology.
- Indiana Jones Adventure must be the Imagineering “ingredient” that leads to the Hangar. That ride’s central chamber (literally, “The Big Room” in blueprints) is a massive, collapsing temple interior reigned over by the decaying face of Mara, its half-skeletal visage firing off energy blasts. Riders spend a surprising amount of time in the “Big Room,” darting in and out of caverns around its perimeter, crossing a shaky suspension bridge over its central lava pit, and even passing behind the face of Mara. The scale of Indiana Jones Adventure’s “Big Room” was unlike anything seen before – and arguably, wasn’t surpassed until Rise of the Resistance, where Hangar awaits.
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror adds one of its secrets to Rise’s playbook again: the mid-ride elevator to another level. In fact, just like on Rise, each “elevator” on Tower of Terror is technically a very large, 21-seat trackless, LPS vehicle. The only difference is that it starts the ride already locked into a separate “vertical vehicle conveyance” system (VVC) is used to lift the ride through its two show floors. In the “5th Dimension” scene, however, the LPS vehicle drives itself off of the VVC, navigates horizontally, and locks itself into a second, high-speed VVC shell for the drop portion of the ride. Rise is doing the same thing, just inverted in order. Rise is LPS-VVC-LPS versus Tower of Terror’s VVC-LPS-VVC. Get it?
6. The Turbo Lift
With the doors closed and Kylo Ren successfully left behind, the Turbo Lift begins is rapid descent to the Finalizer’s lower levels, where the Escape Pods await. Floors whiz by in quick succession outside and a moment of peace finally seems at hand. But just then, R-5 squeals and recoils as Kylo Ren’s distinctively erratic, sparking, over-powered Lightsaber blade pierces through the lift’s ceiling and begins to saw at it, effortlessly melting the start of a hole into the roof. Before he can finish it, the lift comes to a stop and R-5 races out.
HOW IT WORKS: After being fooled by the Transport and actually boarding a Lift that actually did change your elevation, you might hedge your bets by assuming that the Turbo Lift actually is going somewhere. In this case, it isn’t. The two Turbo Lifts that carry you “down” to the Escape Pod level aren’t real lifts. The passing floors are projections… and believe it or not, you already saw the projectors – the blinding white “security lights” that flanked the walking Kylo Ren!
Obviously, though, the piece de resistance of the Turbo Lift is an effect that’s likely to leave most riders totally bamboozled – Ren’s Lightsaber. For how absolutely jaw-dropping it is, the effect is actually surprisingly simple in execution. A circular panel embedded in the ceiling already has a semi-circular cutout. When the scene begins, the panel revolves into position, with the first bit of that cutout revealed. The Lightsaber blade is then pierced down through the opening, rotating as the cutout panel does.
Perhaps the most impressive element of the effect is how Ren’s sizzling, uneven, fractal, blade looks so genuinely erratic. The answer? The blade is rapidly spinning, giving its textured surface the sort of sparking, electrical, uncontrolled quality Ren’s manipulated blade is known for.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: The Living Seas and StormRider
- Here, we can finally give a shout out to The Living Seas, which masterfully used the “false elevator” scene to make guests feel they were descending to an underwater Sea Base in “Hydrolators.” The “false elevator” is a frequent trope in themed entertainment, though, which makes sense – the effect can be simple (a little rumbling room as a rotating scrim outside of a window shows passing rockwork) or technological (like Space 220’s “Stellavator” or Escape From Gringotts’ bank lifts).
- StormRider, the now-Pixarified motion simulator at Tokyo DisneySea offered an unusual “ingredient” here… On board futuristic storm-chasing vehicles, guests were charged with racing headlong into a hurricane to release a data-gathering, storm-calming missile probe into its eye. But a mis-fire actually saw the launched probe do a 180, rocking back toward the vehicle and puncturing its hull, injecting into the vehicle mid-ride! It was a shocking and very inventive way of bringing the projected ride into the ride vehicle in a physical way, and Ren’s Lightsaber likely owes some amount of its engineering to the trick.
7. The Escape Route
Having finally reached the Escape Pod level, the only thing left to do is navigate the final hallways of the Star Destroyer. And that’s made a whole lot more difficult by the First Order’s assault on the Resistance fleet that’s arrived to save us. Through massive forcefield windows into space, we can see the fleet of X-Wings reigning fire on the ship that we’re still stuck on. The only way forward is through a corridor filled with three enormous cannons that block our path…
But – a-ha! – as each cannon sends a laser beam screaming through the opening and into space, the cannon recoils, launching backward to briefly open a path… The advancing and retracting cannons create a “Frogger” style obstacle and a classic sci-fi “crusher” scenario for the ride vehicles, with R-5 seemingly calculating their movement and carefully lurching between them after they retract from firing. Still, the effect of having something so massive and powerful physically enter and exit the ride path and timing your advance through them to avoid colliding is something that you don’t see often!
HOW IT WORKS: The cannon obstacle course is made possible by something you might not expect: the cannons are LPS vehicles, too! Seriously. The location of each cannon is relayed through the LPS system, so “interactions” between the cannons and the Fleet Transports are precisely controlled. That’s what allows the cannons to move independently and randomly in a coordinated “dance” between advancing riders.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: Again, an unlikely source…
- Pooh’s Hunny Hunt didn’t just introduce LPS dark rides to Disney’s portfolio – it also showed how smartly they can be used. On Hunny Hunt, the trippy, blacklight “Heffalumps & Woozles” dream sequence becomes a high energy part of the ride where the vehicles break from their linear progression through scenes and split up, intermingling with other “batches” of hunny pots, pulling up to different mini-scenes, and dancing around one another in near-miss encounters.
One of the coolest and weirdest moments involves a Hunny pot filled not with riders, but with Heffalumps and Woozles that breaks into the lineup, dancing around and joining the fun. Yes, there’s a full-on dark ride vehicle populated by the Imagineering equivalent of NPCs that intermixes and participates with the group, adding itself into the LPS system’s “dance” of vehicle locations! (Theoretically, the engine of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is the same – a self-driving, non-passenger LPS ride vehicle, too.)
B-MODE: In the event that the cannons are non-functional (which happens more often than we’d like), they automatically retract, leaving a fully-cleared hallway. Instead of navigating their ins-and-outs, the Transports advance down the hall, briefly pause and pivot toward the windows, then reverse at high speed before throwing it back into drive and proceeding down the corridor (mostly to retain the scene’s pacing, required to clear the scene ahead).
8. The Encounter
As John Williams’ triumphant score begins, the Transports race past wreckage caused by the Resistance’s assault. Finn patches into the system, telling us to abandon ship before the Finalizer blows. The Escape Pod hatches are just around the corner… but just as we’re about to reach them, the door slides closed and R-5 shrieks as our vehicles pivot out of his control.
In front of us stands Kylo Ren, holding each vehicle in his Force grasp. As his hands move forward and back, the vehicles slide like puppets. “You will tell me the location of the secret base,” he demands, “and then I will destroy you and the Resistance o–”. Before he can finish, through the Star Destroyer’s windows, a flaming TIE Fighter comes screaming toward us, impacting the wall just behind Kylo Ren.
In a flash, the wall explodes outward. Kylo Ren is hurled forward by the impact, falling towards us, arms flailing. Nearby pipes disconnect and they and Kylo Ren are drawn backward, pulled by the vacuum of space. As Ren desperately fights against the pull, the ship begins to collapse around him. The Force hold on us broken, R-5 makes its escape, following warning sirens and flashing escape lights to the Escape Pod hatches at last…
HOW IT WORKS: The Kylo Ren Audio-Animatronic doesn’t seem too much more advanced than your run-of-the-mill figure… until the explosion. The way the figure flails – his feet falling out from under him as he’s dragged by the suction of space – is staggeringly impressive when you think about the range of motion and the hidden support structures that make it possible. The explosion, meanwhile, is made possible because the wall behind Kylo is actually cut into jigsaw-like shapes that swing down and out of view, revealing a screen beyond. The effect is sold by tubes that appear to be pulled toward the open vacuum, and a woosh of air from behind that imitate its suction.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: The two effects that define the encounter aren’t novel, but they’re masterfully presented – an epic, extraordinary encounter with a stunningly lifelike Audio Animatronic, and an explosion that causes a wall to physically collapse, working in perfect sync to create a fitting finale for a best-of-Imagineering ride.
- It’s probably Na’vi River Journey that sets the first precedent here. At least for the last decade or so, Disney has largely shied away from the massive Audio-Animatronic casts that populated rides like Pirates of the Caribbean. The new game plan typically involves a ride brought to life through lots of modern effects (like projection) with a single, ultra-impressive Audio-Animatronics figure as the ride’s finale. Na’vi River Journey’s climactic encounter with the Na’vi Shaman of Songs is a stunning, unbelievable, and truly captivating moment with the starring Audio-Animatronic serving as the ride’s finale.
- Mystic Manor is the first place Imagineering used the “exploding wall” effect that accompanies the Resistance’s direct hit. There, the explosion is caused by a rogue lightning strike stirred up by the magical music of an enchanted music box, but the end result is the same: folding panels that reveal a screen beyond, with a physical reaction – in Mystic Manor’s case, a vase that’s pulled into the opening and shatters.
B-MODE: When the final Kylo Ren Audio-Animatronic isn’t functioning, the fallen metallic wing remains lowered over it. Instead, the Fleet Transports arrange themselves differently, looking out the windows of the Star Destroyer. There, they view an alternate finale where Kylo Ren threatens guests from his black TIE Fighter, before a lucky shot from an unseen Resistance X-Wing causes him to lose control and careen away. It’s fine, but it doesn’t feel like a grand finale, which is especially sad considering the finale is known to be in B-Mode for days or weeks at a time.
9. The Return to Batuu
With Kylo Ren dispatched at last, one last trial awaits: the return to Batuu. R-5 pilots our FT into the Escape Pods we’ve been searching for, we get a glimpse at the rapidly-deteriorating Star Destroyer, and twin octagonal pods nested on another wing of the ship across from us. One by one, those pods are released by pincers… until it’s out turn.
With a heave, our Pod drops from the Finalizer, free falling for just a moment until the boosters engage, sending us weaving through the warzone. “You sure like cutting it close, doncha?” Poe taps in, having returned with the reinforcements he promised. After tearing through another Star Destroyer’s support structure, the Escape Pod sets its sights back on Batuu. It rockets through the atmosphere with our fellow FT’s Escape Pod just head of us, bursting through the clouds until Black Spire Outpost comes into view.
It’s not a graceful landing, but the Escape Pods crash into old, open-air Batuuan ship hangars, their canopies deteriorated and long-since overtaken by plant life. Backing out of the pods, we get eyes on a third – one piloted by Lieutenant Bek, who made it back with us! “Thanks to your heroism, the location of the Resistance base is secure!” the Animatronic offers. “Yes, R-5… you too!” Our vehicles slide sideways into an unloading dock, and just like that, we’re back to Batuu… and by neither spilling our secrets nor dying, we’re heroes of the Resistance to boot.
HOW IT WORKS: The Return to Batuu section of the ride really is two rides in one. Once locked into the Escape Pod, the Pod freefalls several stories, producing real weightlessness – yes, a drop tower, hidden in a trackless dark ride (observant riders will note that the red flashing lights outside the pod’s front window are physical props, and really do disappear as the pods fall away)!
The two Escape Pods share a single domed screen that simulates their return to the planet, with each pod affixed to a motion base capable of tilting forward, backward, left, and right.
IMAGINEERING INGREDIENTS: It’s obvious that the big finale of Rise of the Resistance borrows from two big hitters in the Disney Parks canon:
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is called forth once more by the ride’s drop tower finale. Granted, the drop here is subtle – not a faster-than-gravity thrill machine like Tower’s – and exerts just enough force to feel “natural” given the Pod’s release. (In other words, “not being a drop tower” person isn’t a good excuse for skipping Rise.) Once the pods have fallen, their motion base takes over… Which is, of course…
- STAR TOURS is the inspiration here again. You have to remember that when STAR TOURS debuted at Disneyland in 1987, the motion simulator was still totally novel. It’s fitting that the technology comes full circle in Rise of the Resistance, bringing the Escape Pods back to Batuu.
U-Ticket
Now that we’ve seen how many of the “Secrets” of the Resistance work – and the ingredients of Imagineering past that made them possible – it’s a great time to see them all in action together on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, filmed by our friends at the incomparable Attractions 360:
Rise of the Resistance is unlike anything seen before… and yet, it’s a masterclass on all the best tricks of Imagineering from around the globe; a “best-of” showcase of everything that’s been learned from Mystic Manor to Flight of Passage; Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to Indiana Jones Adventure; The Haunted Mansion to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
So it’s really no surprise that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance feels like something new. Not quite a contemporary to Disney’s modern cast of E-Tickets, but something more. A whole new genre. An ultra-E-Ticket that’s larger than life. Multiple simulators. A dark ride. A drop tower. A walkthrough. And yet, Rise is more than the sum of its parts. It is in a class all its own. It doesn’t have to be your favorite modern ride, but it’s surely, objectively among the best. And maybe, the first U-Ticket ever. The question is, will there ever be another quite like it?
