Back to the Future: The Ride

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The De Lorean on display outside of the ride

Movies
Part of the article series on Back to the Future trilogy

Back to the Future Back to the Future Part II Back to the Future Part III
The McFly Family
Marty McFly · George McFly Lorraine Baines · Jennifer Parker Seamus & Maggie McFly
The Brown Family
Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown Clara Clayton · Jules Brown Verne Brown · Einstein
The Tannen Family
Biff Tannen · Griff Tannen Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen
Related articles
Other characters · Hill Valley Animated series · The Ride Video games · Timeline v • d • e

Back to the Future: The Ride is a simulator ride based on the popular movie trilogy of the same name. It opened May 2, 1991, at Universal Studios Florida. Similar attractions were installed at Universal Studios parks in Hollywood, California and Osaka, Japan. The Orlando attraction is scheduled to complete its closing on March 30, 2007^[1] as since before Christmas of 2006 the right screening room has been shutdown. The ride is going to be replaced by a new simulation ride, possibly based on the forthcoming Transformers movie. Other rumors about possible replacements include a The Fast And The Furious Tokyo Drift themed simulator or a ride in Otto's school bus in a Simpsons themed ride.

Christopher Lloyd and Tom Wilson were filmed as their respective characters from the trilogy, Doc Brown and Biff Tannen exclusively for the attraction.

The ride's storyline involves Biff Tannen wreaking havoc on the rides setting, the fictional "Institute Of Future Technology", and stealing one of Doctor Emmett Brown's time machines, the flying DeLorean. Doc Brown sends the ride's patrons to chase after him in his new eight-passenger DeLorean.

The "waiting rooms" feature prop-replicas from the Back to the Future trilogy of films such as a hover board from Back To The Future Parts II and III and the warning letter Marty McFly wrote Doc Brown in Back To The Future.

Outside the ride at the Orlando location, the DeLorean featured in the Trilogy and Doc's locomotive from the third film were on display. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had nothing to do with the ride, though the writer of the ride's queue video handed them a script and asked if "he got Doc right". The two responded with a "yes". The two have also said "it's a great ride". The pre-show was directed by David DeVos and the ride film was directed by Douglas Trumbull. The ride's score was composed by Alan Silvestri who scored the Back to the Future trilogy.

Diagram of the ride theater and motion base system for each of the cars.

The ride is a motion simulator with the cars located under a 70-foot (21.3–m) IMAX Dome screen. Each of the 12 cars is mounted on three pistons, allowing it to rise, fall and tilt, following the motion on the screen. The cars are arranged on three tiers and are staggered to prevent them from seeing the other vehicles in the theater. The front section of the cars rise eight feet (2.4 m) out of the "garage" when "flying". The actual range of motion from the simulator base is about two feet (0.6 m) in any direction. The motion and the visual input from the screen images combine to make the riders feel as if they are in a high-speed pursuit, as they chase Biff through 2015, prehistoric times, and even the beginning of Earth, before finally tracking him back to the present.

The Orlando ride is currently only operating at half capacity, and will close forever on March 30, 2007, to make room for a new attraction opening in Summer 2008.

[edit] Trivia

In the line video, a reference is made to a "Zemeckis-Gale diagram." Also, on the ride itself, the "Sub-Ether Time Tracking Scanner" reports its radar-like findings in "Gale-Zemeckis Coordinates." Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis were the writers and Zemeckis was the director of all three movies.

The ride is actually composed of two IMAX Dome screens with cars arranged around them. The experience of both is identical, but the ride enjoys a very reliable in-service record as a result. If one screen or "dome" is shut down by a mechanical problem, the other will likely remain in service, increasing wait times for "volunteers," but meaning that the ride as a whole will rarely be shut down entirely. The Orlando version of the ride is currently operating on only one "dome," and is going to cease operations on March 30th, 2007

During the ride, as the vehicle is about to crash into the clock tower, if one looks to the right in the alley next to the building, a Styrofoam cup can be seen that appears to be one story tall. This is reportedly due to someone leaving a cup in the miniature set during filming.

The queue video features clips from the Back to the Future trilogy and new footage featuring Doc. It features diagrams for other inventions by Doc Brown, newsreel footage of Doc with Albert Einstein and other historical figures, similar to scenes in Forrest Gump, another film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and Doc explaining your trip into the future from 2015 via a "live" video feed.

The female public relations representative in the preride video is Darlene Vogel, who also appeared in Back to the Future Part II as a member of Griff's gang named Spike.