| Batman: The Ride | |
| Location | 1. Six Flags Great America 2. Six Flags Great Adventure 3. Six Flags Magic Mountain 4. Six Flags St. Louis (mirror image of original) 5. Six Flags Over Georgia 6. Six Flags Over Texas 7. Six Flags México |
|---|---|
| Type | Steel - Inverted |
| Status | Open (for all versions) |
| Opened | 1. May 9, 1992 2. May 1, 1993 3. March 26, 1994 4. April 22, 1995 5. May 3, 1997 6. May 26, 1999 7. May 18, 2002 |
| Manufacturer | Bolliger & Mabillard Vekoma (Six Flags Mexico) |
| Designer | Werner Stengel |
| Model | Inverted Coaster (Batman) |
| Lift/launch system | Chain lift hill |
| Height | 109 ft 6 in (33 m) (1)
105 ft (32 m) (2, 4, 7, 8) |
| Drop | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Length | 2,693 ft (821 m) (2, 4) 2,700 ft (823 m) (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8) |
| Max speed | 50 mph (80 km/h) |
| Inversions | 5 |
| Duration | 2:00 |
| Max Vertical Angle | 59° |
| Capacity | 1,280 (2, 4) 1,400 (1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8) riders per hour |
| Max G force | 4Gs |
| Amusement Parks Portal | |
Batman: The Ride is a steel inverted roller coaster found in many Six Flags theme parks, as well as other parks around the world, including Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Over Texas, and Six Flags México. Built by Bolliger & Mabillard (Mexico's Batman was built by Vekoma), it features a height of roughly 109 feet (33 m) and reaches speeds of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). The original coaster in Six Flags Great America was the first inverted roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1992 and has since been awarded Coaster Landmark status by the American Coaster Enthusiasts.[1]
Goliath at Six Flags Fiesta Texas is the former Batman: The Ride from Six Flags New Orleans, which closed when Hurricane Katrina devastated the park in 2005. Prior to operating in New Orleans, it was Gambit at Thrill Valley in Japan.
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Six Flags designers attempted to capture the essence of Batman and his world while waiting in line for the ride. The beginning of the wait brings you into Gotham City Park, with a plaque that reads, "Dedicated to the citizens of Gotham City through the generosity of Bruce Wayne." Walking through the well-kept environment can convince you that Gotham is a nice place. When you turn a corner, a well-kept advertising wall has graffiti and criminal tags on the other side. Park guests continue to enter an ominous environment as they get closer to the ride itself. Modeled after Anton Furst's award-winning set design for the original Batman film, guests find a crime-ridden and dirty environment, with wrecked cars, discarded pieces of equipment, crumbling concrete, and even a Gotham City Police car with bullet holes riddled on one side. Guests then enter the structure, with a large fan waiting on the other end. You then climb stairs into an environment resembling Axis Chemicals from the first film. The loading area is modeled after Batman's Batcave, complete with a Batsuit vault on the other side of the track. Throughout this wait, Batman film music plays from Danny Elfman, U2, Prince, Seal and for unknown reasons at the Great America ride, a Gabriel & Dresden remix of DJ Tiesto's In My Memory.
While many of the Batman: The Ride clones opened with dark blue track and supports, some featured gray and yellow as well. Over the years, several have modified their color schemes, with more seeming to incorporate yellows, blues, and purples. The original Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee remained with its original dark blue color scheme until 2004, when it was repainted with yellow track and dark purple supports. Most recently, the clones at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags Over Georgia have been repainted medium blue with black supports and medium blue with dark blue supports, respectively, for the 2010 season.
On the walls of the Gotham City Park, the last names Bolliger and Mabillard both appear; a clear reference to Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard, the founders of Bolliger & Mabillard, the company that constructed the ride. The last name Wintrode (reference to Jim Wintrode, G.M. of Six Flags Great America at the time) also appears on this wall at the Six Flags Great America version of the ride. Jim Wintrode is often given credit for presenting the idea of an Inverted Looping Coaster to Bolliger & Mabillard.
The ride's layout was specifically designed to fit in the Yankee Harbor themed area at Six Flags Great America, though the layouts of each successive Batman attraction are identical, with the exception of the rides as Six Flags St Louis, Six Flags Fiesta Texas (operating under the name Goliath), and La Vampire at La Ronde, which are all mirror images of the original.
Batman: The Ride starts off with the floor descending and the train moving out of the station and up the lift hill. Once at the top, riders dip down through B&M's signature "pre-drop" and coast down a 180-degree swoop to the left, dropping riders into the first 360-degree loop. Riders then quickly flip through a zero-g roll to the right, followed by another vertical loop. Next, riders fly upward around a tight helix to the left, soar through a wider turn to the right, and then drop a bit and quickly turn through the first wingover element, also known as a flat spin or corkscrew. Following this is a tight right turn and another wingover. The ride then features a tight left turnaround before the riders enter the final brake run.
Batman: The Ride's layout is often called "small and intense" or a "punch-packer". Numerous guests often complain about headaches, dizziness, and nausea after riding Batman due to intense G-forces on the ride, especially in the portion of track including the wingovers, after the second loop. The ride is also one of B&M's rougher rides, most noticeably in the Zero-G Roll and the wingovers. Some guests complain about the warmth, darkness of the queue line and at times, the loudness of the ride. In fact, Six Flags Over Georgia made modifications to the ride in 2011 to reduce the loudness.
On May 26, 2002, 58-year-old park employee Samuel Milton Guyton of Atlanta was killed in a danger zone under the Georgia Batman roller coaster's path by being struck in the head by the dangling leg of a 14-year-old girl on the front car of the ride. The girl was hospitalized with a leg injury.
On June 28, 2008, a 17-year-old South Carolina teenager was decapitated at Six Flags Over Georgia by the Batman roller coaster ride. He was on a trip with his church's youth group. The teen scaled two fences with a friend into a danger zone. He was decapitated when the ride struck him. Although witnesses stated he was trying to retrieve his hat, a Cobb County police spokesman reported the teens were attempting to take a shortcut into the park after having finished lunch.[2][3]
Batman: The Ride is also located at Six Flags México, but this particular ride is actually an SLC built by Vekoma.
Batman: The Ride also appears at Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid in the B&M design, but goes under the Spanish title Batman La Fuga (Batman The Escape).[4]
Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 is the name of a Batman-themed virtual reality ride at Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia. Like the Batman: The Ride roller coasters, the attraction has several Bat-Vehicles outside the entrance to the ride. The park is also home to the Batwing Spaceshot, a S&S Power space shot.
T2 at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, a Vekoma SLC, was originally going to receive a Batman theme, but that ended up going only so far as painting the track black.
Le Vampire (English: The Vampire) at Six Flags-owned La Ronde in Montreal, Canada, is a mirror image of Batman: The Ride. However, since La Ronde is not a branded Six Flags park, the licensing agreement with Warner Bros. and DC Comics is not valid.[5] As a result, the roller coaster was given an unrelated name and a slightly different cosmetic appearance. In 2009, La Ronde announced its intentions to become a branded park; however the likelihood of re-branding Le Vampire to Batman is not known yet.
Other clones of this roller coaster design that are not named Batman include Diavlo at Himeji Central Park in Japan, The Great White at SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas, Batman La Fuga at Parque Warner Madrid in Madrid and Lightning at Entertainment City in Kuwait.
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