| The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror | |||||
| Disney's Hollywood Studios | |||||
| Land | Sunset Boulevard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||
| Opening date | July 22, 1994 | ||||
| Hosted by | Rod Serling (voice of Mark Silverman)[1] |
||||
| Ride duration | 3:10 minutes | ||||
| Total height | 199 ft (60.7 m) | ||||
| Number of lifts | 4 | ||||
| Drop shaft count | 2 | ||||
| Number of vehicles | 8 | ||||
| Taglines | "Never the Same Fear Twice!", "The Tower is in Control!" | ||||
|
|||||
| The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror | |||||
| Disney California Adventure Park | |||||
| Land | Hollywood Pictures Backlot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||
| Opening date | May 5, 2004 | ||||
| Hosted by | Rod Serling (voice of Mark Silverman) |
||||
| Ride duration | 2:25 minutes | ||||
| Total height | 183 ft (55.8 m) | ||||
| Drop shaft count | 3 | ||||
| Number of vehicles | 6 | ||||
|
|||||
| Tower of Terror | |||||
| Tokyo DisneySea | |||||
| Land | American Waterfront | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||
| Opening date | September 22, 2006 | ||||
| Site area | American Waterfront sq ft | ||||
| Number of lifts | 6 | ||||
|
|||||
| The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror | |||||
| Walt Disney Studios Park | |||||
| Land | Production Courtyard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering | ||||
| Opening date | December 22, 2007 | ||||
| Number of lifts | 3 | ||||
| Number of vehicles | 6 | ||||
|
|||||
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, more commonly known as Tower of Terror, is a drop tower thrill ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios (Florida), Disney California Adventure Park, Tokyo DisneySea and Walt Disney Studios Park (Paris). It is based upon the television show The Twilight Zone. The original version of the attraction opened at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in July 1994; the California Adventure version opened nearly ten years later in May 2004. The Tokyo DisneySea version—named simply "Tower of Terror" and featuring a modified storyline—opened in September 2006, followed by the Walt Disney Studios Park version in April 2008.
The attraction takes place in the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel (itself inspired by the Hollywood Tower, named a historic landmark by the US Department of the Interior). The story of the hotel, adapted from elements of the television series, includes the hotel being struck by lightning on October 31, 1939, mysteriously transporting an elevator cart full of passengers to the Twilight Zone and causing an entire wing of the building to disappear. The exterior of the attraction resembles an old hotel with a blackened scorch mark across the front of the façade where the lightning struck it. All of the cast members wear a costume that resembles that of a 1930s bellhop.
At 199 feet (60.7 m), it is the second tallest attraction at the Walt Disney World Resort, shorter only than Expedition Everest's 199.5 feet (60.8 m). The Tower of Terror is 199 feet (60.7 m) high at Walt Disney World because of FAA regulations that require a fixed red light beacon to be added to the top of any 200-foot or taller building.[2] Imagineers thought that the beacon would take away from the hotel's 1939 theme. At the Disneyland Resort, the 199 feet (60.7 m) structure is the tallest attraction at the resort, as well as one of the tallest buildings in Anaheim.[3] At Disneyland Paris it is the second tallest attraction, although, when aloft, the Jules Verne-themed "Panoramagique" tethered balloon attraction climbs over 200 feet (61.0 m).
Contents |
In the American and European versions of the attraction, guests enter the hotel through the main entrance gate. Throughout the entire queue area in most parks, typical 1930's music can be heard, but in such a way that it sounds eerie in respect to the strange location. The outdoor queue winds itself through the overgrown gardens of the Hollywood Tower Hotel past signs pointing to the stables, bowling green, tennis courts and natatoriums. The queue meanders to the west of the hotel entrance, past dishevelled and overgrown statues and somewhat exotic and labelled plants. Eventually it leads to the lobby from the left. Inside the lobby, it is dark and the whole place is covered in dust. There is a yellowing copy of the Los Angeles Examiner dated October 31, 1939, a table set with tea and stale pastries, several suitcases left at the check-in, a glowing fireplace, an un-finished game of Scrabble at a table accompanied by half-drunk cocktails, and a cobwebbed owl sculpture surrounded by a circle of dead flowers that appears to be the centerpiece of the room.
Behind the front desk is the broken elevator, its sliding doors having slid off their grooves. A sign still reads "Out of Order". Everything in the hotel has apparently been left undisturbed ever since it closed decades ago. Guests are informed that their rooms are not quite ready yet. For the time being, guests are asked to simply enjoy themselves in the hotel's library. The library is full of not only books, but exotic antiques and articles, a television, and plenty of Twilight Zone memorabilia. Through the window, guests can observe that there is a thunderstorm going on outside.
Lightning strikes and the lights go out, save for the television which comes on, apparently of its own accord. The opening sequence of Season 4 of The Twilight Zone plays, followed by a supposedly "lost" episode hosted by Rod Serling. Serling explains the mysterious events that caused the hotel to close back in 1939. Serling then states that the present evening's atmosphere is similar to that of the night the guests have just witnessed, but this time they are the ones involved in events. He also mentions that one elevator in the hotel is still in working condition: the maintenance service elevator in the basement boiler room. He invites the guests, if they dare, to board the elevator and discover the secret of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. The television then shuts off and is followed by a brief moment of darkness.
With that, a back exit from the library opens. The guests exit into and move through the boiler room, past quietly humming boilers, furnaces and engines, at the end of which they are placed upon a row to stand on a marker of their choice, awaiting the elevator's arrival.
Florida's version of the ride is the original version of the ride, and opened July 22, 1994.
The ride system of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios employs specialized technology developed specifically for Disney, particularly the ability to move the vehicle in and out of the vertical motion shaft. The elevator cabs are self-propelled automated ride vehicles, termed "AGV" for autonomous guided vehicle, which lock into separate vertical motion cabs. The cabs can move into and out of elevators horizontally, move through the "Fifth Dimension" scene, and on to the drop shaft.
In order to achieve the weightless effect the Imagineers desired, cables attached to the bottom of the elevator car pull it down at a speed slightly faster than what a free-fall in gravity would provide. Two enormous motors are located at the top of the tower. The motors are 12 feet (3.7 m) tall, 35 feet (11 m) long, and weigh 132,000 pounds. They are able to accelerate 10 tons at 15 times the speed of normal elevators. They generate torque equal to that of 275 Corvette engines and reach top speeds in 1.5 seconds.
After the elevator cab has completed the ride, it propels itself to the unload dock and then back to the show shaft. The Floridian ride system runs on a unique loop system, although this is not as efficient as the newer "franchise" version used in California, Paris, and Tokyo .
In this version of the attraction, Rod Serling greets passengers the moment the elevator doors close, saying, "You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to ascend into your very own episode of The Twilight Zone." The elevator rises for a few seconds before coming to its first stop.
The doors open to reveal a long, dimly-lit hotel corridor, with overgrown plants and doors to guest rooms running the lengths, and unread newspapers and trays laid out in front of them, with a single window at the opposite end of the corridor. A violent thunderstorm is raging and lightning flashes outside the window. Ghostly images of the five doomed guests from 1939 appear for a moment, turning to the elevator and luring the guests to join them. They then vanish in a burst of electricity. (These ghostly images, while thought to be holograms, are actually a classic example of a Pepper's ghost effect. Other Pepper's ghost effects at the Walt Disney World Resort include ones inside the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom). The guests disappear in a burst of lightning. The corridor then fades away, but the window remains to the point that it appears to be floating in a dark starfield. The window changes into a creepier black-and-white version and shatters in the now star-filled hallway, like in the opening segment of each episode.
The elevator doors close and the car continues its ascent. Serling's voice continues on, saying "One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare. That door is opening once again, and this time, it's opening for you." The elevator stops once more. The doors open to what at first looks like a maintenance room, but slowly transforms into an endless field of stars. The elevator car emerges horizontally from the lift shaft and enters a section of the ride called The Fifth Dimension, which is a bizarre collection of sights and sounds and starfields, once again in the style of the television show's opening sequence. A rendition of The Twilight Zone opening sequence plays throughout. The scene ends as the elevator reaches another star field which splits and opens much like elevator doors. The elevator enters another vertical shaft. Serling's voice is heard again, saying, "You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension, beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination, in the Tower of Terror."
On the last word of Serling's narration, the elevator starts its drop sequence. Rather than a simple gravity-powered drop, however, the elevator is pulled downwards, causing most riders to rise off their seats, held down only by a seat-belt. At least once during the drop sequence, wide elevator doors in front of the riders will open to reveal a view of the park from a height of about 170 feet (52 m). The back of the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" sign partially obstructs the view (it is on the back of this sign that the on-ride camera is located, which photographs the riders for purchase later).
Randomized pattern of drops and lifts have been added, where the ride vehicle will drop or rise various distances at different intervals. Other effects were also added, including new projection images of the breaking window, wind effects, lightning flashes, and ominous blacklit figures of the five ghostly original riders. These changes were made so that each trip on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a slightly different experience. The ride was reprogrammed most recently in its fourth conversion. The result of the reprogramming is that the ride system allows for any number of randomized drops and lifts. When guests enter the drop shaft, a computer randomly chooses one of four drop profiles, one of which is a modified version of the ride's third incarnation.[4] Regardless of the number of randomized drops and lifts, each drop sequence always features one "faux drop" meant to startle the riders, and one complete drop through the entire tower. Since each trip results in a unique drop sequence, Florida's slogan for the ride is "Never the Same Fear Twice!"
After a series of these drops have been made, the elevator returns to the basement of the decrepit Hollywood Tower Hotel, past a curious array of abandoned items. A movie plays, showing elements from the season four opening sequence, along with the 1939 elevator passengers and Rod Serling, falling into the "vortex" seen in the season three opening sequence. Rod Serling's voice states, "A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning; something you won't find in any guidebook. The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident of... The Twilight Zone." Guests then exit the elevator, leaving the hotel through the gift shop.
On leaving the elevator, guests are lead through a hotel corridor towards what would appear to be what used to be the 'Lost & Found' desk of the Hollywood Tower Hotel; however it is now where photos taken on the ride may be purchased. After this desk, guests pass a cracked fountain to the left and on the right can be seen the Hollywood Tower Hotel's supposed dining room, previously called The Sunset Room (either a potential pun on its location on Sunset Boulevard or a reference to the actual time of Twilight). The menu, placed outside the closed double-doors, is still dated October 31, 1939. Guests then enter the shop, which is still kept in the theme of the hotel, with cracked walls and dim lights. From here guests may purchase "Twilight Zone" gifts and Hollywood Tower Hotel-themed souvenirs, even including hotel bathrobes and slippers.
Disney announced on their Parks and Resorts blog[5] that the Tower of Terror will receive "new lighting effects and a new addition" as part of a Summer entertainment package called "Summer Nightastic!". Rod Serling's voice is removed from the Fifth Dimension scene. Replacing it is music played in the drop shaft, along with a projected picture of the riders just before they enter the drop shaft. Much like in the California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park versions of the ride, the riders disappear to show an empty elevator. A new drop profile was also created for "Summer Nightastic!", and replaces the other drop profiles on all rides. The Fifth Dimension scene is mostly covered by black tarps with fiber-optics starlight. The changes were introduced on June 5, but were officially introduced the day after. All changes were temporary, and lasted until August 14.[6]
While similar in concept and theme to the original attraction in Florida, the versions of this attraction at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney Studios Park at the Disneyland Paris Resort do have some differences. These versions of the ride opened in 2004 and 2007, respectively, 10 and 13 years after the opening of the original Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
In order to conserve space and money, Imagineers redesigned the entire ride system for the attraction at Disney's California Adventure and made some general changes to the show scenes. The attraction features three elevator shafts. Each shaft, in theory, is its own separate ride with its own separate operating system. This makes it easier to repair individual areas of the attraction without causing the entire attraction to go down. Each shaft has two vehicles and two load levels. It is designed so that the lower vehicle can be in its ride profile while the upper vehicle is loading, giving the attraction the ability to move its line much faster. Since each vehicle loads and unloads from the same point, it ended up saving space. Due to the smaller budget and fewer breakdowns, Disney decided to use this ride system again for Walt Disney Studios Park's version of the ride and for Tokyo DisneySea's Hotel Hightower (Tokyo's version of the Tower of Terror).
Disney California Adventure opened Tower of Terror in 2004 to better lure crowds into the struggling theme park, while bringing the Tower of Terror to the west Coast as well.
As the elevator doors close, the lights of the service elevator flicker out. The re-designed, multi-level boarding ride system for the Californian version of the tower requires that one elevator loads while another is in the drop shaft progressing through the ride cycle. As such, the first movement guests experience is horizontal, as the elevator itself is pulled back from the service doors and into the shaft. This effect is meant to be unsettling, as guests become immediately aware that their "elevator" is capable of performing movements that are unexpected of a traditional elevator.
Rod Serling's voice is heard as the elevator is pulled back from the doors. "You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator..." with a flash of lightning, the walls of the basement disappear altogether, leaving only a star-field and the floating service doors with a rotating purple spiral "...about to take the strangest journey of your lives. Your destination? Unknown. But this much is clear: a reservation has been made in your name for an extended stay." The elevator rises quickly to the fifth floor. Because the dark ride portion of California's tower takes place in the drop shaft, the physical vertical vehicle conveyance system can move much more quickly and nimbly than Florida's (in which the first tower functions only as a dark ride and is not built for the quick movements that the drop portion requires). As such, visitors feel a pop of weightlessness as the elevator quickly ascends and then stops on the fifth floor.
When the doors part, an ornate, wood-framed mirror stands in a brightly lit hallway of the hotel and riders see their reflection in its glass. "Wave goodbye to the real world." At once, lightning strikes the hotel and the lights of the hallway and elevator flicker out at once. A ghostly wind blows through a window and the reflection of riders in the elevator becomes distorted, with elongated, electrified echoes of movement. With another blast, the elevator rumbles and shakes and the electrified reflection disappears, leaving only the image of the empty elevator in the mirror as the doors close. "For you have just entered The Twilight Zone."
The elevator descends quickly and opens to reveal the "hallway" scene (which functions as the first scene in the Floridian and Japanese version of the attraction). "One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare." The five missing guests appear in the hallway, crackling with electricity and beckon riders to follow them. They disappear, and the walls of the hotel become a star-field. Instead of a window at the far end of the hallway, the Californian tower contains the image of a second elevator. The doors open to reveal the lost passengers inside as both elevators appear to float through space. "That door is opening once again, but this time it's opening for you." The distant elevator falls, followed quickly by the ride elevator.
California's Tower of Terror does not have a randomized drop sequence. The ride experience is identical in every drop shaft and regardless of which floor passengers board on. Two small drops occur in pitch black darkness, followed by a rise to the top of the tower as in-cabin lights flicker. The doors then open out to reveal the view from the top floor before the ride plummets to the basement. A series of quick rises and drops occurs, then another near-complete drop to the area in between the two loading floors (to assure each ride is identical) before the elevator returns to its load level and is horizontally pushed back into place at the boiler room service doors.
Started in 2006 for Disney's Halloween Time, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's California Adventure receives special sound and lighting effects for the exterior and themed Halloween decor for the surrounding area and in the lobby. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is the starting point of Disney's "Happiest Haunts on Earth" tour. The Halloween decor was not put up in 2008, but lights projected spinning spider webs upon the exterior of the hotel. As of the beginning of the Buena Vista Street construction project, the special Halloween decor and lighting effects have not been used.
The Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea has no connection or tie-ins with The Twilight Zone (as the series isn't as well known in Japan and that the Oriental Land Company would have to license the name from both Disney and CBS[7]), and is instead themed as the Hotel Hightower. The ride's facade is an example of Moorish Revival architecture, and the Tower is located in the American Waterfront area of the park, close to the S.S. Columbia cruise liner. The ride system for this version is similar to that of Disney's California Adventure's version and that of Walt Disney Studios Paris' version.
The story of this Tower is much more complex than the others. The story follows the adventures of the hotel's famous builder, Harrison Hightower, who completed many expeditions around the world and collected thousands of countless artifacts. Most of these artifacts were stolen for personal gain and all he stored in his hotel. After one such expedition to Africa, he brings home an idol by the name of Shiriki Utundu.
He claims that the natives were very unhappy to part with their beloved god and threatened him that it would curse him. On New Year's Eve, 1899, Hightower held a huge party, attended by many members of the press. There he boasted about how great he was for taking the idol and denied any claims to it being cursed and even went so far as to insult it, using its head to put out his cigarette. Around midnight, he entered the elevator to retire to his quarters at the top of the hotel. As the elevator neared the top, the idol came to life.
The idol zapped him and the elevator, causing it to drop and crash at the bottom. When the elevator was finally pried open, only Hightower's hat and the idol were found. The hotel was then abandoned and left for many years, claimed by the locals to be haunted. After several years, in 1912, a woman from a New York restoration company reopened the hotel with paid tours available. It is on these "tours" that guests embark when they enter the hotel.
The line starts outside the hotel and winds through the gardens, all filled with many fascinating statues from many different countries. Signs are posted all over the front advertising the tour. Guests then enter the lobby, a very elaborate and well-decorated room filled with lush furniture and beautiful art. Across each arch near the ceiling is a mural of Hightower on one of his adventures. If one looks closely, they will notice that he is actually escaping the people in some way with a valuable artifact or item in his possession. At the end of the lobby are the elevator doors, broken open slightly and held in place by a plank of wood. The broken cable is visible inside. Guests are then ushered into a room filled with many pictures of Hightower, his expeditions, and his hotel.
Guests then enter one of two rooms, either his office or the library. From here the story is the same, in both rooms, a large stained glass window of Hightower is in the middle with Shiriki Utundu sitting on a pedestal nearby. A tour guide talks about Hightower a little bit, then winds up an old gramophone with a recording of Hightower's last interview. At this point, the stained glass window comes to life. The window changes to show Hightower holding the idol. It then shows him entering the elevator and the doors closing. It then shows the outside the hotel as the elevator ascends. Suddenly, all the lights on the hotel turn off, there is a big blast of green lightning and the elevator drops, leaving a shattered hole in the window where it lands.
At this point, Shiriki Utundu comes to life. It looks around with an evil grin on its face before laughing evilly and vanishing into a starfield. (This effect works with the room going dark, the projection that gives the doll its features turns off and it drops into the pedestal. The starfield is done by fiber optics on the pedestal, idol, and wall.) Guests are then ushered into an enormous storage room (the loading room). The room is two stories and is filled with countless artifacts from countries all over the world, from statues to furniture. There are multiple loading rooms on the second floor, each themed to a different type of item. One has swords, another has tapestries, another has masks, another has stone tablets.
The mechanical tower is physically identical to the Californian and Parisian towers, with dual loading floors, a horizontal "push" away from the doors and into the drop tower, a "hallway" scene, and a mirror scene, but with thematic changes. The Japanese Tower of Terror also navigates the two dark ride scenes in a more intuitive way, rising through them (hallway first, then mirror scene) whereas the other two versions that share its blueprint rise first to the mirror scene, then descend to the hallway.
The restraints are over the shoulder and waist seatbelts, similar to car seat-belts. The lights of the elevator turn off as Hightower's voice explains the significance of the idol. The elevator is pulled backwards, away from the still-visible service elevator doors as the walls of the basement disappear and turn into a star-field. The glowing green eyes of the idol appear in the darkness as the elevator enters the drop shaft. The elevator begins its ascent, first stopping at the hallway scene.
Instead of a raging storm and electrified guests of the hotel (present in the Twilight Zone incarnations of the attraction), guests simply see the idol sitting on a table halfway down the hallway. Hightower's ghost, glowing green like the idol, appears beside it and reaches out to touch it. At once, the idol zaps him with a bolt of green electricity, blasting him backwards into an open elevator at the opposite end of the hall, where he drops down the shaft. The idol turns toward the guests' elevator, its eyes glowing menacingly as the hallway vanishes into a star-field, leaving only the idol floating before guests.
The doors close and the elevator ascends another level. The doors open, revealing a large, ornate mirror. Hightower tells the guests to wave goodbye to the real world. As they do, the lighting of the hotel dims and an eerie green glow is cast across it. Silently, a glowing green force fills the mirror and the guests' reflections becomes green and ghostly. The electrified reflection of the riders conglomerates in the center of the mirror, where the reflection then shows an empty elevator with the idol sinisterly smiling from within. The idol laughs menacingly, and appears to fly toward the elevator. At once, the elevator vibrates and shakes, then ascends rapidly to the top and begins the drop sequence. At some point the doors open at the top and a camera takes a photo of the elevator riders while giving them a view of the park.
At the end of the drop sequence, the elevator returns to its loading level, where the idol's green eyes glare from a star-field. As the elevator is horizontally pushed back to its loading doors, the star-field and glowing eyes disappear and are again replaced by the service doors through which guests entered.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney Studios Park is based on the same designs as the version at Disney California Adventure Park. However, these designs were originally imagineered for the Paris park at the same time as Tokyo DisneySea's tower, and planned to open just two years after the opening of the park itself.[8]
When financial troubles again hit Disney's Parisian resort, the attraction had to be put on hold. In the mean time, it was constructed at Disney's California Adventure as an additional crowd-puller.
The attraction was finally greenlit in 2005 and was under construction right in the center of the park, behind the La Terrasse seating area, in early 2006. Upon completion, it was joined by a new themed development producing an outdoor Hollywood Boulevard of faux movie sets.[9] Unlike its American cousins, the Paris Tower was constructed using concrete rather than steel due to French construction guidelines and standards, at a total cost exceeding €180 million.[10]
The Paris and California versions were originally believed to become identical versions upon completion, but some differences remain, notably the height of the building, the location of some rooms backstage as well as other differences due to construction and work regulations being stricter in France.[11]
The name of the attraction in French is La Tour de la Terreur - Un Saut dans la Cinquieme Dimension. (The Tower of Terror - A Jump into the Fifth Dimension)
The default language for the pre-show library video and the ride is French, but can be changed to English by the Cast Member. The library video is the same as the American version, but is dubbed in French and subtitled in English.
The Walt Disney Studios version opened on December 22, 2007. The official opening to the press was April 5, 2008.
In an effort to be true to the spirit of The Twilight Zone, Disney Imagineers reportedly watched every episode of the original television show at least twice.[12] The attraction buildings are littered with references to Twilight Zone episodes, including:
In the original episode, "It's a Good Life," Rod Serling says "...is a map of the United States." In the Tower of Terror opening lines, he says "...is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you..." Mark Silverman provided the entire voice impersonation of Serling for this particular dialogue sequence for both the Walt Disney World and California Adventure versions of the ride."Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This as you may recognize is a..."
The ride appeared on the Disney Channel's Halloween edition of Walt Disney World Inside Out with guest star Gilbert Gottfried.
Following the ride's success, Disney produced a 1997 film based on the attraction, starring Steven Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst. Many shots were filmed at the Orlando theme park, while some of them were shot on Burbank movie sets.
In the queue for the Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios, music from the 1930s is played.
The ride's theme was conducted by Richard Bellis,[13] and can be found on several theme park albums:
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||