Friday, May 19, 2017

Back To The Future: The Ride


By Bixyl Shuftan

Most are familiar with the "Back to the Future" sci-fi comedy movie trilogy. A sequel of sorts was the "Back To The Future: The Ride" at the Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando Florida. The ride opened on May 2 1991 (about a year after the third movie was in theaters), and ran until 2007, with a duplicate ride in Universal Sudios Japan running until 2016. As it turns out, there's a version of the ride here in Second Life at the ASD Studios sim. The tribute was created by Alicia Stella.

In order to experience the ride properly, one has to have media available. Ouside the ride is the first part of the pre-show in which the riders are spoken to by Doc Brown, having moved back to the present in order to found his "Institute of Future Technology." The riders were supposed to be volunteers for his new eight-seater version of his DeLorean time machine in which they would be sent forward into the future one day. Unfortunately, Biff Tannen, (the antagonist in the first two movies), has somehow gone from 1955 to the present day institute. In the second part of the pre-show, of which the doors open to every few minutes, Biff is shown trapping Brown in his office, getting into a time machine, and laughing as he speeds away into time. Doc pleads for the volunteers to get into the other time machine and go after him. Thanks to a tracker in Biff's machine, they can catch up to him and all they have to do is bump into him.

In the Second Life version of the ride, only four people can fit into the DeLorean time machine. The ride is best viewed in mouselook, as it shows the riders chasing Biff through time, occasionally crashing into things as he tries to throw them off through Hill Valley 2015, the Ice Age, and the Creaceous Period. Eventually, the riders catch up to their target. At the end of the show, Doc Brown thanks the riders, reminding them, "the future is what you make of it," and asks the riders to leave "before you meet yourself coming in." There's a donation jar near the exit to help with tier payments.

A fun ride, especially for fans of the movies.

More on the ride can be found on Wikipedia, and Universals Studios Wikia .

ASD Studios (18/89/27)

Hat tip: Skylark LeFavre

Bixyl Shuftan

1 comment:

  1. After reading this article I had to go try this out. I wasn't disappointed, I really enjoyed the ride. Upon leaving I also noticed a poster for a Halloween ride, I thoroughly enjoyed that too. I applaud the creator and look forward to her future creations.

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