Inside the Newest Star Wars Attraction at Walt Disney World: ‘Rise of the Resistance’

This post was originally published on this site

“Bright suns” is the locals’ greeting
on the planet of Batuu. “Because of the multiple suns in the sky there,” explains
Scott Trowbridge, the lead Imagineer on Walt Disney World’s Galaxy’s Edge, a
few days before my trip to Orlando, Fla. to check out the sweeping Star Wars realm. “That’s just a pro tip
from me to you.”

Remembering Towbridge’s advice, I
float a “bright suns” out to the shopkeeper stationed in front of the Creature
Stall, the intergalactic pet store at the Black Spire Outpost, a bustling
bazaar crisscrossed with a constellation of scrap-metal lanterns.

A Resistance fighter poses during the “Rise Of The Resistance” media preview at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on December 4, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

“Bright suns, traveler,” he replies,
his eyes trained on the loth-cat purring in the cage in the center of the room.
I’m looking for a piece of cargo marked with a hexagonal sticker. According to
the map on my Star Wars Data Pad, it
should be here, among the tentacled rathtars and Kowakian monkey-lizards.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking
about,” the shopkeeper says, not making eye contact but discreetly tapping the
cargo container next to him. Members of the Resistance have to be cautious on
Batuu. The First Order has just landed. Stormtroopers patrol the courtyards and
catwalks, interrogating travelers about their allegiances. I don’t see Kylo
Ren, but people tell me he’s here—and he’s very, very unhappy.

I fire up the Data Pad’s tools menu, open the scanner, and aim it at the sticker. The screen glows orange and reveals the container’s contents: loth-cat chow, “the highest quality food for domestic loth-cats,” the translator explains. I’m looking for something a little more useful, but I hit the STASH button to drop it in my virtual arsenal, and continue searching. Just across the marketplace is another cargo container with a sticker. I scan it and—jackpot! It’s a cache of Batuu villagers’ clothes, just the disguise I—I mean, my character—needs to help the Resistance.

Have I mentioned I’m not really a
Star Wars fan?

Merchandise, including Resistance pilot flight suits, on display at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on December 4, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

At 14 acres, Galaxy’s Edge is the
largest land expansion in Disney history, “with a higher degree of detail and
immersion than we have done before,” Towbridge says. The striking depth of
interactivity etched and wired into this sprawling “planet” draws in hardcore
and casual fans, sure, but can also convert those who think Baby Yoda is just a
cute new meme.

The Galaxy’s Edge cast members—rebels, imperial officers, Stormtroopers whose hard white exoskeletons glint in the Orlando sun—aren’t here to pose for selfies and wave from parade floats. They function as allies and agitators, moving guests along the invisible arc of a four-dimensional story. The Data Pad, which pops up when you open the Disney Play app, links travelers up with another (virtual) cast: Officer Anjay, a First Order member who wants you to infiltrate the Resistance recruitment center; Scrapjaw Motito, who offers a mission hacking data panels around the Outpost; and former Stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter Finn (John Boyega), who needs your help escaping from a Star Destroyer.

The app also lets you interact with the physical environment, hacking into droids, intercepting secret transmissions, translating Aurebesh signs, like the one outside the joyful reservations-only Oga’s Cantina. “No fighting, biting, or ripping off limbs,” it warns. Does the Sichuan peppercorn-infused meringue femur balanced atop my spicy Bloody Rancor cocktail count?

A First Order officer poses during the “Rise Of The Resistance” media preview at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on December 4, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Each choice you make informs a
virtual avatar, your very own character in the Star Wars universe. “Not
everybody wants to go deep,” Stowbridge says. And wandering around Batuu, it
seems there are plenty of guests who are here to mainline Galaxy’s Edge two
attractions—Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance—then split
to Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror. “But for those who do, there’s an
invitation to engage at a deeper level. It’s about turning you from a spectator
to a participant.”

Costing around $1 billion each to
produce, Galaxy’s Edge opened first at Southern California’s Disneyland in May,
followed by the launch at Walt Disney World in August. Each land debuted with
Smuggler’s Run, a speedy simulator-style ride borrowing the interactive
elements of Mission: Space. It’s very fun, but do it first, and then visit Rise
of the Resistance. Because Rise makes Run look like Body Wars.

Welcome to the Resistance

Rise opened last week in Orlando (Anaheim gets its own in January), just ahead of the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker this week. And the responses have been effusive so far. A sample Twitter search produces comments like “absolutely breathtaking,” “nothing in the world like this attraction,” and “still speechless.” On the ParkStop podcast, guest Peter Tedone described Rise as “if Great Movie Ride was on cocaine, times a million.”

The ride has four parts, lasts 20 minutes cumulatively, and hot-wires your nervous system. A pre-show kicks off the attraction with hologram of Rey (Daisy Ridley) warning us Batuu is no longer safe, and we Resistance recruits have to hop a ship lickety-split to rendezvous with General Leia Organa at her secret base. During the following simulator experience, things don’t go according to plan, and we wind up captured by a Star Destroyer, with a dramatic reveal that literally makes people gasp. Animatronics and live actors flavor a pre-boarding area that feels like its own part of the ride; “Finish your holograph and get back in line,” barks a severe First Order officer, in character and clearly enjoying it, at a guest taking a photo.

A hologram message from Rey (Daisy Ridley) during the “Rise Of The Resistance” media preview at Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on December 4, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

We proceed into an interrogation room, featuring an apoplectic Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and surprise jailbreak, followed by the meat of the attraction. This final portion runs on a trackless system, which sends our vehicles careening through the enemy ship like air hockey pucks, and incorporates lifts, drops, screens, and two towering AT-ATs. Coming out the other side, you have the same woozy high you feel after a powerful play or epic haunted house.

In scale and scope, Rise is an automatic bar-setter that says to its Orlando competition, “Harry Potter who?” It’s also something of a beta test for the long-format, deep-end storytelling that will anchor the Galactic Starcruiser, the hotel coming to Galaxy’s Edge, though Trowbridge prefers the term “multi-day experience.” When the Galactic Starcruiser opens in 2021, guests can eat and sleep there, in rooms with outer-space screens instead of windows, “but because it is a Star Wars experience, you know that story is going to break out, and adventure is going to break out.”

Since acquiring Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney has bet big on Star Wars, and the next few years will see the incorporation of more IP across the brand, which Trowbridge will oversee. “There are no two more vocal fan bases than Disney’s and Star Wars’,” he said. “We are not done innovating.”