ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter
| ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Theater-in-the-round show |
| Opened | June 20, 1995 |
| Closed | October 12, 2003 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm
|
| Status | Closed |
ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter was a theater-in-the-round show in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It opened officially on June 20, 1995 and closed on October 12, 2003, having replaced Mission to Mars in the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Convention Center building. Developed by Walt Disney Imagineering with Lucasfilm, and involving George Lucas in its story development, it remains widely remembered as the most deliberately frightening attraction Disney had placed in the Magic Kingdom, with warning signs advising that it was not intended for children under 12.[1]
History
The show grew out of an earlier concept built around the 1979 film Alien. That version, working under the name Nostromo, would have used the film's Xenomorph and its fictional Weyland-Yutani company. Disney set the idea aside because an R-rated property sat uneasily in the Magic Kingdom, and Imagineers instead created an original creature and an original company, X-S Tech. Lucas was brought in as the original story took shape, centred on an X-S Tech demonstration that was not what it seemed.[2]
A version of the attraction had also been considered for Disneyland as part of the proposed Tomorrowland 2055 project, which was cancelled. In Florida it was built into the former Mission to Mars theatre as a centrepiece of the park's New Tomorrowland.
Alien Encounter first opened for previews on December 16, 1994. The preview version drew criticism for a mismatch between a comic pre-show and a much darker main show, and on January 12, 1995 chief executive Michael Eisner ordered it closed for retooling — on the grounds, unusually, that it was not intense enough. The second pre-show and main show were reworked to be darker, clearer and more consistent in tone before the official opening the following June.[3]
Experience
Guests entered as visitors to an open house by X-S Tech, an alien technology company whose chairman, L.C. Clench, welcomed them by video. In a second pre-show room, a robot called S.I.R. — Simulated Intelligence Robotics, voiced by Tim Curry — demonstrated teleportation on a small, reluctant alien named Skippy, who emerged from each trip scorched and dazed, establishing early that the technology was unreliable and its operators indifferent.
For the main show, guests sat in a circle around a large teleportation tube and were locked into seats by shoulder restraints fitted with speakers and effects units. Clench was to teleport himself into the chamber, but an error diverted the signal via an unknown planet, and a large winged carnivore was beamed in instead. The creature broke out, the power failed, and most of the show then played in darkness.
With guests held in place, binaural sound placed the alien moving around and above the audience. Warm air suggested its breath on the back of the neck, sprays suggested drool and, after a maintenance worker was attacked overhead, blood, while the seats shook under its footsteps. Technicians Spinlok and Dr. Femus, seen on screens, eventually forced the creature back into the damaged tube, where it was destroyed, and the restraints released.
Closure and legacy
The same qualities that made the show distinctive also limited it. Many families expected a conventional Magic Kingdom attraction and found a horror show instead, complaints accumulated, and attendance softened despite a loyal following among older guests. Plans to build versions at other Disney parks were dropped.
Disney announced the replacement on September 21, 2003, and Alien Encounter closed on October 12, 2003.[4] Its successor, Stitch's Great Escape!, reused the theatres, restraints and much of the effects technology with a comic Lilo & Stitch story in place of the predator. S.I.R. survived the change in the successor's pre-show, and the show's reputation has only grown since closure: it is routinely cited as proof that Disney once, briefly, built an attraction designed to scare adults in its most family-oriented park.
See also
- Stitch's Great Escape!
- Tomorrowland (Magic Kingdom)
- Magic Kingdom
- List of defunct Disney attractions