First, that number at the top could more accurately read 1a/1b. Both this and the other attraction in the top two have swapped spots repeatedly, and it can depend on my mood or what I'm trying to emphasize in that argument. With that in mind, I'm writing both from the standpoint of justifying why the could be both No. 1 and No. 2. Second. . .
DISCLAIMER: More than any other theme park attraction ever built, Rise of the Resistance relies on the element of surprise, and will not be the same if spoiled. So, if you have not yet ridden it, please do not read this post, and correct that gap in your experience as soon as possible.
If you play video games, you're probably familiar with that moment many have where you have all your skills you've gained over the campaign, and now you get to just start breaking things. This is particularly a thing in Metroidvanias or Japanes RPGs, where you have collected so much strength, you are now an unstoppable force.
I have more metaphors. Think of cooking the perfect big meal, when you have all the ingredients in place, you know what you're doing, and you put everything together perfectly to knock the whole dinner out of the park. Or a board game where you've been steadily building the perfect supply, and it's time for the move that makes your friends cry. Or a LEGO construction where you pull out all the pieces you've collected over the years, have the perfect idea for how to assemble them, and in a moment of inspiration put together something amazing.
That's Rise of the Resistance. It is the magnum opus of all Disney parks have learned and mastered in ride systems, themed spaces, and storytelling assembled over 66 years doing this. In the legacy of Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain, it is a collection of dozens of different techniques and technologies put together for one enormous experience that exceeds the sum of its already-very-great parts. It is the Megazord of theme park attractions.
So much of what Rise does hearkens back to so many attractions on this list, almost like a greatest hits curated together into one peak attraction. At the same time, it uses all the training its audience has been given on how theme parks work to subvert expectation -- itself a trick we just discussed with Tower of Terror.
The start of the attraction itself is part Carousel of Progress, part Star Tours, and part Living Seas. You enter a giant Resistance transport that becomes a simulator attraction, complete with multiple screens, that takes you on a trip to the stars. The motion -- done with airbags rather than piston arms -- is much more gradual, so as not to require restraints, but its a simulator nonetheless.
By the way, there are also two cool animatronics, which is another great thing that puts Rise directly in the legacy of the greatest attractions: lots of Audio Animatronics.
That simulator is honestly a fun enough experience that if it were fleshed out just a little more, it would be a solid attraction all on its own. A high-capacity, very accessible trip through space. Some guests going in blind may just think this is the entire experience, and they're in for a huge surprise. Most guests, however, have been conditioned by their previous park experiences to realize this will just be a pre-show for the coming ride. Because they're smart, and because they've been trained, they'll even notice there's another set of doors. "A-ha!" the smart person will say. "This is just a glorified hallway, like the Living Seas' hydrolators!"
That guest is 100% reasonable and 100% wrong, because the whole time, unbeknownst, they are on a Carousel of Progress-style turntable. Instead of walking through that door into the next location, the exact same door they just walked through suddenly opens again, now to a completely different spot. If you have not had a chance to watch people react to this, find time to do it. A room full of people staring confidently at one door suddenly turn in shock at the other in complete confusion. A lot of times they scream.
A disorienting trip through a Star Destroyer -- a great piece of atmospheric place-making -- ends up with you shoved in a cell, with no way out. Until suddenly a hole appears and the wall moves, a la the Haunted Mansion's stretch rooms. The entire journey through the attraction at this point has completely thrown you for a loop, and disengaged your sense of where you actually are and what is actually possible, forcing you to just live in the moment and take in the attraction at face value with your disbelief suspended.
The incredible cell break takes you into a cozy load area -- like everything else, a place that seems to serve a real purpose while also hiding what's actually coming from your sight -- and now we get back to a trick from Tower. Actually, it goes back even farther to The Great Movie Ride (and the honorably mentioned Universe of Energy). We talked about how Tower uses its trackless ride system to surprise you as it takes you into the Fifth Dimension. Rise uses a trackless ride system -- the first of its kind at Walt Disney World -- partly to keep you in suspense as to where your vehicle will go or what it will do, and partly to reinforce the setting of where you are (just like that mere hallway in Tower that doesn't seem capable of forward motion until it's too late). The lack of guides on the ground means it looks like you're just moving through hallways on a starship, rather than following a ride path, to continue the immersion. The vehicles weave, spin, and move in all directions, using the capabilities of the vehicles to create small bits of thrill just via their movement even on a flat surface, just like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Speaking of Tower, a lot of this list is attractions that created a foundation that other attractions were able to use, for better or worse. With how great and successful Tower was, it was always a bit surprising its conveyance systems were pretty much unused anywhere else. That changed with the opening of Rise, which takes your vehicles -- for completely different narrative reasons -- up lifts and down drops, just like Tower in an incredible design callback to another masterpiece that could also be argued as belong in the spot above this one.
As you approach those lifts, projections on glass -- sort of an evolution of Pepper's Ghost -- allow Stormtroopers to race through balconies and hallways above you once you're discovered. Your vehicle drives almost directly into your sister vehicle before veering off like Mr. Toad again. After a trip to the bridge, a projected Kylo Ren drops in front of you then ignites his lightsaber and begins moving towards you? Your mind very clearly interprets this as a projection, but it also senses there is a physicality to it, and its ability to move through space. In a away, we're back to the Haunted Mansion with Madame Leota and the Singing Busts -- a projected figure on a blank canvas -- with the added twist of movement, and it rules for something you only see for a few seconds.
Finally, after a dangerous (fake) elevator trip and some gun dodging, you get your showdown with the signature animatronic. FoxxFur has a series of tropes she coined for theme park attractions one of which she calls the "Dodge the Witch" ride, where you have a force or a villain you are trying to outmaneuver as you get through the attraction, using resulting in a climax with a highly-detailed version of the entity. We have seen this idea many times on this list, from Countdown to Extinction to Expedition Everest (and Space Mountain in California does it during Halloween!), but it hearkens all the way back to an opening day attraction in Disneyland, with Snow White's Scary Adventure. It is one of the most fundamental concepts for what a theme park ride can be, and for all its polish and technology and brilliant ideas, Rise is still just -- charmingly, that just is not derision -- a Dodge the Witch ride, where our witch is Kylo Ren. So, just as the witch falls off the cliff, the yeti misses with his swipe, and the carnotaurus takes a meteor directly to the face, you face off with your adversary one last time before an explosion collapses the room around you and he is sucked out to the vacuum of space.
Oh, also, then you get to that drop I talked about, but this time it's got a Star Tours simulator base in it for good measure. There's a lot going on here.
Rise being this incredible collection of everything that came before would be good enough, but it also has a ton of its own tricks to pull. Like a convincing hologram in a preshow, followed by surprising you with a fully-outdoors show scene and load zone. Or using massive concave screens with projections -- rather than simple tv screens -- outside viewports to reinforce depth beyond actual windows. The first of those screens, by the way, is large enough to be an attraction in its own right, but exists just to be a detail in a humongous hangar bay full of animated stormtroopers.
Then there's each ride vehicle having its own Audio Animatronic droid buddy as a driver. The shadows on the floor as projected figures walk above. The reveal of massive AT-ATs towering overhead. Pipes that double as light tubes to make you believe blaster bolts are actually flying over your head. This list goes on. Also, as with any dark ride, effects aren't always in working condition, but Rise learned this lesson, as well, and almost every scene includes a back-up show just in case something isn't running.
Like most of our greatest attractions, the music is also an important character. Maybe it's not original to the attraction, but it would have been criminal not to utilize John Williams's iconic themes, and they're used to absolute perfection to set the tone of the story, while also placing it in the familiar universe of Star Wars. March of the Resistance plays as you're broken out of your cell, then swells up to full epic strength during the shootout in the AT-AT bay. The music from the Millennium Falcon's escape in Empire Strikes Back is fittingly used as you sneak out of the load area. Kylo Ren's Theme underscores his repeated appearances as he stalks you through the hallways. The Rebel Alliance Theme plays when the Resistance appears to attack the ship, then Luke Skywalker's Theme -- serving its place as the anthem of the franchise -- places as you watch the battle raging outside. The extreme tension of the music accompanying Luke's trench run is perfect for your escape from the crumbling ship, and the segue into the launching of the torpedoes and the triumphant strings of the exploding Death Star are equally fitting for your escape pod crashing back into Batuu. Then, it all rounds out with the explosive brass of the A New Hope medal ceremony -- an arrangement of the Force Theme, fitting for your miraculous survival.
This is where I tell you I cried the first time I rode this attraction, and I wasn't one bit ashamed. The people around me were crying, too.
One last note on what makes Rise incredible: the cast. The members of the Resistance embody enthusiasm balanced with a sense of urgency for an important cause and deadline. The First Order cast have become stars of social media for how perfectly they play the part of the villains from the most popular film franchise in existence, but doing so with a touch of playfulness befitting a theme park. There are many things that make Rise work, but just like two other entries to this top four, the flesh, blood, and breath inside its hallways area major part of that magic.
It checks every box, pushes a million envelopes, is fully immersive, and while maybe there is some recency bias, it is probably safe to assume Rise will hold a place as one of the legends of the art for decades to come. I mean if it's not obvious, immersive, atmospheric dark rides are what has dominated this list, so it makes sense the ultimate expression of the art form has a case for sitting at the very top. It makes it here because when you pull apart its individual pieces, it is doing something very familiar and recognizable, but at every point it does so in new a
The only thing that could possibly -- tenuously -- top it would be the first ultimate expression on property. The top two here are a virtual tie, but Rise has one thing the other does not:
It was a Walt Disney World original. Just like the Haunted Mansion, a version was simultaneously built on both coasts, but this time the east coast version opened first. For the 50th anniversary of The Vacation Kingdom, it just feels like the top needs to be something that Florida had before California. If it represents everything good about the other members of this list at once, all the more perfect.
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