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Lover of film, music, and theme parks. Plant based. Senior screenwriting major with a minor in creative and cultural industries at Chapman University.
The greatest thing Disney has done with the Star Wars property is not a film. It’s not a Disney+ series. It’s a theme park attraction. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is single handedly the most immersive, breathtaking, and thrilling story in the Star Wars universe since The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. And it’s located in Disneyland.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was announced as a new land coming to Disneyland Park in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida way back in August 2015 at the D23 convention. At that convention, The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger promised that it was the most immersive land Imagineering had ever thought up, complete with two new state of the art attractions, a restaurant and bar, living characters, and a huge plot of highly themed land for fans to live out their Star Wars dreams. The land itself debuted in June of 2019 in California and August of 2019 in Florida, but it wasn’t fully completed as planned.
The land opened with one attraction, Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run; a state of the art flight simulator style attraction where you get the opportunity to fly the famous ship from the films. The ride consisted of six different positions within the Falcon that you could perform: two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. The attraction was a big success, but it didn’t change the theme park scene. It wasn’t groundbreaking. While it is state of the art in the sense that you can directly control the simulator, it was still, at the end of the day, a simulator. These types of attractions have been prevalent in theme parks since the late 1980s, with their debut in the Disney theme parks as another Star Wars themed attraction, Star Tours. Smuggler’s Run is an extremely fun and at times thrilling experience that allows you to enter and explore the millenium falcon, but it has nothing on what is being unveiled in Disneyland tomorrow.
It’s difficult to even begin to discuss what I witnessed and experienced when I rode Rise of the Resistance. I almost find it difficult to refer to it as a ‘ride’. It truly is a one of a kind experience. The attraction consists of three preshows, live actors, flawlessly lifelike animatronic figures, three different ride systems, mind blowing blaster and lightsaber effects, full scale spaceships, and so much more. Rise of the Resistance is a truly special experience that I didn’t know was even possible. The ride brings you into the action of a Resistance base where BB-8 and a hologram of Rey convince you to join the cause. You then walk by full scale X-wings and other Resistance ships as you board a transport to meet with them.
During this transport, you are intercepted by a First Order star destroyer, and are subsequently boarded by live First Order generals. You are pushed through the star destroyer bridge by the generals as you are watched by countless armed Stormtroopers. You are put into detainment cells where Kylo Ren and General Hux loom above you. Suddenly, a laser cuts through the wall of the cell and somehow the Resistance are their to save you. You are boarded into miniature cruisers and Finn transmits through a monitor to explain how they’re going to break you out. It is here where the actual ‘ride’ portion of the experience begins. I don’t want to give too much away as, much like the films, this is an experience you’ll want to have blindly. I’ll just say that my jaw hit the floor once we began and never once did it close.
What makes Rise of the Resistance so special is that it fully brings you into the action of Star Wars in unthinkable ways. The First Order and the Resistance are directly interacting with you and treating you as they would in the films. It is so highly immersive that you won’t believe your eyes. The ride moves so quickly through different rooms while narrowly escaping various attacks, so you most definitely will miss certain things on your first ride through. It doesn’t feel like a typical theme park attraction where you have several big show scenes that you go between. The entire ride itself is a show scene. The minute you enter the Resistance transport, the story gets going and it doesn’t stop. Nearly every Star Wars film has a set piece where the heroes get trapped in enemy territory, whether it be the Empire, First Order, or the Separatists. With this attraction, you are thrown into that scene. It feels exactly how an encounter with the First Order on a star destroyer would.
I cannot tell you with complete honesty that what I experienced was not real. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is worth the price of admission to Disneyland by itself. There’s nothing like it in the world of storytelling. With the films and television, you get to witness a story in the Star Wars universe. With this attraction, you are the story. The advertising slogan of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was, “Live Your Star Wars Adventure”, and after experiencing this attraction, I can say that I did.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opens in Disneyland Park on January 17th.
Have you had a chance to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge? Are you excited for Rise of the Resistance?
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Lover of film, music, and theme parks. Plant based. Senior screenwriting major with a minor in creative and cultural industries at Chapman University.
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