UNIVERSAL STUDIOS AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO DEBUTS
WORLD'S FIRST LIFE-SIZE, RIDE-THROUGH, INTERACTIVE VIDEO
GAME EXPERIENCE
Ride Features Newest Generation of Universal's "Roving
Motion Platform"
...and World's Biggest Bug
The new MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack ride, located at
Universal Studios at Universal Orlando officially opened to the public this
April.
Hailed by designers as the "world's first life-size,
ride-through, interactive video game experience," MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack
features Will Smith and Rip Torn and is the first-ever attraction where guests
(and the aliens) determine each ride's outcome by their individual and
collective abilities
Smith and Torn have re-teamed as "Agent J' and "MIB
Director Zed" in the attraction, and, through the magic of film technology,
lead hardy bands of guest/trainees as they take up arms to save the earth from
intergalactic terrorists. Vocal artist Michael (Police Academy) Winslow supplies
a number of the ride's extra-terrestrial utterances.
Part heart-stopping thrill ride, part cosmic turkey shoot,
"MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack" remains true to the techno-futuristic
style of the blockbuster Columbia Pictures/Amblin Entertainment hit film about a
shadowy organization that is "above, over and beyond the system" --
the Men In Black.
Players actually step into the movie and directly affect the
environment around them by firing their laser-sighted "alien zappets"
at targets and scoring points, And the aliens can shoot back, causing chaos as
the MIB trainee transports spin wildly out of control with each ricochet or
direct hit.
MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, located in a massive 70,000
square-foot building at the' North end of the US F lagoon, and camouflaged as a
tetra-modern-style plaza reminiscent of the 1964 New York World's Fair, is the
largest dark ride ever conceived. The ride immerses teams of guest/MIB trainees
inside the adventure, careening wildly through the streets in government-issue
vehicles, destroying hordes of aliens in order to earn their stripes as MIB.
The ride begins with a training lecture by MIB Director Zed
(TORN), warning the guest/trainees that aliens are living among us, and the
mandate of the MIB is to round them up. In fact, a shuttle will be taking off
that very day, deporting some "rather nasty" alien criminals to Planet
LV-428.
Zed instructs the trainees in the finer points of "alien
spotting," the proper use of alien "zappers" and the training
vehicle, and then turns them loose on a sequence of "training
missions."
The trainees soon learn that the shuttle bound for Planet LV-428
has crashed in the city, the aliens are armed, and the only thing between Earth
and complete inter-planetary domination is them. The training vehicle swerves
back out into the street, revealing massive alien firepower, The battle is
pitched - trainees firing...bugs-a-poppin...chaos everywhere. This is all-out
war for the safety of humankind. As the attack intensifies, the trainees receive
a special transmission on the monitor in their vehicle. It's Agent J (SMITH) who
appears on screen anti he's got BA-A-A-D news…there's a huge alien bug showing
up on his radar. It's hungry, angry and just up ahead.
MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack culminates (literally) in the
"belly of the beast" as the largest animatronic ever built -- a
warehouse-sized alien bug 30-feet high, with eight-foot teeth and 20-foot claws
-- devours the vehicle. Guest/trainees are instructed by J to shoot their way
out of the slimy intestinal cavity and split-second decisions are crucial as
each team determines their fate.
Regrettably, upon completion of their duties, terrified
Universal ride designers were visited by shadowy government operatives and
zapped with MID "neuralizers,' erasing their memories and forever locking
away the secret of the ride's conclusion. However, early, de-classified versions
of the ride description, uncovered at great peril, reveal multiple outcomes
ranging from a hero's we/come to a loser's farewell.
Will Smith has thrilled audiences since they first discovered
him as the rap artist The Fresh Prince in 1987, The following year, he and
partner Jazzy Jeff won the first "Best Rap Performance" Grammy for
"Parents Just Don't Understand." Two years later, he launched his
television career with the wildly popular "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,"
which aired on NBC for six seasons. His film career
"Independence Day" and "Men in Black." His
theme song for "MID" made the album one of the biggest selling
soundtracks of all time, He most recently starred in "Wild Wild West"
(for which he also wrote and performed the title song) and "Enemy of the
State." Smith will soon star in "The Legend of Bagger Vance,"
directed by Robert Redford.
Although best known to audiences for his Emmy-winning role as
Arthur, the acerbic executive producer on "The Larry Sanders Show,"
Rip Torn has been a film and television actor for almost 45 years. Known for his
versatility, he has played roles in several Tennessee Williams television
adaptations, including young Tom Finley in "Sweet Bird of Youth" in
1962 and again as his father, Boss Finley in 1989. Torn also starred as Big
Daddy in "Cat on' a Hot Tin Roof" in 1985.
He has played Generals (Ulysses S. Grant in "The Blue and
the Gray," 1992), Gods (the voice of Zeus in the animated "Hemules,"
1997) and two successive U.S. Presidents (Lyndon Johnson in 1987's "J.
Edgar Hoover" and Richard Nixon in the 1979 miniseries "'Blind
Ambition"). Torn was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting
Actor in 1984 for "Cross Creek." He was nominated for 4 Emmys on
"Larry Sanders" and once for a guest role on "Chicago Hope."
Academy Award-winning producer/director Steven Spielberg,
executive producer of the original "Men in Black" motion picture,
serves as creative consultant to Universal Studios Florida.
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