Back to the Future: The Final Ride

Posted by Donna Dailey Aug 19, 2007

They say all good things must come to an end. And although I knew some time ago it was in the offing, a reminder this week that Universal Studios' most famous thrill ride, Back to the Future, was closing "Forever!" on September 3 made me sad.

Perhaps I expected Marty McFly and Doc Brown to swoop back in their DeLorean DMC-12 time machine to that fateful board meeting and somehow alter that disastrous decision, thereby ensuring their future existence.

Though high-tech rides are essential at any self-respecting theme park these days, Back to the Future: The Ride was groundbreaking stuff when it opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in June 1993. The public thronged the studio gates, forcing the park to open early at 7a.m. Over 61 million visitors have taken the ride – and loved it – since.

I went Back to the Future that first summer, shortly after the ride opened. I've never forgotten how exciting it was. The anticipation upon stepping into the mock DeLorean sports car soon turned to terror as the lights went out and the car rose 8 feet into the air. Suddenly I was rocketing through avalanches, molten volcanoes and the jaws of a dinosaur.

In fact, the car never moved more than 22 inches in any direction. But the surrounding IMAX screen made it all terrifyingly real. It's amazing how many thrills you can pack into just 3 minutes and 45 seconds – that's how long the Back to the Future ride lasted, though it seemed much more. When it was over, I wanted to brave the queue and do it all over again.

Perhaps I hoped that Marty and Doc would enjoy the cult following of Dr. Who or the Star Trek crew through all their incarnations. But the success of Back to the Future: The Ride was all about the ride, not the film. Surely even a tech-savvy generation would enjoy its sensational thrills as much as those first visitors. But it was not to be at Universal.

It's hard not to feel dismayed by the relentless commercialism that no doubt drives such decisions. Already there has been so much hype surrounding the Simpsons movie – as with any film aimed at the children's market – that I don't even want to see it.

Some of the best-loved rides in the big theme parks are timeless – Disney's Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion come to mind. And with Pirates of the Caribbean it worked the other way – the ride existed long before the film.

Why does most everything created for popular culture these days have to be hyped on the back of the latest movie? I wonder, have they lost their imagination?