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  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

30 Greatest Theme Park Movie Rides

Features
By Gem Seddon
Published 7 August 2014

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The Dark Knight - Six Flags, USA

The Ride: A family-friendly ‘Wild Mouse’ roller coaster, The Dark Knight is a dark ride (it's indoors) located at the Six Flags theme parks in the U.S.

The Movie Connection: The ride story hooks in neatly to the movie (the ride launched to coincide with the movie’s release) as you strap yourself in for a a press conference from Harvey Dent.

The Joker turns up as Dent is mid-speech, and hijacks the ride, taking riders all over a dimly-lit Gotham City.

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Don’t Forget To Scream: When The Joker pipes up ‘why so serious?’ as the ride spins into one of it’s biggest drops.

Harry Potter: Dragon Challenge - Universal Orlando, USA

The Ride: Two inter-connected inverted rollercoasters representing a pair of duelling dragons; the Chinese Fireball and the Hungarian Horntail. The original ride pitted the two coasters against each other. After a few narrow squeaks it was renovated for the launch of The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter.

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The Movie Connection: The ride’s theme borrows from Goblet Of Fire , mainly in the queueing area. Announcements for the Triwizard Tournament honour the contestants as you make your way through to the Champions’ Tent.

Look out for the Weasley’s crashed Ford Anglia wedged into a wall.

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Don’t Forget To Scream: The moment the coaster slams through three insanely-fast corkscrews.

E.T. Adventure - Universal Studios, USA

The Ride: While you queue, a video message from Steven Spielberg urges riders to help find E.T. as his home planet needs him.
This ain’t no normal vehicle ride however; each guest travels on a bicycle. You’ll venture through the woods, and even take to the skies on your two-wheeler.

The Movie Connection: It syncs up with a few sequences from the movie. Namely the forest chase scene. The end of the ride feels like the final portion of the film when Elliott and his comrades rush to avoid the law and assist E.T. And this time you get to help!

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Don’t Forget To Scream: When an animatronic E.T. personally thanks you at the end of the ride. (They note your names earlier on. It’s a whole thing.)

Doctor Dooms Fear-Fall - Universal Orlando, USA

The Ride: A pair of Space Shot drop towers that stand 200 ft tall, send you skyrocketing upward before plummeting back down to earth at 40 miles per hour.

The Movie Connection: The purpose of your terrifying descent is all a part of Doctor Doom’s dastardly plan. The fear generated by ride participants will be used in formulating a weapon to combat the Fantastic Four.

Don’t Forget To Scream: When the weightlessness at the top gives you butterfly-belly as the ride lurches downward.

Back To The Future: The Ride - Universal Studios, Japan

The Ride: Who doesn’t want to be Marty McFly? The Back To The Future ride offers you the chance to assist Doc in locating a rogue Biff Tannen who’s loose somewhere in the space-time continuum. Sit back with eight strangers and embark on a simulated time travel extravaganza!

The Movie Connection: For fans in desperate need of a Doc Brown fix, the ride’s story serves as a sequel to Back To The Future: Part III .

Don’t Forget To Scream: As a Tyrannosaur swallows the entire car and spits you out onto a lava river.

The Amazing Adventures Of Spider-Man - Universal Orlando, USA

The Ride: An HD motion-based ‘dark ride’ (it takes place indoors) that carries riders in specially-designed roving vehicles. Classed as a hybrid attraction, the ride involves live action mixed with video projection.

The Movie Connection: The story of the ride has yet to be adapted for the big screen. After the Sinister Syndicate take siege of the Statue of Liberty, all the city has fled. Riders become “last-minute reporters” aboard a Daily Bugle newsgathering vehicle called The Scoop, who must track down the villains.

Don’t Forget To Scream: As Doctor Octopus lifts the Scoop 400ft into the air... then simply lets it freefall for Spidey to catch.

RoboCop: The Ride - Granada Studios, Manchester, UK

The Ride: An interactive simulation long since out of service, Robocop: The Ride held up to 100 people in hydraulically-activated seating. Riders were immersed in the experience by their juddering seats. The beef of the action played on a mammoth video screen stretching across the width of the auditorium.

The Movie Connection: A lot of the down-trodden city scenes appear as they did in Robocop 2 . Except this time you’re helping Robocop locate the mayor of Detroit, who’s been kidnapped by a gang of thugs.

Don’t Forget To Scream: When the chairs rock from side to side as you narrowly avoid a passing train.

Saw: Alive - Thorpe Park, UK

The Ride: A year-round, live-action scare maze based on the Saw franchise.

The Movie Connection: Those with steely balls can walk through rooms dressed as scenes from each of the Saw movies. Complete with actors who’ll try their best to make you soil yourself.

Don’t Forget To Scream: When one of the scare actors makes a play for your ankles. Cheeky.

Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters - Disneyland, USA

The Ride: Brandish an astro blaster and zap away at Z-marked targets. The points soon start to rack up as the train chugs along. A rollicking good time for when you’re nauseated from too many coasters.

The Movie Connection: It’s based on the plot of Toy Story 2, allowing you and your buddies to blaze away at Zurg and his robotic minions. Alongside Buzz, of course.

Don’t Forget To Scream: When you realise your score has surpassed everyone else’s. Especially as you thought you’d played pretty poorly.

The Green Lantern - Warner Bros. Movie World, Australia

The Ride: A steel roller coaster, The Green Lantern is classed as a tight circuit. Lots of twists, insane banks, and beyond-vertical drops are all packed into the ride.

The Movie Connection: During the pre-ride queueing portion, the history of The Green Lantern is depicted on the walls to get riders up to speed.

Don’t Forget To Scream: Experiencing the second steepest inverted roller coaster drop in the world.

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Gem Seddon
Gem Seddon
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Freelance Writer

Gem Seddon is a freelance writer working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.

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