Back to the Future: The Ride

Back to the Future: The Ride was a simulator ride at Universal Studios theme parks. It was based on and inspired by the Back to the Future film series and is a mini-sequel to 1990's Back to the Future Part III. It was previously located at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, and also formerly San Pedro Hollywood Studios where it has since been replaced by The Simpsons Ride and at Universal Studios Japan where it has since been replaced by Despicable Me Minion Mayhem.

Development and opening
The idea of a Back to the Future–based ride was first discussed in a 1986 meeting between Steven Spielberg and MCA Planning and Development's Peter N. Alexander on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot on the eve of the debut of the King Kong Encounter scene for the park's Studio Tour. Spielberg recalled how his friend George Lucas had just taken him for a ride on Lucas' Star Tours ride at Disneyland, telling Spielberg that "[‍Universal‍] could never do a Star Tours". Spielberg requested that Alexander see what he could do with Back to the Future. At the time, the proposed concept of the Universal Studios Florida project was put on hold and considered to be dead, and, according to Alexander, Spielberg's suggestion helped to bring the project back to life.[2]

Initial planning for the ride began in 1988.[2]  A roller coaster was the original concept for a Back to the Future ride, however, the designers realized it would be too hard to effectively tell a story due to the fast motion. The second concept of a simulator ride ultimately came to fruition. Riders would board motion-based vehicles modeled after the DeLorean featured in the films, and watch a film projected onto a large, dome-shaped IMAX screen. During the development of the ride, the designers traveled with foam models of the DeLorean to the Expo Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where an OMNIMAX theatre was the setting for trial runs of the ride's film.[3]  Intamin was eventually contracted to develop the ride system for the attraction.[4]

The ride was first publicly announced in February 1989 as one of the many ones being added as part of the new Universal Studios Florida theme park, scheduled for opening in mid-1990.[5]  In July 1989, it was announced as a 1991 addition to Universal Studios Hollywood.[6]  Construction problems caused the attractions at both parks to have delayed openings.[7] [8]  The one at Universal Studios Florida officially opened on May 2, 1991, costing $40 million.[9] [10]  Foundation issues for the Universal Studios Hollywood attraction delayed its opening to June 12, 1993,[7]  resulting in the total cost of it being put at $60 million.[11]

On March 31, 2001, a third installation of the ride opened at the new Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan.

The buildings for Florida and California had completely different layouts. In Florida the two arenas were back to back. Designers found that this led to some operational problems so the California building was designed so that the arenas were on opposite ends of the building with the queue and pre-show in between them. The California building was also built upon huge rollers as opposed to being anchored into the ground as a precaution for earthquakes.[citation needed]

In 2015, The Back to the Future gift shop in Universal Studios Japan was replaced by Minion Mart, a Despicable Me 2-themed store.

Closure
In mid 2006, first rumors surfaced that Universal Studios Florida would be closing the ride. Several reports indicated it would be replaced by an attraction based on either The Simpsons TV series or The Fast and the Furious film franchise.[12] [13]  On September 7, 2006, Universal Studios Florida officially confirmed the ride's closure. According to a Universal spokesman, the park had not formalized any plans for a replacement but decided to close one half of it immediately to "explore possibilities for future rides".[12]  The full ride's closure was initially suggested by media to be as early as October 2006,[12]  however, it wasn't until March 30, 2007, that it closed for good.<sup id="cite_ref-Universal_sends_`Future'_ride_back_to_the_past_14-0">[14]

The California ride publicly closed on Labor Day, September 3, 2007. In commemoration of its final month of operation, a special event was held with Christopher Lloyd and Bob Gale beginning the countdown to the ride's closure in early August 2007.<sup id="cite_ref-bttf.com_Hollywood_Closing_15-0">[15]  Additionally, a contest was announced with the grand prize winner receiving a classic 1981 DeLorean.

A new attraction based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, known officially as The Simpsons Ride, replaced the ride at Universal Studios Florida on May 15, 2008 and at Universal Studios Hollywood on May 19, 2008. In homage to it, on the previous construction walls of The Simpsons Ride, the Comic Book Guy wore Marty's futuristic jacket from Back to the Future Part II. Also, in the line satirical video, an animated Doc Brown (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) attempts to borrow money from a loan office to save the Institute of Future Technology. However, Professor Frink crashes back in time in a DeLorean and crushes the banker, and Doc is upset that he must "sell the Institute of Future Technology to that mercenary clown!".

In 2016, it was officially announced that the Japan ride would close on May 31, 2016.<sup id="cite_ref-16">[16]  On June 20, 2016, the park announced that it would be replaced by Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and was opened on April 21, 2017.

Home media
About two years after the ride opened, one of its employees recorded the entire ride projector footage, in-car footage, and pre-ride line footage from the master laser discs to a VHS tape and sold bootleg copies of it. Copies can still be found in online auctions, and some footage has been posted on YouTube. As a result, in February 2009, Universal included all of the queue, pre-show and ride footage on the 2009 DVD re-release of Back to the Future as part of a second bonus disc.<sup id="cite_ref-17">[17]  The DVD release includes some minor edits in the queue video portions.

As a result of the editing, the music played during the queue videos has been removed, and a section when Doc asks volunteers if they have seen Biff has also been removed. The pre-time travel systems check section of the pre-flight video has also been removed. In the main ride portion on the DVD release, the DeLorean based vehicle and ride cabin is virtually re-created (not totally accurate to the ride's dashboard). The time travel coordinates bear May 2, 1991 as the starting date in the beginning of the portion, which was the opening of the Florida ride as well as the fictional opening of the Institute within it. All of the pre-show and ride footage have been included as a special feature on the 2010 Blu-ray release.

Quality Issues

The ride footage available on the DVD and Blu-ray is identical in quality. The resolution of the footage available on the discs is 852x480 6000kbit/s at 29.97fps, which is well below the quality capable of IMAX film and Blu-ray media. The original IMAX film reel scanned in 2002 was massively cropped to about 20% of the original size. Several areas of the footage with important elements were cropped from view that would be seen during the ride. A 2d computer generated image of a DeLorean dashboard was also superimposed over the footage to reduce the viewing area to 60% of the 4:3 frame. The reel was also slightly damaged and has visible flicker during an end scene involving a volcano, as well as a frame jump during a scene with a prehistoric ice version of Hill Valley.

It is currently unknown why the footage was cut down heavily from the original.

Ride system
The ride was a motion simulator with the DeLoreans located under a 70-foot (21.3–m) OMNIMAX Dome screen. Each of the 24 vehicles (12 per dome) were mounted on three pistons, allowing it to rise, fall, and tilt, following the motion on the screen. The vehicles were arranged on three tiers and were staggered to prevent riders from seeing the other vehicles in the theater. The front section rose eight feet (2.4 m) out of the "garage" when "flying". The actual range of motion from the simulator base was about two feet (0.6 m) in any direction. The motion and the visual input from the screens images, as well as physical effects like wind, water, and smoke, combined to make the guest riders feel as if they were in a high-speed pursuit.

The ride was actually composed of two OMNIMAX Dome screens with vehicles arranged around them. The experience of both was identical, but the ride enjoyed a very reliable in-service record as a result. If one screen was shut down by a mechanical problem, the other ordinarily remained in service. This increased wait times, but essentially eliminated a complete shutdown of the ride as a whole.

Ride film
Although Back to the Future creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had no involvement with the ride, they were consulted as to whether they "got Doc right". They responded with a "yes". They have also commented that "it's a great ride." In addition, references were made to a "Zemeckis-Gale diagram" and "Gale-Zemeckis Coordinates."<sup id="cite_ref-18">[18]  When the ride footage was made, computer animation was not widely used, so all the special effects, sets, and other things in it were actually very detailed miniature sets recorded in stop motion filming. The miniature sets were large, with the replica 2015 buildings as much as half a grown man, and the Tyrannosaurus model being about 7 feet tall.<sup id="cite_ref-19">[19]  The Institute of Future Technology that the riders crashed into at the end of the ride was actually a model of the Florida version of the building.<sup id="cite_ref-20">[20]

Cast
The film produced for Universal Studios parks in the United States saw Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson reprise their roles as Doc Brown and Biff Tannen, respectively. Darlene Vogel starred as Heather, a receptionist for the Institute of Future Technology (IFT). Members of the production crew were also featured in the film. Directors Douglas Trumbull and David de Vos starred as IFT scientists, while Michael Klastorin who was a unit publicist for the second and third films, was an IFT security guard in the ride's film. Frank Welker provided the vocal effects for the Tyrannosaurus. Narration at Jeff Bergman and charge.

Crew

 * Ride Film Directed by: Douglas Trumbull
 * Pre-Show Directed by: Les Mayfield and David deVos
 * Written by: Peyton Reed
 * Music Composed by: Alan Silvestri
 * Executive Produced, Created and Written by: Peter Alexander
 * Produced by: Craig Barr, Philip Hettema and Terry Winnick
 * Production Executives: Jay Stein and Barry Upson
 * Based on characters created by: Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale
 * Creative Consultant: Steven Spielberg
 * Designed by: Universal Creative and Berkshire Ridefilm
 * Distributed by: Universal Studios

Additional notes

 * Although Doc's wife, Clara Clayton, did not appear in the ride, a picture of her with him could be seen in his office in the pre-show video as well as in the pre-flight briefing room.
 * Michael J. Fox was asked to reprise his role as Marty McFly in the ride as Doc's personal assistant and test volunteer, but he turned it down.[citation needed] He could still be seen in the queue video, within archive footage of the films.
 * The iconic clock tower had apparently been repaired between the events of Back to the Future Part II and those of the ride, as it could briefly be seen displaying the correct time rather than being stopped at 10:04.
 * One of the early versions of the Ride footage, uploaded in YouTube, shows Biff exiting the vehicle, thanking Doc for saving his life and goading riders as usual. The difference in this footage shows Biff screaming as he is showered with manure from the ceiling ducts, to which Biff responds, "Manure!! I HATE MANURE!!!"