Earlier this year, we pulled back the curtain on one of two major World’s First attractions Chris + was involved with creating. Located at Trans Studio Bali in Indonesia, Road Rage is the World’s First Stunt Show Dark Ride – including live performers that interact with the vehicles between 4-D film-based segments to bring them all to life. Perhaps more interesting to you, our readers – and where our involvement lied more heavily for that project – Road Rage is also the very first theme park ride in the world to use escape games as the attraction’s pre-show, meaning Trans Studio Bali guests need to solve puzzles in order to gain access to the ride’s loading station! At the end of that article, we teased there was something else exciting in the works, with a peculiarly bold-faced line of text that read “today, we are cancelling the apocalypse.” Although we couldn’t say anything further at the time thanks, again, to Non-Disclosure Agreements with both the client and the movie studio involved in the project, some of you may have recognized the line as a memorable quote from a pretty famous movie. Nine months later, we’re finally able to let the giant alien monster out of the bag.
We’re thrilled to share PACIFIC RIM: SHATTERDOME STRIKE, the World’s First Immersive Theater Dark Ride.
But before we get to the what, let’s talk about the who. Chris + was brought to Los Angeles to collaborate with our friends at Legacy Entertainment in early 2018. While you may not recognize the name at first glance, there’s simply no question that you’re familiar with – and likely have personally experienced something they’ve created. This is the team behind such utterly ground-breaking benchmarks as Star Trek: The Experience formerly in Las Vegas – one of the most immersive rides ever created and a little genre-redefining 4-D motion-based attraction you may have heard of called The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. They’re also responsible for more classic attractions, like Monster Mansion at Six Flags Over Georgia, and the Glow in the Park Parade that once ran at most major Six Flags theme parks. Simply put, when it comes to attraction design, there’s probably no bigger independent company than this one.
For this project, Legacy Entertainment worked very closely with Legendary, the Hollywood studio behind the Pacific Rim franchise. More than you’d probably ever realize goes in to legally licensing a major Intellectual Property for use in an amusement attraction – but that’s perhaps a story better suited for another time. Legendary was involved with our team from the start, giving both guidance and approvals to ensure we best represented their characters and IP in a way that did them justice.
So, with an established design portfolio like that, where do I come in? Well, this is where things truly get humbling: “Immersive and Interactive Attraction Expert.” Hey, I don’t pick the titles. Although I also don’t fight them too hard either.
Similar to Road Rage, Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike was also created for Trans Studio – but this ride would be the anchor attraction at a second new theme park the company would open in 2019: Trans Studio Cibubur, located just outside Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta.
After a few busy months of non-stop concept design, our team traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia to officially pitch Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike to the Chairman of CT Corp – a mega conglomerate of successful business brands including everything from restaurants, retail stores, entire malls, hotels, television production (including the actual CNN Indonesia) and literally dozens of indoor mini-theme parks – some of which aren’t even so mini – under the umbrella of Trans Studio. That pitch was a total home run, and our Pacific Rim dark ride was immediately approved.
The Chairman and his team were most impressed with how outside-the-box this attraction was planned to be. They loved the daring, never-before-attempted aspects that would make it a uniquely marketable icon attraction for Trans Studio. It’s been difficult to not be able to discuss them in all the time that has followed, but finally, the time has come.
Due to the far-away location of Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike, we recognize that it’s unlikely many of our readers will have the opportunity to experience the ride first hand in the near future. For this reason, we will do something a bit out of character for Escape Authority and offer a description that’s rather spoiler heavy. If a trip to Asia is on the horizon and you’d like to be surprised, you may want to stop reading here.
At its core, Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike is a 4-D motion-based dark ride, similar in flavor to The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. Similar to that attraction, our team turned to Oceaneering, an innovative industry leader in ride systems. Our ride uses vehicles with a slightly more compact footprint known as the EVO-6. Locally, you may be more familiar with these as the ride system in use at several Six Flags theme parks around the United States in their Justice League: Battle For Metropolis attractions. Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike was the World’s First EVO-6 installation to include high-sided doors similar to its big brother vehicles used in The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, engineered at our team’s request.
Once on board, Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike has all the bells and whistles you’d hope to find on a 4-D motion based dark ride, including physical and practical effects that enhance what you see on its screens. But it also has something much, much more unexpected. More on that in a moment. The attraction features a completely new, never before told story that exists within the Pacific Rim universe; this is not a “movie book-report” type of ride.
Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike starts off as “just a hokey theme park attraction” – a touring Pacific Rim exhibit of sorts framed as a Jaeger Simulator ride has set up at Trans Studio Cibubur. And in true theme park fashion, once the experience begins, something goes terribly wrong. During the exhibit’s pre-show introduction, the facility shakes in a thunderous rumble. Show systems fail, and guests are immediately directed to seek shelter from an actual Kaiju attack, originating from a new breach that has opened right there at Trans Studio Cibubur. Luckily, a Shatterdome exists just underneath the facility, and the much more experienced Pan Pacific Defense Corps team members there will guide those innocent civilians to safety.
A fleet of roving vehicles carry six passengers at a time out of the facility, passing back through the theme park to head toward a safer location. The park’s Boomerang Hyper Coaster (which, fun fact, originally operated at Knott’s Berry Farm in California!) has been destroyed by the monstrous Kaiju. Track pieces loom precariously overhead – with one suddenly snapping, sending a coaster train careening directly at guests as they flee the scene.
Once outside of the coaster’s footprint, the theme park’s midway offers a mere second’s respite before another Kaiju attacks – this one with the ability to breath an ice-like blast that freezes everything in its path. The evacuation vehicle is hit, causing it to spin out of control on the frozen ground. The car – and its passengers – knock down a power pole, plunging the park into eerie blackness- before ultimately crashing through the wall of a nearby dark ride where it slams to a stop.
But Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike isn’t any ordinary theme park ride. This time, we don’t just magically regain power and continue on. The car is crashed, and damaged beyond repair – leaving only one option – something that’s never been done before – guests are forced to evacuate the ride vehicle and continue their journey on foot. Each guest is given a flashlight to navigate the pitch black corridors of the inconveniently themed “Kaiju Encounter” dark ride they find themselves stranded within. Knowing the real ice Kaiju lurks just outside, there is no going back.
A giant monster head forms startling show doors on the decommissioned dark ride – but it’s what lies beyond it that offers the true scare. A Kaiju – an actual, genuine, life-sized Kaiju – thankfully no longer alive, has fallen through the building, obstructing our path. And with no going back, there’s only one way forward.
Guests walk across the Kaiju’s spongy tongue, between rows of its massive, razor sharp teeth and down its throat, into its belly in hopes of finding safe passage on the other side. The path through its innards is bubbling with harzardous, glowing Kaiju Blue – a foam-like substance that guests have no choice but to pass directly through, fully exposing themselves to its potential toxins. Thankfully, a battle wound cut through its stomach grants access to the area just outside the park’s perimeter.
It is here that a storm drain tunnel will lead into the Shatterdome itself. Navigating through the shaft, guests struggle against a giant fan that blasts gale-force winds (which, incidentally also blow off any remaining foam.) Beyond it, an access hatch into the Shatterdome, glowing with high-tech gadgets and more importantly, safety from the impending Kaiju attack.
But defeating these Kaiju and saving Jakarta is no easy task, and will truly require an “all hands on deck” approach. Guests are enlisted by Pan Pacific Defense Corps to pilot the newest Jaeger, their first Mark VII model, Storm Garuda. It is here that unlikely volunteer pilots re-load onto their ride vehicles, although they’re framed as an entirely new transport thanks to an innovative use of blacklighting effects that completely transform the look of each EVO-6 car.
Vehicles are lifted via a special effects-inspired “elevator” into the massive head of Storm Garuda, where they’ll witness the climactic battle first hand. Blasts of wind and water simulate shattering glass as the Kaijus get the upper hand, spinning the Jaeger into chaos. Storm Garuda ultimately regains control, thanks to the help of the park’s nearby ferris wheel, which the massive mech uproots and uses as a giant disc-like sword to cut down the monstrous foes.
With Storm Garuda set on autopilot to drag the Kaijus back into the abyss-like breach, guests are ejected from the Jaeger, allowing them to witness this heroic finale from high above as they slowly parachute back to docks below. The day is saved – although the park might need quite a bit of repair work after enduring this epic battle, leaving guests to exit triumphantly under the shadow of that smashed ferris wheel and return to what’s left of Trans Studio Cibubur.
In total, the Legacy Entertainment team created three never-before-encountered Kaijus and one brand new Jaeger that are exclusive to Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike.
I’m incredibly proud to be responsible for the spark of what would become another world’s first concept, pairing theme parks and immersive theater in a way previously thought to be impossible. From the start of Escape Authority, my goal has always been to further this industry that I’m deeply passionate about, that I genuinely believe in and that I truly think can grow to become something even bigger. Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike pulls back the curtain of our industry, allowing guests to become more immersed and engaged than ever before. This breakthrough wouldn’t have been possible without a talented team of industry professionals and peers at Legacy Entertainment to help bring it to life.
For those who don’t anticipate a trip to Jakarta in their immediate future, here’s a full-spoilers POV video of the fifteen minute long attraction, thanks to our friends at Legacy Entertainment:
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