As with nearly all of Universal’s attractions, the new Florida ride, which is set to open in the spring, will be loud, thrilling, highly immersive, in-your-face, and, well, fast and furious.
It will be similar to the Fast & Furious – Supercharged experience that is the finale of the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. As in California, the Florida version will hijack a bunch of unwitting people (that’d be the park visitors) for a high-speed, F&F-style chase. How high-speed? We’re talking a tire-screeching, fishtailing, hyperventilating 120 mph—or at least the illusion of 120 mph.
The seemingly turbocharged attraction will anchor ride vehicles to a motion simulator base and sync it to 3D footage projected onto a wraparound screen in what is known as an “immersion tunnel.” The vehicles won’t actually move forward an inch, but passengers are going to feel a wild rush of acceleration, speed, and out-of-control action.
Although Hollywood’s F&F ride opened a mere three years ago, the tricks of the theme park trade have evolved, and the Orlando attraction will incorporate today’s “bleeding-edge technology,” according to Thierry Coup, senior vice president of Universal Creative. Compared to the first Supercharged ride, the new one will feature better imagery thanks to brighter projectors, a higher frame rate, and higher resolution. Combined with an enhanced motion base, this F&F will deliver an experience with more realism and an “incredible dynamic range,” adds Coup. “We already defined what immersion could be in a theme park attraction. But we keep moving it to a higher level. This will be a big jump.”
Before it transported visitors to Dom Toretto’s world of fast cars and espionage, Universal used immersion tunnel technology to deliver them to Skull Island, the home of King Kong. As with F&F, the encounter with the giant ape is part of the Studio Tour in Hollywood and uses the tour’s iconic trams as ride vehicles. When Universal brought Kong to Orlando in 2016, it gave the big galoot his own standalone attraction and developed custom vehicles. Similarly, F&F at Universal Studios Florida will be an autonomous ride and will use specially designed vehicles. In this case, guests will be invited to board “party buses.”
According to Coup, the ride itself will span over four minutes compared to Hollywood’s 90-second experience. It will include additional scenes as well as some practical sets not found in California. F&F will occupy the former show building that housed Universal’s Disaster attraction (and was used for a ride based on
Earthquake before that). It will extend a couple of blocks by also co-opting an adjacent outdoor stage area that the park used for a
Beetlejuice show. “It’s massive,” Coup says of the attraction’s footprint. “We really want to deliver on the scale of the action and the scale of the films.”
Located in the San Francisco section of Universal Studios Florida, the ride’s locale will shift from L.A. to the hilly city by the Bay. Virtually all of the movies’ major characters, including Vin Diesel’s Dom and Dwayne Johnson’ Hobbs will be represented. Tej, played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Jordana Brewster’s Mia will be added in to the mix in Orlando.
kvue.com | Universal Studios parks get faster, more furious this summer