ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

Opening Date: 1995

ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter lasted less than a decade before Disney shut it down. And during that time, the designers kept altering the ride to make it more palatable. But the problem was not that it needed to be fixed. The problem was that it existed in the first place.

The attraction was a massive theater-in-the-round, and guests were strapped into their seats with shoulder restraints. The satirical storyline was about a futuristic, alien-run company called X-S Tech (Excess tech? Get it?)—an odd choice, given that the ride was in Tomorrowland, a utopian vision of humanity’s future. And it featured a massive, monstrous alien, which broke loose and terrorized guests in the pitch-black dark. The speakers in your seat made it sound like the alien was about to bite your head off. And you could feel its hot breath and drool when it passed by.

The result was lots of screaming, crying children. Disney had to put age and content warnings on the entrance. And in 2003, the ride closed down for good. It reopened in 2004 as Stitch’s Great Escape, which used a lot of the same sensory effects, but for more comedic purposes.