Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You!

A photo of the entrance

**Disaster!: A Major Motion Picture Ride...Starring You!** is a former dark ride attraction at Universal Studios Florida. The attraction opened January 17, 2008 and replaced *Earthquake: The Big One*. It's set in a sound stage of a fictitious movie company, *Disaster!*, which comically illustrates how special effects are filmed for use in movies. The attraction's climax cast the riders as movie extras for a movie finale scene involving an earthquake in a subway station. Using high-speed editing techniques, the riders got to see themselves in the form of a movie trailer that included film sequences shot throughout the attraction's pre-show and main ride.

The attraction then permanently closed on September 8, 2015 and got replaced by *Fast and Furious: Supercharged*.

## Story

Disaster! is an interactive attraction following the storyline of a fictional movie studio run by Frank Kincaid (played by Christopher Walken).
 The studio is going bankrupt and needs visitors to act as extras for
key insert scenes. In helping Kincaid complete his film, the visitors
are then asked to be a part of the finale sequence involving an
earthquake.

### Queue

Disaster's queue displays for movie props from fictional Disaster Studios films, including a Meteor-Struck House from *Apocageddon,* a torn apart plane from *300 Knots Landing,* a mechanical shark from *Das Schurke* (the head from Bruce, one of the mechanical sharks from the Jaws attraction), and a giant tank being consumed by the tentacles from *Super Mega Ultra Atomic Chaos.*
 Guests are also greeted to Disaster Studios with a giant mural of
destroyed Los Angeles, introducing Frank Kincaid as the "Master of
Mayhem."

Guests are introduced to Lonnie, an Assistant Director who casts
guests for scenes that he needs to be shot in the soundstages. Guest are
 then taken into a screening room where Kincaid describes his brand of
film-making. He then asks visitors to help him complete his film. After a
 speech, guests are ushered into another soundstage
 where the scenes are shot. Audience members that were pre-picked to be
involved in the scenes are brought out to perform, and scenes are filmed
 where a child jumps from one spot to another, lab workers are hit by styrofoam
 rocks, a man in a pit, and a grandmother hoeing. Kincaid appears on a
screen and invites guests to take part in his finale that is being shot
next door.

### Ride

Guests enter a subway station, modeled after BART's West Oakland Station, where they board a subway train (an obvious homage to "Earthquake: The Big One", which this ride replaced). Small plasma screens
 on the train direct guests on the reactions needed to successfully
shoot the scene. Departing the station, guests travel beneath the bay
and soon arrive at the Embarcadero subway station.
 Shortly after arriving at the station, the lights in the station start
 to flicker, the second unit director tells the people over the intercom
 that it's just a slight tremor and that there's no problem. The station
 then goes dark, then the train is shaken by a violent earthquake. The
entire station is seemingly destroyed as large cracks form in the
station platforms, sections of the roof collapse, a gasoline tanker falls through the ceiling and bursts into flames, another subway train enters the station and derails, and a flash flood
 of water rushes down the stairs and into the station. These effects and
 props are recycled from the previous ride that inhabited the space, Earthquake: The Big One,
 with some new effects added in. Following the sequence, the train
heads back to the West Oakland station, and the TV monitors on the train
 show the trailer for the faux film "Mutha Nature". The trailer, which
spoofs disaster films in general, stars an uncredited Dwayne Johnson as a park ranger who tries to save lives during a series of ecological disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Green screen technology allows the trailer to incorporate scenes shot by guests, under the guidance of Universal Orlando staff.

## Gallery

The Subway Train.Earthquaking Subway.Tumbling Down Tanker Truck.Army Tank outside the attraction.