Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon

Ride building, designed to resemble 30 Rockefeller Center. The ride's logo can be seen near the lower right corner.

## Ride Details

### Featured Characters

Jimmy Fallon
Hashtag the Panda
The Roots
Sara
Bruce

***Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon*** is a 3D motion simulator located in the New York section of Universal Studios Florida. It opened on April 6, 2017 as a replacement for *Twister...Ride it Out*, which closed in 2015. The ride is based on NBC's evening talk show *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon*. As with the show, Jimmy Fallon serves as the host of the ride, which focuses on a high-speed chase through New York, with multiple nods to various elements of the show, including Hashtag the Panda, The Roots, and Jimmy's Thank You Notes.

## History

On October 27, 2015, Jimmy Fallon announced on *The Tonight Show* that *Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon* would be coming to Universal Studios Florida. About a week later on November 2, 2015, *Twister...Ride it Out* was closed after seventeen years of operation to prepare for the new ride. The interior and exterior of the attraction building was redesigned to resemble 30 Rockefeller Center, the building where *The Tonight Show* is filmed for NBC.

*Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon* officially opened on April 6, 2017, with Fallon and other cast members of the show attending its grand opening, as well as that evening's episode of *The Tonight Show* being aired at Universal Studios Florida.

## Background

### Queue

Guests enter through a replica of the 30 Rockefeller Center building in New York City. This building houses Studio 6B, where *The Tonight Show* is filmed on NBC. The interior of the building is made to look like one of NBC's studios, and features various exhibits, such as the history of the NBC peacock logo, and a timeline of the six men who have hosted *The Tonight Show* since 1954, including Fallon.

After this area, guests go up a column of stairs and enter an interactive queue room. In here, guests are given a color-coded ticket, based on one of the colors on the NBC peacock logo. While waiting to be sent to the preshow room, several activities are available to guests. These include watching a montage of clips from Jimmy Fallon's tenure of *The Tonight Show*, minigames based on those featured on the show, sending Thank You Notes to friends and family, and a meet-and-greet session with Hashtag the Panda.

### Preshow

Once the giant NBC peacock logo begins to glow a certain color, guests with that ticket color will be sent to another area, where they will be given 3D glasses for the show. Then they are moved to a small room with several TV screens, and asked to stand on a dot on the floor to indicate where they will be sitting in the theater. There are also light-up signs with the word "Applause" written on them, that flash when guests are supposed to applaud for authenticity. On the screen, the intro to *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon* begins to play. However, rather than announcing various guests for the show, the announcer says you are tonight's guests. Jimmy then appears and welcomes everyone to the show, and details what he and the guests will do on the ride. He also invites The Roots member Black Thought to rap the safety instructions for the ride.

After going through the safety instructions, Sara from the "Ew!" music videos (also portrayed by Fallon) begins to get impatient and wants the show to start. When Jimmy informs the guests of the gift shop after the ride, Sara and her father then leave the theater and head towards the shop. Guests are then sent into the theater.

### Ride Experience

Once all guests are seated and they put on their 3D glasses, the curtains raise, and Jimmy Fallon appears on *The Tonight Show* stage, now driving a car called The Tonight Rider (A parody of the titular car from fellow NBC TV series, *Knight Rider*). The announcer then begins the countdown for the race, which begins in the backstage area of Studio 6B. Multiple cast and crew members desperately attempt to avoid both cars, with Hashtag the Panda nearly being hit. The race then continues in New York City, where Jimmy crashes into a taxi after being distracted while talking to the guests, who then take the lead. Both cars then head into the New York Subway, where Jimmy once again takes the lead, and the riders nearly get hit by a train, but manage to escape through a tunnel that's currently under construction, much to the dismay of the nearby construction workers.

The riders then meet up with Jimmy near Sara and her father, who has a basket of the golden retriever puppies that are used for the Puppy Predictors segment of *The Tonight Show*. Jimmy then converts his car into an aircraft, with the riders following suit, as the two vehicles begin to fly through New York. Jimmy offers pizza and t-shirts to the riders from his vehicle, the latter of which leads him to says "We should sell these!" The race then continues into the East River, where Jimmy and the riders narrowly avoid being eaten by a shark before resurfacing and reaching the Statue of Liberty.

Jimmy and the riders then head to the Empire State Building, where a giant Hashtag the Panda is seen climbing the tower in an obvious reference to *King Kong*. Mistaking the guests for another plane attacking him, he grabs the car and throws it, sending the riders and Jimmy to the moon. Here, Jimmy temporarily exits his vehicle due to the low gravity. He spots The Roots in space suits, claiming they are the first band on the moon, and offers a Thank You Note to the moon for the moon dust in its environment.

Both Jimmy and the riders then approach a ride station, where the announcer informs them that it is the Space Train, and it will be the first roller coaster on the moon once completed. Jimmy responds with "Once completed?!" before both he and the riders are launched back towards Earth. To avoid being incinerated while re-entering Earth's atmosphere, Jimmy activates a tube that leads back to 30 Rockefeller Center. Once again backstage, Jimmy begins to arrogantly claim the race is his, but crashes his car, as the audience wins the race at the last minute. Jimmy then claims he let the riders win, thanks them for joining him, and bids them farewell.

## Trivia

* Several references to various films, some of which were adapted into current or former attractions at Universal Orlando Resort, exist in the ride. These include:
	+ Fallon portraying Travis Bickle, Robert De Niro's character from *Taxi Driver*, when Jimmy crashes into a taxi.
	+ Hashtag the Panda being giant and climbing the Empire State Building while fighting off planes is an obvious reference to King Kong.
	+ When both Jimmy and the riders go underwater in the East River, a shark attacks them. This is a homage to *Jaws*, both the film and the former ride, as well as the Amity Island area that formerly stood where The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley now stands.
* This is the second attraction at Universal Orlando Resort to feature the Statue of Liberty, following *The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man* at sister park Islands of Adventure.