Back to the Future: The Ride

A photo of the entrance

**Back to the Future: The Ride** is a former motion simulator attraction at Universal Studios Florida, based on the Back to the Future Franchise. The attraction opened on May 2, 1991.

It then permanently closed on September 3, 2007 and got replaced by *The Simpsons Ride*.

## Plot

Following the events of *Back to the Future Part III*, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown moves to the present time in Hill Valley
 where, in 1991, he founded the Institute of Future Technology, a
scientific institute specializing in his "futuristic" inventions. On May
 2, 1991, he invites tourists into the facility as "volunteers" in order
 to test out his newest invention, the eight-passenger DeLorean time
machine, by traveling one day into the future.

Meanwhile, Doc travels to 2015 in the original DeLorean (a new
time machine being built out of another DeLorean) to make sure the space
 time continuum is back to normal after the events of his previous time
traveling adventures, while his other Institute scientists traveled to
1885 and 1955. However, in 1955, Biff Tannen
 stows away on the IFT scientists' time machine, hitching a ride back to
 the present-day Institute, which sets up the ride's main storyline.

### Queue

Visitors to the Institute wait outside the facility. The queue video features clips from the *Back to the Future*
 trilogy, as well as new footage featuring Doc, diagrams for other
innovations, ostensibly created by him, newsreel footage of him with Albert Einstein and other historical figures, and a "live" video feed from 2015 in which he explains the experiment.

### Pre-Show

Riders enter the ride as "volunteers" for the time travel experiment
at the Institute of Future Technology. Doc explains that the plan was
for them to travel one day into the future, but this caution must be
exercised as Biff, who graduated from Hill Valley High School in 1955,
has escaped his time period and is now running amok in the space-time
continuum. Once inside, Doc reveals some of the inventions he had been
working on, including his "crowning achievement" – an 8-passenger DeLorean
 time machine (also a convertible), which is what the riders will be
using in the experiment. Unbeknownst to Doc, Biff has infiltrated the
Institute – he appears to the riders, asking for assistance in finding
Doc's time machine. Heather then announces that the pre-flight system
checks were in progress and informs the riders to stand by for an
announcement from Doc.

Biff traps Doc in his office, and it was revealed that when one
of the time traveling teams was conducting an experiment back in 1955,
Biff stowed away. He takes the DeLorean and vanishes into time. Worried
about the havoc Biff will cause to the space-time continuum, Doc
frantically pleads with the riders to assist him and says that the only
way to bring Biff back to the present is to accelerate to 88 miles per
hour and bump him (which will open a time vortex that will send both
time vehicles back to their original point of departure); they enter the
 8-passenger time vehicle, led by one of Doc's assistants, after going
over final safety instructions. Doc then informs them with some helpful
advice saying that the time vehicle Biff has stolen had a sub-ether
time-tracking scanner; that way whatever time period he may be, the
riders' vehicle will pin-point to that exact location. They then follow
Biff into time.

### Ride

When the time machine's doors close, Doc uses his remote control to
control it, hover it, and accelerate to 88 miles per hour (with electric
 sparks coming from it, speeding through the open door and passing
through the wormhole) and the ride begins. First, Biff lead the riders
to Hill Valley
 in 2015 where they chase him through town. They smash into neon signs,
fly over neighborhoods and the town square, and the chase culminates at
the iconic clock tower. He then departs for the ice age.
 The riders follow, and slowly lower into the icy caverns. Biff honks
his horn, causing an avalanche that damages the riders' vehicle. Flying
out of the caverns, the riders see Biff shoot away into time, but their
own engine had failed, and begins to plummet down a chasm. Doc manages
to restart the vehicle, accelerating backward and through time into the Cretaceous Period.

Upon arriving, the clock display on the DeLorean's dashboard blinks 12:00, as a reference to a VCR that had lost power. The riders follow Biff's vehicle into a dormant volcano in which a Tyrannosaurus
 is discovered. Biff goads it into attacking the riders, who barely
escape. It strikes Biff's vehicle, sending it flying out of control; the
 dinosaur then swallows the riders' vehicle, but spits it out mere
seconds later. It then drops down onto a lava river to see Biff's
DeLorean, now damaged and unable to maneuver, moving down an active lava
 flow toward the edge of a cliff, with Biff pleading for help from Doc.
As both vehicles plunge over the edge, the riders' one accelerates to
time travel speed and bumps Biff's, sending both of them back through
the vortex to the original point of departure – the present, at the
Institute of Future Technology (in which they crash through the *Back to the Future*
 logo in front), where Biff get out and thanks the riders and Doc for
saving his life, but is soon seized by security. Riders exit the
vehicle, as Doc thanks them and reminds them that, "The future is what
you make it!" An animated logo of the Institute of Future Technology
flashs up on the screen with the words "Please lift lap bar and exit"
and after a few seconds Doc warns, "Hurry up! Get out! Before you meet
yourself coming in!" As guests leave, the song "Back in Time" plays.

## Gallery

The Eight Passenger DeLoreanBack to the Future: The Ride Poster.