Alternate Tower Spotlight: The Florida Tower of Terror--The Ride!

About time I finally got to this, isn't it?

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Inside the elevator, ready for launch, June 28, 2017

"You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator, about to ascend into your very own episode of... The Twilight Zone," echoed Rod Serling's narration as the elevator began to ascend.  Unlike DCA and Paris' later approach, Florida's ride made a point of beginning the ride by behaving like a normal elevator.  Rod Serling, as in the pre-show, was voiced by Mark Silverman.  At this point, sharp-eyed guests might notice the elevator permit on the lower left side of the lift carriage's wall, signed, as always, by a certain Mr. Cadawaller.

The permit, July 3, 2017

Just as that opening sentence ended, the ride car doors opened to reveal a tan hotel hallway.  At the end of the hallway was a wall with an arch-shaped window, with two small framed artworks (whether photos or paintings, it was impossible to tell from the distance) on either side of it.  Two potted plants framed an archway that had an elaborate swirled design stenciled around the top.  Hidden in the center of the swirled design was a camera.

Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

Lightning flashed and illuminated the hallway, and also served as a flash for the hidden camera.  The five neon blue ghosts of the unfortunate passengers appeared in a Pepper's ghost effect, the little girl singing an eerie version of "It's raining, it's pouring."  Lightning arced between their arms, before they seemed to absorb into the walls of the hallway with another flash, electricity crackling back toward the rear window.

Screenshots from this video by SoCalAttractions360

Another lightning crash illuminated just the rear window as the hallway melted away into a black starfield. Eventually, only the window was left, floating and tilting in the great void, surrounded by stars. 

Screenshots from this video by SoCalAttractions360

I feel the need to note here that this effect was apparently done with projection on a scrim rather than DCA and Paris' later use of a screen.  This allowed Florida's starfield to have much greater depth, and to have the window feel like it was truly floating in the void due to having "stars" behind it as well as surrounding and in front.  The difference is difficult to pick out in photos or video, but in person it is very clear that the original Tower included this extra detail.

As it floated, the arched hotel window transformed into the black and white window from the pre-show, before loudly shattering.  No narration occurred to attempt to explain this event, simply leaving riders in suspense. 

The window shattering.  Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

The elevator doors closed and the car continued its slow ascent.

At this point, it was fun to pick out what other riders in the car had ridden DCA or Paris before.  Anyone familiar with those Towers obviously braced for a drop after the hallway scene; I even caught myself bracing for it at one point.

The narration continued, "One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare."  Here the elevator doors opened to reveal a dark, vaguely industrial hallway slightly reminiscent of the boiler room, but with mirrored-looking walls.

Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

"That door is opening once again, and this time, it's opening for you."

At this point, the elevator dropped all pretense of being normal, and began moving forward.  As the car left the elevator shaft, the hallway likewise transformed.  No longer a normal industrial hallway (possibly some kind of maintenance level?), a lighting change revealed the bright, jumbled, electric blue dreamscape of the 5th dimension, previously hidden behind 2-way mirrors.  This included unnaturally angled architecture, ghostly figures of the Elevator Five, and imagery from the Twilight Zone opening sequence, such as the E=mc^2, the ticking clock, and the shattering window.  The mysterious portal within the hotel had finally opened.  In the earlier years of operation, this eeriness was enhanced even more by having a fog machine, but by 2017 that had been long discontinued due to its apparent interference with the ride's operation.

Ticking clock and weird architecture.  Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

The eye, a ghostly bellhop figure, weird architecture, and the E=MC^2.  Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

As the ride vehicle passed by the giant floating eyeball from the opening sequence, the eye blinked to show the guests a photo of themselves from earlier, taken from that hidden camera in the hallway scene.  I've seen some sources claim that this effect hasn't worked for many years, with the eyeball showing a stock photo of an elevator instead.  As of 2017, one drop shaft's eye effect was definitely working; I believe it was the elevator that loaded from the left area of the boiler room.  The other loading area's elevators showed a stock elevator photo.

The end of the 5th dimension hallway appeared to be yet another starfield.  As the car approached it, guests could see one set of boiler room elevator doors, complete with dial, situated sideways on the wall.  This set piece was not emphasized in any way, and could easily be mistaken for just industrial gauges if one wasn't paying attention.

The eyeball showing the elevator photo, the sideways boiler room doors, and the starfield.  Note that the video that I've taken most of these screenshots from seems to have been filmed from the right shaft, while this screenshot is from a video filmed on the left, hence why the eyeball is suddenly on the other side of the car.  Screenshot from this video by SoCalAttractions360

I've read some claims that the 5th dimension scene is supposed to represent an "upward view" of the elevator shaft based on this detail, but I feel confident in asserting that this is false.  The sideways door just adds to the surreal nature of the scene.  All of the imagery in the 5th Dimension scene is a callback to things previously presented in the ride--the pre-show imagery, the ghosts, and the boiler room elevator doors.  Furthermore, the doors and dial are those seen on the outside of the elevator as guests load, not those that we see on the inside in the shaft.

As the elevator entered the starfield, the stars consolidated in a central point in front of the elevator.  If one boarded from the right side of the boiler room, the stars briefly formed the shape of a Mickey Mouse head silhouette, making it a Hidden Mickey.  With a sharp, vaguely electric noise, the central light turned into two parallel lines that split apart as the doors opened.

The starfield consolidating

Splitting parallel lines.  Screenshots from this video by SoCalAttractions360

Guests could feel the humid Florida air as their car locked into the drop shaft carriage.  In Florida's design, the show scenes were entirely in one (relatively) normal elevator shaft, while the drops took place in a second specialized shaft, connected via the 5th Dimension scene.

The car situated itself for the drop sequence in complete darkness, as the narration echoed out:

"You are about to discover what lies beyond the 5th dimension... beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination... in the Tower of Terror."

With that epic title drop (heh), the elevator alternately plummeted or skyrocketed guests into the epic drop sequence.  Unlike DCA and Paris' set routines, Florida had multiple sequences that were randomized.  Each had different drops as well as effects and scenes within the drop shafts.  Notably, some routines began by shooting guests upwards to begin the sequence!

Marvin's Vids gives a good rundown of the elevator motions for each different sequence at 58:08 in this video: https://vimeo.com/10428903

Regarding the different effects and scenes, I've yet to see a comprehensive list of them.  I'm not even sure what all of them potentially are; even with riding Florida Tower dozens (or possibly more than dozens...) of times for this project, I didn't get all of the ride sequences I know exist.  Still, the ones that I'm aware of are:

-Doors opening at the top, once with a ride photo and once near the end for the final drop.  This happens for every drop sequence, and the view from the top is obviously one of the big draws for the attraction.

The top of the drop shaft/camera stop.  Note how the sign overlaps the door opening, unlike in other designs.  Screenshots from my own video, filmed July 2, 2017

-Mannequin scene.  A freaky space that might represent some kind of storage area, and had an open-seeming sheet metal rear wall.  Its main feature was a ghostly looking mannequin of indeterminate gender, draped in flowy cloth.  Generally, if the elevator paused at this scene, wind would blow the cloth around as a strobe light flashed, to disconcerting effect.

This seems to be the most difficult scene to film even with lowlight cameras.  Filmed versions really don't do it justice; this video from LMG vids gave the clearest view I could find

-Lightning crackling along the shaft as the car traveled upwards or downwards.

Drop shaft lightning, from this video by SharpProductions

-Shattering window.  The car would briefly pause at the bottom screen, to see the pre-show window shatter before rocketing upwards again.

A glimpse of the shattering window from this video by SharpProductions

-Elevator Five.  The same as the shattering window, but instead featuring another vision of the ghosts with electricity crackling between them.

Drop shaft ghosts, screenshot from my own video filmed July 2, 2017

If anyone else knows of any other drop shaft effects, please let me know (preferably with proof)!

Another notable aspect of the Florida Tower's ride sequence was how much of it took place in total darkness.  Aside from the effects stops or crackling lightning, all the action took place in a featureless void.  This made the experience all the more disorienting, especially with the occasional weightlessness from the drops!  It also demonstrated an entirely different approach between Florida and later incarnations of the ride.  Florida's dark disorientation gave the distinct horror of being hurled through an unknown dimension, while DCA/Paris' occasionally-lit shafts with visible doors instead provided the more grounded horror of being dropped by a possessed, but still definitively recognizable, elevator.

Update: After years of wondering, here's a thorough explanation of the drop sequences here!

After one last big plummet down the full length of the drop shaft, guests found themselves at the bottom screen, faced with a giant version of the Twilight Zone spiral from the show's opening sequence as the show's theme song played.  In a reverse of the pre-show opening, the objects such as the door, window, and eyeball receded back into the spiral, as the car likewise pulled backwards away from the screen.  Finally, Rod Serling appeared again, just before the screen "turned off" with a zap of static like the pre-show TV.  At this, a set of elevator doors closed, lights slowly turned on, and guests found their elevators in a storage area.

Ending Spiral

Pre-show objects floating back into the spiral

Rod Serling making one last appearance

Ending static

Note: Ending screenshots from my video filmed July 2, 2017.

In this storage area was a wide variety of props, including Easter Eggs from the show.  These included a ventriloquist dummy, referencing either "The Dummy" or "Caesar and Me" (yes, The Twilight Zone  had two ventriloquist episodes), in one side's exit, and the slot machine from "The Fever" in the other side's exit.  A radio resembling the one from "Static" also seemed to be among the junk in the room.

Ending area with the ventriloquist dummy (seen at right), from this video by LMG Vids

(if anyone has a clear photo or screenshot showing the slot machine, please let me know!)

"A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning, something you won't find in any guidebook," the narration continued as the car continued to pull back, and then rotate toward the unload door.

Rotating to unload, from this video by LMG Vids

"The next time you check in to a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling, or you may find yourself a permanent resident... the Twilight Zone."

With those words and one last dramatic music cue, the ride car pulled up to unload.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please gather your belongings and watch your step as you exit through the elevator doors.  We trust your stay at the Hollywood Tower Hotel has been a pleasant one.  And please, do come back and see us again!  Thank you," the ghostly announcer recited as the doors opened and the seatbelts unlocked to allow guests to unload.

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For those wishing for a video experience of the ride sequence, I recommend the videos I used for screenshots.  I filmed one of my own ridethroughs in 2017, but since I did not have a lowlight camera at the time only certain parts of the video actually turned out well, which I used as screenshots here.