Two Towers, Two Episodes, Two Valid Adaptations of The Twilight Zone

(Alternately: Correcting Common Misconceptions about IP Application or Lack Thereof)

Based on the title, one might assume this post is about Florida Tower and DCA/Paris Tower.  Those are the two models of the ride based around The Twilight Zone after all.  This post is not about those Towers.

This is about Florida and Tokyo.

Now, there’s one frustrating accusation I’ve seen thrown towards the various Twilight Zone Towers: basically, that they do a crappy job of fitting with the IP, and that the supposed “lost episode” idea that the ride portrays would not fit with the actual show at all.  Meanwhile, I’ve seen Tokyo’s original-story version of the ride lauded as the “best” Tower, with a story designed just for the ride from the start with no IP concessions, and a morality tale that ironically fits in more with the Twilight Zone IP.

This doesn’t pop up overly often, and I’ve mentioned this issue in passing in other posts, but I figured it’s long past time I finally give this its own article.

Note that I’ll generally have Florida in mind as my example of a Twilight Zone Tower, given that it is the first and most elaborate iteration of that idea. 

I’ll also state again that I loved the story side of Tokyo’s Tower of Terror, just not the actual ride portion.  So don’t worry, this isn’t me hating on Tokyo, just correcting a frustrating assertion I’ve seen in the Tokyo vs. Twilight Zone debate.

That being said, let’s break this down by issue:

1. Does the Twilight Zone Tower not even fit with the series’ stories at all?

Absolutely yes!  I wouldn't be writing this if I agreed it didn't!

Of course, this requires some elaboration.  The Twilight Zone is famous not just as a science fiction anthology, but also as a series containing many morality tales.  Given that the Twilight Zone Tower is meant to represent another episode, this has left some fans scratching their heads and asking, “Where’s the moral?  What did the Five People in an Elevator and/or the guests do to invoke the wrath of a supernatural storm?”

In my post about experiential storytelling, I posited this interpretation:

"The Twilight Zone, in the eponymous show, is often (although not always) a realm of karmic punishment.  In the book Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone by Mark Dawidziak, the author notes that people who take dares fare especially poorly in the Zone.  What was the marketing campaign heavily centered around?  "I took the dare!"  The pre-show video even states "We invite you if you dare to step aboard."  It's possible that, by taking the dare to enter the building and/or ride the elevator, our characters were getting their punishment for taking dares.  Likewise, our characters seemingly are poking around an abandoned and potentially dangerous tragic disaster site for no good reason, and thus being stupid and/or disrespectful--two other things that generally aren't rewarded in the Twilight Zone.

Of course, "this is happening because our characters were stupid jerks" is far from a satisfying explanation, and it stems from a knowledge of the ride's source material that the average rider may not have (and should not be required to have), so I won't posit my guess here as "canon".  Instead it's merely the best explanation I can offer.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye sadly does use "the curse happens because your characters were stupid jerks" as its official story, so it wouldn't be completely out of character for Disney to use this plot device, however."

As you can see, I noted that this interpretation requires looking much deeper into the ride, marketing materials, and original show than the average rider might be expected to have.  It also places the guests in an “evil” role, which seems…somewhat rude, automatically assigning the “wrong” intentions to the guests no matter what.  However, even without a fan doing a deep dive into the lore (or having to be told they’re a jerk for riding the attraction), there is an easy explanation for how the Tower’s story absolutely fits into the show canon.

Not every Twilight Zone story is a morality tale.

Seriously, although there are quite a few episodes with morals and karmic justice, there are also quite a few where weird or tragic crap just… happens.  There is even a major example of this in one of the most famous episodes, “Time Enough at Last.”

For those of you who have not yet seen the episode, “Time Enough at Last” is about a man, Henry Bemis, who loves to read, but is prevented from doing so by his unpleasant boss and wife.  Then nuclear disaster hits the world, leaving Bemis the last person alive, but finally with time to read—only for his glasses to break, dooming him to walk the earth with horribly blurry vision and unable to do the one activity he might consider to make such a lonely existence worthwhile.

There’s no real moral to be had there (aside from perhaps the exceedingly mundane “always have spare glasses.”).  There’s certainly no karmic justice either; Bemis doesn’t seem to be a bad enough guy to deserve lifelong psychological torment, and the rest of the world just got nuked into oblivion.  Even Dawidziak’s book—a book dedicated to finding the morals of famous episodes—failed to find a message behind “Time Enough at Last”, besides, perhaps, “bad things sometimes happen to good people, and that can’t be avoided.”

Henry Bemis’ broken glasses are featured as Easter Eggs in the Twilight Zone Towers, and Imagineers viewed every episode of the original series when designing the ride.  It was no secret to the designers that faithfully adapting the licensed property did not necessitate going for a moral-based plot.

Interestingly enough, the series does have its share of ominous elevators (see the episode “22”, which got an Easter egg in DCA, for some especially familiar scenes), but none of them ever drop… until this “lost episode”.  The designers are almost making it a Chekov’s Gun.

So, for those concerned that the Twilight Zone Tower is an “unfaithful adaptation” for plot reasons, it is certainly not.  None of the Elevator Five needed to have done anything wrong to get cursed by that fateful lightning bolt, nor did the presumably hundreds of other people in the Hollywood Tower Hotel to get cursed by the lightning storm either.  The riders need not necessarily have any “good” reason to get subsequently cursed either.  The Zone isn’t always about karmic justice; sometimes, unfortunately, shit happens.

2. Is Tokyo’s storyline a flawless Twilight Zone-esque experience with a tighter plot than the Twilight Zone Tower?

Very much yes to the Twilight Zone comparison... but it requires some leaps of logic regarding why the guests get cursed.

The basic summary is this: Harrison Hightower was a super rich, super egotistical ass who built a hotel in New York, the Hotel Hightower, basically as a monument to himself.  He spent his life traveling around the world to steal artifacts from other cultures and displayed his spoils in the Hightower.  He was such a jerk that he stole more than even the vast hotel could display; piles of treasure built up in the basement.  Then, one fateful day, he obtained the idol Shiriki Utundu, which cursed him, sending him plummeting to his doom down the elevator shaft, his pride preceding his literal fall.  His ghost is sentenced to keep reliving his horrible final moments.

The New York Historical Society couldn’t let such a magnificent hotel just be demolished, though, and started giving tours of the place.  Of course, things go rather wrong with the tour once guests take the elevator to see the upper floors…

Now, the morality story angle is PAINFULLY clear.  There’s also a really clear reason why Harrison is cursed and still haunting the place; it’s his karmic punishment.  The monument he built to his ego is now his prison.  It’s obvious why people who think that The Twilight Zone automatically equals “morality tale” would gravitate towards this storyline.

But…why are the guests cursed to also plummet in the elevator on their tour?  Does the Historical Society know the guests are in danger?

An answer to the first question might be “Shiriki Utundu is warning the guests not to follow in Harrison’s footsteps”, but that’s a guess.  A more cynical guess might be that the idol also thinks the guests are somehow like Hightower and thus deserve his same fate—or that Shiriki Utundu is just a jerk who likes cursing people.  As for the second question… all I have is more questions.  Are the tour guides super oblivious?  Are they indifferent to the idea that their tours are potentially dangerous?  Have they become somehow influenced by the curse, becoming agents of the malevolent force in the building the same way the Twilight Zone bellhops are?

Of course, the actual “curse” drops are so gentle it’s almost difficult to consider them as representing “danger”, so, just as a sarcastic guess here, maybe it was an intentional part of the tour all along?  Historians, especially those working around “haunted” historic sites, can have some dark senses of humor.

If a translation I found of the pre-show is correct, Tokyo might actually use the “don’t take the dare!”/”we’re cursed because we’re stupid” version of why the guests are cursed as actual canon.  In the pre-show, Hightower warns us to not fall victim to Shiriki Utundu’s curse like him, and to run away while we still can.  Of course, we continue our historical tour anyway, and subsequently end up cursed.  Even on a different continent and with a different storyline, we still took the dare.

Tokyo’s story answers a bit more about what’s going on (namely, why the initial ghost is haunting the elevator), but clearly there’s some head-scratchers left.

3.  So… should the Towers have swapped stories or something?

I’ve read praise for Tokyo’s Tower based on the fact that it’s one of the few new attractions to not prominently feature an IP.  However, like any good Twilight Zone story, there’s a twist.

There’s no need to swap stories… because the two hotels have been in the same continuity all along.

In Shanghai Disneyland, there’s a newspaper on a bulletin board that contains headlines both about a disaster at the Hollywood Tower Hotel and about the League of Adventurers finding the Temple of the Crystal Skull.  Obviously, the Hollywood Tower is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  The Temple of the Crystal Skull is the setting for Tokyo DisneySea’s Indiana Jones ride, which is in the Lost River Delta.  Lots of Hightower’s artifacts are clearly marked as having come from Lost River Delta.  The Lost River Delta and the HTH, and therefore the Hotel Hightower and the Twilight Zone version, all are in the same continuity.  It’s all the same story.

Here's the newspaper as proof.  Photo by Laffite'sLanding

Tokyo’s is still technically in the Twilight Zone, it just never says it.  It never needs to say it, both because good storytelling never needs a specific IP, and because the connections are there anyways for those who care to look.  Come on, isn’t it easy to envision Rod Serling giving some sharp commentary about Hightower while gesturing toward the idol in Hightower’s office?

Funny enough, having two “lost episodes” with the same gimmick would even fit with the actual Twilight Zone show continuity.  It had TWO episodes about ventriloquist dummies, and even used the same puppet for both!

On another note, the ultimate conclusion of all these connections means that building a 13-story hotel in the Disney Parks canon is just a really bad idea.

Drop Your Expectations: A Review of Tokyo DisneySea’s Tower of Disappointment

The second I arrived at DisneySea, I went straight for the Tower of Terror.  Not only was it the only incarnation of my favorite ride that I hadn’t ridden yet, but it had quite the hype built up for it.  I’d heard endless praise for its original story and beautiful design, and even heard a few essays (both written and video-based) on how this was the “best Tower” and the shining example of the ride.

I knew not to go in expecting the “best ride ever” because, quite frankly, no attraction can ever live up to hype of that level.  I knew it used the same ride system as DCA and Paris so I went in expecting something of at least that level of fun.  As I explored the exterior and went through the queue and pre-show, everything seemed to be going according to expectation.  A dense story fans can really sink into?  Beautifully detailed sets?  Fun Easter eggs connecting to other properties?  All check!

But then I rode the ride.

And holy crap, was that a MASSIVE letdown.  And not in the way a drop tower is SUPPOSED to make you plummet.

There’s no gentle way to put this, but Tokyo’s drop set is EMBARASSINGLY tame.  I’ve had many regular rides on actual elevators that were more eventful.  The elevator at my hotel gave me just as much airtime.  It’s gentle enough to be a child’s ride.  All of that epic suspense and meaty story build up to a whole lot of NOTHING.  If the drops are supposed to represent Harrison Hightower’s punishment, I assume his punishment is being bored to death while being gently lifted and lowered in an elevator.

At first I wondered if the more restrictive restraints on Tokyo’s version dampened the experience, but I did a test that proved otherwise.  I wear a lanyard to the parks to keep my tickets and fastpasses handy, and I know that on any other Tower I have to remove the lanyard if I don’t want it flying up into my face during the ride.  On Tokyo’s, I left the lanyard on and not restricted by the seatbelt—and it barely lifted off my chest.  Tokyo’s is without a doubt a slower, gentler drop sequence.

Tokyo seems to forget the “thrill ride” half of a highly themed thrill ride experience.  The observable and experiential stories both build up and intertwine to promise an intense finale for guests, and it utterly fails to deliver.  I wrote down notes on my initial impression upon exiting the ride for the first time, and honestly, I felt almost pranked.  All this praise from the fan community, and all this intense story buildup in the attraction itself, for a ride that apparently forgets its ride portion.  Which is, you know, a rather important part of the equation.  Did some of those essayists even ride this?

I know an easy counterargument to this is “But Haunted Mansion provides chills and thrills while going at a walking pace!”  However, there are a few reasons Haunted Mansion doesn’t disappoint.  Mansion doesn’t advertise its ride system upon first look at the exterior.  Once we’re inside, we’re promised a haunted tour, and we get a haunted tour, in beautiful theatrical detail.  Tower, in all its versions, advertises its ride system right on its front; we see the drop shafts from the open doors.  This sets up certain expectations.  Upon entering the ride, we’re promised something of a tour through a haunted hotel, AND promised to re-live the terrifying elevator-dropping circumstances that led to the haunting.

Tokyo’s Tower of Terror only delivers on the “haunted hotel tour” portion of the expectations it sets, and it does that rather well.  Indeed, if the whole thing were set up as a Haunted Mansion or Mystic Manor type attraction, with focus on the show scene and story elements rather than trying to shoehorn in a thrill ride, I probably wouldn’t feel disappointed at all, and would be endlessly praising it instead.

I also should note that someone else in my party initially mistook the Hotel Hightower for being Harrison’s mansion rather than a hotel (…despite the obvious hotel elements… and the sign on the front of the building…), which I can’t help but feel underscores how the story might actually suit a Mansion type ride better.

I also initially wondered if maybe the ride was toned down because, obviously, Tokyo DisneySea was built for Japanese audiences, and maybe intense thrill rides aren’t so popular there.  But then I rode Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and Thunder Dolphin (the coaster at the nearby Tokyo Dome City park), which were all every bit as intense (and popular) as anything else I’ve ever been on.  Clearly the Tokyo area has a healthy appreciation for thrill rides.

I realized that my disappointment felt awfully familiar.  It was entirely parallel, yet almost opposite, to my feelings towards Mission Breakout.  Mission Breakout has extremely intense and thrilling elevator motions, sometimes to the point of being nauseating, but utterly fails to deliver any kind of satisfying story or beautiful design.  The Hotel Hightower and the Collector’s Fortress are dark reflections of each other: the beautiful and the ugly, the well-written and the thrown-together, the too tame and the too intense.

Both are equally missing a vital part of what makes a highly themed thrill attraction feel complete: the thrill in Tokyo, and the theme in Breakout.

And, I can’t help but notice, but both of these Towers are generally credited to Joe Rhode.  Maybe the moral of the story is to just not let Joe Rhode design your Tower?

This also applies in-universe.

Now, to make it entirely clear, I don’t hate the DisneySea Tower.  It’s such a beautiful building, with such artistry put into the story, small details, and creating suspense, that I can’t help but like it.  It’s an art piece, every bit as much as Florida Tower, the Haunted Mansions, and the Indiana Jones rides are.  However, failing to provide an appropriate payoff for all that wonderful setup is an especially glaring weakness.  If it had a drop sequence at least equivalent to DCA, I’d probably rank it as my second favorite Tower after Florida, but, unfortunately, as it stands it’s easily the weakest version not named “Mission Breakout”.