The REAL Mission Breakout/Monsters After Dark Queue Soundtrack

 

I knew that Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout/Monsters After Dark had a custom music and audio loop that played within its outdoor queue (that allegedly contained Tower of Terror music), but could find almost no evidence or mention of it online. So, I went and recorded it myself.

To make up for the audio quality, I've paired it with "visual notes" that transcribe what characters are saying, and display the title/album/artist of the song where available.

Enjoy a wild combination of relaxing ambient music, bizarre sound effects, synthesizer remixes of orchestral scores, lore references, and even some defunct attraction Easter Eggs along the way!

Timestamps/track list is as follows:

0:00 Title Card

0:02 Headphone warning/disclaimer

0:09 “…catalog number 1,939.  In addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the collection includes many unique creatures, such as Howard the Duck.”

0:21 Unknown Ambient Space Music #1

1:35 Jazz Band Interruption

1:46 Recording cut #1

1:50 Unknown Ambient Space Music #2 (note: could be a continuation of #1, as I’m not sure how long the Jazz Band interrupted the recording)

3:00 “Welcome to Tanaleer Tivan’s Exhibition!  Featuring over a billion unique specimens, including flora, fauna, and artifacts.  This is one of many of his collections from across the galaxy.  This next one is quite rare.”

3:22 Random Alien Sounds #1

3:31 “Our [???] is the only living specimen in captivity.  You can find the [???] on our creatures level.”

3:41 A version of 1. Allegro by JS Bach.  Probably Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major—1. Allegro by Wendy Carlos, from her Switched on Bach album

4:10 “Wasn’t that wonderful?  This next piece is catalog number 1401.”

4:17 Bounkam Solo (Upper Volta) from the Nonesuch Explorer Series

4:25 “That was the distinctive sound of the [??? ???].  You can see one on the rare artifacts level.”

4:32 Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Music

4:57 “The Collector found this in his vault.  It hasn’t been played in many years.”

5:04 Random Alien Sounds #2

5:11 “That was the sound of an orloni.  Although they are diminutive, a pack of these can easily knock over an adult humanoid.”

5:20 Queen of the Night Aria from Mozart’s The Magic Flute

6:50 “You are continuing to enjoy more of The Collector’s rare and exotic recordings, many of which haven’t been heard in millennia.”

6:59 Unknown Ambient Space Music #3

9:52 Cast Member Intercom Announcement #1

10:08 Unknown Ambient Space Music #3 continues

11:43 “The Tivan Collection welcomes you!”

11:47 Sidi (Indonesia) by Pariangan Men’s Group, from the Smithsonian Folkways World Music Collection

12:43 “The instruments you just heard can be found in our collection, on the antiques level.”

12:49 Abraham Lincoln’s The Gettysburg Address

13:07 “Wasn’t that fascinating?  We’re still trying to decipher what number four-score is.  Next up is catalog number 477. Enjoy!”

13:20 Solar Winds by Chuck Jonkey, from his Deep Space album.

15:25 “This next one is catalog 362.”

15:30 Now is the Time by the Sherman Brothers, from the WDW Carousel of Progress

15:44 “That piece was really quite unusual!  Even The Collector isn’t sure what that is!”

15:52 Unknown Ambient Space Music #5

16:20 “You are listening to just a small sample of The Collector’s rare and exotic audio library.  He has spent over centuries amassing this amazing collection of sounds.  Enjoy!”

16:34 Unknown Ambient Space Music #6

16:51, 17:20, and 17:59 Jazz Band Interruptions, with Space Music 6 still underneath

20:29 Cast Member Intercom Announcement #2

20:45 “The Collector has obtained many rare and hard to find items, from Mustphelheim to Jotunheim.”

20:54 Random Alien Sounds #3

21:01 “That was the rare sound of the Frost Beast of Jotunheim.  We have one in our collection!  Here is catalog number 52,717.”

21:13 Deep Latex Jungle by Chuck Jonkey, from his Balloon Music album

23:42 “Wasn’t that unusual?”

23:44 Chinese Moonlight by Chuck Jonkey, from his Gong album

24:32 Recording cut #2

24:36 Chinese Moonlight by Chuck Jonkey continues

25:40 “The Collector acquired the instruments used on this recording.  They can be found on the antiques level.”

25:47 Prelude and Fugue #2 in C Minor (from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier) by Wendy Carlos, from her Switched on Bach album

27:06 “Tanaleer Tivan, The Collector of All Things, introduces his rare and exotic recorded sounds from throughout the galaxy.  You are enjoying a sample of his extraordinary audio collection.”

27:22 Gondwana by Marinjami… and possibly another track after it?  The running time for this segment seems to be longer than that of the actual song, which definitely matches the first part of this section.

32:04 Yet another Jazz Band Interruption

32:17 “Now playing catalog number 72.”

32:21 Recording cut #3

32:22 Gong Agung by Chuck Jonkey, from the Gong album

34:23 “Wasn’t that soothing?  Here is something quite unusual.”

34:29 Uranus the Magician by Isao Tomita, from The Tomita Planets album

35:53 Recording cut #4

35:55 Uranus the Magician resumes

37:27 “I’ll bet you’ve never heard anything quite like that!”

37:32 Random Alien Sounds #4

37:41 “Can you name that animal?  You can find it on our creature level.”

37:45 Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast clip

38:07 “It seems your planet was visited by hostile forces years ago, as this recording proves.”

38:17 “We hope you’re enjoying these rare collected sounds from throughout the galaxy.”

38:26 Unknown Ambient Space Music #8

41:39 Recording cut #5

41:46 Turquoise Skies by Chuck Jonkey, from the Wind Chime Music album

42:45 “This next piece is a personal favorite of The Collector’s.”

42:47 Meke Wesi Spear Dance by David Fanshawe, from the Spirit of Polynesia collection

43:21 “And that was catalog number 111,828.”

43:30 Random Alien Sounds #5

43:38 “The animal you just heard can be observed on our galactic creatures level.”

43:44 Triassic Twilight by Chuck Jonkey, from his Dinosaur Drums album

45:49 “The Tivan Collection welcomes you!  In addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy, the collection includes many unique creatures, such as a canine Soviet cosmonaut.”

46:04 Unknown Ambient Space Music #9

50:57 “The Collector has pulled this from the vault.  This piece comes from an extremely rare disc made of gold, that The Collector retrieved from an abandoned spacecraft.”

51:09 El Cascabel by Lorrenzo Barcelata, from the Voyager spacecraft’s golden record

51:39 “Feel free to dance to this next extraordinary number.  You won’t be able to help yourself!”

51:46 Timewhys by Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, from the album Zero Time

52:50 “After hearing that, I’m sure you understand why it is in our collection!  This next piece will leave you speechless.”

52:59 Random Alien Sounds #6

53:11 “That was catalog number 1,317.”

53:16 Solar Winds by Chuck Jonkey, again

55:24 Random Alien Sounds #7 (space whales)

55:37 “That was catalog number 273.  Nobody has seen [indiscernible] but The Collector has two that he hopes to mate.”

55:48 Unknown Ambient Space Music #10

57:05 Monsters After Dark exterior effects noises start to be audible

58:00 Thanks for watching!

 

DCA Tower... lives?

 Well, maybe "lives" is the wrong term, but it's apparently not as completely destroyed as I thought.  Well, allegedly.  Sadly this post involves a lot of "trust me, bro," but there was still enough information that I thought deserved to get a post here.

Over the past year on visits to Disneyland, I've had the luck to be able to talk to a few cast members about California Adventure's Tower of Terror, and it's yielded some surprising claims from them.

In September 2023, I talked to a cast member working at Monsters After Dark, who I noticed had a tattoo of California's HTH logo on his wrist.  It turned out he had worked at DCA Tower, and stated that he was one of the few remaining ex-bellhops still working on Breakout/Monsters by that point.  The combination of the re-theme and Covid-19 pandemic closure meant that most of the employees had moved on to other jobs.  He was the one who confirmed to me that Monsters After Dark uses a modified version of DCA Tower's original drop profile, which is apparently shared with the "Born to be Wild" track on default Mission Breakout. (Side note: what a difference custom music makes!  "Born to be Wild" seems to have one of the most ill fitting music/drop profile combinations, while Monsters has the custom music and drops work together to great effect)

He also made the interesting claim that at least one of the hallway scenes from Tower of Terror is still present in the ride, simply hidden behind the screen for GOTG: Mission Breakout.  He said it was in poor condition, but that it was still there.  I was surprised at this, since I figured that the projectors etc. needed for the Guardians re-theme would've taken up enough room to merit gutting the whole scene, but I guess it's nice to think at least part of my favorite ride still exists in the building.  And that's not the only part--according to him, some of the cables hanging by the Yeti animatronic in the queue are actual elevator cables from the Tower era.

I thought that was the last I'd hear of DCA Tower's remnants, until August of this year.  At the park entrance security screening, a security guard noticed my Twilight Zone tattoo and Hollywood Tower themed "Disneybound" outfit and went, "Hey, you know the sign's still here, right?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"The big sign. 'Hollywood Tower.' Yeah it's still just sitting there in the back in a cast member area."

WHAT.

That was a shock!  I'd thought that for SURE that sign was LONG gone, especially since that was the first thing removed after the Breakout conversion announcement.  And even more so, since it could presumably have been sent to Paris as convenient spare parts for their sign (I don't think Orlando could use it, as their sign uses a different configuration).

Nope!  Disney has been far lazier than I thought in actually scrapping Tower of Terror.  It seems especially odd in space-strapped Anaheim; the Florida property has the space to just abandon whole attractions (Wonders of Life Pavilion) and even a whole water park (River Country), but you'd think Anaheim would hesitate to keep a GIANT sign around for a ride they don't plan to ever bring back.

Of course, it's entirely possible that the CMs are just spinning stories.  I've seen no physical or photographic evidence of these claims, and doubt that I ever will unless someone definitely breaks some rules.  Still, it's nice to imagine that maybe, just maybe, DCA Tower isn't completely dead after all.