Inside Disney's Rise of the Resistance Attraction: Everything You Don't See When the Lights Are Out

One thing Disney is really good at is making you feel immersed in the environment of every single ride in the parks.

Stormtroopers in Rise of the Resistance

For example, when you’re inside Pirates of the Caribbean, you FEEL like you’re there with the pirates (especially when you’re smelling that familiar odor of the water). When you’re on Peter Pan’s Flight, it feels like you’re flying over the city of London. When you’re inside the Haunted Mansion, the effects make you believe that this is actually a haunted house. Even when you’re on Rise of the Resistance, it does feel like you’re trying to frantically escape the First Order — however, would you believe that some of the effects on that ride are no different from rides Disney designed way back in the 1960s? WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

Okay, so let’s talk about Rise of the Resistance, which you’ll find in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. The ride opened in 2019 and has some of the most advanced technology and effects of any Disney ride EVER. But we recently uncovered some of this ride’s secrets, and some of the concepts behind the ride’s effects remind us of the kind of effects used in the Haunted Mansion, which opened in 1969 in Disneyland and in 1971 in Disney World.

Haunted Mansion in Disneyland

Here’s what happened. We were riding Rise of the Resistance when it stopped, and the ride abruptly closed. So we were stuck on the ride for a while, right in front of that awesome Kylo Ren effect that makes it look like he’s coming right at you with his lightsaber. This is seriously one of the coolest effects on the ride.

Kylo Ren, Ready to Fight

SPOILER ALERT

Well, when the lights came on, the secret behind the Kylo effect was revealed. Now, we know that Disney uses projections throughout the ride. But it turns out that here, the projection for Kylo Ren is cast onto a cutout (probably made of plywood or something similar) that acts as a screen, and a mechanized arm holding the lightsaber moves up and down as the cutout moves forward. We caught the effect as the lights came on and the projection was still active. The figure started to retract, but then the projection shut off, and the secret was revealed.

Revealing its secrets

What’s fascinating is that this is not unlike the kind of effects you might see in the Haunted Mansion, and those effects date back to the 1960s. Of course, projections have improved since then, as well as the automatic tracking of the projection surface and the lighting that makes the lightsaber look so real, but perhaps the technology is based on something way older than you might think.

Simple, yet effective

So, hey, Kylo, we know your secret now. Honestly, it’s fascinating how creative Disney Imagineers really are, right?

Stay tuned to DFB for more.

4 Secrets Imagineers Hid in Disney World Rides

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What do you think? Have you ever seen ride secrets revealed when stuck on a ride? Let us know in the comments!