The tunnel mouth
Your quest begins in a new plaza constructed before an ancient cavern. The actual Jeep used in the filming of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is parked nearby, with a set of footprints set into the concrete arranged in a confident stride leading from the Jeep to the geometric cave mouth ahead. The cave – flanked by flaming pedestals – is engraved with a very peculiar shape: a triangle with an all-seeing eye inside.
Could this be the fabled resting place of the Triangle of Light, supposedly able to halt time itself? There’s only one way to find out.
Stepping into the cave, bamboo poles are rigged to support a half-collapsed ceiling. The queue winding through this ancient temple entrance is a series of catwalks three or four feet above the ground, with stone relics beneath, lit by flickering lanterns and faltering excavation lights. A moody, distant soundtrack (comprised of five musical tracks, each for a particular room of the queue) signals that this is a mystical and unusual place…
The Warrior Room
As you proceed further through this temple, you notice a collapsed wall. It’s through this wall that the experience begins. After all, this isn’t just a ride; it’s an adventure. This new chamber resembles one you might’ve seen in the film: ornate Southeast Asian alcoves carved with delicate images and impressions, with strange stone monkey-warrior statues standing six feet tall in each.
In this room, you’re grouped into three different rows containing a total of 77 people. While it might be unbelievable, this is the group that will share your expedition, as the ride vehicle holds almost 80. Any clue yet what TOMB RAIDER might be? Probably not… As the deep, melodic chanting of the chamber’s musical score rises, fog begins to spill in from behind the monkeys. It would appear that, just as in the film, these stone warriors are coming to life…
Just before they can, the distant sound of wind chimes fills the chamber and the sound of grinding gears draws your attention to the far wall, opposite where you entered. A carving on the door begins to glow and twist, arranging itself to highlight a hidden pattern: the Triangle of Light. As an ancient tumbler locks into place, the circular door engraved with the Triangle rotates and slides out of the way, opening up a previously undiscovered chamber… It seems as if we’re on the right track.
The Antechamber
As the group presses forward into the Antechamber, they see one of the queue’s most impressive sights: the towering golden Brahma statue direct from the film, with its six arms grasping six golden swords. This four-faced god glows elegantly. As the group presses into the chamber, a golden disc in front of the towering god comes alive with swirling smoke and the voice of Lara’s father.
“It’s not at all what you’d call even odds. But I suppose that’s why my daughter Lara chose the life of a tomb raider. With a fortune to spend in a thousand lifetimes, she is not yet satisfied. And so my spirit remains with her always. For I fear she is attracted to the excitement that comes when life hangs in the balance…” (Foreshadowing?)
The pre-show fills us in on what’s preceded: “It happened once again along the Khamir trail… You could say she stumbled upon the entrance.” Angelina Jolie’s Lara is one step ahead of us, in this very temple. She’s faced the monkeys we just escaped, leaving most in pieces. “She was able; the trick was getting out again. Not so easy when the temple is question is guarded by a nasty curse.”
Then, we see her in this very chamber, puncturing the glowing vase at the base of the Brahma before us. We must be just moments behind! As the smoke dissipates and the chamber falls silent, her father shares his final advice: “I suppose she figured to pop in, knick the treasure, and that would be that… Famous last words.”
With a resounding rumble that shakes the entire chamber, the entire ten-foot tall wall to our left begins to rise. Stone rubs against stone as the pillars and wall ascend, revealing our final destination: the Heart of the Temple. As the three groups proceed in, they face – for the first time – the ride vehicle.
It’s made up of three very long rows situated in stadium-style seating, somewhat like a theatre. Each row crosses a bridge onto the vehicle and proceeds all the way down, pulling a shoulder restraint down until it locks into place with a seat belt for extra security.
Any idea what Tomb Raider is yet? No? Hold on.
The Heart of the Temple
Even buckled into the ride vehicle, most guests at this point will still have no idea whatsoever what TOMB RAIDER: The Ride is or what it’s about to do. That’s exactly how designers wanted it. With “excavation lights” pointed directly at the vehicle for loading, it’s impossible to see (and nearly impossible to imagine) what lies within the Heart of the Temple.
As a resounding, pulse-pounding drumbeat echoes through the massive chamber, your harnesses are checked and any – and all – loose articles are placed into the pouches in front of your seat and zipped tight. Any coins, phones, flip-flops or wallets will be lost. As you steady yourself, a final hiss of air draws your eyes as the bridges you used to board the ride vehicle retract and fold up. Escape is futile.
The banging of the drums comes to an abrupt and echoing halt. The silent chamber slowly fills with an unearthly choir. At the sound of rocks shifting for the first time in centuries, the vehicle slowly moves forward and lifts up just a few feet. Then, it stops and rocks backward, then forward again. It’s building momentum as the vehicle suddenly climbs halfway up the 100-foot tall chamber. Headlights at the front of the vehicle turn on, focusing on an unbelievable sight: an 80 foot tall carving of a Hindu goddess on the wall.
With a blast, her eyes open. Red lights scan back and forth across the vehicle. Deviously pleased, the awakened goddess focuses her eyes on the vehicle’s headlights, which shatter. The only lights left emanate from two gems held in two of her six hands: one pulses with fire; the other, ice.
The vehicle – supported by massive arms that allow it to swing – unlocks on its axels and falls precariously forward, hanging over something positioned at the foot of the goddess: the Triangle of Light.
As her fire and ice pulse, she sends the vehicle flying up and over the top of the chamber, circling back down to the center in weightless arcs over and over. Then, the cart flies up toward the ceiling, slamming to a halt with riders facing directly up at razor-sharp icy stalactites, dripping a bit down on riders. The hypnotic sight is accompanied by Lara’s voice: “Time is broken here…”
But with a menacing crack, the icicles flash red and appear to fall toward the vehicle, which flips downward, falling toward the Triangle. At the last possible second, the axels lock as the gondola inverts in a long, weightless arc along the ground. Racing through the dark, the goddess cackles. As the ride’s triumphant score fades, the vehicle reverses its swing’s direction and locks facing downward, with riders suspended facedown.
Something new comes into view: a pulsing of hot red steam escaping from a volcanic vent, fog billowing out. In fact, a 60-foot tall volcano stretches up the back wall of the chamber, and the pulsing lava inside signals that it’s woken up.
Slowly, the gondola lowers inch by inch toward the volcano and directly over a pit of boiling, shimmering lava beneath. As the orchestral score intensifies, fountains of lava leap up in sync, just inches from riders’ faces.
Just as riders are about to be lowered face-first into the steaming geysers, a crack releases the vehicle’s axel as it swings out from underneath, providing a view of the entire chamber from beneath. As the goddess cackles, a great burst of force rockets the vehicle toward her, flipping freely right in front of her as strobes flash.
The axels of the vehicle lock with riders upside down – a harrowing moment of force– then the gondola slowly continues its rotation up around the chamber as the goddess uses the last of her power to light the chamber up. As the entire room comes alive, spotlights search the chamber and focus on the Triangle of Light as the vehicle slowly rotates back toward its loading position.
The voice of Lara’s father resounds: “No one gets the best of Lara Croft… unless she lets them. And I didn’t raise that kind of girl!”
The goddess’s wild laughter fades as the room goes dark. Then, with a final note of music, she shrieks. A blast of fog appears to be released from the defeated goddess as she cracks, and the sound of her powers being locked away echoes. As riders cheer wildly, the excavation lights flicker back on, hiding the contents of the chamber once again for oncoming riders as a hiss of air signals the bridges returning to the vehicle, making for an easy escape out of the temple.
We always love to provide video evidence to help cement our descriptions of Lost Legends… but in the case of TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, pieces of that evidence are few and far between… Dark, mysterious, and wild, any and all loose articles you might’ve hoped to hold on to while journeying through the Temple of Light were sure to be lost to lava pits… seriously. But luckily, we can get a few glimpses at what TOMB RAIDER: The Ride was like… if you’re willing to use your imagination (and the description above).
Here’s an on-ride, point-of-view video taken from a secured camera:
And here’s a clever video taken during a behind-the-scenes tour of the ride while it’s running. Though it’s dark, you’ll quickly get a sense of the showbuilding and the ride’s positioning within it as each show scene comes alive… This also helps demonstrate the synchronized musical soundtrack well:
Finally, we’re lucky that the Travel Channel was so enthused by the mysterious TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, they dedicated a portion of one of their amusement park specials to the then-new attraction – including its queue and effects. Hang on tight and watch it all come together in this fantastic look at the ride in action:
One thing is for certain: whatever you were expecting of a seasonal theme park in Ohio, TOMB RAIDER probably wasn’t it. Of course, riders applaud wildly for the cinematic adventure and – more often than not – leave unable to explain exactly what TOMB RAIDER: The Ride is or how it works. But we’re here to help.
Read on as we explore the inner workings of this surprisingly simple attraction and why it’s gone for good…