TURBO RIDE SIMULATION THEATRE
Review by R. Esparrago

If you’re ever at California’s San Francisco Pier 39 area, go check out their Turbo Ride Simulation Theatre. This ride features a 70mm giant movie screen, hydraulic simulation seats, and digital surround sound where you can see, hear, and feel everything!  There is a story that this theatre was showing a re-creation of the Great San Francisco Earthquake when an actual earthquake occurred at the same time.  The audience could not tell the difference!

This article talks about the two features being presented in the Turbo Ride during my visit to the famous City By The Bay.  You can pay for one showing at a time or you can pay for both at the same time which is actually a better deal as they provide a discount.  You then wait in line until the previous showing is complete and then you are conducted into a waiting lobby where you can see previews of future Turbo Ride attractions (in this case, the making of a “RoboCop” movie made specifically for Turbo Ride Theatres around the country).

ALIENS:  RIDE AT THE SPEED OF FRIGHT

After seeing the previews, we’re allowed into what I call the “Prep Center” for the first simulation which is based on the Aliens movie series.  We stood in front of a screen and the lights darkened.  The screen flared to life and we are suddenly part of a platoon of Space Marines orbitting the Alien Planet listening to the sole survivor of a “bug hunt” sent to exterminate the hive below.  We're shown scenes of him and his crew destroying aliens before becoming overpowered by them.  He was able to escape but left his teammates behind.  The sergeant then looks at his platoon (which included us) and states that we are going to go back down there and save the squad left behind.

The screen darkens, the lights turn back on and the hydraulic door leading into Turbo Ride “Vehicle” opens to let us in.  We are told to strap into the simulation seats and once secured, the movie ride begins!  Throughout the course of the film, the seats throw us up and all around, making us feel every bump and jar that the Space Marines in the vehicle feel.  Since this was my first time in a Turbo Ride, I thought the simulation was great but was disappointed that most of the special effect sequences and action shots with the aliens were culled from the movie series that I had seen before.

DINO ISLAND

This was definitely the better of the two features as all the live action and computer-generated footage was created specifically for the Turbo Ride Theatres!  In the Prep Center, we are told that we are part of a world organization that is aggressively taking steps to address environmental concerns around the globe.  We are part of a crew assembled to investigate mysterious bioforms and strange data picked up by satellite over a new island formed by heavy volcanic activity.  We are shown our vehicle (which many alert readers will pick up as the same 12-wheeled, segmented, all-purpose all-terrain vehicle used in the movie “Damnation Alley”) and are ushered in.

The movie soon began and it was luscious!  Everything was gorgeously filmed from the perspective of us looking out of the large front screen of the vehicle and we saw, felt, and heard ourselves being dropped into the island and crashing into the lush underbrush.  We then experienced every sensation (except smell) as the vehicle moved through the island, skirting steaming, hot-red lava flows, driving between the tree-trunk legs of gigantic, panicked Apatosaurs, fleeing underneath from monstrous Tyrannosaurs, and being picked up and dropped by the fabulously giant flying reptile Quetzylcoatlus - whew!

All in all, Dino Island is a very breathtaking ride with terrific surround sound, good live action footage, and wonderful computer-generated animation and graphics!  Definitely recommend this movie if you want to check out the thrilling Turbo Ride Simulation Theatre!  

Review and artwork by R. Esparrago
romedome@eworld.com