Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Turns You Into a Resistance Spy, Complete with Real X-Wings

Note: This articles contains spoilers for the Disney World ride Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland and Disneyworld earlier this year, attendance was lower than expected, with overall park visits declining about 3 per cent in the quarter overall. During Disney’s Q3 GY19 Earning Results Webcast, CEO Bob Iger explained that one of the key reasons for this attendance dip was the lack the land’s second attraction, which was planned to go up in December for Disney World, and January for Disneyland. With December now upon us, this second attraction has finally come to Galaxy’s Edge, with Disney pulling out all its theatrics to bring their park’s attendance back up to lightspeed.

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a combination walking ride and trackless dark ride where visitors take on the role of Resistance spies on Batuu, the planet where the whole Galaxy’s Edge land is supposed to take place. Galaxy’s Edge’s actors are famous for staying in-character, refusing to acknowledge the Disney company and calling smartphones “datapads,” and the ride exudes a similar attention to detail. Let’s go through a brief walkthrough.

Rise of the Resistance is separated into 3 acts, starting with a line that takes attendees through a secret Resistance base where they are briefed on their mission by an animatronic of BB-8, a hologram of Rey, and videos of Poe Dameron, a Mon Calamari Lieutenant named Beck, and the Sullustan pilot Nien Nunb. While most of these characters come from the sequel trilogy, eagle-eyed geeks might remember Nien Nunb as Lando Calrissian’s co-pilot on his mission to destroy the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. The base itself is housed in what are supposed to be ancient ruins, and faux-rust lined caged display Resistance pilot gear for guests to examine. Once attendees receive their orders, the ride proper begins, as in-character actors lead them from a forested enclave onto a Resistance transport shuttle.

Here, animatronics of Lieutenant Beck and Nien Nunb attempt to “fly” guests to a secret base holding General Organa. However, a First Order Star Destroyer quickly interrupts their flight, and pulls the shuttle on board. Guests exit the shuttle through the same doors they entered, stepping out into the completely new, pristine surroundings of the Star Destroyer.

Actors playing First Order stormtroopers lead guests to a holding cell, where videos of General Hux and Kylo Ren attempt to extract the location of the Resistance Base from their minds. The stormtroopers are appropriately forceful (without touching), and costumed officers idly line the ship’s halls. Before Ren can finish his force divination, however, a Resistance agent frees guests from their prison, where the walking portion of the ride ends.

The agent ushers guests into a First Order transport vehicle, hacked by a Resistance astromech droid (think R2-D2), to make their escape. Finn appears on the vehicle’s screen to tell guests that the vehicle will take them to safety, as the droid drives them through laser fire, underneath AT-ATs, past Kylo Ren himself, and finally into an escape shuttle back to Batuu.

This ride is notably more theatrical and multi-layered than Galaxy’s Edge’s first, more stationary Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run ride, where guests take on different roles piloting a 4D Millennium Falcon shuttle through a video game. To match the extra flair, Disney launched Rise of the Resistance with appropriate fanfare.

During the ride’s opening ceremony on the evening of December 4, two X-Wings “roughly the size of a family van” took to the skies over spectators, hovering in place as an audio clip between the X-Wing’s supposed pilots and their commander played over speakers. As the clip reached its conclusion, both fighters flew out of sight, before sound effects and flashing lights signaled a jump-to-lightspeed. However, don’t go thinking the House of Mouse has invented real X-Wings quite yet. Car and military Publication The Drive suspected similarities between the X-Wings and aeronautics engineer Boeing’s Cargo Air Vehicle drones, and reached out to Boeing for more details. Boeing confirmed that the X-Wings were their aircraft, but refused to state more. Unless the Disney illuminati are holding out on us, though, those X-Wings were likely specialized drones rather than hyperdrive-equipped fighters.

Even before acquiring LucasFilm, Disney has used its knack for theatrics, engineering, architecture, and even level and game design to bring Star Wars to its park attendees. Beginning with the original launch of Star Tours in 1987, the galaxy far, far away has always felt a little closer at Disney’s theme parks. While Rise of the Resistance is now open at Disney World, it will be coming to Disneyland on January 17.

Watch this video from Los Angeles Times for a walkthrough of the ride

And watch here to see Disney’s “real” X-Wings in action.