Disney’s ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter
Disney theme parks are not usually known for attractions that terrify guests. One of the greatest exceptions to this is Disney’s ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (often referred to as just “Alien Encounter”). From June 20th, 1995 – October 12th, 2003 this scary theater in the round style show frightened audiences with the scariest alien Disney has ever designed.
This attraction took guests into X-S Tech (yes, the name is a bit of a pun and helps to set a mood of dark humor) where the founder of the company was ready to demonstrate a new form of technology to help intergalactic travel. His opening spiel included many lines of dry humor, my favorite being, “Profit is just a by-product we’ve learned to live with”.
The second pre-show area featured a robot known as Simulated Intelligence Robotics or “SIR” – voiced by Tim Curry – who showed how the teleportation technology worked by transporting poor Skippy (the cute alien pictured above) from one side of the room to the other – with only minimal side-effects (Skippy was pretty singed after his trip). Then SIR showed how the technology can indefinitely suspend subjects in teleportation. The audience heard one last cry from poor Skippy before being herded to the main show area.
The main show area was theater in the round style, with a large “teleportation tube” in the center of the room. Guests would sit in chairs with shoulder restraints (used during the attraction to imply that the alien was climbing over the audience, create intimate directional sounds of the alien breathing, and have the alien “taste” guests’ hair).
When the director of X-S tried to teleport into the theater, a slight error occurred, causing a horrific alien beast to arrive instead. The alien inevitably escaped, ran rampant through the theater, and guests barely made it out alive from their encounter. All the while darkly humorous dialogue from both the X-S staff and “other guests” were heard. Some memorable lines include, “Don’t eat me, eat that guy!” followed by a loud crunch. Or when the alien first appeared, “It’s ugly”, “It’s horrible”, “It’s my mother in law!”
The experience was one of the most immersive and clever in Walt Disney World, but its cult following was not enough to keep Disney from closing the attraction due to its excessively scary nature. In November 2004 the attraction was toned down and re-themed to become Stitch’s Great Escape, a horrible assault on the memory of this once great attraction.
We can no longer experience the magic of this show, however we can still reminisce while watching videos on Youtube. Here is a full walk-through of the show:
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