What Happened to Back to the Future at Universal Studios?

Though it’s been almost two decades since its closure, to a generation of theme park-goers, Back to the Future: The Ride is one of Universal Studios Florida’s definitive attractions. In fact, the development of this groundbreaking simulator ride played a major role in ensuring the park’s very existence.

However, that didn’t stop Universal from removing the attraction from all of its theme parks, despite the film series it was based on arguably being more popular. So what happened to Back to the Future: The Ride? Set the time circuits, fire up the Flux Capacitor, and hop in our DeLorean to find out.

The film Back to the Future was released over the 4th of July weekend in 1985, and almost instantly became a massive hit –eventually becoming the highest grossing film of 1985 and an iconic piece of 1980s American culture.  Two sequels followed in 1989 and 1990.

A year after the first movie’s release, Steven Spielberg — who had produced the film and aided creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemekis though its production — was touring Universal Studios and looking over development of a massive King Kong animatronic, when he began discussing the film with his college roommate, Universal Creative executive Peter Alexander. The latter would recall years later:

“Steven said, “You guys are pretty good at this. My friend (George) Lucas told me only Disney could do this. He just took me on Star Tours at Disney. He said, ‘You (Steven) screwed up going with Universal. They could never do a Star Tours.'” Then Steven got a devilish glow in his eye and said, “If you guys can do this … why don’t you see what you can do with Back to the Future?”

Spielberg’s enthusiasm for both the Kong figure and a potential Back to the Future attraction led to Universal reviving the at-the-time-dormant plans for a Florida theme park, with the two being the lead attractions in development for the park.

Initially, plans called for a Back to the Future roller coaster-style attraction. However, Spielberg and Universal creative believed the fast-moving ride system wouldn’t allow the ride to tell the correct type of story. Eventually, it was decided to return to the simulator concept that had initially inspired the development of the ride in the first place. However, Back to the Future: The Ride wouldn’t use individual simulator cabins like Star Tours. Instead, the ride system would see a fleet of ride vehicles within a massive OMNIMAX theater dome with a gigantic screen.

Back to the Future: The Ride was first announced in 1989 along with the rest of Universal Studios Florida’s attractions, with initial plans calling for it to be an opening day attraction in 1990. However, delays in construction led to the ride opening in 1991.

Guests entered Back to the Future: The Ride through the Institute of Future Technology, a fictional organization founded by series star Dr. Emmett L. Brown (portrayed by a returning Christopher Lloyd). Brown introduces his new “8 Passenger DeLorean” that will serve as their ride vehicle. However, before boarding, the original time vehicle is stolen by a time-displaced Biff Tannen (once portrayed by actor Tom Wilson, who joins Lloyd as the only actor from the film series to reprise his role). Brown has guests board the time vehicles — near exact recreations of the vehicle from the film, including all buttons and devices, just expanded to seating for 8 — and follow Biff through numerous time periods including the then-future of 2015 as well as the Ice Age before “bumping” Biff back to the correct time frame.

Despite the delays in construction, Back to the Future: The Ride was a massive success for Universal, revolutionizing the park. It quickly became one of the park’s premiere attractions, and helped rehabilitate Universal Studios Florida’s reputation after the park’s somewhat disastrous opening summer. The success led to the company cloning the ride for several of its parks around the world. A Universal Hollywood version — itself plagued by construction problems — opened in 1993, and a third Back to the Future: The Ride was an opening day attraction at Universal Studios Japan in 2001.

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Despite its beloved status amongst fans and casual guests alike, Universal quietly began planning to replace the attraction in the mid-2000s as part of an initiative to replace older attractions with newer, more “relevant” intellectual properties that had begun — ironically enough — with the closing of Back to the Future: The Ride’s fellow early development attraction Kongfrontation in 2002.

The Universal Studios Florida version of the attraction closed in March 2007, with rumors at the time saying it would be replaced with an attraction using the same ride system and based on either The Fast and the Furious franchise or The Simpsons. The Hollywood attraction was closed that September, with Universal announcing that both would be reopened as The Simpsons Ride the following year. Universal Studios Japan’s version of the attraction outlasted its sister rides by a decade, finally closing in 2017 to be replaced by a reworked version of Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem.

Ironically, in the 15 years since the two American installations of Back to the Future: The Ride closed, the film series has arguably become more culturally relevant than ever before, with theatrical screenings, streaming and home video releases (several of which featured the ride film as a bonus feature), collectibles, toys, video games, and even a Broadway musical keeping the intellectual property in the public eye. This newfound popularity has led many to hope that Universal would either bring back the original attraction or announce a new BTTF-based ride.

Do you have fond memories of Back to the Future: The Ride? Would you like to see some variant of the attraction – whether the original or something entirely new – return to Universal Studios? Be sure to let us know in the comments below, and keep following All Ears for more Universal news!

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