The Making of Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios Florida

This article is a continuation of the history of Men in Black: Alien Attack. READ PART I

Creating Men in Black: Alien Attack

Universal Orlando wasted no time acquiring the theme park rights to Men in Black in summer 1997. The new ride was scheduled to open at Universal Studios Florida in about two and a half years. That was a short amount of time to turn an empty plot of land and blank sheets of paper into a fully functioning attraction, so Universal needed a talented team to take on the challenge.

“The really great thing about a project such as this is that people really respond when faced with such a challenging schedule; they pour their heart and soul into it.”
Dave Cobb, Starlog, 2000

Approaching the late ‘90s, the theme park industry was thriving but stretched thin. Many professionals were busy developing new theme parks around the world and locally in Orlando, namely Islands of Adventure and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

So, to take the creative director role for its imminent Men in Black attraction, Universal called on a new recruit: a theme park fan turned professional, Dave Cobb. But, he was not alone as the project had a full team ready for the creative and technical collaboration ahead.

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Unlimited Technology from the Whole Universe

Men in Black: Galaxy Defender—as the attraction was originally known, later renamed to Men in Black: Alien Attack—was essentially a blank canvas.

One of the attraction’s many question marks was its ride system. Because of the project’s strict schedule, Universal didn’t have time to develop a ride system from scratch. To make the process quicker, the crew had to replicate an existing Universal ride system.

An Amazing Option

Over at the soon-to-be Islands of Adventure, a few dark rides were under construction—including The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and its revolutionary SCOOP ride vehicle. The innovative motion simulator, manufactured by Oceaneering International, was an enormous step forward for the theme park industry and an exciting option for the Men in Black ride.

The Spider-Man technology was temping, but the Creatives still had to find out whether it could work for MIB as an interactive shooting dark ride. The team went to the Spider-Man show building and set up makeshift laser tag targets throughout the layout; they cycled around in the SCOOP vehicles while zapping at targets.

The test runs were thrilling but excessive for an interactive ride. The Men in Black ride was being designed for gameplay, not intensity.

The Spider-Man ride vehicles had an advanced range of motion that made aiming at targets overly difficult. The advanced ride system was designed to sync with a variety of media and immerse guests with its high sides, which reduced visibility and playability. These features didn’t translate well to an interactive ride, especially one being designed for a wide demographic.

The expensive SCOOP vehicles proved to be too much for the Men in Black project. The team passed on the Spider-Man ride system and looked for a simpler, cheaper option.

Turning in a New Direction

The crew turned to another dark ride that was under development at Islands of Adventure: The Cat in the Hat. This slower-moving ride system was a more appropriate match for Men in Black. Manufactured by MTS Systems Corporation, this vehicle base could rotate for dark ride purposes or for gentle thrills. Without an advanced range of motion other than spinning, these ride vehicles were much more stable and had minimal visual obstructions for wide-open gameplay.

This simpler ride system didn’t have all the bells and whistles of Spider-Man’s SCOOP, but it met the Goldilocks principle of being “just right” for the MIB ride.

Ford P.O.S.

While Men in Black: Alien Attack borrowed an existing ride system, the vehicles would be fully customized.

Originally, the team drafted ride vehicles that looked like the film’s 1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria—or the Ford P.O.S. as Agent J called it. However, the sedan-style car didn’t fit right on the small ride vehicle base. So, the ride vehicles were redesigned with an original look, blending the style of government-issued equipment with extraterrestrial technology.

Functionally and stylistically, this ride system was working out for Men in Black—with one exception.

More Capacity, More Challenges

The ride system was not able to reach the hourly capacity goals expected for Men in Black: Alien Attack.

One solution to improve throughput would have been to dispatch two ride vehicles at a time, moving in tandem like a train. Another solution was to add a second track and run the vehicles side by side. This option increased capacity to just over 2,000 riders per hour.

A second track could open up gameplay opportunities in which riders could zap at the other vehicle. However, a second track would cause issues by doubling the ride area, specifically the reach envelope.

A reach envelope is the safety gap between the ride vehicle and its surroundings so riders can’t touch parts of the attraction, which could cause injury. A second track for the Men in Black ride would double the reach envelope, taking up more space.

The ride’s doubled reach envelope limited the track layout to mostly straightaways with only a few turns. The clear and navigable ride area pushed the design team to adapt their approach. Classic dark ride tricks, which usually thrive in small settings, were now more difficult to pull off.

“The whole building operates as one big machine, so the challenge is to keep it from feeling like one.”
Dave Cobb, Starlog, 2000

The widened space restricted where the design team could hide certain visuals. Riders could essentially look in any direction they pleased, so the designers had to make sure the set looked good from all angles.

That being said, the large areas were also a positive for the designers. For example, the targets could be spread around the spacious scenes, which could improve the gameplay. Also, the large spaces were a sandbox for the designers to create even more expansive environments.

Designing the Sets

Most show scenes of Men in Black: Alien Attack would take place on the streets of New York City, stylized with what the designers called “Technicolor film noir.” The team crafted the sets in a way that captured how city streets would appear on a Broadway stage—based in realism but with more expression.

When creative director Dave Cobb started the project, he had a personal goal of making this attraction like a Haunted Mansion for Universal Studios. The ride concept had the potential to be a “cocktail party” type of attraction—saturated with decorations and gags, making guests want to ride again and again.

The classic rides at Universal Studios Florida had massive cinematic scenes that usually focused on one animatronic or special effect; Men in Black, however, would be overstuffed with characters and details for riders to notice.

“It has been a long time since anyone created any type of large-scale, cool, classic dark ride with lots of characters and stuff going on and just plain sensory overload which makes you want to ride it over and over again.”
Dave Cobb, Starlog, 2000

An Extraterrestrial Cast

The ride’s city streets would be overrun by 127 aliens from 80 different species. Each alien teetered a fine line between funny and scary, having humanlike features to be instantly identifiable by guests. The characters, many of which were designed by Neville Page, were developed specifically for the ride with inspirations from the movie.

The ride’s cast of aliens would be split between some animatronics and some static figures. The characters were fabricated by a few companies, including Advanced Animations, AVG, and The Attractions Services Company.

The figures were especially important on this ride as they would be the targets for the interactive gameplay. The Creative team debated whether the targets should be visible on the characters or blend in. They considered obvious targets such as blast wounds on their bodies or prisoner collars, which went along with the story.

However, during gameplay testing, visible targets made no significant difference. If anything, the obvious targets made the ride feel too much like a video game—acknowledging the game would break the fantasy. On top of that, the character figures were already in production with built-in targets. So, the decision was made to abandon the idea of visible targets.

A Shot in the Dark

Men in Black: Alien Attack was a new genre of attraction for Universal Orlando as an interactive shooting dark ride. Guests would be part of the action while zapping at aliens and experiencing the thrill of becoming an MIB agent.

For an attraction like this, the gameplay would be just as relevant as the ride itself. The design team—being long-time gaming fans, some since the Atari 2600 days—knew the gameplay could make or break the whole experience. As such, the hardware and game design were prioritized. The team even consulted with Naughty Dog—the producers of Crash Bandicoot—for the best performance.

“We asked, ‘How do we change the theme park experience for a generation of kids brought up on Nintendo and Sega?’”
Dave Cobb, GamePro, 2000

Men in Black: Alien Attack was equipped with an infrared laser tag system produced by Heads Up Technology, paired with a laser beam for aiming. During development, the team considered installing an early version ofprojection mapping around the show building, which wouldgive visual feedback for hitting a target. However, this technology was still preliminary at the time, so it would have cost tens of millions of dollars.

While those visual effects were too costly for the project, the team was still constructing a technologically impressive attraction. Men in Black: Alien Attack would had a system of 200 computers with a wireless network to control the ride, gameplay, and effects. The infrared zappers communicated with the computer system in real time to trigger certain cues and scoring.

“Men in Black is one of those movies that has everything. This is what makes it a perfect marriage between a movie and an interactive ride. It’s something we should have done a long time ago. We’ve had the advanced technology but didn’t want to create a ride just for the sake of technology.”
Dave Cobb, The Orlando Sentinel, 2000

Telling a Universal Story

The ride’s gameplay and technology were coming along nicely, but the Creative team still had to punch up the attraction’s story.

In the Men in Black franchise, the story people walk away with was just as important everything beforehand. MIB agents in the film used neuralyzers to erase the memories of citizen witnesses, then came up with tall tales to cover up any proof that aliens exist.

The ride’s Creative team knew that was how the attraction should end—figuring out which story to tell was the next step.

One idea to bookend the ride’s story was to have guests exit through a fake Topicana orange juice production tour. This concept was considered because the park’s parent company, Seagram, had connections to Tropicana.

Another thought was to end the ride with a spoof of “it’s a small world” at Disney Parks. Children animatronics singing “it’s a small universe after all” could have been catchy, but this idea was a bit too audacious.

One more concept let riders off at the Orlando International Airport baggage claim area with visual gags like aliens in suitcases.

All these ideas were creative, but they didn’t have any direct connection to the ride’s intergalactic theme and may have been confusing for anyone not familiar with the neuralyzer bit. So, the Creatives simplified the story to make sense to all guests, regardless if they’ve seen the movie.

“The most important story in a theme park is the story guests have to tell about.”
Dave Cobb, Annual Pass Podcast, 2021

Creating The Universe and You

The story started to unfold once the Creative team mulled over the setting.

From a storytelling standpoint, the Men in Black headquarters was a top-secret location and had to be disguised. In the film, the location was hidden in the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel ventilation building. However, at Universal Studios Florida, the Men in Black attraction wasn’t located in the New York section of the park, so a New-York-based building wouldn’t make sense.

Men in Black: Alien Attack was being built in the park’s Expo Center area, which the Creatives used to their advantage. Expo Center at Universal Studios Florida was loosely themed to a world’s fair on a studio backlot, and the neighboring Back to the Future: The Ride was a “pavilion” at the expo. The new Men in Black attraction could also be its own pavilion.

The film had clear connections to the 1964 New York World’s Fair, including the mural at the MIB headquarters and the movie’s finale at the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds. The mid-century expo theme—along the lines of a Tomorrowland attraction—was a perfect launchpad.

The Creative team had the idea to hide the MIB headquarters under the alias of an educational pavilion, known as The Universe and You, relocated from the 1964 World Expo.

Composing the Music

The attraction was becoming a mashup of a World’s Fair attraction with a space-age video game inside. To fully pull off those two themes, the music had to be a mix of both styles. The Creative team brought in composer Andy Garfield, who studied under Disney Legend Buddy Baker and scored a number of video games. He paid homage to Baker’s classic Disney style for the attraction’s Universe and You section and produced a pulsating soundtrack for the MIB headquarters, using synths and samples.

Back in Black

During the ride’s production, Men in Black stars Will Smith and Rip Torn reprised their roles as Agent J and Agent Zed, respectively. Back in 1997, Will Smith took a family vacation to Universal Studios Florida, though the public didn’t catch on until later that a Men in Black attraction was underway.

Rumors of a New Attraction

Men in Black: Alien Attack was in development behind the scenes, but as far as the general public was concerned, it was only a rumor by late 1998. It was the best- or worst-kept secret in the galaxy until Universal Orlando confirmed the new ride in spring 1999, scheduled to open the following year.

Finishing Touches

Universal Orlando was going big with its Men in Black ride. Its 80-foot-tall, 76,000-square-foot show building was becoming the largest ride venue on Universal Orlando property.

Even though the building was under construction, the Creative team had yet to hammer out the ride’s final scenes.

One draft of the attraction had riders push a red button midway through, leading to a speed tunnel from Central Park to Times Square. This scene, similar to PeopleMover’s SuperSpeed Tunnel at Disneyland, would have created the illusion of speed with effects like projections, wind, and audio. However, due to space constraints and the slow ride system, this effect would not have been believable. The scene was transformed into an interactive moment where riders could zap the other vehicle.

Test Runs

With some finishing touches, Men in Black: Alien Attack was nearing completion by late 1999. The team took their first test ride that December, exactly four months before the attraction’s grand opening.

The ride spinning function wasn’t programmed yet, but that was updated over time. Early on, the rider’s gameplay determined whether the ride spun a lot or hardly at all. However, this made the ride less exciting for skilled riders. The ride was later programmed to have guaranteed spinning at certain points.

Getting Ready to Open

The grand opening for Men in Black: Alien Attack was coming soon. Universal Orlando started marketing the ride to be as family-friendly as possible; the laser tag hardware was carefully referred to as “zappers,” and the ride introduced a revised MIB logo that excluded weapons.

Universal Orlando sent out a traveling preview exhibit to 30 cities across the eastern United States to promote the new ride. The Men in Black Mobile Recruiting Station was a truck equipped with an assortment of extraterrestrial paraphernalia. Inside, visitors had the chance to recreate the film’s tunnel scene in front of a blue screen and meet a slime-spewing alien animatronic. The preview truck made appearances at local science centers, museums, and other venues, accompanied by representatives from the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Institute, which was a science-based research group.

Men in Black: Alien Attack held technical rehearsals in early April 2000 with its grand opening just around the corner.

CONTINUE TO PART III