Remembering Twister…Ride It Out at Universal Studios Florida

A Blockbuster Turned Theme Park Attraction

Twister blew audiences away in 1996, making nearly $500 million at the box office worldwide. The cash cow, which was co-distributed by Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., was the 10th-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release.

That success was more than enough to turn the movie into a theme park attraction. But how was that even possible? How could you make a real tornado in a theme park?

This is the story of Twister…Ride It Out at Universal Studios Florida.

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Twisting Up a New Idea

In the mid-‘90s, Walt Disney World was a few years away from opening its fourth theme park: Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Universal Orlando had a new park of its own, Islands of Adventure, coming soon, but that was still a few years down the road. In the meantime, Universal Orlando would build a new attraction in its existing park, Universal Studios Florida.

To make room, Universal Studios shut down an opening-day attraction: Ghostbusters Spooktacular. The stage show closed in November 1996, just on the heels of Twister storming through theaters earlier that summer. Universal hadn’t announced what was replacing Ghostbusters. But, Jim Yeager—a spokesperson for the park’s parent company, MCA—point-blank mentioned they were considering a concept based on Twister.

This made sense for several reasons: For starters, the film was an absolute blockbuster co-produced by none other than Universal Studios Florida’s ongoing creative consultant, Steven Spielberg. Also, Universal Studios was no stranger to simulating forces of nature for its attractions—just take a look back at Flash Flood on the Hollywood Studio Tour and Earthquake: The Big One in Orlando. But, that’s not to say making a Twister attraction would be easy.

The movie was a spectacle of practical effects and impressive CGI. The production of Twister went to great lengths to create those effects, like producing 100 mph winds with commercial jet engines. The effects were so good at the time that Twister received multiple award nominations in that category. With that in mind, any Twister attraction would have to live up to that reputation with stunning special effects.

The Twister attraction would undoubtedly feature a tornado. But how could they create an actual twister in a theme park? The question was simple, but the answer was complicated—and no one at Universal Studios exactly knew. Universal would have to get inventive and collaborative.