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4. Horizons (Epcot, closed in 1999)

HorizonsHorizons© Disney

A sequel to the Carousel of Progress, an animatronics show that looked into the past to see how far humanity has come, Horizons looked to the future to see where we're going. Opened in 1983 as part of Epcot's first anniversary celebration, Horizons took visitors into the far future of the 21st century — and, like much of Tomorrowland at other Disney parks, as that future date approached, the ride's predictions seemed more off-base.

Still, Horizons was a fun trip, taking you through visions of the future as predicted by the past — from Jules Verne's idea of space flight to the image of the robot butler above — and then showed 21st century humanity living in space, under the ocean, and terraforming the deserts. At the end of the ride, you even had the chance to choose where you wanted to visit, causing the ride to play a 30-second video clip depicting your trip back to base through a desert, ocean, or space scene. (Though these were only short clips, it took over a year for 30 Imagineers to build the futuristic models and shoot these sequences.)

Horizons actually closed twice over its lifetime, first shutting its doors in 1994 after General Electric stopped sponsoring the ride. It reopened in 1995 while two other major Epcot attraction (Universe of Energy and World of Motion) were being refurbished, but finally closed for good in 1999, just before the we entered the future that the ride was said to depict. The ride would need renovations to reopen and, without a sponsor, Disney decided to use the space for a new ride instead. In 2000 the Horizons building was demolished to make way for the Compaq-sponsored Mission: SPACE that remains there today.

5. ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (Magic Kingdom, closed in 2003)

ExtraTERRORestrial Alien EncounterExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter© Disney

Despite the fame of the Haunted Mansion, Disney rides aren't particularly scary — but the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter definitely was. The attraction proposed to demonstrate a new teleportation technology from an alien company called X-S Tech, with an elaborate pre-show explaining the company's background and a small scale teleportation system — in which an animatronic robot voiced by Tim Curry teleports alien Skippy from one side of the room to the other. This scene is fairly frightening in and of itself, with Skippy crying out in pain during the teleportation process as your robotic host explains brightly that it's "practically painless." 

If that weren't creepy enough, you're then brought into a round theater with a large teleportation tube in the middle for a larger demonstration — but things quickly goes wrong when a massive alien is accidentally sent to the room instead. When the alien escapes, the theater is plunged into darkness, leaving you to hear the alien's footsteps, feel its hot breath on the back of your neck, feel its tongue running over the back of your head, and even get sprayed by alien drool (or possibly the blood of a maintenance worker, depending on how your imagination read it). Yuck!

So why did ExtraTERRORestrial have to go? Though the ride was scary for Disney, it lived in the park for eight years before being replaced with Stitch's Great Escape. The new ride has a lot in common with the old, but replaces the terrifying, carnivorous alien with the more friendly Stitch.

6. Body Wars and The Wonders of Life Pavilion (Epcot, closed in 2007)

Wonders of Life PavilionWonders of Life Pavilion© Disney

Before Star Tours made its debut in Florida (it opened at Disneyland in California in 1987, but it hadn't yet hit the east coast), there was Body Wars, a motion simulator ride in the same vein that took you on an adventure inside the human body. Though you're on a straightforward (and supposedly safe) mission to investigate the activity of white blood cells around a splinter, you wind up going on a high-speed ride through the heart, lungs, and brain. As the first real thrill ride in Epcot, Body Wars was popular... for a time. But the ride's story didn't have the same shine, and crowds faded — especially after Star Tours arrived later that year. 

Located in the golden-domed Wonders of Life pavilion alongside a slate of life-themed attractions including Cranium Command, Sensory Funhouse, The Making of Me, Goofy About Health, and the AnaComical Players Theater, the ride was open from 1989 to 2007 — though from 2004 onward, the pavilion was only open seasonally, when the park was most crowded.

While all the attractions (plus the towering double-helix statue that marked the pavilion's entrance) have been removed, the pavilion itself remains, now used as space for special events at Epcot — in the spring for the Flower & Garden Festival and the fall for the Food & Wine Festival. The building itself is much the same, though as former ride elements have been removed (or painted) over the years the space has become less recognizable for its former attractions. Visiting today, you wouldn't know that it wasn't meant to be an event space from the start.

 
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