2. Broken tracks and a backwards ride

The Experience: The path to Everest is destroyed, and an impending peril forces riders to lurch backward at tremendous velocity.

The Trick: The premise of the ride is that the visitor is journeying from one destination in the Himalayas to another. In order to navigate the vast distance quickly, people on the expedition ride a passenger train to Everest. There is only one problem. The train involves a shortcut through the Forbidden Mountain area protected by a territorial Yeti. And the Yeti wants to wreck the infringing vehicle.

In order to escape the monster, the rider is redirected onto a different set of tracks, narrowly avoiding disaster. By defying expectations and thrusting the user backward, an element of surprise is created off the bat. How many roller coasters in the world guide you along the path to broken tracks, only to divert you backward at extreme velocity?

Amazingly, all that is required to pull off such a memorable feat is a second set of tracks. As the user is propelled upward to the broken section, they ride on a visible portion of tracks. Once the visual danger is revealed, the carts are pulled back onto a track segment that cannot be seen from the frontal view the rider has. And even if they could see it, they would be distracted by the broken tracks ahead. In this manner, Disney employs the same misdirection magicians use in their craft.

1. The giant Yeti

The Experience: A 22-foot-tall animatronic Yeti tries threatens to attack the train.

The Trick: Even though a rider spends only a brief moment in plain view of the Yeti, Disney’s vaunted ride builders wanted the experience to be as memorable as possible. After all, the Yeti makes the ride. As Popular Mechanics notes of the construction, “the beast became an object of obsessive perfectionism from Disney's Imagineers.”

In order to enhance the realism, vertical as well as horizontal slides were employed in order to maximize the movement potential of the beast. It had a range of two feet of vertical motion plus five feet of horizontal motion. So, if it were real, its movement ability would be deadly.

A whopping 6,000 pounds of fur was utilized in order to create the memorable look of the killer Yeti. Imagine if your dress garments required 250 zippers and 1,000 snaps in order to suit up each day. That is the type of attention to detail that distinguishes Disney. The entire ensemble dramatically increases the overall weight of the animatronic, which is estimated at 20,000 pounds.

The Yeti is so heavy that the creature is airborne. No legs could support such girth. Amusingly, its legs and left arm are unpowered. Their movement occurs naturally, like a puppet, as the regular motions of the other ligaments propel them.

Not content with the visual alone, a 3,000 psi hydraulic thruster was implemented to power the animatronic. Engineers claimed that the Yeti has more power than a 747 jet engine. And all it tries to do is smack you. Imagine the force if it ever did.

Unfortunately, many guests will be aware that the Yeti animatronic has not functioned as intended for years. A few months after the ride opened, the foundation on which the Yeti stands was damaged, and his full range of movements was put to an end. Instead, a strobe light now flashes behind him to give the impression that he is moving - earning the creature the nickname "Disco Yeti".