9. Power Outage

Image: Disney

ATTRACTION: Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!

THE SETUP: Transforming the elegant and palatial Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror into an intergalactic alien prison was a tall order for Imagineers, with almost every art-deco ornamentation of the doomed Hollywood Tower Hotel stripped away. One thing that remained? The tense, atmospheric wait leading to the ride’s signature elevators. Though the eerie sounds of Hollywood are gone, guests still find themselves in a nerve-wracking wait through an industrial museum of artifacts (and aliens) when the escaped Rocket catches guests up with his plan.

Rocket plans to use our approved tour credentials to hitch a ride atop the Collector’s Gantry Lifts, which will take us to the top of the fortress where the still-trapped Guardians are on display. With Rocket at the helm, our lift will instead travel to the generator room where he’ll cut the power, open the cages, and free his friends. Easy, right? Even once seated, the ominous and creepy atmosphere continues… until Rocket (literally) unplugs the enigmatic character’s narration and turns on the series’ classic tunes. 

Image: Disney

WHAT GOES WRONG: Turns out Rocket’s manual controls hacking into the Gantry Lift are a bit… touchy. Rather than Tower of Terror’s slow rise to the hotel’s height, riders “blast off” into a randomly-selected show sequence. At once reaching the generator room, a blast from Rocket powers down the system… including our Gantry Lift (duh), which plummets into the basement before Rocket can regain control. Cleverly, his inability to stabilize the elevator makes the Gantry Lift itself feel like a character. 

While a “tour” of the Collector’s prisoners would’ve been an interesting ride itself, Rocket’s breakout plan (and his nonsensical plan of cutting the power and releasing every creature) turns out to be a fun twist.

Cleverly, guests visiting during the Halloween season even get to see the ramifications first hand when, at night, the ride becomes a continuation of the story. Literally set the evening after the Guardians’ breakout, Monsters After Dark sees Rocket return to the fortress to rescue Groot, with the released aliens wreaking havoc on the now-locked-down tower. It’s a fun opportunity to see the actual results of the famous “something goes horribly wrong” plot device long after guests have exited into the gift shop.

10. Accidental alien

Image: Disney

ATTRACTION: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

THE SETUP: When Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland was redesigned from the ground up in 1994, the results were an early (and impressive) example of the kind of immersive, connected world-building that’s gone into overdrive today. The idea was that Tomorrowland was a real, functioning city of the future with each of the land’s rides, shows, and attractions playing a role. The most legendary was the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Convention Center, hosting a Martian technology firm called X-S Tech. 

Guests queuing for the attraction learned that they would bear witness to a living demonstration of groundbreaking interplanetary teleportation. In fact, X-S’s Chairman Clench would bravely volunteer to be beamed from the X-S homeworld right into the Convention Center in a dazzling display of the power of technology and innovation. But then...

Image: Disney

WHAT GOES WRONG: Despite readings signalling that something had been caught in the teleportation beam, X-S technicians pushed ahead with the demo… When the smoke cleared from the central tube, it wasn’t Chairman Clench inside, but a horrific, insectoid alien. Smashing glass plunged the theater into darkness where the Lost Legend: Alien Encounter descended into a chaotic and unexpected multi-sensory special effects show that terrorized a generation.

While the attraction’s name (and ample warning signs) clearly set the stage for the demonstration-gone-wrong to follow, its “something goes horribly wrong” moment was iconic (and traumatizing) for a generation of Disney World guests. Plus, the plot was both entirely original and connected to the larger premise of the land - a creative feat we’re unlikely to see again from Imagineering anytime soon.

11. JAWS

Image: Universal

ATTRACTION: JAWS

THE SETUP: Since the summer of 1975 when Jaws debuted in theaters and scared a generation out of the water, Universal Studios Hollywood's celebrated Studio Tour has whisked guests past a recreation of the film's Amity village, where a mechanical shark would chomp down the length of the tram in a special effects demonstration for guests. When Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, short vignettes like Jaws were expanded into full, standalone attractions, like the celebrated Lost Legend: JAWS - a headlining ride for the new park.

In classic "studio" park style, Universal's explanation of the "where, when, why, and how" of JAWS was wildly convoluted... Guests were essentially told that they were tourists boarding Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours for a cruise around the real town of Amity, where a real shark did attack back in the 1970s, merely inspiring Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film. The set-up leads an on-board tour guide to chatter over nautical tunes, pointing out the homes of Amity's real heroes (later played by celebrities in the film, we presume). It's a peaceful and informative look behind the movie... Until...

Image: Bones 84, Flickr (license)

WHAT GOES WRONG: A distress call from the tour boat dispatched before our own comes over the radio and, as we round the corner by the old lighthouse, we see the last remnants of the boat plunge beneath the murky water... Could it be? Of course it could... A (new?) shark has made its way to Amity just as supposedly happened all those years ago!

JAWS was renowned as one of Universal's best rides ever, combining a sincerely-tense trip with a comedic guide and several stunning special effects (including the shocking shark itself). The ride played like a twisted, Universal-ized version of Disney's Jungle Cruise, terrifying a generation of children with the hidden shark literally popping out of the blue at every twist and turn. By time JAWS was sunk in 2012 to make way for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter's Diagon Alley half, some claimed the ride's time had come. But for everyone else, it's good to know that JAWS is still terrifying riders at Universal Studios Japan, and in the original 1975 scene on the Hollywood Studio Tour.

12. Subterranean earthquake

Image: Disney

ATTRACTION: Journey to the Center of the Earth

THE SETUP: Located deep within the rumbling Mount Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea lies one of the most legendary Disney Parks attractions of all time – the Modern Marvel: Journey to the Center of the Earth. The starring attraction in the park's historic and celebrated line-up, the ride represents a pinnacle of Imagineering and the fulfillment of many attempts to incorporate the literary works of Jules Verne into the Disney Parks canon.

Walking through an elaborate queue passing through Captain Nemo's underground lair, guests find themselves in "terravators" seemingly descending miles into the Earth's crust. There, they emerge in a steaming, industrial cavern blasts from the rock where shovel-fronted vehicles await. On board, the dark ride twists and turns through the planet's layers, passing gem-filled caverns, bioluminscent underground jungles, and a subterranean sea with its own weather. The journey is an epic, literary, sci-fi journey on a massive scale... Equally beautiful and thrilling... Until...

Image: Disney

WHAT GOES WRONG: Just as guests approach the deep-earth research station where their journey would normally continue on foot, a violent earthquake seems to derail the plan. A cave-in ahead blocks the path forward, and as the brakes on our vehicles squeal and spark, the only choice is to be diverted down a previously-unexplored pathway – one where the once-elegant rockwork begins to look twisted and gnarled, as if formed by a much more violent seismic process...

Our harrowing trip into the more fluid, steaming, molten passages signals our arrival at the center of the Earth. But far more frightening are the massive basketball-sized eggs encased in slimy sacs dangling from the fiery ceiling... almost as if we've stumbled on a nest. Naturally, the ride's climax is a face-to-maw encounter with one of the Best Audio-Animatronics on Earth – a spectacular highlight of this incredible, technological, storytelling adventure.

13. The road to hell

Image: Disney

ATTRACTION: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

THE SETUP: Disneyland's opening day dark rides are considered standards of their time; classic, beloved mid-century attractions that have been duplicated across the Disney Parks. In fact, even some of Disney's newer fairy tale dark rides have purposefully foregone modern techniques in favor of duplicating the blacklight simplicity of yesteryear. Though Walt's Fantasyland originals are often thought of as easy-going storybook journeys, they – like the films that inspired them – are full of conflict; evil queens, militant playing cards, evil puppeteers, and more.

But none can beat the Lost Legend: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, based on the Wind in the Willows segment of Disney's Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The dark ride sends guests crashing through Toad Hall in a jalopy, experiencing the "motor mania" of the auto-obsessed J. Thaddeus Toad. After rumbling across boardwalks, zipping through the countryside, causing warehouse explosions, and narrowly plowing down police officers, riders find themselves blasting through a bar and... into a courthouse. It's there that guests are found "Guilty!" by a judge and sentenced to prison. But on the way...

Image: Disney

WHAT GOES WRONG: En route to jail, guests find themselves heading down the railroad tracks and directly into the light of an oncoming train! With a crash, guests... well... die. Rounding the corner, bellowing pits of steam and fiery red rock signal our journey's end: Hell. Laughing demons with pitchforks and Satan himself (looking suspiciously like the judge who sentenced us) show that we're sincerely doomed. 

It's a plot twist no first-time rider could ever see coming, and one which continues to make the ride a beloved classic even sixty years later. 

Something goes right...

From unexpected earthquakes to accidental aliens; detouring dinosaurs to unlucky days, there's one thing all these "something goes wrong" moments have in common: we're glad they happened! Though many of our favorite rides where nothing goes wrong are classics, this list proves that the modern "plot twist" can create a generation of beloved classics, too! Sending us on cinematic and elaborate adventures, these unexpected moments might be overused in today's parks, but they can also be memorable, moving, and heart-pounding examples of epic storytelling.

Put another way: if our day at Disney and Universal Parks went exactly as planned, our days wouldn't be nearly as much fun.