3. AVATAR Flight of Passage

Though lots and lots of screen-based rides dot the timeline between STAR TOURS and today, it's pretty inarguable that few have landed quite like AVATAR Flight of Passage. Opened in 2017 as the headlining ride of Pandora – The World of AVATAR at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage is nearly indescribable.

Narratively, the ride connects to the larger story of Pandora, where we – as guests – become eco-tourists of the distant future, traveling to Pandora by way of the Alpha Centauri Expeditions Company to partake in the bounties of the distant moon. Like an Earth-bound family trip to a National Park, we arrive in the Valley of Mo'ara to gaze in awe at its natural wonders; to study its bioluminscent plants and animals; and to learn from the culture of the indigeonous Na'vi, whose food and traditions have been passed down for centuries.

Through a partnership with the Pandora Conservation Initiative, we have the rare opportunity to participate in one of the Na'vi's most sacred traditions – a rite of passage shared by all Na'vi as they grow: to connect with one of the planet's fiercest predators, the Banshee or Ikran, and take a harrowing flight through the natural world. The physical climb to the PCI's mountainside laboratories builds suspense and importance, as we step through the same rocky cliffs, caverns, forests, and trails that the Na'vi have blazed. It's one of the resort's most incredible – and weirdly, emotional – queues. It all leads to a lab where riders are "linked" with lab-made Na'vi Avatar bodies ready to take flight...

Technically, the ride itself builds on the bones of the Lost Legend: Soarin', fusing its grace, elegance, and aerial flight with a thrilling new ride system. Guests are positioned straddling "Link Chairs," capable of their own leaning, tilting, and rocking while also rising and falling vertically, all while immersed in a fully-surrounding domed screen. Wind, smells, and real physics add to the sensation of soaring through the floating mountains of Pandora.

Flight of Passage is an adrenaline-rushing thrill ride, sure, but it's something else, too; it's deeply, unexpectedly thoughtful. Across the biomes of Pandora, guests experience moments of free flight, and aerial clashes, and stomach-dropping plummets... but there are also moments of silence. Stillness. Contemplation. Ease. When the score kicks on halfway through (a deliberate choice by designers), it's understandable that even the most stoic riders might have to blink back a few tears. As any rite of passage should be, the ride is intense both physically and emotionally; just a perfectly crafted Disney E-Ticket from start to finish.

And while a modern "Peter Pan's Flight" over Pandora's mountains and valleys might've been a nice ride in its own right, there's no question at all that once more, screens made it possible.

Screen Legends

Across Disney and Universal parks, there are dozens of "screen-based" rides. Sometimes, projection fills in the experience, as in Rise of the Resistance or Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or STAR TOURS or Spider-Man or Jurassic World: The Ride. Sometimes, screens are the experience, like in Soarin' or Race Through New York or Runaway Railway or Flight of Passage.

That just goes to show that it's not whether or not screens are used; it's how they are. Screens aren't the enemy. And if you ever begin to think they are, consider what these three rides would be like without them. Could designers have developed a Spider-Man, Star Wars, or Avatar ride without screens? Sure. But chances are, they wouldn't match these screen-based Modern Marvels we know and love.