Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance


Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is an attraction found at the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge themed area of Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. It opened on December 5, 2019 at Walt Disney World and on January 17, 2020 at Disneyland.

Opening crawl


The crawl was part of information released to the media by Disney.

Queue and pre-shows


The queue itself plays a substantial part in the attraction. Guests enter the queue through a Resistance base. In the queue, the guests encounter BB-8 and receive a transmission from Rey. She explains that a group of Resistance agents, including Finn, have boarded a Star Destroyer that is en route to the Batuu system. Believing the base to be no longer safe, Rey explains that guests will be boarding transports to rendezvous with Leia Organa on Pacara. Nien Nunb and Lieutenant Bek are tasked with transporting the guests, escorted by Poe's squadron of X-wings. The doors then open and the queue leads to a Resistance Intersystem Transport Ship.

The ride's hangar bay scene

The ride's hangar bay scene

After guests board the ship, they depart the Forest Outpost. In space, the convoy is attacked by a squadron of TIE fighters and subsequently caught in the Star Destroyer's tractor beam. Aboard the Star Destroyer, they are taken through a hangar where a detachment of stormtroopers awaits. The queue continues through the hallway and leads into a prison cell, where the riders are watched by stormtroopers and interrogated by General Hux and Kylo Ren. After the two leave the interrogation room to return to the bridge of the ship, Resistance fighters who have boarded the Destroyer cut a hole in the cell's wall, leading guests into the load area where they board a pair of First Order Fleet Transports each driven by an R5 astromech droid.

Ride


After boarding the transports, Finn informs guests that their vehicles' droids have been reprogrammed to help them escape by taking them to the escape pods and flying them back to Batuu. For the bulk of the ride, Bek guides guests as they make their escape. Leaving the loading area, the guests ride past several empty types of transport with their astromechs but avoid raising suspicion from them when their vehicle's onboard R5 units inform the others that they're conducting a prisoner transfer. After entering a hallway, the vehicles encounter a First Order probe droid, which almost spots them. Then they turn a corner and head towards the turbolifts, only to be caught by a pair of stormtroopers on a catwalk, who immediately fire at the vehicles before sounding the alarm. Turning a corner, the vehicle ends up in a hangar with two full-sized AT-ATs where they split up towards different sides of the room. Finn tells the riders to take the lifts down to the escape pods while either taking cover by a doorway or near cargo crates depending on which part of the room the vehicle has moved to. However, as the droids are still adjusting to their new programming, they accidentally send the vehicles to an upper level, where they get shot at by the walkers and the onboard troopers.

After escaping from the AT-ATs, the vehicles sneak into the bridge of the Star Destroyer, where Kylo Ren is conferring with General Hux. Kylo is informed of the guests' escape just at the Resistance fleet arrives and begins attacking the Star Destroyer. Seeing the riders in the hallway, Kylo ignites his lightsaber and leaps toward the vehicles just as the turbolift door closes. This does little to slow him down, however, as he jumps onto the roof of the turbolift and starts cutting into it using his lightsaber.

In the next room, cannons are firing at the Resistance ships outside. For the riders to escape, a Vakbeor-class cargo frigate broadsides the Finalizer resulting in the loss of the frigate. Evading the cannons, Finn orders the riders to abandon ship as they encounter Kylo Ren again. He tells the riders that he is going to force them to give him the location of the Resistance base and then he is going to kill them. Before he can act, a TIE fighter hits the side of the ship, opening it up to the vacuum of space. Kylo Ren screams in anger as the riders escape. As the air rushes around them, guests' vehicles then enter their escape pods, which are then launched with a drop. With some help from Poe, the pods' freefall back to Batuu. Flying over Black Spire Outpost, the pods crash-land inside the remains of a wrecked ship, where Bek congratulates both the guests and the astromech droids for helping to keep the Resistance's base safe from the First Order. Guests then exit their vehicle in the outdoor unload area before returning to the Forest Outpost.

Opening


Concept art for the attraction

Concept art for the attraction

Before the official name of the ride was revealed at Destination D 2018, it had internally been given the working name "Alcatraz." It was set to open with the rest of Galaxy's Edge in both parks in 2019, and shortly thereafter in Paris. However, it was announced on March 7 that its release had been deferred to a later date as part of the park's "Phase 2" release. The Walt Disney World version opened on December 5, 2019, accompanied by an opening ceremony that included life-sized X-wing drones. In the first few days of the ride, many guests reported that that they were evacuated after the ride broke down. The Disneyland version opened on January 17, 2020.

In April 2021, it was announced that the ride would be shortened from 18 minutes to 15 minutes due to a new California time limit for indoor rides. The ride's runtime would be cut down by the removal of the ride's preshow. In June 2021, the ride's preshow including a hologram message from Rey was added back.

Appearances

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