IMG Worlds of Adventure’s spinning coaster puts adrenaline-seeking riders in the middle of a battle between Spider-Man and his arch enemy, Dr. Octopus.
Client: IMG Group
Services: Attraction Design, Sound Production
Location: Dubai, U.A.E.
The Marvel zone, inside Dubai’s enormous IMG Worlds of Adventure theme park, features thrill rides and experiences that can’t be found anywhere else on Earth. Falcon’s Creative Group had the responsibility of master planning this superhero-themed zone and three others within the 1.5 million square foot space. That’s a lot of room to play, dine, shop, and rest. And you might want to rest after taking a spin on Spider-Man Doc Ock’s Revenge.
Stepping off the streets of Marvel City, guests enter a back alley and soon come to a broken fence that surrounds an old power plant. There is a constant hum and what sounds like an alarm. It’s as if the old plant is still being used for something. Soon, guests discover they’re in Doc Ock’s lair. What could the evil genius be plotting now?
The mechanical-armed villain doesn’t waste time revealing his nefarious plans. He wants to steal Marvel City’s energy! He’s using these trespassers to help protect his precious extraction vehicles, because surely, Spider-Man won’t do anything to the vehicles if innocent people are packed inside…right?
As the ride begins, flashing lights and hissing steam pound the guests’ senses. The scene gets more and more chaotic by the second. Spider-Man’s strong and reassuring voice tells the riders that everything will be okay, but things might get hairy. Suddenly, the vehicle jolts ahead, beginning a dizzying descent down the track.
Doc Ock and Spider-Man battle back and forth for control of the vehicles, and as they do, the passengers are caught in the middle. They spin round and round while speeding down the track, which is mostly enveloped by darkness, save for flashes of light here and there and a brief, circular trip outside of the cluster of skyscrapers. Spider-Man ultimately prevails, knocking out Doc Ock and spinning a web to hold him. The passengers safely return to the power plant.
Falcon’s Treehouse handled the attraction design and executive production duties for this experience. That means they supervised all aspects of the construction and fabrication process, efficiently working with vendors like Mack Rides, who provided the steel track and vehicle components.
Each vehicle holds four guests, two in the front and two in the back. The seats are positioned so that two guests are facing forward, while the other two face the opposite direction, but because the ride vehicle rotates 360°, their point of view changes as the ride goes along.
The train has four cars in it, and each one behaves differently, depending on the load distribution of the vehicles. The spins change per cycle. This means that a guest can ride many times and never have the same exact experience because their sightlines are uncontrolled. It also means that one second a rider could be looking at the Marvel Cityscape and a split second later find themselves face-to-face with a terrified passenger a few feet away. One thing that’s almost certain…as riders rush past Thor Thunder Spin, they’ll hear screams of terror from THOSE riders!
As part of their attraction design duties, Falcon’s drew up the plans for art and sound design. The queue line looks like Doc Ock’s lab, albeit a run-down, deserted version of it. Sculpted scenic elements, scenic reliefs, and props such as overhead pipes, brick walls, a chain link fence, exhaust fans, barrels of radioactive waste, a chalkboard filled with formulas and equations, and exposed bricks behind crumbled stucco finish are seen throughout the queue line.
Adding to the ambiance are sound effects that suggest something is amiss. Suspenseful and adventurous background music plays in the queue line and ride station. There is also point-source audio and stereo audio in the main show.
The dazzling art direction continues throughout the ride, beginning with the vehicles, which are decorated with Spider-Man and Doc Ock “branding.” Painted scenic flats within the interior portion of the ride were designed to optimize the guest experience. Each flat is two-sided, so guests can see it no matter which way their vehicle is facing.
These colorful vignettes and action-packed sight gags light up as the guests’ vehicles pass them. Otherwise, they are in darkness. This is to ensure that the guests’ attention is only focused on one scene at a time.
As passengers spin along the track, they also come across two humongous dimensional scenic elements - Doc Ock’s steel tentacles and Spider-Man’s webs. These are the attraction’s highest profile features and certainly help identify it from a distance.
The swinging good time this roller coaster offers makes it one of the must-do attractions at IMG Worlds of Adventure.
