"The Adventures Of Spider-Man"

Hailed by Ride's Designers as Industry "Threshold Attraction"

Crown Jewel Of "Universal's Islands of Adventure®" Is History's First Ride To Combine High Speed Moving Simulators, Live Action And 3-D Adventures

Attraction Features 400-Foot "Sensory Descent"

Orlando, Florida, May 6, 1997 -- It will be the greatest ride ever built: "The Adventures Of Spider-Man" for "Universal's Islands Of Adventure" will be the first attraction in theme park history to combine rapidly moving, highly mobile ride vehicles hurtling through acres of vivid scene sets and extraordinary, specially filmed 3D action with custom-choreographed live action and pyrotechnic special effects.

Guests will be swept into a raging New York City street fight between one of America's most beloved superheroes and a cast of ominous supervillians. The conflict will rage 360 degrees around guests - above, under, around - and it will burst through movie screens straight at them. A breakthrough attraction, literally - "The Adventures Of Spider-Man" will represent an extraordinary marriage of technology from two of Universal Studios Florida's previous revolutionary rides - the blockbuster motion-based "Back To The Future" and the highly acclaimed state-of-the-art 3D, "Terminator 2 3D."

"This is really the state of the future attraction," said Mark Woodbury, Vice President of Design and Creative Development for Universal Studios. "Spider-Man is the 'next threshold attraction' which represents the evolution of immersive entertainment. "It affects you both in amazing sensory and visceral ways."

Guests will speed through New York City's streets while helping Spider-Man in his epic fight against villians. Flaming pumpkins and spewing water pipes hurled by the forces of evil will seem to fly towards startled riders before smashing into their vehicles, ultimately careening off into the night.

The adventure begins with a visit to The Daily Bugle, where Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, toils in The Fourth Estate. He learns that the forces of darkness have used their Anti-Gravity gun to steal the ultimate symbol of freedom, The Statue Of Liberty. Parker enlists "Universal's Islands of Adventure®" guests to help him return this beacon of freedom from dastardly hands. The comic book-style battle begins.

A foreboding Doc Oc (Doctor Octopus) ultimately takes aim at riders with his Doomsday Anti-Gravity gun, which zaps guests 400 feet in the air before plunging them the same 400 feet down towards the dark street below.

It's an experience unlike any other ever created. Traditional 3D films require viewers to remain in one location. The challenge of "Spider-Man" was to get guests directly involved in the action as they view three-dimensional films and move at high speeds past various movie screens and props - at unusual angles and varying distances.

Called a "moving point of convergence," the new technology was developed along with pioneering motion-picture techniques by a hand-picked team to achieve astounding results. The effect relies on 25 large-format movie projectors and dozens of smaller projectors. Guests will see 3D wherever they look.

According to Woodbury what makes the images remarkable is the pioneering effort to project heretofore flat, 2D comic book characters who have no dimensional form into three-dimensional characters via CGI (computer graphic imaging). "The results should be staggering," he said. "People will be unable to discern the boundaries between fantasy and reality."