Our car drives into the room where it stops on a rotating platform. All around us, the screens light up to make it seem as if we are driving out of a tunnel into the heart of Universal Studios. Giant sets of a metropolitan city (most likely New York) line both sides of our tram. Rain falls from the sky, but as we are in a covered tram, none gets to us.”
“Welcome to Universal Studios!” says our guide, as he slides along his poles at the front of the tram. “My name is Dave and I will be your marvelous tour guide for today! Your driver is the robot prototype ATID (Automatic Tram Intelligent Driver)! We are proud to welcome you to the place where all the magic of moviemaking occurs!”
Our vehicle takes a turn into an open garage on the street. The garage is mostly dark, but rusty old film equipment lines the wall. Thunder is heard in the background. Our vehicle comes to a complete stop when we are all inside of the garage.
“Lights, please!” says our guide. A spotlight comes on shines upon a rusty film camera.
“Thus here is the historic camera that filmed some of the best movies in Universal history - Jaws, Back to the Future, King Kong, Ghostbusters, Twister, Animal House, you name it - this camera probably filmed it.” More thunder can be heard outside as the rain steepens.
“Alright ATID, let’s get out of here!” Thunder strikes the building we are inside of, and the ground shakes. The garage door behind us comes to a shut abruptly and all of the lights go out, except for the spotlight illuminating the camera. Bolts of green electricity crawl up to the camera, and it turns on. A bright yellow light shines upon the cart.
“What the -” the guide yells. The room around us spins, and the platform rotates to feel like we are actually the ones going upside down. Suddenly reality begins to darken and it turns off? The effect resembles an old TV turning off.
Guests next find themselves inside the boat in the World of Jaws. "This is strange. Not a part of our usual tour."
The water looks calm and endless around us. Occasionally a ripple can be seen.
"Well," our tour guide says. "It looks we somehow stumbled upon the set of the historic film Jaws. As 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name, Jaws is a pretty influential film to American culture.
Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple "high-concept" premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. Thus creating -" While our guide was speaking the trembles became more clear and frequent.
A giant shark leaps out of the lake towards us, looking as if it were to consume the whole tram. "HOLY!" The screens around us go black as they did before and this time we find ourself in a small suburban town.
"What the heck is happening?" our guide says. "ATID, what is going on?"
"Calculating..." says a robot voice.
"Well. This appears to be the set of Back to the Future, a hit movie from 1985. Directed by Robert Zem--"
"Great Scott!" some version of Doc Brown runs up to our tram. "Marty! You must have brought these peope from your time!"
"Guess so, Doc!" Marty yells.
"I'll hook them up to the back of your car, and you should be able to take them with you."
"Sure thing, Doc!" Marty yells.
(AN: Marty is never seen and his voice is created using clips from the movie. Doc Brown is a real person.)
"Wait no!" our guide yells, but it is too late.
"NOW MARTY!" The Time Delorean, which we can see behind us zooms forwards and suddenly we zap away.
We find ourselves in Downtown New York. "Sir. There are no geographical satellites in the area," says ATID.
Our tour guide just frowns. "Well... We somehow appear to be in Downtown New York on the of the comical smash sensation, Ghostbusters."
"That's us!" says a voice. We see the fire garage open and the Ecto-1 drive out. "Look at our fans! Follow us, if you want an adventure."
ATID follows them through the winding streets of Downtown New York, almost crashing twice, when we finally stop before a giant marshmallow man.
"Get us out of here ATID!" Our car seemingly backs up and drives away, but we are zapped by Slimer who sends us spiraling into another dimension.
"Oh gosh. We are in Twister, and we can all guess how this ends." A Twister Can be seen in the distance.
"Drive away, sir?" says the robotic voice of ATID.
"Of course!"
We begin to drive away but suddenly we freeze in our tracks and everyone gets launched forwards.
"ATID, what the heck?"
"Hello, Dave," ATID says in a voice reminiscent of a certain influential space movie.
"ATID, you must be broken. Drive fast or I'll do it manually."
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
The Twister comes in behind us.
Our tour guide jumps to the front of the tram. "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" says HAL/ATID.
"Turning you off," says our tour guide, as he dramatically flips a switch and presses the gas pedal down. Unfortunately, he is too late as we are all airbound. We fly up as the scene goes black.
"All right folks. We're just gonna drive fast through these movies and hopefully we'll find our way back to the studio." And that we do. We see modern movies like The Secret Life of Pets, and older movies like E.T. Most flash on and off the simulator screens around us.
Finally, after this grand mirage, we arrive back at Universal Studios, where it is sunny. "Well, I better take this tram into commission. Anyways, thanks for riding with Universal Stdio Tours. My name is Dave and have a great rest of your day."
