The Cloned History of Batman: The Ride - The First Inverted Roller Coaster | Expedition Six Flags

[Music] in 1992 a brand new type of roller coaster made its debut the first time a train would perform inversions while under the track an idea that became so successful it would launch a young company b m to the top tier of roller coaster design based on one of the most iconic comic book characters of all time batman the ride would be such a hit that it would not open at just one park or even two it will be cloned around the world over 10 times if the world's only suspended outside looping through ride one rider said it felt like being in the cockpit of a jet fighter plane [Music] batman the ride covers more than a half mile of crack in about two minutes even with a long wait riders felt this was worth it where are you i'm batman [Music] this video is sponsored by skillshare the online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes skillshare is actually how i learnt to use premiere pro to edit these very videos taking creative classes you can find exactly what you need to continue growing and learning the fundamentals of photoshop has been a huge help in improving my thumbnails from what they were ish to now the best part of skillshare is that you can jump around to all sorts of topics be it video editing photography audio recording which is one thing i knew nothing about it's a community that you can discover exactly what you need all included in short easy to learn classes the first 1000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial skillshare to try out all of these creative classes [Music] you ask me what's up doc okay i'll show you what's up look up for fun look up everyone it's marriott's great america time warner parent company of warner brothers were a major influence at great america since the beginning of the park's existence through the licensing of the looney tunes characters when six flags finalized the purchase of great america from mario in 1984 it resulted in them gaining the rights to use the warner brothers looney tunes characters in all other six flags parks by 1990 six flags were on the verge of bankruptcy and time warner would continue to buy shares to the point that in 1991 they owned half the company this new majority owner would not only provide an increase of cash to spend on the park but also the use of further warner brothers characters from quite a distance away you can hear the screams from the brave riders who are at six flags great america to be among the first to experience the iron wolf after the success of the very first boliga and mabilar coaster stand up roller coaster iron wolf in richie rich's garden wait sorry at 6'5 great america in 1990 the park wanted more and would once again turn to the young company b m with a combination of teams working together warner brothers b m and six flags great america general manager jim wintrod would come up with a brand new design for a roller coaster jim went to bnm with an idea a roller coaster where the trains would hang under the track one that would be capable of inversions trains hanging under the track were not new with suspended roller coasters featuring swinging cars when we come up with an idea for a new thrill ride or screen maker if you will such as a suspended coaster one of the first things that we do is we come up with an artist's conception of the ride then many times we find that to check the ride dynamics we make a scale model such as this pete can you let it drop now arrow even attempted to add a corkscrew on their prototype originally but unsurprisingly this didn't continue any further with help from engineer robert mamp dnm would flesh out the design that would become known as the inverted roller coaster rather than the train sitting on top of the track it would hang beneath the track design would continue using the staple square box track that the company had used in the past the trains under the track would not swing instead they will remain fixed in place and be quite similar to the b m stand-up trains in essence a unique aspect was that this new type of roller coaster wouldn't need a zero car at the front of the train this is a section ahead of the first seats to stabilize a connection to the front axle and is rigidly linked to the second car to provide the wheelbase from which the cars follow on this brand new type of train all inverted coasters were designed so that seats could hang from the zero car increasing the capacity and making the front train mean the very front well except one i'm looking at you alpen geist a moving metal floor was designed to give the clearances under riders feet to safely move the train along while making the comfier seats easy to get into many promotions at the time compared the ride seats to ski lift style seating our guests hang below the track in high speed chairlift type vehicles similar to what you'd find at a ski area as they whirl over and around gotham city see the ride's lift hill would have a much bigger track spine section to hide the chain return pusher tires will be used here after leaving the station to slow the approaching train to the same speed of the lift hill as well as engage the anti-roll backs for the theme with warner brothers now owning six flags there was only one obvious tie-in the batman was created by bob kane and bill finger when in 1939 dc comics were looking for a new superhero one that could build on the success of their earlier comic mega hit superman he will become a tv hit in the 1960s when adam west would don the cape while there were two films in the 1940s and an adaption of the tv show as a film in 1966 it will be the 1980s when batman would once again become a mainstream mega hit on the silver screen warner brothers studios would produce the first of a set of films directed by tim burton and starring michael keaton in the main role the film just titled batman released in 1989 and would be a hit wait wrong batman this version will gross over 400 million dollars and for many is seen as the best portrayal of batman ever seen on screen of course though it isn't that honor obviously goes to batman and robin the best of the best batman movie it's all about those bat nipples never leave the cave without him i'm kidding it is terrible hi frieze i'm batman however this wasn't the first attempt to bring a batman roller coaster to a theme park after the success of the first movie very early in development of cartoon world or what would later be known as ireland's adventure one of the cartoon lands was planned to be based around gotham island and feature everyone's favorite bat referred to as project x was being prepared to try and compete further with disney and what better way to do that than with cartoons dc superhero land will be split between superman and batman batman would potentially get a show maybe a joker attraction as well as a batman roller coaster known as batwing batman vs the penguin to tie in with the upcoming batman returns the second movie that was set to be released in 1992 it would be a dueling coaster where you could ride either in batman's batwing or penguins penguin each would have their own loading stations themed to the characters and the two suspended coasters would interact throughout the course appearing to fight there were tons of concepts thrown around for what would come to the dc land from catwoman's lair to a riddler-themed area and even a nightclub sadly universal and warner brothers could not agree to terms for using their rights firstly due to profits as well as the fact that they would have to compete with a rival studio theme park the fully fledged concepts didn't help and all the plans that have been drawn up were cancelled and by 1993 the deal was officially dead the plans for the second universal part were modified and eventually would open with marvel rather than dc to six flags or disneyland a dog's view we all know disneyland's a great place to visit but if you don't have time for the trip this year consider the alternative six flags bigger faster [Music] closer no matter where you live there's one nearby plus you get home in time to feed your dog no such issues will be present for the parks the company would actually own at the time that revolutionary prototype roller coaster will be coming to six flags great america in illinois for the park's 17th season themed to the batman the new ride was to be on the location of tidal wave a schwarzkopf shuttle loop roller coaster located in a narrow strip of land in the middle of the park tidal wave was removed in 1991 and eventually sent her over georgia as viper and work began on the brand new b m inverted coaster the ride's layout would specifically be designed to fit into great america the track and supports were painted black while the seats were purple and restraint yellow all classic batman colors this after all was his new vehicle b m squeeze 2 700 feet of track in the small space batman the ride begins by heading up a 100 foot lift hill and starts with a classic b m pre-drops before quickly dropping to the left in a curve in first drop heading into that 77 foot tall vertical loop the next element was another first the zero g roll a very tight barrel roll that makes riders feel a moment of weightlessness sometimes called a heartlight spin this is followed by a second vertical loop and a tight spiral and more turns before two corkscrews known by bnm as a flat spin the tight compact layout doesn't slow down throughout reaching speeds of 50 miles per hour this was a unique six flags roller coaster because it was actually quite well themed while the cue was at least the designers feel the ride reflects the legend of batman it approximates the sort of high-tech gadgets that batman would build in other words if batman ever built a thrill ride this is what it would look like riders enter gotham city park a pretty park and relaxing atmosphere but as the queue continues so you begin to see the serious side of gotham graffiti and junk everywhere as well as a bullet-filled police car heading into the sewers and taking a wrong turn emerging in the bat cave a large batman logo is on the ceiling and the bat suit replica from the 1989 film is located on the unload side of the station on opening when the train left the station blasts of fog would rise up out of the floor each employee operating the ride even more butler tuxedos to represent the fact they were bruce wayne's household staff what'd you guys think of the ride what'd you think it was great best coaster you've been on anything the best yet you guys gonna go again okay let's go again we're going again we're going again opening on may 9 1992 it kicked off the batman summer spectacular at six flags time warner heavily promoted their new ride on their tv channel mtv and in magazines such as entertainment weekly for the opening media guests were given a purple gym bag filled with batman goodies such as a watch t-shirt and other six flags items along with a chance to ride sounds like a real party cool party the ride was a huge success described as one of the smoothest but most frightening looping rides in existence proof that new frills could still be created through innovative coaster design one newspaper said about the ride this is the first and only suspended outside looping nothing below your chair but air roller coaster there's nothing like it on earth not even at disney other parks around the world cancelled whatever they were working on to try and get their hands on the latest and greatest brand new roller coaster design before the ride's first season had ended over 1 million people had rode batman the ride at great america the ride could fit in a very small footprint and six flags wanted to recapture the magic of this ride elsewhere in 1993 six flags great adventure would get an inverted roller coaster replacing lightning loops the park announced in 1992 an inverted high-tech chairlift style vehicle roller coaster will be heading to the park as the batman stunt show had been the biggest hit of the summer they would call their new ride batman the ride it will be a 105 foot tall inverted coaster that was exactly the same as the world's most exciting new roller coaster that had come the year before a few minor tweaks were made including the q experience but otherwise it would be exactly the same and just like the year before it was once again a hot addition to the park i find that unlikely what do you say we heat things up my passion thoughts for my bride alone 1994 six flags would once again get another inverted roller coaster this time at magic mountain called batman the ride the biggest hit of the summer an inverted high-tech chairlift style vehicle roller coaster yeah it was again the same ride now on the west coast but the next six flags inverted bay m would come to saint louis in 1995 to coincide with batman forever it would also be called batman right the next biggest hit of the summer an inverted high-tech chairlift style vehicle roller coaster hold on let's chill yeah i think you get what i'm trying to say here they clone the ride at each of the parks sometimes mirrored but essentially the same i could keep this going but let's speed this up a little it also came to over georgia in 1997 to coincide with batman and robin [Music] seriously those bat nipples over texas in 1999 and the final batman the ride installation at six flags new orleans in 2003. this one had been relocated from thrill valley in japan where it was known as gambit from 1995 to 2002. it would only operate for two seasons before sadly hurricane katrina destroyed the park after standing but not operating for two years in flood waters it was removed and relocated to fiesta texas where it is known as goliath the track being located high off the ground had luckily saved this version of the ride oh and if you thought the mr freeze clips were a lot here just wait till i cover reverse blast [Music] texas would actually have three nearly identical inverted coasters with another clone of the rye being known as great white at sea world san antonio other versions without the batman name included japan getting a version in 1994 canada in 2002 one in kuwait which was one of the few closed b m's to ever exist and finally another called batman the escape in spain the original version was repainted yellow in 2004 and continues today to be a popular attraction even though more thrilling versions of the inverted coaster have been created since between 2013 and 2015 select versions of the ride operated backwards this most recently happened at six flags saint louis in 2018. the ride behind us illustrates the synergy of time warner and six flags that we're able to create an entirely new experience it probably has never existed in the theme park with the every element of a thrill ride i mean this is the most exciting ride just probably the big daddy of them all now combined with probably the most exciting entertainment franchise batman in 1992 six flags and b m created the most cloned roller coaster in the world batman the ride would propel the relatively unknown b m to the forefront of the coaster industry the inverted coaster was high capacity low maintenance unique and just plain fun there have been better inverted roller coasters that have followed but batman the ride b m and six flags great america paved the way for them all to exist some of the greats include nemesis that other nemesis that isn't quite as good as nemesis but still kind of fun banshee montu dueling dragons black mamba silver bullet and many more in 1999 in south africa a new roller coaster would open located at gold reef city giovanola was now making roller coasters for the south still using that box style track that had been designed while b m had worked for them giovanola would create one inverted roller coaster for themselves anaconda perhaps stories for other expeditions batman the ride received the american coaster enthusiast coaster landmark award in 2005. bnm had created a revolutionary design with unprecedented intensity great pacing all while remaining smooth letting riders experience the thrills of being a superhero all while shouting i am batman the ride thank you so much for watching this episode of expedition 6 flags if you enjoyed it make sure you subscribe to join the expedition follow us on twitter and instagram for updates on upcoming episodes and a special thank you to our patreons for supporting the channel we will see you next time you

Channel: Expedition Theme Park

Views: 109,089

Keywords: expedition theme park, expedition extinct, expedition six flags, six flags, great America, batman, batman: the ride, batman the ride, nemesis, inverted rollercoaster, best rollercoaster, best roller coaster, roller coaster, six flags history, theme park, history, flashback, worst coaster, coaster, innovation, b&m, bolliger & mabilard, roller coasters, coasters, pop, superhero, best rides, best rollercoasters, best roller coasters, best, magic mountain, over Georgia

Id: zW6TX7_k8No

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2020