Exploring The History (And Future) Of Alien Franchise At Disney

5. Aliens: The Ride

The late eighties were a unique time in the history of the Disney parks. Michael Eisner was in charge of things, and was in full-on crisis mode because his then-teenage son, Breck, had called the parks "boring".

Eisner was horrified at the notion of the parks not seeming 'cool enough', and scrambled to find an answer to lure this demographic. He would find one in George Lucas when they conceived a deal to add that galaxy far, far away to Disney with the Star Tours ride inspired by Star Wars, which went on to become a giant hit for the parks. Because of this success, Eisner figured adding more science-fiction, blockbuster films were the way to go to make the Disney parks seem more hip, and wanted to take things a step further.

A shoot-em-up ride based on James Cameron's Alienswas planned, and even got to the design stage, before some of the veteran Imagineers stood up to Eisner and voiced their concerns. They ultimately felt this style of ride was ill-suited to the Disney parks, and the idea was ultimately scrapped.

Yet, the idea of getting the Xenomorph in the parks never quite left Eisner's head...

Nor did the idea of a ride where you shoot aliens...