Xandar

Guardians of the Galaxy: Xandar Rescue

Overview

Guardians of the Galaxy: Xandar Rescue is an immersive dark ride taking guests from the surface of Terra across the galaxy for a tour of the Capital of the Nova Empire. In spirit of the Expo, Xandar has offered to give exclusive tours of their city’s facilities and latest technology as part of an intergalactic exchange. This tour is quickly interrupted by an attack on Xandar by Annihilus, putting us right in the middle of a thrilling battle between Nova Corp and hostile forces until the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive to save the day; all accompanied by a killer soundtrack.

Queue

We enter the queue outside the Xandarian Pavillion, a magnificent modern structure of futuristic architecture. Inside we find a large showcase on Xandarian history with exhibits highlighting great figures in government, technology, and culture. The exhibits are slightly humorous and lighthearted but also help to create a sense of a deeper world from the comic source material. As we move through the main exhibit we enter a section dedicated to Xandar’s research into Terra. The last exhibit in the pavilion is dedicated to the Guardians of the Galaxy who saved Xandar from Ronan the Accuser’s attack. Including artifacts from the battle and interviews with the members of the Guardians. Much like the interviews in Cosmic Rewind, Peter Quill is extremely excited about the new pavilion located so close to Disneyland. After the Guardians exhibit we enter the pre-show where we are welcomed by Irani Rael to the Xanadrian Pavilion, another step in partnership between Xandar and Terra. We are also being welcomed to join for a tour that will take us to Xandar to see their Capital in person and learn more about our intergalactic neighbors. Our journey will take us from Terra through a portal created by the Cosmic Generator all the way to Xandar.

Attraction

Boarding

We leave the pre-show room and enter the loading room and board our tour vehicles. Designed in the same style as the trains from Cosmic Rewind, they are a standard 2x2 seating arrangement with a single screen in the middle of each row. Functionally similar to an Omnimover but dispatched in set trains to be able to trigger the show scenes. We enter our tour vehicle, take our seats and are on our way to our first stop.

Terran Research Center

Our vehicles move into the Terran Research Center; a satellite laboratory of Nova Prime researchers dedicated to learning more about Terran technology and culture. On the screens in front of us is Attai Torit, a representative of the Nova Corps who serves as our tour guide. The Terran Research Center has been doing extensive work to better understand us as part of their establishment of their pavilion. Their research has focused in particular on the place us Terrans call “Disneyland”. The labs are filled with extinct attraction pieces and references from the park. An entire section dedicated to understanding churros, a Rocket Rods car taken apart, and a team focused on solving the mystery of the disappearing and reappearing Main Street Electrical Parade. There’s something meta about this scene but I can’t quite put my mousears on it…

Jump Point

We move out of the Terran Research Center towards the jump point that will take us across the galaxy to Xandar. We slowly move into the jump point portal flying through the swirling lights around us. We exit and enter another portal; jumping between points. On the screen we see a map showing us jumping through the galaxy to our destination.

Xandar

We exit the final jump point and emerge back into the light of the Capital; Xandar. We move through a glass tunnel high above the sprawling city below. The architecture around us is clean and futuristic, recreating the environment from the first movie. We continue through the tunnel and enter the Xandarian Department of Technology, a seemingly endless room filled with devices of all shapes and sizes. The facility is heavily secured and we are told by Attai that we are being given special access as part of this program. In the center of the room is the Cosmic Generator; the crown jewel of Xandarian Technology. It hums and glows as we pass by entering a top secret part of the facility. We turn and corner as the lights go dark, and an alarm starts to sound. Attai alerts us that there has been a security breach in Sector 7 and that we are asked to stay calm and please remain in our seats.

Trouble Arrives

We turn another corner to find who was bold enough to try and break into such a high security facility. In reality we find no one has broken into a facility…the facility is breaking apart. Where a wall stood is now a massive opening caused by some powerful blast of energy. Irani Rael comes on our screen with an emergency announcement; Xandar has come under attack. Everyone must immediately evacuate to emergency shelters. Our vehicle moves quickly through the remains of the room, another explosive sounds and we come face to face with our attacker; Annihilus. The tall green and purple figure with wings like a bat stands with his rod in his hands; commanding his army of minions to swarm the facility to capture whatever technology they can. We continue to move quickly away and hear Annihilus shout “stop them before they get away!”

Enter the Guardians

As we try to make our escape we enter the next room to find the Guardians of the Galaxy have arrived just in time. Their ship has land by another opening in the wall created by Annihilus. The entire Guardians team stand in front of us.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take it from me” Quill says.

“Why would you say that, they weren’t doing anything to help?”

“Drax, it's just an expression.” Gamora says.

“Let’s do this,” says Rocket. And with that the rock music starts and our vehicle rushes forward through a series of tight turns that our vehicle takes smoothly, turning side to side. We pass by scenes of the Guardians fighting off the army of minions swarming the facility as the creatures attempt to rob Xandar of its technology. Explosions and blasts fly by us as we attempt to escape.

Saving the Day

We enter a room where Annihilus is locked in combat with the Guardians, attempting to use his Cosmic Control Rod to stop them. A mixture of audioanimatronics and screens fills the action packed scene as our heroes dodge blasts and fire back. We see Rocket moving above us unnoticed. He disappears and we see sparks fly and he starts to mess with the wiring then an AA Rocket emerges with a gun connected to about a dozen different wires.

“Hey birdboy, up here!” Then he fires a massive shot of electricity taking out Annihilus. We move on into the next room with the fighting subsided and the villain contained. The Guardians thank us for our help to which Drax points out we didn’t do anything but sit there and watch.

“They weren’t allowed to help they had to keep their feet, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all time. Por favor mantengase sentado, con los brazos, manos, pies y piernas dentro del vehiculo, y cuiden a sus niños, muchas gracias!”

“Do you even know what that means?” Gamora asks

“No, but it sounds important.” Quill barks back.

Our vehicle rushes through another jump point returning us back to Terra where we disembark thankful to have survived our encounter. Maybe next time we’ll just watch a documentary or something.

Exit

We exit into the gift shop; Treasures of Xandar featuring Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise and some unique finds for technology lovers.

Next: Vibranium Valley