Renovated Disney ride gets a TSA checkpoint

The Star Tours Star Wars simulator ride at Walt Disney World has re-opened after a long rehab. It's been updated with the latest technology and effects, and been rejigged to add that de rigeur element of all long-distance travel: a TSA checkpoint analog. Bruce Schneier calls it the "normalization of security" -- that is, making invasive security measures seem natural and normal.

The second room of the queue is now a security check area, similar to a TSA checkpoint. The two G-series droids are still there, G2-9T scanning luggage and G2-4T scanning passengers. For those attraction junkies, you'll remember that the G-series droids are so named because in the original Disneyland Park version of the ride, they were created by removing the "skins" from two of the goose animatronics from the soon-to-close America Sings attraction (Goose = "G" series). While we won't tell you why, you'll enjoy paying a lot of attention to what the scans of the luggage show is inside. When it's your turn to go through the passenger scan (a thermal body scan), you may be verbally accosted by a security droid. Also, keep an eye out in the queue for an earlier version of RX-24 ("Captain Rex") from the original Star Tours; he's labeled "defective" and has some familiar dialogue.

Walt Disney World Resort Update

(Image: Disney Parks Blog)

• [soopermexican]

  Get over yourselves. Disney has no obligation to meet your political demands for proper outrage. They made something clever and witty out of a terrible thing. Not everything has to reflect your pathetic online universe filled with malicious sarcasm. (nota bene: I usually dislike Disney)

  • [gwailo_joe]

    but, but: pathetic malicious sarcasm is the whole point of the Internet in general and comment boards in particular!

    (oh, wait…it’s not? sorry, my bad)

• [Brainspore]

  So Disneyland created a fanciful representation of a war-torn galaxy where violent rebels routinely conduct terrorist attacks against a genocidal military dictatorship… and we’re supposed to think they went too far by including a fake security checkpoint?

  • [ranomatic]

    Great comment!

• [gwailo_joe]

  ‘I came for the well intentioned, reasoned and respectful debate

  But I stayed for the all-caps rage rants and mean spirited snark’

  and #29: SotS is an interesting artifact: the Brer Rabbit stories are great of course, and Uncle Remus is cool. But the children are so. . .ugh. And the Moms attitude: painful to watch. I agree that ‘censoring’ the animation and good performances is a shame, but I see why Disney does it: it’s just not appropriate for re-release in the 21st century…

• [Mister44]

  DAMN IT! I was IN Orlando and could have ridden this had I known they opened it early!!!

  I even saw some cast members late at night a few days before the weekend and told them I was available for beta testing.

• [blueelm]

  And really this is Disney, right? Like… the company that brought us fond recollections of when the slaves had it better than any of us, and a slew of films about social engineering through marriage.

• [Anonymous]

  This is a great idea! Hopefully some kids can be pulled aside and interrogated in private, to add to the realism! Let’s also throw a body cavity search in there so that kids can get used to it as a future inevitability!

• [irksome]

  So I get to allow an eviscerated goose fondle my gonads?

  Sign me up, Walt!

• [Emo Pinata]

  So satirizing something that has no indication of ever going away is accepting it? What should entertainment venues do?

  It’s not like there’s an actual terrorist being caught by a security scan justifying it’s use. It just hassles normal people.

  • [Hanglyman]

    I think the point is that including a parody of it legitimizes the real thing- it makes it seem more normal and routine, which makes it LESS likely to ever go away. If you’ve just given up and accepted invasive security procedure as a fact of life, this will seem harmless, but if you’re still outraged by it and feel that it should never be accepted as routine if we want to get rid of it, normalizing it is very harmful, yes.

    The only exception would be if the satire is really biting and critical, and brings the flaws of it to people’s attention, making them outraged instead of complacent. Since this is Disneyworld, though, I sort of doubt it.

    • [blueelm]

      I’m not sure I agree with this. It seems just as likely to make people think about how unpleasant it is that our real life has gotten that way.

    • [tomservojr]

      That’s the same logic certain people (Ron Rosenbaum in particular) like to use against Charlie Chaplin when they claim “The Great Dictator” effectively aided Hitler’s cause by eroding his opposition and “normalizing” him through toothless satire. It’s not an especially convincing argument in either case.

    • [Anonymous]

      Don’t worry dude it’s here to stay and more and if you complain too much about it:
      http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/21/byron-sonne-canadian.html

      You’ll end up like this.

  • [emmdeeaych]

    it’s certainly mainstreaming something that ought to go away.

• [Pantograph]

  All those silly Paul Verhoeven SF films turned out to be scarily prophetic.

• [sten]

  “My colleagues at Lucasfilm and I applied our skills, knowledge, and creativity to make the company an industry leader,” said Siddharth Hariharan, a former Lucasfilm employee who filed the class action suit and is listed as the plaintiff. “It’s disappointing that, while we were working hard to make terrific products that resulted in enormous profits for Lucasfilm, senior executives of the company cut deals with other premiere high tech companies to eliminate competition and cap pay for skilled employees,” Hariharan said in a statement.

  Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20059875-38.html#ixzz1N9pJxvXU

• [Felton / Moderator]

  Does it look like the droid torture room in Jabba’s palace?

• [wylkyn]

  Just pointing out that Disneyland here in California has their own security theater right when you enter, and it’s not meant as satire as far as I can tell. You have to open your backpack for a search that can range anywhere from cursory to half-hearted, depending on the “cast member” in charge of your line. I don’t know if this unarmed security detail receives any actual training, but I have to wonder what they would do if they did spot something that looked like a bomb or a gun. The guy who was searching us had to be 80 if he was a day.

  Come to think of it, maybe it IS satire.

• [CLamb]

  I wonder how long it will be before some visitor tries to hijack the ride?

• [olmsteader]

  Sure put a smile on Mr. Lucas’ face.

• [ranomatic]

  I was a test rider for this at the start of the week. The queue gags were all great, including his one, and everything was generally refreshed. We went through several times with different scenarios in the 3-D show. I have no idea how many there are total.

  • [Anonymous]

    The site linked to in the article says 54 variations.

• [Editz]

  Just protecting you from the sand people, sir. Move along.

• [Brainspore]

  Also let’s not forget that Lucas’ original vision of the Star Wars universe had security checkpoints aplenty even for backwater spaceports. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” anyone?

• [John S.]

  The trend is surveillance, checkpoints and identification. Being human, being free is over. You must be checked, searched, transparent. Why not? asks technology. It would take more effort to NOT completely surveil the populace. Imagine Google Earth with black-out strips everywhere; no street view, etc. Imagine halting the trends in communication links. Tech on its own, with the promise of fame and fortune, will continue its relentless creation of Transparent Earth. Who will survive that atmosphere? Is it right? Yet, our capabilities in this realm seem to transcend current definitions of morality. Omniscience in the hands of “connected” people ala “singularity” in 2045 according to Dr. Kurzweil’s analysis of Moore’s Law. Is this the prophesized Beast? Who can make war with Him/Us/It/the Borg? And will a virus send us reeling through a fire that cannot be quenched? (Dance on fire as it intends…)

  Building this perfect Beast; another attempt at Babel – we can’t help it. Could we actually worship Jesus? Could we seek His counsel? In the meantime, won’t we deride the past for the glories yet to come – of OUR OWN choosing! All the warnings secular or ecclesiastic, gone. Ben Franklin’s “those willing to give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety” deserving neither of course – done with it. Sorry, Ben. Sorry, Jesus – it’s Lady Gaga and her secular “monsters.” She would have it open, not closed. Open, open, open up this future damned.

• [olmsteader]

  So, will storm troopers be conducting the cavity searches?

• [millrick]

  new t-shirt logo

  – denormalize security -

• [Rosiemoto]

  Terrorism in the Star Wars Universe is very real and should not be taken lightly.

  Remember when those bastard rebels blew up the

  1) First Death Star

  2) Second Death Star

• [Pope Ratzo]

  Gee, how I hate George Lucas.

  • [Anonymous]

    Word, not a whole lot to like about the man.

    http://blogs.forbes.com/benkerschberg/2011/05/04/apple-allegedly-at-center-of-employee-compensation-conspiracy-involving-google-intel-adobe-pixar-and-lucasfilm/

• [Anonymous]

  @blueelm

  If you’re referring to Song of the South, they weren’t slaves, and the dad appeared to be an anti segregation writer who wasn’t well liked because of his articles. The grandmother had a good relationship with Uncle Remus…the only person with issues was the mom. People get all worked up over that film…I have a copy, the whole thing is a non issue.

• [itsgene]

  I guess I’m not qualified to make the determination that this is “training” us to accept permanent security theater at airports — although I must say that in my 44 years on this planet I’ve never NOT been through security to get on an airplane, so I think this is a given by now.

  That said, my view of the whole thing, I suppose colored by my personal feelings about the TSA, is that it is taking the piss. The luggage-scanning droid is portrayed as lazy, non-attentive, letting things through that shouldn’t and making snarky comments about how much he loves his job. Is this glorifying the security or making fun of it? It seems to me that it is actually reinforcing the fact that most people understand how pointless the security is.

• [mrfantasy]

  So, is it actually just a joke, or are they really scanning you, and the actual displays of what’s happening just not visible to the guests?

• [ranomatic]

  Trivia question for everyone – When did the FAA first require that all passengers and their luggage be screened?

  • [ranomatic]

    Answer – late 1972.