The old-school charm of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

Depending on how you look at things, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular may or may not be an opening-day attraction for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, known as Disney-MGM Studios when the park opened on May 1, 1989.

A Disney’s Hollywood Studios Timeline

On Aug. 25 of that year, the Orlando Sentinel reported on the grand opening of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, attended by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and George Lucas. Interestingly, though, the Sentinel noted that the show had been performing two of its three stunts since the park’s opening day. The show’s grand “opening” would simply be the first time guests saw all three of the show’s acts.

Semantics aside, no matter how you slice it, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular is the oldest attraction in the park. Today, the production feels like an anomaly among a lineup of thrill rides like Tower of Terror and immersive lands like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In 1989, though, Indy was par for the course when it came to Disney-MGM Studios attractions.

Back then, guests spent their day enjoying informative, behind-the-scenes presentations about the magic of the movies. Indy covered stunts; other shows focused on sound effects and acting. A tram tour covered special effects, costuming, and sets (sometimes passing active productions). An animation-focused tour featured real animators working on legitimate projects coming up in Disney’s animated pipeline.

As time progressed, the park’s thesis evolved. At first, attractions retained their same spirit, but re-imagined the guest’s perspective. For example, the sound show became less of an educational presentation and more of a narrative experience. Similarly, the animation tour removed its functioning studio and simply became an indoor pavilion celebrating the legacy of animation and the backlot hosted fewer active productions, and opened its passageways for guest to wander through themselves.

Eventually, the park abandoned these notions altogether. Today, the sound-focused attraction is where guests can watch modern-day Mickey Mouse cartoons. Where animators once created “Lilo & Stitch,” guests can now meet Chewbacca. The labyrinth of street facades that lined the backlot have long since been bulldozed to build Batuu.

A Remnant from the Bygone Era of Disney-MGM Studios

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is today very much a jubilation of moviemaking rather than an explanation of it, and yet, isn’t it curious that throughout its radical changes, one adventurer has withstood the park’s many overhauls virtually unchanged? Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular still performs to this day, more or less the same show guests saw in 1989.

What’s the Story Here?

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular is peculiar in its presentation. If we’re paying close enough attention, there’s some degree of fiction we, as an audience, are supposed to buy into here and the narrative lands in an in-between, almost-but-not-quite meta space. When Indy and Marion run from the explosion, we aren’t supposed to believe we’re seeing the “real” Indy and Marion. However, we’re also not just watching random performers re-create a stunt from a movie inside a theme park. This is where the plot takes an unconventional turn.

According to the backstory verbalized at the beginning of the show, we’re on set at the second unit of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” witnessing a second-unit director film scenes with Harrison Ford’s stunt double. The look-alike performs rehearsals, the director calls action, crew members film it, the whole shebang.

There seems to be a certain phenomenon of in the ebb and flow of pop-culture relevance of any given entity. In its first stages, if a movie, a style of music, a fashion trend, etc. gains steam, it becomes the “it” thing. It’s a sensation. Then it goes out of style, and it’s yesterday’s news. It’s at this point that usually something new comes along to take its place. Then, when enough time has passed, there’s a tinge of romanticism in the eyes of those who remember the heyday — and, even more fascinatingly, in the eyes of those too young to have ever experienced the heyday at all — that makes the entity relevant again. Paradoxically, it’s beloved once more because of how dated it is.

At this point in time, I believe, the pendulum has fully swung toward this line of thinking for Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. The stunts themselves have always been impressive, but the theatrics behind the premise are really what I’m speaking of here. The fictional set-up of the second-unit film shoot began to show its age the longer the show performed. It’s stuck around long enough, though, that the same indicators that once ruled it outdated now render it nostalgic.

Exhibit B: DisneyQuest

Here’s another example of this principle in a Walt Disney World attraction, but with the opposite fate as Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. We’ll never know for certain, but I’d like to think DisneyQuest was in the same category as Indy’s kitsch.

The five-story complex of virtual reality rides at Disney Springs closed in 2017. Its sheer existence, not to mention its design and aesthetics, were definitively ’90s to a tee. Shortly before it closed, those qualities made DisneyQuest feel outdated by the standards of modern attractions. If Disney wasn’t going to revamp the whole thing, they might as well shut it down, right?

Maybe, but I think DisneyQuest just barely missed the wave of ’90s romanticism that exploded into the ether almost immediately after the complex closed to make way for the short-lived NBA Experience. Sure, DisneyQuest still would’ve needed some TLC from time to time, and hindsight is 20/20, but I think the general perception of the DisneyQuest experience possibly could’ve skewed more positive if it could have hung in there a bit longer.

The Hollywood That Never Was and Always Will Be

In his dedication of Disney-MGM Studios, Michael Eisner called the park “a Hollywood that never was — and always will be.” These words perfectly encapsulate what Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular still is today. This show fully commits to inexplicably urging us to believe we are witnessing live production of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” a not-yet-released movie. That is absolutely bonkers. Simultaneously, though, it’s absolutely thrilling. We get to momentarily step back in time and lose ourselves in the fantasy. That’s what movies are all about.