Lethal
Weapon Pursuit, Movie Park Germany
Are you a member of
the law abiding, yet always crave the need for speed, the yearning to
involve yourself in a police chase, driving down one-way streets the
wrong way and by and large causing disorder and damage down every street
you drive?
If
this is you, or perhaps you would rather settle for saving the earth
from the malevolence of Naught, then perhaps you should visit Warner
Bros. Movie World, the closest Europe currently has to Universal
Studios.
Much
of the ride is out of sight taking place in rusty warehouses behind the
Hollywood back-lot style street, which has the rather understated
entrance to the ride. One of the main highlights of the attraction, the
dual inline twists, can be seen elsewhere in the park and a
preponderance of the twisted track from the car park, but as a new
rider, most of the ride will remain a bit of a mystery tour.
The
queue takes you into a cinema. A film depicts a scene from Lethal
Weapon. As a getaway car speeds through the streets of American suburbia
through a flurry of gunfire, people jump to safety to avoid the convoy
of marked and unmarked police cars.
An
unmarked car loses control, hitting another car at an awkward angle
rolling into the window of an electrical shop. The black and white
marked police cars continue the chase as it races off screen before the
doors open for us to continue queuing.
The
show may seem rather irrelevant, but the bearing of it will soon become
apparent as you near the ride.
Once
outside, you walk past the final scene of the red car on its’ roof,
through the window of the shop, rubble and glass littering the street,
before you climb some steps and enter the corroding depot in which you
will board the ride.
The
ride is a mixture of a duelling and racing coaster, using two completely
independent tracks that often intermingle, and frequently race. The
station is large and covered from the elements, loading two trains at a
time.
The
significance of the pre-show now becomes apparent. You are to continue
the car chase in marked police cars. Each car is numbered, adorned in a
black and white livery with head lights, tail lights and even a blue
light on the back.
The
trains have two cars in a normal two-by-two formation. I’m not the
biggest fan of these trains, the same ones used on the shabby Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Peril at Disneyland Paris. The sides are high,
claustrophobic and visibility is severely impaired by the seats in
front. It is most definitely a front seat ride, if only for that reason,
and even then, the mock windscreen is a bit of a distraction.
Once
loaded, you leave the station and dip down before engaging on the lift.
The trains rise in tandem with a handrail separating the two. To your
right, another warehouse with the corrugated metal sides stained in rust.
The
lift is rapid and quiet, and it isn’t long before the trains curl over
the top, sharply dip before sweeping off to the left towards a
warehouse. The right hand track dips below the line of the left hand
before both burst through the corrugated wall of a warehouse before
bursting out the other side.
Some
nicely banked and surprisingly sharp corners follow, ducking and diving
throughout, under and over track, you may get to see the other train
dart either above you or below you. This part of the ride is rather
lawless, it has no method in keeping the trains together, nor does it
seem able to keep the other in sight, yet either by fluke or well
calculated engineering, the tracks soon run parallel again, before
diving into a darkened warehouse.
As
you climb towards a partitioned divide coming down from the ceiling, the
two trains sharply drop under here before you climb harshly up into a
surprise vertical loop, hidden from view by the wall, now anything but,
lit with strobe lights lighting the gloomy interior with a sharp and
vivid radiance.
The
loop is surprisingly large, and to the side of you, in tandem you can
see the other train traverse the identical element as if staring into a
mirrored wall.
A
climb out of this is followed by a right-hand turn, dipping down quickly
before beginning a second lift-hill. By the time the train has lost
momentum and the chain has engaged, you are almost at the top before you
dive off and back outside.
Not
long after the breath of fresh air, you dive back into another
warehouse, this time the police departments’ car compound. As the ride
slaloms over bashed-up cars, a pungent smell of fumes fill the air, the
frantic revving of engines, before you catch a speeding car heading
towards you in your peripheral vision. As a collision seems inevitable,
the car jumps and rolls over you in a spectacular fireball before you
burst outside and into a perfectly formed roll yourself.
As
you are flung through this perfect zero-g roll, your legs and arms
flail, your weight falls onto the restraints and the contents of your
pockets very nearly fall out.
As
the trains recover, turning and twisting one last time, the two sides
swap and you race into the final brake-run.
Although
relatively unknown, this ride is a real surprise. The twisting of the
two tracks towards the beginning may be a little disorganised, but the
head choppers formed by the other track and the surprisingly tight dive
through the first tunnel is fantastic.
On
the first ride, the vertical loops just amaze. There is no way you could
expect such a great loop to be hidden away like that. The theming
afterwards distracts your attention away from the dead spots of track
that follow this highlight and the finale that is to come.
The
finale is perfect. As the car rolls over you in a ball of flames, you
are stunned. You have no time to even gasp as the train is suddenly
ripped out from under you, and your weight falls squarely on the
restraints holding you in.
This
inversion seems to go on forever and leaves you hanging for so much of
that time. Lift your legs up, raise your arms and relax – it is wild.
There
are so many highlights, very few negative points, and to finish by
inverting the train under a flaming wreck of a car has to rate as
perhaps one of the finest finales you could ask for in a coaster.
The
trains may be uncomfortable, they may be cramped, but the points above
more than bring it high above many coasters Europe has to offer.
MS Undated
Good points:
▪ Racing/duelling
element is well done throughout
▪ Unique indoor sections
▪ Amazing inline twists
towards the end
Bad points:
▪ Trains are not the
best
▪ A couple of rough
sections
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