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to the General.
At this point, another set of steel doors open, and you step outside...not just outside of the first pre-show area, but literally outside! You are directed by Cast Members toward the entrance doors to a large transport vehicle. Keep an eye out for Poe’s signature black X-Wing, Black One, sitting nearby.
Stepping Inside an Intersystem Transport Ship
The Rise of the Resistance queue is so immersive that you may ask yourself at different points, did the attraction already begin? That is certainly the case when a pair of steel doors open, allowing you to step inside an Intersystem Transport Ship, which serves as the second pre-show area for Rise of the Resistance. The ITS is a standing-room only vehicle (there are no chairs or benches) that utilizes a number of different techniques in the storytelling process. Looking toward the front of the ship, you see a large window, behind which is a strikingly realistic Audio-Animatronic version of Lieutenant Bek. Bek sits in a rotating chair that swings both toward the passenger holding area and toward the front of the ship. The Bek Audio-Animatronic moves fluidly and is very impressive.
Nien Nunb is also represented in Audio-Animatronic form and sits in the ship’s cockpit in front of Lieutenant
Bek. Video screens that flank the window looking towards Lieutenant Bek provide close-up video of Nunb. You can also see past both Audio-Animatronic characters and out the front of the ship’s windows, where screens depict scenery outside of the vessel. Many don’t realize that there is also action to be seen at the rear of the ship, where a video screen shows what is going on behind the ITS and provides a much different perspective.
Once you board, the ship’s crew prepares for launch:
Voice: Attention personnel, this is your final call to board. Bek: I’m getting a high reading on the fuel pressure line. Nunb: [unintelligible response]
Bek: That’s better, check the binary motivator.
Nunb: [unintelligible response]
Bek: Yes, I just want to be sure.
Voice: All recruits must be on board now. Transport is away in 30
seconds.
Bek: Black Leader, are you and your team ready?
The video screens that previously showed Nien Nunb now show Poe, who is sitting in the cockpit of his X-Wing. One of the amazing things about this pre-show experience is that it really could constitute an attraction in and of itself. When the ITS launches, the floor rumbles and the ship sways and tilts in conjunction with the scenes depicted on screens at
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Photos ©Disney