Universal Unveils Next Outing For Jason Bourne

Universal Studios has lifted the curtain on the next adventure for super spy Jason Bourne which will play at its theme park complex in Florida.

The Bourne Stuntacular promises to put guests in the middle of the movies' famous fist-fights and chases when it opens in spring next year at Universal Orlando.

The five Bourne films have grossed $1.6 billion according to industry analyst Box Office Mojo and one of the secrets to this success is their emphasis on real stunt work rather than re-creating scenes with computer-generated imagery as is common in most action movies. The new attraction at Universal is following in these footsteps.

One of the most over-used buzzwords in the theme park industry is 'immersive'. New attractions around the world often promise to immerse guests in a fantasy world but what this usually involves is watching a wide-screen 3D movie on seats which sway in time to the action whilst appropriate scents are pumped in.

These attractions promise to blur the boundaries between the screen and the set that surrounds it but actually, it is easy to tell where one starts and the other ends. No matter how sharp the images are, there's no escaping the fact that they are on a screen, especially when they appear to float inches from your nose thanks to the 3D. They lack a human quality and it hasn't escaped Universal's attention.

According to Universal, The Bourne Stuntacular will come with all the bells and whistles that guests have come to expect from a cutting-edge theme park show along with one which is a rare commodity.

The show will take place in an indoor theater featuring a stage with high-tech props and a soaring LED screen behind it. Crucially, live actors on the stage will interact with the footage in a bid to convince the audience that they are actually a part of the on-screen action. It has big boots to fill.

The show will take place in the theater which was home to a stunt show based on the sci-fi movie Terminator 2 until 2017. It had an A-list cast with Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong reprising their roles from the film. However, they weren't the biggest stars of the show.

The action began in the queue itself which looked like the lobby of an arms firm with bare silver walls and promotional videos about high-tech tanks playing on overhead monitors. It was no coincidence as, according to the story, the guests were meant to be attending a demonstration of the latest robotic soldier built by Cyberdyne, creator of the Terminator himself. Of course, things don't go to plan.

A Universal staff member played the part of a loud-mouthed Cyberdyne employee who stands on a podium at the end of the queue to tell guests about the military robots they are about to see in the theater. Her rousing speech gets abruptly cut off by a video of the rebels, played by Hamilton and Furlong, who tell guests not to trust Cyberdyne. The host finally regains control, gives guests 3D glasses and lets them into the cavarnous theater where the fun really begins.

Life size mean-looking robots surround the room and the mouthy host takes to the stage to introduce them. Mock targets drop down from the ceiling and the robots appear to pepper them with bullets as tiny shreds of paper fall onto the guests below. An actor resembling Furlong then drops down on a rope from the rafters as Hamilton's doppelganger takes to the stage to warn the audience of imminent danger.

It then becomes clear that the giant logo behind the stage is actually a projection onto a 3D screen. The logo morphs into the villainous liquid metal T-1000 which seems to poke its head inches from the guests' faces in an apt use of 3D. The silvery liquid then appears to drip through the bottom of the screen where a live actor appears from a trapdoor before putting an end to the host.

An energy portal then appears on-screen to herald the arrival of the actor playing Schwarzenegger's Terminator who somehow rides through the screen on a full-size motorbike. The blend of the 3D action with the live actors was seamless and this was just the start.

A firefight then erupts on the stage between the T-1000 and the Terminator before Furlong leaps on his bike and the two ride through a hidden doorway in the screen where their A-list counterparts take over. In the story they are meant to have raced through a portal into a war-torn battlefield of the future where there are 3D effects aplenty including guns and drones poking out of the screen.

The highlight came when the duo finally reach Skynet, the compound at the heart of Cyberdyne. The lights go down and when the screen comes back on it is joined by two others connected to it along the sides of the theater so that the images wrap around the audience. The live actors return to the stage and this time they appear to be using machinery which is part of the compound on the screen.

It culminates in a battle between them and a giant mercury-like spider which spans all three screens and is temporarily frozen by liquid nitrogen. Tiny water droplets rain down on the audience when it inevitably melts before being vanquished when the actor playing Schwarzenegger leaps through another hidden doorway in the screen and his on-screen counterpart drops a grenade on the artificial arachnid. Actual smoke then engulfs the theater and the show finally comes to a close.

The seamless interaction between the on-screen action and the live actors broke new ground when the 12-minute attraction opened in 1996. It benefited from featuring the same actors from the movie and similar visual effects as they were created by Digital Domain which also worked on the film. This fueled the cost of the attraction footage to an estimated $24 million, making it one of the most expensive films per minute at the time.

Universal will have to use every trick in its spell book to top this but with Jason Bourne's muscle behind it, the odds appear to be in its favour.