Disney’s New Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster Launches EPCOT’s Latest Era

What you hear on Cosmic Rewind is more important than what you see. As awe-inspiring as those massive screens can be (the first major scene of the ride itself is almost as overwhelming as the Star Destroyer reveal in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance), Cosmic Rewind earns its multimedia bona fides through its use of music. At the start of the ride, just as your car is launched backwards, the needle drops on one of six songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Peter Quill’s seemingly endless mix tape is a key part of the whole Guardians experience, of course, so get ready to get dizzy alongside hits from the early days of MTV.

The music winds up being the most powerful part of Cosmic Rewind. I went in with no idea of what songs were on the playlist (you only hear one song per ride, so get ready to do it again and again to hear ‘em all), and the anticipation for that first note was as potent as waiting for that backwards launch to kick in. It’s not the first roller coaster with a soundtrack or pop songs, but it might be the first that seems to truly move along to the music, with the slight rotations of the ride vehicle injecting a unique sense of motion and rhythm. When you’re not angled towards a screen, you’ll sway and spiral your way through a starfield and around glowing planets with a dancer’s grace. Smooth and elegant, Cosmic Rewind is lightyears away from the back-rattling bluntness of Space Mountain.

I was lucky. I rode Cosmic Rewind three times and heard a different song each time. They were the three I’d most want to hear, too, although again, I didn’t know any of them were on the soundtrack until I heard them start up on the ride. Expect hits from Blondie, Tears for Fears, A Flock of Seagulls, The Trammps, Earth Wind and Fire, and Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine; the physical ride experience doesn’t change based on the song, but the way I interpreted and reacted to that experience did seem to change. When set to Blondie’s “One Way or Another,” it feels a bit like a madcap sprint—almost like an impossibly high tech take on classic carnival staples like the Scrambler and the Himalaya. It becomes more serene, almost meditative, when “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” plays. And although “Space Age Love Song” would’ve made way more narrative and thematic sense than “I Ran,” I can’t fault Disney for going with A Flock of Seagulls’ biggest hit. There’s no limit to how many times you’ll want to ride a good coaster, but the variety and randomness of the music add an extra element of repeatability to Cosmic Rewind. I know multiple people who rode it at the media event until they heard all six songs, and for all of them it took over a dozen trips.

There’s so much more I could talk about with Cosmic Rewind. I haven’t even touched on the preshow, or the celebrity cameos, or the Marvel Easter eggs slipped in for the superfans. Although the entire experience from start to finish makes up an attraction, the most important part of a ride is what happens once you’re in that seat. And if fast speeds, a backwards launch, and occasional spinning (don’t worry, your car never comes close to doing a 360) don’t trigger any motion sickness, you’ll probably love what you see and feel during Cosmic Rewind. It’s an incredible new attraction in a theme park that has long been desperate for new attractions.

It’s also deeply out of step with what EPCOT used to be and was originally conceived as, though. It’s perhaps the starkest reminder yet that the classic EPCOT of the past is gone forever. The vast majority of guests won’t care about that, and I envy them; getting wistful for the past brings me no joy, but when I wasn’t actually riding Cosmic Rewind I couldn’t help but think about how out of place a Hollywood comic book roller coaster would’ve been in the EPCOT of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. That doesn’t make the ride any less fun or fantastic, but when the dopamine buzz wore off after each of my trips on Cosmic Rewind I would inevitably think about how out of place it feels. Despite a cursory storyline connection to EPCOT’s history and the ‘80s-aping merch in the post-ride gift shop, Cosmic Rewind bears no trace of EPCOT’s original goals, which were mostly cast aside before the 20th century even ended. Thematically it would make far more sense in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a park that’s now devoted to making it feel like you’re inside the movies. EPCOT’s educational goals were always somewhat hindered by corporate sponsorships and the need to entertain guests, but Cosmic Rewind doesn’t even attempt to teach you anything. All you’ll learn is how cool it feels to sweep through a large warehouse full of fake stars while “Conga” blasts into your ears. That’s an important lesson, sure, but not the kind EPCOT was built on.

My point isn’t to grumble about change or the past. It’s simply to highlight how Cosmic Rewind isn’t just a roller coaster but a symbol of what EPCOT, and Disney’s theme parks as a whole, have become. They still aim to fill us with wonder and excitement, only now they use faces familiar from TV or the movies to grab our attention. The ride is essentially a meta commentary on its own relationship to EPCOT; the Celestial known as Eson wants to erase Earth’s existence from its very creation billions of years ago, while Cosmic Rewind is a 21st century IP-driven ride framed as an ‘80s EPCOT pavilion. Both try to go back to the start in the hopes of undoing—Eson wants to prevent humanity from existing, and Disney wishes it could prevent EPCOT from being known as the “edutainment” theme park.

Rides like Cosmic Rewind interpret and adapt the pop culture that we already love, instead of creating new pop culture that generations of parkgoers will grow to love. A coaster like Space Mountain, which is built around a concept and an atmosphere instead of an intellectual property, probably wouldn’t be built by Disney today, but then even in its day Space Mountain wasn’t as ambitious or groundbreaking as Cosmic Rewind. Philosophies and techniques change, but Disney remains the world standard in theme park design, as Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind reminds us.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.