Space Mountain is one of Disney Parks’ most iconic attractions. It is one of the best rides at Disneyland without question. Every Disney resort has some version of the ride, and it’s a fan favorite everywhere. As somebody who gets to visit Disneyland often and call it work, Space Mountain is the one ride I always try to do whenever I’m there, and that’s only more true right now. That's because during Disneyland’s Season of the Force, Space Mountain is transformed into the Star Wars-themed Hyperspace Mountain.
The occasional overlay of Space Mountain isn’t loved by all. Many love the traditional Space Mountain and think Disneyland has plenty of Star Wars stuff already thanks to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. To be fair, if the ride was permanently transformed into a Star Wars Space Mountain the way Disneyland Paris’ version has been, I’d likely be annoyed too. But I love being able to experience this version of the ride occasionally.
It had been a while since I had done Hyperspace Mountain, but during a recent trip to preview Disneyland Resort’s Pixar Fest I found some time to go on the ride again, and I was blown away when I realized that beyond simply being a fun Star Wars ride, Hyperspace Mountain is actually Star Wars canon.
Space Mountain’s Star Wars Overlay Is A Must For Any Star Wars Fan
If you haven’t been able to experience Hyperspace Mountain, or Space Mountain at all, at Disneyland, then a quick rundown is in order. The overlay is done through modifications of onboard audio and projection effects. Unlike the Magic Kingdom Space Mountain, Disneyland’s version of the ride has an onboard synchronized audio track. Speakers in each car of the ride vehicle traditionally play an original piece of music by Michael Giacchino, one the best pieces of original theme park music ever.
The standard Space Mountain drops you into a dark show building, with only pinpricks of projected light that look like stars in the sky, giving you the briefest glimmer of vision. The music plays as you blast through space. It’s a fantastic ride. The Disneyland version of Space Mountain is significantly better than Disney World’s version of the ride, and that's entirely because of the onboard soundtrack. It’s the perfect music to hear while flying through space.
Hyperspace Mountain trades out the Michael Giacchino score for one composed by John Williams. New projections are added to the inside of the show building to give us X-Wings and TIE-Fighters flying through the stars, with red and green laser blasts flying past us, making us feel like we’re in the middle of a dogfight between the Rebellion and the Empire.
The Story Of Hyperspace Mountain
Hyperspace Mountain certainly isn’t as deep a story as other Star Wars attractions like Star Tours or Rise of the Resistance, but for a thrilling couple of minutes, you feel like a battle is happening around you in a galaxy far, far away. And yet, on this last trip, I realized that it’s not just any Star Wars battle that’s happening, it’s one of the most important in the history of the franchise.
The story of Hyperspace Mountain sees Admiral Ackbar assigning a squadron of X-Wing pilots to investigate an Imperial Star Destroyer near Jakku. The guests, of course, make up this squadron. As the ride begins, the tunnel that usually gives you a launch countdown in the normal ride is now filled with the blue light of hyperspace. When the coaster hits speed you arrive at Jakku only to discover, “It’s a trap,” and the X-Wing squadron does battle with Imperial TIE Fighters
If all you’ve seen are the Star Wars movies and TV shows, then you’ll still be very familiar with the planet Jakku. It’s the planet that Rey is living on when we first meet her in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In that movie, we see the planet’s surface is strewn with crashed ships. Rey eats her dinner in the shadow of an AT-AT Walker. She and Finn try to lose their First Order pursuers by flying inside a crashed Star Destroyer, an element that would later be adapted into Star Tours.
It’s clear from this that something significant once happened in and around the planet. The movies never go into detail, but if you read some of the additional material that was produced alongside the film, you discover that the Battle of Jakku was the last stand of the Galactic Empire. About a year after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the New Republic took on what was left of the Empire and soundly defeated them at Jakku.
How Hyperspace Mountain Fits Into Star Wars Canon
The Battle of Jakku was massive, taking place both on the planet and above it, but the events of Hyperspace Mountain are actually part of that larger battle. This means that just like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which was originally designed to tell part of the Star Wars story between films, Hyperspace Mountain is telling part of the story of the galaxy far, far away, just like the movies themselves.
While I consider myself a big Star Wars fan and have read many of the novels and other tie-in material beyond the films, I’m certainly no expert on the Battle of Jakku. Maybe that’s why I never realized that Hyperspace Mountain is more than just adding a coat of Star Wars paint to Space Mountain.
If it’s possible, I love Hyperspace Mountain even more now. It’s always a fun roller coaster, and when it takes on the Star Wars theme, it has some truly great music and a fun little story. But the fact that the story isn’t just something that was completely made up as an excuse to give the ride a Star Wars theme is cool. Star Tours is fun, but even in its original version, it was designed to give fans the feeling of reliving the best moments from the Star Wars movies, not actually being part of them.
Since we’ve never seen the Battle of Jakku, Hyperspace Mountain feels like we’re inside the story, not watching something we’ve seen before from a different perspective. That's pretty great to experience.
