Halloween is approaching when people like watching their favorite scary movies. One of my favorites is Zombieland with its great blend of action, horror and humor. I recently saw some online buzz about the “real Zombieland experience” at Dubai’s Motiongate theme park with their “Zombieland Blast-Off” launch tower ride based on the Blast Off ride seen in the movie. The park even launched a “fears becoming reality” advertising campaign. There’s just one problem, the only place to get the real Zombieland Blast Off experience is at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia!

Wild Adventures was the location where the iconic Zombieland scenes were filmed in the spring of 2009 and the park’s S&S Double Shot Tower was the “Blast Off” ride seen in the film. The ride still exists today, but it’s now known as “Blazer Blast Off“, based on the local Valdosta State University’s blazer mascot. The ride even sports the university’s logo and the park’s website has a picture of two cheerleaders and the mascot on the ride. The air-powered ride is one of the original S&S Double Shot towers at a height of 85 feet and allows 12 riders to experience 3.5 G’s at 35 mph over 40 seconds.

During the time of filming the ride was known as Double Shot and Wild Adventures itself was rebranded as “Pacific Playland”. The park plays a huge role for 8 minutes of climatic action in the 1 hour and 28 minute movie and you can watch the entire scene here (warning some violence and crude language). During the scene the heroes used shotguns while on Blast Off to fend off hordes of zombies. However, Blast Off wasn’t the only ride in the film as the flat rides “Rattler”, “Pharaoh’s Fury” and “The Aviator” as well as the park’s Ferris wheel all saw camera time. Another iconic ride from the movie was the mouse coaster “Marsh Mayhem” where Woody Harrelson dispatched zombies with his shotgun while riding the roller coaster. The indoor “haunted house” portions were shot at the famous Netherworld haunted house in Atlanta with the outdoor facade constructed at the park, but the vast majority of the scene was shot at Wild Adventures. The indoor “haunted house” portions were shot at the famous Netherworld haunted house in Atlanta with the outdoor facade constructed at the park, but the vast majority of the scene was shot at Wild Adventures.

I don’t want to throw too many stones at Zombieland Blast-Off in Dubai as it is quite a cool ride, it’s just not the original. The ride opened in 2016 and is 190 feet tall (over 100 feet taller than the original) and features a cool queue line special effects akin to a haunted house. Motiongate also has the IP rights to Zombieland for the sake of all the graphics, signage and merch. It’s funny to think though that a park in Dubai essentially tried to copy and improve upon a ride in Valdosta, Georgia, even if that ride is essentially a standard “off the shelf” offering from S&S.

Theme parks are great locations for movies and they seem to go together in many ways rides, themed lands and even whole parks dedicated to them. Wikipedia actually keeps a page of amusement rides based on movies and “Zombieland Blast-Off” at Motiongate Dubai makes the list. Zombieland is fun footnote in the interesting story of Wild Adventures. If you’ve been to the park recently or plan to go soon it could be fun to rewatch this classic zombie movie and see some of the sites of Wild Adventures. With a visit to the park you can ride the original “Blast Off” along with most of the other rides seen in the movie. Unless you live in the United Arab Emirates, this probably saves you an international flight and gets you the authentic experience at the same time!