by Max C

Created on: April 04, 2009

The newest roller coaster at famous Six Flags Magic Mountain, the park famous for having more inversions than any other park (including the first), is the 2009 debut, Terminator Salvation: The Ride. Promising to be the first wooden coaster with audio effects, and including five hills and six gut-wrenching banked turns, and a ten story drop, riders of this heavily themed ride will experience plenty of thrilling G's, while still retaining the popular wooden coaster feel. With audio and visual effects resembling those which are so popular on another of Magic Mountain's popular coasters, X2, Terminator Salvation: The Ride will overlook its relatively unimpressive size by providing "an eruption of sights and sounds to drop and turn you straight into the confines of artificially intelligent lethal machines".

Built next to the Deja Vu ride in the Cyclone Bay area of the park, Terminator Salvation will occupy the space previously filled by another wooden coaster, Psyclone, which was modeled after the iconic Coney Island Cyclone. The ride will be the parks sixteenth roller coaster, putting it back in the running with Cedar Point for the park with the most roller coasters in the world. However, Terminator Salvation is not just some excuse to make an unexciting placeholder. Costing over 10 million dollars, the 54 mile an hour, twisting, turning, up-and-down roller coaster makes the most of its speed, twists and turns by using innovative audio and visual effects, much like those of X2.

The theme for Terminator Salvation: The Ride is based on the movie from which it derives its namesake. Both the movie and the ride are scheduled to make their debut on the same day. While Six Flags is not as famous for its coasters theme as much as other parks, which generally pay more attention to theme, "Terminator" promises to break this bad tradition by including references to the movie, and making the rider feel not only the adrenaline rush from the twists and turns of the ride, but also give the rider the experience of living the movie, throughout the 2,850 foot, three minute long ride. This theme and these special effects, undoubtedly will allow for the coaster to remain exciting even as it starts to slow down, much in the way the pyrotechnics on X2 keep the rider involved. This extra dimensionality adds thrills to the ride, and allows for a greater range of experiences, and is the way of the future when it comes to roller coasters.

Terminator Salvation: The Ride is the hottest new roller coaster for 2009, bearing physical thrills, and impeccable theme/ special effects, which place it above the rest of 2009's roller coaster creations. This ride is part of an ever more popular trend to not only create the biggest, fastest, and most inversion filled roller coasters, but rather to create a detailed theme, and stunning special effects to impress, and thrill the rider. Finally, being wooden, the ride has a nostalgic effect on riders, as well as adding that special sway and wind experienced on a wooden coaster. Because of all these impressive features on its resume, Terminator Salvation: The Ride stands above the crowd, as an exceptional coaster for 2009.

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