ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

In late 1993, Magic Kingdom announced that ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter would be coming to the park.[2]

The attraction opened briefly for previews on December 16, 1994, on the site of the former Mission to Mars attraction, but was ordered closed on January 12, 1995, for retooling by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who deemed it was not intense enough.[3] It opened officially on June 20, 1995, as part of the Magic Kingdom's New Tomorrowland renovation.

The warning sign

Upon its opening, some Disney fans praised ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter for its darker tone in contrast to other attractions at Magic Kingdom. Despite this, the attraction was met with largely negative reception from guests, as it was too scary for younger kids. Officials posted warning signs to ban children under 12 from experiencing it, but to no avail. The popularity of the attraction started to dwindle and it was becoming very obsolete.[4]

On September 21, 2003, Magic Kingdom announced that ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter would be closing. It was set to be replaced by a new attraction based on Lilo & Stitch.[5] The attraction would frighten its last tourists on October 12, 2003. The attraction was replaced by Stitch's Great Escape!, which opened on November 16, 2004 and operated until January 6, 2018, using much of the same technology and set pieces from its predecessor.[6]

Unlike the Stitch-themed replacement show, much of Alien Encounter took place in total darkness while the attraction operated on the guests' non-visual senses. Most of the effects came from individual units mounted on the shoulder restraints behind audience members' heads. The most common effects were binaural cues which came from the highly separated speakers arranged next to each ear. These speakers bolstered many of the other effects with foley, creating unique effects like positional audio from the monster, and created general atmospherics to keep the audience tense, including the murmuring and screams of other audience members, pink noise, and heartbeats. The theater's circular design allowed these positional audio effects to be particularly effective, as it prevented individual guests from perceiving that their experiences were not unique.

Binaural sound effects and moving shoulder restraints suggest that the alien is moving through the chamber above the audience. When the alien was meant to be traveling on the far side of the room, "several banks of 1,800-watt-per-channel servo-driven subwoofers" repurposed from the previous attraction, Mission to Mars, and transducers mounted in the seats[7] made pounding vibrations meant to simulate the footsteps of a powerful monster. Warm moistened air was used gently, to simulate the alien breathing down your neck; and forcefully, to induce a more acute reaction from the audience. Water sprinklers and air blasters mounted in the row in front (like the ones used in Disney's "4D" movie theaters) were used to simulate the dripping of either the creature's drool or blood from an attacked worker in the scaffolding above the theater (played by a cast member carrying a flashlight using pre-recorded dialog) and to simulate the explosion of the monster in the finale when the blast shield does not close in time. Soft textile tubes had air blown through them, causing them to slap against the back of the head of the audience member. This was the most direct physical effect, used in conjunction with the hot air blowers and olfactory emitters to suggest the alien's tongue was licking the audience member's head.

During lighted segments, the show used lasers, rear-projected screens repurposed from the previous attraction, Mission to Mars, and Audio-Animatronics for the alien, S.I.R., and Skippy (both normal and deformed).

Alien Encounter was proposed for Disneyland for the project "Tomorrowland 2055," as part of the "Disney Decade," started by Michael Eisner. It was to be installed in the space that housed the attraction Mission to Mars. Also proposed to join "Tomorrowland 2055" were The Timekeeper, which was to take over Circlevision 360, and also Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue, a musical revue which was to land where America Sings once was located. Due to budget cuts from the Disneyland Paris opening, "Tomorrowland 2055" was scrapped.

The original name for this attraction was Nostromo, a reference to the spacecraft from the 1979 movie Alien. Furthermore, the monster was planned to be the titular creature, and X-S Tech was going to be the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. This idea was scrapped for two reasons: first, it was deemed too frightening for a Disney attraction. Second, the Alien series were rated R. This contradicted a rule-of-thumb that Disney attractions are supposed to be based on either G or PG. (However, Disney has since developed attractions from franchises that host at least one PG-13 rated film, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel, and Avatar.) As a result, the name Nostromo was taken out entirely and an original monster was created for the ride and the fictional company was changed to X-S Tech. Nevertheless, Disney had acquired the rights to use Alien, and thusly used it in The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which featured a scene aboard the Nostromo where a frightened Ripley hides behind a wall while the Xenomorph pops out of the walls and ceiling to growl at the audience.[8]

As an original story was developed, George Lucas was brought in to work on the project. This version's storyline had X-S Tech's open house being a front for exposing human guinea pigs to an alien monster they had captured. After the alien menaces the audience for a moment, it is revealed to be sentient and desires to escape its captors and free the guests as well. The X-S scientists respond by trying to destroy the test chamber and leave no evidence, but the alien holds off their weaponry, raises the restraints allowing the guests to escape. While leaving, the sounds of the alien rampaging through the pre-show facilities could be heard. The story's grim tone would lead to it being further re-worked.[9]

Tyra Banks played the female alien who greets guests in the first preshow video, although her lines were voiced by another actress. Tim Curry voiced the Audio-Animatronic robot S.I.R. (Simulated Intelligence Robotics) in the second preshow area. In the original version, the character was named T.O.M. 2000, was voiced by Phil Hartman, and had a much more humorous script. Chairman L.C. Clench was portrayed by actor Jeffrey Jones. Dr. Femus is portrayed by actress Kathy Najimy, with Kevin Pollak playing her partner, Spinlock.

A game within the DisneyQuest indoor interactive arcade at the Walt Disney World Resort called Invasion! An ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter featured some of the X-S Tech mythology, with Chairman Clench offering XS-Tech produced walker vehicles to help rescue a group of colonists, although its game play bore no resemblance to the Tomorrowland attraction.

A stage show introduced in Tomorrowland (WDW) called Stitch's Supersonic Celebration (which ran from early May 2009 to late June 2009) referenced X-S Tech and the robot S.I.R, further weaving it into the general Tomorrowland world-building.[10]

• The futuristic SMTV footage that was once used in the queue lines for both Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom and Space Mountain at Disneyland featured references to X-S Tech.
• Stitch's Great Escape!, the replacement attraction for Alien Encounter, had a comical reprisal of Skippy, the Audio-Animatronic alien from the second pre-show area. However, the normal Skippy was moved to the teleportation tube that is (from the view of the animatronic sergeant in this pre-show) on the right hand side of the room, whereas the deformed version (which is teleported into the room from a cruiser with a video link showing the process) is now in the tube on the sergeant's left, and is meant to be a creature who has been eating a number of doughnuts. The theaters in Stitch's Great Escape! were the same as the ones in Alien Encounter, but had animatronic versions of Stitch and animatronic laser cannons.
• Many props from Alien Encounter were reused in Stitch's Great Escape, including the 'broken seat cover'. It had the X-S logo under the words (in AE font) "Temporarily Seized"
• In Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! at Disney California Adventure, there is a paper invoice from X-S Tech in the Collector's office.