And here we go down the rabbit hole that is the Tokyo Tower of Terror. I cannot possibly cover everything I want to talk about here in a single post, so I won’t. Instead, I’m going to focus here on the story you’re given for the ride, and whether or not it holds up upon further examination.
Located in the American Waterfront part of Disney Sea that takes inspiration from turn of the century New York City, Tokyo’s Tower of Terror does not feature a Twilight Zone-based story. Instead, you are told through newspapers and environmental clues that the Hightower Hotel was abandoned after the mysterious disappearance of its owner, Harrison Hightower. Scheduled to be demolished, the New York Preservation Society has stepped in to save the building by offering tours that investigate the disappearance. All the cast members here pose as volunteers with the Preservation Society, and there is a banner advertising the tours, courtesy of the NYPS above the entrance.
Frankly, I don’t buy it. Certain things don’t add up with this story, like the still in place “NO ADMITTANCE” sign on one of the entrances, or the abandoned painting of the now-deteriorated statue in the garden (both pictured above). It’s arguable that the NYPS has simply left these elements up in their haste to save the building, but then why do some of the volunteers seem a bit sinister? That’s not even to mention the treasure troves of stolen mystical artifacts that Harrison Hightower has collected all in one space.
I would argue that Tokyo’s Tower has more in common with its Twilight Zone cousins than you would first suspect. Both seem to be ethereal spaces, overlapping with something not of this world and feeling not quite right. But there’s something more than that. In the Twilight Zone version, there’s a sense that the hotel is in control and that it has invited you in on its own. The cast members here are heavily implied to be ghosts of some sort, and at the very least extensions of the hotel itself. In Florida, this is all pretty much text, once it’s established that you’re in the Twilight Zone.
In Tokyo, none of this plotline is featured in the attraction itself, though it is heavily implied through subtext, like the aforementioned examples . And while the NYPS is nominally in control, it is ultimately Shiriki Utundu, a cursed idol, who is running the show, or at least the elevators. There is much more to investigate than the NYPS leads you to believe, as they just give you the basics of the story.
The Hightower Hotel totally seems like the type of place where the hotel itself would once again be in charge, especially when faced with the prospect of its own demise. Either that, or possibly one or all of the myriad gods, idols, and artifacts that have made it their home.
What’s amazing is that so much of this subtext is implied without any exposition within the ride or queue, and is all theorized by visual hints and clues. Tokyo’s Tower is a brilliant exercise in visual storytelling, and it rewards you the deeper you dig into it, making the queue and the ride worth visiting over and over.
