Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run opened with the Galaxy’s Edge park expansion on May 31, 2019. The ride vehicle has three crew positions, Pilot, Gunner, and Engineer with two seats on opposite sides for each station. The right Pilot has the hyperdrive lever. Besides the main screen cockpit window, there are screens for each person. This is a good simulation of the Millennium Falcon cockpit pod. The most boring part of the attraction is being the Engineer. You push some buttons and hit the harpoon that draws in the coaxium cargo. wow. The gunner is just mashing the blaster button, but that's actually something. Upgrades: part of the Mission: Space attraction in EPCOT is that each position, Commander, Pilot, Navigator, and Engineer, has two different functions. There is basically one in the Falcon except the Pilots that steer the ship. It should be fun for any of the Falcon crew no matter the seat or position. These suggestions could add to the Star Wars experience to the attraction without fundamentally changing the ride itself.
So what can be different? Let's start with the Gunner. There should be two buttons, maybe in different parts of the console, a Targeting button and a Blaster button. Most Gunners just constantly hit the blaster button. Han says to Chewie that he will "charge up the main guns." This is missing from the attraction. The ride does feel like a video game, just senseless button mashing. I would like coordination like in Mission: Space. The right Pilot detects threats on a scanner screen, then the Engineer charges up the guns, the Gunner hits the targeting button, on a screen the Gunners can see the guns locking on targets, then the Gunners can fire. There would be more of a feel of Star Wars and also more of a story. If the Gunner just mashes buttons, at one point Hondo says, “Keep mashing those controls!”, there will be wear and tear for the buttons. Here the guns wouldn’t fire or without targeting it would just shoot in wrong directions. The targeting computer screen would show the guns locking onto various objects before the TIE fighters.
The Engineer. I thought Engineers would have to coordinate distribution of the ship’s shields maybe they do in the current form, but it is never mentioned by Hondo. So the Engineers would power up the engines, there are two buttons for the Engineers; Power and Shields. Right pilot activates the engines to take off. Then, Engineers activate shields. Next would be charging up the guns with the Power button. The left Pilot can shoot the Harpoon (which would add to the ride), plus the Left and Right flight buttons. So the flight begins with the Engineers activating engines. The Engineers then activates the shields. The right Pilot starts to lift up the ship, the Up and Down flight controls, then hits the Hyperspace lever. The Gunners can hit the Target button to practice while all of this is going on, it cannot fire since the Engineer has not charged up the guns. They reach the destination, the right Pilot sees a threat on the console screen, this sends a warning to the Engineers to charge up the guns.
The Gunner targets and blasts TIE fighters. The Engineers at various points have to modulate the shields to block hits from the TIE fighters. Hondo would say something like "Left Engineer use your shields!" This something that I learned from the movies, “Switch your deflectors on double front” and the X-Wing (1993) computer game. There are two layers of deflector shields, what Red Leader was saying was to modulate the shields to the front of the X-Wing anticipating heavy fire straight at them. The second layer of shielding is basic protection from space debris and other objects. So Engineers have to block damage from their sides. The Pilot hits the harpoon button to draw in the cargo. The ship lands, Hondo tells the right pilot to shut down the engines, and the Engineers have to power up the ship again. The Engineers then have to activate the shields. Once they get to the train, the left Pilot hits the harpoon, they maneuver through the hangar, and finally right Pilot hits the hyperspace lever.
There should be more guidance by Hondo which direction to go and there should be a navigation computer for left Pilot. Follow the screen or crash into rock formations at Batuu and other obstacles. Engineers cut shields and power. This would really be all of the crew working together to fly the Falcon. Lastly, new missions. I imagine like Star Tours that new missions will be added. The only new addition I would add is one involving bounty hunters. This was supposed to be part of Galaxy’s Edge, but somehow forgotten. We can have the mysterious bounty hunter also trying to get the coaxium. It could be just the train and then the bounty hunter’s ship harpoons the coaxium crate. The bounty hunter then leads a chase into space.
The Gunners could try to blast the bounty hunter’s ship. Engineers could activate shields, left and right, as the bounty hunter zips around the Falcon to block the other ship's blasts. The Gunners could end up targeting an asteroid or some object and blast it that flips into the bounty hunter’s ship. Then, the left Pilot could use the harpoon to snag the coaxium! The bounty hunter could vow revenge if the crew is successful in taking the coaxium. A further story point since you might meet the bounty hunter walking around Black Spire Outpost or at Oga’s Cantina. I would also add the First Order stormtroopers who walk around asking about a missing shipment of coaxium and also asking if a guest has heard of the Millennium Falcon. This brings in an element of interactivity with the rides and Galaxy’s Edge. It may be sometime before Smuggler's Run gets upgraded, but this could give ideas for planning the upgrade!
#MillenniumFalconSmugglersRun, #GalaxysEdge, #Engineers, #Gunners, #Pilots, #BountyHunter
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