The park’s second roller coaster, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril provided two landmarks for Disney. As well as the first attraction inspired by the George Lucas / Steven Spielberg action adventure films, it brought the first ever 360-degree vertical loop in a Disney roller coaster.

Constructed in record time to boost capacity and attendance in the resort’s second year, it had been scaled back considerably from original plans for the area owing to the resort’s increasing financial difficulties. Imagineers had earlier projected a mine cart coaster intertwining with an off-road vehicle-based dark ride, similar to the Indiana Jones Adventure which would open at Disneyland in California the following year. Even initial ideas for the roller coaster, such as Audio-Animatronic animals around the temple, never made it off the drawing board.

In 2000, the vehicles would be turned backwards and given increased capacity in a marketing stunt, before being returned to their current forward direction just four years later. A similar attraction named Raging Spirits opened at Tokyo DisneySea on 21st July 2005 next to that park’s Indiana Jones Adventure dark ride, finally uniting these two rides.

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