Tower of Terror (Tokyo DisneySea)

Tower of Terror is an attraction at Tokyo DisneySea in the American Waterfront area that opened on September 22, 2006. Unlike its counterparts, it isn't themed after The Twilight Zone as Japanese audiences aren't as familiar with the show and the company that owns the park didn't want to pay both CBS and Disney in royalties. Instead, it features an original storyline taking place at Hotel Hightower, utilizing the Society of Explorers and Adventurers storyline that already exists within the park.

Storyline
Years and years ago, explorer and entrepreneur Harrison Hightower III stole the mystical idol of a trickster deity named Shiriki Utundu while exploring Africa. On New Year's Eve of 1899, adding the idol to his collection of antiquities at the Hotel Hightower, he was asked at a press conference by reporter Manfred Strang about the dangers of the idol, including it's curse. But Hightower shrugged it off as faulty superstition. Heading up the elevator to his penthouse apartment and despite the warnings of his assistant, Hightower again showed his disrespect for the idol and used it to light a match for his cigar. Several minutes later, the idol unleashed it's fury. Hightower disappeared and the hotel was quickly evacuated and abandoned.

Years later in 1912, an idealistic young woman Beatrice Rose Endicott of the New York Preservation Society, chose to preserve the hotel and reopen it as a museum. Manfred Strang soon came upon the scene to warn her of the danger and that Hightower wasn't the man she idolized. The two explore the hotel and have a narrow escape from the still lurking Shiriki Utundu, but Endicott proceeds with her plan.

Attraction Walkthrough
Guests then enter one of two rooms, either his office or the library. From here the story is the same, in both rooms, a large stained glass window of Hightower is in the middle with Shiriki Utundu sitting on a pedestal nearby. A tour guide talks about Hightower a little bit, then winds up an old gramophone with a recording of Hightower's last interview. At this point, the stained glass window comes to life. The window changes to show Hightower holding the idol before showing him entering the elevator on that fateful night. It then shows the outside the hotel as the elevator ascends. Suddenly, all the lights in the hotel turn off,and there is a big blast of green lightning and the elevator drops, shattering the glass where it lands. At this point, Shiriki Utundu comes to life. It looks around, laughs menacingly at the guests before it vanishes into a star-field. Guests are then ushered into an enormous storage room where Hightower kept his treasures. There are multiple loading rooms on the second floor, each themed to a different type of item. One has swords, another has tapestries and so on.

The mechanics of the Tower are physically identical to the Californian and Parisian towers, with dual loading floors, a horizontal "push" away from the doors and into the drop tower, a "hallway" scene, and a mirror scene, but with thematic changes. The order of both mirror and hallway scenes is also reverse compared to the US counterparts.

The lights of the elevator turn off as Hightower's voice explains the significance of the idol. The elevator is pulled backwards, away from the still-visible service elevator doors as the walls of the basement disappear and turn into a star-field. The glowing green eyes of the idol appear in the darkness as the elevator enters the drop shaft. The elevator begins its ascent, first stopping at the hallway scene.

The guests stop at the hallway, the idol sitting on a table halfway down. Hightower's ghost, glowing blue, appears beside it and reaches out to touch it. At once, the idol zaps him with a bolt of green electricity, blasting him backwards into an open elevator at the opposite end of the hall, where he drops down the shaft. As the hallway becomes a star-field, the idol turns toward the guests' elevator and laughs before the doors close..

The elevator ascends another level. The doors open, revealing a large, ornate mirror. As they wave goodbye to the real world, the lighting of the hotel is replaced with an eerie green glow as a glowing force of green magic turns the reflections of the guests ghostly similar to the DCA and DLRP Towers. The electrified reflection of the riders disappears and leaves the idol alone in the empty elevator. The idol laughs menacingly and suddenly shoots forward at the elevator. The elevator vibrates and shakes and begins the drop sequence. The sequence is identical to the US version except the first two drops are missing (the ascent comes first) and the final drop takes place from the bottom set of doors rather than the top of the shaft.

At the end of the drop sequence, the elevator returns to the loading level, where the idol's green eyes glare from a star-field. Both elements disappear and are again replaced by the service doors through which guests entered.