TAFI Showcase #2: The Legend of the Samurai by BryceM

This was a concept developed by Bryce for WED's Think Different Challenge. The challenge that week was to simply design an attraction, anywhere, any theme. There was only one catch...you couldn't place guests in a vehicle that moved them around. BryceM took this concept and ran with it, executing with this amazing attraction described in an extremely creative way. Enjoy...




Legend of the Samurai is an upcoming walk-through attraction to Epcot’s Japan pavilion in The World Showcase. Guests are placed in the role of investigators, hired to explore an ancient Japanese temple that has been converted to a museum, due to recent mysterious happenings...



Location and Attraction Entrance – Located in the Japan pavilion, Legend of the Samurai will be incorporated into the tall pagoda. Guests approach the flight of stairs leading up to the pagoda and will find the entrance, on the side of the pagoda facing the water. The other side of the pagoda, facing inwards towards the rest of the pavilion, will serve as the exit. Above the entrance to the building, reads a neatly polished, but yet worn and cracked sign reading, “戦士博物館'”. Spelled out under the Japanese inscription, is the word “Warrior Museum”. A lighting effect, similar to the signs for the entrance to Forbidden Journey and Tower of Terror, will spell out “Legend of the Samurai” over the museum sign in blood red letters. The FastPass entrance will be with the standby entrance, but the line between the two will be divided by a rope.

Queue – Right after entering the pagoda, guests will encounter a large, square room. Both the standby and FastPass lines will loop around the edges of this room. In the center, is a complete set of Samurai armor. However, some guests will notice that the sword is missing. The rest of the room reflects a museum, with many artifacts on the wall and in separate cases. However, something looks “off”. Cobwebs and dust cover the artifacts, some glass is shattered, the walls are cracked, the front desk of the museum is empty, and the lights flicker on and off. It is as if nobody had been there in ages. Once guests complete a few switchbacks in this main room, they move deeper into the museum.

The line takes a turn down a dimly hallway. A sign above the entrance to the hallway reads “The Sword Gallery”. The hall is long and narrow, and to the left and right of guests are empty and forgotten sword stands, which once served to showcase some of the great swords used throughout Japanese history. The stands are completely empty, some are knocked sompletely over. Paintings on the wall depicting scenes of war are cracked, lopsided, and some completely missing. The walls are still tattered, and the dim lights above guest’s head continue their struggle to stay on. Something is awry, and it is very apparent. 

After The Sword Gallery, guests take a right into “The Heroes Room”. This room pays homaged to great war heroes throuhout Japan’s war history. The room follows the same suit as the others, as in the terrible condition of it. There are five stone statues in the center of the room. Each statue is a crumbling relic, some missing heads, arms, hands, etc. The room is round, with a high ceiling, detailed with paintings of dragons. Candles along the walls give light to this circular room. The queue circles the room and the statues a few times, before branching off. A CM will stop guests after a certain amount have moved on from The Heroes Room.

Right after The Heroes Room, guests come enter a far wider hallway, and at the end of the hall is a large double door. The sound of a gong can be heard occassionally, as well as the sound of wind. At the end of the hall is another CM. Once a decent amount of guests are grouped together, the Castmember will open the doors, into the first show scene.

Main Show: 

Show Scene One

Guests are ushered into a large, expansive room. This room of the museum is suprisingly in good shape. Beautiful tapestry lines the walls. At the center of the room, against the wall opposite of where guests entered, is an elevated stand. On the stand lies three ancient gongs. All around the room are tents, computers, scaffolding against the wall, tall construction lights, tools, etc. However, no sign of life is apparent. Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps can be heard an “Oh, thank goodness!” echoes the room. Two figures rush into the room, stumbling through all of the construction equipment and onto the elevated stand with the three gongs. The constructions lights bring light to the figures, revealing a man and a woman dressed in tattered clothing, covered with dust and sediment. The male begins to brush himself off quickly and sloppily, while the female takes her time and properly adjusts her clothing.

Female – “Oh yes!” She stops immediately what she was doing and stands alert and upright. “I am Yumi, and this is my partner, err- should I say, only partner left; Jiro.”

Jiro still continues brushing himself off, before realizing what is happening. “Oh!” is exclaimed as he then stands upright next to Yumi.

Yumi – “… Anyways, I am so glad you came. You never replied to my letter for help, but it’s now obvious that you received it. Now that we have help again, we can finally make some progress…”

Jiro – “Tell them what happened!”, Jiro interrupts.

Yumi – “Ah, yes. Well we, just like you, are investigators. We were hired about… 6 months ago to…” Jiro sighs “… to investigated the strange happenings at this very museum… Which was abandoned about 7 months ago, and ransacked by someone or… something in the middle of the night.”

Jiro – “And us two, along with eight others were hired as a last resort to discover what was truly in the museum. However, the eight others abandoned ship from pure fright, and now it’s just us…”

Jiro looks at Yumi uncomfortably then resorts to rapidly flipping through a sketchbook of his. Yumi stares off into the distance then regains her posture and continues the story.

Yumi – “Of course, they all argued that it was something spiritual, but we work with science… Ghosts are just simply an illogical case..” 

At the end of her sentence, the construction lights flicker on and off. The room itself begins to shake. The scaffolding appears to collapse upon itself. Soon, it is completely dark and the shaking stops.

Jiro – “Um, Yumi…?”, Jiro says, with a tremble in his voice. 

Right after Jiro speaks, a gong sounds. The second gong then sounds, followed by the third. Each time a gong sounds, red Japanese inscriptions appeared on each wall. A “gathering of stars” effect forms on the far right wall, then glides across each wall, erasing the inscriptions as it passes over them. The star effect then fades away as it reaches the wall behind Jiro and Yumi. The room still remains pitch black.

Yumi – “It’s definitely spiritual… And we need to get out of here!” The frantic sounds of footsteps can be heard around the room, as Yumi and Jiro argue where the door back to the main area of the museum is. 

Jiro – “I could’ve swore it was right here…” 

Just as Jiro says this, a shining light appears towards the right side of the room. The light gets brighter and brighter, then fades into nothing. The construction lights flicker back on, and a new passageway is revealed, with a cave-like entrance and interior. A low fog rolls out of the passageway and into the main room. 

Jiro – “Oh, heck no…"

Yumi grabs his hand and drags him around the perimeter of the room and they pause at the entrance to the passage.

Yumi – “You never told us what those inscriptions said on the wall…” 

Jiro freezes at the question, looks around, and gulps. Yumi stares blankly at him,\then nervously turns towards the guests.

Yumi – “Alright guys, looks like the only way to get out of here is through this entrance. We didn’t know this was here, but this is more than likely the temple ruins that the museum was founded around. Tours haven’t been offered since the 1990s, when an rockslide from the surrounding mountain seemingly took them out. Guess it is still here… Come on, lets go.” 

The guests follow actors Yumi and Jiro into the ominous cave passageway.

Show Scene Two

Guests follow Yumi and Jiro through the jagged and creepy tunnel. Guests walk through a thick fog to the sounds of a low wind and the drops of water. They all reach the end of tunnel, with no apparent way out.

Jiro – “Oh great, oh great… oh great.” Jiro frantically feels around the cave wall. 

Yumi puts her head in her hands and shakes her head. The lighting of the cave seemingly gets darker and darker, until everything is pitch black. A low laugh echoes through the cave. One by one, streaks of red appear, as if slashed onto the cave walls and ceiling. 

Yumi lifts her head out of her hands, “What is happening?!” she screams.

Then, a flash of light fills the cave. It reveals that the walls are shaking, and appear to be slowly moving in. 

Yumi – “The walls are moving in!” She looks around frantically. Jiro glances down at his sketchbook and shouts “I know!”. 

He begins to recite the words that appeared in the last room, and as he says the last one, everything halts. The brightness of the cave increases, revealing that the walls were incredibly close to crushing everyone. The sound of stone grinding against stone is heard, as a boulder blocking the exit from the cave moves out of the way, which will allow guests to actually enter the temple itself.

Jiro “Here we go again…” Jiro shakes his head, and ushers guests into the next room.

Show Scene Three 

Guests are lead into a vast room. Rocks and debris litter the floor. The walls are rocks, as is the ceiling. Guests are in the remnants of a temple, destroyed by the rockslide. At the far center of the room sits a skeleton, wearing old Samurai armor. A sword still rests in his hand. Surrounding him are stone statues, revealing that this is a ceremonial room. In each statues hand, there is a Samurai sword.

Yumi – “Hey, those are the statues from the museum!”

Mysterious Voice – “Yes, but they were not from the museum. They were from me. These were my weapons, not your artifacts. Now, I reclaiming all that was mine.. In order to once again rule Japan, and possibly, the world!” The voice booms through the cave, rattling everything. 

The skeleton begins to move and stands upright. It motions his sword towards the roof of the ceiling. The sword glows and eerie green glow, and all of the statues raise their swords to the air. Lighting effects embedded into the cave walls begin to flash and make a cracking noise through the air.

Jiro – “We need to get out of here!”

Both Jiro and Yumi run frantically around guests, once again searching for a way. Lightning still strikes, as the glowing swords reach for the sky. Soon, wind effects come from all directions, whipping guests around and creating a faux storm. 

Another booming laugh rolls through the room. The skeleton and statues turn towards guests, and point their swords towards them. All of their eyes glow green, along with their swords. In front of guests, explosions of fire light up the air. More and more happen, making it known that whatever this force was behind the voice wanted what it wanted, and it was relentless.

Jiro – “Wait! I think I’ve got it!”

Yumi – “Go, go!”

Jiro runs in front of the guests, and faces the skeleton Samurai and his army of statues. He holds up his book, and begins to recite the Japanese incantation again. It was no use, and another booming laugh was heard. Jiro once again recites something, but this time, the incantation backwards.

At the end of the last syllable, the room goes dead.The lightning stop, the wind stops, and the fire stops. Everything fades to darkness, excepts the glowing swords and the glowing eyes. One by one, the glowing swords and eyes of each statue fades to nothing, leaving only the glowing eyes and sword of the skeleton Samurai. The sword fades away, leaving only the eyes. With a clever uses of projection technology, each bone on the skeleton begins to glow a dark red, then the projection makes it appear that the skeleton explodes into a hundreds of pieces, which then those pieces fade into darkness.

The lighting of the room increases, making everything visible. The skeleton can be nowhere to found, the statues are all back in place and the room looks as ransacked as ever. Yumi joins Jiro in front of guests.

Yumi – “We cannot thank you enough for the help you have provided with us today. Without you, we would never have been able free this place of that evil, and discover the Legend of the Samurai. Now the museum can be restored back to it’s original state, just like we had planned.”

Jiro – “A secret passageway is now open for you guys, so you can safely travel back to the museum. Good luck with the rest of your travels in Japan!”

A CM ushers guests towards a short cave, which will quickly take guests back to the main room of the museum. When guests emerge from the cave, they are in a restored version of the main room, where everything is in tip top shaping, making it known that they had done what they needed to do and helped to relieve the museum of the curse. Guests exit from the pagoda and back into Japan.

Attraction Information

- The Legend of the Samurai is a thrilling attraction that requires walking. If you're pregnant or injured, you might want to consider skipping out on this attraction. Young children and people prone to seizures might also want to skip out on the attraction, due to it's nature. However, wheelchairs are permitted.

- The ride utilizes Disney's FastPass system. You can get your FastPass to the left of the pagoda, when looking at it with your back to the lake.

- The ride utilizes live actors, stunning special effects and a comical, but yet intense script. The "show" cleverly combines comedy with fear, which helps to tie the story of the attraction together.