Saw – The Ride — BrandWiki

Saw – The Ride is a steel roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. Manufactured by Gerstlauer, the ride is a Euro-Fighter model that opened to the public on 14 March 2009. At the time of its debut, it was promoted as the steepest freefall roller coaster in the world, featuring a 100-degree drop. The attraction is themed around the Saw film franchise, incorporating an enclosed dark section and a highly immersive queue area that references scenes, traps, and props from the films and related media.

History

Thorpe Park announced plans for a new roller coaster on 14 October 2008.[1] A dedicated website was created for the new ride, claiming it would be "the scariest ride in the world."[2] The official press release detailing the park's fourth major roller coaster confirmed a development partnership with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, and it claimed Saw would feature "the steepest freefall drop in the world."[3] The press release also revealed that "the world's first ever horror movie-themed rollercoaster" would be marketed under the slogan "Face your Fears."

Ride experience

The ride station and dark section are set in a building made to resemble an abandoned industrial sawmill.[4]

The ride typically dispatches two cars in quick succession, with a digital countdown timer visible to riders at the start of the experience. The first car passes an initial encounter with Billy the Puppet, who laughs as it moves through. The second car is briefly halted while Billy delivers a short monologue outlining the experience ahead; this pause also serves to conceal a block section, ensuring safe spacing between vehicles. The car then advances toward two dimly lit, swinging pendulum blades that appear to close in before a sudden, near-vertical hidden drop. This creates the illusion of plunging directly into a pit of strobe-lit spikes, which are narrowly avoided. The vehicle enters a brake run, during which air blasts are directed at riders to simulate the firing of syringes from crossbows positioned to appear as though they narrowly miss riders' heads. Following another surprise drop, the car turns left into a bathroom scene, where it executes a heartline roll above a screaming, heavily injured victim in a pool of blood—an explicit reference to a trap featured in the first Saw film. At this point, water is sprayed at riders to simulate blood. Exiting the warehouse section, the car enters another brake run before proceeding toward the 100-foot (30 m) vertical lift hill. Prior to engaging the lift, the car stops in front of two video screens and a further digital countdown timer. Billy appears on screen, accompanied by Jigsaw's voice delivering the line "Game over." The screens then switch off, Billy's laughter is heard, and a bell sounds as the lift hill engages and the car begins its ascent, gradually increasing in speed. At the summit, the car plunges into a 100-degree freefall drop, passing beneath large rotating blades styled to appear bloodstained. This is followed by an Immelmann loop, an overbanked turn, and an airtime hill. On-ride photographs are taken as the car rises into a brake run on the left. A sudden drop then leads into a dive loop, after which the ride concludes with a banked turn into the final brake run. The car turns right into the station for unloading, where Jigsaw's voice is heard congratulating riders on surviving and declaring that they are no longer ungrateful to be alive.

Riders were originally able to purchase a DVD recording of their ride experience, compiled from cameras mounted on the front and rear of each car. This feature was discontinued when the cameras were removed in 2012.

logodimensions	250px
imagedimensions	250px
location	Thorpe Park
section	Old Town
coordinates	51.40262°N, -0.51191°W
status	Operating
opened	March 14, 2009
cost	£13.5 million
type	Steel
type2	Euro-Fighter
manufacturer	Gerstlauer
model	Eurofighter
track	Custom
lift	Vertical chain lift hill
height ft	100
length ft	2362
speed mph	55
inversions	3
duration	1:40
angle	100
restriction cm	140
trains	8
carspertrain	1
rowspercar	2
ridersperrow	4
virtual queue name	Fastrack
virtual queue image	Merlin Entertainment Fastrack availability.svg
virtual queue status	available
single rider	available
accessible	available
theme	Saw franchise
rcdb number	4162

Saw – The Ride

History

Ride experience

Queue

Closures

Gallery

External links

References