Show scenes
The ride begins with the time-machine vehicles ascending into a dark tunnel with twinkling stars all around. On touchscreens in the vehicle, guests select their language and hometown, and then have their picture taken by a passing camera for later use.
As the vehicle arrives at the first story of the structure, it begins a slow curve. A large film screen is stretched along the inside of the sphere, depicting early humans fighting for survival against a woolly mammoth, triggering development of early communication and language to help them work and survive together. As the screen dims behind them, guests enter a cavern populated by audio animatronic early humans, who represent the development of early writing through cave paintings. The drawings on the walls come to life and begin to dance as the car continues onward.
The next scene depicts Egyptians, who invented a system of portable communication using hieroglyphs recorded on papyrus, as opposed to cave paintings that were unable to be transported as humans migrated.
Phoenician merchants are seen carrying goods to faraway lands. The narration explains how each civilization is trying to communicate, but cannot understand each other due to language barriers. But the Phoenicians, who trade with all of them, create a simple common alphabet, so that trade and communication becomes easier. Turning a corner, riders see a lesson in mathematics being taught in a piazza in an ancient Greek city, in a sequence that attempts to show how math helped invent the 'birth of a high tech life we enjoy today.' Shifting to ancient Rome, a night scene including a traveler in a chariot delivering news depicts how language is portrayed as a tool for cultural unification with the vast network of roads that stretched across Europe, ultimately all leading to Rome.
Suddenly, the scene takes a dark turn as crashes are heard and the smell of burning wood fills the air. The fall of Rome by invading mercenary armies also brought the destruction of the bulk of the world's recorded knowledge, including the loss of scrolls at the Library of Alexandria. But the narration gives hope as the vehicle reaches the next level, where Jewish and Islamic scholars of the Middle Ages are seen preserving recorded information, and continuing to progress in science.
Winding through exotic fabrics and drapery, guests arrive at a monastery where biblical manuscripts are being copied by hand. Gutenberg is seen working the first movable-type printing press, allowing information to travel freely across the globe. The European Renaissance is portrayed, with scenes of artists sculpting a woman and painting a portrait of fruit. The scene ends as the car passes under a scaffold, where Michelangelo is seen painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
The time machines transition to the United States in a post-Civil War North. Guests witness syndicated news reports illuminating the planet of current events with amazing efficiency. Loud, industrial-sized printing presses show the incredible influence of the machine as an advancement in mass communication. Seen next is a romanticized version of the 20th century communications revolution—after passing telegraphs, radio, telephones, and movies, riders see the 1969 television broadcast of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, featuring Walter Cronkite. Riders hear Neil Armstrong say his most famous quote, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." while the vehicles pass by the TV.
Language had progressed to such an extent that it no longer was spoken solely by humans, but by machines as well. Guests turn a corner and find themselves in a large mainframe computer as they ascend up the final hill. Ascending to the top, guests pass through a 1970's garage in California, where an actual 1976 Chevrolet Vega GT[28] sits next to a young man(possibly Steve Jobs?)[15] who is seen building one of the first home computers. The car then moves into the cupola of Spaceship Earth and each ride vehicle pivots 90 degrees clockwise. The top of the structure is, in fact, a planetarium studded with stars and a large projection of Earth. Before the vehicles start to move down the long descent to the unloading area, they rotate another 90 degrees clockwise and guests ride the end of the attraction backward, in a semi-reclining position.
The remainder of the ride moves through a tunnel of free-hanging LED string lights and mirrors to give the illusion of a seemingly infinite number of stars, and into a realm of glowing triangles. During this time, the guests are instructed to use the touchscreens in their vehicle to answer questions about preferences to create an animated depiction of their future, which uses the pictures taken at the beginning of the ride. (If fewer than two guests are riding, or the camera is disabled, generic faces are used.[29])
At the end of the descent, the omnimover vehicles rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise to face forward just before entering the offload station. Guests are then invited to visit the 'Project Tomorrow' post-show as they exit the ride cars.
