Nemesis Reborn

Coordinates: 52°59′13″N 1°52′58″W / 52.98694°N 1.88278°W / 52.98694; -1.88278
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Nemesis (roller coaster)
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Not to be confused with its sister roller coaster at Thorpe Park, Nemesis Inferno.

Nemesis is closing by order of the phalanx
Previously known as Nemesis (1994-2024)
Chain lift hill
Height13 m (42.7 ft)
Drop31.7 m (104 ft)
Length716 m (2,349 ft)
Speed81 km/h (50 mph)
Inversions4
Duration1:20
Capacity1200 riders per hour
G-force3.5[2]
Height restriction140 cm (4 ft 7 in)
Trains2 trains with 8 cars. Riders are arranged 4 across in a single row for a total of 32 riders per train.
WebsiteOfficial website
Slogan"Sit back, it’s fright time!" & "Back with a vengeance"
Fastrack available
Nemesis is closing by order of the phalanx at RCDB

Nemesis Reborn, previously Nemesis, is an inverted roller coaster located at the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), the ride was designed by Werner Stengel, while overall development was overseen by attraction developer John Wardley. It opened in the Forbidden Valley (formerly Thunder Valley) area of the park on 19 March 1994.

The 716-metre-long (2,349 ft) ride stands 13 metres (42.7 ft) tall and features a top speed of 81 km/h (50 mph). The four-inversion roller coaster was one of the first B&M rides to be installed outside of the United States and the first in Europe as an independent company. For the 2023 season, the ride was closed for a major refurbishment and retracking with significant overhaul of its theme. It reopened on 16 March 2024 as Nemesis Reborn.[3]

History

Development history

In 1990, Alton Towers added the Thunder Looper roller coaster; the addition was only temporary due to planning restrictions imposed on its installation.[4][5] The park began planning for a new roller coaster on unused land adjacent to Thunder Looper.[6] They desired a roller coaster that was big, different, and exciting. But they were constrained by the tree-level height limit imposed on the park.[7]

One of Nemesis' trains exiting the first corkscrew (2006)

Alton Towers approached

Rock blasting was used to excavate space for the planned ride.[7] However, the Arrow pipeline project was cancelled when Wardley rode the prototype, describing how it was "very slow (and rather boring), looked cumbersome, and was very energy inefficient". The park began to look for an alternative.[6][7]

Tussauds became aware of a new roller coaster model being built by Bolliger & Mabillard at Six Flags Great America and entered into discussions with Six Flags, who agreed to privately disclose information about the new ride.[7] Jim Wintrode, the general manager of Six Flags Great America at the time, proposed the concept of an inverted roller coaster that featured inversions and worked with Bolliger & Mabillard to develop Batman: The Ride.[8][9] Tussauds directors rode Batman: The Ride prior to its May 1992 opening and wanted to add a similar ride to Alton Towers.[7][10]

The inverted roller coaster, dubbed "Secret Weapon 3", was planned throughout 1992. Wardley and Nick Varney, marketing director of Alton Towers, came up with the theme for "Nemesis" as an alien creature excavated from the ground.[7] According to Wardley, the ride's name was conceived one evening after himself and Nick Varney drank a bottle of Southern Comfort.[11] The ride's layout was designed by Werner Stengel. Tussauds collaborated with a landscape architect to design the excavated area and create a ride that could be exciting for both riders and non-riders – the final inversion was built at the eye level of an observer, and the queue winds all the way around the track.[2][7]

Operational history

The £10 million Nemesis officially opened to the public on 19 March 1994, following a

soft opening three days prior.[2][1] It opened as one of the first Bolliger & Mabillard rides to be installed outside of the United States, along with Diavlo at Himeji Central Park, Japan, which opened four months later.[12]

In August 2004, Nemesis gained the

Guinness World Record for the "Most Naked People on a Rollercoaster". The ride set the record at 32 riders – the number of seats on a single Nemesis train.[13] It took the record from Thorpe Park's Nemesis Inferno roller coaster which set the record at 28 just three months prior.[14][15] The ride lost the record in 2010 when 40 naked riders boarded Green Scream Rollercoaster at Adventure Island.[16]

In 2009, Alton Towers received several complaints from nearby residents regarding increased noise levels emitted from the ride. New wheels had to be installed on the two trains before the ride returned to normal operation. [17]

Retracking

Sign announcing the closure of Nemesis in October 2022

In January 2022, Alton Towers proposed retracking a majority of the roller coaster for maintenance reasons, including replacing 89 of the 117 support columns.[18] Nemesis closed for the refurbishment on 6 November 2022,[19] and reopened on 16 March 2024.[20]

In April 2023, Alton Towers revealed the new Nemesis track, which is black with red veins painted along the side.[21] During the refurbishment, Alton Towers built an observation platform next to Nemesis: Sub-Terra allowing up to 30 park guests at a time to view the construction taking place.[22] In September 2023, the park showcased the new red and black colour scheme of the trains.[23]

A new promotional video was released on 3 November 2023 alluding to the backstory of the refurbished ride.[24] On 8 January 2024, Alton Towers revealed that the coaster would be renamed Nemesis Reborn, and the opening date of 16 March was revealed on 21 February 2024.[25][26]

Characteristics

The themed station with the first corkscrew in the background (2010)

Nemesis Reborn stands 13 metres (42.7 ft) tall, but due to the modified terrain, features a drop height of 31.7 metres (104 ft). Its track length is 716 metres (2,349 ft), and riders reach a maximum speed of 81 km/h (50 mph). The four inversions include two

trains, each containing eight cars. Each car seats four riders in a single row for a total of 32 riders per train.[2]

Ride experience

A train travelling the stall turn (2003)

While operating as Nemesis, riders entering the station would choose between the standard queue or front row, the latter of which added significant queuing time, and has been removed for Nemesis Reborn. Riders are batched into rows of 4. Once the train is ready for dispatch, the floor beneath it is lowered prior to the train departing the

station
. When it does, the train makes a 45-degree, right-hand turn toward the lift hill. Upon reaching the top of the 13-metre (43 ft) hill, the train makes a small dip and a 180-degree turn to the left, followed by a small drop into a right-handed corkscrew. The on-ride photo is taken just before the drop into the corkscrew

The train then navigates a right-handed, 270-degree downward helix, which features 90-degree banking. This leads into an elevating second inversion, a zero-g roll, where riders experience a feeling of weightlessness in an

brake run, before returning to the station.[2][27]

Marketing and backstory

Nemesis is themed around an excavation site in which a mysterious alien creature was discovered. The ride and the surrounding area is decorated with large rocks, various rusted metal structures, and various military paraphernalia. The station building is designed as the alien creature, and at the start of Forbidden Valley was a roadheader surrounded by alien theming, known as the Nemesis Drill/Gun. This decoration was later replaced with a black helicopter and helipad during the retheme to Nemesis Reborn. The waterfall beneath the ride was also initially dyed red to resemble blood, which was later removed for environmental reasons.[28]

Original story

The ride's backstory tells of a mysterious alien creature that appears to be from another dimension, found buried underground during some excavation work at Alton Towers. [29] The alien creature, which has been rejected by multiple other civilizations around the universe, landed on Earth approximately two million years ago where it has laid dormant under the area of Forbidden Valley. Named ‘Nemesis’ upon its discovery, steel was used to pin it down in order to curb it as a threat, and this steel forms the track that people ride on today.

The opening of Nemesis Sub-Terra in 2012 introduced the Phalanx into the Nemesis storyline. The Phalanx is a fictional organisation that functions internationally, providing supposedly infallible biohazard containment and security.[30] They have been tasked with the control of Nemesis, and the study of its behaviours. Nemesis Sub-Terra reveals that the Phalanx has discovered an expansive system of caves beneath and surrounding the Nemesis dig site, of which approximately 27 kilometres have been explored. The Phalanx finds an egg belonging to the Nemesis alien, which is being housed in their facility P-A1X. A large nest containing multiple eggs is later revealed to be in a cavern directly beneath the facility.

Project 42, a temporary scare-maze attraction that appeared during Alton Towers' annual Halloween 'Scarefest' event [31] for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, added an additional expansion to the story of the Phalanx. The attraction was situated inside the Nemesis Sub-Terra building, which at the time was unused due to the ride's extended closure between 2015 and 2023. The maze took place inside a Phalanx facility, left frantically abandoned due to the sudden outbreak of a deadly disease named 'B10: NST' that the Phalanx now aims to keep contained inside. Guests are placed in the role of a volunteer rescue party, with the aim of saving a lab technician who was working on a vaccine. [32] While inside, guests encounter actors playing those who have contracted the disease. The disease itself seems to turn victims into gruesome zombie-like creatures. [33] It is not confirmed if B10: NST is related to the original Nemesis alien, but the experience aligns with the Phalanx's role of biohazard containment.

Nemesis Reborn update

During its transition to Nemesis Reborn, Alton Towers released several marketing videos that expanded the storyline. The first of these was shown on 6 November 2022, when Alton Towers held its annual Fireworks Spectacular event. During the finale, a video was played that featured a Phalanx spokesman announcing the closure of Nemesis due to the creature’s abnormal behaviour and confirming the start of an investigation. A promotional video released later in April 2023 on their YouTube channel depicted surveillance footage from what appears to be a Phalanx testing facility, in which workers are examining the new Nemesis track.[34]

Many of the promotional videos are framed as though they had been leaked or shared without the Phalanx's permission, often paired with the hashtag "#seekthetruth". The walls surrounding the site during construction were spray-painted with the same hashtag as well as a circular drone-like logo. Further videos and theming elements around the area since it re-opened in March 2024 continue to depict the people behind this, now named Seek-the-Truthers, as a collection of activists who opposed the Phalanx's secretive nature and lack of communication with the public and aimed to uncover their secrets, as well as arguing for the rights of the Nemesis alien. [35]

The re-opening of Nemesis Sub-terra in May 2023 after its closure in 2015 further contributed to the marketing campaign. During the opening ceremony, the original Phalanx spokesman welcomes members of the public into the newly recommissioned facility, only for workers to stumble out of the building in a cloud of smoke. [36]

The series of promotional videos continued, including one released in November 2023 that takes place at a Phalanx research facility in the fictional backstory. Scientists are seen extracting DNA from a Nemesis egg before they are attacked and lose control of the situation, notably including the death of the original Phalanx spokesman. The scene closes with the animation of a reddish orange eye opening in the background and the promotional text, "Back with a vengeance 2024", appearing onscreen and signaling the upcoming return of the Nemesis roller coaster.[37] More details of the refurbished ride were revealed in January 2024, along with the announcement of its name change to Nemesis Reborn. [38] The ride now places visitors at the mercy of the Nemesis monster, the Phalanx having lost control of the infuriated creature.

Reception and influence

Prior to its 2023 refurbishment, Nemesis was positively received by enthusiasts and the attraction industry,

Golden Ticket Awards among best steel coasters.[40] It is also one of only seven roller coasters to appear in the top 50 every year since the award's inception in 1998, ranking tenth in its debut and peaking seventh in 2003.[41][42] In a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times, Nemesis received 37.93% of the vote for title of best roller coaster in England, while Nemesis Inferno received 0.32%.[43] In addition, over 50 million guests have ridden the roller coaster since its opening in 1994.[44]

Golden Ticket Awards
: Top steel Roller Coasters
Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Ranking 10[41] 13[45] 14[46] 19[47] 18[48] 7[42] 17[49] 16[50] 16[51] 14[52] 13[53] 20[54] 18[55] 12[56] 16[57] 20[58] 21[59] 9[60] 11[61] 20[62] 20[63] 16[64] 32[65] 31[66] 35[67]

Spin-off rides

Two additional rides with the Nemesis brand were later added at Merlin theme parks. The first was Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park, another inverted coaster from B&M that opened in 2003.[68] In 2012, Alton Towers opened another ride with a related theme, Nemesis: Sub-Terra.[69] The drop tower from ABC Rides closed in 2015 and later reopened in 2023 following an eight-year hiatus.[22]

References

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  3. ^ Lewis (21 February 2024). "Nemesis Reborn to open from 16th March at Alton Towers Resort". TowersTimes. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
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External links

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