Hidden Secrets & Easter Eggs

Batman: The Ride (1992) originated with park GM Jim Wintrode, who approached Bolliger & Mabillard with the inverted coaster concept after seeing their stand-up Iron Wolf. It was B&M's 4th coaster ever built, at a cost of $7 million. The compact 2,700-foot layout went on to become the most-cloned coaster layout in history, with 12+ identical or near-identical copies worldwide.

Six Flags operated Batman: The Ride in reverse for two seasons (2013–2015), a rare modification to a cloned B&M. In 2005 it was designated an American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Coaster Landmark - at just 13 years old, making it the youngest ride ever to receive the designation at that time. Most Landmarks recognize decades-old rides.

The Great America Batman layout has been replicated at Six Flags parks across the US and internationally, plus licensed copies in Mexico, Spain, and beyond. No other coaster design has been reproduced more times. Each clone uses near-identical track geometry, meaning the ride experience at every park is intentionally the same as the 1992 original.

Before Maxx Force (2019), the site held the Marriott-era IMAX Pictorium theater, opened in 1979 and one of the first purpose-built IMAX venues in a theme park. The theater was demolished to make room for the coaster, but the entrance structure was retained and incorporated into Maxx Force's queue and entrance architecture.

Maxx Force's dual-LSM launch accelerates from 0 to 78 mph in just 1.8 seconds, making it the fastest accelerating roller coaster launch in North America. The speed comes with serious decibel output: after resident complaints following its 2019 debut, the park installed noise barriers around the launch section before the 2020 season.

When RMC built Goliath (2014), it was constructed directly on top of Iron Wolf's old footprint. Rather than demolishing Iron Wolf's station building, the park retained and repurposed it as Goliath's loading station. Guests waiting to board Goliath are standing inside a structure that was serving riders of B&M's very first coaster just three years earlier.

Construction of Goliath required approximately 40,000 man-hours, much of it during brutal Illinois winter conditions. When it opened June 19, 2014, Goliath held three simultaneous Guinness World Records for wooden roller coasters: longest drop (180 ft), steepest drop (85.1°), and fastest speed (72 mph). All three were records for wooden coasters at the time.

Iron Wolf (1990) was the absolute debut of Bolliger & Mabillard as a manufacturer - their company's first coaster of any kind. Every B&M that has ever been built, from Batman to Fury 325 to Giga coasters worldwide, traces its lineage to this stand-up coaster in Gurnee, Illinois. The founders had previously worked at Intamin before striking out on their own.

Iron Wolf was featured prominently in the 1994 Macaulay Culkin film Richie Rich, shot partly on location at Great America. After the ride was sold and eventually removed in 2011, its front car was donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum in Plainview, Texas, where it remains on permanent display as a piece of coaster manufacturing history.

Most B&M hyper coasters use an out-and-back layout. Raging Bull (1999) is uniquely a twisting hyper - one of only two B&M hypers in the world with a pre-drop before the main 208-foot lift hill. It is also the only B&M hyper with a genuine underground tunnel: a 127-foot tunnel buried 6 feet below ground level where the train reaches its top speed of 73 mph.

The tunnel on Raging Bull is not a decorative shell - it is a genuine subterranean passage excavated below the park's grade. At 127 feet long and 6 feet below ground, it provides a brief but intense blackout at maximum speed. This combination of below-grade tunneling and hyper coaster scale is unique among all B&M hypers worldwide.

American Eagle (1981) has two side-by-side wooden tracks totaling 9,300 combined feet of track. More than four decades after opening, it remains the world record holder for longest double-racing wooden coaster. No other racing wooden coaster built since has exceeded its combined track length. It received ACE Coaster Landmark designation in 2025.

Original construction required 1.36 million linear feet of lumber, 129,000 bolts, and 30,000 pounds of nails. The blue (north) side of American Eagle ran backwards during multiple operating seasons, offering a dramatically different experience on what is otherwise a mirror-image track. Backwards operation has since been discontinued.

Superman: Ultimate Flight (2003) at Great America was among the first B&M flying coasters to feature the pretzel loop - an inversion element that B&M invented specifically for flying coasters where riders experience intense positive G-forces while facing the ground. It remains the only flying coaster operating anywhere in the Midwest United States.

Viper (1995) is a one-of-a-kind anomaly in coaster history: it was designed entirely by Six Flags' own engineering staff rather than by an outside ride manufacturer. Every other coaster Six Flags has ever operated was procured from an external manufacturer. Viper's in-house origin makes it structurally and historically unique in the entire Six Flags portfolio.

Whizzer (1976) was named "Willard's Whizzer" as a tribute to J. Willard Marriott, the founder of Marriott Corporation which built the park. It is a Schwarzkopf Jet Star II / Speedracer model and is now the last operating example of that model anywhere on Earth. Every other Schwarzkopf Speedracer has been removed or destroyed. It received ACE Coaster Landmark designation recognizing its rarity.

Whizzer's trains are self-powered: each train carries its own electric motors that drive the wheels rather than relying on a traditional chain lift or LIM launch. In 1976, the park's opening season, a collision between two trains at the loading station resulted in a $70,000 penalty levied against the park - a significant sum in the Bicentennial year. The incident was quietly covered up at the time.

The Columbia Carousel stands 100 feet tall with two riding levels - making it the second-tallest double-decker carousel in the world by a single foot. The twin carousel at California's Great America (now California's Great America / Great America) stands 101 feet. Inside, 16 original oil paintings depicting scenes from American history are mounted on the carousel's center column, commissioned for the 1976 Bicentennial opening.

Shockwave (1988–2002), the park's former stand-up Arrow looper, was demolished but left traces behind. Its ornate entrance gates were repainted black and repurposed as the entrance to Fright Fest's "Seven Sins Cemetery" haunted attraction - they remain in the park today. The ride's lift hill motor was removed and salvaged for use on Demon, still running nearby.

Marriott Corporation opened both Great America parks - Gurnee, Illinois and Santa Clara, California - simultaneously on the same day in 1976, timed to celebrate the United States Bicentennial. The parks were designed as near-mirror images with identical rides, layout, and Marriott's six original themed lands. Both opened May 29, 1976.

When Bally Manufacturing acquired Great America in 1981 and subsequently sold to Six Flags in 1984, the transaction included licensing rights to use Looney Tunes characters across the entire Six Flags chain - a portfolio deal that defined Six Flags' character identity for decades. Marriott's original six themed lands (Hometown Square, Orleans Place, Southwest Territory, Yukon Territory, Yankee Harbor, County Fair) remain the structural skeleton under Six Flags' current branding today.

Above Hometown Square, a window apartment has a lamp that remains lit at all times - a detail that mirrors the famously perpetual lamp left burning in the window above the Main Street firehouse at Disneyland (kept lit as a tribute to Walt Disney). The connection at Great America is undocumented and its origin has never been officially confirmed, leaving its intent ambiguous.

Rue Le Dodge's bumper car arena measures 6,455 square feet, making it the world's largest bumper car floor. This distinction exists by a technicality: the identical attraction at California's Great America (the twin park) had its floor reduced in size during a renovation. Great America in Gurnee retained the original Marriott-era dimensions, accidentally inheriting the world record when its twin shrank.