The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at DCA

Rocketing upwards to the top of the Tower, your elevator suddenly halts, leaving you suspended, hovering in mid-air as the doors open on a shocking sight: a thirteenth-story view of the fierce thunderstorm as it rains lightning bolts down upon the city.

Can anyone survive this reckless journey between fiery chaos and supernatural oblivion? Little time to ponder your fate as the elevator plummets back down the shaft! Screams of all the unfortunate trespassers who dared test the Tower's curse echo around you in a deafening chorus of terror.

Before you can crash at the bottom in a heap of mangled steel and flesh, the lift slows its descent — the otherworldly hand of the Twilight Zone is at the controls now, and the physical laws of our known world no longer apply.

The Tower's shaft motors reverse gears, pulleys screech and cables strain to hurtle you skyward again. Gravitational forces of the living world desperately claw at you but are unable to defeat the unworldly powers pulling you ever upward. Now you are truly a pawn in the battle between shadow and substance, and this dark intent will not be denied its victory.

Once again you hang suspended at the hotel's panoramic portal of destruction as lightning strikes bombard the city. You wonder which is the worse fate: riding to the height of a thirteen-story lightning rod amid a ferocious thunderstorm, or plunging to certain death at the bottom of an abandoned elevator shaft?

The lift drops beneath you again, momentarily leaving your heart in your throat as you fall with it, descending rapidly. Yet once again, the unseen, unforgiving operator in control toys with your fate and fears, halting your fall with impossible force to avoid a crushing demise.

Reversing course a third time, your elevator begins a stuttering ascent back up the Tower shaft. Motors straining, gears and pulleys slipping, cables fraying under the immense stress, you rise in halting stages: up, then stalling, upward again, stalling out, dropping, then pulled upward once more... the dark powers of the Twilight Zone teasing, squeezing every ounce of mortal terror out of your mind and body.

One last time, you reach the pit of man's fears and the summit of the Tower for a final glimpse of the living world. A blinding bolt of light strikes the hotel directly, illuminating the fractured shaft in a bright white flash and you are falling...

falling...

until the abyss consumes you and you sense nothing but emptiness...

Out of the endless void, a dim form grows larger, moving toward you.

Pinpoints of light surround the shape as it floats closer.

Impossibly, the steel panels of the hotel's service doors materialize before you, quite solid, earthly and real.

The Twilight Zone, as strangely merciful as it can be cruel, has spared your life and restored your mortal being. Upon your miraculous and safe return, a familiar voice greets you as the elevator doors slowly slide open...

"A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning, something you won't find in any guidebook: the next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident of... the Twilight Zone."

Your heart pounding, your knees weak with fear and exhilaration, you take a few shaky steps off the elevator platform and back onto the welcoming terra firma of a dim service corridor.

As shattered and decayed the Hollywood Tower Hotel appears to the eye, your mind and soul now affirm that far worse fates await you if you are foolish enough to seek them out.

So the next time you step aboard an elevator, think twice before you press the button, because not all destinations are listed on the panel... and your next departure may be your permanent arrival in the Twilight Zone.