No Way Out: The History of Thorpe Park’s X and the Walking Dead

Throughout its forty-three year history, Thorpe Park has been home to some pretty amazing rides. From petting farms to high-speed thrill rides, there has always been something for everyone, and some attractions leave more of a legacy than others.

Among now defunct greats is X:/ No Way Out, which took riders on an adventure through the darkness when a computer virus, and later a rave, made lights flash, music play and the trains go backwards rather than forwards. X has been on quite the journey over the years, through refurbs and rethemes, and is now operating as The Walking Dead: The Ride. Take your seat and pull down your restraint, as we drop into the exhilarating history of X:/ No Way Out!

Whispers of Something New

Thorpe Park opened its doors on the 24th of May 1979, and over ten years later in the 1990s, it was continuing to evolve. Despite originally being more of a water park than a theme park, Thorpe Park now offered a small rollercoaster named Flying Fish, a collection of flat rides, a waterslide called Depth Charge that’s sure to get you absolutely soaked, and a Mack Rides log flume named Loggers Leap. I’m sure some of these attractions bring a lot of nostalgia for many people (Loggers Leap definitely does for me!) but throughout the decade, there was a lot more to come.

A new attraction became a possibility in 1995, when the vintage car ride Drive in the Country was rethemed and moved to the new Rangers County area, and the hill of Fantasy Reef, where the ride was located, was flattened. On the 1995 season park map, guests were informed of a “a top secret development” coming the following year. Making it even more secretive was the construction of a giant metallic pyramid, which could soon be seen in many areas around the park.

A Ride in Darkness

In 1996 all became clear for those curious about what was being built- Thorpe Park’s second and at the time largest rollercoaster, a Vekoma Enigma family coaster ominously named X:/ No Way Out. Housed inside a red and black pyramid, the new ride combined an original soundtrack, LED lights and the adrenaline rush that comes with riding in the dark, to create an experience that left many guests wondering what on earth just happened.

It wasn’t the first time Thorpe had done a rollercoaster in darkness- when Flying Fish first opened in 1990, it too was in a dark show building- but it was the first time they had sent riders hurtling backwards.

As with many indoor rides, the experience started long before you board the train. Winding through dark corridors, guests made their way into a series of themed rooms, with a spinning trommel tunnel, a room full of life-sized robots, and plenty of UV lights that were so bright they made many people’s teeth glow in the dark. There were just a few more steps before you began the ride- a preshow, and a vibrating lift to give the impression of being lifted into the station.

To begin the ride experience itself, the trains began to climb the lifthill, which may not seem too impressive until you realise they’re going up the lifthill backwards. Once at the top, riders dropped into a string of helixes until you barely know which way you’re going. And if you thought X’s three brakeruns would provide a break from the craziness, you’d be wrong. Music, mist and strobe lighting filled even these elements with a dose of disorientation.

After two minutes and 1,300 feet of twisting track, the trains pulled back into the station. Guests were led back out into daylight, and past a giant battery themed as the “Thorpe Park power supply”. During all the refurbs X:/ No Way Out went through before finally being rethemed, this battery was one of the only pieces of theming that remained the same!

An Evolving Experience

As time went on, riders’ expectations evolved, and so did the ride. For the beginning of the 2007 season, what was now Thorpe Park’s third largest rollercoaster opened with a new theme and storyline. Instead of revolving around a computer virus, X now offered a rave-style ride with UV flashing lights, dance music replacing the IMAscore soundtrack years later in 2014, and the on-ride photo camera eventually being removed. More and more people were experiencing motion sickness after riding X, so it made sense that the park were taking measures to make it a more comfortable ride.

Thorpe Park hadn’t finished experimenting with the ride yet however. During the 2010 season, guests had the opportunity to ride X illuminated by safety lights, in a unique experience that can only be compared to riding Space Mountain with the worklights on. Riders could finally see where they were going and how each of the helixes and breakruns intertwined, as well as just how close some of the tracks came to each other at some points. Three years later in 2013, it was decided that X should quite literally go “in a new direction”, as the park said, and run forwards instead of backwards.

To reflect what was now a much tamer ride, the height requirement was lowered to 1 metre when riding with an adult. This refurb was another attempt to reduce the number of people getting ill, and came with a host of other renovations, including the trains being repainted and spruced up.

The Zombie Retheme-pocolypse

By the end of 2017, X had been disorientating and dizzying riders for over 20 years, but it wasn’t long before the party would come to an end. On the 1st of December Thorpe Park submitted plans for a retheme of their second oldest rollercoaster, including a replacement of the entrance portal, a few landscaping changes, and a bit of a makeover for the show building.

The reimagining happened mainly behind closed doors, taking place during the 2017-18 off-season, however Thorpe Park didn’t leave guests completely in the dark. At the beginning of 2017’s Fright Nights, they posted a photo of the Walking Dead’s infamous door that spawned the subreddit and meme Don’t Dead Open Inside, as well as a selection of other (some slightly gory!) teasers.

Rumours on what might be coming to the park began circling even before X gave its final ride at the end of the 2017 season, and in February 2018, they were confirmed. X would be rethemed to the horror TV series The Walking Dead, which at the time had eight seasons, and follows deputy sheriff Rick Grimes as he fights to survive in a world overcome with Walkers (zombies, not the crisp brand!). The Walking Dead: The Ride made its debut on the 31st of March 2018, just four days after the opening date was announced.

In the story of the ride, Thorpe Park had been taken over by zombies, but guests didn’t need to worry, as the former site of X was now a safe zone. But it would soon become clear that the safe zone wasn’t that safe after all, as Walkers were beginning to breach the walls and fences of the area.

Guests are led through a series of dark tunnels into a preshow room, where they are questioned and led into the loading bay. To get down into the bunker, you must board your train and plunge down into the ride, where you rush (still forwards!) through darkness and theming to escape the zombies. The midcourse breakruns are woven into the ride’s storyline as points where the zombies are getting closer. At the end of the ride, you’re led out through another dark tunnel, back into daylight and safety.

On opening, The Walking Dead: The Ride received mixed reviews. Many were impressed with the preshow and the heavily-themed queueline, as well as the actors who are sometimes positioned in the queue, waiting to scare. However, it was the ride experience itself that divided- some felt that the new storyline massively improved what isn’t a particularly intense ride, while others came out a little underwhelmed. The height requirement was moved again back up to 1.4m, demonstrating that while it may have the statistics of a family coaster, the actual experience is a lot more terrifying.

From The Walking Dead’s opening until now, the ride has remained largely unchanged. The only thing to really impact the ride was the pandemic, which meant that throughout the 2020 season all of Thorpe Park’s indoor rides had to be closed to minimise the spread of the virus. Today, the ride gathers queues of up to fifty minutes, meaning that while it may no longer be the biggest or most revolutionary coaster at Thorpe Park, the Walking Dead is still popular among guests, whether you’re a fan of the TV show, horror, rollercoasters or all three.

Walking Into the Future, or Going Backwards into the Past?

Over the past few years, UK theme park enthusiasts have been begging Thorpe Park to give its coaster lineup a bit of love, especially considering the last time the Island Like No Other got a new coaster was back in 2012 with the opening of The Swarm. Our requests were answered in 2021 with the announcement of Project Exodus: plans to build a new rollercoaster on the site of the defunct log flume Loggers Leap. I’m super excited to see this much awaited new addition, and I have no doubt many of you are too.

A few other rides in the surrounding area have already closed to make way for Project Exodus, and while The Walking Dead isn’t close enough to the site to be at risk of removal, there is a possibility it could be affected if Thorpe Park decided to build another new ride after Exodus opens. The Walking Dead is the second oldest coaster at the park after Flying Fish, and even though it’s still popular, it can’t really compare with newer coasters like Stealth, Swarm or Nemesis Inferno. So will the Walking Dead be closing in the next decade? I don’t have any more information than anyone else so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but with Merlin investing more and more in their parks in recent years, there is a chance we could see this ride replaced with something new at some point.

Have you ridden The Walking Dead: The Ride, or did you ride X or X/: No Way Out when they were open? Let me know in the comments below!

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Thanks for reading!

Lily 🙂