Amusement Park

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Amusement parks are popular locations for confrontations, probably because there's so much neat stuff to play around with:

  • The roller coaster gives our hero a chance to show off their reflexes.
  • The ferris wheel. Not for acrophobics.
  • The haunted house. Forget the plastic spiders and fake-looking animatronic ghosts, there's an actual scary villain in there somewhere!
  • Carnival games to show off the heroes' skill (or lack thereof) with guns or throwing.
  • And, of course, the Hall of Mirrors, which is a trope of its own.

The amusement park is often abandoned or just closed for the night, which is an easy way of making things creepier, but it may also be open for business with the villain hiding in the crowd.

If it's abandoned or haunted, see Circus of Fear.

If the villain has booby-trapped the park (or has actually built the park for nefarious purposes), it's an Amusement Park of Doom.

See also Souvenir Land for the not-so-exciting version and Theme Park for when it becomes more of a medium. Compare Pinball Zone.

Examples of Amusement Park include:

Anime and Manga

  • The events of the first episode of Detective Conan take place in an amusement park, which is also used for the climax of the fourth movie.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga has, in addition to Kaibaland, a regular amusement park that Yugi and Anzu go to during summer break. Too bad a Mad Bomber has rigged the Ferris Wheel to explode.
  • One episode of Cowboy Bebop had the climax take place in an abandoned amusement park, as the crazed assassin tried to kill Spike.

Spike: I hate theme parks!

  • StrikerS Sound Stage X of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has the Marine Garden, a newly built amusement park by the sea which incidentally, uncovered some Underwater Ruins that contained the sleeping Dark King Ixpellia during its construction. Needless to say, the park doesn't make it to the end of the story intact.
    • In Episode 10, Caro recounts Fate and Arf taking her to an amusement park, and her being sad when they have to go home.
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection starts at a brand-new amusement park that Alisa Bannings's parents own and operate. Like the one in StrikerS Sound Stage X, it doesn't survive intact, either.
  • Clovisland in Code Geass, an amusement park Clovis built before his death that features a carousel and other attractions. C.C. goes there to meet with Mao.
  • In Fairy Tail, King Faust of Edolas has one of these inside his already titanic castle. This is were three of his henchmen are fought.
  • In Lotte no Omocha, Naoya took Lotte there, as suggested by Judit. Asuha and Elíka follow them along and spy on them, as well.
  • The climatic battle of Girls und Panzer Der Film takes place at an abandoned amusement park that's sized just right for tank battles. The terrain plays an important part, as does the Ferris Wheel.

Comic Books

  • This is the standard hideout for Batman's Joker. Sometimes it's an Amusement Park of Doom, sometimes it's an ordinary park. Given how often the Joker needs to resettle, Gotham City must have an awful lot of these.
    • That's certainly justified. If you were living in that city, wouldn't you want to amuse yourself as often as possible too?
  • Bullseye once kidnapped the Black Widow and held her in an amusement park.
  • Silver Sable once got ambushed by the Sinister Syndicate in an amusement park. Spider-Man and former villain Sandman saved her.

Film

  • The Bond flick The Living Daylights.
  • In the movie version of The Wiz, in which Oz is a fantasy version of New York City, the Tin Man is an abandoned animatronic at a long-closed amusement park (represented by Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster). "Hurry, hurry, step right up and save a life..."
  • The Ferris wheel at Vienna's Wurstelprater amusement park is where Orson Welles gives his famous "cuckoo clock" speech in The Third Man.
  • Pacific Playland, the fictional site of the climax in Zombieland.
  • Retroland in Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.

Literature

Live-Action TV

  • The Monk episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival" has Monk (who's afraid of heights, among many other things) eventually chase the villain on the ferris wheel.
  • Highlander the Series had at least one battle/quickening in an amusement park.
  • The Twilight Zone episode "In Praise of Pip".
  • In The Prisoner's spoof episode "The Girl who was Death", Number 6 follows "Death", a.k.a. Sonia, to a fairground, where he first has to endure a boxing match, then a potentially deadly ride on the Tunnel of Love, and finally a comic chase through the fair (actually the Kursaal in Southend-on-Sea).
  • The Japanese Game Show Tokyo Friend Park 2 is designed around an amusement park motif, complete with its own foam-rubber mascot, with the individual games referred to as "attractions". Additionally, the usual bonus prize for a perfect run in the main game is an international trip to a Disneyland (either California or Paris).
  • An abandoned amusement park was the site of the final convergence and showdown in The Fugitive.
  • In episode 7 of the Korean series Strong Girl Bong-soon, Bong-soon takes Min-hyeok to Seoul Land, an actual park near Seoul, to cheer him up.

Music

  • The now long-gone Palisades Park (located for many decades in the New Jersey town of the same name, right on the Hudson river) is the setting for Freddy "Boom-Boom" Cannon's 1962 song of the same name.

Video Games

  • Amusement parks are stock levels in platform games: Carnival Night Zone in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Witchyworld in Banjo-Tooie, Twinkle Park in Sonic Adventure, Krazy Kremland in Donkey Kong Country 2, and Pinna Park in Super Mario Sunshine (which also provides the page's image).
  • Disney Epic Mickey takes place in the Cartoon Wasteland, a modified replica of Disneyland.
  • Hitman: Blood Money has a tutorial level which takes place in a (mostly) abandoned amusement park, in which Agent 47 has to assassinate the washed-up owner.
  • A very twisted amusement park is featured in a level of Blood. It also has a merry-go-round of gargoyles, and several shooting games with prizes.
  • The fifth chapter of Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten is set in a themed amusement park, with the stalls, benches, and rides looking like various monsters in the series (Mostly Prinnies).
  • Final Fantasy VII featured the famous Gold Saucer, which had, among a wide variety of more or less annoying mini games, a Ferris Wheel where you could date one of your companions.
  • Ace Lightning has the "Carnival of Doom" in the videogame - and it's not-quite-so-creepy-but-often-equally-dangerous equivalent in the Real World.
  • The Rollercoaster Tycoon series are Simulation Games revolving around the construction and maintenance of Amusement Parks.
  • Fahrenheit has a confrontation with the villainous Shaman on top of the rollercoaster in a closed-down amusement-park, in the dead of winter.
  • In The Slayground, other criminals once cornered Parker in an amusement park.
  • The Silent Hill Amusement Park is the seat of several cherished memories for the protagonists of the first and third games, as well as Shattered Memories, as well as the origin point for blood-spattered creepy series mascot Robbie the Rabbit, and it's home to some of the creepiest fights in the entire series, particularly in 3.
  • Specter Land in Ape Escape.
  • In Curse of Monkey Island, the villian has built his own evil amusement park.
  • One of the maps included in the DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 takes place in an abandoned Amusement Park.
  • Le-MU in Ever17 may seem more like an Amusement Park of Doom, but the first incident with the real Takeshi Kuranari was an actual accident, which was later replicated with Kid/Kaburaki in place of Takeshi, Sara in place of Coco and You'aki in place of You'haru, making it an Amusement Park of Doom.
  • LEGO Batman has a couple of levels set in an abandoned Amusement Park (once through for the good guys and once through as the Joker)
  • Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition has an amusement park world.
  • Played with "Scooby Doo: Mystery Mayhem"'s Second Area—it's a Guitar Ghoul theme park. The reason it's play with as the following two reasons:) 1. The Haunted House is a roller coaster ride! & 2) The bad guy's home base is the Hall of the Mirrors!
  • Baby Park from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is an example. The track layout would suggest otherwise, but look at the background!
  • Nintendo Land for the Wii U.

Western Animation

  • Towards the end of Season 2 of Teen Titans, Beast Boy takes on Slade in an amusement-park one-on-one - complete with a duel on top of the Ferris Wheel, and a chase through the confusing corridors of the Hall of Mirrors.
  • Similarly, Coney Island played the role of battleground in the Gargoyles episode "The Reckoning".
  • Coney Island shows up again in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus duke it out, causing chaos amongst the fairgoers and practically destroying every ride in their way. Doctor Octopus pulls a Hostage for McGuffin by leaving a Damsel in Distress hanging precariously from a roller coaster to goad Spider-Man into forking over some Applied Phlebotinum. When Octopus is defeated, he lands in the middle of the carnival's octopus ride.
  • The Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers episode "Seer No Evil" takes the heroes to a full-blown fairground (which is sort of a mobile Amusement Park).
  • In the world of Doug, there is a late 1970s-themed Amusement Park named Funkytown. Among other things, it features the world's fastest Ferris Wheel.
  • An interesting coincidence: The Real Ghostbusters and Filmations Ghostbusters have one episode apiece that not only take place in an Amusement Park, but also share the episode title "Rollerghoster"! That's about where the similarities end, though.
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' second fight against Nano took place in Coney Island. Eventually, its roller coaster proves instrumental in its defeat.
  • The final level of the game on Scooby Doo and the Cyber-Chase takes place at an abandoned amusement park.
  • On Ben 10, Zombozo lives in one. Ben and Kevin lampshade how silly the whole thing is at various points. But the real star is Gwen, who Mind Rapes Zombozo something terrible.
    • Ben 10 Alien Force has The Pier from "Pier Pressure" which is a more benevolent version that Ben takes his Love Interest Julie to for a date. Unfortunately it keeps getting interrupted by a mini-version of Upgrade who is looking for help.
  • Hey Arnold! has Dinoland where a few episodes take place.
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