The Joker Wild Card ride at Fiesta Texas will throw riders 17 stories into the air.
Rendering courtesy of Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Six Flags Fiesta Texas is kicking off the fall season with the announcement of its most fiendish ride yet. On August 30, the amusement park unveiled The Joker Wild Card, a 17-story pendulum ride billed as one of the tallest in the world.
The diabolical contraption, named after the popular DC Comic character, features a center disk that can accommodate up to 40 riders. Each swing of the pendulum gets higher and higher, until the ride reaches breathtaking speeds of up to 75 miles per hour, giving daredevils an unparalleled — if quick — view of the park.
“The Joker Wild Card will be the fastest ride in park history and is the perfect villainous twist to our already spectacular ride lineup in the newly themed DC Universe area,” says park president Jeffrey Siebert in a release.
The ride will join DC attractions like Batman: The Ride; the Superman Krypton Coaster; and the Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster, the single rail ride that debuted on May 12.
In addition to the Joker Wild Card news, Fiesta Texas also disclosed that it will be adding weekend and holiday hours to its regular January and February dates for year-round operation.
To get guests in the spirit for the thrills, the company is offering a flash sale on 2019 season passes. From August 30-September 3, the park will offer up to 70 percent savings on 2019 passes and other special deals.
The wild ride is set to debut in summer 2019, but you can experience a simulation of the twisting, turning attraction here.
Billie Eilish in Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.
In 2021, at the tender age of 19, singer Billie Eilish was already the subject of a documentary, The World’s a Little Blurry. At that point, she had only released one album, so the film threatened to feel too early for such treatment. The ensuing five years have only made her a bigger star, though, so in many ways that movie now feels prescient for the person on display in the new concert documentary with the unwieldy title of Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.
Directed by Eilish and blockbuster filmmaker James Cameron, the film takes viewers inside Eilish’s 2024-2025 tour in support of her latest album, 2023’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Filmed mostly at her series of shows in Manchester, England, the movie is a showcase for Eilish’s music, but it also serves as a smaller exploration of the type of person she is, as well as the impact she has had on her legion of fans.
The draw of the film is the use of Cameron’s beloved 3D technology, which he has employed in each of the three Avatarfilms. Unlike in those films, where the 3D has the odd effect of making the visuals too realistic for their own good, the technique brings an intimacy to the large-scale show that underscores the unique bond the singer has with her supporters.
Eilish and Cameron go back and forth between performances at the concert to behind-the-scenes sequences, detailing the enormous effort it takes to put on a show like that and how Eilish spends her time getting ready for it. As in The World’s a Little Blurry, this film continues to portray the singer as down-to-Earth, someone who yearns to maintain the connection to her fans that she’s had since she released her first single, “Ocean Eyes,” 10 years ago.
And as the many emotional songs in Eilish’s concert playlist prove, the feeling from the crowd is mutual. While Eilish has multiple bangers like “Bad Guy,” “Therefore I Am,” and the Charli XCX collaboration “Guess,” it’s the sad songs like “Everything I Wanted,” “Happier Than Ever,” and the Oscar-winning Barbieanthem, “What Was I Made For?” that hit the hardest. The depth of feeling emanating from her many sobbing fans singing along to crushing songs cannot be understated.
For audiences of the film, though, it’s the breadth of camera angles and shot choices that make it truly dynamic. There are cameras everywhere, including in the crowd, inside a cube at the center of the stage that rises and descends, following Eilish as she traipses every inch of the long, rectangular stage, and even a small one Eilish uses to bring an extra personal touch to the in-arena screen. Combined, they capture the complete energy of the concert, something that is not always the case in a film of this type.
Eilish has almost as many movies — two — as she does albums — three — which borders on overkill for a singer of her age. But both her music and the movies show her to be a person who knows the responsibility of being a celebrity, someone who understands that her fans are the reason she’s famous at all. Her career may go up or down from here, but it’s clear she’s already made a huge impact on those who love her most.
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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D opens in theaters on May 8.
