Declining popularity in the early 2000s led to the ride's eventual closure in 2007, although the version at Universal Studios Japan continued to operate until 2016.

[2] A roller coaster was the original concept for a Back to the Future ride, but designers realized it would be too hard to effectively tell a story due to the fast motion.

[9][10] Foundation issues for the Universal Studios Hollywood attraction delayed its opening to June 12, 1993,[7] resulting in the total cost of it being put at $60 million.

In 2015, The Back to the Future gift shop in Universal Studios Japan was replaced by Minion Mart, a Despicable Me 2-themed store.

Several reports indicated it would be replaced by an attraction based on either The Simpsons TV series or The Fast and the Furious film franchise.

According to a Universal spokesman, the park had not formalized any plans for a replacement but decided to close one half of it immediately to "explore possibilities for future rides".

In commemoration of its final month of operation, a special event was held with Christopher Lloyd and Bob Gale beginning the countdown to the ride's closure in early August.

Also, in the satirical queue-line video, an animated Doc Brown (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) attempts to borrow money from a loan office to save the Institute of Future Technology.

However, Professor Frink crashes back in time in a DeLorean and crushes the banker, and Doc is upset that he must "sell the Institute of Future Technology to that mercenary clown!".

As a result, in February 2009, Universal included all of the queue, pre-show and ride footage on the 2009 DVD re-release of Back to the Future as part of a second bonus disc and on Blu-ray releases since 2010.

On May 2, 1991, he invites tourists into the facility as "volunteers" in order to test out his newest invention, the eight-passenger DeLorean time machine, by traveling one day into the future.

Doc explains that the plan was for them to travel one day into the future, but caution must be exercised as Biff, who graduated from Hill Valley High School in 1955, has escaped his time period and is now running amok in the space-time continuum.

Once inside, Doc reveals some of the inventions he had been working on, including his "crowning achievement" – an 8-passenger DeLorean time machine (also a convertible), which is what the riders will be using in the experiment.

They smash into neon signs, fly over neighborhoods and the town square, and the chase culminates at the iconic clock tower.

As both vehicles plunge over the edge, the riders' one accelerates to time travel speed and bumps Biff's, sending both of them back through the vortex to the original point of departure – the present, at the Institute of Future Technology (in which they crash through the Back to the Future logo in front), where Biff gets out and thanks the riders and Doc for saving his life, but is soon seized by security.

An animated logo of the Institute of Future Technology flashes up on the screen with the words "Please lift lap bar and exit" and after a few seconds Doc warns, "Hurry up!

The motion and the visual input from the screens images, as well as physical effects like wind, water, and smoke, combined to make the guest riders feel as if they were in a high-speed pursuit.

[20] Although Back to the Future creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had no involvement with the ride, they were consulted as to whether they "got Doc right".

The miniature sets were large, with the replica 2015 buildings as much as half a grown man, and the Tyrannosaurus model being about 7 feet tall.

[22] The Institute of Future Technology that the riders crashed into at the end of the ride was actually a model of the Florida version of the building.

[23] The film produced for Universal Studios parks in the United States saw Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson reprise their roles as Doc Brown and Biff Tannen, respectively.

Prior to the ride's debut at Universal Studios Japan, new audio was recorded in Japanese and was dubbed over the original cast.

At the inauguration of Back to the Future The Ride in 1993, Universal Studios Hollywood staged a promo raffle with a DeLorean today known as VIN #10902 up for grabs.