Does video show death defying bungee “Gyro Drop” ride? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A video is spreading across social media that purportedly shows a death defying “gyro drop” amusement ride that drops thrill seekers from bungee ropes before retracting them back up before hurtling them back down to the ground at breakneck speed.

MOSTLY FALSE

The video shows those riding it being lifted up a large pole in their seats, before the pole extends further into the air. The riders are then hurtled upwards before their seats fall down attached to bungee ropes. The seats are then retracted into place before the whole seating mechanism rushes to the ground.

The video is below.

The video has certainly managed to go viral across social media, but it isn’t real. At least most of it isn’t. As many may have suspected, it’s the work of digital trickery, through it appears to have been based on a genuine video, but altered to make the ride appear more spectacular.

Based on the markings on the ride in the video, the real ride wasn’t hard to track down. The “Gyro Drop” ride. It’s based in South Korea’s Lotte World Magic Island amusement complex. However the ride isn’t as death defying as this “CGI-ed” video would have you believe. In reality the Gyro Drop is a “sudden drop” or “giant drop” ride. This is where riders are slowly lifted into the air with their seats attached to a large vertical pole, before being hurtled back to the ground at a much quicker speed.


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The video above embellishes the ride with special effects. Those special effects include
– Giving the appearance that the seats rise upwards much quicker than they would.
– Giving the appearance that the seats rise much higher than they would using a fake extendable pole. (The pole doesn’t really extend like it does in the above video)
– Giving the appearance that the seats drop while attached to a bungee rope. No such feature exists and this was all fake.
– Giving the appearance that the seats drop much faster than they really do. (While the seats to drop quite fast, it’s not as fast as portrayed in the video.)

As such, most of the video is simply fabricated. There are a number of genuine videos online showing the real Gyro Drop amusement ride, such as the one below.

As such, the video is fake.