One night a few weeks ago, Fred Iberri, a resident of Toluca Lake, a sleepy suburban enclave about 10 minutes from Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, woke up and heard screaming. It was 1:30 a.m. He looked around his house and opened the door to the outside. Stepping into his backyard, the screaming stopped. He didn’t see or hear anything – was the screaming inside his head?
“I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown. I’m not even trying to exaggerate,” Iberri told TheWrap during a gathering of residents fed up with the excessive noise, held in the posh backyard of a nearby home, buttressed up against the rolling green hills of the Lakeside Golf Club. (The owner of the house was not revealed due to privacy concerns.)
Iberri’s anxiety stems from Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, a brand-new rollercoaster that opened this week at Universal Studios Hollywood, about a mile from Iberri’s home. The coaster — an Intamin-constructed marvel that snakes up and down the mountain and around the lengthy StarWay escalator that connects Universal’s upper and lower lots — is based on the franchise that has grossed more than $7 billion worldwide for the studio.
More specifically, it’s the screams coming from the coaster that have troubled Iberri to the point that he’s hearing them even when nobody is howling. These are the screams that have invaded the well-to-do neighborhood and, depending on who you talk to, made things downright unbearable.
The ongoing controversy has already resulted in Universal constructing an additional wall meant to mitigate the noise, and the opening date for the attraction was delayed to this week after endless promotional materials promising it would debut this “summer.”
Complicating matters is the fact that Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is a world-class rollercoaster that not only turns the park into a premiere destination for thrill-seekers and theme park aficionados, but is being hailed by the press (yours truly included) as easily one of the greatest coasters in coaster-rich Southern California, ranking alongside Ghost Rider at Knott’s Berry Farm, Twisted Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Space Mountain at Disneyland.
But now that the coaster is open, the residents of Toluca Lake are not happy about it. Such is the conundrum of operating one of the most popular theme parks in the world steps away from people’s homes. The head-butting lays bare the challenge ahead of Universal, which has seen its theme park division’s profits slip amid softening attendance and could use the shot in the arm.
Still, the company’s parks unit has traditionally been a bright spot, bringing in nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2025 alone. Fast & Furious marks a significant expansion that won’t be Universal Hollywood’s last, but neighbors are fed up, causing a headache as the company moves forward.
“Those are revenue streams for them. That’s what they care about. All of this talk about mitigation; they’ve done nothing. You can hear that they’ve done nothing,” Roy Disney, grandson of Roy E. Disney and local resident, told TheWrap at the gathering of neighbors on the ride’s opening day.
He gestured to the hill. And to be fair, you can hear it. It’s really loud.
Last month, when the controversy reached its zenith, Universal shared the following statement: “Testing completed to date confirms the attraction is operating in compliance with sound ordinance requirements. Community feedback has been an important part of our testing process and in response to that feedback, we are implementing additional sound-reduction measures to further lessen sound levels in the adjacent neighborhood. We appreciate the community’s input and will continue to engage with our neighbors as the coaster remains in technical rehearsals ahead of its opening.”
With the attraction open and neighbors even more steamed, the outcry seems like it is far from dying down. If anything, the complaints are being kicked into a higher gear. The nitrous is being punched and nothing is slowing down.
This is the story of how Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift became Universal Studios Hollywood’s greatest accomplishment and its biggest headache — all at the same time.
Universal’s dicey history with local residents
Universal Studios Hollywood and the surrounding neighborhoods have always had something of a fraught relationship.
In the 1970s, the Universal Amphitheater, originally constructed for a Wild West show that was part of the Universal Studios Studio Tour, started to be utilized by rock bands and touring musicals. (The first show in the space was a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”) By 1980, partially due to complaints from Toluca Lake residents, the theater closed, and when it reopened, the structure had a roof. Not only would this allow for year-round entertainment, but it also gave the venue extra seating. It closed in 2013 to make room for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Years later, when Jon Jerde, the American architect who had worked on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and whose other credits include the pirate show and façade for Treasure Island in Las Vegas and the sprawling Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., began work on the mixed-use CityWalk adjacent to the theme park, he was met with resistance. The space would eventually be home to shops, restaurants (including the magic-themed dinner theater Wizards!), a UCLA annex (yes, seriously) and, at one point, a comedy club owned by Jon Lovitz. But the original plan for the space was three times as large and included actual housing on the upper levels of the buildings. (Imagine, you could be living next door to the giant neon-lined King Kong.)
Ultimately, the ballooning budget for the project (north of $100 million) and pushback from nearby residents led to a more modest version of the proposal. It was now roughly two blocks long, but those two blocks were packed with fun. (Hilariously, less than a decade after it opened, a $1 billion expansion of the project was approved. Damnably, an apartment next to King Kong remained out of reach.)
After WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular, a live lagoon show, debuted in 1995, locals complained about the use of real guns being fired off for the 16-minute performance. Universal listened and replaced the gunshots with prerecorded sounds that played over the auditorium’s speakers.
More recently, plans to develop residential units on the hillside that overlooks the lower lot (towards Barham) were shut down, again because of local feedback. (In its place are more soundstages.)
Universal has yet to crack the residential angle and in 2009 its plans for redevelopment took on the cuddlier name of the Universal City Evolution Plan. By 2013, the plan had included expansions to the theme park and CityWalk, with Los Angeles County approving development of roughly 1.9 million square feet of space.
According to the locals, there was no language in the plans for the development and construction of a high-speed, soul-rattling thrill attraction. But a high-speed, soul-rattling thrill attraction is exactly what Universal built.
Making the Fast & Furious coaster
As early as 2022, rumors began to circulate of a “Fast and Furious”-themed coaster coming to Universal Studios Hollywood. This would be a first for the park, which is festooned with plenty of indoor attractions but lacks the large outdoor thrill rides that pepper the other Universal parks in Orlando. The only other outdoor coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood is Flight of the Hippogriff, which is positioned deeper into the park and is what most theme park enthusiasts would describe as a “kiddie coaster,” meaning the only time anyone is screaming is if they accidentally drop their phone out of a ride vehicle or remember that they left their oven on at home.
By 2024, Universal had announced the name of the roller coaster and the opening date of 2026, describing it as the park’s “first-ever, high-speed outdoor roller coaster.”
Throughout the construction of the attraction, Universal would periodically send out pamphlets to the neighbors. (Full disclosure: This reporter lives very close to the park and got these pamphlets.) The company said that it would attempt to lessen the amount of noise coming from the coaster, eventually filling the entire track with gravel and half-pipe shields (“scream tunnels” if you will) that would block the noise. Universal also trumpeted the fact that the cars, simulating “drifting,” could be positioned away from the neighborhood.
And when testing was done earlier this year, things were very quiet – both from the coaster and the community. All of those implementations paid off. It was only after the attraction soft-opened in July that the surrounding area started to get startled.
Universal committed to building a new sound-retention wall “longer than two football fields, comprised of Acoustiblok material (state-of-the-art sound-absorbing product) to help reduce sound from the attraction traveling into the community,” according to the official statement from Universal. The company also pledged to only run the coaster until 7 p.m. (and during Halloween Horror Nights until 10 p.m.).
Here’s the problem: Part of what makes the coaster so thrilling is exactly how it is positioned on the side of the mountain, overlooking the houses.
There isn’t much land at Universal Studios Hollywood. It’s awkwardly wedged in between a working movie studio, with a cluster of office buildings and hotels to contend with, along with Universal CityWalk. They have to be creative with where they put things. And the fact that Fast & Furious, which zips along at 72 miles per hour (the fastest Universal attraction ever), was able to flit in between existing attractions and infrastructure like the escalator and the various roadways is miraculous. At one point the track cranes up over the start of the escalator; people will pause and look up, just watching this thing in flight.
With this one attraction, you see the grandeur of Universal Studios Hollywood in a different way as you careen around corners and are twisted upside down. And the park has a new vitality, a new energy. There’s a kinetic, vibrant sense of urgency and immediacy. Those tunnels that Universal talked up, where the screams can be directed, look exactly like the material that makes up the iconic escalator. It blends perfectly.
It’s the most profound addition to the park since the opening of Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2016 or Super Nintendo World in 2023, but it’s relationship with Universal Studios Hollywood is much more pronounced. Both of those lands are sequestered away from the rest of the park. This is a living, breathing appendage.
There isn’t much story to the ride; the loose narrative is framed around stunt cars and the queue is dotted with “props” and vehicles from the sprawling franchise. Using QR codes dotted throughout the queue, you can get behind-the-scenes details on how stunts were accomplished or vehicles retrofitted for maximum mayhem.
Jon Corfino, vice president of Universal Creative at Universal Studios Hollywood, told me, “This didn’t make sense to me to try to say we’re going to put you in a movie. What made sense to me was this should be, ‘What does this brand mean to us?’ This brand is incredibly powerful. It’s amazing stunts. It’s amazing action sequences. Let’s make this a love letter to that. And then the ride is the star. But then tying that together is like, How do they do these stunts? You get to see how that’s done.”
The neighborhood watch
On the day the ride opened, a group of concerned, vexed neighbors called the Universal City Neighbors gathered in that Toluca Lake backyard. I was there too, listening to their stories and the sounds of screams from the rollercoaster, which rocketed along its track a few thousand feet away.
“The group is not opposed to the ride or to Universal’s growth. Members say they want the attraction and the surrounding residential community to coexist, and are asking Universal for meaningful noise mitigation and open communication about what is being done to address it. The current noise comes less than halfway into a much larger 20-year expansion planned for the park, and that mitigation conversation needs to start now,” read an official press release, which noted that The Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council and the Studio City Neighborhood Council “have separately adopted resolutions urging Universal to address the noise and pursue real mitigation measures.”
There were maybe a dozen people. Slim Pickens’ daughter was there. They were all pretty aggravated.
Roy Disney, whose grandfather opened Walt Disney World in Florida after Walt’s passing and whose ties to the neighborhood go back literal generations, today lives in Toluca Lake, across from Andy Garcia and next door to Rick Baker, the legendary, Oscar-winning makeup artist. He is unhappy with the measures Universal has put in place and thinks they are more to protect “their patrons and their production facilities and sound stages.”
He said that he isn’t just worried about Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift but about anything else Universal plans to build at the park – and beyond. The 2013 plan loosely outlined a proposed expansion over the next 25 years. (There are persistent rumors that they are intent on installing a version of the Donkey Kong-themed rollercoaster from Orlando and Japan on the other side of the “Mummy” attraction on its lower lot.)
For Disney, the screams have shattered the peace.
“This is a family neighborhood. Everybody walks their dog. You can’t drive down Valley Spring because people are walking their dogs down the middle of the street and there’s walking groups and they can’t do that anymore,” said Disney. “They’re ducking. They don’t go down Valley Spring anymore because it’s too loud. They’ve destroyed the 100-year-old community for what, corporate profit?”
Yes, the irony of a man with the last name Disney talking about the dangers of corporate profit was acknowledged.
But the question hanging over everyone is what change do the neighbors want from Universal?
“I want to be a good neighbor and I want them to be a good neighbor. It takes two-way communication. It takes give-and-take. So far, there’s only been a take from their heart and no give,” said Disney.
More than one person brought up California Screamin’, a rollercoaster at Disneyland in Anaheim (it’s now known as the Incredicoaster). After neighbors complained about the noise, Disney installed a series of “scream tunnels” that allowed for additional storytelling moments. The neighbors were happy and Disney got more real estate to tell more of the attraction’s narrative.
They could enclose more sections of the attraction, they say, or build bigger barriers. Both are cumbersome and potentially won’t work because of the way that the cars in the rollercoaster trains drift and move around — which, again, is part of the fun in the design: there’s a surprisingly intimate beat on the ride where you’re looking directly at people in another car.
One resident said they wouldn’t mind if they got financial compensation from Universal, which seems unlikely. Another wanted to actually see the studies that they supposedly conducted that showed that the rollercoaster was well within the legal requirements.
I heard stories about dinner parties being ruined and sleep being interrupted and little kids being scared. One person said that our natural response to hearing screaming is to be alert; it’s how we’ve survived as a species. But hearing it all day is too much. They said it impacts you psychologically. One person’s back-of-the-envelope math suggested that a new train was launched every 36 seconds, with 16-20 riders. “That’s 10,000 screams a day,” he said.
They are all desperate for Universal to do something, including, of course, listen to them. And nobody said that they want Universal to tear down the rollercoaster — although, to be fair, nobody said they wanted to ride it, either.
A letter sent to the community by Universal in early August read:
“Thank you for your continued patience throughout the testing process. We know how important it is to have clear, timely information, and we sincerely appreciate the feedback you shared. Please know that your concerns have been heard and thoughtfully reviewed and considered by our senior leadership team. Based on the testing completed to date, we can confirm the attraction is operating in compliance with sound ordinance requirements. However, based on your feedback, we are exploring additional measures to further lessen sound levels experienced in adjacent neighborhoods. While these efforts will help lessen sound, we anticipate that the community may continue to hear the attraction during operation.”
“They’re lying scumbags,” Disney said.
Please don’t ask about the noise
At the media event for the opening of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, any questions about the neighborly hubbub around the attraction were discouraged.
I still had to try.
After all, I hear the attraction when I walk my dog around the neighborhood. But you can also hear the Jurassic World attraction sometimes. And the fireworks that are set off over WaterWorld or during special after-hours nighttime events. It’s the consistency of the screams that is so worrisome to people, and it’s easy to understand why.
I wondered if the response to the ride from the neighborhood will dictate how Universal approaches new attractions going forward, as it hopes to expand.
Corfino, usually an avuncular guy, turned dark. He stared at a publicist who was waiting in the wings for what felt like 30 seconds (it was probably more like 5). Finally, he took a deep breath and answered.
“Well, I will say, part of our requirement, whether it’s Super Nintendo, whether it’s Transformers or even Jurassic, I mean, we do occupy the space in the middle of a working motion picture studio. We have to be mindful of how we impact our surroundings,” Corfino said. “Yet if you drive around the back lot, every one of our rides looks like they’re like a soundstage. We have to live that reality. Most parks don’t have that.”
I congratulated him on the accomplishment of the coaster, which really is a triumph. He was probably very happy I left.
In that moment, he shared the sentiment of his neighbors in Toluca Lake: He was extremely annoyed.
The post Universal’s Fast & Furious Coaster Is a Theme Park Triumph, Even if Locals Don’t Agree appeared first on TheWrap.
