TOMORROWLAND World's Fair Footage Shown at Destination D

Exclusive footage from TOMORROWLAND'S World's Fair sequences debuted tonight at D23's Destination D event.

The scene begins with young Frank Walker (the childhood version of George Clooney's character) arriving at the 1964 New York World's Fair via Grayhound bus. He carries a large canvas backpack with him. As the bus lurches to a stop, the driver exclaims, "Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, World's Fair! Don't forget your valuables, and enjoy the future."

Walking the grounds, the Fair is revealed in its full, recreated glory. Frank visits the Carousel of Progress, where the classic Sherman Brothers song "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" can be heard. He witnesses a demonstration of a "Probability Machine," at the IBM pavilion.  The demonstrator explains, "Now, these balls fall in a random pattern, but advanced computing determines exactly where they will end up."

Frank sits on a bench where he us joined by young Athena, played by Raffey Cassidy.

"Don't turn around," she says. "Be cool. Count to twenty, then follow us." She presents Frank with a pin -- more on that in a minute.

Frank hops the It's A Small World attraction queue and sneaks onto an empty boat with his bag. He floats through the ride we all know and love ... until he reaches the France segment. From the tip of the Eiffel Tower, a laser scans Frank's pin. His boat is isolated on its path, and the entire track DROPS into a ramp, sending him BENEATH the ride.

His boat approaches an isolated station in a black void. A faint blue fog represents the horizon. Lines of light encircling the station flicker on. Frank enters a retro-styled aluminum enclosure -- an elevator -- in which signs indicate directions for "WORLD'S FAIR" and "TOMORROW."

A modulated voice greets him, "Good afternoon. Please step aboard the transport. The site is active." The lights begin to flicker, and Frank himself begins to phase and distort.

He falls to the ground, the lights return, and the distortion normalizes. He schleps his bag onto his back and faces the door, which opens as binding white light spills in. The music swells, Frank walks out ... and the clip ends.

Except, we know what sight greets him:

As we previously reported, the Syd Mead concept art released by Disney depicts this scene.

What's in the bag? Anyone who purchased the Funko NYCC exclusive Frank ReAction Figure knows ... IT'S A JETPACK!

As for the pin? In our previous pin comparison, we noted that extras were spotted during the filming at Disneyland wearing a version of The Optimist pin with inverted colors. (Orange "T" on blue backing.) This was the same pin.

And the Eiffel Tower? As we learned in The Optimist ARG -- and soon to be featured in the BEFORE TOMORROWLAND prequel novel -- the Plus Ultra secret society (of which Walt Disney was a member) was founded at the 1889 World's Fair by Edison, Tesla, and H.G. Wells in a meeting ...  at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The exact same location the laser scanned Frank's pin from in the Small World model.

Even though the scenes shown were brief, they were absolutely gorgeous. They also give us some idea of the film's themes. Tomorrowland Supervising Art Director Ramsey Avery elaborated, "Probability. Everything that happens has a mathematical reason for happening."

From the locations in Small World directly correlating to filming locations around the world featured in the rest of the movie, to a prominent closeup on The White Rabbit walk-around character, it's clear this narrative will be steeped in mythological tradition. Echoes of Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland as Frank, almost literally, "falls down the rabbit hole."