Maxx Force

Maxx Force opened on July 4, 2019, on the former site of the Pictorium, a 980-seat IMAX theater that had operated near the park's front gate since 1979 as one of the first purpose-built IMAX venues at any theme park. When the Pictorium was quietly demolished in May 2018, Six Flags retained its distinctive entrance structure and folded it directly into the new coaster's queue rather than building from scratch.

Manufactured by S&S – Sansei using a compressed-air launch system rather than the more common linear induction motors, Maxx Force accelerates riders from a standstill to 78 mph in just 1.8 seconds — marketed as the quickest acceleration of any launch coaster in North America. That violent launch feeds into a drag-racing-themed layout with five inversions, including a claimed world-record heartline roll taken at 60 mph, all packed into roughly 25 seconds of ride time.

The launch's decibel output proved loud enough to draw noise complaints from surrounding Gurnee neighborhoods after opening, prompting Six Flags to work with acoustic engineers over the following off-season to add sound barriers around the launch section before the 2020 season. Even muffled, Maxx Force remains one of the most physically intense launch coasters in the Chicago area, trading the elaborate theming of some contemporaries for a stripped-down focus on raw acceleration.