Raging Bull

Raging Bull opened on May 1, 1999, as part of a $25 million investment Six Flags Great America made under then-owner Premier Parks to add a new signature thrill ride. Bolliger & Mabillard built it as only their second hyper coaster ever, arriving just over a month after their first, Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg — but where Apollo's Chariot used a traditional out-and-back layout, Raging Bull's landlocked Gurnee plot forced B&M to design something entirely different.

The result was the world's first "hyper-twister": rather than running the train out in a straight line and back, Raging Bull's 5,057 feet of track winds and folds back on itself repeatedly, packing a 202-foot lift hill, a 65-degree first drop into a tunnel, and a top speed of 73 mph into a comparatively tight footprint. That twisting hyper-coaster format was so distinctive that B&M itself never quite replicated it again, making Raging Bull something of a one-off within its own manufacturer's catalog even as B&M hyper and giga coasters multiplied at parks worldwide.

More than two decades later, Raging Bull remains the tallest and longest coaster at Six Flags Great America, having lost only the "fastest" title to 2019's launch coaster Maxx Force. Themed loosely to a beast that once terrorized the old Southwest Territory — its loading station built to resemble the abandoned mission the fictional townsfolk left behind — it has consistently ranked among Golden Ticket Awards' top steel coasters since its debut, a rare feat for a design B&M built only once.