Today a co-worker told me about something super cool: Secret Cinema. Secret Cinema is a semi-regular London-based event that seems kiiiiind of similar to NYC’s AMAZING Sleep No More.

Actually, side note, if you haven’t been to Sleep No More and you live within 200 miles of Manhattan please stop reading this post RIGHT NOW and go buy tickets. Best 75$ you’ll ever spend, I mean that. I’ve been twice.

ANYWAY, so here’s the deal with Secret Cinema (as far as I can glean, it is, after all, a secret). So you buy your ticket and shortly thereafter you’re contacted by a mysterious organization with further instructions. These instructions might be costume guidelines for the event such as “dress in 40s garb.” For their most recent event, the instructions requested that participants choose from a list of nine “specialized professions” from Data Scientist to Matter Analyst. Hmmmm…. intriguing, to say the least. Here’s an excerpt from a Telegraph article about Secret Cinema’s current project:

Even before the main event, audience members were asked to sign up to a fictitious company called Brave New Ventures and take part in missions across London.

If you were in the City last week you might have seen hundreds of people sprinting through the streets wearing BNV t-shirts. Others have taken part in late night archaeological digs and psychological training exercises.

In a genetics laboratory at an undisclosed site, BNV data scientists, containment officers and matter analysts were invited to attend quarantine briefings, learn about bio-hacking and find out how to contain biohazards.

It doesn’t give too much away to say we are meant to be in space, embarking on a huge ship for a dangerous mission. The hundreds of actors involved never break character throughout the experience. Vehicles used in the actual film sit in the hangars. The flight deck has been rebuilt. Scenes from the film are acted out all around.

As the audience moves through the set there are clues about the film before a red alert signals ‘evacuation’ into the screening rooms.

Apparently there was even a hidden restaurant, disguised behind a nondescript, unmarked metal door in the warehouse space. The door led to a brightly lit gastropub featuring the work of Michelin star chefs! Ummmm… what??? How fast can I book a flight to London?

Oh, and the video up top is from their Blade Runner event. Coooooooool.

Video courtesy of Secret Cinema. Quote courtesy of The Telegraph.