Rapture (BioShock)
Encyclopedia
Rapture is an underwater city
that is the setting for the games BioShock
and BioShock 2
. The game's back-story describes the city as envisioned by business tycoon Andrew Ryan
in the mid-1940s as a means to create a utopia
for mankind's greatest thinkers to prosper in a laissez-faire
environment outside of increasing oppression by the worlds' governments. However, these ideals would not hold up, turning into a dystopia
, and on the eve of 1959, a class war
broke out, leaving much of Rapture's population dead. The remaining citizens either become psychotic "Splicers" due to the effects of ADAM, a substance that can alter genetic material, or have barricaded themselves from the Splicers to protect themselves, leaving the city to fail and fall apart around them.
The player first experiences Rapture in BioShock, in the year 1960, a year after the fateful riots, as a man named Jack that has come to Rapture after a plane accident over the Atlantic Ocean where the city was located; during this, they come to learn more about Ryan's motives and those that he struggled against to keep the city's ideals until the very end. In BioShock 2, the player takes the role of a "Big Daddy", a heavily-modified human in an armored diving suit
designed to protect the Little Sisters as they collect ADAM from Rapture's dead; this takes place eight years after the events of the first game, and while Ryan has been killed, there remain those that vie for the vacuum left in his position of power.
, (briefly renamed 2K Boston just prior to BioShocks release, but later returned to their former name). Ken Levine had studied the works of Ayn Rand
, George Orwell
, and Aldous Huxley
and other works of utopian and dystopian societies as part of his "useless" liberal arts degree. He had also had fascination with the story of "Logan's Run
". Levine also considered the nature of the horror genre
, noting works such as The Shining
where there is the need for a feeling of loss for the horror to be effective.
Rapture is an underwater city, located in the north Atlantic Ocean
somewhere between Greenland
and Iceland
. It is only accessible by a system of bathyspheres. The city was designed to be self-sufficient, growing and raising its own crops as well as using the surrounding sea life for food, and taking advantage of submarine volcano
es to provide geothermal power
to its population. The city consists of many "skyscrapers", inter-linked by walkways and tunnels, with airtight doors between neighboring sections to isolate areas that become flooded from the rest of the city. The buildings, both inside and out, feature a distinctive art deco
design motif, reflecting on the era during which they were built (the mid-'40s). In addition to living quarters, Rapture features shopping areas, entertainment venues, laboratories, manufacturing plants, medical facilities, and other common services provided by a functional city.
Though Rapture was built as a utopia
for creative individuals to flourish, the city soon became a dystopia
. Part of the downfall of Rapture was the discovery of ADAM, stem cell
s harvested from a previously unknown species of sea slug
. Scientists in Rapture found that ADAM could be used to overwrite the human genome, allowing its users to literally "splice" super powers (such as telekinesis) into their DNA. The lead scientist, Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum, found that ADAM could be mass produced by implanting the sea slug in the stomachs of young orphaned girls, who came to be known as "Little Sisters". As Rapture began to fall into social chaos, in part due to the mental instability that came about from increased ADAM use, the Little Sisters were mentally reconditioned to extract ADAM from the dead and recycle it. In order to protect the girls from ADAM-hungry lunatics, Dr. Suchong generated genetically-modified humans in armored diving suits
, and assigned them to protect a specific Little Sister. These beings became known as "Big Daddies
".
When the player experiences the city, roughly one/ten years after the collapse of its society (one year in BioShock, ten years in BioShock 2), the majority of Rapture's population is dead; the few that survive have either become psychotic "Splicers", or survivors that have barricaded themselves from the Splicers. While most of the city's automated systems still operate, large swaths of the city have become flooded, while others have been damaged beyond repair, either as a result of the bloody civil war that tore Rapture apart, or as a consequence of the Splicers' ADAM-induced psychotic episodes. Splicers, Big Daddies and Little Sisters continue to wander Rapture during the player's experiences in the city.
business magnate
Andrew Ryan
, who wanted to create a laissez-faire
state with no ties to the rest of the world to escape increasingly oppressive political, economic, and religious authority on land. The city was completed in 1946. Scientific progress flourished in Rapture, leading to rapid developments in engineering and biotechnology, such as the invention of ADAM, thanks in part to the brilliant scientists that Ryan brought to the city.
Though residents were hand-picked for their success on the surface, as time passed, the gap between rich and poor increased. This was exploited by Frank Fontaine, a businessman in charge of the plasmid industry who secretly established an illegal smuggling ring with the outside world while simultaneously creating charitable organizations to manipulate the underclass. A violent attempt to overthrow Ryan reportedly killed Fontaine, but the player's experience in BioShock reveals that Fontaine survived, disguising himself as the lower class hero 'Atlas'. On New Year's Eve of 1959, Fontaine/Atlas and his ADAM-infused followers began a new revolt against Ryan that spread throughout Rapture. Ryan in turn began splicing his own forces, and his paranoia had reached such a level he was hanging dozens of people, mostly innocent, in Rapture's main square. As the war disrupted production and supply, every ADAM user in the city eventually went violently insane. By the end of the 1959 revolt, Ryan's utopia had become a dystopia
, and only a handful of non-mutated humans survive in barricaded hideouts.
In the events of BioShock, a man known as Jack (the protagonist that the player controls) ends up in Rapture after a plane crash in the middle of the ocean leaves him close to the city's bathysphere surface terminus. In the course of the game, it is learned that Jack is Ryan's illegitimate son, and was purposely brought to Rapture to be used as a cat's paw against the founder by Fontaine/Atlas. When Jack finally meets Ryan, the latter is well aware of Jack's identity and mental conditioning, and orders Jack to kill him, ending his life on his own terms and rejecting the control Fontaine has over his son. Fontaine leaves Jack to die, but he is rescued by Tenenbaum and her Little Sisters, and together they attack and kill Fontaine.
In the power void left by Ryan's and Fontaine's deaths, a new figure, Sofia Lamb, arises in the following decade. In contrast to Ryan's belief of empowering the individual, Lamb's ideals are favoring the collective, and she is able to build "The Family", a cult-like following of the remaining citizens of Rapture to achieve her goals. During the events of BioShock 2 (which takes place eight years after the events of the first game), the player takes the role of the first prototype Big Daddy, Subject Delta, as Lamb's plans progress to their final completion to extend The Family to the surface. The destinies of Delta, Lamb, and Eleanor, Lamb's daughter and Delta's original Little Sister, are determined by the player's action during the game, though the endings involve escaping a section of Rapture flooded by Lamb. The fate of Rapture is left open after the completion of the game.
More details about the origins of Rapture are provided in a new novel (summer 2011) from Tor Books, written by cyberpunk/horror author John Shirley
. Entitled BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE the novel is a prequel that tells the backstory of the creation of Rapture, the underwater city's deterioration and civil war following the coming of plasmids. The novel ends shortly before the story in the first Bioshock game begins. Though Shirley enhanced Rapture's story and added new characters the novel does not contradict the game and was developed with the oversight of Ken Levine, the game's designer. The novel was originally called BIOSHOCK: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE RYAN EMPIRE.
Underwater habitat
Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping...
that is the setting for the games BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
and BioShock 2
BioShock 2
BioShock 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sequel to the 2007 video game BioShock, it was released worldwide on February 9, 2010....
. The game's back-story describes the city as envisioned by business tycoon Andrew Ryan
Andrew Ryan (BioShock)
Andrew Ryan is a fictional character in the 2007 video game BioShock. The character has received significant praise from critics, and so has his voice actor, Armin Shimerman, whose voice talent was cited as one of the contributing factors to BioShock and won "Best use of sound" from IGN...
in the mid-1940s as a means to create a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
for mankind's greatest thinkers to prosper in a laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
environment outside of increasing oppression by the worlds' governments. However, these ideals would not hold up, turning into a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, and on the eve of 1959, a class war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
broke out, leaving much of Rapture's population dead. The remaining citizens either become psychotic "Splicers" due to the effects of ADAM, a substance that can alter genetic material, or have barricaded themselves from the Splicers to protect themselves, leaving the city to fail and fall apart around them.
The player first experiences Rapture in BioShock, in the year 1960, a year after the fateful riots, as a man named Jack that has come to Rapture after a plane accident over the Atlantic Ocean where the city was located; during this, they come to learn more about Ryan's motives and those that he struggled against to keep the city's ideals until the very end. In BioShock 2, the player takes the role of a "Big Daddy", a heavily-modified human in an armored diving suit
Standard diving dress
A standard diving dress consists of a metallic diving helmet, an airline or hose from a surface supplied diving air pump, a canvas diving suit, diving knife and boots...
designed to protect the Little Sisters as they collect ADAM from Rapture's dead; this takes place eight years after the events of the first game, and while Ryan has been killed, there remain those that vie for the vacuum left in his position of power.
Concept and creation
The concept of Rapture was the brainchild of Ken Levine, founding member and creative director of Irrational GamesIrrational Games
Irrational Games is a video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier as Irrational Games...
, (briefly renamed 2K Boston just prior to BioShocks release, but later returned to their former name). Ken Levine had studied the works of Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, and Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
and other works of utopian and dystopian societies as part of his "useless" liberal arts degree. He had also had fascination with the story of "Logan's Run
Logan's Run
Logan's Run is a novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, it depicts a dystopic ageist future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching a particular age...
". Levine also considered the nature of the horror genre
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, noting works such as The Shining
The Shining (novel)
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The title was inspired by the John Lennon song "Instant Karma!", which contained the line "We all shine on…". It was King's third published novel, and first hardback bestseller, and the success of the book firmly established King...
where there is the need for a feeling of loss for the horror to be effective.
Description
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
somewhere between Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. It is only accessible by a system of bathyspheres. The city was designed to be self-sufficient, growing and raising its own crops as well as using the surrounding sea life for food, and taking advantage of submarine volcano
Submarine volcano
Submarine volcanoes are underwater fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. They are estimated to account for 75% of annual magma output. The vast majority are located near areas of tectonic plate movement, known as ocean ridges...
es to provide geothermal power
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
to its population. The city consists of many "skyscrapers", inter-linked by walkways and tunnels, with airtight doors between neighboring sections to isolate areas that become flooded from the rest of the city. The buildings, both inside and out, feature a distinctive art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
design motif, reflecting on the era during which they were built (the mid-'40s). In addition to living quarters, Rapture features shopping areas, entertainment venues, laboratories, manufacturing plants, medical facilities, and other common services provided by a functional city.
Though Rapture was built as a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
for creative individuals to flourish, the city soon became a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
. Part of the downfall of Rapture was the discovery of ADAM, stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
s harvested from a previously unknown species of sea slug
Nudibranch
A nudibranch is a member of what is now a taxonomic clade, and what was previously a suborder, of soft-bodied, marine gastropod mollusks which shed their shell after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms...
. Scientists in Rapture found that ADAM could be used to overwrite the human genome, allowing its users to literally "splice" super powers (such as telekinesis) into their DNA. The lead scientist, Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum, found that ADAM could be mass produced by implanting the sea slug in the stomachs of young orphaned girls, who came to be known as "Little Sisters". As Rapture began to fall into social chaos, in part due to the mental instability that came about from increased ADAM use, the Little Sisters were mentally reconditioned to extract ADAM from the dead and recycle it. In order to protect the girls from ADAM-hungry lunatics, Dr. Suchong generated genetically-modified humans in armored diving suits
Standard diving dress
A standard diving dress consists of a metallic diving helmet, an airline or hose from a surface supplied diving air pump, a canvas diving suit, diving knife and boots...
, and assigned them to protect a specific Little Sister. These beings became known as "Big Daddies
Big Daddy (BioShock)
A Big Daddy is a fictional character in the BioShock series of video games. Designed by 2K Boston/2K Australia, they first appeared in BioShock and were promoted heavily...
".
When the player experiences the city, roughly one/ten years after the collapse of its society (one year in BioShock, ten years in BioShock 2), the majority of Rapture's population is dead; the few that survive have either become psychotic "Splicers", or survivors that have barricaded themselves from the Splicers. While most of the city's automated systems still operate, large swaths of the city have become flooded, while others have been damaged beyond repair, either as a result of the bloody civil war that tore Rapture apart, or as a consequence of the Splicers' ADAM-induced psychotic episodes. Splicers, Big Daddies and Little Sisters continue to wander Rapture during the player's experiences in the city.
History
As described in the games' backstory and through in-game audio recordings, the city of Rapture was envisioned by the RandianAyn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
business magnate
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
Andrew Ryan
Andrew Ryan (BioShock)
Andrew Ryan is a fictional character in the 2007 video game BioShock. The character has received significant praise from critics, and so has his voice actor, Armin Shimerman, whose voice talent was cited as one of the contributing factors to BioShock and won "Best use of sound" from IGN...
, who wanted to create a laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
state with no ties to the rest of the world to escape increasingly oppressive political, economic, and religious authority on land. The city was completed in 1946. Scientific progress flourished in Rapture, leading to rapid developments in engineering and biotechnology, such as the invention of ADAM, thanks in part to the brilliant scientists that Ryan brought to the city.
Though residents were hand-picked for their success on the surface, as time passed, the gap between rich and poor increased. This was exploited by Frank Fontaine, a businessman in charge of the plasmid industry who secretly established an illegal smuggling ring with the outside world while simultaneously creating charitable organizations to manipulate the underclass. A violent attempt to overthrow Ryan reportedly killed Fontaine, but the player's experience in BioShock reveals that Fontaine survived, disguising himself as the lower class hero 'Atlas'. On New Year's Eve of 1959, Fontaine/Atlas and his ADAM-infused followers began a new revolt against Ryan that spread throughout Rapture. Ryan in turn began splicing his own forces, and his paranoia had reached such a level he was hanging dozens of people, mostly innocent, in Rapture's main square. As the war disrupted production and supply, every ADAM user in the city eventually went violently insane. By the end of the 1959 revolt, Ryan's utopia had become a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, and only a handful of non-mutated humans survive in barricaded hideouts.
In the events of BioShock, a man known as Jack (the protagonist that the player controls) ends up in Rapture after a plane crash in the middle of the ocean leaves him close to the city's bathysphere surface terminus. In the course of the game, it is learned that Jack is Ryan's illegitimate son, and was purposely brought to Rapture to be used as a cat's paw against the founder by Fontaine/Atlas. When Jack finally meets Ryan, the latter is well aware of Jack's identity and mental conditioning, and orders Jack to kill him, ending his life on his own terms and rejecting the control Fontaine has over his son. Fontaine leaves Jack to die, but he is rescued by Tenenbaum and her Little Sisters, and together they attack and kill Fontaine.
In the power void left by Ryan's and Fontaine's deaths, a new figure, Sofia Lamb, arises in the following decade. In contrast to Ryan's belief of empowering the individual, Lamb's ideals are favoring the collective, and she is able to build "The Family", a cult-like following of the remaining citizens of Rapture to achieve her goals. During the events of BioShock 2 (which takes place eight years after the events of the first game), the player takes the role of the first prototype Big Daddy, Subject Delta, as Lamb's plans progress to their final completion to extend The Family to the surface. The destinies of Delta, Lamb, and Eleanor, Lamb's daughter and Delta's original Little Sister, are determined by the player's action during the game, though the endings involve escaping a section of Rapture flooded by Lamb. The fate of Rapture is left open after the completion of the game.
More details about the origins of Rapture are provided in a new novel (summer 2011) from Tor Books, written by cyberpunk/horror author John Shirley
John Shirley
John Shirley is an American fantasist, author of noir fiction, and science-fiction writer. Shirley is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, TV scripts and screenplays who has published over 30 books and 10 collections...
. Entitled BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE the novel is a prequel that tells the backstory of the creation of Rapture, the underwater city's deterioration and civil war following the coming of plasmids. The novel ends shortly before the story in the first Bioshock game begins. Though Shirley enhanced Rapture's story and added new characters the novel does not contradict the game and was developed with the oversight of Ken Levine, the game's designer. The novel was originally called BIOSHOCK: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE RYAN EMPIRE.