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Bungie’s new online sci-fi extraction shooter, “marathon,” is finally out, and the veteran developers celebrated by having some fun with some unsuspecting victims.
The developers behind Halo and Destiny teamed up with New York City-based creator Michael Krivicka, who is known for hidden camera stunts and marketing tie-ins. This time, the team set up a fake technology showroom, showcasing some of the frames—robot bodies occupied by a human consciousness—from the Marathon reboot.
It all involves pulling a staged gag inside a sci-fi technology demonstration room in New York City, and innocent visitors think they’ve just accidentally fired an advanced arm cannon to blast a hole in the wall. As the shock and awe wears off, actors portraying Vandal and Recon, two of “Marathon’s” cyborg runners, come alive to further freak out the victims.
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Now I know what you’re thinking. These people are idiots; who would fall for this? And a few years ago I would have been right there with you, but these days we have Elon Musk showing off his weird army of iRobot wannabees, so it’s pretty plausible.
A New York City-based creator, Michael Krivicka is best known for his elaborately crafted pranks adapted for major film, television and gaming releases such as his videos titled “Spider-Man Grabs A Coffee”, “Devil Baby”, “Aliens in NYC”, “Cobra-Kai Karate”, “Video Game Weapon” and the hilarious “Doomsday Comet” stunt developed for Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” in 2022.
“Our mission was simple: surprise unsuspecting visitors by making them believe they are accidentally setting off a powerful weapon from the future,” Krivicka tells Space. “We remotely triggered the animatronic functions of Vandal’s hand cannon, which synchronized with the wall blast effect. The perfect sequence of events made the user believe that said weapon they were holding somehow fired, blasting a large hole into the wall.”
“Some Bungie people were on set throughout production (2-day shoot), and even Joe Ziegler showed up, which was surreal. They all had a great time watching the whole thing unfold from the control room.”
We live in a world of staged pranks and fake social media, but Krivicka made it clear to us that none of the people they surprised were actors.
“We never cast actors who pose as unsuspecting participants and then somehow fake their reactions. Other agencies do this. We pride ourselves on the fact that our hidden camera stunts always show real people and their real reactions,” he explains.
“The only actors in the scene are three background actors. They were there to make the showroom feel active and to react to the explosion, but then run out and leave the marks inside. It’s a group psychology thing that I’ve used effectively since I created ‘Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise’ in 2013.”
“Marathon” is now available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
