Becoming Part of the Boys
As a member of The Boys, the vigilante group that seeks to expose venerated but secretly corrupt superheroes, we are thrust into a crime scene with little explanation, until an angry British man in a leather jacket begins yelling at us about the super “c**ks” that are responsible for it. “Here’s the deal,” the man declares. One of the members of The Boys, Hughie (played in the series by Jack Quaid) was at this electronics store before the attack took place. Our job was to find out what happened to him.
We team up with the man and his partner, a hotheaded American in a Nirvana T-shirt, to pore through the wreckage of the store, which — in addition to having a crashed car in the middle of it — is full of toppled over shelves, twisted pieces of metal, and a curious-looking outline of a man embedded in the drywall. We find clues about Hughie’s life, including an odd portrait of just his face, a bouquet of roses with a card attached addressed to a woman named Robin, and a crinkled picture of him lovingly touching heads with the same woman. But the biggest find is the security tape, which makes clear exactly what happened: a superhero crashes the car into the store, sending Hughie flying back into the wall, and they get into a tussle. But the problem: we can’t see the superhero.
“Translucent!” Nirvana T-shirt guy gasps, naming the superhero played by Alex Hassell in the series. “The invisible c**k!” our leader screams.
Search and Destroy
Curiously, our next step isn’t to take these security tapes and hand them to the cops, but to destroy the evidence. We feverishly search for the tapes, finding a vault locked inside a metal cage. The first lock can only be opened by a key hidden in one of the battery compartments of a remote control. Luckily, there are about 50 remote controls strewn throughout the store. But a second lock presents another obstacle: a four-digit code that could be any combination of numbers. But the discovery of a Prince CD for his album 1999, an album that apparently happens to be Hughie’s favorite, cracks the code and we open the vault to find a tape.
“Smash it!” our leader screams, as Nirvana T-shirt guy chants “Smash, smash, smash!” The confused attendee who happened to unlock the vault drops the tape on the floor and smashes it with his foot, whooping in triumph. The adrenaline in the room is palpable, we all end up cheering and clapping over the smashed videotape.
By Hoai-Tran Bui/July 18, 2019 9:45 am EST
The Boys is the longest activation of the three, with a new experience taking place every 45 minutes. 15-20 people are allowed in at a time, to pick their way through a wrecked electronics store that has become the scene of a mysterious crime.
Becoming Part of the Boys
As a member of The Boys, the vigilante group that seeks to expose venerated but secretly corrupt superheroes, we are thrust into a crime scene with little explanation, until an angry British man in a leather jacket begins yelling at us about the super “c**ks” that are responsible for it. “Here’s the deal,” the man declares. One of the members of The Boys, Hughie (played in the series by Jack Quaid) was at this electronics store before the attack took place. Our job was to find out what happened to him.
We team up with the man and his partner, a hotheaded American in a Nirvana T-shirt, to pore through the wreckage of the store, which — in addition to having a crashed car in the middle of it — is full of toppled over shelves, twisted pieces of metal, and a curious-looking outline of a man embedded in the drywall. We find clues about Hughie’s life, including an odd portrait of just his face, a bouquet of roses with a card attached addressed to a woman named Robin, and a crinkled picture of him lovingly touching heads with the same woman. But the biggest find is the security tape, which makes clear exactly what happened: a superhero crashes the car into the store, sending Hughie flying back into the wall, and they get into a tussle. But the problem: we can’t see the superhero.
“Translucent!” Nirvana T-shirt guy gasps, naming the superhero played by Alex Hassell in the series. “The invisible c**k!” our leader screams.
We team up with the man and his partner, a hotheaded American in a Nirvana T-shirt, to pore through the wreckage of the store, which — in addition to having a crashed car in the middle of it — is full of toppled over shelves, twisted pieces of metal, and a curious-looking outline of a man embedded in the drywall. We find clues about Hughie’s life, including an odd portrait of just his face, a bouquet of roses with a card attached addressed to a woman named Robin, and a crinkled picture of him lovingly touching heads with the same woman. But the biggest find is the security tape, which makes clear exactly what happened: a superhero crashes the car into the store, sending Hughie flying back into the wall, and they get into a tussle. But the problem: we can’t see the superhero.
“Translucent!” Nirvana T-shirt guy gasps, naming the superhero played by Alex Hassell in the series.
“The invisible c**k!” our leader screams.
Search and Destroy
Curiously, our next step isn’t to take these security tapes and hand them to the cops, but to destroy the evidence. We feverishly search for the tapes, finding a vault locked inside a metal cage. The first lock can only be opened by a key hidden in one of the battery compartments of a remote control. Luckily, there are about 50 remote controls strewn throughout the store. But a second lock presents another obstacle: a four-digit code that could be any combination of numbers. But the discovery of a Prince CD for his album 1999, an album that apparently happens to be Hughie’s favorite, cracks the code and we open the vault to find a tape.
“Smash it!” our leader screams, as Nirvana T-shirt guy chants “Smash, smash, smash!” The confused attendee who happened to unlock the vault drops the tape on the floor and smashes it with his foot, whooping in triumph. The adrenaline in the room is palpable, we all end up cheering and clapping over the smashed videotape.
“Smash it!” our leader screams, as Nirvana T-shirt guy chants “Smash, smash, smash!” The confused attendee who happened to unlock the vault drops the tape on the floor and smashes it with his foot, whooping in triumph. The adrenaline in the room is palpable, we all end up cheering and clapping over the smashed videotape.
Murder Most Foul
“F*** suits,” he emphatically says. “F*** suits,” our leader screams. They lead us in a chant: “F*** suits, f*** suits, f*** suits!” as we get corralled out the door, energized and feeling ready to take down a superhero.
