Here I am again with another BioShock Infinite theory! And, again, I can’t really write a proper intro to this post without being spoilery. Don’t click through if you haven’t finished BioShock Infinite!
FINAL SPOILER WARNING!
OK. If you’re reading this, hopefully you’ve finished BioShock Infinite and are familiar with the part where Elizabeth bamfs you to Rapture. If you’ve been following reviews and reactions to the game, you’ve probably also come across this theory that you can hear Songbird’s death screeches during the very first BioShock game, and how this implies that Booker and Elizabeth arrive in Rapture during the events of BioShock.
Personally, I didn’t think the screeches sounded exactly the same and wrote it off as a coincidence, which is still my position. Still, I wanted to see if there was any evidence to support the idea that the two games coincide chronologically, so I pulled up some videos on YouTube to compare.
Most of the scenery looked pretty similar to me, but one view in particular — of the main room where you arrive in BioShock Infinite and where you get your first Plasmid in BioShock — looked much cleaner and brighter in Infinite. So I decided that Infinite must actually precede BioShock, since obviously no one was going around doing cleanup and remodeling after Rapture’s fall. That was the position that originally led me to write this article, because it pretty well debunks the whole Songbird death screeches theory.
So, for the first time, I made my own video capture so I could properly compare the two rooms. But as I’m sure the Luteces would agree, oftentimes when we set out to prove a theory, we end up with a totally different conclusion, and that’s what happened here!
While walking around Rapture in the two games, I realized that THEY ARE NOT THE SAME RAPTURE. Not just two points in the same timeline, but two different versions of Rapture altogether. I’ll show you what I mean below — in each example, the screencap from BioShock is on the top and the one from BioShock Infinite is on the bottom.
When Jack first arrives at the lighthouse after the plane crash, one of the lamps is askew and flickering. The same is true when Booker and Elizabeth approach the lighthouse in the Bathysphere. So, so far, this seems to be the same place.
The Bathysphere Jack arrives in is not the same one Booker and Elizabeth leave in (there are two Bathysphere bays in this room). But here’s Jack’s view as he exits his Bathysphere and a view from the same bay in BioShock Infinite. It looks fairly similar, but in BioShock, the sign for Finley’s Eat-In Take-Out is clearly visible. In BioShock Infinite, the only building outside these windows with any signage at all just says NEWS. Hmmmm.
Also, interesting sidenote! When Jack first arrives in his Bathysphere, the Splicer outside asks, “Is it someone new?” In BioShock Infinite, when Booker arrives at Columbia, Preacher Witting asks the EXACT same question. That has nothing to do with the rest of this post — actually, it relates more to my previous post about parallels — but I highly doubt it was a coincidence so I thought it was pretty rad.
The bay that Booker and Elizabeth’s Bathysphere is in is actually completely inaccessible in the Rapture of BioShock. The walkway is missing/broken and there is a gate across its entrance.
There are more picket signs in BioShock (and more variety of messages on them), as well as lots of ticket stubs strewn about the floor. That could imply just a different point in the timeline, but additionally, there’s a light fixture on the post next to the bench in BioShock, whereas there isn’t in BioShock Infinite.
In the next room, a Splicer is chased up the corner by a Security Bot in BioShock, and as you can see, it goes pretty high. But in BioShock Infinite, the ceiling is probably half that height.
The main difference with this doorway is the debris (and the toolbox), but also the design of the security door is slightly different.
Looking down the stairs out the door we just came through, there are two main things of note. First, there is no Rapture Metro sign in BioShock Infinite. Second, the ads on the walls are different. In BioShock, there’s a Rapture Radio poster on the left and an Oxford Club Cigarettes poster on the right; in BioShock Infinite, the same Oxford Club ad is on the left, with a Plasmids ad on the right. (In BioShock, there are other ads higher up the stairs, but it’s too dark there in BioShock Infinite to compare.)
Now, here’s the view that spawned my whole theory. Not only is the floor much, much cleaner-looking in BioShock Infinite, there are no statues immediately on either side of the security door, the bottom window panes are not divided up, and the columns in the middle of the room are much closer together.
After Songbird’s death, here’s your first view of Rapture in BioShock Infinite. (Cool sidenote: Check out the Big Daddy and Little Sister in the tube!) The Footlight Theater and Kashmir Restaurant are in the same place as they are in the BioShock view, but the tubes are totally different. The one leading from the room we’re in (at the bottom right of this image) is broken, which is exactly how it ends up after Jack’s plane busts through it — but here, it doesn’t seem like it was ever attached to that tube going across. There are also more tubes higher up and more structures outside the window in general. It’s much more open-looking in Infinite.
Ah, Finley’s once again. In BioShock Infinite, there is no Finley’s sign, only the one that says BISTRO. There are also no tubes there like there are in BioShock and Fleet Hall’s sign is not visible.
Most of the environment in BioShock Infinite is cleaner-looking than that in BioShock, except for a few things, like the scale model of Rapture. It’s far dingier in Infinite.
A similar view to the one we saw from the stairs entrance, but higher up. Another distinction I didn’t mention before: the typography on the “Welcome to Rapture” sign is a bit different. The wood paneling on the floor also seems to be going in opposite (perpendicular) directions.
Aside from being empty, the Gatherer’s Garden in BioShock Infinite doesn’t have the Plasmid icons along the arch above it. The grates on either side of it are also different; they reach the floor in Infinite but in BioShock there’s a stylized border along the bottom.
There are two banners in this room, one on the left and one on the right (looking out from the balcony). In both BioShock and BioShock Infinite, the one on the right is the one about “The Great Chain”. In Infinite, the one on the left is this same banner, but in BioShock, the “No Gods or Kings” banner hangs there.
The right-hand banners are visible here, though the one from Infinite is a bit hard to see since it’s so dark. Trust me, though — it’s The Great Chain in both. Additionally, there’s no decorative post at the center of the balcony railing in Infinite. And once again, you can see how much tighter everything is — the columns are closer together and the ceiling is lower.
So there you are. Structurally, these do not appear to be the same version of Rapture. Now, you might be thinking, “Maybe Irrational just got lazy, or maybe they just didn’t want to spend the resources to duplicate it exactly.” And for some things, like the room being slightly smaller, I might accept that. But they’re close enough that it’s pretty obvious the developers were basing this Rapture directly on the one from BioShock. Why go to all the trouble to make them so close (down to the flickering lamp outside the lighthouse), but change things like the statues, the ads on the wall, the banners, the balcony post, etc.? Why make the scale model dingy-looking? Why change all the tubes outside?
I don’t feel like a studio which put so much effort into a game about the multiverse, and a game which bears such close analysis, would accidentally make these Raptures look so different. I’m sure they’d expect people to make comparisons like the one I did. But hey, let’s just say (for science’s sake!) that it was a total accident. Even then, I’d say they created a new version of Rapture by default. Their choices led to a different universe. So either way, I am now totally convinced that we didn’t return to the Rapture we knew at all, only glimpsed a new one.
Have I convinced you, too? Or do you disagree? Let me know in the comments!
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The thing you have to ask is how many of the design changes were made specifically to complement the narrative of Infinite?
The open windows in the main ‘Welcome to Rapture’ room, for example, were most likely a deliberate design choice to allow you to, not only have a clear view of the Songbird drowning, but also give you a clear view of the city of Rapture. In the original Bioshock, you had already been given a clear view of the city on your way down, but in Infinite it was important that the view of the city had an instant ‘OMG!’ impact on the player. The narrative of Infinite needed you in a memorable area of the city, and it needed you to know instantly where you were (more or less, I have to confess, it took me longer than most to realise where I was, I was so engrossed in the story!). It didn’t want to have to wait for you to back away and see the ‘Welcome to Rapture’ sign. You’re supposed to be transported there, watch the Songbird die, and then realise where you are, either while the Songbird is drowning, or once it sinks out of view. To support this, the tube with the dead Big Daddy was moved closer to the window so you could see the Big Daddy when the Songbird drowns, and I think they might have just genuinely forgot to include the section where the broken tube joins. Why have a tube connecting to nothing, no matter what universe you’re living in?! Removing the pillars and statues, and perhaps some of the additional tubes outside, was necessary to ensure maximum impact of the Songbird death scene.
So what about the other changes? The differences in the signs, banners and posters could be honest mistakes rather than a deliberate indication that something’s different.
The lack of clutter on the floor could simply be an environmental choice to allow you to move around a more freely than you would have in the original game. In Infinite, they just want you to follow Elizabeth and get on with the story. Although this still doesn’t explain the cleanliness on the floor in general.
The model of Rapture was probably updated because they knew the player would give it a close inspection, and they probably thought it looked too clean in the original. They probably also wanted to make it clear that you have arrived in Rapture after the events of the first game, and since the model, like the Gatherer’s Garden, would receive more attention from the player, aging them both helps indicate the passing of time.
However, I imagine the designers were given the freedom to make Rapture ‘recognisable’ rather than ‘identical’, precisely because any differences could be put down to it being a different universe. It was a perfect excuse to make changes that served it’s appearance in the context of Infinite, while allowing for some minor stylistic changes, rather than making a slavish copy.
However, the two areas can’t find any design justification for are the Rapture Metro sign and the missing icon signs from around the Gatherer’s Garden. They must have been deliberate, because they’re far too obvious a detail to ignore or forget, but I can’t come up with any good reason why they would be removed. So perhaps they were done to make it very clear this isn’t the same Rapture, although I think the other changes are more than enough to drive this message home to anyone making comparisons.
Time-wise, I do think that in this timeline you arrive *after* this universe’s Jack. The collapsed tube it enough evidence of that, along with the seemingly empty Gatherer’s Garden.
Again though, if you’re going to bring the player back to Rapture, and make changes, why not set it before the first game? It would have been a perfect opportunity to allow the designers to show Rapture how it looked when it was new and sparkling. Maybe even with all the Rapture characters there, to celebrate it’s grand opening in 1946, or something. That would have been cool.
It seems as if the folks at irrational wanted to remind you of Rapture. Ken Levine has stated that they rebuilt Rapture from the ground up on the run around, and I presume they just cleaned a couple things up and scaled the models.
Well, they DID have to rebuild the entire city from scratch in the
new game engine..so it makes sense that Rapture doesnt look exactly the same,interesting theory though.
I don’t know if anyone’s even going to read this, but here goes.
There’s this theory I buy into, that it’s the same Rapture that Jack arrives in. Burial at Sea Episode 2 also assists this theory, as Elizabeth helps Atlas finalize his plan of the Rapture Civil War, taking Ryan’s idea and stealing it as his own, so Elizabeth was directly involved in Atlas taking Rapture is own. Elizabeth is also told by Booker DeWitt (in her mind, but it can be seen as a projection of her consciousness) that they arrived in Rapture in 1960, after the fall had already happened.
Also, in BioShock 1, when Jack is Fort Frolic seeing Fitzpatrick play the piano at the expense of your and Sander Cohen’s ears. During that scene, something that sounds like Songbird drowning and dying can be heard, seeming like BioShock Infinite’s happening at the same time as BioShock 1. I assume that Jack was in Fort Frolic, watching Fitzpatrick (who oddly also has a bird-like mask on) die as Booker and Elizabeth were moving through the Rapture Metro.
@Atlas:
The first problem with that theory is that the tears don’t allow you to travel through time. There are an infinite number of universes running parallel to our own. Every time you make a choice, you always chose every option. When you decide to turn left instead of right, there is a version of you who went right. There’s also a version of you who decided not to do either, and instead take a nap in the middle of the floor.
So when Elizabeth and Booker arrived in 1960 rapture, coming from 1912 they didn’t leave the time stream, only jumped to a version where we achieved the same progress 48 years earlier than the one they came from. This means that the Rapture we drowned Songbird in, and the Rapture in Burial at Sea can’t be one in the same.
The beauty is, there’s an infinite number of possibilities, and any possible theory is right. There’s a rapture for everyone. (Cool sidenote: This also means that everyone who has ever played through bioshock, and every choice they ever made is completely cannon.)