Touted as “The world’s first hyperreality spy experience,” Amazon’s Prime Video went all out with its multifaceted activation at this year’s Comic-Con International.
Construction on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Experience, located on First Avenue between Island Avenue and the MLK Promenade, began in San Diego some 10 days prior to the start of the convention. Some of the more involved components were worked on even further in advance in Denver and later trucked in.
Luis Monteagudo rides a zip line in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television web series.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
The experience involved three main areas — The Training Field, Dark Ops and The Bazaar — which were all set up on an area near the Convention Center that usually houses a parking lot.
From the street, the most impressive and eye-catching aspect is the 10-meter tall, 3-story building with a military-style helicopter propped atop. As part of the Jack Ryan Training Field, participants are suited up with OptiTrack System sensors and Oculus Rift VR headset.
They are then driven by a training officer to the base of the tower where they ascend the staircase up to the awaiting helicopter. Once inside, the VR headset is put into place and it’s time to jump out of the helicopter (while harnessed in, of course). The use of 4-D physical technology and a heavy, steady burst of air makes the users feel like they’re rappelling rapidly toward the ground.
Comic-Con fan Miguel Arreola of Covina in Los Angeles County gets suited up with the technology that creates hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, as he prepares to go through the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience at Comic-Con.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
From there participants must make their way across what the VR headset displays as a narrow, wobbly plank stretched across two buildings about 3-stories above the ground (really it’s just a wobbly 8-inch-wide board raised about 4 inches from a totally solid platform). This part seems to be the most alarming to participants as some were sighted as shedding tears trying to get across and at least one person dropping to all fours and crawling across.
After a duck-and-cover mission to find key clues while enemy combatants fired upon participants, the final part of the mission is to step off a balcony and zipline to an awaiting car ready to race off to a safe house.
A Comic-Con fan walks along a narrow plank of wood in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
The Jack Ryan Training Field is an ambitious activation using some of the leading VR gaming technology. There were some misfires with the developing technology while running the course, but the well-trained staff (of which there are some 200 working throughout the convention) stayed in character and didn’t skip a beat getting participants from one point to the next on the course.
The Dark Ops center was another technological feat at the experience. The high-tech, immersive escape room takes participants through the pilot episode, making them solve puzzles, operate a drone, evade lasers and ultimately leading them to escape.
The open-air Bazaar area is designed to look like a Middle Eastern city center. Guests are able to sit in multiple shaded seating areas while enjoy the provided snacks, ice cream and water while watching on a jumbotron the brave souls who took on the Jack Ryan Training Field. Those just hanging out could also participate in secret mini missions for a chance to collect promo items, as well.
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Comic-Con fan Sarah Ludy from Massachusetts waits in line outside the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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A Comic-Con fan walks along a narrow plank of wood in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Comic-Con fans lined up early for the Jack Ryan Experience across from the San Diego Convention Center. Each person who went through the Jack Ryan Training Field was outfitted with technology using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, to promote Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television web series.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Comic-Con fan Miguel Arreola of Covina in Los Angeles County gets suited up with the technology that creates hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, as he prepares to go through the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience at Comic-Con. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Luis Monteagudo rides a zip line in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Comic-Con fans wait in line outside the Jack Ryan Experience on the the corner of First Avenue and the Martin Luther King Promenade, across the street from the Convention Center. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Comic-Con fans lined up early for the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center. Each person who went through the Jack Ryan Training Field was outfitted with technology using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, to promote Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Leslie Hackett, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, goes through the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience on the the corner of First Avenue and the Martin Luther King Promenade across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan TV web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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A Comic-Con fan rides a zip line in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series, which premieres August 31, on Amazon’s Prime Video. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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A Comic-Con fan gets ready to be lowered out of a helicopter in the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience on the the corner across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Comic-Con fans lined up early for the Jack Ryan Experience across from the San Diego Convention Center. Each person who went through the Jack Ryan Training Field was outfitted with technology using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, to promote Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan television web series.
(Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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Leslie Hackett, using hyperreality, the co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality and human intelligence with artificial intelligence, “drives” a jeep while going through the Jack Ryan Training Field, part of the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, promoting Tom ClancyÕs Jack Ryan television web series. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
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The Prime Observer, the newspaper created for the Jack Ryan Experience promoting the web television show, announces that San Diego has been invaded on its front page and was on racks at the Jack Ryan Experience across the street from the San Diego Convention Center. The series premieres August 31, on Amazon’s Prime Video. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)
Convention-goers and the general public could be see lining up several hours before the doors opened at 9 a.m. The activation will remain open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. No badge required for entry.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, from creators Carlton Cue and Graham Roland, stars John Krasinski (The Office), Wendell Pierce (The Wire) and Abbie Cornish (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and premieres on Prime Video on Aug. 31.
After graduating from San Diego State in 2005, Leslie Hackett started working for The San Diego Union-Tribune as a newsroom page designer. Since then she has moved through different positions at the company, including Content and Product Manager in advertising, Editor of DiscoverSD.com and now works on both the print and website products for PACIFIC magazine as Editor-in-Chief and Digital Director.
