Journey to the Surface (Amusement Park Ride)

Journey to the Surface is a theme park ride found in Ryan Amusements, designed by Andrew Ryan as anti-surface world propaganda, specifically aimed at Rapture's child population, in the hopes that demonizing the world above would prevent them from ever wanting to go there, which would help contain the threat of the secret being leaked. The ride, when operational, took the riders, in track-cars resembling miniature bathyspheres, on a tour of a city of the surface, starting at the outskirts, where the riders watch as the Parasite takes advantage of a humble farmer, forcing him to pay his hard-earned money to the government. Other scenes include the idea of forced mediocrity, government censorship of art, a skewed vision of the draft (depicting a ten-year-old boy being stolen from his parents to die in a war), and several scenes depicting a recreation of Andrew Ryan's office, complete with his signature golf club and ball off to the side, where the ride stops momentarily and Ryan lectures the riders on the horrors of the surface and the superiority of Rapture. In between scenes, the ride takes its audience through a run-down surface city, with buildings such as the Censorship Bureau and the Ordinance hall lining the streets, with side passages with names such as War Road and Curfew Alley. The end of the ride shows a mannikin child inside a miniature bathysphere in front of a recreation of the lighthouse that serves as the accessway to Rapture, symbolizing the children's escape from the fearful surface world to the safety of the underwater city.