Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Fan Experience at San Diego Comic Con
When you come to San Diego Comic-Con the convention is always great. But not all fans can grab a ticket to the coveted con. Never fear Nerdeeks! If you’re attending the con you can always attend the offsites. And every year there is one offsite that tops all the others. Enter the Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Fan Experience.
Just west of the convention center Amazon has created a completely immersive experience that makes fans feel like they’ve left the streets of San Diego and been transported them into the heart of the Middle East. Extensive work has been done to the area and it is full of fun places to explore. From a souk where you can grab a free water, ice cream, and Jack Ryan branded snacks to several fun photo ops and a scavenger hunt throughout the experience you can redeem for swag, it’s a great area to dig in to.
Training Field. A hyper-reality virtual reality spy experience where regular con-goers can prove they have what it takes to be a hero. (Or, like this author, prove that they’re up for a good time but nobody should put them behind the wheel of a getaway vehicle.) Amazon told us, “Heroes in training will go through a series of thrilling true-to-life experiences including rappelling from a helicopter, traversing between dangerous high rise buildings, and zip-lining to ground level. Created with MediaMonks, the Jack Ryan Training Field stands over 30 feet tall and uses the latest Optitrack 4D and Oculus Rift technology to make visitors physically feel as if they were thrust into the action.” In other words, get ready to scream your face off because putting all of that VR equipment on and getting yanked out of a helicopter 30 feet in the air feels pretty damn incredible!
But we had the most fun inside Dark Ops, the world’s first “interactive pilot” that lets fans live the first episode! Created by AKQA and Unit 9, participants are tasked with offering remote assistance to Jack Ryan (voiced by John Krazinski himself) in Dark Ops. Teams of rookie analysts (that’s you, fans!) dig deep to uncover a plot of double-crossing, top secret information and an extremist plot set to be put in motion at any minute. It was one of the most fun things we did at the con. This was a fantastic escape room experience. The room was well thought out, well themed, puzzles were fun and just challenging enough to make things interesting. And fun fact for anyone experiencing the escape room. Some of those dollar bills are real, and you can absolutely keep them!
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Season 2 casting news!
In addition to one killer fan experience Amazon released casting news for season 2 ahead of the premiere of season 1! Noomi Rapace will play Harriet “Harry” Baumann, a highly capable, sharply intelligent and intoxicatingly charming BND agent (Germany’s Secret Intelligence) who crosses paths with Jack Ryan in South America (Series Regular).
Check out a trailer for the show and make sure you catch the premiere on August 31st on Amazon Prime Video!
Here’s all the details on the series from Amazon:
Amazon will debutTom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, co-produced by Paramount Television and Skydance Television, August 31st on Amazon Prime Video. The series is a reinvention with a modern sensibility of the unexpected Tom Clancy hero. It centers on Jack Ryan; an up-and-coming CIA analyst thrust into a dangerous field assignment for the first time. The series follows Ryan as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit with a new breed of terrorism that threatens destruction on a global scale. The one-hour, eight-episode dramatic series stars John Krasinski (A Quiet Place, 13 Hours) as Jack Ryan, as well as Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as James Greer and Abbie Cornish (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) as Cathy Mueller. It is executive produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) and Graham Roland (Fringe, Prison Break), who created the series for television and serve as showrunners, Krasinski, Academy Award-nominated director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) who also directed the pilot and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes. Executive producing the series with Bay at Platinum Dunes are Andrew Form (A Quiet Place, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Brad Fuller (A Quiet Place, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.) Additionally, Daniel Sackheim, (The Americans), Mace Neufeld (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.) and Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg(Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Star Trek Beyond) and Marcy Ross (Grace and Frankie, Altered Carbon) also executive produce the series with Lindsey Springer and Allyson Seeger serving as a co-executive producers.
