Operation Spy at the International Spy Museum
Intrigue, deception, hard choices, daring escapes…it’s your turn to live a spy’s life! The International Spy Museum in Washington DC announces the launch of Operation Spy, a new intense immersive experience. This groundbreaking spy adventure takes the interactive concept to the next level by combining the most innovative features of exhibits, movies, computer games, theatrical shows, and rides into one electrifying experience. Guests don’t just read about spies, they become the spies.
Participants in Operation Spy assume the role of U.S. intelligence officers on an intrigue-filled international mission. The hour-long experience combines live-action, video, themed environments, special effects, and hands-on activities to create a series of reality-based challenges where guests “think, feel, and act” like real intelligence officers in the field.
“This takes museum-going to a new level. Guests will discover what it’s like to live in the real world of espionage,” states International Spy Museum Board Chairman and Founder, Milton Maltz. “They get to test their skills while operating in a hostile environment and along the way they gain a deeper understanding of the challenges involved in running intelligence operations.”
The Operation Spy story is based on actual cases drawn from intelligence files. The plot is set in a far corner of the world, where U.S. intelligence has received an anonymous tip that a top-secret, nuclear-triggering device has gone missing. Black market arms dealers want it—and it looks like someone is ready to sell.
As part of a team of field operatives in the fictional country of Khandar, the guests’ mission is to stop the trigger from falling into the wrong hands. In the ultimate intelligence game, they uncover layers of deception to reveal a world of secret agents, power-hungry officials, and deadly ambition. They must decide who to trust in an environment where all is not as it seems and everyone has a hidden agenda.
From the moment your passport is stamped at border patrol, you enter the exotic world of Khandar and the ambiguous world of espionage. Here is a sample of what you will feel and experience in Operation Spy:
Waiting in the bus depot for your field station contact to meet you, you can’t help but notice the disturbing newscasts on the aging TV monitors. You sense the political unrest roiling the country of your late-breaking assignment. Still unaware of the actual mission, you size up your new colleagues, who are also waiting…do they have what it takes?
Finally, you spot your contact fast approaching. With few words, you and your colleagues follow him through a back alley of the city’s marketplace. Winding your way down the narrow street, morning shadows play on the cobblestones as stores begin to open for business. The scent of spices drifts through the air along with the sounds of the bustling marketplace.
In the command center, the intelligence chief at Khandar City Station patches in to brief your team. From that moment on, you are launched full speed into the fast-breaking operation. Your mission: find the triggering device and discover who is involved.
The station chief details your first task: conduct video surveillance of a meeting taking place at a nearby hotel. Can you successfully track the targets? You must work fast to keep them in view, frantically panning and zooming the camera. What’s happening?!, you call to your teammates, Where are they now? Who has them on camera? Your teammates try to sort out what they just witnessed: were the targets’ actions suspicious? And what are your next steps?
More actions, more uncertainty, and more decisions await. Then dramatically, the operation draws to a close. Did your team succeed in finding the trigger or did it fail? What further actions will you recommend to the chief? Your team’s performance and its decisions will determine the course of events in Khandar—and their impact around the world. In a heart-pounding finale, the results of your team’s actions are revealed. As you view what the world sees on the evening news, a colleague remarks. “I guess we’re the only ones who will ever know what really happened…let’s keep it that way.”
There is more than one outcome to the Operation Spy guest experience. Throughout the hour, each team’s performance is tracked and scored. That information, along with their final critical decision, determines one of several possible endings for the experience. Guests can come to Operation Spy again and again.
Peter Earnest, International Spy Museum Executive Director observed, “In a post 9/11 world, where intelligence has taken center stage, Operation Spy brings to life the complexities and ambiguities involved in collecting and interpreting raw intelligence. Our goal is to reach guests on an intellectual and emotional level by placing them in a situation that mirrors a real intelligence experience.”
In development for more than two years, The Museum called on leading experts and practitioners in the intelligence community to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of the Operation Spy experience. Project Advisors from the Museum’s Board included, among others:
• Major General Oleg Kalugin Former Chief, KGB Foreign Counterintelligence
• David Major President, Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies; and former Director, Counterintelligence, Intelligence and Security Programs, National Security Council
• Antonio Joseph Mendez Former Chief, Graphics and Authentication Division, CIA
• Jonna Hiestand Mendez Former Chief of Disguise, CIA
Operation Spy is a small group experience. Space is limited and a separate ticket is required. Guests are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance. Guests who wish to visit the entire Museum as well as experience Operation Spy may purchase a combined ticket.
Advance tickets will be available through Ticketmaster online at Ticketmaster.com and at all Ticketmaster locations beginning 1 June 2007.
Advance tickets are also available at the International Spy Museum during regular business hours beginning 1 June 2007.
Operation Spy is available to guests ages 12 and above. Because participants are asked to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize complex information, as well as discuss and debate issues while cooperating with strangers of different ages, the experience requires a certain level of thinking and social skills. In addition, Operation Spy includes special effects, loud noises, and dark rooms that may be too intense for younger children. For more information visit OpSpy.com
About The International Spy Museum
The International Spy Museum, the only public institution in the world dedicated to presenting the world history of espionage, features the largest permanent collection of international spy-related artifacts on public display. Through interactive exhibits with state-of-the-art audiovisual effects, film, and hands-on components, the Museum traces the evolution of espionage through the people who practiced the profession and it provides a context for guests to better interpret the role intelligence plays in current events.
The International Spy Museum is located at 800 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC’s historic Penn Quarter, within four blocks of the National Mall, directly across the street from the National Portrait Gallery, steps away from the Verizon Center, and within one block of FBI headquarters, Ford’s Theatre, and the 7th Street Arts Walk. The Museum is conveniently located near the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail station serviced by the red, yellow and green lines.
The International Spy Museum is open daily except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Hours are subject to change; for the most up-to-date information visit Spymuseum.org.
Guests should plan to spend two hours touring the Museum. All Museum tours are self-paced. Operation Spy activities last one hour. It is a guided experience.
