With multiple dystopian settings, sci-fi drugs, thought-provoking philosophies, and 1900s Western ideologies, BioShock packs a lot of content. The trilogy gives you so much to explore—both physically and mentally—that it’s easy to miss details as well as entire plotlines. Even if you devote yourself to solving every mystery in BioShock, you probably don’t know every fact on this list.

Of course, there’s more to BioShock than its in-game content. Some of the craziest facts stem from the development process. If you simply play BioShock, you miss out on awesome insights into the game’s production and development. By reading this list, you’ll learn how BioShock came into being—and how the trilogy’s more complicated than it appears on the surface.

Some of the BioShock’s most iconic elements almost didn’t make it to the final cut. Other ideas almost made it but were scrapped during development, making BioShock very different than it could have been. We’ll let you decide whether the trashed plans would have bettered or worsened the games we know and love.

We want you to enjoy all of BioShock, so we’ve compiled these fun facts for you. Whether you’re looking for in-game secrets, outside influences, or developmental dilemmas, you’re bound to learn something new about BioShock.

15 Frank Fontaine: One Person, Two Voice Actors

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If you’ve played the first BioShock, you know that Frank Fontaine has two personas in the game. He begins as Atlas, a kind Irishman who wants to help you—as well as himself and his family—escape Rapture. When Andrew Ryan apparently kills Atlas’s family, you and Atlas begin a new path of vengeance. However, this is all an act. After you kill Ryan and upload Atlas’s device, Atlas reveals his true identity: he is actually Frank Fontaine, an evil New Yorker who’s fought against Ryan for years.

Despite the different personas and accents, Atlas and Fontaine sound like the same voice actor. In reality, Karl Hanover voices Atlas while Greg Baldwin voices Frank Fontaine.

After the first game, Karl Hanover voices both Atlas and Fontaine—and he sounds just like Baldwin.

14 Vita-Chambers Built For Andrew Ryan, NOT You

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When you die in BioShock or BioShock 2, you immediately resurrect within the nearest Vita-Chamber. At first, this seems like a simple respawn mechanic—but then you notice the advertisements. Posters around Rapture advertise the Vita-Chamber’s ability to “restore vigor and spirit with the touch of a button.” Everyone in Rapture has access to the machines…so why do they only resurrect you?

If you investigate Rapture for hidden tapes and details, you’ll piece together the answer. Vita-Chambers helped the populace with simple medical problems, but Ryan secretly built them to resurrect himself. The Vita-Chambers scan a person’s DNA, so Jack—as Ryan’s son—also comes back to life. In BioShock 2, a Little Sister reprograms the machines so they instead resurrect Subject Delta.

Despite his original intentions, Ryan refuses to use the machine when you meet him. He unplugs the Vita-Chamber in his office, leading to his permanent death at your hands.

13 First Game Almost Included Teleportation

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Surprisingly few Splicers use Plasmids in BioShock. ADAM allows you to use Plasmids, and Splicers depend on ADAM—yet very few exhibit superpowers like you.

However, the Splicers that use Plasmids are incredible. Many have the ability to teleport, so of course you expect a teleportation Plasmid. BioShock sadly never gives you such a Plasmid, but it almost did. The developers only ditched the teleportation Plasmid late in development: teleportation created too many bugs and opportunities to skip scripted events.

The Plasmid finally appears in BioShock 2 as an entertaining easter egg. If you touch the “Unstable Teleport Plasmid,” it teleports to a different location. After a lengthy game of hide-and-seek, you’re rewarded with several scripted teleportations. When you return to your original location, the unstable Plasmid is nowhere to be seen.

12 Inspired By Actual 1950s Philosophy

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You enter Rapture after its economic and social collapse, but the dystopia once had great potential. People entered the underwater city filled with hope, believing they could finally live however they liked without governmental restrictions. Andrew Ryan initially built the city for this exact purpose. Without limits, Ryan believed man pursues his own self-interest but, as a result, works with and benefits the community. Rapture’s economy flourished as people pursued their own passions and shared those passions in order to make money.

Rapture recalls multiple philosophies but particularly Objectivism, a philosophical movement that began in the 40s and flourished in the 50s. Ryan similarly began construction for Rapture in the 40s, and the city thrived in the 50s.

Irrational Games developed BioShock with Objectivism in mind—as evident by the allusions to Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism.

11 Andrew Ryan…Or Ayn Rand?

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Ayn Rand grew up in Russia before moving to America in her early twenties. She developed Objectivism while living in America, using two novels—The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged—to spread her philosophy in the 40s and 50s.

Andrew Ryan was born in Russia in the early 1900s like Rand, and he fled to America during his childhood. Dissatisfied with the government’s role in the “land of the free,” Ryan built Rapture and invited people in—thus spreading his Objectivist philosophy in the 40s and 50s.

In case it wasn’t obvious, Andrew Ryan is roughly based off of Ayn Rand, name and all. BioShock also references Rand’s work, Atlas Shrugged, through Atlas—an antagonist who highlights the negative consequences of Objectivism. Even Ryan ends up becoming a selfish, creepy villain who twists his philosophy to destroy Rapture and protect himself.

10 You AND Your Character Are Brainwashed

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Frank Fontaine raised your character, Jack, as an unknowing sleeper agent controlled by the phrase “would you kindly.” The phrase shows up 10 times in the game—yet the game only forces you to follow the command 3 times. First, Jack hijacks his airplane in the opening cutscene. Second, Atlas says “would you kindly lower that weapon” when you first encounter a Little Sister, and Jack immediately puts away his weapons. Finally, Ryan reveals the nature of the phrase and commands you to kill him.

In the other 7 cases, you have complete control over Jack. You don’t have to follow Atlas’s orders. By giving you a choice even when you aren’t supposed to have a choice, BioShock questions your role as a gamer. You technically could put down the controller and spare those innocent victims—yet you don’t, because that’s how linear games like BioShock work…right?

9 American Voices For Non-American Characters

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Rapture boasts a diverse population. Geniuses from all around the world move to the underwater city to start a new life free from governmental restrictions. However, the majority of BioShock’s cast is actually American. Brigid Tenenbaum comes from Belarus, so her American voice actor speaks with a Belarusian accent (it’s up to you how well she delivers her lines). Andrew Ryan originates from Russia—although he spent most of his life in America, so perhaps that justifies his American voice actor.

Atlas is supposed to be an American (Frank Fontaine) pretending to be Irish, but an actual Irishman voices Atlas (while an American voices Fontaine). So an Irishman is pretending to be an American pretending to be an Irishman…ok, that’s too meta for my brain to handle.

Of course, American actors aren’t the only ones pretending to be foreigners in BioShock. Yi Suchong is Korean, yet a Japanese actor provides his voice and Korean accent.

8 Developers In Your Wallet

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In its brief, fantastic opening, BioShock shows Jack opening his wallet. He rubs his family photo while narrating, “They told me: ‘Son, you’re special. You were born to do great things.’” All this draws your attention to the photo—so you probably missed the easter egg hiding in his wallet. The tip of an Irrational Games business card is visible in Jack’s wallet, with the company’s logo clearly visible. We’d love to see the entire business card and know if Jack works for Irrational Games, but BioShock teases us with only a logo.

The logo actually shows up once more within Rapture, in Sander Cohen’s office. This makes us wonder: does a 1960s version of Irrational Games live in Rapture? Or did Fontaine design a fake business card like Jack’s fake family photo?

7 Little Sisters Were Originally Little Slugs

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ADAM originates from a species of sea slugs surrounding Rapture. In order to mass-produce ADAM, scientist Brigid Tenenbaum implanted the sea slugs into young girl—who became known as the Little Sisters. If you want more ADAM while playing BioShock, you can murder Little Sisters and harvest the sea slug from within their bodies.

The Little Sisters and sea slugs perfectly blend reality and sci-fi together, but BioShock originally had far less realistic plans. In early development, Irrational Games planned to solely include sea slugs—without a human host. However, the developers recognized how easily players could kill slugs, so they turned the slugs into Little Sisters to present a moral dilemma. Do you kill little girls to survive the lethal halls of Rapture, or do you save them at your own risk?

6 Too Many Bodies? Turn Them Into Boxes!

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Thanks to the harmful side effects of ADAM, the residents of Rapture have become insane, violent, and lethally dependent on ADAM. These addicts, known as Splicers, attack you on sight. Since they occasionally attack in groups, you’ll fill the hallways of Rapture with Splicer bodies—or bodies and boxes. Because of its design, BioShock can only load five bodies on a single screen: if you kill a sixth Splicer, the first body turns into a lockbox. The lockbox contains the same loot you’d normally find on a body, but looting a box feels far less offensive than looting a corpse.

Since Big Daddies appear much less frequently in BioShock, their bodies always remain on screen. Splicers, on the other hand, turn into boxes; must be another of ADAM’s side effects.

5 Every Game References Fahrenheit 451

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The BioShock games take place in philosophy-heavy dystopias, and Irrational Games pays tribute to some of its dystopian influences. Every System Shock and BioShock title includes the code “451” or a variation in reference to Fahrenheit 451. Like Andrew Ryan and Zachary Comstock, the government of Fahrenheit 451 strictly controls society in order to benefit itself and supposedly benefit the people.

Every BioShock game emphasizes its reference. To open the first locked door in the first BioShock, you must locate the 0451 code. BioShock 2 also combines its reference with its first locked door, but it uses 1540 (the inverse of 0451) instead. The only door with a code in BioShock Infinite requires the 0451 code, which Elizabeth uses to pick the lock.

4 Plane From The First Game Makes A Cameo

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BioShock opens with an incredible cutscene, showing Jack aboard a plane before it crashes and he barely avoids drowning. Afterward, you swim through the burning wreckage, including the intact tail. As you explore Rapture, the tail reappears and crashes into a glass tunnel, nearly drowning you once more.

This is the plane’s final appearance in the first game, but it makes a cameo in BioShock 2. The glass in Adonis Luxury Resort breaks and forces you to walk through the ocean. If you look up in the middle of this underwater stroll, you’ll see the plane’s tail lodged in the rocks. The plane’s location and color make it difficult to spot. Even if you find the plane, you might not recognize it due to its rusted, colorless condition.

3 Atlas Originally Had A Southern Accent

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Seven months before BioShock’s release, Irrational Games held a playtest. The players voiced several complaints, including criticisms of Atlas’s voice. At the time, Atlas (voiced by Greg Baldwin) spoke with a heavy southern American accent—and players distrusted him.

Whether players distrusted Atlas because of his accent or his mannerisms, Irrational Games had to change him. We’re supposed to trust Atlas until the big plot twist where he reveals his antagonistic role. Irrational Games hired a new actor to voice Atlas. Baldwin continued as Frank Fontaine, while Irishman Karl Hanover voiced Atlas, replacing Atlas’s southern voice with an Irish accent.

It’s sad Baldwin couldn’t successfully disguise the antagonist as a good guy, but Hanover wonderfully turns Atlas into a trustworthy character. I certainly believed Atlas was on my side.

2 Atlas’s “Family” Comes From A Fictional Musical

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In order to deceive you into trusting Atlas and hating Andrew Ryan, Atlas makes up a family. Atlas helps you so he, you, and his family can escape Rapture together. Ryan kills Atlas’s son and wife (Patrick and Moira, respectively) in front of him, prompting Atlas to take vengeance.

If you pay close attention, you’ll realize Atlas is lying long before he reveals the truth. Within Sander Cohen’s theater, you’ll find several posters advertising Patrick and Moira, a romantic musical written by Cohen. In case you didn’t catch the hint, Irrational Games also features the poster in Atlas’s Headquarters, which you explore after Atlas’s big reveal.

After years of planning a coup, you’d think Atlas would have come up with more original names. Nonetheless, we appreciate that Irrational Games included such a subtle hint.

1 Almost Took Place In Space

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Despite the similar names, many players don’t realize BioShock is the spiritual successor to System Shock. Irrational Games developed both franchises, which share similar mechanics but entirely different settings and stories.

However, BioShock almost had even more in common with System Shock. In early development, Irrational Games planned for BioShock to take place in a space station.

The two System Shock games wonderfully turn space stations into terrifying places, and we’re sure BioShock would have done the same. Nonetheless, we’re happy Irrational Games moved BioShock to the beautiful, unique, disturbing city of Rapture. Rapture’s location perfectly complements Andrew Ryan’s Objectivist philosophy. The underwater city feels as isolated and dangerous as a space station, trapping us in an alien world without leaving Earth’s surface.