And I Must Run: An Interpretation of "Temple Run"

Temple Run. We all know it. We've seen someone sitting beside us, happily flicking the screen to make a red-haired young man perform impossible feats of free-running in (presumably)a far-off Asian country. But as innocuous as this might sound, there is a far more sinister purpose behind it.

Consider the much-lauded "3 turns", the ability to make three right or left turns without ending up at the same place. While some have suggested mundane explanations to account for this, from “the track inclines slightly at all times, so you are actually going up”, to “A terrain generator that doesn’t keep track of everything”. And if this were an isolated incident, then the latter would be the most likely explanation.

But then there is also the case of the monkeys. They are jet-black, they wear skull masks, and they are almost as tall as the player, even when hunched over. They follow the player with remarkable speed, able to catch up the player as soon as s/he makes one slip-up. They are even named, “Demon Monkeys”. Add these together, and we can definitely agree that something supernatural is at play.

Now add the supposed backstory. “Guy Dangerous”, an explorer, has stolen an artifact from the temple, and is now being chased by several large monkeys. There is no win condition. In other words, there is no way ever to escape the temple. Even the most experienced player is destined to fall into a river, or smash into a tree, or be burned alive, or be eaten by monkeys.

Now consider this. You are Guy Dangerous, and you have retrieved an artifact from an ancient temple. Suddenly, the idol begins glowing, and you fall to the ground. When you awake, you are on a long pathway, being chased by large monkeys. Obviously you run for your life, but after a long, twisting, turning, hazard-dotted path, you fall into the water. You realize your impending death, and you sob as you realize your children are now without a father. Then what do you do?

You play again.

You bastard.

edited 9th Oct '12 3:14:06 AM by ArsonWelles

HOOOOL...

Y SHIT!

I pretend that Temple Runs story is Assasins creed style where you play the life of those who dare steal from the temple... it always ends in tragedy.

I'll add one to that theory: you know when the game gets "stuck" for a second and the controls don't work, usually leading to your character happily running off the next ledge? Usually right at the start of the game?

That's not a bug.

Your character is aware of their previous deaths - all of them - and after hundreds of times being eaten by demon monkeys from hell, they decide that a quick death would be better and jump off that ledge.

And then, of course, you play again.

edited 10th Feb '13 1:34:00 AM by Haarbllchen

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP

One could argue that it is a result of stealing the idol. The idol could put a Groundhog Day-esque spell on Guy Dangerous.

Also, what about the other characters?

I guess those were other people who tried to take the idol... in the first game, one of the unlockable characters is a conquistador - maybe he was the first guy to try and steal the idol...

No- My theory is this. The different characters are all from different time periods, and the temple is in China, or Tibet. Francisco Montoya was the first person to try and steal the idol. Other explorers soon followed in his footsteps. In Medieval Japan, Karma Lee went to try and steal the idol next. In the 1940s, Montana Smith tried. In the 1950s, it was Zack Wonder's turn. In the 1980s, Barry Bones had a go. In the 90s, Scarlett Fox tried. And now, in the present day, Guy Dangerous is trying. The temple was built by Eldrich Abominations that were also worshipped as gods by the Chinese. The abominations put a sacred idol from their own dimension/world in the temple as an image for the Chinese to worship. They sent demon monkeys to guard it. Inside the temple, there were lots of traps and dangers to get past, from boulders to skeletons coming alive and trying to kill you. But the worst thing was, anyone who stole the idol had a horrific price to pay. The temple's exits were all sealed at the very instant the idol was lifted off its pedestal. Then, the demon monkeys-in fact, Chinese criminals who were experimented on and brainwashed-would chase them. The explorer could only keep running to their death. But even worse, the Chinese Gods brought them back to life, so they had no choice but to run over and over, for eternity. The ghosts of the explorers are still living in the temple, running. The system works like this- the bored gods pick an explorer, then make them run, all the time eating snacks and laughing, while the other explorers cheer on their fellow explorer, boosting his/her confidence and even giving them a little optimism. The gods give powerups when they feel the explorer needs them. When they get bored, they send another explorer to take their place and let the exhausted ones rest. But recently, the gods came up with a new trick- send the 4 best explorers, in their opinion, Guy, Fox, Barry and Lee, to their own temple in their own dimension or world, setting the scene for Temple Run 2. They get a huge demon monkey to chase the explorer in their temple, a bizarre mix of European Castle, Tibetan Monastery and Chinese Temple.

edited 3rd Apr '13 4:17:59 AM by TheWildWestPyro