Parallel games, parallel worlds
Spoilers for the ending of BioShock Infinite follow, so be warned!
They always said he was special
BioShocks opening sequence is one of the most memorable in gaming. In less than a minute we go from lounging in an airplane, looking at a mysterious box and hearing voiceover that doesn't really make much sense, to a fiery crash in the Atlantic ocean.
Forming new memories
Infinite opens similarly, with our hero Booker DeWitt being rowed toward a lone lighthouse. He is handed a box. A box containing--just like Jacks--his mission.
Somewhere beyond the sea
After Jacks plane crash, he finds a strange tower sitting alone in the middle of the Ocean. It is, of course, the entrance to Rapture.
Ascension to the heavens
To enter Rapture, Jack descended down, down, down. But for Booker DeWitt and his mission to the floating city of Columbia, he must climb to the top of this lone lighthouse before launching into the air.
It was impossible to build it anywhere else
The entire trip into Rapture is about as memorable as can be. Andrew Ryans objectivist speech explains his need and motivation to create a truly free city: Rapture, the impossible city at the bottom of the ocean. As the speech climaxes and the music swells, Rapture comes into view.
Heaven--or as close as we'll see until judgment day
Bookers ascension into Columbia mirrors Jacks descension into Rapture in many ways. The music swells similarly as a broad, sweeping view of an impossible city comes into view. Words--somewhat of a motto of the city--flash past as the transport approaches its destination. Paying homage to the whale that swims by Jacks bathysphere, a massive zeppelin--a whale of the sky--floats through the air.
Ideology: Randian Objectivism
A city at the bottom of the ocean, Rapture represented a place for humanity to flourish beyond the reach of governments, censors, and even basic morality.
Ideology: American Exceptionalism
Columbia, on the other hand, represented an extreme form of American Exceptionalism. Led by the Prophet Father Comstock, Columbia became a hotbed of racism, segregation, xenophobia, and religious fanaticism.
Welcome to Rapture. Is it someone new?
As Jacks Bathysphere arrives in Rapture, his first encounter--aside from Atlass radio transmission--is a lone splicer. It asks the question: Is it someone new? And then it screams. It's horrifying.
