New York City: Spyscape (March 2018)


Spyscape (March 2018) - Before You Go, Enhance Your Experience by Watching Three Related Movies

My spouse and I visited Spyscape on a Sunday morning in late March 2018. This attraction is open daily from 10:00 am until 8:00 pm. Adult admission costs $39 per person ($32 for children). We paid our admission using a credit card. We spent about 2 hours for our visit.

Spyscape opened in Midtown in 2018 in a 60,000-square foot building at the corner of 8th Avenue at West 55th Street. Complimentary lockers are provided to store coats, purses, and bags. A well-stocked bookstore is on the street level (presumably accessible by everyone), while a small cafĂ© (non-alcoholic beverages and snacks) and a gift shop are located on the second floor (accessible to paying guests only). 

Your experience begins in a unique oversized briefing elevator that transports you from the ground floor/street level to the second floor. The main floor contains seven galleries, each with a unique theme including encryption, special ops, and surveillance. Rooms contain galleries of objects (such as an enigma machine) and displays about people involved in real historical spy craft, including Alan Turning and Joan Clarke, Virginia Hall, Robert Snowden, and Robert Hanssen. We recommend watching the movies Imitation Game (with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley), Snowden (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Breach (with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe) before your visit to familiarize yourself with some of the people you will hear about at Spyscape. 

When a guest purchases admission, he receives a lanyard with an electronic chip. As he passes through the galleries, he has the opportunity to scan that chip to answer questions and complete challenges that show his risk tolerance/aversion, personality traits, and IQ. At the end of the visit, the museum compiles all the data to develop a spy profile for each guest that indicates what type of spy job/role for which they are best suited. We particularly enjoyed the surveillance gallery and the laser-beam tunnel. 

We enjoyed our visit to Spyscape; although it was pricey, it was a unique interactive experience.













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