"NO SIN EVADES HIS GAZE"

―Warning sign displayed in Comstock House

The Boys of Silence are indoctrinated young men fitted with sense-enhancing helmets and are forced to act as watchmen. Booker DeWitt encounters them in Columbia during the course of BioShock Infinite once he reaches Comstock House.

Overview Edit

Boys of Silence are outfitted in blue suits that are reminiscent of a school uniform, and their most noticeable feature is their large metal helmets. The latter amplify their hearing, but obscure their face. Since they were fitted with their uniforms early in life (and have since outgrown them), their blazer sleeves are too short for their arms and their trousers have torn on the legs. Referred to as Elizabeth's "children", they are in fact young men brainwashed from childhood and forced into total subservience. Thanks to Elizabeth's intervention, they also have limited control over Tears, allowing them to partially maintain minions outside the current reality, summon them at will and teleport out when attacked.

BioShock Infinite Edit

The Boys of Silence are encountered in an alternate-timeline version of Comstock House, and act as stationary sentries. A beam of white light from their mouths indicates their line of sight, and Booker must maneuver around them to avoid notice. Additionally, they are always surrounded by similarly brainwashed young men in Founding Fathers masks, phased through spacetime so as to be intangible, albeit at a great cost to their physical and mental wellbeing.

If Booker enters a Boy of Silence's line of sight it will stand still and focus on him. If he stays for too long, gets too close to the Boy or attacks it, the Boy of Silence will let out a piercing scream and teleport away. Though the scream deals only minor damage at close range, it pulls every nearby minion through to the current reality, allowing them to attack Booker and rendering them mortal. The minions themselves only wield wooden clubs, but come in great numbers and are tougher than most enemies.

Attacking a Boy of Silence serves no purpose, as they are impervious to damage and will immediately sound the alarm. However, they can be completely bypassed: they can only see whatever their masks illuminate and so walking outside of their range of vision won't attract their ire. If they do happen to spot Booker they will momentarily stand still. If the player retreats out of their line of sight in time, they will resume scanning the area, otherwise they will eventually sound the alarm.

One of the more notable Boys of Silence was encountered just after unlocking the gate to reach Elizabeth in the torture chamber. Once pulling the switch to deactivate the lock, the player turns around and finds themself face to face with a Boy of Silence who immediately sounds the alarm, a frightening and surprising moment that's come to be known as a jump-scare.

Gallery Edit

Concept art for Boys of Silence.

Concept for the mouth opened.

A Boy of Silence demonstrating his ability

Boy of Silence ready to attack.

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Video Edit

Heavy Hitters Part 3 Boys of Silence(01:39)
13,324 views

Bioshock Infinite - Enemie - Boy of Silence(02:39)
3,419 views

Behind the Scenes Edit

• At Pax East 2012, Ken Levine and Nate Wells mentioned that the Boy of Silence originally had a different purpose, which was to wait and attack the player after it collected every sound from them, such as gunshots and footsteps, and that it was meant to compel the player to choose more silent weapons. They found that this became too problematic, both from a gameplay aspect as most players wouldn't understand what was happening, and the technical aspect of removing ambient sounds from the environment, since this enemy would collect those as well.^[1]
• Balthrop, one of the sound team members, mentioned that the Boys of Silence went through months of different sound changes. One of these sounds was from female Heavy Metal singers, Malika, to rasp out the harshest and roughest screams, to later be blended by the sound team with machine sounds that were described as a rev of a factory belt starting after years of disuse. The sound file was even played at PAX East 2012, where the audience was visibly affected by it.^[2] As granting as it was, both Balthrop and Levine felt it sounded like a "wet" noise that didn't sound like it would come out of the Boys of Silence, and changed it to a more boot-up noise, and adds in the scream with the grinding ting-tings of metal gears and power.^[3]
• On the back of the NECA figurine of the Boy of Silence is the following nursery rhyme: "Watch where you step! Don't say a word! You'll be in trou-ble if the Boys have heard!"
• Boys of Silence were originally to have a much larger role in the game, and would try to hunt down Booker across entire levels before calling for reinforcements. Ken Levine compared them to the Security Cameras of BioShock, except with the ability to move and consciously track down the player.^[4] IGN commented on their Rewind Theater that the Boy of Silence seems to be "Draining the color from the room" while demonstrating his ability in possibly Fink Theatre, as a fog-like wave surrounds the environment, while a bright aura surrounds him^[5]
• Although the Boys of Silence were created for suveillance, and their metal helmets were introduced to amplify hearing, Booker is able to sprint past one and not be noticed.

References Edit

1. ↑ The Original Plan For BioShock Infinite’s Boys of Silence Sounded Awesome on Kotaku
2. ↑ Boy of Silence original sound from PAX
3. ↑ An Irrational Fear of Monsters on Joystiq
4. ↑ "Meet BioShock Infinite's Boys of Silence" article by Jake Gaskill at G4TV.com
5. ↑ IGN Rewind Theater: BioShock Infinite: Beast of America Trailer Analysis on YouTube.