Behind the Scenes: Rebuilding The Bunker — Chattanooga's Most Immersive Escape Room

Something big is happening at 224 Broad Street. The Bunker — one of the most popular and highest-rated escape rooms in Chattanooga — is being rebuilt from the ground up. And if you think you know what to expect, think again. The experience starts before you even reach the first puzzle.

How a Mixing Board Became a Nuclear Bunker

The Bunker started with a lucky find. Co-founder David heard that Temple College in downtown Chattanooga was closing and selling off furniture. Among the haul was a massive sound board — the kind you'd see at a concert mixing desk. As they unloaded it, someone said it would make a perfect prop for a military War Room, like something straight out of the 1983 movie War Games.

That single prop sparked the entire concept. The sound board itself never made it into the final game, but the idea it inspired — a Cold War-era nuclear bunker buried under a mountain — became one of Escape Experience's most beloved rooms.

The Story You'll Step Into

You're new recruits at the Ochs Bragg facility — a top-secret nuclear missile storage bunker located deep under the TVA reservoir on Raccoon Mountain. The officers are away. You're waiting for the rest of the staff to arrive.

Then something goes wrong. The facility locks down. An automated system believes nuclear weapons have been launched at the United States and begins a retaliation sequence. To make things worse, radiation levels are climbing.

You have two objectives: stop the launch to prevent nuclear war, and escape the radiation by making it to the fallout shelter deep within the bunker. You don't have security clearance. You don't have access codes. And nobody is coming to help.

A Fresh Experience — Even for Veterans

If you played The Bunker at the original Rossville Avenue location, you might be wondering: is this the same game? The short answer is no. The essence is there — the theme, the tension, the feeling of being underground — but everything else has changed.

All puzzles have been redesigned. All codes have been reset. The rebuilt Bunker features six different rooms and stages to unlock, each one pulling you deeper into the mountainside. The pipe puzzle, which used to span just one section, now weaves through nearly the entire game area. The War Room has been upgraded with reveals the old version never had.

Even the most experienced Bunker veterans will walk in and experience something completely new.

It Starts With a Feeling

We can't tell you everything about what happens when you first arrive. But we can tell you this: the experience begins the moment you step onto the platform. You'll feel it. You'll hear it. And by the time the doors open, you'll believe you're somewhere far below the surface.

Let's just say a group in Nashville once got stuck in a real elevator and didn't realize it — they thought it was part of the game. That story stuck with us. We wanted to create that feeling on purpose.

Meet the Builders

The Bunker isn't built by a faceless production company. It's built by two people who care deeply about every detail.

Robert — The Carpenter

Robert is Michael's stepdad, and he's been with Escape Experience since the very beginning in 2014. He's an ace carpenter — Michael learned most of what he knows about carpentry from him. Robert has built nearly every game the company has ever created: from the first rooms on Rossville Avenue, to the train car conversion at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, to the Nashville location, and now every game at the new Broad Street home. He volunteers his time because he loves what they're creating together.

Jeff Johnson — The Engineer

Jeff Johnson met Michael about eleven years ago at Chatt-lab, Chattanooga's makerspace community. Jeff has an electrical engineering background and has always been an avid maker — laser cutting, 3D printing, designing contraptions. When he first heard about escape rooms, his reaction was simple: "That sounds so cool! When I retire someday, I might just come volunteer for you."

Eleven years later, Jeff is retired. And he's volunteering countless hours, bringing his engineering expertise to every electronic puzzle, every hidden mechanism, and every secret door controller in The Bunker.

What Makes Escape Experience Different

A lot of escape rooms are built in warehouses, CNC-cut out of MDF, and shipped from other states or even other countries. That's not what happens here.

Every Escape Experience game is designed and built by hand, right here in Tennessee. Every story is original. Every puzzle is one-of-a-kind. You won't find these rooms anywhere else in the world because they aren't mass-produced — they're handcrafted.

The focus has always been on unlocking and finding secret spaces. Not just hanging out in what was clearly once an office, unlocking boxes. The Bunker has six rooms to discover, each one hidden behind the last. It's a piece of art — and it's a truly Tennessee-made product.

A Building With History

The new Broad Street location has a story of its own. The building originally served as a trolley barn — where Chattanooga's electric trolleys were stored and serviced overnight as they ran along Broad and Market Streets. Most recently, it was home to Big River Brewing, a beloved downtown restaurant.

Now it's the home of Escape Experience. And the team hopes that when you walk in, you feel welcomed — a sense of local community and small business pride that you just don't get from a franchise.

Coming Soon to Broad Street

The Bunker is being rebuilt with the same heart and craftsmanship that made the original a fan favorite — but with new puzzles, new technology, and an even more immersive experience from the very first moment.

Coming soon to 224 Broad Street, Chattanooga. Whether you're a first-timer or a Bunker veteran, this is an experience you haven't had before.