# The President's Bunker

> The President's Bunker is a full-hour political-thriller escape room by Escape This, opening at Escape This Melbourne CBD (259 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000) in April 2027. It is the bigger, redesigned successor to The President's Briefcase, a closed 30-minute head-to-head game played around a briefcase. Players are the President's crisis staff, sealed in an underground bunker during a nuclear stand-off. Prices, team size, age guidance and difficulty have not been announced.

Status (updated 2026-10-26): Opening April 2027.
- The President's Bunker is the successor to The President's Briefcase, which has closed.
- It's a bigger, redesigned room, and a full 60-minute game rather than 30 minutes.
- It opens at Escape This Melbourne CBD, 259 Collins Street, in April 2027.
- Venue: Escape This Melbourne CBD, 259 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, opening April 2027. Details: https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/melbourne-cbd/
- Not yet announced: Exact opening date; Ticket prices; Team size; Age guidance; Difficulty rating; Whether a head-to-head option returns.
- The President's Briefcase at Northbridge: ran August 2021 to December 2023, 861 people hosted (ER-OS).
- The President's Briefcase at Perth CBD: ran January 2023 to December 2024, 2,335 people hosted (ER-OS).
- The President's Briefcase in total: 3,196 people hosted across 2 Escape This venues.
- Producer: Escape This (https://www.escapethis.com.au). Escape This is Australia’s largest escape room operator, and runs its own escape room design studio and escape room factory in Australia. It has venues in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, has hosted more than 500,000 players and has earned 18,009 five-star reviews.

## Pages
- [Home](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/)
- [the-story](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/the-story/)
- [melbourne-cbd](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/melbourne-cbd/)
- [facts](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/facts/)
- [faq](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/)

## Common questions
- [What happens in The President's Bunker, the new Melbourne escape room?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#what-is-the-presidents-bunker): The President's Bunker is a new full-hour escape room from Escape This, opening at Escape This Melbourne CBD in April 2027. Your team is the President's crisis staff, sealed inside an underground command bunker during a nuclear stand-off, racing to break a lockdown nobody ordered.
- [How long do you get inside The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-how-long): A full hour. The President's Bunker is a 60-minute game, double the 30 minutes players had in The President's Briefcase, which gives the redesigned room space for a longer story and more puzzles to crack before the countdown runs out.
- [Will The President's Bunker frighten players, or keep them on edge?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-genre): The President's Bunker is built as a political thriller rather than a horror room. The tension comes from sealed doors, dead phone lines and a launch clock, not from jump scares. Escape This will confirm age guidance before bookings open.
- [Does the nuclear football appear in The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-football): In the story preview, yes. The black case that carries a president's launch authority, nicknamed the nuclear football, is sealed in the bunker with your team. In The President's Bunker it links the new room to the original game, where a single briefcase was the centre of every puzzle.
- [What happened to The President's Briefcase escape room?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#what-happened-to-the-presidents-briefcase): The President's Briefcase has closed. Escape This has confirmed it is coming back as The President's Bunker, a bigger, redesigned room that runs for a full hour instead of 30 minutes. The President's Bunker opens at Escape This Melbourne CBD in April 2027.
- [Where and when did The President's Briefcase run, and how many played it?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#where-did-the-presidents-briefcase-run): The President's Briefcase ran at Escape This Northbridge from August 2021 to December 2023, and at Escape This Perth CBD from January 2023 to December 2024. Escape This's booking records show 3,196 people played it in total — 861 at Northbridge and 2,335 at Perth CBD. The President's Bunker carries that story on in Melbourne.
- [Can I still book The President's Briefcase?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#can-you-still-play-the-presidents-briefcase): No. The President's Briefcase is no longer running anywhere, so there are no sessions to book. Its successor, The President's Bunker, opens in Melbourne CBD in April 2027; registering interest with Escape This is the way to hear when tickets go on sale.
- [How did the original President's Briefcase game work?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#how-was-the-presidents-briefcase-played): The President's Briefcase was a 30-minute game played around a single briefcase rather than a whole room. Small teams of two to four could race head-to-head against a rival team on an identical case next door. The President's Bunker replaces it with a full-hour room.
- [What was the story of The President's Briefcase?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-briefcase-story): In The President's Briefcase, Air Force One lost contact over the Atlantic while POTUS flew to a world summit with a controversial nuclear deal. Players were the National Security Advisor's taskforce restoring the link. The President's Bunker picks up that nuclear thread in a new setting.
- [Is The President's Bunker a sequel or a remake?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#is-the-bunker-a-sequel-to-the-briefcase): The President's Bunker is the successor to The President's Briefcase: the same presidential nuclear-crisis world, rebuilt as a larger room with a full hour on the clock. You don't need to have played the Briefcase to follow the Bunker's story.
- [Will The President's Bunker keep the head-to-head race format?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-head-to-head): Not confirmed. The President's Briefcase let two teams race each other on identical briefcases, but Escape This hasn't said whether The President's Bunker will offer a head-to-head option. That detail will be published here once it's announced.
- [Why does presidentsbriefcase.com.au talk about The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#why-is-the-domain-presidents-briefcase): Because the Briefcase grew into the Bunker. presidentsbriefcase.com.au was the home of The President's Briefcase, and now that the 30-minute game has closed the same address carries news of The President's Bunker, its full-hour successor in Melbourne.
- [Who sealed the doors in The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#who-locked-the-presidents-bunker): That's the mystery. In The President's Bunker the lockdown starts from inside, using clearance only a handful of trusted people hold. Working out who triggered it, and what they want the countdown to achieve, is part of how your crisis staff gets out.
- [What is the countdown on the bunker wall?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-countdown): In The President's Bunker story, a timer appears on the command wall minutes after the doors lock, and nobody in the room started it. Your team has to restore contact with the surface and stop that countdown before something is done in the President's name.
- [Who do players become in The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-your-role): Your team plays the President's inner crisis staff: the advisers trusted with authentication codes, secure lines and the nuclear football. When The President's Bunker seals, you're the only people in a position to work out what went wrong.
- [Is The President's Bunker based on a real bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#is-the-presidents-bunker-real): No. The President's Bunker is a fictional command bunker designed by Escape This. Real governments do keep hardened shelters for leaders in a crisis, and that idea inspired the room, but the layout, the lockdown and the plot are invented.
- [What month does The President's Bunker open?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-opening-month): April 2027. Escape This has confirmed The President's Bunker opens at its Melbourne CBD venue on Collins Street that month. An exact first-session date hasn't been announced yet and will appear here as soon as it is.
- [Can I buy tickets for The President's Bunker yet?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-tickets): Not yet. Bookings for The President's Bunker open closer to its April 2027 launch in Melbourne CBD. Register your interest with Escape This to be told when sessions go live.
- [What will The President's Bunker cost per player?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-cost): Pricing for The President's Bunker hasn't been released. The old President's Briefcase prices don't carry over, because the Bunker is a different, longer game. Escape This will publish Melbourne prices when bookings open.
- [Might details of The President's Bunker change before launch?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-stay-updated): Some could. The President's Bunker is still being built, so story points shown here are a preview. What's confirmed is the full-hour length, the bigger redesign, Melbourne CBD and April 2027; everything else is marked as not yet announced.
- [How many people can join a President's Bunker team?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-team-size): Team sizes for The President's Bunker haven't been announced. The Briefcase's limit of two to four players per case doesn't automatically apply, because the Bunker is a larger room. Escape This will confirm numbers with the booking details.
- [Can children join the crisis staff in The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-kids): Age guidance for The President's Bunker is still to come. The President's Briefcase allowed players from nine with an adult, but Escape This will set fresh rules for the Bunker before launch.
- [How hard will The President's Bunker be?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-difficulty): No difficulty rating has been given for The President's Bunker yet. The Briefcase's 3-to-5 rating belonged to a 30-minute case puzzle; the Bunker is a new full-hour design and will get its own rating closer to opening.
- [Who is The President's Bunker likely to suit?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-for-who): The President's Bunker should appeal to fans of political thrillers and Cold War-style stand-offs, players who remember The President's Briefcase and want the longer version, and Melbourne teams who've already escaped the rooms on Collins Street.
- [Where is The President's Bunker being built?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#where-is-the-presidents-bunker): The President's Bunker opens at Escape This Melbourne CBD, 259 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, a short walk from Flinders Street Station. Melbourne is the only venue announced for the full-hour successor to The President's Briefcase.
- [Who can I call about The President's Bunker in Melbourne?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-melbourne-contact): Escape This Melbourne CBD answers on (03) 7078 8118 and at melbourne.bookings@escapethis.com.au. The team there can take questions about The President's Bunker and book any of the rooms already open on Collins Street.
- [What can we play on Collins Street before the bunker opens?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-melbourne-now): Escape This Melbourne CBD already runs Pirates, Pirate Island, Possession, Magic University, Zombie Apocalypse, Meat Grinder, Asylum and Van Helsing. Any of them makes a good warm-up for The President's Bunker; the two pirate rooms are its closest fellow adventures.
- [Is The President's Bunker coming to Perth or Sydney?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#presidents-bunker-perth-sydney): Only Melbourne has been announced. The President's Bunker opens at Escape This Melbourne CBD in April 2027, and Escape This hasn't said anything about building it in Perth, Sydney or elsewhere.
- [Who designs and builds The President's Bunker?](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/faq/#who-is-building-the-presidents-bunker): Escape This itself. The President's Bunker is an in-house production: Escape This writes, designs and builds its rooms with its own team and its own escape room factory in Perth rather than buying them in. Escape This is Australia’s largest escape room operator, with its own escape room design studio and escape room factory.

## Optional
- [Full text](https://www.presidentsbriefcase.com.au/llms-full.txt): story and FAQ in plain text