The Complete Timeline of the Backrooms

The Backrooms is an endless maze of yellow hallways crawling with monsters and mysteries. And today, we're gonna solve it all. Hello internet! Welcome to film theory. So, the Backrooms is a series that needs little introduction here on the channel. Originally just a creepy pasta from the infamous image board forchan, it evolved into its own community full of a ton of creative people adding their own ideas to the complex. Basically, the Backrooms is all about a mysterious location that is separate from our world, but also feels eerily familiar. It prays on the idea of nostalgic, liminal spaces and takes that to an extreme, finding something truly terrifying in there. It was a crowdsourced horror project, and one of the folks who contributed to it was Cain Pixels, aka Cain Parsons, who released his Backrooms found footage video on YouTube in January of 2022. Cain's version of this story quickly grew into its own thing, separate from the popular Backrooms Wiki, you've probably seen referenced in the analogue horror corner of the internet. Yep, honestly, Cain's interpretation is very unique, incorporating ideas and themes that weren't present in other versions of the Backrooms. And the more of this story Cain is told, well, the more cryptic and complicated it's become. It's to the point that when we bring someone new onto the team and they do a crash course in the franchise, as we cover, they'll leave the Backrooms wanting to know more because of all the mysteries packed into this little video series. So, with the movie on the horizon, and also because Cain kind of flat out debunked our version of the story, it happens. I wanted to take another look back at this series. I wanted to compile this resource for anyone curious about the film, and once to learn more. And for people who just want a refresher on this complicated story, all in one place. I wanted to make the best possible version of the film theory Backrooms timeline yet. Alright, cool, so how are we doing this? Just like with most of the timelines we've done, you're going to see the source of the information pop up in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you want to go check out that source directly. We did this back in our Avatar timeline last year, and everyone seemed to love it, so we're just going to be making that standard moving forward. Also, because a lot of this franchise can be left up to interpretation, we're going to be using what we hear at theorists have been calling the Stoplight System, so you know exactly what is and isn't "canon". Throughout the video, we're going to have this little light symbol down here in the corner, which we'll be glowing either green, yellow, or red. Green will mean that what we're talking about is canon. It's something that we actually see in one of the videos, or that Cain has confirmed directly himself. Yellow will mean that it's a theory. We have a pretty good idea that this is what's going on, and there's a lot of evidence to back it up. But it isn't confirmed, or the original source has since been deleted. There are a few examples of that with Cain deleting old images, or discord posts, so I'm treating that as second hand and not necessarily the word of God. Red will mean that it's more speculation. There might be hints towards it being true, but nothing concrete. It's here because I thought it was interesting, or it just made for a good story. Finally, I wouldn't have been able to put this together without the incredible work of both our team, as we've been covering this series for years, but also the passionate fanbase on the Cain Pixels' backroom subreddit and the official discord for the series. Seriously, this is one of the most dedicated audiences I've ever seen, so go check out those communities at this peak, and you want to dive even further in with other like-minded theorists. Oh, and just really quick, before we get into things, this is the first of the big experiments I wanted to try on the channel. A new format that I'm hoping we can make more frequently. So let's not waste any more time loyal theorists. Let's open up this null zone and head into the complete timeline of the backrooms. So the very first thing in our timeline actually doesn't come from one of the backrooms videos. See, a man named Ivan Beck was born on July 16th, 1931, and Karlovi very Czechoslovakia. Fun fact, but that's also a my birthday, so neat. Beck is perhaps the central character of this story described by Cain as both the protagonist and antagonist in an interview with Windagang. First thing I'd want to ask, according to you, who would you say the protagonist of the series is if any at all? I have an answer, but if I not make sense, but I think that's why it is a good answer, and the answer is Ivan Beck. So on that same note, who, if any, is the antagonist of the series? Ivan Beck. Much of Beck's biography is inferred from a series of music Cain released called Out of Sink. At some point, likely in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Beck immigrated to the United States. At this point, we come to the first actual video on our timeline. Overflow, one of the more artistic pieces meant to fill in lore, we don't quite have a full picture of yet. This opens on the night sky as we hear a radio broadcast over it. We see other shots of a park and lake, quarter towers, and then finally, the interior of what seems to be an electrical or radio station. We see several old electronic instruments and advertisements before yellow green interference breaks into the building and the broadcast. Things start going haywire in the building as the electrical instruments overload, and a green glow fills the space entirely as the room begins to shake violently before cutting to black. We then fade in on the night sky reflected in on itself, as something in this world has been forever changed. Now, though we don't get a ton in terms of story, in this video, it does help us put together a start date for our timeline. See, we know that overflow takes place around August 2nd, 1972, thanks to this dated signature from Ivan Beck. We can further confirm this time frame thanks to the radio broadcast we hear in the background, which is all about the lendely agreement of 1972 between the United States and USSR. Take a listen. But this time frame also gives us another huge hint about what's going on in this story. See, in August of 1972, something strange was going on with our son. Like here, in the real world. During this period, there was a series of solar storms that caused extreme solar flares, solar particle events, and geomagnetic storms. This was one of the most powerful cosmic events ever recorded in our solar system, and the fact that it lines up with the timeline of the backrooms is already noteworthy enough, but we can take it one step further. See, these storms also caused a massive aurora borealis. You know, those colorful lights in the north and south pole, and what color are those typically? Green. Just like what we see in overflow. It also caused a lot of issues with electronics, particularly with communication grids. Just like the station we see here. So whatever massive energy event we're seeing here was likely started by these solar storms. And they may have had a direct impact on Ivan back as well. The cover of the backroom's original soundtrack, Volume 3, features a man whose face has been covered by a. strange photograph. One of the sun taken by a spectro heliograph during these storms. The storm is covering where the man's right eye would be, which has led much of the fanbase to believe that these storms caused blindness and becks right eye. Additionally, if you take a look at several of the song titles across the backrooms OST and out of sync, it seems like Beck may have been suffering from some sort of traumatic brain injury. In particular, the titles. who was that again? What the f*ck are you talking about? And post-traumatic amnesia, Volume 2, make that pretty clear. Either way, this event leaves a permanent mark on Beck, who continues to work in electromagnetic technology development. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Beck has relocated to Silicon Valley in California, which we know thanks to the songs 1980, and a job in Silicon Valley 1980X. Here, he either founds or joins a company called the ASync Research Institute, which dives deep into this research about electromagnetism. And on May 10, 1982, they run an experiment with a strange electromagnetic device in the video prototype. Here, we see a research facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a machine made from several tubes pointed toward a metallic ball. Under the supervision of one Philip R. Heyman, the machine turns on and a yellow-green glow appears. Before sparks fly in the machine, shuts off. This test seems to be a failure, but that doesn't stop ASync from continuing with their experiments. Over the next several years, ASync refines this prototype into the low proximity magnetic distortion system, or Project KV-31. Interestingly, if the information about Beck's birth is accurate, he was born in Carlovi-Verry in 1931. KV-31. So Beck was likely involved with this project from the beginning. By July 2, 1988, ASync performs a third test of the system. Here, they're once again able to charge energy into an entryway, but the opening closes before something stable can be permanently established. However, this would be solved with more testing. On October 17, 1989, ASync prepares for their sixth test of Project KV-31. Several odd pieces of machinery spin and whirl, and at 5.04 pm Pacific time, a portal is successfully opened into a different dimension, the back rooms. However, this isn't all worth celebrating. Yes, it was a great scientific achievement, but it did not come without consequence. See, in the real world, 504 pm was the exact time the real-world magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Andreas fault in Central California on October 17, 1989. This disaster injured thousands and sadly killed 63 people. In the back room series, Directly Ties, this event to the opening of the portal as confirmed in the secret unlisted video, faultline.imple. This was previously titled "Collateral" by M.O.V. referencing the idea of collateral damage. But they won't be the last victims of the backrooms. See, from this point going forward, Project KV31 isn't the only entrance into these backrooms. Nope, small, unseen portals, potentially called "null zones" both into and out of this massive complex, open throughout the world with people and objects slipping through reality or no clipping, never to be seen again. Some of these entrances are big enough that entire cars can slip through. And if you thought that would be a terrible fate all on its own, well, something else is in the backrooms too. A strange, bacterial life form that's hostile to any outsider. In October of 1989, the number of missing persons reports skyrockets, including a man named Nicholas Bolton, who must have no clipped into the backrooms sometime in late 1989 or early 1990. He died from malnutrition within the complex sometime in late January. Other named victims include the infant Ellis White, Janice Scott, and a woman named Margaret Watson that last seemed with her car in December of 1989. Still, these missing people don't stop async from beginning their research into the backrooms, and sending their own scientists in. On November 14th and 15th 1989, they perform a preliminary test of the lights and tiles inside the facility, led by Dr. Julia Meisner. Very little about the ceiling tiles and lights seems standard, and strangely, they weren't able to figure out how the lights were actually getting powered, despite there being no external energy supplying electricity. On February 3rd, 1990, they begin a mission, sending in four researchers clad in bright yellow hazmat suits. They explore the complex, laying down a red line to lead the way back to async headquarters. In the odd rooms and hallways, the expedition eventually comes across the body of Nicholas Bolton. It's been covered in some strange black moldy material which has stained the floor and walls around the body as well. The team recovers the body and returns it to async headquarters while others stay behind to research the area where Bolton's body was discovered. Here, two days later, on February 5th, 1990, an autopsy is performed on Bolton, identified only as John Doe by async. It reports that the decomposition process has been stunted by something strange. A mutant strain of the habe-basilis bacteria has slowed decay in some parts of the body, but completely overtaken others. If you don't know, habe-basilis is a bacteria commonly found in soil and the intestinal tracks of humans, but anyway, the parts of the body that were taken over just stopped decaying. The corner questions where this body was recovered, implying that not everyone involved with async is aware of the back rooms or project KV-31. And questions like this are dangerous. We see several images played over top this autopsy reports, one of which reads contract termination. A fuller version of this document found in a trailer came made for the series reads "employment contract termination", suggesting that the doctor performing the autopsy was fired for asking questions. This entire ordeal must have been difficult for back to understand and deal with, and started weighing on his mental state even further, possibly represented by a piece of classic literature. One of the secret videos linked in this series is titled 97804-1526-3573. This is an international standard book number linking to a novel titled The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, all about a woman locked in a room with ugly yellow wallpaper. She starts hallucinating, believing that she sees figures within the wallpaper and eventually rips it all off of the walls. That could very well be representative of what Ivan Beck feels like he's going through here. About a month later, on February 29th, 1990, Async has put together a video with guidelines for their employees who are aware of the back rooms, warning them to never enter the complex alone. In fact, they should never be in groups a few or three. This is immediately shown to be an effect as a group of Async scientists enters the back rooms. This group includes Marvin Lee, Ronald McCarthy, George Levy, and cameraman Peter Tenche. They briefly explore together before Tenche is drawn away from the rest of the group by a noise of several other people conversing, but as he investigates, the camera glitches and the rest of his group vanishes. Unbeknownst to anyone involved, Tenche included, he just slipped forward in time. But to the rest of his team, Tenche just disappeared, vanishing into thin air. Once they realize what's happened, the group returns to Async headquarters to report Tenche's disappearance. They do conduct a search for Tenche in the back rooms that last several days, but to no avail. To cover up the incidents, Async fakes Tenche's death and he is legally pronounced deceased. They stage a car crash, likely close to the town of Vineyard near Sacramento in Central California to protect the secret of Project KV31, and so the Tenche's family won't ask any questions. They claim this was also done to provide some closure to his loved ones. Obviously, one of their own vanishing into thin air concerns everyone at Async. And less than a week later, they implement more safety precautions. The company creates an enclosed control room just on the other side of the back rooms threshold and set up seven cameras around the area pointing out from the control room. They are optimally positioned to capture any movement and have been rigged to record when they detect motion or audio. Basically, Async wants to know about anything and everything that gets close to this entrance. We actually see a lot of what comes by. It's mostly researchers passing by the various cameras, too, and from their assignments. But later that night, at 3.53am, they spot something else. A dark shape crawls along the ceiling. It's unclear what this is now, but it's similar to the color of the bacteria that infected Nicholas Bolton. Around this same time, a broadcast from The Simpsons is interrupted by glitchy static, showing a commercial for a cough medicine that wouldn't be available for sale until over a decade later in the early 2000s. Two months later, on May 6, 1990, we see another group of researchers as they prepare for another expedition into the back rooms. This time, the crew includes Marvin Lee behind the camera, George Levy, a man named Mark Bloom, and a woman named Kim, and they get suited up into their hazmat suits. They're being observed by a higher-up at Async before they enter the back rooms. Perhaps Ivan Beck. Though interestingly, Async must have determined that their control room inside of the back rooms to be safe enough that there's one scientist in here that isn't wearing any hazmat protection. They pass several pieces of equipment Async has left behind inside the back rooms, and a more permanent line on the ground, replacing the red one that's been laid previously. They also discuss an upcoming tour of the Async facility that's taking place from the 7th to the 10th, but we don't know what that's all about yet. The party eventually come across a strange room with several holes in the floor, and a door beyond the expanse. Funnily enough, one of them mentions, "It's like carpet on all sides." Mark crosses the room and opens the door, finding a green glow similar to the electromagnetic interference we saw all the way back at the beginning of this timeline. Whatever's going on in there, Mark thinks they need to get it on camera ASAP. However, as Marvin crosses the room, he loses his balance and falls into one of the holes, discovering a lower level of the back rooms. Thankfully, despite a slight injury to his shoulder, Marvin does survive the fall. Though the architecture is the same down here, the color of the walls is slightly different, slightly more green-tinted, and Marvin waits while the rest of the group figure out how to get him out. But, during this time, Marvin hears something, someone calling out to him. Marvin goes to investigate, wondering if someone is down here and discovers something truly strange, a completely different biome here in the complex. He finds a neighborhood underground, complete with a road, and trees, and houses, and street lamps. There's even what looks to be a sky full of stars, and everything has an eerie red glow to it. Many of the signs and writing here have been reversed, and Marvin enters a home, trying to find whomever has been calling out to him. Deep inside one of the houses, Marvin finds street signs randomly placed in a living room, and strangely, a broadcast from the year 2012 can be heard briefly in the background. Though, Marvin doesn't seem to notice. He discovers an area where someone was clearly living, but they're gone now. That same voice then cries out to Marvin, but, as he investigates, it isn't who it seems. It's a monster. This is likely the same creature that killed Nicholas Bolton, which we know because Cain posted a picture of the monster on his co-fi, labeled "bacteria." Marvin runs for his life back to the hole he fell down, and thankfully, the team are able to pull him back up to safety, as he escapes. The team returns to Async headquarters and share what Marvin discovered, and several other scientists and higher-ups at Async watch the tape Marvin recorded. Though the company may start planning for long-term ways to deal with the creature they discovered here, and the short term, they just construct a makeshift wall to seal off the pitfalls area as they continue with the rest of their business. Around this time, Peter Tench rematerializes in the backrooms three months after he disappeared. However, from his point of view, he's unaware that he's gone forward in time at all. Instead, the rest of his team disappeared, and he's just trying to figure out what the hell is going on. He continues to film during these events, exploring the backrooms. He discovers a lot of strange things during the pandemic. this adventure, including black mold on the floor, and part of the backrooms where the wall has been removed. Inside, there's a strange collection of imagery. Wallpaper looks like a forest. Several tools and equipment pulled straight off of a farm, and a 2D facade of what looks like a house, or a barn. Meanwhile, by this point, on May 8, 1990, Async hosts a tour for several government officials to pitch them their vision for the backrooms. They call it "A Space," and they have an ambitious idea. They want to turn the backrooms into an area of infinite storage and a living space, eliminating a lot of the overcrowding on earth with ridiculously low property costs. Basically, they want to exploit the backrooms for money. And they aren't just pitching these to anyone in the government. No, these are representatives from the Department of Energy, including someone that appears to be James Watkins, the real world secretary of energy at the time. However, recent events have led to some concern amongst Async's higher ups. During a glitch in the video presentation, we see reversed text reading to deceive the Fed, which probably is supposed to continue to read to deceive the federal government. This is probably from an internal memo from Async, concerned about deceiving the DOE or omitting the dangers discovered in the backrooms during their tour. But, despite that, the presentation does go well. Async in the DOE, discuss contracts, and even get the initial signatures. But then, well, from Peter's point of view, Peter's point of view, he discovers a strange wall that doesn't look like any of the others. Keep in mind, for him, only a few hours have passed, not months. So, what he's seeing here is the Async headquarters they built after he disappeared. He approaches, and his keycard works to get in. But, as he does, a motion sensing alarm goes off. And this happens at the exact same time that Async is in negotiations with the Department of Energy. This doesn't affect any of the negotiations, and Tynch is taken into custody, completely disoriented, and having trouble recognizing many of the people at Async. He's given medical treatment, and several tests are performed on Tynch to discover what exactly happened to him inside of the backrooms. And though he wasn't good physical health, his time inside the facility may have greatly damaged his psyche. A researcher at Async named Clyde calls Ivan Beck, informing him of Tynch's return, which shocks them both. The two are confused and aren't sure how to proceed. Tynch is moved into a secure facility, and as Async's higher ups are trying to figure out how to reintegrate him into society, basically none of their employees are told about Peter's survival. Tynch gets antsy, that Async isn't letting him see his family, and begins to develop symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Interestingly though, Async concludes that he was not outright diagnosable with that condition, perhaps suggesting that prolonged time alone in the backrooms altered his mind in some way. On May 22nd, worried for his safety and believing that he somehow still inside the backrooms, Tynch escapes. He steals credentials from another employee and forces his way back into the facility. A few weeks later after the incident, Async returns to their normal operations. On May 25th, 1990, several scientists take a remote control rover to the wall they covered up after Marvin escaped from the bacterium monster. They remove the panels and use the rover to return to the pitfalls room, making sure that it's safe. Based on dialogue and the voices we hear, it sounds like Clyde is leading this project. Satisfied that it's safe, Async send more explorers and scientists back to the room, creating a safe walkway across the pits towards the door on the other side. They don't want to repeat of Marvin's situation. While this is being constructed, Async sends out what they call team A, including Mark Bloom, Randall Tachy, and Marvin Lee to survey the layout of the rooms in the area. Given the presence of the bacterium monster at the location, they're armed with a shotgun to protect themselves. This new area looks more like it's made out of concrete or epoxy instead of carpets, and there are no ceiling lights. But most concerning of all, it seems like someone has been living back here, as the group finds tiles knocked out of the ceiling, and a map etched into one of the walls. Suddenly, the group are ambushed, but it's not by a monster. It's by a human, a very specific human. "I didn't pet a new computer." "Mark?" "Markin?" It's Peter Trench, who's been living back here since he escaped from Async. The group are genuinely confused. They appear like they didn't even know that Peter was alive. "Oh, it's a monster." "I thought, um, I know." Peter has a breakdown, worried that his wife and children think he's dead, and asks if they had a funeral for him, which Marvin confirms. Mark begins to call for backup, and Peter tells him to stop. He begs Mark to stop, and when he doesn't, he shoots him and badly injures him. Peter runs away and begs Marvin to tell his family that he's alive. The other Async employees nearby hear the shot, rushing to help Mark, but it's unclear if Mark survives. Trench runs through the back rooms, following the trail left by the other Asyncers, threatening several workers at gunpoint outside of the threshold. He makes his way back through, running through the hallways and offices, and at some point, Peter confronts one doctor Kirk Maxwell, who accidentally shoots the gun into the ceiling. Trench drops the shotgun and continues running with two other men, perhaps Maxwell, into security guard hot on his tail. However, he escapes to the surface on a freight elevator before he can be recaptured. It's unclear what happens to Peter after this. Async claims that they found Peter's deceased body on a hillside near the facility, having fallen and hit his head on a rock. However, from my point of view, that's very convenient. I believe that it's more likely that either one Async's security team killed Peter, two, Peter escaped, and this is just another cover story, or three, he's been recaptured. I'm leaning towards the latter two options because that would likely offer the most drama moving forward. And during the explanation, we briefly see a used syringe. Perhaps some sort of drug use to knock Peter out, and security camera footage of a man running through the empty streets of a city. Given the timing of this, I almost certainly believe that that is Peter. The video damage control then ends with a shot of a phone and a residential home ringing. Potentially Peter trying to contact his family after his disappearance. The next day, May 26th, the rest of the company are informed of some of the details involving Peter's reappearance, Async holding him and his escape. They are even shown the footage of tension moving forward in time in a surprising moment of transparency from Async. They also offer condolences and praise Tynches work, framing the entire ordeal as a tragedy. A few days later, on May 29th, 1990, Async is still picking up the pieces from the Peter Tynch incident. Marvin and George are having an argument about Peter's reappearance and apparent death. "No, I don't like this, and you shouldn't either. What are you trying to get out of this, Marvin?" Marvin is frustrated that Peter is dead and skeptical that Async didn't have the resources to help him, especially given that they now have the backing of the US Department of Energy. He even goes as far as to accuse Async of having Peter kill. George agrees that things were handled poorly, but once Marvin to keep things in perspective, or less, George toes the company line. Marvin wonders what if it'll be him or George next time? But George says that no one and the company wants this to happen again and encourages Marvin to take some time off to collect himself. Marvin agrees and apologizes. We then cut to footage of the pitfalls room. Async's walkway has been completed, and the company is assembling a freight elevator to go down into one of the holes. George crosses the room and enters the doorway that was glowing green before, revealing just the strange room with no lights. Whatever was glowing there seems to be gone. I think maybe it's really unclear. Though I will say, the wallpaper here is odd, distorted, and stretched. But continuing down the hallways, they come across a room with odd hills and holes in the floor, in furniture that is clipped into both the walls and the floor. Around the same time, a man named Clark discovers a knoll zone in the lower levels of his furniture store. Cap and Clark's Ottoman Empire in San Jose, California. He enters the back rooms, and though he briefly panics, he is able to escape again. He begins traveling into the back rooms every night, mapping out the area immediately on the other side of the entrance of the store. On May 29th, he's caught on camera by some organization, potentially async while exploring the back rooms. He later tells his therapist about his discovery, and sensing her skepticism decides to get proof, so he recruits two friends as they enter the back rooms with film equipment. At some point, Mary goes searching for Clark in his store and also enters the back rooms, likely finding herself trapped and trying to survive. These events will be further explained and explored in the back rooms film. Whatever happens, async continues with their research and eventually compiles a tape in June of 1991, featuring at least some of their findings. They'll have God be real, that's of little interest to us at the moment. Several years later, a man named Ravi is sitting in his car as he hears a news report about the Oklahoma City bombing. That took place on April 19th, 1995, putting this event slightly after that in the spring or early summer of 1995. Around this point, Ravi also overhears an executive from the agriculture of biotechnology company Monsanto making fun of a sick child. Does that have anything to do with this story? I don't know, but it happened. In a mic, so a tear. Shortly afterwards, Ravi hears something in his home, believing that someone may have broken in. The glass on his sliding door has been shattered, so understandably he's spooked. However, upon quick inspection, no one's in the home. But when he goes to check the basement too, he discovers a massive hole punched into the brick wall. He walks into it and is pulled into the back rooms, and potentially forward in time. We'll get to that so for now, we'll leave Ravi haven't been sucked into the facility. On August 18, 1995, another unnamed civilian discovers a null zone in her garage leading to the back rooms. She's marked it with painter's tape and experiments by throwing wood chips into baseball into the portal. She does some more tests extending a tape measure down into the hole, but this is a huge mistake. The floor starts vibrating and she, her camera, and everything around her are sucked into the back rooms. Scared and confused, the woman starts to explore the various hallways, finding part of a kitchen sticking out of a wall, chairs, and a table stretched taller than they should be, a couch in the middle of an empty room. A locked door she can't open, and to hold in the floor leading somewhere. She finds a large ramp and climbs up it, discovering a room that's been worn down by time. Or well, there are black stains on the walls and ceilings. The bacteria life form may have been through here. In one of the adjacent rooms, she finds a car that is crashed into the wall. Clearly, this is someone who no-clip'd in while driving. Just to note, Kane has confirmed that this is not the car from the secret video or Margaret Watson's car either. Whomever crashed here may not have died instantly as there's no body in the car, and there's a trail of blood leading away from the vehicle, which the girl follows. This leads her into an area that's almost residential, but she doesn't find this injured person. She doesn't even find a body. Instead, she finds a room with black bacterial growth all over it. When the girl focuses briefly on the painting, the growth starts to move and chases the girl all the way back to the hole in the ground. Seeing no other way out, she jumps into it, finding an area that resembles an indoor swimming pool, like the pool room's online name. The monster continues to chase the girl and corners her at a dead end. But before I can get her, the room is engulfed with that same green glow from the electromagnetism early on, causing the camera to cut the black. It's unclear what happens to the girl, but given that this glow has been associated with opening portals, potentially she may have escaped back out into the real world. Rangely, we then zoom out of the footage and see someone watching this tape on an old CRT television. Odd indeed. A little over a year later, on September 23, 1996, a group of students are making a short film when the group's camera operator, Kane Pixels, named after the creator of the series, slips and literally falls into the back rooms. Thankfully, though he's confused, he isn't hurt, and he begins to explore the immediate area around the Null Zone where he fell in. As he wanders, he appears to be followed by something or someone. But he keeps moving, noticing the weird geometry of the facility. He discovers a ladder and a hole, leading into a room with that same green glow, though no portals open up here for Kane. He also comes across several marks in the walls, including arrows leading him further into the complex, and various notes, drawings and maps left from someone who has long since disappeared. However, Kane is confronted by the Heybacillus bacteria lifeform, which chases him through the complex. He eventually finds a hole and seeing no other way out jumps in. The monster does not follow, and Kane finds himself in a different level, one that resembles a weird home with white walls instead of yellow wallpaper. He continues exploring, eventually finding a room that resembles the holiday and express at London Heathrow Airport. Yes, that is actually the origin of this liminal space meme image, and a seemingly endless wall of entrances to somewhere. After exploring a bit further, he returns to the yellow rooms before the bacteria lifeform chases and corners him again. Except this time, he can't escape. He grabs Kane, presumably killing him as he drops his camera, which slips back into the real world and falls to the ground. At this point, years go by without any more information about our backroom's timeline, and the next thing doesn't even have a hard date. In fact, it isn't even a main video. In a secret upload, we see several home movies likely shot in the early 2000s, which we can identify thanks to this television. This type of flat screen CRT, with the silver casing, was popular in the early arts, meaning that at least part of this video must have been filmed then. Interestingly, we also see parts of a home almost identical to areas explored by the woman in one of those found footage videos, and the same painting she found in the backrooms. So that means that parts of the real world are being copied wholesale into the complex. And now we return to Ravi, who appears in the backrooms sometime between the years 2007 and 2009. We know this because at one point we hear this sound bite in his footage. This is an ad for freecreditreport.com that ran in those years. Here, take a listen. So Ravi has jumped forward more than a decade into the future. But what does he find in the backrooms? Ravi lands in an office setting, and after unsuccessfully trying to climb back out the Holy Felon, he explores the complex. After trying several locked doors, he crawls through a hole in the wall and discovers a living room looking area, a room with a circle of chairs, and a skylight above. He climbs the strange geometry, encountering other odd furniture and couches arranged around a room. It almost looks like a furniture store. Perhaps similar to Clark's Ottoman Empire shop, he continues through other various rooms. Though these are more dilapidated and run down, chairs are pushed up against the door, and books are all over the floor. Given the mess here, someone may have been living in this area before Ravi traveled through. But then there's a strange knock on a door, and a terrified Ravi tries to leave. Whatever's back there follows him, though, slamming against a door that he's closed between them. As he runs further, Ravi discovers a window into a strange cityscape, with the same red glow coming from the sky that A-Sync discovered when Marvin fell into the pitfalls area. But he can't slow down. Whatever is behind him continues to chase Ravi through a neighborhood facade, into a part of the backrooms that is again covered with blackened mold. The life form has definitely been through here at least once. Ravi discovers even more strange places and items, including a Kwanian statue, a room with several speakers facing one another, poster for a health check updated 2022 for some reason, a drum set, and even the kitchen sink. That's not a joke. And eventually, he comes across a tower of radio equipment, though Ravi is unable to send a message through. Unfortunately, the monster chasing Ravi catches up with him, and he only barely escapes by crawling through a hole and covering it with furniture as he runs. He then makes his way into what feels like the underbelly of the facility into industrial tunnels, which strangely have a portrait of Chairman Mao, for some reason. He sees all sorts of strange things here, more office space. Windows back into the red, tinted outdoor cityscape, and yellow hallways above from where he originally fell into the backrooms. He also discovers a cardboard cutout of a caveman, something that Clark also encountered years earlier when he first explored the backrooms. After searching this area thoroughly, Ravi comes across a home where he hears a voice of another human. There are moldy, bloody footprints in here suggesting that Ravi is not the first person to have come through. Though this voice is not coming from someone inside the backrooms. No, this is a human in the real world. Likely this father based on photos we see in the home, who believes that Ravi is literally trapped inside of his walls. The two communicate and try to get Ravi out, but the walls suddenly shake and there's interference with the camera. We don't hear the other man anymore, and he was probably sucked into the backrooms and lost himself. Sometime later, Ravi is filming a final message for his friends, explaining that he's forgotten what the sky looks like and just wants to go home. The camera dies, and Ravi's fate is left unknown. The story of the backrooms is incredibly cryptic and complex. I mean, years on and we still don't know every secret to this universe. But we do have enough pieces to put together a rough idea of what's going on. If you've watched our theories so far, I'll leave a link for you in the description in case you have them. You'll know that our current running theory is that the backrooms is a world that's being misremembered by some strange eldritch entity. But after re-examining the series here, I think we need to tweak that slightly. It's not the brain of some eldritch god. This is the mind of Ivan Beck. It's Kane has stated that he's both the protagonist and antagonist of the whole series. Whatever happened with Beck in the 70s during those solar flares broke the world. It's being influenced by the trauma inside of Beck's brain. There's a final video in the canon that doesn't really fit under the timeline because it doesn't have a date. I remember. This is an artistic piece where someone is reading poetry as we see imagery from the series reflected just like we saw at the beginning of our timeline. That voice, this is Ivan Beck. He's remembering that house that's fallen into the sea. And that is the backrooms and things are only going to get worse before they can get better in this series.