What started as a teen jogging through a lobby has somehow turned into one of the weirdest ongoing internet stories. It all kicked off on March 31, when 18-year-old TikTok creator Swhileyy filmed himself running through the Church of Scientology’s Hollywood building in California. He dashed down a hallway, slipped under a staff member’s arm, and pushed his way out an exit, all in less than a minute. His video blew up, clocking around 90 million views just on his own accounts.
People quickly took it up a notch: viewers began piecing together clips to draw hand-made maps of the building; the LAPD got involved in at least one case, and a similar stunt in Clearwater, Florida, actually led to a felony arrest.
Now, things have gotten even more bizarre. Footage from the Scientology Information Center on Hollywood Boulevard, California, shows staff physically blocking the doors, bracing themselves inside to keep runners out.
Videos going around on social media show that they have even taken off the external door handles, just to make entry tough. The video shows employees forming a human wall, pressed up against the glass, watching people approach from outside.
The LAPD is investigating at least one of these “speedruns” at the Hollywood Boulevard location as a potential hate crime and battery. One run saw a group of teens burst through the main doors, knock a male staff member to the ground, scramble past employees, and dive into a downstairs office before slipping out through a fire escape.
Swhileyy, the kid who started all this, has since backed away from the trend, telling The Hollywood Reporter that he never told anyone to copy his run.
Internet Reacts To California Scientology Staff Bracing Doors
The visual of staff lined up behind the doors landed immediately. “It’s eerie how they brace themselves behind the wall like robots. They give me flashbacks to those androids in Alien Isolation,” one person wrote. Another went straight for the gaming reference: “They’re really going with the Red Rover defense, aren’t they?”
Some took the longer view on the absurdity of it all. “Scientologists gained prominence by welcoming everyone into their front doors and keeping the back doors very very hidden. Now they gotta lock the front doors because people are trying to get to the back. It’s hilarious to me,” one comment read. Others, meanwhile, enjoyed the trend: “It may be the worst timeline, but at least we still have Scientology speedrun videos.”
One comment pointed to the obvious question nobody at the building apparently asked early enough: “Was surprised they didn’t shut this down after the first viral video.” And one observation cut through all of it neatly: “You can say a lot about Gen Z but we are so funny and unserious.”
Scientology’s reputation has never been straightforward. L. Ron Hubbard, a sci-fi author, founded the organization, which centers around “auditing” sessions where members share private information, something that ex-members say gets used against them if they ever try to leave.
The Hollywood Boulevard building is their big public front, meant to reel in anyone curious and get them into the recruitment cycle. Over the years, the church has faced loads of accusations: financial exploitation, harassment of critics and people who quit, and they have been aggressive with lawsuits against anyone who speaks out.
