A teenager ran into a Scientology building in Hollywood shouting “Xenu.” Ninety million people watched before the video was deleted. Then everyone decided to try it themselves.
The phenomenon is being called “Scientology Speedrunning,” a reference to video game culture where players try to complete levels as quickly as possible or reach hidden areas before getting caught. Except this time, the levels are real Scientology buildings and the players are Gen Z TikTokers chasing views.
How Scientology Became A Multiplayer Meme
The trend began on March 25 when TikToker isDurpyy uploaded a video of himself running deep inside the Church of Scientology Information Center in Hollywood while shouting “Xenu,” a highly sensitive figure within Scientology’s upper-level teachings. The clip immediately exploded online because viewers understood exactly how taboo the moment was supposed to feel.
Days later, another creator named Swhileyy joined the trend and filmed himself running even deeper into the building using Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. The POV footage spread rapidly across TikTok and reportedly reached around 90 million views before being removed. Online audiences began referring to it as the “deepest Scientology run” ever recorded.
That was the moment the internet stopped treating Scientology like a religion and started treating it like a live-action video game.
Soon, creators across TikTok began competing to outdo one another by getting deeper inside buildings, filming more chaotic interactions and escaping security while recording POV footage for millions of viewers. On X and Reddit, users turned the idea into a running joke about reaching the “Xenu room” or the “Tom Cruise room.” Someone even shared a hand-drawn map of the Hollywood facility on X, assembled by combining multiple viral runs into a rough interior layout. The map was not official or verified, but it did not need to be. The internet had already decided the building was a video game level and it was going to map it.
Why The Internet Became Obsessed
For younger online audiences, Scientology already existed less as a traditional religion and more as internet mythology. Years of documentaries, celebrity stories involving Tom Cruise and John Travolta, exposés from former Scientologists like Leah Remini and decades of conspiracy-style internet lore had already transformed Scientology into one of the internet’s most mysterious and memeable organisations. The speedruns pushed that fascination into reality.
The videos also tapped directly into the way modern internet culture gamifies everything. TikTok users began narrating runs like stealth missions or boss fights, while viewers online compared layouts, escape routes and security responses the same way gamers discuss levels in a multiplayer game. The more absurd the trend became, the more the algorithm rewarded it.
When The Meme Became Real
What started as ironic internet humor quickly escalated into something much darker.
On April 25, dozens of people rushed into the Hollywood information center, knocking over staff members and causing property damage. The trend was further fuelled when a post on X began offering a financial incentive for speed run videos, effectively putting a bounty on chaos. Scientology later accused participants of trespassing, harassment and disrupting religious facilities. The Hollywood center eventually removed its own door handles and restricted public access entirely. A building designed to welcome visitors had become the setting for a viral online challenge.
The trend then spread internationally across Australia, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In Vancouver, around 300 young people gathered outside a Scientology branch in a single afternoon. In Brisbane, the chaos escalated beyond the buildings entirely, with viral footage showing teenagers jumping into a police car and a cyclist riding his bike across a police vehicle. In Seattle, a group of teenagers used a crowbar to break into a locked Scientology building, leading to charges of second-degree burglary and hate crime offences.
In Clearwater, Florida, Scientology’s global headquarters, a teenager was arrested after allegedly firing pellets at the glass of a Scientology center. The location made the incident significantly more alarming than a random branch incident.
That escalation is what separates this from Storm Area 51. While that 2019 meme mostly remained ironic internet theatre, Scientology speedruns are now producing arrests, criminal investigations and real-world legal consequences.
The Hate Crime Angle Nobody Is Discussing
Most participants running into Scientology buildings believe the worst they risk is being escorted out. They are wrong. Multiple cases across several cities have been documented as hate crime investigations, depending on what a suspect said or shouted during a run. A report for vandalism and battery with a hate crime designation was completed following the April 25 incident in Hollywood alone. Shouting religious slurs inside a place of worship, however controversial that institution may be, crosses a legal threshold most teenagers filming themselves for TikTok never considered.
Even Critics Think The Trend Could Backfire
Former Scientologist Leah Remini warned that the trend may ultimately strengthen Scientology’s persecution narrative. According to Remini, many members are deeply committed and may interpret the incidents as proof that outsiders are attacking their beliefs, causing them to further dedicate themselves rather than question the organisation.
Commentator Yashar Ali made a sharper point, arguing the trend “plays right into Scientology indoctrination that the outside world is a violent place that wishes to disrupt the dissemination of Scientology.” Swhileyy, one of the creators who helped launch the trend, later told The Hollywood Reporter he regretted how far it had spread and did not want others trying to beat his run.
For many viewers, it feels less like a prank and more like a Black Mirror episode unfolding in real time.
SOURCES
NBC News, CBC News, The Hollywood Reporter, Wikipedia, AP, The New Daily (Australia), NOW Toronto, NPR
