Challenge The Bondurants
- Brand
- The Lawless
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Ignition
Objective
"Lawless" needed to build word of mouth ahead of its August 2012 theatrical release, and distributor The Weinstein Company and agency IGNITION chose to do it by pulling fans into the film's Prohibition-era underworld rather than pushing another trailer. The pitch, in the agency's own words, let "aspiring criminals" find out whether they had what it takes to be a bootlegger — casting the audience as a character in the Bondurant brothers' story instead of a passive viewer of it.
Solution
On the film's official site, players land in a grungy, Prohibition-styled hub and pick one of two short challenges. In "Brass Knuckle Beatdown," the player is dropped into a bar brawl with the Bondurant brothers, dodging and landing punches to wear an opponent down until he's staggering, then strapping on brass knuckles for the finishing blow. In "Locked & Loaded," the player instead takes up a Thompson gun as the local moonshine kingpin, firing back at ATU agents in a street shootout to defend his liquor empire. Both are quick arcade-style rounds — a player wins or loses within a couple of minutes rather than working through any longer campaign.
- 1
The player lands on the film's official site, styled as Prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, home turf of the bootlegging Bondurant brothers, and is invited to test their own mettle alongside the film content.
- 2
In a dedicated games section, the player picks one of two challenges modeled on the film: a bare-knuckle brawl or a shootout, framed as a test of whether they have what it takes to be a bootlegger.
- 3
In "Brass Knuckle Beatdown," the player faces a one-on-one opponent inside the Bondurants' own bar, dodging incoming punches and landing counter-hits to wear the opponent down over repeated exchanges.
- 4
Once the opponent is stunned, the player equips brass knuckles for a finishing blow that ends the fight.
- 5
In "Locked & Loaded," the player is dropped into a shootout on the town square, armed with a Thompson submachine gun.
- 6
Playing as the bootlegging kingpin, the player fires back at ATU agents in a fight framed as a struggle for freedom and survival.
