I remember, in one of those “Help me, I am bored!” thread, someone posted an URL to a site which documents a series of puzzles which was being printed in a newspaper annually. The author of the website determines that there’s something fishy going on in those pages, tried to solve the puzzles and managed to contact the group behind the puzzles.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the presence of mind to bookmark that website. Does anyone here have the URL (or know what I am talking about?)
That’s the plot to a bad Bruce Willis movie called Mercury Rising. Upon searching IMDB and Wikipedia, I see that it’s so bad that a good plot summary is hard to find, but it apparently is the adaptation of a book called Simple Simon. Here’s the plot summary I’ve pieced together:
*The government (NSA) is worried about the security of its transmissions. As a result, all transmissions go through a coding box. To test the new code which they have…Mercury, the unbreakable code hiding the identities of all the undercover agents worldwide- a sample of it is run in certain genius magazines.
An autistic boy named Simon, who likes puzzles, can decode the transmission with ease- and he does. The transmission in the puzzle says to call the agency and let them know you broke it (so they can know that they messed up and more tweaking is needed to protect the code). But it’s not that simple, because the NSA has spent millions and assured everyone that the code is unbreakable.
So they gotta kill the kid. :smack: 
When a hit goes wrong a young FBI agent (Bruce Willis) takes up the case and slowly unravels what is going on and tries to protect Simon. The real mystery is why Willis agreed to be in this movie.*
Is it possible that the website guy you mention was just copying the movie/book plot?
No…it’s real, I swear it is!
Here are some more details – it seems to be an university newspaper. Annually, or from time to time, there will be a full-page ad with a lot of strange drawings, writings and photographs. The author of the site got intrigued and went on post those ads on his site and try to solve the puzzles he percieved. Eventually, the group behind the ads contacted him, send him mysterious package and audio tapes and etc…
I think I gotten the URL from the Straight Dope, but my Google-Fu has failed and just can’t seem to find the thread anymore.
Anyone?
Sounds cool, but hopefully just a frat and not a cult. :eek:
I thank thee!