RagnaRock was a Gothic-themed nightclub that served as a drug lab/distribution front for Valkyr pusher and mob underboss Jack Lupino in 2001. It was here that Max Payne killed Lupino and met Mona Sax for the first time.
Some time after Valkyr Case, RagnaRock was sold to mobster Vladimir Lem, who renovated the building into a restaurant named Vodka.
Characteristics[]
Exterior[]
The exterior of RagnaRock seemed to be like that of a church. The building was tall and architecturally elongated which made it appear even taller than it was. It had spires and angled roofs that further emphasized its imposing architecture.
Interior[]
The dance floor
When the building was entered from the outside, RagnaRock featured an immediate lobby with a small security booth and a ticket counter, in which club entry tickets were purchased. The main open space of the club housed a disco dance floor, its surface decorated with an occult pentagram in a double circle. During Lupino's tenure as owner, the area was outfitted with sound systems which played electronic dance music, lit with various disco laser lights of changing colors, and had pyrotechnics installed, capable of producing smoke and fireworks that were triggered from a control station overlooking the area. A bar was adjacent to the dance floor, and a red curtain covered the stage where a drum set, guitar, and two microphones were set up, which indicated that live bands would sometimes play at the nightclub. A large balcony with numerous seats faced the stage and overlooked the dance floor.
Behind the backdrops, the interior of RagnaRock was mostly made up of wood and contained rooms heavily guarded by Jack Lupino's men. The rooms included were a gun armory, a reading room filled with various occult literature, a wine cellar, as well as small stairwell towers that led all the way up to the roof of the structure. Behind the nightclub stage, there was a spacious area with huge flats affixed to a fly system, which someone could move by manipulating the levers from the control area. Behind the flats were stairs that led to Jack Lupino's inner sanctum.
Lupino's lair[]
Max Payne enters Lupino's den
Jack Lupino's chambers contained a study room with sofas and a table; a lectern was situated in its center while another pentagram was painted on the floor, surrounded by tall candlesticks with burning candles. On the night of Lupino's last stand, empty beer bottles and more books about Satanism covered this area. Dead bodies were also aligned around the pentagram with their hands tied behind their back, an indication that they were most likely killed and sacrificed in some kind of a religious ritual.
The study led to a vast ceremonial grounds area. Surrounded by red tattered curtains, with their walls lined by tables bearing the weight of loads of weapons and ammunition, the grounds faced the area's centerpiece: a podium with an altar, situated below a large stained glass window shaped of a pentagram and the various names of the "demons, devils, and dark gods" that Lupino was heard shouting the night Max Payne confronted him.
Events[]
Sometime before Jack Lupino ran RagnaRock as a nightclub, the building was a theater. The Punchinello Crime Family's history with the establishment is unclear, but Jack Lupino was likely given the nightclub as a way to process and distribute Valkyr.
2001[]
Jack Lupino and his last two men get ready for their last stand with Max Payne at Lupino's lair
In 2001, Max Payne entered RagnaRock (at the time as Ragna Rock) looking for Jack Lupino. He found the club closed and fought his way through heavy security all the way to Lupino's inner sanctum, breaking up a Valkyr deal on the way and leaving a trail of dead thugs in his path. Once in Lupino's chambers, Payne battled waves of the Mafia underboss' elite men who attempted to ambush him, throwing Molotov Cocktails at him from the upper floors and jumping down to shoot Max. With his minions wiped out, Lupino finally made his last stand against Payne, but not after he delivered a passionate, Valkyr-induced speech about worshipping various deities. Max Payne filled the gangster's body full of bullets which finally brought Lupino down.
Moments later, Max met Mona Sax for the first time. The female assassin revealed to Payne that Angelo Punchinello, the boss of the crime family Lupino belonged to at the time, was behind the plotting of Alex Balder's death. Max learned that Sax was after Punchinello herself, and suggested "pooling their bullets" for the cause; however, the drink that was meant to seal their alliance was spiked by Sax, which rendered Max unconscious.
Later on, Frankie Niagara and his goons found the incapacitated body of Max Payne at RagnaRock and brought him to the basement of Lupino's Hotel to be tortured then killed by Niagara.
Sold[]
- Main article: Vodka
In the aftermath of Jack Lupino's death, RagnaRock was sold to a rival criminal organization: the Russian Mob's leader, Vladimir Lem. Lem renovated the building and turned it into a luxurious restaurant, but just like Jack Lupino, Vlad used the establishment as a staging area for his own criminal pursuits.
Weapons Located[]
Behind the Scenes[]
The "RagnaRock" nightclub is a reference to Ragnarök, a "final destination of the gods'" as perceived by Norse Mythology. Ragnarök is a doomsday: a series of major events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major gods, the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.