If you ever get the opportunity to visit us here at Koddi, the first thing you’ll notice is the buzz of our teams collaborating and working towards new innovations in metasearch. The second thing you’ll likely notice- and it’s hard to miss- is a giant movie prop near our kitchenette with an out-of-this-world backstory.

It all began in 2015 when I was browsing movie script message boards and began reading about an undeveloped script by Jon Spaihts called “Passengers”. I enjoyed the draft that I found and was excited to see that it had been optioned for production starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt for release in late 2016. Somewhere along the way, I also commented on a couple of movie theater-promoted posts on Facebook. Up to that point, I’d never entered a contest like that because I figured no one ever wins them, but I liked “Passengers,” so I left a couple of quick comments saying that I was excited to see the movie.

On February 8, 2017, I received a notification from a national movie theater chain that I had won a prize pack with a pair of sleep pants and a sleep mask. I was surprised, but hey, it made my day! It was a great coincidence to be the 1 out of 369 comments to be chosen, and who doesn’t like a new pair of sleep pants? Then things got really interesting. In early March, I received a second notification that I had won something else- a sleep pod prop from the movie!

A few weeks later, a freight company contacted me to coordinate delivery of the pod since it would be complicated by it being “a significantly oversized item” and asked whether I had a forklift to assist in delivery. When asked just how oversized it was, the technician reported that it measured 110″x56″x48.”

Real questions began to surface of whether or not it would even be feasible to keep the pod. It was too wide to fit through a standard doorway. I started to think about potential and more permanent places to keep it. Many people suggested selling it and making a quick buck, but that felt wrong. After all, there was a 1 in 204,795 chance that I would have won both “Passengers” prizes, a 0.00049% chance. When factoring in my history with the then-unproduced screenplay, there were so many coincidences that I felt compelled to see it through.

In a perfect twist of fate, Koddi was preparing to move into our new open-concept office space. We pride ourselves on our ability to help our clients put heads in beds, and the idea struck that the pod was really a futuristic prop bed and might serve as an interesting talking point for visitors. With a resting place in mind, we continued to work on the delivery coordination, which proved challenging and spawned a popular internal hashtag, #FreeThePod. I even visited the warehouse just to prove to myself and others that the pod actually existed and wasn’t part of a very elaborate practical joke.

On April 20th, the pod finally arrived at our office in Fort Worth- on the ground floor, that is. Several members of our team personally carried all four hundred pounds of it up the stairs to our new office space.

The series of events concerning the pod reminds all of us at Koddi that as long as you take chances and are open to new possibilities, extraordinary things will find you. Next time you’re in Fort Worth, stop by for a grand tour of our new office space, space pod included.

Want to join the Koddi team?

We’re looking for smart and passionate people to join us in Fort Worth and Düsseldorf. Check out our careers page to see our current openings and apply.